NOVEL NEXT Ch. 28
Chapter 28: A New Crisis! GM’s Emergency Intervention!
《Aincrad Era》 Huaxia Region Operations Center.
Inside the top-floor meeting room, the atmosphere was even more suffocating than the last time.
The General Manager, 【Pangu】, sat with a livid expression, staring at the massive data monitoring screen before him.
On the screen, the warning index representing “soft erotic content” had already risen from the previous orange level to a glaring blood-red, and was still climbing at a terrifying speed.
The forum’s traffic, because of the 【Underwear Research Division】’s discussion thread about the “Liberation” series, had once again broken past historical records. The tech department had already performed three consecutive emergency server expansions just to barely keep it from total collapse.
“Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on here?”
【Pangu】’s voice was as frigid as a Siberian winter blast.
“I told you to ‘guide’ the players, and this is the result? A ‘server-wide underwear show’?”
“I told you to release background lore to enhance the epic feeling of the story, and they turned that epic into a ‘LSP carnival’?”
“And now! They’re even preparing some kind of ‘Liberation’ series! Semi-transparent lace? Charm amplification runes? Emotion gems? Do you all want the Ministry of Culture to directly shut us down tomorrow for ‘spreading obscene content’?!”
His roar echoed across the empty conference room, making every GM tremble in fear.
A young GM in charge of story guidance shakily stood up: “Manager… we… we didn’t expect things to develop like this…”
“The ‘Faded Royal Letter’ rule we issued was meant to raise the difficulty of their gift offerings, to make them calm down a bit. But… they treated the difficulty as a challenge, the rules as a kink…”
“The ‘sky-high priced’ materials we designed were supposed to shift their attention from ‘underwear’ to ‘their wives’ health’. But… they turned it into a holy war of ‘paying for love’, grinding harder than ever before…”
“Now… now they’re completely obsessed. We… we can’t control them at all!”
【Pangu】 slammed a palm on the conference table in rage.
“Can’t control them? A bunch of programmers who can’t even control the code they wrote themselves?!”
He knew this time, things had truly gone off the rails.
He had gravely underestimated the influence of that BUG called “Mophis,” and even more so the terrifying energy this so-called “Fourth Calamity” of players could unleash when it came to anything ‘lewd.’
He had intended to redirect that runaway flood into channels he had dug himself.
Instead, the flood changed course entirely, carving out a grand highway straight to the Mariana Trench—digging deeper and deeper, with greater and greater enthusiasm.
If this continued unchecked, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Manager, the forum discussions about the ‘Liberation’ series are already overflowing with extremely explicit and inappropriate content. The moderation backend can’t delete them fast enough. If no action is taken soon, something really big might happen,” a network monitoring GM reported, drenched in sweat.
“They must be stopped!” 【Pangu】 declared decisively.
“But… how do we stop them?” another GM raised the critical question. “Directly banning the 【Underwear Research Division】? Or forcefully deleting those design diagrams and materials? That would be like poking a hornet’s nest—players will definitely riot!”
“We cannot ‘block’ them.” 【Pangu】 took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. “Players’ passion cannot be hard-blocked. The harder you block, the stronger the backlash.”
His mind raced furiously.
If he couldn’t block them, then the only option was… to divert them with something even bigger, more urgent, more irresistible!
A bold, even insane plan, took shape in his mind.
“Relay my command.” 【Pangu】’s gaze grew sharper than ever before. “Immediately, launch Chapter Two of the main storyline—【Greedy Wings】!”
“What?!”
Every GM in the room shot up from their chairs in shock.
“Manager! That won’t work! The Chapter One main quest, ‘The Guardian of Knowledge,’ hasn’t even been completed yet! That barrier repair progress bar isn’t even at one-tenth!”
“And according to the original plan, Chapter Two wasn’t supposed to start until the players’ average level reached 50! Right now the average is barely 40! If we start early, the difficulty will be way too high—they won’t be able to win!”
“Yes, Manager! This will completely disrupt the pacing of the main story and the players’ growth curve!”
“I want to disrupt it!” 【Pangu】’s eyes glinted with grim resolve.
“Pacing? Curves? What’s the point of that now! If I don’t disrupt it, the entire game will turn into nothing but ‘the wives’ wardrobe’!”
“I will use a sudden, absolute calamity to shatter their carnival! I will make them realize that in this world, there are things far more important than sewing underwear for their wives!”
“I will use the wrath of the Dragon King to burn away their unrealistic, perverted fantasies filled with yellow trash!”
He looked at his still-hesitating subordinates, and pressed his tone even harder: “This is an order! Execute it immediately!”
“Push the awakening animation of Chapter Two’s BOSS, 【Dragon King Ignis】, to every player client in the game! I want everyone to witness those wings that blot out the sky, to feel that ancient, greedy roar!”
“Announce a global world alert! Say that because of its long slumber, the Dragon King is starving, and its target is the purest knowledge energy spilling from the 【Book Monsters】 in the Western Wasteland!”
“Tell them—the 【Forgotten Library】, their wives’ home, will be the Dragon King’s very first destination!”
【Pangu】’s commands sent a chill down every GM’s spine.
Too ruthless.
The Manager was about to use one “monster” (the Dragon King) to deal with another group of “monsters” (the players)!
He was going to make their wives face the threat of their home being destroyed, to force them to wake up from their “land of tenderness” and defend their homeland!
“Go carry it out.” 【Pangu】 waved his hand, his voice carrying a trace of weariness. “Remember, the focus of the announcement is this—the Dragon King’s target is the library. If nothing is done, your wives will soon be homeless.”
…
Meanwhile, inside the workshop of the 【Underwear Research Division】.
【LaceSupremacy】 and her members were finalizing the designs of the “Liberation” series.
“Here, I think the lace hollowing could be a little bigger…”
“For this strap design, I think we could use a slipknot, makes it more convenient…”
They were in the heat of discussion, each with a lecherous grin spreading across their faces, when suddenly—
“Woooo—Woooo—Woooo—”
A shrill, piercing alarm, resonating across the entire game world, blared without warning!
Immediately after, every player’s vision was forcibly drawn up to the sky.
The faraway horizon was engulfed in a crimson glow.
A volcano that had lain dormant for a thousand years erupted violently!
Lava burst into the heavens, dyeing half the sky red!
From the depths of this apocalyptic scene, a roar powerful enough to rend souls reverberated!
“Roooaaaar——!”
The next second, a pair of unimaginably vast wings, burning with raging flames, unfurled from the volcano’s mouth!
Those wings covered the heavens, their shadow casting across the entire Eastern Continent.
A colossal form, enough to crush hope itself, slowly rose into the sky.
It was a dragon, its body cloaked in molten, lava-like scales!
Every breath it took exhaled thick smoke and the stench of sulfur.
Its eyes, like two molten suns of gold, brimmed with endless greed and savagery.
As every player stood speechless in awe and terror at this sudden cataclysm, a cold, emotionless system announcement tolled like a death knell in their ears.
【World Alert: The Greedy King who slumbered for a thousand years, ‘Golden Dragon King’ Ignis, has awakened!】
【Her hunger can devour mountains. Her fury can evaporate rivers.】
【Detected: Around the Western Wasteland’s ‘Forgotten Library’, a massive concentration of pure knowledge energy.】
【Dragon King Ignis has locked onto this place as her first ‘meal’!】
【Estimated time of arrival: 24 hours.】
The announcement ended.
The entire world fell into dead silence.
Inside the workshop of the 【Underwear Research Division】, 【LaceSupremacy】 stared blankly at the sky. The design sheet she had just been discussing, about “using a slipknot for the straps,” slipped weightlessly from her hand.
“Th-the Dragon King… is coming… to eat our… wives?”