I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Inside the Void Space.

Night's Gentle Chill and the others were sitting on the ground, memorizing answers.

Over the past day, after several full-party wipes, they had finally come to understand that trying to calculate answers while simultaneously dodging skills was simply not going to work. Many of the questions looked familiar at first glance, yet had subtle differences. Some players managed to read the question clearly, but the moment they had to dodge a skill mid-calculation, their train of thought fell apart. Others were so fixated on the questions that they forgot to dodge attacks — the party started losing members before anyone even submitted an answer. And worse still, some questions were in languages nobody could even read.

"We're already very familiar with the traps, so as long as everyone memorizes most of the answers up there, we'll have a real shot at clearing this boss." The Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion fired a Scorpion Tail Needle every time it lost 20% HP, which meant their party of 30 needed to answer 24 questions correctly. Their best run the previous day had pushed the boss down to 40% HP — then a question in some obscure foreign language suddenly appeared, and the entire raid was instantly wiped.

The answer sheet they were holding had been compiled by Second Bear, who had left the dungeon to contact other members and pool their collective knowledge.

Dying didn't cost experience, but it did cause players to drop their equipped gear and inventory items. Even if everyone was only wearing a single set of equipment, the losses from a full wipe were staggering.

"Everyone, please put in the effort. The shops in the village are already closed at this hour, and the equipment my friend bought for us is running low. If we wipe a few more times, Guild Master, I'm going to have to start buying gear from scalpers." Night's Gentle Chill said with a smile. "So rather than letting the scalpers pocket that money, let's clear this boss and split it among everyone instead."

The "friend" in question was naturally Lonely as a Song, who was waiting at the dungeon entrance. The moment everyone heard there would be a bonus for killing the boss, they all buckled down and memorized the answers with renewed determination.

An hour later, under Second Bear's command, everyone rose to their feet.

"This is the run. We're clearing it!"

"Let's go!"

Meanwhile, Big Dumb Duck's team had already gotten there ahead of Night's Gentle Chill...

"Last 1%! 0.4%! We did it!!"

Just like Night's Gentle Chill's team, they had a commander of their own. Watching the boss finally collapse, No. 1 let out an ecstatic roar. It had been a full day of dizzying, randomly appearing questions — but this time, luck was on their side, and every question that showed up was one they had seen before.

"Open the chest! Where's my chest?!"

Before anyone else had even caught their breath, Big Dumb Duck had already spun around looking for the loot chest.

Nobody had any objections to his behavior. Before entering the dungeon, Big Dumb Duck had paid 300,000 yuan to book the entire run, and had announced that whichever team achieved the first clear, he would put up an additional 600,000 yuan as a first-clear bonus.

These players were already on Big Dumb Duck's payroll, and running dungeons fell squarely within their job scope — so when they heard there was an extra bonus on top of that, every face lit up with excitement.

Big Dumb Duck hadn't originally planned to be so generous, but a few days ago his father had heard that he'd built up a faction inside Hunt Heaven and, for no apparent reason, transferred two million yuan to him — even telling him to ask for more if it wasn't enough.

What had gotten into the old man? Normally, squeezing even a little money out of him came with a lecture that went on forever — yet this time he was proactively handing it over? Big Dumb Duck didn't understand it, but free money from his own father was the best kind. He'd been spending quite a bit inside Hunt Heaven lately, and what he had left wasn't even enough to throw a yacht party.

"Everyone, gather over here." Spotting the treasure chest in the center of the hexagonal arena, Big Dumb Duck rushed over — only to discover that all 30 players needed to be present before it could be opened. The others hurried over, and they all blinked in confusion at the prompt. What kind of bizarre design required the entire party to gather just to open a chest?

"Opening the chest!"

Once everyone was assembled, Big Dumb Duck threw open the lid without a word.

"Holy shit!" Everyone gasped at the contents — a full seven pieces of equipment, one crafting material, and one special item. The dungeon had been brutal to clear, but the rewards were absolutely worth it.

"Is this a set?!" No. 1 looked at the name prefix on the equipment — Furious Lion Jacket, Furious Lion Bracers... but his expression turned a little strange when he saw the set bonus.

"A set? Where? Let me see." Big Dumb Duck had been grinning and clutching the Blood Fang longsword — the very first boss had already dropped a weapon he could use! But the moment he heard there was a set bonus, he immediately snatched it over for a look.

"Furious Lion Set (Yang)?"

The equipment's base stats were excellent, and the set bonus made it even better — but unfortunately, the set effect only had one line.

Yin-Yang Union: While maintaining physical contact with a player wearing the Furious Lion Set (Yin), all attributes increase by 50%. (This effect remains active until the wearer's level exceeds the boss's level by 5.)

Exceeds the boss's level by 5?

The Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion was level 18, meaning this set bonus would remain useful all the way until level 24.

A 50% boost to all attributes was an absolutely broken effect — but the trigger condition seemed even more absurd...

Because they wanted to clear the dungeon quickly, Big Dumb Duck's team was composed entirely of veteran players with years of gaming experience. Anyone who has played an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) might be familiar with a particular quirk that many seasoned players share — a very unique sense of aesthetics. As long as the equipment and the game allowed it, they would make their characters look as eye-catching as possible in a crowd, in the most outrageous way imaginable.

And the 29 men standing before him right now were exactly like that...

Since they were still in the Starter Village, equipment options were limited — yet this group had displayed astonishing talent during character creation.

"Guild Master, I checked — out of the seven pieces of equipment, only two are usable by Warriors. Do you want me to go out after the others clear the dungeon and ask around, to put together a full set for you?" No. 1 leaned in from the side. Big Dumb Duck took one look at his monkey-butt-red cheeks, long fluttering eyelashes, and blazing red lips, and immediately felt a headache coming on. And this guy was considered one of the better-looking ones in the party.

"Sure. When the time comes, get two sets — one for me, and one for... you." Big Dumb Duck said, somewhat helplessly. Picking the tallest among the short.

"Me?" The Furious Lion Set (Yin) was women's clothing — that didn't particularly bother him; he'd tried far stranger things. The real issue was the trigger condition. Physical contact? Even just holding hands felt a little awkward to him.

But that was all a problem for later. They figured they'd moved fairly quickly, and the other teams were probably still fighting the Yin-Yang Scorpion-Tailed Lion.

They collected everything from the chest — all seven pieces of equipment and one Scorpion-Tailed Lion venom needle.

"A Masquerade Ball? Now that's a handy little item." Big Dumb Duck glanced at the item description. It wasn't offensive in nature, but it would be excellent for pulling tricks on people.

He tossed everything into his backpack without a second thought.

"I'll head out first and hand these things over to Lonely as a Song. When I get back, we'll move on to the second boss..."

But before Big Dumb Duck could finish his sentence, the entire dungeon suddenly began to shake!

Were they going to have to run again?!

Big Dumb Duck knew this kind of trembling all too well — just earlier, the 30 of them had been wiped twice at the dungeon entrance because of exactly this.

But where were they supposed to run? He looked around — everyone was standing in the center of the hexagonal platform. There appeared to be seven paths (including the staircase they had come down), but they had already been down every single one.

"Boss, I don't think we need to run — the shaking seems to be because of that..." No. 1 pointed diagonally upward. Big Dumb Duck looked up and realized that at some point, the six boss chambers had risen high into the air. Then, from below, six new rooms appeared, and with a deep, resonant thud, they connected to the six corridors.

"More of them? We have to split into six teams again?!"

The brief elation from killing the first boss was almost instantly swept away. A jumble of chaotic questions flooded back into Big Dumb Duck's mind all at once.

"Boss, something seems off." No. 1 remained remarkably calm. He turned to look at the six large doors slowly opening in the distance, and the low buzzing sound emanating from within gave him an ominous feeling.

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