Chapter 15: Disconnected Suddenly

Saying “seeing the lord” was simple, but in reality, apart from the one time the merman lord took the initiative to show himself, none of the players had succeeded in seeing him again.

Those idle players exploring the surroundings had long discovered the mage tower at the edge of the territory and had tried various methods such as staking out and sneaking in, attempting to greet the lord and gain some favorability.

Those players had also started several related threads on the forum.
Perhaps they were led astray by the shocking title of the first merman post, as their titles were all gaudy and flowery—

“[What is a certain man’s motive for staking out a strange male’s door?]”
“[The days and nights I waited for him]”
“[Tower Climbing Project 101]”…

It made the scales on the side of Sykes’s face twitch.

“How many times has it been today?”
He slammed the study window shut with a ‘bang’, his gaze sweeping over the fish that had been swallowed halfway by the aquatic plants while climbing the tower, his brows furrowing.

[This is already the sixth time. The total number of deaths is fifteen,] Ella reported in a prim and proper manner.

Ever since the mage tower was discovered, many players had been staking out his door one after another.
This was no big deal; as long as Sykes didn’t want to, no one could find a trace of him.
At worst, he still had a large pile of spatial teleportation items on hand.

But for some reason, the players who couldn’t find the fish actually started wanting to climb the mage tower?

If this were on land, people would probably laugh their heads off—a mage tower was the most important place for any otaku mage, filled with endless traps and mechanisms from the inside out waiting for intruders.
Yet someone still dared to try and sneak into a mage tower?

Most players would die once or twice outside the tower and then give up on this idea.
Wasn’t it better to explore the surroundings and see the real and beautiful scenery?
Why deliberately come here to seek death?

Dying once would deduct five hundred reputation points, and they would be forced by the system to move bricks for a full five times!

Especially since not many quests had been opened yet.
The only way to accumulate reputation points, besides those given in the novice quests, was to grind the repeatable daily quests.

Who would be willing to move bricks when they could be out having fun?

So in just two short days, the players who tried to challenge the mage tower had disappeared by seventy or eighty percent, leaving only this guy named [Diamond], who persisted day and night, either climbing the tower or on his way to move bricks to save up for resurrection.

That “[Tower Climbing Project 101]” on the forum was written by him.

Because the stones used to build the tower were made of a special material with a natural gravity restriction, whether it was placed on the ground to guard against flying species or built in the sea to guard against swimming things, it could instantly return them to their starting point.
So he could only climb up slowly.

During this time, Diamond had experienced various ways of dying while climbing the tower, such as being struck by lightning, hit by stones, falling to his death, and being attacked by fish.
Not only was he not scared off, but he actually summarized his experience and climbed higher each time.

This time, he had actually climbed to the waist of the tower before being swallowed by the guardian, which looked like aquatic plants but was actually a magical energy plant.

‘This can’t go on. Otherwise, this stubborn player will reach the top of the tower sooner or later.’
The merman flicked his tail in annoyance.
He had to think of a way to find something for them to do.

And at this moment, Ella’s timely reminder, [Player has cleared the dungeon and obtained relevant clues,] was like a timely rain, solving the merman’s troubles.

Although he hadn’t expected those three little guys to be able to clear it on their first try, it was good news now, wasn’t it?
Open up the power system for those idle players, and let them all learn it slowly!

Thus, Hua Yibing’s trio, who were still circling the mage tower trying to find a way in to see the lord, all received a system notification at the same time—

[The Lord’s favorability towards you +5]

Team One Two Three: ??

Hua Yibing: “Is this game system broken? Why is it giving rewards before the quest is even turned in?”

“Maybe it’s a delayed reward for the first clear?” Old Li scratched his head, a little unsure.

But Yan Shuangwen didn’t participate in this conversation.
He looked at the tower before him, which was sealed with only windows and no doors, and couldn’t understand the structure of this building—why was there no door?
Is this a habit of merfolk?

The next second, on the smooth surface of the bottom floor of the tower, a section suddenly melted away rapidly like plastic wrap being burned by fire.
The hollow part expanded outwards, finally melting into a huge circular entrance.

The entrance was like the mouth of some giant beast, and the inside was pitch black, making it impossible to see the internal structure.
‘This doesn’t look like a place where a lord would live, but more like the lair of some monster,’ Yan Shuangwen thought.

Actually, Yan Shuangwen’s thoughts were correct.
This opening method was copied by the merman from the dark mages.
Because it looked cool, it was kept in the mage tower’s operating program.

“Are we going?” Hua Yibing looked at the entrance, swallowed hard, and turned to his two teammates.

“Let’s go!” Old Li was the first to swim towards it.

Yan Shuangwen followed closely behind, while Huahua hesitated for a moment, then, seeing that his companions had already gone, hurriedly flicked his tail and followed.

“Congratulations, my proud subjects.”

The sparkling merman received them in his study.
His tail, so white it was almost transparent, was coiled beneath him, and a few gauze-like tail fins floated gently with the movement of the seawater.

This was the first time the lord character had shown such a kind attitude towards the players since his appearance.
Old Li guessed, could this be related to their favorability?

Of course, Sykes’s attitude towards them was good.

As mentioned before, this main quest could solve a considerable part of his current troubles, including increasing the players’ enthusiasm and finding something for the idle ones to do.
How could a fish not feel happy?

He maintained the image definition that the forum users had for him—a noble, elegant, and kind aristocratic image—and gave the three-person team a long-winded praise.
Although this was a bit difficult for a fish, he had seen similar scenes many times in the human world and could just change a few words and use them directly.

As expected, Old Li and the others were also fooled by him.
They had long forgotten the twisted scene at the entrance and only felt that this merman lord’s model was too exquisite and his intelligence too vivid.
After the official launch, he would definitely have a considerable number of fans—

However, from Huahua’s current starry eyes, it seemed there was no need to wait for the official launch; there was already a ready-made fanboy.

“Now, give me what you have obtained,” Sykes got to the point.

Old Li took out the notebook from his backpack, tried his best to recall the etiquette from the TV dramas he had watched before, and respectfully handed it to the merman.
Then, as expected, he saw the system prompt for favorability +1.

“This is the notebook I found in your study,” Old Li said.
Recalling the feeling of flipping through the notebook at that time, he added, “The content on it is really vivid and easy to understand. Even someone like me who has never come into contact with magic can get lost in time reading it.”

“Oh?” This was unexpected for Sykes.
He raised an eyebrow.
Could it be that there were people among the players who could also experience the joy of learning magic?
Whether it was true or not, his favorability towards Old Li increased by a few more points.

“Loving to learn is a rather excellent quality. I hope you can keep it up,” the merman said, a bit more kindness in his tone.
“Since you are all very interested in magic, you can try to learn and improve your skills in this area in the future.”

[Beep, the Lord greatly appreciates your attitude of loving to learn. Lord’s favorability +2.]

[The warriors’ love for magic has moved the Lord. From now on, players can learn magic! Unlocking a new power system, unlocking the skill bar, unlocking the magic section…]

[Main quest update detected. Full server maintenance will be carried out soon. Players are requested to turn in their quests and return to their personal huts within half an hour to avoid being disconnected in the wild.]

A series of messages spammed the notification bar.
The three players all lowered their heads to check.

“Love for magic? I like to learn?” Hua Yibing was the first to notice something was wrong.
“When did I ever like… Mmph mmph mmph!!”

Yan Shuangwen, who was standing next to him, was quick-witted.
Before he could say anything foolish that would affect the quest, he covered his mouth with one hand.

“Wha are oo doin mmph mmph mmph!” Hua Yibing struggled violently.

“Shut up,” Yan Shuangwen said concisely, his grip still not relaxing.

Old Li, who had always been the mediator between the two, didn’t do anything in time this time.
After checking the system’s notification, he looked up and took out the letter he had picked up from his backpack.

“Lord, I found this under the desk. May I ask if it’s something you dropped?”

Old Li held both ends of the letter, with the side bearing the words “To Sykes” facing up, and handed it flatly to the merman.

When Sykes heard his question, he felt a little strange—besides that notebook, he had set everything else in the room to be un-takeable.
How could there be anything else, and it was dropped under the table?

Before the merman could figure it out, the answer was already presented before his eyes.

To Sykes.

Someone had written it with a quill pen in a flamboyant style.

The merman’s gilded eyes suddenly widened, his pupils shrinking into thin vertical slits.

…

Unexpectedly, all players in Sea Realm were kicked offline.

Those who wanted to dig a few more stones out of greed, those who were on their way back to turn in quests, those who had just crawled out of the resurrection point, including Old Li and the others who were still in the merman’s tower, face to face with the merman, were all kicked offline.

“What’s going on! I haven’t finished turning in my quest!”

“Ahhh, aren’t we not supposed to sleep in the wild? I was kicked offline while I was still on the road! Will I have to move bricks to save up for resurrection again when I log back on??”

“Is there a bug in the game? Didn’t it say maintenance would be in half an hour?”

The uninformed players complained one after another.

And over here, Old Li had also climbed out of the holographic cabin.
The feeling of weightlessness from being suddenly disconnected made his face a little pale.

‘Why was the maintenance moved up? Was it because of… that letter?’

Old Li recalled the face of the impossibly beautiful and gentle lord, which had suddenly turned cold in the second before he was disconnected.
A bit of uncertainty grew in his heart.