Second Expansion Pack

January 1st.

It was the day Deron’s global server opened.

But I had even more important news than that.

[Game Shutdown Law Abolished from the 1st… Teenagers Can Freely Choose Usage Time]

[Game Shutdown Law Abolished, Effective January 1st. Restrictions on Internet Game Usage by Teenagers During Late-Night Hours Have Been Lifted.]

[‘Game Shutdown Law’ Abolished After 15 Years… Replaced with ‘Game Time Selection System’]

At first, I didn’t believe it. I just thought it was some tabloid bullshit.

But it wasn’t. It was true. One of the shackles that had been binding me had been broken.

“Heok…”

I, who had been lying on the bed, quickly got up.

January 1st was today. And luckily, school was also on vacation.

An unmistakable smile appeared on my face.

I always had to turn off the game at 10 PM, but now I could stay connected to Deron for longer.

It became possible to be holed up in the capsule until before going to school, like Harang.

“Yahoo!!!”

I immediately logged into Deron.

Nothing much had changed right away. The new expansion pack hadn’t come out yet, so I had to repeat what I had done last week. But the feeling was different. I ran out of the village with light steps as if I were flying.

The position of Commander-in-Chief was now mine.

***

[Expansion Pack Update Advance Notice]

Hello, Adventurers-nim.

The new expansion pack for Deron Online, [Plague City Pest], is scheduled to be updated on Wednesday, February 1st.

Update Details.

New Episode Added.

New Raid Added.

New Area Added.

Level Cap Increased.

New Items Added.

New Job Added.

A notice announcing a new expansion pack was posted less than a month after the global server opened.

I skimmed through the contents of the notice, muttering to myself.

Fortunately, the content of the next expansion pack was also something I knew.

Even if the timing of the expansion pack update was a little faster, it meant that the general framework was the same.

It was an advance notice of the expansion pack update.

It was also Deron’s recommendation to prepare for the next expansion pack from now on.

On the day the notice was posted, the raid party went on hiatus.

After all, the items would become useless once the next expansion pack came out. There was no point in farming them now, as the period of time they could be used was not long.

There were many things to prepare. The expansion pack called Plague City Pest was a region befitting its name.

Common monsters lying around on the streets had rows of poison and bleeding status ailment options, and rat monsters that occasionally spawned on the streets caused diseases that lowered users’ stats.

[Plague City Pest]

It was a name containing information that anyone could have predicted.

It was only natural that the auction house started to shake. All kinds of detoxification potions that had been listed on the auction house began to be swept away.

But all of that would be useless.

The disease level of the newly appearing expansion pack was such that it could not be detoxified with the detoxification potions that had been created so far.

I took this opportunity to start organizing all the potions that had been stashed in the warehouse.

I was able to make a profit of about 20-30% more than the average market price, so quite a lot of gold fell into my hands.

Immediately after that, I started to worry as I looked at the Orc Ring left in the corner of the warehouse.

As far as I remembered, an item to replace this ring would not appear until two seasons later.

But, there was no guarantee that everything would go according to my memory. Just like this Magic Sword and Jupiter’s Holy Sword, an item that did not exist in the existing Deron might appear.

After worrying for a while, I nodded.

A sure thing now is better than an uncertain future.

I had 3 Orc Rings left, excluding the one I was wearing.

I put two of them up for auction.

Since it was a rare item with no other listings, only the two rings I had registered were listed in the auction house.

About 10 minutes after registering the Orc Rings?

The ring that I had registered for 20 gold cheaper was sold.

And another 5 minutes passed.

Another registered ring was sold.

An enormous amount of gold came into my inventory in that short amount of time.

***

The day of the new expansion pack update.

A huge number of users were flocking to Lunaris Capital City.

This was because the start of the main quest began in Lunaris Capital City.

I also started to proceed with the main quest.

The first start of the quest pointed to the Plague Zone.

The content was to head to the Plague Zone and find the NPC who had lost contact.

“Come out!”

Since the new area did not have a portal, everyone had to move on foot.

But I was special. It meant that I didn’t have to walk like other users.

When I spread my arms wide and summoned a magic circle, a majestic Battle Hell Wolf was summoned from within.

I was able to achieve Commander-in-Chief because the shutdown law had disappeared. My Hell Wolf had also been promoted one step further.

“Eurureureung.”

It was the moment I boarded the wolf.

“Waaaaah!!! It’s a puppy!!!”

“Wow!!! Belka!!!”

I heard a voice close to a shout from behind.

I was used to it now. I could endure this much teasing.

“Blood Demon-nim!!!”

I let out a deep sigh. Is this what the lives of famous celebrities are like? It was truly exhausting.

There was no end to dealing with them one by one, so I lowered my head and started running towards the Plague Zone.

Tadak- Tadak- Tadak-

The wolf wearing a cool battle armor was dashing quickly with a majestic and cool appearance.

While running with the Hell Wolf for a long time, I finally arrived at the new area.

The surroundings began to darken. A faint mist was eerily spread, and the grass and trees were withered and dried up.

Animals close to mummies lying on the floor came into view.

I frowned at the sight of them, which was hard to find any vitality in.

The location of the NPC, which signaled the full-fledged start of the quest, could be found quickly.

This was because many users were gathered in front of it.

I drove the wolf and ran towards it.

What was an NPC had already turned into a corpse.

Maggots were swarming around the corpse, as if a considerable amount of time had passed since death.

[Heading to the Plague Zone]

Find Torica, Who Has Lost Contact 1/1

It seemed that this NPC’s name was Torica.

A small bag had fallen around Torica, and inside it were hardened bread and a neatly folded letter.

[Heading to the Plague Zone]

Check the contents of the letter and search the surroundings.

The next quest started immediately.

The contents of the letter contained information about discovering a really suspicious group, along with a statement that they would be tracked down.

It seemed that they had died before sending this letter to the capital city.

Other users who had checked the contents of the letter began to spread out in all directions.

They had started investigating this area.

I couldn’t be late either.

I drove the Hell Wolf and started searching this area quickly.

Tadak- Tadak- Tadak-

This area seemed to have been an ordinary farmhouse in the past. The dilapidated house and barn, and the widely spread field, were rotting with dead crops.

While quickly searching around the farmhouse, a humanoid monster wearing a black robe slowly walked out from inside the dilapidated barn.

[Suspicious Person]

As far as I remembered, that guy was the monster that dropped the quest start item.

Since the respawn time was 1 minute and it appeared randomly throughout this area, it was also a guy that you might not find even if you wandered around for about an hour if you were unlucky.

I was lucky.

I drove the wolf and quickly ran, instantly cutting off the guy’s neck.

The good thing about humanoid monsters was that the vital spot judgment was generous.

Seogeok-!

The monster’s head was cut off along with the black robe.

I quickly jumped down and picked up the item that the guy had dropped.

[Suspicious Rat Statue]

An ominous energy is felt.

The item that the guy dropped was a rat statue carved from rotten wood.

As soon as I checked the statue, the quest was immediately updated.

[Heading to the Plague Zone]

A sinister statue has been discovered. Return to the Adventurer’s Guild and report.

The quest was written to return to the Adventurer’s Guild and report, but I didn’t return.

After all, I would arrive here again after a few errands. My vague memories were gradually becoming clearer.

If you proceed with the quest in a normal way, you will be busy running around the capital city to find the origin of this statue.

I didn’t remember the details in detail, but I knew where to go.

I drove the wolf and started heading deeper.

Passing through the entrance of the Plague Zone and entering the inside, bears scattering green poison gas all over their bodies and giant maggots crawling on the floor began to appear.

They were really grotesque and terrible guys.

As a result of running along the road, I was finally able to reach the destination, Plague Village.

The resident NPCs here all had pale faces.

Perhaps their lungs were not in good condition, as the residents continued to cough.

The coughing didn’t stop. This was because all the residents took turns coughing.

At that moment, the quest started to be updated at once.

Tadadadang!

[Suspicious Rat Statue]

Collect information on the rat statue worshiped by the villagers.

The next quest appeared with the quest update sound effect overlapping several times.

It was a section where you listened to the villagers’ requests and collected various information and quest items.

This section could not be skipped. This was because you could acquire an item that blocked the poison and bleeding debuffs of monsters as a quest reward.

I drove the wolf and started talking to the villagers.

Kulokkolok, Kulleok Kulleok.

The coughing didn’t stop throughout the conversation.

After receiving the quest conditions from all the residents, I immediately ran out of the village. Now I had to beat up monsters or find specific items.

The first thing to hunt was the corpse-eating maggots that were lying around near this village.

I drew my sword.

A terribly large maggot was wriggling and crawling on the floor.

“Hoo…”

A long sigh flowed out. But what could I do? I had to hunt to level up.

The corpse-eating maggot monster was not that strong.

As long as you were careful of the germ explosion skill that burst out when it died, there was nothing to be greatly worried about.

Hunting 100 maggots, which was the quest condition, was not that difficult.

I diligently walked around the village and cut down the maggots.

In that way, I was able to process 100 maggots and achieve the quest conditions.

But there was still a mountain of things to do.

“Come out!”

I summoned the wolf once again and started running through the Plague Zone.

Tadak- Tadak- Tadak-