Calamity Messenger

Chapter 360 - 294: They’re Pokémon!

Just after entering the Demon Gathering Land, Yan Qing didn’t see anyone else.

The Demon Gathering Land looks like a playground, but its area is comparable to a town. Except for the uniquely styled amusement facilities, most of the other buildings were almost identical, seemingly copy-pasted. This is a common design strategy for instances, as it helps create an atmosphere at low cost without making the instance too sparse, and these destructible buildings greatly enhance the impact during battles.

After all, no matter how opulently a skill is described, it is far less shocking than directly destroying a village with divine power. Strength always needs destruction to showcase it.

Such a vast and complex Secret Realm space, even with two hundred messengers participating in the event, is like salt dissolving in clear water, leaving no trace. Seeing that it’s difficult to encounter other people in this Secret Realm, Yan Qing felt relieved. He wasn’t interested in meeting other messengers, even if they were weaker local muggles. Interestingly, Yan Qing liked to reveal his might in front of strangers while playing on low levels and enjoyed boasting to Shang Xinlei and Pharmacist’s Wish and even White Fox, yet he uniquely disliked revealing his might in front of strangers.

Thinking about others looking at him with admiration or jealousy, Yan Qing felt a bit uncertain. If someone eagerly asked for help, should he help? If someone schemingly tried to calculate against him, should he kill?

Nothing had happened yet, but Yan Qing already imagined various possibilities in his mind, filling this outing with anxiety. He didn’t consider himself socially anxious, just somewhat fragile-hearted; after all, even when reading novels, he’d scratch his feet out of empathy for the protagonist’s awkward situations. Real tragedies and malice make him feel life is tiring.

A sign not far from the entrance pointed to four paths:

"Dragon Blood Path," "Wilderness Path," "Path of Undying," "Path of Evil Demons."

Choosing any path made little difference, as the demons in the Demon Gathering Land were arranged from weakest to strongest. Upon entering the outskirts, one would only encounter the weakest First-Turn Demon Fiends.

Yan Qing chose the "Dragon Blood Path", and after a few steps, he encountered the first demon.

A chubby little Hatching Dragonling was wandering on the road. It looked fierce and cute despite its awkward horns, and although it wasn’t much taller than a chicken, there was still a ring of eggshell on its lower body, resembling open-crotch pants from afar. Even Ye Si standing in front of it didn’t elicit any response; it would even take a detour to evade Ye Si!

Quite polite.

This is it! Ye Si drew the Flame Pattern Seven-Star Sword and slashed with it!

The Hatching Dragonling’s body had a protective barrier, shattered with one sword, which was probably the hit protection that withstands one attack while declaring its battle state. It roared with anger, the eggshell on its open-crotch pants shattered loudly, and its size inflated from chicken to bear level!

However, it was ultimately just an outer demon. Facing the fully armed Ye Si, Yan Qing was too lazy to dodge, and they defeated it before its defensive barrier fell completely. After the Hatching Dragonling’s death, it didn’t drop any loot, but a stream of light shot into Ye Si’s Flesh Prison Bracelet.

Ye Si raised his right hand and saw that the bracelet displayed an upper and lower row, with a card at the bottom and an empty slot at the top. The card was named "Hatching Dragonling."

"First-Turn Dragon Race, Hatching Dragonling"

"Attack: 50"

"Health: 100"

"Trait: Growth: When a battle triggers, it grows, gaining attack and health boosts, doubling every day."

"Ascension: Acquire fifty identical puppet cards"

Next to the card were several hints: "Place the card in the puppet slot to activate the puppet card.

The puppet slot grows by one daily until expanded to a maximum of seven.

All puppet cards are cleared at midnight, only activated puppet cards can be saved.

Placing a new card into a slot with an existing card will cause the old card to vanish."

Yan Qing activated "Hatching Dragonling," and a Dragonling appeared behind Ye Si, following him everywhere. Yan Qing finally understood why the Demon Gathering Land was so large, with such wide roads, each player could form a team of magical Pokémon. If tens of thousands of players participated in this event, it would be lively and bustling.

He roughly understood that the core gameplay of this activity was to capture demons by eliminating them. But only one demon could be captured on the first day, no matter how many more, they couldn’t be taken to the second day.

Theoretically, the strongest demons should be captured to form a lineup, but Yan Qing estimated that the powerful demons would be Foundation Establishment Demons beyond level 40, which couldn’t be defeated relying only on the player, but required the power of puppet cards.

Collect weak puppets, eliminate strong puppets, then use powerful puppets to defeat even stronger puppets... I understand now, it’s exactly Pokémon!

As he moved forward, he encountered another wild Dragonling. Triggering the combat, Yan Qing noticed a detail: although both Ye Si and puppet Dragonling were attacking, the wild Dragonling only attacked the puppet Dragonling, indicating that demons wouldn’t attack Trial Takers until all puppets were dead.

After defeating another Dragonling, Ye Si’s Flesh Prison Bracelet absorbed the stream of light again, Yan Qing noticed a small circle appearing next to the "Hatching Dragonling" card, and its progress increased slightly, signifying that Yan Qing only needed to defeat forty-nine more Dragonlings to ascend the puppet card.

Defeating fifty Dragonlings is no issue for him, but it’s unnecessary; he’s not interested in using Dragonlings as the main force. Ye Si continued forward, encountering a new dragon, and obtained a "Sturdy Shield Dragon" puppet card after defeating it.

"First-Turn Dragon Race, Sturdy Shield Dragon"

"Attack: 0"

"Health: 200"

"Trait: Shield Strike: Each time attacked by Flesh Puppets, permanently gain 20 attack."

"Ascension: Acquire fifty identical puppet cards"

Compared to the linear growth of the Dragonling, Sturdy Shield Dragon is undoubtedly weaker initially, but with enough triggered battles, players can stack the attack power of Sturdy Shield Dragon to very high levels, possessing extremely high potential.

But this still isn’t the puppet Yan Qing wants. Two consecutive dragons were of the ’self-growth’ type, suggesting all puppet dragons could be of this style. As Ye Si reached a fork, Yan Qing casually chose the "Forest Path" and walked into it. Just two steps in, he encountered a new demon: a giant mosquito.

The mosquito was surprisingly weak, Ye Si slayed it with a single strike, but its corpse suddenly boiled on the ground, summoning a huge bug with scythe-like antennae, matching the Dragonling’s strength. Yan Qing’s eyes lit up, confirming this was the type he desired upon acquiring the puppet card:

"First-Turn Beast: Parasitic Mosquito"

"Attack: 10"

"Health: 10"

"Trait: Deathrattle, Taunt: Upon mosquito’s death, a 100/100 parasitic insect is summoned from the corpse. Enemies prioritize attacking this puppet."

Yan Qing’s eyes sparkled, immediately switching to this puppet card, then using the mutation [Resurrection] on it!

The edges of the card glowed blue momentarily, without any immediate effect, until Yan Qing triggered another battle, unveiling the mutation’s true power.

Seeing the mosquito die and transform into a corpse at the battle’s start and summon the massive parasitic insect upon triggering the Deathrattle, then flash of blue light, reviving the dead mosquito in front of Ye Si.

When the resurrected mosquito was defeated by demons again, naturally triggering Deathrattle again, a second massive parasitic insect appeared.

Just as expected!