Chapter 354 - 257: Zog is a Cunning Dragon (Part 2)

Chapter 354: Chapter 257: Zog is a Cunning Dragon (Part 2)

Fortunately, he had brought one back.

The device was handed over to the goblin team for research.

The goblins quickly figured out its principles, but they couldn’t solve the problem of using a living organism as its core.

To build one, they would have to do the same as the Soul Ascenders: stuff a Human, Demon, or Tiefling into the machine.

Although Zog could have found some death-row inmates to use as living material, the thought still made his stomach turn.

So, research into the Soul Ascender technology was temporarily shelved. The goblins would first look for an alternative, to see if they could develop a less perverse consciousness-interfacing device.

He wasn’t worried. If the Soul Ascenders really wanted to create a god from a collective consciousness, the Magic Goddess should be more anxious than he was.

Right now, he had another matter that also required his attention.

Red Alert was mostly complete and ready for a playtest.

Zog arrived at the prepared playtesting area, where over a hundred sand tables had been set up.

This was an internal playtest session. To verify whether this brand-new game genre could succeed here, several hundred corporate employees, mostly members of the gaming society, were invited to try it out.

The level of marketing and promotion would be decided based on the final feedback.

"Hey, why didn’t I get a spot in the playtest?"

Elsa, who hadn’t been invited but insisted on coming anyway, protested indignantly to Zog.

"I’ve worked hard for the corporation! I’ve shed blood for the corporation!"

"Huh? When did you ever shed blood for the corporation?"

"I don’t even take days off when I’m on my period!"

"..."

Usually, when a Dragon is speechless, they are truly speechless.

"I’m not letting you play for your own good," Zog explained earnestly. "The target audience for this game doesn’t include your type. The minimum skill level is someone like Bane Furnace."

"What about my skill level?" Elsa admitted she wasn’t good at games, but she refused to accept that Bane Furnace could be ranked ahead of her.

"You’re bad, and when you’re bad, you tilt and explode. But Bane’s bad, and the worse he is, the more he loves to play."

In competitive games, someone always has to become the "gameplay experience" for others.

Let’s thank every excellent player who gets crushed but still refuses to quit the game.

"Hey! Zog! Come play a round with me!" Bane’s loud voice boomed from a short distance away.

Zog knew Bane meant to play a round of the game with him, but ’why does the way he phrased that sound so weird?’

Bane declared, full of confidence, "I’ve already finished the tutorial! I’m terrifyingly strong now!"

Five minutes later.

Bane stared at the dismal defeat screen, fiercely tugging at his beard.

"Why? You just started playing, and I just started playing! How come I couldn’t even touch your buildings?"

Bane slammed the sand table. "Again! I’ve already figured out your strategy!"

Zog dismissively waved a claw. "You’re not good enough. Where’s Toto? Get Toto over here for me!"

It wasn’t that Zog’s ego was inflated; his own skill wasn’t actually that great either. But his advantage was in knowing more strategies. Since the players here hadn’t figured things out yet, if he was going to bully someone, he might as well bully the best.

As soon as he said this, the entire playtest hall fell silent.

He was actually going to challenge the invincible Toto?

Although the player base had grown, and some players had emerged who could challenge Toto in terms of raw talent, her current job was literally to play games. She had an amount of playtime that others could hardly hope to match, so for now, she was still the undisputed strongest.

Hearing Zog call for her, Toto first let out a sigh.

’So tiring.’

Playing games with the boss, just like playing sports or chess with the boss, wasn’t entertainment. It was work.

Sometimes, it was more mentally taxing than actual work.

You had to let the boss win comfortably, but you couldn’t let him see that you were obviously throwing the game.

’It’s a skilled craft.’

And she couldn’t refuse.

Toto had no choice but to join Zog’s game lobby.

On the valley map, she used the Human Alliance Army faction, while Zog chose the Devils.

Toto preferred the Human Alliance Army. Even though she had played for less than an hour, she had already figured out a few strategies.

The Human Alliance Army’s Forbidden Techniques were more powerful, and their air units were more varied. It felt like they were stronger than the Devils.

Testing the strength and balance of the different factions was also one of Toto’s duties. Currently, it felt like the Devil Camp was at a significant disadvantage, and now Zog had chosen the Devils.

’So annoying. The difficulty of throwing the game just went up.’

The match began.

Toto deployed her base, then built a Mage Tower, Barracks, Factory, and Mine in sequence.

Then she produced some Warriors and mining carts. The Warriors were sent to guard the base, while the mining carts sped up the harvesting of the Magic Energy Stone Mine.

Based on her experience from the brief playtest earlier, Toto believed this was a game that hinged on development and macromanagement, like an auto-chess game with the luck factor removed and a higher demand for micromanagement.

All units required Magic Energy Stone resources to be built. Therefore, the faster you mined, the faster you could build up an army of High Level units. Then you could gather them to attack the opponent and decide the outcome on the main battlefield through skillful control.

Just as Toto was peacefully developing her base, she suddenly saw a few Hellhounds run in, which were easily dealt with by the Warriors guarding her base.

’What was that for?’

Toto didn’t understand why Zog would build Hellhounds. Weren’t they a unit that was useless aside from being fast?

She glanced up at Zog and saw him giving her a sinister grin.

’This smells like a scheme.’

Whenever Zog made that face, he was about to do something strange.

’What could it be?’

’What’s the point of sending a few Hellhounds?’

Before Toto could figure it out, a few Pervert Demons appeared at the entrance to her base.

They were the most basic unit of the Devil Camp, the equivalent of the Warrior.

Such a straightforward attack tactic. Toto felt her boss was even worse than Bane. At least Bane knew to stockpile some High Level units before attacking.

Sigh.

Toto scratched her head. ’How am I supposed to act convincingly while losing to the boss?’

While worrying about this, she maneuvered her Warriors to defend.

But as soon as they made contact, she saw the problem. Behind Zog’s vanguard of Pervert Demons was an even larger group of them, with a few Ice Demons—a more High Level unit—mixed in.

’Not good, my Warriors can’t beat them!’

Toto immediately started producing more Warriors, but it was too late. An individual Warrior was already weaker in combat than a Pervert Demon, not to mention Zog also had Ice Demons.

Her base was steamrolled into oblivion.

"What’s the matter, Toto?" Zog asked, looking quite smug. "Were you careless? Didn’t play your best? Or... surely you didn’t lose to me on purpose, did you?"

Three minutes. Toto then realized she had lost in under three minutes, not even lasting as long as Bane had.

The other players watching from the sidelines started to jeer.

"Toto God actually lost?"

"Ha! I always knew she wasn’t as good as me!" This was Bane, who was even happier than Zog.

"Toto God, were you too scared to beat the boss?"

After a moment of silence, Toto asked the question that was puzzling her. "Boss, how did you produce so many Pervert Demons and Ice Demons?"

She had wanted to build High Level units while defending, but she didn’t have nearly enough Magic Energy Stone resources.

’It can’t be that Zog used his boss privileges to secretly alter the game data, right?’

’He should have said so earlier! She’d just wasted all that mental energy trying to figure out how to lose "appropriately"’.

"I sold my base," Zog answered directly.

"You sold your base? But doesn’t that mean you can’t build any other structures? If your attack had failed, you would have been guaranteed to lose..."

Halfway through her sentence, Toto realized it herself. That’s why he built Hellhounds at the start—to scout her base for information. It was a surprise tactic that could only work if the defender wasn’t aware of it.

That’s right, information. This game wasn’t just about developing your economy; the information hidden under the fog of war was also critically important.

"Again!" A competitive fire ignited in Toto.

"Alright."

In the second game, Zog used Humans, while Toto chose the Devils. She also started by building a few Hellhounds to scout Zog’s base.

However, they were killed by defending dogs at the entrance to his base.

But it didn’t matter; this was enough to see what kind of attack Zog was planning.

’If he’s going to sell his base and all-in, then I’ll sell my base and all-in with him!’

’After all, the Devil’s low-tier units are stronger fighters.’

However, Zog didn’t do a unit push this time. Instead, he sent out a few Infantry Magic-guided Vehicles.

’What is he doing now?’

She had already scouted. If Toto remembered correctly, the Infantry Magic-guided Vehicle had basically no combat power. It was only used to transport some Warriors. Even if these vehicles were full of Warriors, they wouldn’t pose a threat to her, would they?

The infantry vehicles arrived quickly, becoming living targets for her Pervert Demons, showing no intention of fighting back.

Before Toto had time to think, a few units disembarked from the vehicles. They were Engineers.

’Wait, what do Engineers do again?’

They can capture enemy buildings.

’Not good!’

Toto frantically directed her Pervert Demons to attack the Engineers, but it was too late.

The Engineers, which had no means of attack, ambled slowly into her Factory, Mage Tower, Barracks, Mine...

Her base was now Zog’s...

Even faster than the last game. It had only been a little over two minutes.

Toto gritted her teeth and said, "Again!"