Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 80

January 1st.

It was the day the global server of Deron opened.

But there was even more important news for me.

[From January 1st, the ‘Game Shutdown Law’ is abolished… adolescents can choose their own game time]

[Game Shutdown Law abolished January 1st. The restriction on internet game usage for adolescents during late-night hours is lifted.]

[‘Game Shutdown Law’ abolished after 15 years… replaced with ‘Game Time Selection’]

At first, I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was just some simple rumor.

But it was real. It was true. One of the shackles that bound me had been released.

“Wow…”

Lying on my bed, I quickly sprang up.

January 1st was today. Plus, school was on break!

A smile I couldn’t hide crept across my face.

I had always had to log off by 10 PM, but now I could stay logged into Deron for much longer.

Just like Harang, I could now hide in my capsule until it was time to go to school.

“Yay!!!”

I immediately logged into Deron.

Nothing much had changed right now. The new expansion pack hadn’t come out yet, so I had to repeat what I did last week. But my mood was different. I dashed out of the village with a light step, as if I could fly.

The position of Supreme Commander was now mine.

*

[Pre-Announcement for Expansion Pack Update]

Hello, adventurer.

The new expansion pack for Deron Online, [Plague City Fest], is set to update on February 1st (Wednesday).

Update Contents:


– New Episode Added


– New Raid Added


– New Area Added


– Maximum Level Expanded


– New Items Added


– New Classes Added

A notification about a new expansion pack appeared less than a month after the global server opened.

As I scanned the notice, I gaped.

Fortunately, the contents of the next expansion pack were exactly what I had known.

Even if the update timing was a bit quicker, it meant the general framework was still the same.

It was a pre-announcement for the expansion pack update. A recommendation from Deron to prepare for the next expansion.

On the day the notice was posted, the raid party went into a rest period.

After all, the items would become useless once the next expansion pack came out. Farming now wouldn’t give much of a time window for use.

So much to prepare for. The Plague City Fest expansion pack was aptly named for the area.

Common monsters littering the roadside had poison and bleed debuffs sticking to them, and occasionally regenerating mouse monsters induced diseases that lowered user stats.

[Plague City Fest]

The name was filled with information anyone could guess.

It was only natural that the Auction House began to tremble. Various antidotes that were listed there began to vanish rapidly.

But all of that would soon be useless.

The disease levels in the new expansion pack couldn’t be cured by any antidotes created now.

Taking this opportunity, I began organizing all the potions I had stored in the warehouse.

I could get about 20–30% more than the average market price, so I raked in quite a bit of gold.

Right after that, I stared at the Orc Ring left in the corner of the warehouse, starting to ponder.

As far as I remembered, items to replace this ring would not appear for another two seasons.

However, nothing guaranteed everything would flow as I remembered. Just like this Demon Sword and Jupiter’s Holy Sword, items that had never existed in Deron could emerge.

After a while of contemplating, I nodded.

It’s better to take a sure thing than trust an unstable future.

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

I listed two of them on the Auction House.

Since they were rare items with no alternatives on the market, only the two rings I registered were listed at the Auction House.

About ten minutes after registering the rings, one of them listed cheaper by 20 gold sold.

Then another five minutes passed.

Another one of the registered rings sold.

In such a short time, a massive amount of gold flowed into my inventory.

*

On the day of the new expansion pack update.

A ton of users flocked to Lunaris Capital City.

The main quest began in Lunaris Capital City.

I too began my main quest.

The first task of the quest pointed towards the plague zone.

I was instructed to go to the plague area and find an NPC who had gone silent.

“Come out!”

Since the new areas didn’t have portals marked, I had to walk there.

But I was special. I didn’t need to walk like the other users.

With my arms wide open, I summoned a magical formation, and from within it, a valiant battle hell wolf appeared.

Since the shutdown law was gone, I could hold the position of Supreme Commander, and my hell wolf had also leveled up.

“Growl.”

It was the moment I hopped onto the wolf.

“Wow!!! A puppy!!!”

“Wow!!! Velka!!!”

Voices that were almost shouts rang from behind me.

I was used to it now. I could withstand this level of teasing without a problem.

“Blood Demon!!!”

I sighed deeply. Was this what life was like for famous celebrities? So exhausting.

Since it would take forever dealing with each one, I lowered my head and began to dash towards the plague zone.

Tap-tap-tap-

The wolf, donned in splendid battle armor, dashed forward majestically and swiftly.

As I continued on with my hell wolf, I finally arrived at the new area.

The surroundings began to darken. A chillingly sparse fog mixed with starkly dried, twisted grass and trees.

I noticed animals that were close to mummies laying on the ground.

Their appearance made it hard to find any sign of life.

The location of the NPC that would indicate the real start of the quest was easily identifiable.

There were many users clustered around it.

I urged my wolf forward to reach it.

The NPC had already turned into a corpse.

Given that some time had passed since death, maggots swarmed around the corpse.

[Heading to the Plague Zone]

Searching for the missing Torika 1/1

It seemed the name of this NPC was Torika.

There was a small bag dropped near Torika, which contained hardened bread and a neatly folded letter.

[Heading to the Plague Zone]

Checking the letter’s contents and searching the area.

Immediately after, the next quest began.

The letter spoke of a suspicious group being discovered and mentioned a desire to track them down.

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

Other users, having checked the letter’s contents, began to scatter in all directions.

I couldn’t afford to be late either.

I urged my hell wolf to quickly search the area.

Tap-tap-tap-

This area appeared to have once been a typical farm. Dilapidated houses and barns sprawled, with dead crops decomposing over the fields.

While rushing around the farm, a humanoid monster cloaked in a black robe slowly walked out from inside a dilapidated barn.

[Suspicious Individual]

To my recollection, that guy dropped an item needed for starting the quest.

It randomly appeared once every minute in this entire area, so if I was unlucky, I could wander for an hour without encountering it.

I was lucky.

I quickly ran my wolf to slice off its neck in one swift motion.

The good thing about humanoid monsters is their hit detection area is generous.

Slash-!

With the monster’s head severed while still wearing its black robe, I quickly jumped off and grabbed the item it dropped.

[Suspicious Mouse Sculpture]

A sinister energy emanates from it.

The item it dropped was a mouse sculpture carved from rotten wood.

Once I confirmed the sculpture, the quest was promptly updated.

[Heading to the Plague Zone]

I discovered an ominous sculpture. Report back to the Adventurer’s Guild.

While the quest instructed me to return and report to the Adventurer’s Guild, I didn’t head back.

I would come back here after a few errands anyway. Faint memories began to surface vividly.

If I proceeded with the quest normally, I would have busily run around the capital looking for the origins of this sculpture.

I didn’t remember the details specifically, but I knew where I had to go.

I spurred my wolf deeper into the area.

Passing through the entrance to the plague zone and moving further in, bears spraying green poison and gigantic maggots crawling on the ground began to appear.

They were truly disgustingly terrifying creatures.

After running along the path, I finally reached the objective, the Plague Village.

All NPCs here wore pale faces.

It seemed their health wasn’t good, as they kept coughing.

The sounds of coughing didn’t stop. Every resident was alternately coughing.

At that moment, the quest began to update rapidly.

Da-da-da-dang!

[Suspicious Mouse Sculpture]

Gather information about the mouse sculpture worshipped by the village people.

The quest update sound layered over itself multiple times, leading to the next quest.

This part was about listening to the villagers’ requests and gathering various information and quest items.

This segment couldn’t be skipped. I could receive items that would prevent the monsters’ poison and bleed debuffs as quest rewards.

I started talking to the villagers while riding my wolf.

Cough cough, cough cough.

The coughing continued throughout our conversation.

Once I had received the quest conditions from all the villagers, I dashed out of the village. Now I had to hunt monsters or gather specific items.

The first thing I needed to hunt was the corpse-eating maggots littering the area.

I drew my sword.

The horrifyingly large maggot was wriggling and crawling on the ground.

“Ugh…”

A long sigh escaped me. But what could I do? I had to hunt to level up.

The corpse-eating maggot monster wasn’t particularly strong.

As long as I was careful of its disease explosion skill while dying, it wouldn’t be dangerous.

The quest condition of hunting 100 maggots wasn’t that hard.

I diligently roamed around the village, slicing down the maggots.

With that, I was able to complete the quest condition of 100 maggots.

But there was still a mountain of things left to do.

“Come out!”

I once again summoned my wolf and began to dash through the Plague Zone.

Tap-tap-tap-