Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 777: 737: What Have We Done?

Chapter 777: Chapter 737: What Have We Done?

In the past, Dinosaur Island was full of login points and respawn points.

However, not long after the appearance of the Melting Mountain Dragon and Phase Willow, many login points on Dinosaur Island were destroyed, leaving only eight on the edges of the island.

The one closest to the Melting Mountain Dragon was located at the dock where the Hunting Ship was anchored.

Severe terrain damage and the presence of giant monsters made it almost impossible to use off-road vehicles.

As a result, traveling on Dinosaur Island became very troublesome, relying solely on running, which greatly limited the effectiveness of the Dragging Corpse Technique.

But now, those running with corpses were merely scattered players rather than the dense formations of the past, leaving more room for the grappling hooks to be used.

Skilled players could use grappling hooks even on the ground, grabbing rocks or trees and pulling themselves forward quickly, making it seem like they were flying over the terrain.

This move was not difficult, but mastering its use while running was challenging.

With the help of this technique and the fact that the monsters blocking the way had already been cleared, skilled players could reduce their travel time to within 15 minutes. Even inexperienced players could make the journey in about 20 minutes.

As long as the raiding team didn’t get wiped out within 15 minutes, the Dragging Corpse Technique could take effect!

Many people were mentally prepared to fight all night long.

After all, today was Friday.

*

At the center of the battlefield, on the Melting Mountain Dragon’s body, rocks were falling like rain.

The hunters no longer dared to throw their grappling hooks recklessly, instead climbing while using their weapons to block the falling rocks.

A few lucky ones found weak spots and started to dig furiously.

But while everyone was focused on attacking the BOSS, a group was “stirring up trouble” in the chaos–

Super Tomato led a small team onto the back of the Melting Mountain Dragon.

However, they didn’t climb up or search for weak spots, but instead focused on moving towards the thickest and toughest parts of the volcanic rock.

If the Melting Mountain Dragon were lying on the ground obediently, its back would be a real active volcano, with its mountain body being made up of volcanic rocks that were tightly attached to its flesh.

Now that it was standing, it has become a horizontal volcano on its back.

Super Tomato and five other players were on this horizontal volcano, looking for their target.

— Their original team consisted of 20 players, but half had already been killed after the Melting Mountain Dragon wreaked havoc.

Several hunters with long-range weapons were on the ground providing cover for them—even though everyone wasn’t sure why they needed cover, it felt like they were missing something without it.

Right now, these teammates providing cover were actually playing a role!

“Tomato Tomato, this is Potato, please respond.”

“Roger, Potato, please go ahead.”

“In front of you…um, should it be the front? Or should I say the left?”

In the team channel, the speaker was a bit confused, hesitating for two seconds before choosing to give up:

“Never mind, it’s in the direction you’re moving, a little farther down, over a broken plane, there is an indentation. Check if there’s a hole there.”

“Copy that.”

Super Tomato carefully checked, securing his grappling hook on a sturdy rock point, and quickly discovered the hole in the blind spot as he climbed down the broken plane.

While the earth was shaking, he ventured a short distance inside and immediately confirmed that he had found the right place—

On the walls of this “mountain cave” were faintly glowing, bizarre ores.

He quickly went back, called the five surviving teammates to hurry in.

Although the cave was originally parallel to the ground, now that the Melting Mountain Dragon was standing up, it had become an upward-sloping tunnel.

But that didn’t bother them, as they quickly advanced up the slope.

Although the cave was shaking, at least the interior rock structure was solid and there was no risk of being killed by falling rocks.

Soon, the narrow cave became spacious, and the original darkness gradually gave way to light.

— It was illuminated not only by the scattered fluorescent light on the cave walls but also by the red-hot lava beneath the volcanic rocks.

Super Tomato approached a fluorescent ore about the size of a human head, touched it with his hand, and after a brief pause, the system prompt appeared–

[Fluorescent Dragon Stone]

An ancient mineral containing the essence of fire, formed by the meeting of ancient bloodlines and earth vein fires.

[Fire Series·Seventh Tier Weapon Upgrade Material]

——

This was the task that Super Tomato had taken from the Hunting Ship Captain on the first day of Dinosaur Island’s opening—to collect [Fluorescent Dragon Stones] from the back of the Melting Mountain Dragon.

At the time, Super Tomato and his fans thought: This task is so awesome! It gives the final weapon directly!

But now that they had really discovered the ore, Super Tomato was very speechless:

“I’m already using a sixth-tier weapon, and getting this ore would allow me to upgrade to a seventh-tier weapon. So what’s the point of this task reward?!?”

“Isn’t this just getting something for nothing?”

The teammates were just as confused, except for one who was still using a fifth-tier weapon, feeling a bit happy— if everything went smoothly, he could skip straight to the seventh tier.

He even got a little excited, “Are we going to set the explosives?”

Super Tomato swung his giant sword several times against the cave wall to test its hardness, then decisively said, “Get the explosives!”

The walls inside were even harder, and the Melting Mountain Dragon didn’t stay still, shaking incessantly, so manual mining was unrealistic.

“Alright!” The brothers responded in unison, quickly taking explosives out of the weapon storage boxes.

Before setting off, they had all emptied their weapon storage boxes and filled them with explosives—even hanging grappling hooks around their waists just to make room.

Of course, explosives could be placed in weapon storage boxes, but there was limited space, and not an infinite stack of them could fit. One wine barrel-sized gunpowder barrel could fit in a single box.

If they took apart the gunpowder barrel and poured in the explosives directly, they could stuff in even more.

After testing, they found that the space inside the weapon storage box was not a simple cube or rectangular box as they had assumed, but rather a flexible space that could change shape.

It was indeed one cubic meter in size, but it could adjust its shape depending on the item placed inside, lengthening or compressing as needed.

– That’s why, without changing the overall volume, they could fit in a three-meter-long gun and a two-meter-long giant sword.

However, once they disassembled the gunpowder barrel, it might not be as convenient to use. So they didn’t do that. Instead, they stuffed gunpowder barrels inside and tried to cram in more loose explosives until they could fit no more.

Not all of these explosives were theirs—some were contributed by group friends who had also received explosives as rewards.

At this moment, these gunpowder barrels and loose explosives were taken out and piled up in the cave.

– These guys were indeed senior players; six of them, including Super Tomato, had max level weapon storage boxes with six slots, five of which were filled with explosives.

Even the little brother who was still using a Tier 5 weapon had a weapon storage box with five slots.

A total of 35 gunpowder barrels and a large amount of loose explosives piled up like a small hill in the cave.

The six of them hesitated for a moment, then someone asked, “Who’s lighting the fuse?”

“I’ll do it,” said Super Tomato as he volunteered.

“No!” His group friends quickly rejected the idea, “If you’re too slow and die in there, what will the audience watch? I’ll do it.”

“Me!”

“Me!”

A bunch of them rushed to volunteer, arguing like they were fighting over who would pay the bill at a restaurant. In the end, they decided by playing rock-paper-scissors.

After losing the game, Super Tomato had no choice but to leave the cave with the other four.

But they didn’t go far.

When the explosion was over, they would have to go back in to collect ores.

*

Following Super Tomato’s point of view as they left the cave, the audience was surprised to see:

They’d only been inside the cave for a few minutes, but outside, everything had changed.

Within a 500-meter radius, the entire area had turned into a lava hell!

Originally, although there was lava and thick smoke everywhere, there were still charred trees, cracked earth, and mutated monsters wandering about…

But now, all of that had vanished.

On the ground, rivers of lava flowed unchecked, the earth had disappeared, and the only places left to step on were either freshly cooled lava or molten lava. Solid ground was becoming harder and harder to find.

Surprisingly, the source of the lava came from both the Molten Mountain Dragon and the players.

After breaking through the rock layer, the players did manage to successfully injure the Molten Mountain Dragon—dragon blood flowed from its wounds, rolling down its body.

But—

The lava was its blood!

The Molten Mountain Dragon was indeed continuously losing blood, but this lava blood was causing huge problems for the players.

Players who were excitedly dealing damage would soon find themselves accidentally sprayed by lava, with many of them dying on the spot.

Even if they managed to dodge, they couldn’t continue dealing damage to a continually spraying lava wound, so they had to change positions and try to create more bleeding wounds.

Killing the Molten Mountain Dragon through excessive bleeding was the only reliable strategy they could think of.

However, the “bleeding” of the Molten Mountain Dragon was too massive, and for the players still on its back, it was like being caught between a rockslide and a “bloodslide.” Survival became increasingly difficult, and many players disappeared in a flash.

Super Tomato and his team, who were sheltered by a layer of volcanic rock above their heads, were relatively safe for the time being.

But looking at the numerous bleeding points on the Molten Mountain Dragon, as well as the players who were struggling to escape on the ground and on the dragon’s back, Super Tomato suddenly realized a serious problem—

How big of a “bleeding point” would the massive explosion of so many explosives create?

They could see the red-hot lava beneath their feet when they were placing the explosives, clearly indicating a weak spot.

How much lava would gush out of the cave when the explosion occurred?

“Wait! Don’t light the fuse yet!” He quickly called for a stop.

But… it was too late!

“Boom!”

A muffled explosion sounded from the cave behind them, and the scorching wind blew a person out of the narrow entrance—that was their teammate who had lit the fuse.

The person was still in mid-air when he disappeared in a flash.

Immediately after, a river of lava burst forth from the cave, enlarging the entrance!

Even more frightening was the intensifying tremors, as the volcano on the dragon’s back violently shook. The mountain cracked open, revealing deep fissures that glowed with intense red light.

“Roar—”

The Molten Mountain Dragon roared as it collapsed, positioning its active volcano precisely upward. The next moment, large clouds of dust and debris spewed from the volcanic opening!

The volcano had erupted.

This time, it was a real catastrophe!

Super Tomato’s team stared wide-eyed, dumbfounded: “What have we done?”