Since this was for the sake of clearing the dungeon Ye Ci wasn't petty about it. She wasn't holding any grudges about what had happened just now either.
She looked at Crimson Millions and thought for a moment before speaking. "Do you realize that the grass here is denser than other places in this dungeon?"
She had said this in hopes of Crimson Millions catching on because she couldn't really tell him directly that there was an NPC hiding among the dense grass around the Northwest corner that must be found in order to clear the dungeon. If she had said that, she was pretty sure Crimson Millions would then be wondering how she knew so much even though it was her first time entering the dungeon.
Crimson Millions only turned his head and checked out his surroundings after hearing Ye Ci's words. The grass here was indeed a lot denser here compared to the areas they had went through and had already grown taller than a person in most of the places here. If something was hidden among this dense grass, one would definitely miss it if they didn't search for it carefully.
"Everyone, search among the grass around the Automatons Formation and look for clues to clear the dungeon." Crimson Millions was also an experienced leader. Ye Ci had only briefly pointed it out and he had already caught onto it so he immediately issued his order to the party members who were still taking a break together.
As expected of a well-trained party, everyone stood up and started to search towards the denser areas around the Automatons Formation. Ye Ci purposely didn't go in the Northeast direction but she instead went in the opposite direction.
Since she was the one who suggested the problem, people would be suspicious if she was also the one who found the NPC.
Just as expected, a party member shouted towards Crimson Millions very soon. "Leader, there's an NPC here!"
Crimson Millions ran towards that party member as soon as he heard him. Ye Ci didn't follow him but instead walked to the front of Automaton Formation and sat down. The NPC would come here later anyway.
After talking to the NPC for what seemed like half a day, that little Gnome finally came towards Ye Ci while cursing.
"You damn big fellows. Can't you see that I was trying to hide? I'm on a mission b that my boss gave to me, but it's only to watch these traitors but not defeat them."
Ye Ci laughed. This Gnome NPC was still the same as ever. What could he possibly see crouching among such dense and tall grasses?
"I'm telling you all that I'm only helping you out this time because of the money. If you guys fail, don't come looking for me. I have my own principle." The little Gnome took out some tools from somewhere and then instructed the players to push out some cannon emplacements that looked no different than trash from the bushes.
As an old saying goes, "a little body often harbors a great soul". Although the Gnomes were small in stature, they were the best experts in machineries and their race specialized in engineering and alchemy.
In just a short moment, the little Gnome had repaired all three cannon emplacements.
"Just these. These are all I'll offer to help fix." The little Gnome jumped down from the last cannon emplacement that he repaired and returned to his place of hiding.
He was the key to clearing this dungeon because there were many monsters in the Automatons Formation. There was no way to clear them out in one go other than relying on these cannon emplacements. But even so, the shells of the cannon emplacement were limited. Only a total of six rounds were prepared for the three cannon emplacements.
This was also where the difficulty of the dungeon lied. If the six rounds of shells couldn't kill all 81 automatons, then many Dark Gnomes would immediately appear from the Stone Tower to repair these automatons. After ten seconds, these automatons would all be fully repaired and continue their assault at the players. By that time, the dungeon would pretty much be considered a failure.
In the process of this challenge, many parties were stuck here. They either couldn't kill all the automatons or tried to kill them all with brute force but got annihilated in the end instead.
After the three cannon emplacements were set up, Crimson Millions started assigning members to get on them. One of them was Traceless Aftermaths and the other was a rogue by the name of Grim Moon. Just when Crimson Millions was pondering about the candidate for the last cannon emplacement, Ye Ci took the initiative to volunteer, "Leader, can I have a go at it?"
People immediately started whispering at her self nomination. Ye Ci's performance was exceptional, and she had impressed others even more after entering the dungeon. But even so, this was the first time they had worked together as a team so compared to others, most people weren't too familiar with her so they'd naturally worry about leaving such an important task in her hands.
Needless to say, Crimson Millions had also thought about this. But in the end, he decided to take the risk. He was curious to see how capable this huntress, Gongzi You, was.
So he gave her a nod as he ignored the distrust of other party members and assigned the last cannon emplacement to Ye Ci.
"Everyone has two rounds of shells. Aim to kill as many of them as possible, don't waste any the shells. The more automatons you kill the less pressure for us at the back." Crimson Millions briefed the three of them and let them get on to the cannons. As soon as he saw the three of them had mounted the cannon, he spoke again. "At the count of three, fire..."
Before Crimson Millions could even finish his sentence, he heard the sharp noise of the feathers on the tip of an arrow rustling in the air as it flew towards the Automaton Formation.
-1742.
The automatons immediately dashed towards the attacker's direction. Crimson Millions was shocked at the sudden turn of events as he turned around to the initiator immediately and shouted angrily. "Gongzi You, what are you doing? Are you trying to get us all killed?"
Although Crimson Millions was extremely pissed off right now, he couldn't afford to waste his time cursing at Ye Ci. He hurriedly ordered the party to retreat.
For a moment, the whole party was in chaos. Like a headless chicken, they had lost their bearings. The whole party channel was filled with curses directed towards Ye Ci and complains towards Crimson Millions. It was so noisy that it was irritating.
Grim Moon had already jumped off from the cannon emplacement at the side and joined the fleeing team. Traceless Aftermaths jumped off from the cannon emplacement too and was about to escape with the others. But then he lifted his head and saw Ye Ci was still standing on the cannon emplacement with a calm face. An inexplicable calmness emerged in his heart.
But even so, he still called out to her frantically. "Gongzi, hurry up and go!"
Ye Ci still remained silent as she stood on the cannon emplacement. She readjusted her angle without caring about the rest. She didn't even bother about Crimson Millions' anger and the other party members who were already in chaos. When the automatons rushed to a specific spot, a 'bang' noise was heard as the explosive was launched out.
"Pass me a shell."
Before the shell was sent flying, Ye Ci's hand was already extended towards Traceless Aftermaths.
Traceless Aftermaths was a little baffled but his body actually reacted faster than his brain as the next moment as he quickly picked up another shell from the ground and passed it to Ye Ci with lightning speed. Ye Ci skillfully loaded it before launching it out.
The first shell landed exactly at the spot where most automatons were gathered. A crowd of red figures flashed by, followed by a dense smoke and fire sparks flying astray. A calm system announcement was made monotonously in the party channel: "Gongzi You has shot down 67 automatons and achieved a combo of 157."
Ye Ci then launched another shell. The system announcement rang out again. "Gongzi You has shot down 73 automations and achieved a combo of 189."
Traceless Aftermaths stood there, completely dumbfounded. What in the world... She's that fierce?
"Shell." Ye Ci shifted her gaze to Traceless Aftermaths who was standing there dumbly as she extended her hand to him again.
"Roger." Traceless Aftermaths quickly placed another shell in her hand without any doubt this time.
"Gongzi You has shot down 81 automatons and achieved a combo of 234."
After that, everyone unlocked the "Berserk Destroyer" achievement.
There was quite a few achievements unlockable in the Automatons Formation. The "Destroyer" was the lowest so any party that could defeat 81 automatons before all the six shells were used up would be able to unlock this achievement. However if 81 automatons could be defeated with three shells or less without suffering any damage, then the "Berserk Destroyer" achievement would be unlocked. If only two shells were used, then the "Violent Destroyer" achievement would be unlocked. If only one shell was used, then the "Bane of the Automatons" achievement would be unlocked.
Ye Ci was extremely dissatisfied with this result. She was someone who could slay 81 automatons with a single shell consecutively for 50 times in her previous life and was awarded the "The Terminator", thus leaving behind a glorious record in Fate.
Seemed like she had gotten so rusty that she needed three shells to get them all.
Despite Ye Ci's dissatisfaction, the rest were already speechless. The people who were able to join the second squadron were not ordinary players and they could basically be considered elites. After getting annihilated the last time, they already knew how difficult it was to kill all these automatons with cannon shells.
With such a massive amount of them, six shells might not even be enough yet this huntress before them was able to take care of everything with just three shells. Of course some refused to accept it and were planning to come try again once the dungeon had been reset tomorrow, but none of this mattered anymore.
Crimson Millions was rendered speechless at this too as he walked to the side of the cannon emplacement and saw Ye Ci who had just jumped off from it. He stared at her and finally spoke after a long while. "You've come to this dungeon before?"
Ye Ci chuckled as she gave away a half truth "I was a Sniper on Fire Shooter Online before."
But Crimson Millions still had a lot of doubts. Could she be a beta player? Or she was somehow related to the core team of Fate? Or could this be the side account of one of the GMs? The guesses and doubts could go on forever, but the reason that Ye Ci gave seemed to be the most plausible one.
"About the things I've said..." Crimson Millions felt a little embarrassed when he suddenly remembered about what he had said in his anger. He scratched his head and was thinking of apologizing to Ye Ci, but then again he felt a little reluctant to do it. After mumbling to himself for a bit, he told her firmly again, "You should have listened to the orders just now. We were able to clear with this stroke of luck, but if we were unlucky...."
Ye Ci laughed again and interrupted his lecture. "I'm sorry. It's been awhile since I last touched anything with a scope so I got excited."