Player Reload

Chapter 737 - 631: Gollum

"I have reason to suspect that Carlos is using prophecy ability to deceive teammate Chi Shi."

In the vast cave, Sunset Melting Gold, in a datafied state and floating in mid-air, held his forehead and silently complained.

The cave was man-made, with wooden suspension ladders and spaced lighting torches, but, how should I put it...

Compared to the grandeur of the initial game hall, the cartoon style of Family Guy, and the sci-fi detail of the agricultural base in the sequel to Stardew Valley,

the entire cave’s modeling was extremely rough, the rocks lacked texture, resembling feces-colored patches. The puddles on the ground had no reflective effect, and the orange-red torchlight cast only a white spot on them.

Especially the wooden ladder suspended in the air, blatantly clipping, with the planks, nails, and ropes piercing each other. Shoddy production that didn’t even pretend otherwise.

And naturally, the protagonist of this game matched the terrible environment.

"my precious..."

A thin and peculiar humanoid creature, naked except for a dirty pair of underwear, with pallid skin, hunched back, limbs on the ground, muttering incoherent words. In the palm of its right hand, it held a glittering gold ring.

Yes, this humanoid creature with "adorable" big eyes was none other than Gollum, an important character in the "The Lord of the Rings" series of novels by British author J.R.R. Tolkien, who was once an ordinary Hobbit, later transformed into a monster by the lure of the ring.

Considering the coarse modeling of the surrounding environment, more accurately, this place was from the action-adventure game "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum" developed by the German game developer Daedalic Entertainment and released in 2023.

"As the saying goes, ’E.T.’ makes you cry, ’Blood Lion’ makes you collapse, ’Monkey King Returns’ guts you.

The ninth art, alongside painting, music, and poetry, is a miracle unparalleled, a love letter from the game producers to Tolkien...

It truly is something I enjoy."

In a datafied state, Sunset Melting Gold vigorously rubbed his cheeks with his hands.

The developer of this game, DE, is just a small German studio with no prior experience in large-scale game development. They ambitiously aimed to make an action-adventure game for both PC and mainstream console platforms.

Yet the most baffling thing was, after obtaining an official license for "The Lord of the Rings," they didn’t focus on theoretically more popular canonical characters like Gandalf, Aragorn, or Elf Prince Legolas, but instead centered on the completely uncharismatic Gollum.

This is as meaningless as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms·Xing Daorong’s Legend," "Black Myth·Earth God," or "Dream of the Red Chamber·Granny Liu."

The final product did not disappoint expectations — the art, music, level design, and game guidance were all extremely poor, earning it the names data trash and cyber prison.

"Alongside ’The Lord of the Rings: Gollum,’ sitting at the same table, besides ’Star Cry Agent’ with its DEI awakening culture AAA masterpiece, are only the likes of ’Greyhill Incident,’ ’Red Mist Island,’ and ’The Day Before.’

Even in the context of Real Earth, the global monthly average online is no more than 10 people.

Presently, in the Script World in the later half of the 21st century, this ’The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ seems to have seen no optimization; would the Red Stone Immortal really play it?"

Sunset Melting Gold was deeply doubtful; he wasn’t a local Player, couldn’t open a Teleportation Gate, and had to wait to go to other worlds.

His eyes surveyed the coarse and poor coloring of the cave, his nose smelled a peculiar scent wafting from somewhere unknown, his ears listened to Gollum’s broken-record-like "my precious,"

and Sunset Melting Gold’s Sanity Value started dropping at a visible rate.

Step, step, step.

Disordered footsteps came from the other side of the cave, and the timid Gollum shivered, immediately hiding in a narrow crevice in the rock wall shrouded in shadow.

The footsteps were from a group of Orc soldiers. Compared to the green-skinned hulks in later art pieces, the Orcs in the "The Lord of the Rings" series resembled mutants,

with gray-yellow, gray-black skin, extremely long arms, and protruding fangs. The surface of their black Metal Armor was embedded with numerous bone ornaments.

Their backpacks contained long spears, swords and sabers, bows and arrows, and other Weapons.

Datafied Sunset Melting Gold was almost invisible, clinging to the dome surface of the cave, silently watching the Orc soldiers pass by until...

Thud!

The Orc captain at the front suddenly stomped the ground, twisted his waist, and fiercely threw four metal long spears towards the high point of the cave.

At the tail end of the spears, each connected to the four corners of a metal net with an iron ring. As the spears stabbed into the rock wall like cutting through tofu, the metal net opened to its fullest extent, perfectly enveloping Sunset Melting Gold.

Buzz —

The metal net released a green Evil Power, forcing Sunset Melting Gold out of the datafied state, restoring his physical form.

Sunset Melting Gold’s eyes flashed with a hint of shock, but luckily he practiced Cyber Martial Arts, and even without being datafied, he still had some self-defense ability.

He tightly gripped the gaps in the metal net with both hands, exhaled forcefully, using the narrow space created by his deflated chest, he swung himself towards the corner of the metal net,

grabbing the spear’s shaft with one hand, breaking it in half. While freeing himself from the restraint, he used the half spear to swat down the whistling hail of arrows mid-air.

The attack momentarily paused, but the residual Evil Power on Sunset Melting Gold continued to hinder his datafication. The Electronic Eye in his eye socket blinked rapidly, attempting to analyze data,

he squinted slightly, silently reaching into his pocket, opened the silk pouch by memory, "You... are GMs."

GM (Game Master), the game administrators hired by game companies, responsible for managing and maintaining online games,

their duties including anti-cheat measures, handling of illegal accounts, resolving game bugs, and server monitoring, usually possessing much higher permissions than ordinary Players.

Sunset Melting Gold had heard that in a certain web game in the real world, a game company, to retain the few big spenders, specifically dispatched a few GMs to remain invisible and follow the spenders.

Whenever a spender was about to be beaten to death by a mob, the GM would secretly help, instantly killing the creature and dropping Rare treasures on the ground.

At this moment, among the Orc soldiers below, there were some data clusters with obviously abnormal intensity.

"Have I been discovered..."

The two leading Orcs stopped pretending, and their bodies wriggled, transforming into the image of men in suits and sunglasses.

The suit-wearing man on the left loudly said, "User [Sunset Melting Gold], abnormal data flow detected. You are suspected of infringing upon Homeland Company’s legal rights, all operations have been recorded. Please immediately terminate unauthorized processes and accept handling..."

The one on the right took out handcuffs and shackles, along with a user agreement floating in mid-air.

"..." Sunset Melting Gold quietly watched them, then suddenly asked, "Didn’t you notice?"

"Notice what?"

"Besides you two, there’s also a foreigner among the Orc soldiers..."

As Sunset Melting Gold finished speaking, he suddenly severed his left arm.

Free from the remnant Evil Power’s influence, the left arm virtualized, turning into a giant green hand, which reached out from the other side of the rock wall and grabbed the Orc fiercely.

The two GMs were startled; as game company administrators, they could use official permissions.

Not only were their health bars and mana bars far longer than ordinary Players, but they could also temporarily call various item replicas. Things like Yama Blade, Deviation Sword, Eight-footed Jade Hook, counterfeit items that could be used at will.

The only disadvantage was that their neural reflexes were still at an average person’s speed, making them less competent than professional Players.