On the New Leaf Plain, there was an incredible scene happening. Many couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the glowing light particles that had once been a giant chicken.
As soon as the Berserk Chicken Overlord was defeated, a reversal happened on the battlefield. The bloody aura that had been enveloping the chickens began to dissipate slowly.
The creatures were now staring at the players with their little eyes bulging. It was as if they were seeing them for the first time. The bloodthirsty clucking became high-pitched as they showed fright.
Their little hearts really couldn’t take so many players drenched in blood glaring at them. Instantly, the army became leagues weaker. It wasn’t even comparable! The human defense line immediately began pushing the chickens back.
At the same time, a green light began permeating the atmosphere. The florist was about to launch his spell! Luckily, it didn’t cover the training camp since the boss had been defeated prior. Many were ecstatic: they had won and would witness magic!
They happily shouted in celebration, blissfully ignorant of how close they had been to defeat. They were even cheering the NPC on, rooting for him to complete his spell as fast as possible. A cold wind chilled the neck of the braves and announced the magic’s activation!
Suddenly, a peculiar sound was heard.
— Bam! Bam! Bam! —
At first, no one understood what it meant. It seemed to be coming from the earth as the entire plain began trembling. What was happening?!
— Bam! Bam! Bam! —
That’s when the whole plain began exploding all over. At regular intervals, the soil was violently sent flying. The dirt somehow created a dust cloud, screwing up all visibility!
— Bam! Bam! Bam! —
Any players outside the walls died as it kept going. No one could distinguish anything, but they heard terrified clucks. It was akin to a horror movie with all the deaths!
— Bam! Bam! Bam! —
Then it all stopped, as suddenly as it had started. A player cautiously advanced…and died as soon as he entered the dust cloud. What was happening in there?! They could only wait. As the air finally cleared, they couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
All over the plain, there were human size carnivorous plants! From time to time, chickens would respawn, only for most of them to get devoured instantly! Had they eaten the other players?
A few braves walked toward one slowly until they could see its nameplate.
< Magical Shapeshifting Weed Level 10 >
A weed? A weed that was level 10?! What was wrong with this thing?! A player valiantly tested the attack range of one of the creatures, only for the monster to bite him faster than he could retreat.
His torso disappeared into the bloody maw instantly. The rest of his body then turned to blue particles a few seconds later. People shivered as they realized how crazy strong, and fast this thing’s attacks were.
They could only watch the plain, not sure whether to laugh or cry. The florist had helped them, but at what cost? Their beginner area was now infested with OP carnivorous plants!! Hunting chickens without dying would be a nightmare!
Some players could already be seen begging the florist to remove the spell. He didn’t even bother replying as he walked away, heading back toward his house. His body language sent an unambiguous message: his job there was done!
Apart from the crowd, Jack was looking at the plain with slight surprise. Bubblegum approached and inquired in a whisper. “Teacher, do you know what those things are?”
“They’re Carnivoras, well imitations. If I’m not mistaken, the spell he used is a party trick that generates random weak plants as decoration.”
“Those Carnivoras don’t appear to be decorative….”
“Well, they’re decorative by this world’s common sense. We’re simply far too weak right now. Ah, but don’t misunderstand, Carnivoras can be hella strong depending on their level.”
“I see. What about the boss we just killed? Why are there no rewards?”
“Give it a second. In global quest events, the loot is distributed based on contribution. Well, there can still be some that drop on top of that. It’s just that chickens are really bad loot-wise.”
The two patiently waited for their just reward. But for some reason, it seemed to be taking a little too much time…Jack racked his brain, but he too was perplexed. Meanwhile, many players turned toward the training instructor for answers.
There was something strange going on with the NPC. He had adopted a fighting stance, hammer out, as he was staring intently at the empty sky above the plain. The calm instructor was gone. He looked uneasy and was shivering.
The players felt at a loss. Why wasn’t he setting up the camp? Why wasn’t he congratulating them? Also, what was he looking at?
As Jack followed the NPC’s gaze, he too began shivering. But, he was shivering in jubilation: whatever was coming would change everything for the New Leaf Village. It would be even more significant than the man-eater plant invasion.
“What’s happening?” Bubblegum was consumed with curiosity after seeing his reaction.
“Do you think humans have souls?” Jack asked, seemingly randomly, not even bothering to look her way.
“I’m not sure, but I sure hope so. Why?” She asked.
“Then, do you think animals also have souls? What about monsters?” Jack asked.
“Wait, are you talking about the souls of the dead chickens?!” She realized, startled.
Jack pointed toward a white cloud that was lazily floating in the sky. As she observed it with more attention, Seraphine lost her wits. In the sky were hundreds upon hundreds of immaterial chicken-shaped translucent apparitions.
They were all merging, slowly becoming more apparent. All until it created a huge chicken-shaped cloud. Then it was as if a spark had been lit inside as it quickly became filled with red crackling energy.
What kind of natural disaster was this?! The players hurriedly rushed towards Igor’s side. They could only hope for the NPC to deal with it.
“Should we get to cover?”
“No, just watch. These things happen once in a blue moon.”
This didn’t make any sense, not right now! This event wasn’t supposed to happen until the New Leaf area was almost 100% cleared. How was it happening so soon?! A single fight had generated enough grudge?!
With every passing second, the energy inside only increased in magnitude. It seemed to pulsate akin to a heart. All until it finally became so filled that it blew up!
A gigantic lightning strike bolted toward the plain below!
— Zzzzzzzzzz-PANG !!! —
The players’ vision turned red, and their eardrums vibrated from the shockwave. At this rate, would they even survive this day?! As the commotion subsided, the players were stunned.
In the middle of the plain, there was now a sizeable chicken-shaped crater. But it became even weirder. In the middle of it, there was a chicken-shaped hardened dirt statue. In its beak, there was an entrance.
The players couldn’t believe their eyes as many shouted:
“What the heck is all this?!”
“The plain had a lightning tribulation?”
“No, look there. Look at the crater!”
“What’s up with the statue?”
“Guys…isn’t this a freaking dungeon?!”
“I’m ready to bet it’s one! This is huge!”
“Does this mean it’s finally over?!”
“We fucking survived! Hahahaha!”
As calm slowly returned to the New Leaf Plain, the players’ hearts were still beating so fast. They had been lulled into thinking the game would be a slow chicken grind. Then all this crazy stuff had happened! This MMO was so insane!
But it wasn’t over just yet. Well, the event was, and it was now time for the rewards. Messages appeared in front of their eyes, accompanied by heavenly notification chimes…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[New Leaf Village has survived the chicken onslaught! Congratulation!]
[+50 Reputation In the Greenwood County]
[+200 Reputation in the New Leaf Village]
[Acquired Title: Anti-Chicken Militia +1 DMG vs. Chickens]
[Acquired Cluck-Cluck Reward Box! Reward Based on Contribution!]
[+ Experience Based on Contribution!]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Witnessed Natural Soul Phenomena (Lightning)]
[Acquired Title: Many Souls! Much Lightning! I]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Witnessed Large Scale Floral Party Trick]
[Acquired Title: Pretty But Useless.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Congratulation on establishing the New Leaf Training Camp!]
[Unlocked Status Screen (Basic)]
[Unlocked full Inventory (Basic)]
[Unlocked Local Social Settings]
[Unlocked Training Courses]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Players felt utterly overwhelmed.
Still, it didn’t prevent them from smiling so exaggeratedly that they would likely suffer facial cramps! They had fought so hard, and now they had unlocked so many new things!
Reputation was bound to help their relationships with the NPCs, thus giving access to better quests, rewards, and possibly shop discounts.
The titles were numerous. While the latter two didn’t seem to have any effect, they were still nice to have from a collector standpoint. But, it was another story for Anti-Chicken Militia: +1 damage was huge! It meant a 100% increase!
Then there was the item box with its reward based on contribution. It was easy to carry around, and the players could open it whenever they decided. This way, they could figure out how to use the inventory first.
Last but not least, was all the new functions associated with the Training Camp.
-Status screen would allow them to level up and see their stats.
-Inventory would prove helpful to store their new loot.
-The social setting meant they would be able to add friends.
-The training courses meant getting a class, right?!
Little did they know that all these new “unlocked” functions had been there from the start. This simply allowed them to access a simpler version of what Jack had been using since the beginning.
The players now had so much to learn, and they were so eager! But, Jack wouldn’t be the one teaching them, for he was on the side preparing to open his loot box…
Creator’s Thought
In Infinite, magic can be generated from pretty much anything (with restrictions of course). Souls are an especially potent source of power. Enough chickens dying generated enough energy to link this place to a Dimensional Dungeon. I always loved DDs.