Chapter 280: Black Tower for Minions, White Tower for Heroes
Cheng Tian's growth rate was indeed fast. Two main story instances and two or three bounty instances completed a path that took many others six or seven, or even more than a dozen, main story instances.
However, relatively speaking, Cheng Tian had not experienced as many Chosen instances as other players, and as a result, the number of NPCs with whom he had established friendly relations was also relatively small.
As players, together with the Templar Knights and mages, successfully blocked the first wave of attack, the players' side began to snowball. Various projected units from other instance worldviews also refreshed from the White Tower one after another.
Due to his dual identity, Cheng Tian, who was also tasked with conquering the Black Tower, had been stationed outside the first floor of the White Tower, monitoring the refreshing player projections from the moment the tower-rushing battle officially began until he no longer saw duplicate units for a short period, at which point he let out a long sigh of relief, looking utterly refreshed.
As expected, after acquiring a sufficient amount of soul fragments, his acquaintance Congming Tou summoned projections of the veterans, psychics, and zealots who had fought alongside him in previous instances.
The veteran with the laser gun focused on smoke grenades and firing stances; the psychic with the electric staff focused on brain burst and semi-circular shields; the zealot with the chainsaw focused on incendiary grenades and divine prayer.
As hero-like units, only one of each of these three types could be summoned at a time.
But to Cheng Tian's surprise, Congming Tou actually summoned the projections of the characters from Vermintide 2.
Mercenary Markus, Waystalker Bardin, Sister of the Thorn Kerillian, Warrior Priest of Sigmar Victor, and Battle Wizard Sienna.
The ability to summon projections of all these characters was sufficient proof that Congming Tou had at least a friendly or higher reputation with them.
It was unclear whether Congming Tou himself was naturally good at socializing, or if an Ogre with a normal human brain found it easier to gain the favor of other races.
As for other players, they were also snowballing by summoning hero projections. Through the projections they summoned, Cheng Tian could indirectly deduce the instances they had experienced, as well as their faction leanings and interpersonal relationships within those instances.
Cheng Tian's notebook had already summarized and recorded the projected units summoned so far.
Fang the Werewolf from Contra: Hard Corps, Ralf and Clark from Ikari Warriors III (the same characters as the Ikari Team from King of Fighters), Mayor Haggar from Final Fight, Yuan Shao and his three sons from Romance of the Three Kingdoms II, the Lode Runner from Lode Runner, Bomberman from Bomberman, the Nidoran family from Pokémon LeafGreen, the Velocidrome family from Monster Hunter, and so on.
From protagonists to minions and even wild animals, Cheng Tian was thoroughly satisfied.
Not all of these summoned units were proficient in combat; some also possessed special functions like digging holes or crowd control.
However, very quickly, players also began to prioritize summoning projections based on battlefield needs, and some units not suitable for this head-on battle were abandoned.
But the overall battlefield configuration generally remained a small number of high-HP, high-defense tanks paired with spellcasters, aiming to deal high burst damage in the shortest time, harvest more monster units, and earn soul fragments and treasure chest drops.
Seeing that the units emerging from the flickering summoning circle were all duplicates, Cheng Tian rolled up his sleeves and joined the summoning ranks.
His dual identity also granted Cheng Tian the authority to summon projections by consuming soul fragments. Although the number of units Cheng Tian could summon was fewer compared to others, their quality was absolutely not inferior.
As soul fragments were injected, the summoning circle glowed, and old friends of various sizes and forms appeared one after another—
The smallest was Nincada. As a derivative yokai unit of the Hundred Demons' Night Parade, it was essentially an NPC, and its reputation had long surpassed the friendly category, so it also conformed to the projection summoning rules.
Following Nincada was the Crimson Deviljho, currently the largest creature on the entire battlefield, including both friend and foe. The moment it ducked its head out of the tower, it began to roar loudly.
At the same time, a hunter player at the front of the battlefield, who primarily frequented Monster Hunter-related instances and had also summoned the Velocidrome family, shuddered upon hearing this roar. He looked back in disbelief, his eyes filled with the fear of seeing a ghost... but a few seconds later, he reacted, his shock even greater.
As a creature that could intrude into any Monster Hunter hunting quest, the notorious reputation of the Crimson Deviljho had spread throughout the hunter community.
There were players who could kill the Crimson Deviljho, but killing it was useless; it had become a part of the Monster Hunter species system. As long as someone was on a quest in the New World, there was a chance for this fire-colored, gluttonous beast to refresh and intrude.
But since this massive creature appeared on their side, it meant that someone had established a friendly or higher personal reputation with this gluttonous beast, and this was the reason for his immense shock.
With Nincada and the Crimson Deviljho, that other guy certainly couldn't be missing.
A flesh-and-blood war machine, vastly different from the White Tower's atmosphere, emerged from the magic circle—the Zombie War Wagon!
And standing on top of the Zombie War Wagon's chassis were the three Knights from the Knights of the Round Table instance: Arthur, Lancelot, and Percival!
Because they were projections converted via Black Pearls, the projections themselves already contained elements structured like Cleria Ore, i.e., the magic of the Black Pearls, so the war wagon could still move and fire.
As projected units, the three Knights' memories were still stuck at the eve of the Knight Festival preparations, but they were duty-bound to help Cheng Tian fight monsters.
Besides these combat units, support units like the Aikawa sisters and the Elder Purple Wyvern were also within the summoning scope.
The former could randomly provide battlefield supplies, including but not limited to food and firearms.
The latter would periodically and randomly drop dragon eggs, which might yield fruit or directly hatch original five-colored dinosaurs.
Cheng Tian was only responsible for summoning; he himself never entered the battlefield.
Because he was using the Black Pearl's authority to prepare something big.
In fact, with the successful snowballing of the player group, the battlefield had shifted from a dense mass on the Black Tower's side to being pushed back to the midline. The monster groups from the Crying Domain, Water Prison Domain, and Blazing Fire Domain on the Black Tower's side were being slaughtered badly by the players due to the lack of a boss.
With a large monster base and a large number of players, the drop rate of Cleria Ore naturally increased significantly.
The main purpose for these players entering the instance was this ore. Once they got the ore, they usually immediately chose to hand it in for enhancement.
However, the demand for Cleria Ore varied depending on the type of equipment being enhanced, and with Cheng Tian's involvement, a portion of the ore always remained after each player enhancement, and this portion, as expected, fell into Cheng Tian's hands.
Of course, Cheng Tian did not pocket these ores to enhance his own equipment, but was instead crafting something.
Besides the Aikawa sisters and the Elder Purple Wyvern, there was one other support personnel who had established a friendly reputation with Cheng Tian—
That was the big boss of the Gates Corporation, Bill Gates!
And in his briefcase, summoned in projection form, were some unspeakable special vehicle blueprints...
The Black Tower for minions, the White Tower for heroes.