MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

In the Wolf Den, a man was maniacally laughing as he stared at empty air.

But at this moment, Jack didn't care one bit for how he looked. This was because of the announcements the system had just sent his way.

[Inspired courage into NPCs, making them confront their fears!]

[Men under you trust you enough to go against their beliefs!]

[Incredible Feat Accomplished!]

[Acquired Leadership Stat!]

This was enough to fill his heart with joy. He was happier than a man sniffin' snow at Christmas. He felt so damn energetic, as if he could take on the world!

What did the Leadership stat even do? Nothing! It was more of a badge of prestige than anything else. It was akin to a graduation certificate: intrinsically useless yet opening a few doors.

It boosted one's followers, but only so very slightly that it was unnoticeable at his level. However, it allowed leading an army. Without that stat, such a feat was impossible.

Jack happily turned toward the villagers behind him only to freeze. What the heck was wrong with them? He had expected to have to explain why he had been shouting at the air. He knew very well how weird his actions must have seemed.

But all he could see in their eyes was boundless adoration and even reverence. Did they misunderstand something? Nice!

"Go forth! Let's teach these wolves a lesson!" Jack didn't even bother explaining.

What happened next was an affront to game balance. It was possible to bring NPCs in the previous area, just very very hard. In this one, it was considered 100% impossible….or had been.

This meant that the difficulty was adjusted for a party of 5 normal players. Now there were 30 villagers…and Jack. Thanks to his equipment, he alone was worth a few players, just considering the raw stats. Now, if one factored the skills...

They encountered a few wolf groups of 4-7 individuals as they progressed. Compared to the ten they had just defeated, this was a fucking joke!

Every fight went a bit like this:

Random wolves: "Oh, the humans approaching us? What fools! They will soon be nothing but food in our bellies."

Jack'O's army: "We can't beat the shit out of you without coming closer."

Then there would be a clash of hungry overconfident wolves against a few way-too-fucking-enthusiastic villagers. Naturally, the wolves would soon try to run away, yelping in pain, their tails between their legs.

But would the NPCs allow such a thing? Hell no! This fervor came from two things:

1. The pent-up anger from being considered the weaker party for so long.

2. The promise of food. To the ones that worked well, Jack gave sausages. He was taking the food out of thin air like some godlike magician.

After every fight, they would munch happily:

"This is so good! What kind of meat is this?!"

"With every bite, my body becomes filled with incredible power!"

"This has to be food that the gods themselves provided to their champion!"

They sure were clamoring happily. As for being divine and whatnot— they had to be high on something! Either way, it was funny how they saw this as an incredible reward.

In fact, he was feeding them to give them the well-fed buff. This way, their HP regenerated between fights. This allowed them to keep hunting with zero downtime.

A few times, they even encountered their target, the Shape-shifting Wolf. But it would always manage to flee faster than the wind every damn time.

A typical party would have kept painstakingly hunting the Mini-Boss while avoiding the wandering wolves. Not them, far from it. Hell, this method was way too slow for Jack. They just bulldozed through all the enemy groups!

— Howl! —

— Howl! —

— Howl! —

— Howl! —

"There are more sausages this way!"

"Eh, you meant wolves, right? Sausages can't howl…."

"Who cares? We'll get sausages after killing them! It's all the same!"

Their earlier noble motivations were nowhere to be seen. In a short time-lapse, Jack had managed to turn the self-sacrificing heroic villagers into foodies. They were now nothing but slaves to their stomachs.

Moon Moon was nodding on the side. Finally, the silly humans had seen the truth of the world. Who cared about traditions, rules, and whatnot. All that matted was meat! Or as its master would say: #All Meat Matters!

Then as they headed deeper, they began to encounter small clusters of bushes. Each contained small purple berries that the wolves were diligently protecting. Only an idiot would attempt to steal their food!— or mad villagers led by a Demon King.

They would come out of nowhere, akin to a human tornado, and would promptly defeat the wolves. Then they would plunder all the berries! The cycle of slaughter and pillaging kept going.

For regular players, there would have been two possible reactions to the Wolf Berry bushes:

1. Carefully scout until they found one guarded by fewer wolves. Then they would be able to steal its content.

2. Run away as fast as possible, panicked and in tears. Why? Because it was a goddamn bush! #Bush PTSD Is Real!

That's how, soon enough, Jack's army had cleared all the nearby area of both wolves and berries. The ecosystem being trampled so savagely made for such a sorrowful sight— not that they gave a fuck.

They ended up having plenty of wine and enough berries to fill a few small bags. Jack couldn't help but sigh in satisfaction seeing the fruits of their efforts. (Literally)

Then under the awe-struck gazes of his troops, Jack worked his magic. He adopted the pose of the legendary PPAP guy.

I have a Wolf Berry, I have a Wine

Uh! Wolf Berry Wine!

Jack simply mashed a few berries into a purple mush before inserting it inside the wine bottle. It was such an easy task, and yet the NPCs began clapping while some murmured.

"What just happened?"

"I'm not sure, but it had to be a magical process!"

"Yes, did you guys see the little dance he did? This has to be some secret technique!"

Jack smiled in satisfaction seeing their reaction. Should he call himself the WWB guy from now on? Looking at all the wildlife destruction…probably not. Then again, who cared.

Now that they had the Wolf Berry Wine, it was now time to set up the perfect trap!

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[A/N] Hype! PRIV Mass Release Time! ?

Day 2: Spooky Scary Skeleton Tier (2/4) ☠?

Creator's Thought

I love how that solo dungeon run suddenly turned into a 31 men + wolf run. It felt like taking the difficulty slider and bringing it from Hellish to Beginner. Outwitting the game itself and completely breaking its balance feels so fucking great! It's even addictive!