Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 48 – Cat Dad is Nerfed

Xiaomao looked at the clock and checked the remaining time for his borrowed weapon.

48 minutes remained until the weapon returned to the NPC. There was enough time to exploit the weapon and get as many spellbooks from the gnoll shamans.

The catopus approached the edge of the tower while he arranged the new skill icons into the quick slots. Xiaomao pressed the button and trigger one of the new skills.

One Man Thousand Arrows!

A red area appeared. Xiaomao looked around, and the red zone with semi-transparent walls followed his vision everywhere.

This was the preview of the targeted area. Xiaomao only needed to confirm the skill and fire an arrow or a bolt in that direction, and the skill would automatically activate.

Xiaomao adjusted his sight. He glared at the crowd of gnoll soldiers and gnoll shamans, who had been looking up and staring back at the cat.

The pupils of the catopus shone in the dark cave, and his ominous smile looked more evil than any monster in the dungeon. His red-zone vision fixated on the center of the bridge, covering 80% of the gnoll army.

CLICK

The target was designated. Now, Xiaomao needed a bit of skill to fire a bolt or an arrow into that area to trigger the skill within five seconds. Failure to do so would result in failure, and the skill would not activate.

In a relaxed manner, Xiaomao raised his crossbow and aimed at the center of the bridge. He pulled the trigger, letting the bolt loose.

DING

1,000 bolts in Xiaomao's inventory vanished. This was the cost of using the skill regardless if it would succeed or not.

But as soon as the bolt whizzed through the sky, it shone and multiplied into 1,000 bolts. They turned into a dark curtain in the sky and rained down upon the gnolls.

A bolt exploded and caused an incendiary explosion upon impact. But a thousand bolts created chain explosions.

Xiaomao ignored the flame. He kept the crossbow in his inventory and started eating fish and drinking HP potions. While he was at it, he sat back and watched the carnage and listened to the classic symphony of explosives.

Fortunately, the satiety bar didn't decrease 1,000 times and kill Xiaomao on the spot. The curse only counted the skill as one attack and only decreased his satiety bar by 2%.

Realizing that he was safe, Xiaomao let out a sigh of relief.

"Michael Bay would be proud, munya!"

CRACK

CRACK

Unfortunately, in this game, the series of explosions were equivalent to a siege engine's attack. The bridge cracked and its HP bar rapidly decreased because of the high attack power output of the legendary crossbow.

BOOM

The center of the bridge collapsed, leaving only the two towers on each side of the bridge. Gnoll soldiers and shamans fell to the abyss while many died from the explosions.

Xiaomao salivated and rushed back to the NPC. He opened his inventory menu and prepared for the flood of items and spellbooks.

DING

<Fatal Error! Please contact a game moderator!>

"Huh?"

Despite the rising in his EXP and level, no item entered his inventory after thousands of monsters had died. The error warning message also stunned Xiaomao.

'Where is my spellbook?!'

There was no EXP reward or any indication that Xiaomao had killed the monsters. Instead, error messages spammed his notification panel.

"WHY, MUNYA?!"

Xiaomao was on the verge of crying. The EXP gains from the thousand level 40ish gnolls could instantly increase Xiaomao's level to 40. Yet, Xiaomao got nothing!

As the catopus stared at his system screen in shock, a game moderator sent a global announcement to the world. A huge message appeared in the notification panel.

<The server will undergo emergency maintenance for one hour. Please log out within two minutes to avoid data loss.>

"…"

Xiaomao's eyes were bloodshot. He browsed the cash shop menu and purchased a speakerphone, which cost one PACT. The item could be used for sending a global message to everybody in-game.

But Xiaomao used it to send a global message.

"I WANT COMPENSATION, MUNYA! I JUST RENTED A PACT WEAPON IN A DUNGEON, MUNYA!!"

Xiaomao's gold message appeared in every player's notification panel. Even his name was revealed.

However, no one sent him a reply. Instead, the game moderator continued with his global message.

<Please avoid fighting monsters in the meantime. Killing a monster or completing a quest will not yield any reward.>

'Motherhumpers!'

Xiaomao cursed the game's administrators, developers, and moderators in his mind.

But before he could do anything, the server disconnected him from the game. Xiaomao's consciousness returned to his real body in the game capsule.

…

Meanwhile, at the office of the moderators, the staff sweated profusely as they listened to their manager's new order regarding Xiaomao's character.

"Are you sure, sir?"

The manager was an elderly man with white hair in a black suit. He stared at his men and groaned.

"Remember this. There will be several SPECIAL accounts in the future. Their game accounts will come with special perks, and we can't do anything about them. DO NOT OFFEND THESE PLAYERS NO MATTER WHAT THEY DID!"

"But his character is too..."

"No matter how broken the character is, leave him alone! If we touch their game characters, we will lose our job! From now on, we will take a roundabout method to nerf those characters without offending the board directors and the executives!"

"But why? Why are the executives playing the game?"

"You don't need to know. If you treasure your career, do what I said!"

"…"

"The developers are sorting the database. We will implement a new tool for game admins and mods so that you can tell which account is a super account. For now, don't touch that player!"

…

After giving his clinging cats more cat food and recharging his mental strength by petting Nyanko's fluffy belly, Xiaomao reentered the game.

As soon as he entered the game, he was greeted by a new interface and a patch note screen.

…

Patch Notes

Version 1.0.25

[Game Balancing]

- Rebalanced drop tables. Boss monsters and elite monsters no longer drop more than 3 spell books or skill books at once.

- Maximum drop rate is now capped at 100%.

- Bridges and structures in dungeons automatically respawn every day if the dungeon core is still intact. During events, the respawn is automatically disabled.

- Tweaked the A.I. of dungeon monsters. Dungeon monsters can now climb walls, ropes, trees, and elevated environments better.

- Tweaked the abilities of boss monsters in dungeons.

- Players cannot attack monsters from the safe zones.

- Increased attack range of shamans, mages, and spell casters.

[Compensation]

Players who lost EXP and items during the maintenance will be compensated manually by game moderators.

…

Reading the patch notes increased Xiaomao's blood pressure. Xiaomao felt like the patch was designed to weaken him. Now, he had the urge to storm the company and kill the game developers.

Xiaomao reappeared in the safe zone on top of the bridge's tower. However, the bridge was already respawned along with all gnolls below, including the Gnoll General.

At first, Xiaomao was delighted that the boss reappeared, but he recalled that the game had just nerfed him. He sulked.

He checked his item next. Unfortunately, the legendary crossbow already returned to the NPC.

"MOTHERHUMPERS, MUNYA!"

Xiaomao hissed. His fur and his tail stood up while his sclera turned black. His screaming voice echoed in the dungeon, yet no gnoll look up or bothered with him.

.

.

.

30 minutes later, Xiaomao finally regained his composure. Venting his anger, Xiaomao fired a bolt at the gnoll crowd below. Unfortunately, his bolt vanished when it was out of the safe zone's range.

The game indeed nerfed him.

'This game sucks. No, the dev sucks!'

Xiaomao steeled his heart and opened his game inventory, checking his in-game assets.

As he had expected, the dead gnoll shamans didn't give him any spellbook or item.

While Xiaomao inwardly cursed the game developers, he noticed a new item in his game inventory. An envelope flashed, attracting his eyes.

Xiaomao pressed on the item to see what it was.

…

Dear Player Xiaomao,

We would like to express our deepest apology to you for the inconvenience. We are aware of the issues of the lost items and opportunities, and we have come up with a solution to compensate you.

This envelope comes with 1,000 PACT, a selectable spell book ticket, and a spirit stone. You can use the selectable spell book ticket to exchange for any super rare spellbook in the game while a spirit stone can be directly consumed to increase your EXP and levels.

We understand that you have been playing the game honestly without using a third-party program, and we're encouraging you to continue doing so. However, some perks that come with the custom game capsule might damage our game's system and economy. Although we will not change your game character's skills and abilities, we have adjusted the game balance to make it enjoyable for everyone.

If you have any inquiries, please contact the HELP menu or game moderators.

Sincerely,

Wang Mang, Assistant Administrative Manager

…

Xiaomao was stunned for a moment as he reread the letter thrice. His killing intent subsided, replaced with a dark ominous crescent smile.

"ANY super rare spellbook in the game, munya? A.N.Y.? ANY-ANY?"

It was at this moment Xiaomao knew – The administrators and developers screwed up.

It would have been better had they given Xiaomao a thousand super rare spell books from the drop tables. By giving him a choice, they armed this regressor with a nuclear warhead to fight against an army of medieval footmen.