Dragon, choose cultural victory to make money

"Hey, Jones!"

In the factory where machines were roaring, the foreman pointed at Jones' nose and cursed him arrogantly.

"Didn't you see the new notice? Are you blind?"

Jones was a little nervous.

"Bill..."

"What did you call me?" The foreman frowned.

"Foreman Bill, I, I read the notice." Jones answered weakly.

"Did you see it? Why are you still wearing brown gloves? Didn't you see the notice saying to wear white gloves?"

Jones didn't understand why it was important to wear white or brown gloves, as it didn't affect his work.

The foreman was still chattering, "This is terrible. He didn't even read the notice from his superiors. How can he do a good job in production? He has no respect for his superiors at all..."

Jones lowered his head and listened, letting the words go in one ear and out the other.

Bill is always like this. He is just a foreman, but I don’t know where he gets so much authority.

But this small foreman happened to be Jones's immediate superior, and he had no choice.

He could only imagine resistance in his mind, imagining himself becoming brave and beating up the foreman with a few punches so that the damn Bill would never dare to bully him again.

It would be nice if it was the same as in the game.

After venting his feelings in his imagination, Jones began a full day of work.

Working in a factory is always boring. Workers are no different from parts in machines, doing the same work repetitively.

The difference is that parts don't get annoyed, but people do.

Jones had become adept at using his imagination to relieve boredom during work hours.

At first, he could only think about what he had done in his life, and later he would wonder what his life would be like if he were a noble.

And now, he imagines himself in the game.

Jones may be one of the few people who benefited from the Goddess's appearance in the world.

The mandatory daily prayers reduced the time spent at work.

The high-end virtual head mask distributed by the church was something he could hardly afford by working on his own.

What excites him most are the games in the prayer space.

That gave him hope in life.

In reality, he is an ordinary, poor and ignored worker.

But in The Lord of the Rings, he is an excellent warrior, leading a small band of his own adventurers.

Although there is no player-versus-player gameplay yet, or other platforms to compare player skills, Jones simply estimates that he is a good fighter.

But he thought his estimate was accurate.

Because in my experience of teaming up in the game these days, I have not seen any player whose output exceeds his.

All he needs is a higher platform and more space for display, and people will see his talent.

Maybe he can become a professional player in the future.

The best job nowadays is probably to be a professional player. After joining the Lord of the Rings, I can do both prayer and work at the same time.

I heard that many well-known contestants were once ordinary people like him, including students, workers, small vendors, barbers, and all kinds of other jobs.

If they can do it, then so can I.

In this way, Jones fantasized about becoming a top professional player, achieving success and fame, and survived the boring working hours.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of get off work, he rushed out of the factory, not wanting to waste a second.

No one can delay him from entering the game.

He returned to the small rented room and stuffed a piece of dry black bread into his mouth.

Not many people eat this anymore.

Jones chose brown bread because it was super cheap, he could buy a lot of it for a small amount of money, and it was durable and could be kept for several weeks, so he didn't have to go out to buy food all the time.

The only problem is that if brown bread is left for too long, it will become too hard to swallow. The normal way to eat it is to re-toast it and then spread butter on it.

But re-baking was too slow, and Jones had his own solution.

After chewing hard for several times, he roughly broke up the "cardboard", then filled it with a glass of cold water, drank it in one gulp, tilted his neck back and swallowed the bread like taking medicine.

I choked a little, pounded my chest, and then started the game immediately.

As long as the game continues, everything will be fine.

Jones entered the game and on the character interface, a tall, strong and spirited warrior was standing there. That was Jones in the game, and also his ideal self.

Time is limited, so he will plan what he will do in the game every day.

Today's mission is to kill the bounty bear goblin, explore the gnoll camp, and buy a good sword...

Just as Jones was sorting out his to-do list for today, an announcement popped up, completely disrupting his plans.

He didn't read a single word on the notice board in the factory, but he definitely read every word of the notices in the game!

"A battle to defeat the world's powerful enemies. The followers of the devil Sauron have returned to Middle-earth. They intend to summon the former devil..."

Jones' eyes gradually became fanatical as he carefully read the event announcement.

According to the announcement, all players will participate in this event to fight together against the powerful followers of the Demon Lord Sauron, and participants can receive generous rewards.

But compared to the reward, Jones cares more about the battle itself.

This activity actually has an output ranking for all players.

The showcase stage he had always dreamed of, to be at the top of the output rankings, to be famous among all players, to be appreciated, and then to become a professional player.

An opportunity to realize your dreams!
Jones couldn't wait to enter the game. Now the original plan was no longer important. Everything today was for the purpose of conquering the world's powerful enemies.

He immediately called together his regular teammates.

Although they are called fixed teammates, anyone who fails to meet the output requirements will be kicked out of the team immediately.

He had kicked a crappy wizard's ass some time ago while exploring a goblin cave.

The mage even claimed that the lack of output was due to his inability to adapt to the spell-casting method.

Funny excuse.

After that the druid in the team was also kicked out.

Not much better than that crappy wizard.

The two vacant positions were replaced by a monk and a warlock, who were much stronger than the previous two, but still did not fully meet Jones' requirements.

More importantly, their attitude is wrong.

Especially the sorcerer.

Not only did he have the lowest output in the team, he actually treated this game as a game. He had no proficiency in the techniques, and did not seriously study the attributes and equipment matching.

If there wasn't a new event coming up and a team wasn't needed, I would have kicked this unreliable sorcerer out for sure.

The other two had already arrived, but the sorcerer was late.

Must kick him out.

Jones had made up his mind.

The sorcerer showed up a full five minutes late.

"Hey! Didn't you read the version announcement?" Jones asked unhappily.

"Announcement, what announcement? I didn't notice. Is it important? What does it say, Jones?" The sorcerer answered indifferently.

"I'm the captain."

"Pfft," the warlock laughed. "Okay, then can you tell me what the notice says, Captain Jones?"

The deliberate pronunciation is full of sarcasm.

Jones just felt his blood pressure soar.

"What kind of attitude is this? It's terrible. Do you have any respect for the captain? How can we complete the mission like this..."

The sorcerer would not tolerate Jones' pressure.

"What's my attitude? If I can't do it well, I won't do it. Goodbye. No, I won't see you."

As he said this, he was about to leave the team.

Now it was Jones' turn to be afraid.

His strength in the game is just an act, and is actually pretty much the same as in real life.

If the sorcerer leaves now, they will go to fight the world's powerful enemies, and they can only form a temporary teammate at random, and their strength is not guaranteed at all.

"No, sorry, the announcement is about a new event, a campaign to defeat powerful enemies around the world. We should perform well in this event..." Jones introduced the content of the new event.

It’s just that the other teammates didn’t have a strong desire to achieve a high ranking in this event.

Try it. It’s good if you can get to the front, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t.

"We will definitely be able to achieve a high ranking." Jones said with a very serious look.

This is the only thing left in his life.

"It's not that easy. There are so many experts."

"Then why can't we be masters too."

The sorcerer did not intend to argue any further about Jones's failure to recognize his own strength.

It's hard to explain.

He planned to take advantage of the reward this time and then leave the team.

For him, playing games is not like working. Being forced to play every day is uncomfortable enough, and he has to endure such great pressure in the game. How can he be so depressed?

Jones gave a brief introduction and also carried out a pre-war mobilization.

Of course, limited by the culture's level of prenatal education, pre-war mobilization was not very inspiring.

Coincidentally, the game has started the countdown at this time, and players can enter the map in advance to prepare.

Jones's team immediately entered the scene.

As soon as you enter the field, you will see a large number of players, all fully armed and waiting for a strong enemy to appear.

"Praise the goddess."

Jones said to himself that he truly believed in the Goddess, and that he did so only after the mandatory prayers began.

For him, a life of forced prayer is better than his previous life. He even spends more than eight hours online every day.

At this moment, Jones suddenly noticed a familiar face appearing nearby.

It was the crappy wizard who was kicked out before, Sterling.

She has a new team.

A team whose equipment looks luxurious.

Why? Why would such a team accept such a mage?

Definitely some despicable means were used.

Jones thought maliciously.

At this moment, a horn sounded, and then, on the distant horizon of the map, a dark army of demons appeared and rushed towards the player.

Jones raised his sword confidently and charged towards the demon...

ten minutes later.

Jones's face was filled with disbelief.

These demon soldiers were much stronger than the most powerful monsters he had ever faced.

Not to mention one-to-many, even one-to-one is difficult.

After ten minutes of fighting, only two demons were killed.

To make matters worse, the medicine he brought with him had been used up, and there was no end in sight for the demon army.

If the difficulty of the battle is barely acceptable, what is unacceptable is the output ranking.

In terms of team output, their team ranks among the thousands.

In terms of personal output, he ranks outside the top ten thousand.

Although as a game with such a large number of players, a ranking of tens of thousands is already considered a high level.

But this was not what Jones expected.

He expected that he should at least be in the top 100, otherwise how could he be noticed and become a professional player.

The current ranking is more than a hundred times away from the psychological goal.

He was unwilling to accept that he was a mediocre player in a game in which he had invested so much experience.

The belief that had supported him through his hard life for a period of time suddenly collapsed.

He must have a new goal to make himself forget the cruel reality temporarily.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed that there was a team in front of him that was very close to his team in output ranking. It was an unfamiliar team, but among its members, he found Sterling.

The mage he kicked out.

how is this possible.

Could it be that the person he kicked out is now ranked higher than him?
Jones has rekindled his fighting spirit and if he wants to surpass this team, he can't be worse than the one who was kicked out.

He raised his sword again and rushed towards the nearest demon.

However, fighting spirit could not change his technical level. Instead, because of his impulsiveness, he failed to notice attacks from other directions.

Not only did Jones fail to surpass Sterling's team, he was killed by a sneak attack and turned into a soul perspective, completely losing the possibility of dealing higher damage.

Looking at the black and white perspective, Jones' strength was suddenly drained.

There is absolutely no hope.

My miserable life hit rock bottom at this moment.

However, at this moment, what is even more desperate is that after changing to the death perspective, one can see the battlefield situation more comprehensively.

The player army is at a disadvantage, and the devil has begun to summon the devil Sauron.

If even the followers of the devil are so difficult to defeat, how is Sauron going to defeat them?

Doesn't that mean I won't even get the reward?
This trip not only made me realize my actual level, but also I didn’t earn anything.

Just as he imagined, Soran was successfully summoned and killed hundreds of players with one sword. The battle situation began to develop towards collapse.

Just when they were about to be completely defeated, all players, including those who had died, received a prompt.

"Pray to the great goddess of magic with your most devout faith, and she will respond to your request..."

What do you mean?
But with nothing else to do, Jones began to pray.

Then he saw a scene that he would never forget.

Countless beliefs became visible points of light, rising from each player, and then converging to...

Converging on Sterling?

……

Goddess Lindsay has been paying attention to everything, especially the team that kicked her out before.

Always keep the ranking firmly above that team.

At the same time, pay attention to changes in the battle situation.

According to the arranged script, she has to save the situation perfectly when the player is completely defeated.

What a beautiful day.

There was a sense of satisfaction in seeing Jones's despair and seeing the faith coming towards her.

But this is just dessert, the main course is the moment when she becomes a god and lives forever.

She could feel that the vast amount of faith was undergoing a qualitative change, gradually breaking through the constraints of consciousness space and condensing into a truly immortal entity.

The ideal that has been pursued for thousands of years will be realized today.

Lindsay opened his arms, ready to embrace faith, to be the anchor of all faiths, to be the controller of the immortal entity.

Suddenly, something strange happened.

She clearly noticed that a strand of the vast amount of faith began to crumble.

why?
Although it was just a trace and insignificant compared to the total amount, this change still gave her a strong sense of insecurity.

What went wrong?

Before Lindsay could figure out what was happening, the crumbling faith began to spread, like the first tiny breach of a flood through a dam.

The faith was disintegrating and dissipating at an increasingly rapid rate, and the entity that was already taking shape turned into an illusion.

"Why!"

Lindsay screamed at the top of her lungs. She disassembled the game, only to find that what was happening had nothing to do with the game.

She didn't even know who to direct her anger at.

In an instant, everything she expected, everything that was within her reach, was gone from her. (End of this chapter)