Online Game: Low Drop Rate? I Have a Guaranteed Drop System!-Chapter 202: The Disappeared Nation, Memories Erased

Wood, stone, and ore could be exchanged for attribute points. For newbie players, that was a huge temptation.

But what did the Mechanical Race want with all these resources?

Could it be that those mechanical beings were actually manufactured?

Johnnie frowned, feeling like that was the only explanation that made sense.

The newbie warrior saw Johnnie fall silent and spoke up, "Hey man, if there’s nothing else, I’ll get back to it. You can collect those resources too—The Mechanical Race is pretty generous."

"Alright, thanks." Johnnie nodded, but he was honestly not interested in any of it.

He had a thought and pulled out the Induction Compass.

He’d stolen this from the Doe Family. Not only could it sense the whereabouts of the Map of Heaven and Earth fragments, it could also detect other unknown ancient artifacts nearby.

"Huh? Nothing?" Johnnie’s expression turned puzzled as he looked at the compass in his hand.

The needle spun aimlessly, as if there was no Map of Heaven and Earth fragment here.

"Master, the fragment is definitely here. I can feel it. There must be some special power blocking the compass." Coco’s voice rang in his mind at that moment.

Johnnie put the compass away and asked in his heart, "Can you sense the exact location of the fragment?"

After a while, Coco replied, "No. There’s a special force cutting me off. I can only tell it’s nearby, but I can’t pinpoint the location."

Johnnie nodded slightly, not bothered by it.

He’d already learned from Coco that the Mechanical Titan that attacked the Montemar Empire was actually crafted from a fallen Titan Race Divine in the Map of Heaven and Earth space.

That meant the fragment here had already fallen into the hands of the Mechanical Race.

And they must have arrived at Novice Village No. 33 a long time ago, secretly plotting something all this time.

But in his previous life, Johnnie never heard any news about the Mechanical Race in Novice Village No. 33.

It seemed his rebirth had changed a lot of things.

Johnnie stopped dwelling on it and started heading toward the novice village in the distance.

The place had already been taken over by the Mechanical Race. The original NPCs were all gone, likely slaughtered.

Near the village, there were still crowds of people coming and going, and players’ faces were lit up with joy.

Clearly, they’d traded for quite a few attribute points.

Johnnie grew curious and opened the Horizon game forum, searching for any posts about Novice Village No. 33.

There were quite a few threads about Novice Village No. 33 and the Mechanical Race establishing the Mecha Divine Nation, but they were mostly questions about how to join the Mecha Divine Nation or analysis of the Mechanical Race’s strength. Not a single post mentioned exchanging resources for free attribute points.

Were these newbies really that tight-lipped?

Johnnie didn’t buy it.

Even if someone wanted to keep Novice Village No. 33’s secrets, there was no way nobody would make a post.

Johnnie had a vague suspicion in his heart, so he wrote up a thread and posted it.

The Secret of Novice Village No. 33: Exchange Wood, Stone, and Ore for Free Attribute Points.

His post had barely gone up before a message popped up.

[Your post has violated forum rules and has been automatically deleted. Please follow the forum guidelines. Posting inappropriate content will result in a ban.]

Just as I thought!

Johnnie wasn’t surprised—he’d already guessed that someone was deliberately deleting posts about exchanging free attribute points.

Looks like someone is colluding with the Mechanical Race!

His expression turned cold, and the first person he thought of was Macbeth. Only the Apocalypse Group had that much power, enough to erase every post about Novice Village No. 33.

He immediately sent Macbeth a private message.

Johnnie: "Macbeth, you’re testing my limits. Don’t think I won’t kill you."

Macbeth, who was busy leveling up, saw the message and was totally confused. He replied right away.

Macbeth: "Lord Johnnie, I’ve been investigating the whereabouts of the Doe Family, but there hasn’t been any news."

Johnnie: "I’m talking about the Mechanical Race."

Macbeth: "The Mechanical Race? Lord Johnnie, I have nothing to do with the Mechanical Race! The Snow Kingdom I built with the Snow Family was destroyed by them."

Johnnie was taken aback by his response.

It was true that the Snow Kingdom, founded by the Snow Family, was backed by Macbeth and the Apocalypse Group.

If he was really working with the Mechanical Race, there’s no way he would’ve let them destroy Snow Kingdom.

Could it be that he really guessed wrong?

Johnnie: "You’re not working with the Mechanical Race?"

Macbeth: "Lord Johnnie, I’m no saint, but I know where the line is. Ever since I found out the people behind Horizon wanted to destroy Earth, I became their enemy. If I still controlled the game, I would have shut it down myself."

Johnnie frowned. Had he really misunderstood this guy?

But besides Macbeth, who else could control the entire game forum?

Could there be trouble inside the Apocalypse Group?

Johnnie messaged again: "Some posts about Novice Village No. 33 have been deleted from the forum. Do you know what’s going on?"

Macbeth: "Hold on a sec."

Macbeth replied, his username turned gray, and he logged off.

After a while, he came back online.

Macbeth: "Lord Johnnie, I checked it out. There have been a lot of posts deleted from the forum, but it wasn’t us."

Johnnie: "It wasn’t your Apocalypse Group?"

Macbeth: "No. I only had people delete posts that were bad for Apocalypse Group, or posts about the truth behind the game. I didn’t tell anyone to mess with anything about Novice Village No. 33."

Johnnie: "Maybe it’s another hacker? Can you look into it?"

Macbeth: "I’ve already got my subordinates investigating, but so far, nothing suspicious has come up. If I find anything, I’ll let you know."

Johnnie: "Alright. Also, keep looking for news about the Doe Family for me."

Macbeth: "Understood."

Johnnie closed the chat. It really did seem like this had nothing to do with Macbeth or the Apocalypse Group.

But besides the Apocalypse Group, what other force in the real world could have that much influence?

Could it be a country?

It seemed like only a nation could have that kind of power.

No matter who’s working with the Mechanical Race, as long as they’re wiped out, they’re no threat.

Johnnie stopped worrying about it and walked into the novice village.

His arrival didn’t draw any attention from the players in the village.

Most of these people were brand new to the game and didn’t know anything about his reputation.

As for whether the Mechanical Race had noticed him, Johnnie couldn’t be sure.

He wandered around the novice village but didn’t find anything noteworthy.

The liveliest place was still the old village chief’s residence.

But now the chief was gone, replaced by a cold-looking Mechanical Battle Mecha from the Mechanical Race.

Players were lined up to hand over wood, stone, and ore, exchanging them for attribute points.

Some players turned in over a hundred units of wood at once and got more than a dozen free attribute points in return.

Not just these newbie villagers—even those who’d already left the village would find this hard to resist.

It was tough for players to get stronger in this game.

Of course, Johnnie was an exception.

Besides the replaced NPCs, he didn’t see any other members of the Mechanical Race, nor did he notice anything strange in the village.

"Maiev, have you found anything?" Johnnie asked silently in his mind.

"No. Other than a few Mechanical Race members who replaced the NPCs, there are no other mechanical beings here." Maiev’s voice echoed in his head.

That was definitely not normal.

According to the info passed on by Macbeth, the Mechanical Race had supposedly established the Mecha Divine Nation in Novice Village No. 33.

There’s no way a nation could just disappear into thin air.

Unless...

Johnnie suddenly had a thought.

Last time, when they founded Montemar Empire and the Mechanical Race attacked, what showed up was a city—an entire city made up of powerful Mechanical Race members!

Could it be that the Mecha Divine Nation was actually a huge, mobile city?

Johnnie figured that was entirely possible.

"Hey, man." He grabbed a burly guy walking past and asked, "I heard the Mechanical Race built the Mecha Divine Nation here in Novice Village No. 33. Where is it now?"

As he spoke, he took a dozen gold coins from his bag and slipped them into the man’s hand.

"Bro, you’ve come to exactly the right guy with that question." The burly man weighed the coins with a sly grin, then pulled Johnnie aside and whispered, "The Mechanical Race did build a nation here—a gigantic mechanical city. But just recently, a thick fog rolled in and covered the entire novice village, and that massive city flew away."

Flew away? So it really could move!

Johnnie wasn’t surprised. He glanced at the man and asked, "That’s not exactly a secret, is it?"

"Think again," the burly guy said, his tone suddenly serious. "Nobody else knows about it but me. The weirdest part is, I asked around, and everyone swears there was never a steel-built city. I think their memories got messed with. I even tried posting about it on the game forum, but my thread vanished into thin air. There’s definitely something shady going on here!"

What the man said pretty much matched Johnnie’s own suspicions.

But there was still one thing bugging him.

Johnnie asked, "You said everyone’s memory got wiped—how is that even possible? And if it’s true, why are you the only one who remembers?"

The burly man explained, "To be honest, bro, I wondered if I was losing my mind, but I know what I saw. I accidentally stumbled into an underground cave beneath the village chief’s hut and hid out down there when the fog rolled in. I figure it was that fog that made everyone lose their memories."

That underground cave he mentioned was probably the novice village’s Undead Cavern.

Johnnie frowned deeply. Erasing memories—especially wiping the memories of a huge group of players at once—that was both creepy and downright unimaginable.

Suddenly, he realized something—what if the Mechanical Race had shown up in his previous life too, but everyone’s memories of them had been erased?

Otherwise, there’s no way there’d be zero news about the Mechanical Race.