"Ahaha, long time no see, everyone! Lately, to bring you all higher quality videos, I've been busy gathering footage and couldn't update in time. Thanks for waiting!"
In the video, an awkward smile surfaced on Mantou's face.
"Like hell I believe you! Take my blade, dog author!"
"A bit dated, but I've still got to say it: Sky King covers the tiger, Mantou's Charisma is a 5!"
"Razor blades shipped. Please sign for them."
"Why did I see you slacking off on a wyvern every day in other people's videos?"
Mantou immediately got into character, his tone shifting into something impassioned and theatrical, reminiscent of a traditional storyteller slapping a gavel on a table. "Cries echo in the dead of night from a mysterious black tower—who is stirring up trouble in the shadows? A beast of a wizard transforms his own flesh-and-blood daughter... is this the distortion of human nature, or the total collapse of morality?"
"Laying on the cringe, are we?"
The camera cut to Mantou's first-person perspective.
The video was composed of footage Mantou had edited from his personal adventures, overlaid with post-production voiceover narration whose chief attraction was unabashed bragging and banter.
The narrative opened with their initial clash against the dragon-mutated gnolls. In the video, the trio demonstrated their respective skills, coordinating seamlessly to slay several monsters back to back. But when the gnolls summoned reinforcements and overwhelmed them through sheer numbers, the party was forced into a frantic retreat, accompanied by Mantou's dramatically modulated voiceover.
"Pay close attention right here. Fighting one against three, I cleaved through two gnolls with a single strike, then intimidated another with my overwhelming aura, rescuing Sing-dog from grave peril once again. Sword held high, I stood proud; among dozens of surrounding gnolls, not a single one dared approach. This is what you call martial arts master flair... But the enemy numbers were simply too vast, and my teammates couldn't keep up with my rhythm. Even with my peerless prowess, there was no turning the tide, so a strategic redeployment was our only choice."
A flurry of roasts and complaints scrolled across the screen in the bullet comments.
"This bastard's sneaking in his own revisionist history again."
"Where's Autumn Rain? Unsubscribing if she isn't here."
"What kind of 'master' leans on his sword wheezing for breath like that?"
The scene shifted, showing Mantou encountering the young maiden at the snow hut. She kindly offered him a warm cup of tea—though the embarrassing sequence of Mantou falling for the trap had been secretly excised. With a sudden cut, the maiden shattered her disguise and transformed into a horrifying monster. Here, a special post-production editing effect was used: the hideous, dragon-mutated beast overlapped with the sweet, delicate girl, while the cold, metallic secret chamber flickered rapidly back and forth with the warm, illusory wooden cabin.
In the end, Mantou and Singo barely slipped from the monster's clutches, making their way into the hidden room where they uncovered Valena's Diary. The journal recounted in poignant detail how an innocent young girl, once brimming with hopeful dreams for the future, was experimented upon step-by-step until she fell completely into a full-fledged dragon-mutated abomination.
"By the time I reached the final page, my skin was crawling. Only then did we realize—Valena was real, and the monster was real. Who could have imagined that the 'father' written in that journal would actually turn his own daughter into a monster!"
As he reached this part, even Mantou could not suppress genuine fury in his voice.
The comment section erupted once more.
"What an absolute beast!"
"Doing that to his own daughter? He's lower than an animal!"
"Thinking about this gives me chills... Did Valena eat Mary?!"
"It hurts so much—my Lady Valena!"
"Who's teaming up with me to raid this dungeon?! I'm carving this boss into a thousand pieces!"
Next came the duo's encounter with the second wave of dragon-mutated monsters, followed by their reunion with Tiansheng Zhankuang. Mantou's itchy fingers had triggered the Magic Jar, resulting in him being possessed by Vagnerd's soul shard, which wiped out the three of them with laughable ease.
"Even the boss's soul clone is this broken?"
"Holy crap, an archmage!"
Yet the subsequent footage unfolded from Mantou's blurred perspective inside the jar, offering the viewers a refreshingly novel point of view. Mantou seized the opportunity to share a slew of his own theories, making explicit mention of Cassius along the way.
Then the soul shard mysteriously vanished, the trio regained consciousness, and on the tower's pinnacle they found the imprisoned white dragon, leading straight into a confrontation against Vagnerd's true self. The footage cut off abruptly with Mantou's thunderous suicide explosion.
"That blast was so satisfying! Blow him to hell!"
"Blow that monster to pieces!"
Finally, Mantou's smug, cheeky face reappeared on screen. He went out of his way to record the rewards he received from triggering the hidden quest, along with his exclusive trait, the enviable Transform into Dragon ability, and even showcased an inventory overflowing with white dragon scales.
Even though those scales no longer belonged to him, he could at least use them to flex on the audience.
"Gimme some of that luck!"
"Drain Mantou dry!"
"Watching Mantou get top-tier loot hurts worse than getting nothing myself!"
His sheer, unadulterated boasting practically spilled through the screen, inciting a wave of jealousy across the chat.
At the end of the video, Mantou addressed the viewers: "And that's all for this episode. Well, everyone, want to avenge Valena? Want to obtain the flashy ability to turn into a dragon? Want to harvest white dragon materials by the cartload? Want to learn high-tier spells? Then head to the Tower of Polar Night—I left everything there!"
"Cringe again?"
"Screw it, I have to go check it out!"
"When's the official launch?! I want to play so bad..."
"No way, is there actually anyone out there who hasn't played Elezerg yet?"
The video went viral far beyond the existing community once again.
Valena's gentle cries of "Big Brother" spread across numerous platforms, turning her into an object of widespread sympathy, while Vagnerd was nailed firmly to the internet's pillar of shame, reviled by millions. This explosive mainstream reach pushed hype for Elezerg to new heights, with pre-registrations for the open beta crossing five million.
Gamers, on the other hand, were more pragmatic. Their eyes were fixed on the new dungeon: the Tower of Polar Night.
A black tower nestled deep in the mountains.
An imprisoned white dragon, a mysterious wizard.
And above all—lavish rewards.
The prizes Mantou had secured were simply staggering. Beyond the hidden quest and rare materials, gaining a near-gamebreaking skill like Transform into Dragon sparked immense envy. Even the major guilds salivated at the prospect, promptly organizing rosters and mobilizing their full strength to farm the dungeon.
Word had it that Bazhe, guildmaster of Wangquan, had already rallied a hundred players, dead set on claiming a portion of dragon blood for himself.
It was a dragon, after all. Even the smallest wyrmling was far beyond what ordinary players could contend with. What was more, the ability might possess higher tiers—who was to say one couldn't eventually turn into a full-grown red dragon?
Meanwhile, Cassius, having been mentioned repeatedly by Vagnerd, became the center of heated debates among lore buffs and combat powerscalers alike. Discussion around this renowned faction boss surged again, and speculative cross-universe matchup threads like "Who would win: Cassius or the Void Whale?" even began cropping up on the forums.
Chapter 205