Crocodile Farm 2 – Almost Stirred Trouble, But Held Back
Episode 38. Crocodile Farm 2 – Almost Stirred Trouble, But Held Back...
The three of them had left behind countless legends and dumped a mountain of editing work on their respective editors. Now they had returned to their daily lives (in Crocodile Farm 2). While the two women continued their combat leveling, Rusty focused on finishing the remaining construction of Babel Tower. Several days passed like that.
Crocodile Farm 2, Day 14. The Babel Tower was finally completed.
[Whoa~. You built this in just a week? You're insane....]
[At this size, you could fit a whole village inside.]
[Rusty~ Can we go inside and take a look?]
“Haha. Sure. Feel free to go in whenever you want.”
Ever since the massive tower had begun rising in the northern part of the village, curious streamers had come to check it out. Back then it was still under construction, so they had only peeked and moved on. Now that word spread it was finished, more streamers arrived to see it for themselves.
When they asked to look inside, Rusty readily agreed and even started giving them a tour.
“This is the first floor—the lobby. Over here—”
[Wow.... It's seriously huge.]
[You even implemented shops inside.]
[Whoa... The interior is so clean and pretty....]
...
[Huh? There's something further in here too?]
One streamer who had been sightseeing spotted a passage leading deeper inside and asked about it.
“Ah... That area's just my personal room, so.... Haha.... Ha.”
[Oh... I see.....]
The streamer trailed off, clearly wanting to ask if they could see it. Rusty could only break into a cold sweat, unable to say yes.
Seeing how troubled Rusty looked, the streamer gave up on seeing the room.
[Ah.. Ahaha. What's over there then? Haha...]
“Ah~ Over there—”
Rusty quickly led the group away, as if his life depended on it. The way he rattled off explanations made it obvious he was desperately trying to divert their attention, which was almost pitiful to watch.
The tour continued.
...
“Phew.... That was exhausting......”
Once the streamers finally left, Rusty let out a long sigh. He quickly blocked off the entrance leading to Kuronyang's room and the one next to it—his own room (???).
“Gotta seal this up for now... I'll have to tell Kuronyang about the secret passage (???????) entrance later.”
“Hey now. That's not what this is~. Don't report me.”
Rusty tried to defend himself against the Sanyangdan's teasing.
“No, really. It's common sense for castles to have secret passages, okay? No! I didn't make it so I could sneak in at night~~!!!”
They say strong denial is strong confirmation...... Hmm......
After finishing Babel Tower, Rusty took some time to visit Crocodile's workshop.
“Hello~ It's been a while~”
“Huh? Rusty. Long time no see. What brings you here?”
“Hello~”
“Your streams have been really fun lately, huh? Haha”
“Welcome. What brings you all the way here?”
When he opened the door and greeted them, the people who had been monitoring their screens greeted him back.
“I came to see Crocodile for a bit.”
“Ah. Right. Just a moment. Hyung~ Rusty's here~~!!”
One of the crew members shouted toward the back upon hearing that Rusty had come to see Crocodile. Soon after, Crocodile opened the door and stepped out.
“Ah. Rusty. Welcome. I was actually waiting after getting your message.”
After exchanging greetings, the two headed into the room together.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk about?”
Crocodile guided Rusty to a seat and even brought him a drink before asking.
“Originally, I was thinking of just setting it off......” Rusty began.
In truth, he confessed that he had secretly added a gimmick behind Crocodile's back to get revenge for blocking player logins, planning to trigger it and cause trouble for them.
“Wait. Rusty. What are you even saying!...... Haah...”
Crocodile nearly exploded in anger but managed to hold it in.
“No, no. Just calm down for a second. I wasn't trying to ruin the server either.”
“I just wanted to add a small event and raise the difficulty a little.”
When Crocodile suppressed his anger, Rusty quickly started making excuses.
“There's no way I'd try to sabotage a server I helped build in the first place.”
At Rusty's not-quite-an-excuse, Crocodile calmed down and decided to hear him out first.
“First, tell me what exactly you were planning.”
“Right. You probably already have some idea, but once a server passes the mid-game, things start getting boring. Our server is no exception.”
“Hmm.... Yeah. That's true. No matter how many biomes we added, with over three thousand players, exploration ends pretty quickly.”
“Exactly. The biggest content in the game is exploration and getting stronger, but after two or three weeks, everyone's done everything and just keeps running the same dungeons while upgrading gear, right?”
“That's... true? That's why servers usually only last about a month.”
“Right. The problem is, even though we've added a lot of stuff, we also accepted way more players. So the content will probably run out in a month.”
“Sigh... We've actually been getting a lot of complaints about that internally too. We're only in week three and content consumption is speeding up.... Maybe planning for two months was too ambitious from the start......”
When Rusty brought up the exact issue Crocodile had been worried about, he let out a frustrated sigh.
“So! I'm sorry I didn't tell you in advance and did it secretly, but! I've added some content.”
Crocodile's head snapped up.
“Oh. Really? What is it? When does it start? What's the goal?”
Crocodile suddenly fired off questions, his eyes sparkling with anticipation.
“Ah. Hold on. You're getting way too excited. Just a second. Crocodile! Calm down!”
Rusty calmed him down and slowly explained his plan.
“I expect content to be mostly exhausted around the one-month-and-one-week mark.”
“So on the last day of week four—”
This was Rusty's idea: In as little as four weeks the content would be nearly gone, and by five weeks at the latest it would be completely exhausted. Therefore, on the final day of week four—marking one month since the server opened—they would gather all the streamers, compile everything the players had done over the past month, create various user rankings, and award prizes to the number-one players in each category.
“After holding the award ceremony like that, right when it's about to end!”
Gulp.
“When it's about to end?”
“Boom! An explosion rings out and monsters start invading from outside the village.”
“A monster invasion?”
“Yes. If they've already experienced exploration, crafting, and dungeons, shouldn't they try a siege battle too?”
“Ooooooh~”
“So originally, I was going to increase mob spawn rates around the village outskirts and make them march on the village even during the day without burning up in sunlight......”
Gulp.... “But?”
“Somehow I ended up building Babel Tower on the north side of the village.....”
“Ah... Hehe. That Babel Tower? The one you built for Kuronyang?”
“Ahem.. Ahem... Ahem.....”
“So, what's the problem with the tower?”
“Well... It's just......”
Rusty's continued explanation went like this: Originally, he had planned to massively increase mob respawn rates around the village so they would gather and then charge in. But then that enormous structure had appeared on the north side—built by his own hands. So he had wondered if there was some way to make use of it.
“After thinking about it, I realized this wasn't something I should decide alone. That's why I came to you.”
Crocodile fell silent for a moment.
“......So what you're saying is, you were debating whether to cause trouble or not, but now that you built it yourself, you want to find a way to use it?”
“But you couldn't come up with a good idea, so you're dumping it on me?”
“No.... Why are you phrasing it like that..... Ahem. Ahem.”
Crocodile stared at Rusty with cold eyes while Rusty avoided his gaze and broke into a cold sweat. After glaring at him for a while as if he wanted to bore a hole through Rusty's face, Crocodile let out a sigh.
“Haah.... Well, as content it does sound good. It could relieve the boredom in the later stages, and it looks like it would give our streamers some solid broadcast material too.”
After saying that, Crocodile continued.
“Hmm... I'll discuss this with the rest of the crew first and decide on a direction, then let you know. How long would it take to implement on the server?”
“Once you give me the direction and some details, it'll be done quickly. The framework is already set, so it's just a matter of placing things and applying it.”
“Got it. I'll talk to the kids first. If you've got anything else you're hiding, spill it now.”
“Ah...”
At Crocodile's casual question about whether there was anything else hidden, Rusty found himself at a loss for words. Seeing his reaction, Crocodile was shocked.
“Wait. There's more? Are you insane?”
“No, no. This one doesn't affect the server at all. Really~”
Crocodile grabbed Rusty by the collar and shook him.
“Spill it, you bastard. Talk!!!”
“Okay, okay. I'll tell you. I'll tell you~~”
At Rusty's promise to confess, Crocodile loosened his grip. His eyes clearly said he would grab him again the moment anything unnecessary came out.
“I'm only letting this slide because everything so far has been helpful.... If this harms our server even a little bit......”
Crocodile glared at him as if he wouldn't hesitate to commit murder. Overwhelmed by the pressure, Rusty finally confessed.
“I just added one small item..... It's, well......”
For some reason, Rusty looked embarrassed as he revealed the truth. After hearing everything, Crocodile released his collar and muttered one quiet line.
“You hopeless fool......”
“......”
“Huh? No comeback? Then.... Hehehe.”
“Ah......”
I'm screwed.