MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

A sleeping youngster suddenly flipped upward.

"Yep, that was a nice nap." He casually commented. He had finally settled against a great speech in the end.

Tons of tearful glowing eyes stared at him with emotion. He was back, he had survived! A second later, the entire village was kneeling before him, showing their gratitude.

He hadn't only saved the dying ones, but also the livings, for he had brought hope back. He had singlehandedly saved everyone in their village.

"Thank you so much!" They were choking so much that they could barely speak.

Even with all his scheming, a smile escaped Jack at this moment. He could relate to their bliss at reuniting with their family, but he then returned to his senses.

"Alright, everyone, there's something else we must do now. I'll be counting on everyone to help me with—"

"We'll do it!! We'll work until our bodies crumble!" They didn't even care what it was. They would do it.

Thus began a New Event….

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

As Jack guided his new s̶l̶a̶v̶e̶s̶ allies, the rest of Infinite was going crazy.

Jack hadn't noticed anything, but while he had been having fun within the Dream Realm, a disaster had happened everywhere else.

It hadn't lasted too long, but for about an hour something crazy had happened —> Lag!

It wouldn't have been too strange in any random old game, but it was the first time it happened in Infinite!

Self-proclaimed experts kept trying to figure out the reason, but they simply couldn't. The devs didn't even bother to release a statement either.

Many saw this as an opportunity to determine where the Infinite servers were located. Only a major disaster would have affected such a big yet mysterious company.

Nothing, there was nothing at all.

They could never have imagined that a single player was responsible for all that mess, not even in their wildest dreams. Jack's infinite Infinities had managed to overload the game system.

At that moment, the topic was trending on all social media platforms. #Mysterious Lag! #Find The Servers #Infinite's Downfall?

That's when a particular video went viral.

A red-cloaked man stood in front of a large crowd as he preached loudly.

"Join the Demon King's Church and witness miracles! Our God is conquering the world as we speak! I only wish for time to stop so we can bask in his glory forever!"

Right after his speech, the world started lagging. Time stop? Lag? It was such uncanny timing! Many jokingly blamed him and his speech.

"Hehe, this is obviously our God's doing! Can you feel his power, can you?!" The head cultist not only didn't deny it but encouraged it.

Many scoffed at how ridiculous this sounded. His "god" was actually a player: as if a lone individual could have caused it all.

Yet, what they thought didn't matter as countless users started joining the Church one after the other. Arguments could be heard all over Sprigfield:

"What, you joined them?! Don't tell me you really believe his lies!!"

"Who cares! It looks fun, and they have some bitching style!"

Many really loved the edgy red outfits. Then there was the whole sense of community, for they were probably the most united faction out there.

So what if they were a little crazy? Role-playing a cultist was cool!

But, this wasn't the only impact. No, the biggest one was undoubtedly on the NPCs. To them, this wasn't just lag: it was their reality crumbling.

Many panicked as they searched for salvation from this Apocalyptic event. The head cultist now had a new shiny system window:

NPCs want to join your Church!

- Crazy Dave has applied!

- Random Joe has applied

- Lonely Widow has applied!

- …

As for his answer…

"Everyone is welcome in the Demon King's Church, even gods! Let the world tremble, let it know of our greatness, and let us overshadow the sun itself, hahaha!"

An unending crazy laugh kept echoing in Sprigfield as a satisfied cultist glanced in Timber City's direction with a longing gaze.

"We'll follow in your footsteps, my Lord!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Jack shuddered with a strange feeling.

Was someone talking behind his back? Oh well, it was probably just his allies wondering what he was up to.

He observed the Nords who kept piling up snow as if their lives depended on it. They were akin to zombies, not showing the slightest trace of exhaustion.

From time to time, a villager would remark how crazy the thing they were building seemed, only for others to erupt in laughter.

"Pfft— You think this is crazy?! You should have seen what he built in the Dream Realm! It was, it was….I can't even describe it!! Now, THAT was crazy!!"

They were hard at work, building Fort Kickass. At this rate, the peaceful village would soon be turned into a single castle so large it touched the sky.

Yet, even that was nothing compared to the skyscrapers from the dream realm. He really had expanded their horizons with his previous stunt.

Why was he even building it? They had no idea, but they did not care one bit.

Jack kept strolling through the village, barking orders.

"I want the floor even more slippery than a lubed cucumber!"

"Polish those mirrors! I want to see my past and future in them!"

"Reinforce the foundation. We don't want it to collapse on us randomly!"

"Add more cracks to these tiles! They should be as easy to break as a depressed teenager's self-esteem!"

"Yes, yes, just like that!! Ah, make sure the spikes are sturdy and sharp. I want it to be able to pierce the world itself!"

He was everywhere, barely doing anything himself, and yet no one minded. They would simply shout a powerful "Yes, Sir!" as they kept working.

Slowly but surely, a monstrous castle was erected. It looked horrendous, and it was positively unsuitable for living. After all, it was filled to the brim with traps.

Still, the Nords rejoiced as they completed it. Well, all but the one who had witnessed Jack play with snow in the past. He had a terrible feeling about this.

"You're 100% sure this is safe, right?" He asked once more.

"Of course! Do you think I'm a fool!" Jack reassured.

But a few seconds later, loud bellows echoed. — GAOOO!!! — This time, it wasn't Moon Moon imitating. No, it was the real thing, and they were fucked!