"Ding, Wither Manor! Achievement completed."
"Reward: 3 new home coordinate markers; hot weapon: RPG and 10 special rockets.
Mods unlocked: Dragon Knight; Vic's Modern Warfare."
"Next stage achievement mission: It's over… once again…"
"Objective: Kill and resurrect 50 Ender Dragons."
This was the system's response after completing the Wither Manor achievement task.
It had to be said—just as Ryen expected, the next stage was highly difficult.
Kill 50, then resurrect 50.
Resurrecting Ender Dragons requires End Crystals. They're not hard to craft, and Ryen could make plenty even now.
However...
Killing them, then resurrecting them, and then killing them again—it just felt like he was desecrating the corpses.
But this time, Ryen didn't complain to the System Spirit.
Back at the manor villa, while the others went to organize their supplies, Ryen sighed deeply and said from the bottom of his heart:
"System Spirit… you do have a conscience!"
Compared to the task of slaying 50 Ender Dragons, Ryen felt that the system had truly been merciful this time.
Although the rewards weren't particularly extraordinary, and the RPG was just average…
But just look at the mods it gave this time.
Not one, but two mods. One being Dragon Knight, which perfectly aligned with Ryen's upcoming plans.
Once he obtained dragon eggs, he could hatch a whole bunch of dragons.
Then, he—Ryen—would become the legendary Dragon Knight himself.
And if Dragon Knight wasn't badass enough…
Vic's Modern Warfare.
That was badass, right?
This was the mod once hailed as the "gunfight dream of 300 million MC players."
It contained an endless variety of firearms.
Pistols, shotguns, SMGs, rifles, sniper rifles, RPGs, grenades, and more.
Basically, any hot weapon you could imagine was included in the pack.
Except for airplanes and tanks, almost all kinds of firearms were present.
There were even some purely fictional energy weapons.
What's more, this mod even included vehicles—something extremely rare in Minecraft mods…
Even if they were just basic sedans or sports cars, they were still cars, right?
However, there were a few troublesome parts about the Vic's Modern Warfare mod. It introduced many special mob types.
Things like bandits, rippers, lickers...
And even monstrously powerful creatures like Deathclaws—not any weaker than a Wither Storm.
Of course, those monsters weren't that easy to encounter.
Then there was the problem of crafting recipes...
Vic's Modern Warfare had too many crafting recipes for Ryen to remember.
He'd have to build a weapons workbench later and experiment with crafting slowly.
There were also many new and exotic ores—silicon, graphite, tin, and so on.
Explaining these was a hassle too, and they couldn't be obtained from auto-iron farms or the like.
Ryen figured he'd need Ningguang and the others to recruit more people to head back into the mines and collect resources again.
Still, those were minor details!
The main thing was—the guns!
Ryen's dream was finally coming true.
Now that the hot weapons mod was enabled, who even needed an AK-47?
M249 in one hand, M79 grenade launcher in the other, M41A slung across his back, with dozens of frag and gas grenades strapped to his waist.
Fully armed, Ryen would charge out straight to Sky Island, slap Celestia awake, and hold the grenade launcher to its head:
"So you're the damn 'Heavenly Principle,' huh?!"
Granted, hot weapons might not pose much threat to beings above Archon level, but...
What man could resist being decked out in an arsenal of modern weaponry?
Never mind whether the damage was high or not—at least it looked cool!
And when paired with the Dragon Knight mod...
While others rode dragons shooting arrows or slashing with diamond swords...
Ryen would just strap a Gatling gun to his Ender Dragon and spray death in all directions.
In his previous life, he had dreamed of combining the Dragon Knight and hot weapon mods—riding dragons while unleashing gunfire.
Unfortunately, his old PC couldn't handle such a massive mod fusion.
But now, everything could finally become reality!
However, thinking about the massive scale of Vic's Modern Warfare, Ryen couldn't help but sigh and suppress his excitement for now.
Hot weapons were great—heck, Ningguang and the others could probably use just this one mod to perform dimensional superiority strikes on other nations.
But...
It was way too complicated.
Let alone Ningguang and her team, who didn't understand the mod at all—Ryen himself wasn't confident he could fully master it.
With his current level, at most, he could craft a few guns for personal use.
But to teach an entire nation like Liyue how to master this mod? That wasn't something he could accomplish in a month or two.
On the other hand, the Dragon Knight mod—whether it was the simple original or the newer Dragon Knight II—was much easier to grasp.
Of course, since the system didn't specify Dragon Knight II, it was most likely just the original mod.
That meant there were only eight types of dragons—the Dragon Knight I version.
For Ryen, that was actually good news.
While Dragon Knight II had more dragon types and stronger power levels...
It also introduced many powerful monsters.
Adding that on top of Vic's Modern Warfare would drastically slow down their exploration progress.
Whereas the original Dragon Knight was honestly more than enough.
Getting dragon eggs was simple and direct, and the dragons were powerful once hatched.
"So… for now, we'll focus on Dragon Knight. But no matter what—System Spirit, you really came through this time!"
Ryen sighed with heartfelt emotion. Lost in thought, he didn't notice the others had already returned.
They were all curiously staring at him.
"Ryen, what exactly are the new mods?" Keqing couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked.
Ryen pulled himself together and smiled, nodding.
"There are two new mods—Dragon Knight and Vic's Modern Warfare."
"Vic? Who's that?"
Venti scratched his cheek curiously as he looked at Ryen, who shrugged and said:
"Why is your curiosity always focused on weird stuff like this…"
"Ehehe!"
Venti lifted his chin proudly.
"It's precisely because of my overflowing curiosity that I became the best bard in all of Teyvat!"
"Self-proclaimed!" Lumine rolled her eyes at him.
"It's real talent! Talent!" Venti protested, then turned to Ryen with an eager look in his eyes.
He didn't care much about the firearms—he was only thinking about the Dragon Knight mod.
However, Zhongli was more concerned.
"Ryen, this newly added Vic's Modern Warfare… could it contain that 'peace bomb' you once mentioned?"
Ryen immediately understood Zhongli's concern. After a moment of thought, he chose not to mention that there was a small peace bomb called "Fat Man."
He shook his head and replied:
"Relax. It only adds lots and lots of firearm crafting, and many special ores and such. Nothing that dangerous."
"Even if there were, I wouldn't share the crafting recipes. In fact, I'm not even planning to let others handle the crafting of firearms."
"At least, not in the short term."
Hearing that, those like Ningguang, who understood how powerful firearms could be, let out a sigh of relief.
If something like a peace bomb really existed, they wouldn't even know how to respond.
That kind of thing went beyond trust issues.
Even if the Qianyan Army were utterly loyal to Liyue, Ningguang and the others would never let them access such weapons.
In fact, they would insist again and again that Ryen must never reveal the crafting recipe for the peace bomb—not even to them.
Before long, Ningguang's expression shifted to a more cheerful one as she looked at Ryen.
"You said a lot of firearms? Like the guns you and Ganyu use?"
Ryen smiled and nodded.
"That's right. And many of them are even stronger than what the two of us currently have."
"Then…" Keqing was just about to speak when Ryen waved his hand.
"For now, I'm not letting any of you get involved with them."
Upon hearing this, a bit of the light in everyone's eyes dimmed.
Ryen explained:
"Don't overthink it. It's not because I don't trust you."
"It's just that the Vic's Modern Warfare mod is too complex. It adds tons of powerful monsters, ores, and crafting components."
"I haven't even figured everything out myself yet, let alone teach you all how to use it."
Ningguang quietly let out another sigh of relief, then gently asked:
"So, what's your plan?"
Ryen shook his head, rubbing his temples with a hint of frustration.
"For now, I haven't fully decided. But these new minerals can't be farmed like iron—they have to be mined."
"My initial plan is to gather materials, craft a few weapons, and get familiar with the recipes."
"At the very least, each of us needs to have some firearms and ammo. Ganyu and I are already running low."
"There are over a thousand types of guns that I know of. Each one has a different recipe and uses different materials. This is going to be a long process."
"For the time being, don't set your sights too high."
Hearing Ryen's explanation, the group couldn't help but be astonished.
Over a thousand firearms…
Just copying the crafting recipes would take days.
Instantly, the others pushed the whole firearms mod to the back of their minds.
This wasn't something they could dabble in right now—better to wait for Ryen to figure it out first.
"So, what about that Dragon Knight mod?"
Venti was still fixated on the Dragon Knight thing. As for firearms—even though he was intrigued by Ryen's strange guns—he didn't want to overthink it.
By contrast, the Dragon Knight mod was something he was willing to put brainpower into.
"That's actually what I want to explain in detail next," Ryen said with a smile, speaking gently.
"The Dragon Knight mod is very low in difficulty. Basically, as long as I explain and demonstrate it once, you'll all be able to learn it."
"This is the main direction we'll be developing next."
"Perfect timing, too—we're planning to go to the End, kill the Ender Dragon, and get a dragon egg to hatch our own dragons."
At that, Lisa rested her chin on one hand, smiling playfully at Ryen.
"Well, that's a stroke of luck… But you mentioned these dragons have special attributes. Mind sharing a bit?"
"Of course."
Ryen nodded, while Jean and Ningguang efficiently pulled out their notebooks.
"Unless something changes, the Dragon Knight mod allows dragons to be born with eight possible attributes."
"They are: the vanilla Ender Dragon, Aether Dragon, Fire Dragon, Grass Dragon, Ghost Dragon, Ice Dragon, Nether Dragon, and Water Dragon."
The others hurried to write it all down, while Venti seemed a little disappointed.
"I thought they'd be the Ender Dragon plus the seven Elemental Dragons… but still…"
He blinked, then said with growing anticipation:
"Aether Dragon, Ghost Dragon, Nether Dragon… just the names sound super cool! Ryen, can I raise all of them?"
Ryen rolled his eyes.
"If you're willing to go back to the End again and again to kill the Ender Dragon and get more eggs, then sure—raise as many as you want."
"Ehehe! Just the Ender Dragon, huh?"
Venti proudly lifted his head.
"For the sake of giving Dvalin some brothers and sisters, this little task is my sacred duty!"
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