Chapter 041: Manipulated

Wang Bo saw the mage player cooperating so readily and nodded slightly, apparently this person valued his game character. "You killed Frodo for the One Ring, right?"

The mage player nodded.

Wang Bo continued, "Can any player use the power of the One Ring?"

The mage player shook his head. "Only players acknowledged by Sauron can use the One Ring. Otherwise, others will not only be corrupted by the Ring but may also become Sauron's puppets."

Wang Bo was taken aback. This was a lot of information. "So you've been acknowledged by Sauron."

The mage player nodded.

Wang Bo realized, "So you're a player on Sauron's side."

Since players could accept quests and join the Fellowship of the Ring, there was no reason they couldn't join Sauron's side to seize the Ring.

The mage player nodded again.

Wang Bo found it incredible. "You're a player on Sauron's side, yet you can still join the Fellowship."

The mage player said cautiously, "As long as you play it right, nothing is impossible. Of course, it requires the help of an item."

Wang Bo suddenly understood. No wonder this guy wanted to kill Frodo and seize the Ring—he wasn't a traitor but a mole.

Did players nowadays all love such tricky operations?

If it weren't for having Lady Gremory, that cheater, by his side, the other might have succeeded.

Thinking this, Wang Bo couldn't help but look at the mage player with some pity. What bad luck, running into Lady Gremory here.

Having understood the whole story, Wang Bo sheathed his longsword.

Seeing this, the mage player breathed a sigh of relief.

Wang Bo said, "As agreed, I won't kill you."

"Thank you."

"Don't celebrate too early. Though I won't kill you, someone else will settle the score." Wang Bo stepped aside, and Lady Gremory stepped forward. She had been killed by the mage player earlier, and now it was time for revenge.

Though Lady Gremory was a demon god, she was also a woman—very vengeful.

The mage player's face filled with terror, and he shouted, "Wait, don't kill me! I have a secret to tell you. If you don't kill me, I'll tell you. I swear, this secret is valuable."

Lady Gremory: "Let's hear it."

The mage player didn't dare delay and blurted out everything he knew. "It's the One Ring. The One Ring can be taken out of this world. As long as you don't destroy it and kill Sauron by other means, the Ring will acknowledge you as its master and can be taken out of this world."

Wang Bo was stunned. According to the Lord of the Rings lore, to kill Sauron, you had to destroy the One Ring, and to destroy it, you had to throw it into the fires of Mount Doom.

Without destroying the One Ring, Sauron couldn't be killed.

That was the only way to kill Sauron.

Now the mage player told Wang Bo there was another way. Wang Bo asked, "What other way?"

"I don't know," the mage player shook his head. "But I swear the information is true."

"Has anyone succeeded?"

"No."

"Well, you can die now."

The next second, Lady Gremory released a bolt of lightning, killing the mage player. Before dying, he glared at Wang Bo with unwillingness, anger, and resentment.

Wang Bo was unmoved. It was just a game character; it wasn't like he was really killing him.

After killing the mole, Lady Gremory tossed the One Ring to Wang Bo.

Wang Bo caught the One Ring and received a game prompt.

It roughly meant that Wang Bo had obtained the One Ring and had more choices. The first was to continue to Mount Doom and destroy the Ring. The second was to go to Mordor, meet Sauron, and join the Dark Lord's side.

At the same time, Wang Bo saw the attributes of the One Ring. The first attribute was invisibility, but the rest were all question marks, indicating he couldn't view or use them.

Probably only those on Sauron's side could use them.

After Frodo died, Wang Bo received a quest failure prompt. Unexpectedly, things took a turn, and he had the Ring again, allowing him to continue the quest.

Since that was the case, Wang Bo naturally wouldn't give up.

He wrapped up the Ring and set off with the group.

Without Frodo and the mage player as burdens, the next leg of the journey went smoothly. Wang Bo's group traveled by night and rested by day, soon approaching Mount Doom.

But as they neared Mount Doom, Wang Bo received a prompt.

"You have arrived at Mount Doom. The quest is about to be completed. Every half hour from now on, the Ring will emit a location signal, allowing any enemy player to locate it."

Seeing this prompt, Wang Bo understood the quest wouldn't be easy.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Wang Bo received another message: "Location sent. Enemy players are approaching."

So Wang Bo's group quickened their pace. Thanks to the terrain of Mount Doom, they didn't encounter any enemy players in the first ten-plus minutes.

But this was the enemy's home turf after all. After circling around, Wang Bo eventually ran into hostile players.

Fortunately, he only encountered three enemy players.

On Wang Bo's side, there were five: himself, Caroline, Yui Ikari, Asuna, and the cheater Lady Gremory. When they met on a narrow path, Wang Bo's side killed the three players with overwhelming force.

But before dying, the enemies exposed Wang Bo's group's location.

So after the second location signal, Wang Bo encountered more and more players.

Some came alone, others in groups of up to seven or eight.

But in the end, Wang Bo's group killed them all, one by one. With Lady Gremory, the cheater, among them, losing was basically impossible.

After a not-too-bloody struggle, Wang Bo's group finally reached the edge of Mount Doom's crater.

Wang Bo pulled out the Ring, intending to throw it in. But just then, the system prompted that Wang Bo was being corrupted by the Ring, and his character's willpower was insufficient to resist.

System prompt... You have become a servant of the Ring.

Then Wang Bo saw his character move uncontrollably, raising the Ring high and saying, "This is my Ring. No one can take my Ring from me."

With that, the character tried to put on the Ring.

Caroline reacted quickly, shooting an arrow that struck the Ring in Wang Bo's hand. Wang Bo's wrist jerked, and the Ring was knocked away, tumbling through the air and falling into Mount Doom.

At the same time, Wang Bo regained control of his character.