Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At that moment, a thick mist shrouded the forest, making it look like the haunted domain of ghosts and spirits.
In fact, this was the famed Dark Mist Forest.
It was also the original target destination of the spring water quest, because its objective was to find someone at the edge of the Dark Mist Forest…
The Forest Watchman!
From Ye Kong’s viewpoint, all he could see was a thick mist, and there was no sign of the Forest Watchman. However, Ye Kong had equipped the Emblem of Potential and received its Sense +3 bonus. Hence, he was able to “perceive” his target’s location.
Thanks to this, the Forest Watchman had not yet noticed Ye Kong. He remained where he stood, his body trembling occasionally, as though he were suffering from some kind of illness. If a player had accepted the “spring water quest,” they would have known that—The Forest Watchman’s strange behavior was a symptom of his “rheumatism.”
“I’ve found you, Forest Watchman of the Horticultural Church…”
Ye Kong took in a deep breath. Then, as if he had nothing to hide, he leapt to his feet and walked straight toward the man—
“I hope my judgment isn’t wrong this time.”
……..
At the same time…
In a certain tavern in Qingmu Town, a large group of players was gathered. They had booked the entire tavern for themselves, but even so, they all looked extremely glum, as if someone in their family had passed away.
Bang!
In a fit of rage, Aotabo violently smashed his beer mug into the table.
“You bunch of useless scrubs. I’m trying to play this f***ing game!”
The players around him were silent for fear of saying anything that might aggravate their guild leader…
All the players in the entire tavern were members of the Yokai Legion Guild. As the guild system had yet to be released, they could only use their “self-made channels” and the in-game Friends system to communicate with each other.
Similarly, they didn’t have a dedicated guild headquarters, so they could only conduct their meetings like this, in one of Qingmu Town’s taverns.
(P.S.: A self-made channel was like a “chatroom” in QQ, and it was just a temporary set-up. The real guild system would be more like a permanent QQ chat group, with more features and benefits.)
He was met with complete silence.
Nobody in the room dared to follow up on his comments.
Because it was clear to everyone that their guild leader was still seething with anger.
Gulp!
Aotabo downed all the liquid in his mug in a single mouthful.
The drink was the butterbeer the tavern sold at the price of one Copper per cup.
Just like the real world, the cities in the world of “Demon Realm” had many commercial shops, and some of these shops sold food and beverages. However, all of these products cost in-game money, and they were much more expensive than food in the real world!
The Federal Government initially started the world of “Demon Realm” as a way to create more jobs for people. It wasn’t meant to be people’s source of “happiness.” After all, people still needed to live in the real world, and if people could find their “happiness” in the virtual world, it would lead to a societal collapse in the real world. If that happened, the extinction of the human race wouldn’t be far off.
As such, the food in the world of “Demon Realm” was designed to be extremely bland. The objective was to allow players to enjoy the “role-playing” aspects of eating and drinking, but not to savor the taste of the food.
It would be sometime later in the future, when the world of “Demon Realm” had been completely integrated into people’s lives, that human society would begin to change.
When that time came, the average person would “work” in the day—They would stay in Demon Realm and work seven to eight hours a day (the time limit on the VR helmet) to earn money in the game. Then, exchanging the profits they made in the day for real-life currency, they could enjoy an evening of rest and leisure activities.
For the privileged in upper-class society, life was very different for them. They logged on to Demon Realm during their “sleeping hours” (a benefit of using the best VR gaming modules), so they were able to maintain a normal lifestyle in the day. It could be said that they were killing two birds with one stone.
In summary, the amount of time upper-class people had to experience life was basically double the amount that the average person had.
Due to this, there was a joke that circulated in human society—
“When you’re busy working (in the daytime), other people are enjoying their life. When you’re tired and resting in bed, other people are still enjoying their life (at night).”
“The poor are not worthy of living a ‘real life.'”
Going back to the main story, the entire bar was quiet for a while before the silence was finally broken—
“Aosagibi, give me your report,” Aotabo asked in a low, serious voice. “What’s the current situation with our guild?”
Next to him, the handsome youth stopped swirling the drink in his mug. Faced with aotabo’s question, the youth appeared nonchalant. He didn’t show any nervousness like the other guild members.
That handsome youth was the only one in the room who could speak up and answer aotabo.
After all, he was the vice guild leader of the Yokai Legion Guild, and also aotabo’s younger brother.
“The situation our guild is currently in can be described as absolutely awful.” Aosagibi shook his head as he continued. “During the ‘Stygian Night Invasion,’ very few of our members survived—less than 20 in total. The other members all died at least once.”
Without waiting for aotabo’s angry reaction, he said something that infuriated his brother even more—
“The worst part of it is that some of our elite members even died twice.
“In the next two hours, they can forget about leaving the city. Just get them to stay here in Qingmu Town and do some regular quests (such as simple fetch quests), and get by with what experience they can scrounge up.”
Bang!
Aotabo angrily smashed the table again, and he couldn’t help but burst out swearing—
“This son of a b*tch story event!!!”
“Calm down a little. We first need to figure out what player caused all this to happen.”
Aosagibi was much more composed than his older brother. He didn’t lose his temper, and instead looked pointedly at one of his guild members—
“Alphabetkun, you were there on the scene. Tell me the full details of what happened.”
“Yes, Vice Guild Leader, sir!”
Alphabetkun quivered in surprise when he was called upon, and he immediately leapt to his feet and said, “This was all caused by the player called ‘lacuna’!
“Butterkid and I were originally doing the mail delivery quest, as we were assigned. However, that lacuna player used some method I couldn’t figure out to get Pulitzer to make him a flask of spring water. Then after that…
“That lacuna suddenly drew his sword and killed Pulitzer right there on the spot. That ultimately triggered the start of the ‘Stygian Night Invasion’!”
Aosagibi rapped his fist on the tabletop and asked coolly:
“So what you’re saying is, that lacuna player killed Pulitzer, which triggered the ‘Stygian Night Invasion’ to start early?”
“Yes sir!” alphabetkun answered, nodding confidently.
Hearing this confirmation, aosagibi looked at the guild leader of the Yokai Legion Guild. “Big brother, have you heard of ‘lacuna’—This in-game ID?”
“Never heard of it.” Aotabo shook his head, thinking for a moment before coming to a verdict: “From what we know, that player must be an alpha tester. And, he has more experience in the game than we do, so he must be at least a ‘Server Load Test player’ (or 2nd Test player, only inferior to 1st Test players)…
“Only a limited number of people were in the Server Load Test, and I know all their names by heart. But I’ve never heard of someone going by the name of ‘lacuna.’
“It would seem that this player purposely chose to use a new name so that other people wouldn’t know his true identity…”
After aotabo said all this, he rapped the tabletop and said coolly: “Hmph! So what if he’s a ‘Server Load Test player’? Even though I’m just an Alpha Tester (3rd Test player, also known as Real Alpha Tester), I’m still the Guild Leader of the Yokai Legion Guild, one of the Ethereal Mirage Guild’s peripheral guilds!
“If you bully the dog, you still need to fear its master! We have the Ethereal Mirage Guild backing us, and this Server Load Test player is trying to cause a revolt?!”
Bang, bang, bang!!!
Aotabo picked up his mug and madly slammed it against the tabletop as he bellowed in rage:
“Search! All of you get out there and search for him!!!
“I have to find that ‘lacuna.’ This grievance, we can’t just let it go like this!!!”
The guild members all hurried to voice their agreement—
“That’s right! We can’t forgive that lacuna!”
“If anyone spots lacuna, shout it out on the communications channel, and we can group up and go butcher him!”
“Remember his name! We’ll turn him into a corpse!!!”
All the guild members were growing excited when suddenly aotabo received an incoming call. As he was still in a bad mood, he answered the call without even checking the caller’s name—
“Hey! Who’re you… Aiyah! Boss onmoraki, I didn’t realize it was you, sir!”
Aotabo was shocked. He immediately changed his attitude and said placatingly,
“This is aotabo. Please give me your orders, boss!”
Right after he said this, the orders came from the other side of the phone call. Aotabo nodded and bowed as he acknowledged the orders:
“Yes… Yes… Yes, that’s right… What?! No… Not a problem!
“O… okay…”
When he hung up, aotabo looked deflated, as though his soul had left his body. Seeing that something was the matter, aosagibi couldn’t help but ask, “Big bro, what’s up?”
“Ahh!” Aotabo let out a sigh. “The orders have come down from above. The ‘Witching Hour Guild’ isn’t going to participate in the Luna Lake incident. Instead, they’ll aim for another region first achievement while they also prepare to clear the ‘Stygian Labyrinth.’
“As for the Luna Lake incident… We have to do it by ourselves!”
The “Witching Hour Guild” was superior to the Yokai Legion Guild, and they received their orders directly from the “Ethereal Mirage Guild.” Compared to the peripheral guilds like the Yokai Legion Guild, the “Witching Hour Guild” was considered as one of the true core guilds.
In the entire Starry Duchy, the “Witching Hour Guild” was a top tier guild!
Even so, no matter how powerful a top tier guild was, there would be equally strong enemies. Moreover, the “Ethereal Mirage Guild” had made many enemies, and these enemies were powerful guilds in their own right.
As a subordinate, the “Witching Hour Guild” had to follow the orders of the “Ethereal Mirage Guild.” Hence, when the “Ethereal Mirage Guild” found that the benefit of doing something wasn’t worth the effort of sending their subordinates, they would naturally change their targets—The Luna Lake incident was a perfect example of this.
“God d*mn it!”
Aotabo slammed the table ferociously and asked in frustration—
“Who’s that bastard? Who snatched the region first reward for completing a ‘Super Grade story event’?!”
“Alright, alright. You need to stop getting angry.” Aosagibi tried to pacify his brother. “The die has been cast, and we can only depend on ourselves now—Lucky for us, we’ve already made arrangements beforehand to secure the key equipment for the Luna Lake incident!”
“That’s true.” Aotabo nodded in agreement and said, “We let floralteapot go ahead of us to the Gray Fog Village and receive the story event there, and because of that, he ended up avoiding this whole mess (referring to the disaster of the Stygian Night Invasion). Aiyah, that kid really got lucky this time…”
Aosagibi smiled slightly and added, “That’s right. If we take into account the sequence of events, floralteapot should be at the part in the story event where—
“He should be about to meet the ‘Forest Watchman,’ right?”
…….
At the same time…
Through a thick shroud of mist, Ye Kong gradually made his way to the Dark Mist Forest’s Forest Watchman and stood in front of him—
“You… You are…”
Seeing the watchman’s surprised expression, Ye Kong waved hello and greeted him with a smile:
“Hello there, Mister Forest Watchman.”