Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The city guards were all at least level five!
The two soldiers stationed at the main entrance to the Violet Mercantile Association were also level five. At the start of the game, if regular players dared to try and force their way into the association building, they would invite the soldiers’ merciless attacks—and the consequences would be absolutely devastating!
This early in the game, players couldn’t defeat soldiers in a fight!
At this stage, even the professional gamers who were hunting mobs in the wilderness had only reached level one at most.
The majority of the players in those guilds were still at level zero, and their XP bars (XP bar refers to the Experience bar) were only slightly over half-full, close to level one.
It was extremely difficult to level up in “Demon Realm,” and it normally took about half an hour of hunting mobs in the wilderness for players to level up from level zero to level one. More capable players could form parties to speed up their mob hunting, and level up from level zero to level one in around 15 to 20 minutes.
Of course, top-class players like “rosegardencat” had discovered other methods, such as using hidden story events to rapidly increase their character level. Still, these players were ultimately in the minority, as most players relied on hunting mobs to level up in the early stages of the game.
Levels in “Demon Realm” also had a huge impact on combat. When there was a level difference of more than three levels, combat effects would be doubled. Therefore, a level five soldier was an unassailable target for a player in the early stages of the game.
In summary, it was impossible for Ye Kong to kill a city guard at this point in time. However, if he somehow managed to reach level two, he might have a slim chance of defeating them with his superb fighting skills.
“Good! I vow to prove my loyalty!”
Ye Kong nodded decisively, without a hint of hesitation on his face, as though he wasn’t worried at all about failing!
This was because Ye Kong knew that “Demon Realm” was a fairly polished game. Since this quest was included in the game, the designers must have taken the players’ starting levels into consideration. There was simply no way they would allow a level zero player to go head-to-head with a level five soldier.
“Excellent! The Blind Sect needs brave warriors like yourself!” Modr said. Sure enough, he flashed a small, sincere smile as he turned around to open a chest. From inside the chest, he drew out a rapier, which he then placed in Ye Kong’s hands—
Blind Sect Assassin’s Sword (Quest Equipment)
Weapon Attributes: Attack 12, Dexterity +6, Strength +6, Ignore Level Difference +5
Special Effect—Devotee Assassination: If the target of an attack is a devotee or soldier of the Horticultural Church, all attacks inflict twice the damage. Attacks on any other kinds of targets will be invalidated.
Level Requirement: None
Class Restriction: Swordsman
Note: This item can’t be traded or brought outside of town.
“Quest equipment!” Ye Kong’s eyelids twitched involuntarily. In his past life, he had never received quest equipment because the conditions for receiving quest equipment from the game were way too severe!
Quest equipment was only provided to the player under certain conditions. Completing the quest was surely impossible for even the strongest player in the entire game server!
For example, there was no player at this point in time who was at a level above level two, yet “The Hidden Traitor” required players to kill level five soldiers. Obviously, this was an impossible task, and it was far beyond any player’s capabilities!
Under these kinds of circumstances, the Main AI would ensure the feasibility of the quest by providing players with a piece of “Quest Equipment.”
In summary, Blind Priest Modr had given Ye Kong an “Assassin’s Weapon” (type of weapon was dependent on the player’s character class) to ensure that the quest could be reasonably carried out.
“O great priest, thank you for your generosity!”
Ye Kong took up the “Assassin’s Sword” and equipped it at once. Right away, his body felt lighter, and he felt like he had become more agile.
“This piece of quest equipment’s attack stat is comparable to the best level five equipment (Bronze gear)!”
Ye Kong looked at his Character Overview window and saw that his own Dexterity had been increased to 14 points, while his Strength had been increased to eight points. More importantly, the Assassin’s Sword came with the “Ignore Level Difference +5” attribute, so he didn’t have to worry about the level difference between himself and his opponent.
Additionally, the Assassin’s Sword provided him with 12 points of extra attributes, which was equivalent to gaining four levels worth of stats (three stat points were awarded each time players leveled up). This made up for his lack of attributes.
To further illustrate just how good this bonus was, normal weapons didn’t come with bonus attributes. They only provided an Attack bonus. Even the best level five weapon only came with four bonus attributes!
From this point of view, the Assassin’s Sword was clearly better than a Bronze weapon (at level five)!
Equipment was graded on a tiered scale, from low to high:
White/Refined White gear, Black Iron gear, Bronze gear, Platinum/Silver gear…
There were even more tiers of equipment beyond Platinum gear, but for now, however, at the start of the game, even receiving a piece of Black Iron gear was a rare occurrence for the average player.
Normally, Black Iron gear was only dropped by “Enhanced Grade” mobs in the wild, and a player suited up entirely in Black Iron gear was considered a “pro”—not to mention a player suited up in the higher-grade Bronze gear.
The Assassin’s Sword that Ye Kong had received was undoubtedly the strongest piece of equipment in the game at that point. Sadly, as a piece of quest equipment, it could only be used on specific targets relevant to the quest, could not be brought out of the town, and would have to be returned upon completing the quest.
“The mighty God of the Blind, Hodr, has always treated his devotees with peerless generosity!” Ye Kong said.
Blind Priest Modr smiled as he stretched out his hand and lightly touched Ye Kong’s forehead. “The Lord of the Blind shall always watch over you.”
As soon as the Priest said this, Ye Kong received a notification—
System Notification: You have received the “Camouflage” effect. The duration of this effect is 70 minutes.
Special Effect Camouflage: When the player kills NPCs around Qingmu Town, as long as there are no witnesses to the killing, the player’s reputation score won’t be affected, and the player’s actions will not be exposed.
“This special effect?!” Ye Kong’s eyebrows shot up. This “Camouflage” effect fully addressed all his concerns, as it was the perfect solution to the problems he would face when assassinating the soldiers.
In most cases, when a player killed an NPC in a town, the deed would be exposed immediately, and the player’s reputation score would drop. For instance, if a player were to kill a soldier in Qingmu Town, they would become the enemy of the “Horticultural Church,” and even their reputation score with the Starry Duchy would drop!
Now that Ye Kong had received the “Camouflage” effect, as long as he ensured that he left no witnesses alive, he wouldn’t have to worry about his reputation suffering.
“Go forth, brave explorer.” This time, Modr’s mouth twisted into an evil grin, as though he could already see his new protégé slaying the soldiers.
“As you will it.”
Ye Kong offered a slight bow before turning to leave the church hall. The sunlight streamed diagonally through the doors at the end of the hall, and his shadow stretched longer and longer behind him as he walked toward them…
It looked like a gruesome, man-eating monster.
…
In the vicinity of the Violet Mercantile Association, two figures were lying prostrate in a secluded patch of grass.
“You’re sure he’s going to come out from there?” rainbowcaramel skeptically asked her BFF.
“Of course I’m sure!” strawberryjam replied, full of confidence. “There’s only one way in or out of the Violet Mercantile Association building, so as long as we stay crouched here in the grass, we can wait for him to come out, and then we can catch him!”
Hearing this, rainbowcaramel nodded and said, “You have a point. We need to catch that player and get him to take us inside the association building! If we have to, we can always just give him some money!”
The suspicious people in the grass were the two heiresses from before. They were, without question, the most bored and carefree of the casual players. They didn’t care about leveling up or getting equipment. They only cared about doing things they deemed “interesting”…
“There he is, there he is!!!”
strawberryjam’s pretty eyes widened as a delicate-looking youth walked out from the association building’s main entrance. As he exited the building, the soldiers guarding the doors saluted him!
That kind of treatment was unimaginable to the two girls!
“That’s the guy! Let’s catch him quickly!”
The two girls rushed out of the grass in a mad dash toward Ye Kong!
At the same time…
“Someone’s coming?!” Ye Kong felt his heart skip a beat as he perceived the presence of the two players. It should be pointed out that his Dexterity stat had reached 14 points (Dexterity improved the player’s Aura Perception capabilities). At this stage in the game, his perception ability was far and away the best in the world!
“Two female players?”
Ye Kong’s brow furrowed. The two were menacingly bearing down on him, and because it didn’t seem like they would be easy to reason with, he made a split second decision—
Whoosh!
Ye Kong pushed off the ground and quickly darted away, not giving them the time of day!
“Hey! Don’t run away!!!”
strawberryjam grew anxious as she desperately tried to catch up to him. However, she had chosen the Magician class, and with her pair of short legs, she couldn’t even outrun her BFF (rainbowcaramal was a Holy Cavalier). How could she possibly catch up to Ye Kong?
Hence, the players in the nobles district got to witness an amusing sight—
A black-haired youth was running like the wind, too fast for anyone to even see his name, and disappeared out of sight as quickly as he appeared.
A moment later, he was followed by two sweet-faced female players, who were chasing the youth and shouting at the top of their lungs:
“Stop running away! Stop right there, you. Stop running right now!!!”
“I’m begging you, stop running!”
“What are your conditions? Just tell us what you want!”
For a time, the nearby players watched, dumbfounded. Then, one by one, they shot envious looks toward where the youth had vanished.
“Tsk tsk tsk, doing this in broad daylight. What has the world come to… Damn, I’m so jealous!”
“WTF, what kind of situation is this? A ‘rubbish man’ being chased by two beautiful ladies?”
“Sinful… So sinful!!!”
“Hang on a second. Isn’t that the ‘strawberry heiress’? And the other one looks like rainbowcaramel…”
In the rich players circle, the two girls were actually pretty famous. Many of the other (rich) casual players knew them, and they quickly recognized who they were, which incited another round of commotion.
However, the two female leads of this unfolding drama couldn’t care less about what other people thought—and this was especially true for strawberryjam.
This was because strawberryjam had realized, to her despair, that she had been left in the dust. Even her BFF was nowhere to be seen.
Whoosh!
Ye Kong dodged sideways and slipped into a small alleyway. After several seconds had passed, rainbowcaramel caught up to him. “Oh no, I don’t see any sign of him!”
rainbowcaramel ran into the small alleyway but saw that it was completely empty. How could she pick out the black-haired youth’s trail when nothing indicated that he had passed through here?
“Oh God, can you guys run slower?” strawberryjam finally caught up to her friend. Sadly, as a Magician class, with her small, short legs, she couldn’t match the speed of those in the melee classes. It was driving her crazy!
“That b*stard. He just ran away without even saying a word!” strawberryjam huffed in anger. She scanned her surroundings with her pretty eyes, then said through gritted teeth, “Where is that guy? This little lady is going to peel his skin and tear his flesh…”
“Come on, that’s enough. We can’t find him.” rainbowcaramel was the more composed of the two. “He outran us so easily. Even though I’m from a Strength-type class, in the early stages of the game, my speed movement shouldn’t be much different from the Dexterity-type classes. Seems like this player added a lot of points into his Dexterity. He’s probably an expert at the game, so we can’t do much about him.”
“No!” Thoroughly offended by the youth’s actions, strawberryjam refused to accept this. “I’m a lady, not some kind of monster. Why did he have to flee from us like that?! I need to find him and question him to get a clear answer!”
At first, strawberryjam only wanted to enter the Violet Mercantile Association to satisfy her curiosity (she was just a casual gamer after all). However, Ye Kong’s reaction had hurt her ego, and she couldn’t help but doubt her own attractiveness—was she an “ugly ghost”?
Obviously, strawberryjam was not an ugly ghost, objectively-speaking. On the contrary, she and rainbowcaramel were both very attractive, sweet-looking young ladies. In gaming circles, where female players were already an uncommon sight, beautiful, rich female players were a rarity.
On most days, the two girls enjoyed the attention that was showered on them. Why would anybody treat them like “ghosts”?
The young ladies’ primary concern was no longer getting into the association building, but their dignity!
strawberryjam huffed angrily. “Let’s go! We need to find ourselves some helpers, and we can start with our circle of friends. We need to search for that guy!”
“Alright!”
rainbowcaramel was also feeling a little slighted, and she agreed at once to strawberryjam’s proposal. The two ladies left the alleyway deeply aggrieved, bearing strong grudges.
After the two of them were gone, there was a rippling movement on one of the walls of the small alleyway. In the very next moment, Ye Kong’s body was revealed. He had used the Swordsman’s Innate Skill: “Aura Suppression.”
Aura Suppression: Upon activation, the user’s aura is concealed (unable to move in this state), and the user’s perception is improved.
The Swordsman’s “Aura Suppression” skill was different from the Assassin’s “Stealth” skill. The latter could be used while moving around, while the former could only be used while stationary. Otherwise, the concealment effect would be lost.
However, as a trade-off, “Aura Suppression” had the bonus effect of increasing the player’s perception. Furthermore, the concealment effect of “Aura Suppression” was stronger than that of the Assassin’s “Stealth” skill. It allowed users to fully blend into the background, while the Assassin’s “Stealth” was an imperfect camouflage (the user became more or less translucent).
“Those two female players from just now…”
Ye Kong looked in the direction in which they’d left, and couldn’t resist taking a jab at them—
“Is there something wrong with their heads?”
Ding ding ding!!!
Suddenly, the sound of bells ringing derailed Ye Kong’s train of thought. As the bells rang out at regular intervals, he looked for the source of the ringing and saw the tall bell tower in the center of the town.
At that point in time, all the players in Qingmu Town turned their attention to the bell tower.
“It’s about to begin…”
Ye Kong’s expression grew serious, because of what the bells signified for the start of the game—in the very first hour of the game, the bell tower would ring every quarter of an hour (15 minutes).
Therefore, when the bell tower rang out three times…
It signaled the start of the “Stygian Night Invasion”!
“That doesn’t leave me with much time.”
Ye Kong hastily turned around, gradually fading back into the shadows to begin his waiting game—
He was waiting for his first “prey” to come around!