"Unless, of course, this piece of equipment was prepared for players from the 'Stygian Night Kingdom Server'!!!"
Ye Kong raised his eyebrows. He quickly began to understand the underlying reasons behind what was happening—
"I think I see now...
"In the beginning stages of the game, the soldiers patrolling Qingmu Town are only level five. The reason for this isn't some kind of 'background set-up,' but to create a NPC kill quest for players from the 'Stygian Night Kingdom Server'!
"In the game world of 'Demon Realm,' every story event has its inverse, and everything has two sides!"
"Players from Yggdmillennia can participate in the 'Stygian Night Invasion' story event, so it stands to reason that players from the Stygian Night Kingdom can also participate in the 'Stygian Night Invasion' story event! During the event, our quest had a 'survival' theme, so by deductive reasoning, that means the Stygian players' quest should have an 'invasion' theme—it would be the exact opposite of ours, and the pair would be opposites of each other!"
Ye Kong equipped the "City Guard's Armguards," the corner of his mouth slightly curling up into a grin. "If my guess is correct, out of all the players in the Stygian Night Kingdom, those with the highest combined reputation score would automatically be awarded the 'invasion' quest—they would join forces with the Stygian Night Kingdom's army and invade Yggdmillennia!
"Players from Yggdmillennia with the highest reputation score are automatically given the 'SOS' quest, and players from Stygian Night Kingdom with the highest reputation are automatically given the 'invasion' quest. They're two sides of the same coin, which confirms my line of thinking—
"Everything in 'Demon Realm' has two sides!"
Ye Kong flexed his wrist and quickly realized that his "Accuracy" stat had improved. This meant that if he entered combat, his attacks would be more difficult to "Dodge." The Accuracy attribute was a good countermeasure against Dexterity-type classes.
At the same time, Ye Kong continued his analysis. "Looks like this patrol soldier from the city guard corps was a special mob prepared for players from the 'Stygian Night Kingdom Server.' That would explain why he dropped Bronze gear, even though he's not a Sub-Elite Grade mob.
"Furthermore, the 'Stygian Night Invasion' is scheduled to start in half an hour. When that happens, the Stygian players capable of killing soldiers would be limited to the top-class professional gamers. The 'Demon Realm' Main AI is so powerful that it must have predicted this and prepared a reasonable reward. When that happens, only the Stygian players who are top-class professional gamers will be able to kill soldiers.
"To sum up my findings, the system designated the 'City Guard Set' as a reward, and the main purpose of the Set Bonus, 'Glory,' which players gained upon collecting the whole set, was to reduce their 'Hated' level. Players coming from Stygian Night Kingdom into Yggdmillennia naturally start with a 'Hated' reputation level. By collecting the full City Guard Set, these players could raise their reputation level to 'Hostile,' and would no longer be the target of NPC attacks!"
Ye Kong paused for a moment, as a question that had bothered him in his past life had finally been answered. "That explains it. Last time, when the 'Stygian Night Invasion' happened, those players from the Stygian Night Kingdom joined with the army and did whatever they wanted, yet Thors (Winter Army Commander - Qingmu Town's reinforcements) didn't kill them, and they managed to escape scot-free.
"The truth is, they were using 'Glory' to remove their 'Hated' reputation!"
Ye Kong looked at the ground. Other than the armguard the soldier dropped, there was a steel blade and two pieces of bread—
Fine Steel Sword (White Gear)
Equipment Attributes: Attack +4
Level Requirement: Level 0
Class Restriction: Berserker, Weapon Specialist
It was a regular steel sword. Ye Kong didn't pick it up, instead choosing to take the bread—
Normal Food Item - Bread
Item Effect: Upon consumption, players will receive the "HP Recovery" status, which lasts until HP is full (can only be consumed when "Out of Combat," and receiving an attack will terminate the effect).
"It's a good thing he dropped two pieces of bread. Otherwise, I would have had to rely on 'resting' to recover HP, which would waste a few minutes."
Ye Kong ate the piece of bread, and as he did so, his body gained an HP Recovery effect. His health quickly shot back up, and in less than 10 seconds he had recovered back to full health.
"Great. Now it's time for me to set a 'trap.'"
Ye Kong still hadn't picked up the steel sword. On the contrary, he kicked it into the middle of the small alleyway. Then, he used "Aura Suppression" to hide in the shadows near the entryway, and began his waiting.
"According to what I know about the situation in Qingmu Town, a patrol squad is made up of three soldiers, and if a soldier doesn't report back in time, another soldier will come to look for him...
"It shouldn't take more than five minutes for the next soldier to arrive!"
It seemed like Lady Luck was on Ye Kong's side, because in less than three minutes, the sound of footsteps could be heard from the entrance of the alleyway. The very next moment, an armored soldier came hurriedly rushing in. When he saw the steel sword lying in the middle of the alleyway, the color drained from his face—
"Kite!"
At this point in time, it should be said that "Demon Realm" had incredible AI settings. Even an inconsequential patrol guard was given a unique personality and personal background information by the Main AI, and could be mistaken for a real human being.
Even mobs in the wilderness were given different character traits and combat instincts.
This also meant that the mobs in "Demon Realm" were more difficult to defeat, especially when they were humanoids, as their intelligence in combat was on par with that of players. The soldier that Ye Kong had dealt with was a good example of this.
However, sometimes the AI's own intelligence could be used against it, as Ye Kong was about to demonstrate now.
"This is Kite's sword!" The armored soldier ran to the middle of the alleyway and knelt down quickly. The moment he reached out to touch the sword...
Swish!
Ye Kong made his move without any hesitation. The sharp, fang-like point of the rapier slipped out from the shadows and slashed into the armored soldier's neck!
-34!
A bright red number burst forth.
As the attack landed, the armored soldier stumbled, unable to stabilize his body—the armored soldier was in a "Kneeling" position, which weakened his "Balance" determination value, making it easier for enemies to send him sprawling to the ground!
Bang!
This was the sound of the soldier collapsing onto the ground.
Whoosh!
This was the sound of the rapier cutting through the air, as in the next moment, the blade was once again hacked into the soldier's neck!
-31!
The newly equipped City Guard's Armguards had increased Ye Kong's "Accuracy," which not only made his attacks more difficult to avoid, but also made it easier for him to hit his enemy's vitals!
The series of blows had instantly taken off half of the soldier's health!
"Roar!"
The armored soldier finally managed to react. He drew his steel sword to activate Whirlwind Slash, but with a flick of Ye Kong's wrist, the Assassin's Sword transformed into a wispy black spike. Swordsman skill - Cleave!
Now that he was already familiar with the soldier's skills, why would he give him the opportunity to use them against him again?!
-48!
The armored soldier's move was interrupted, and he entered into a Stunned state.
Seizing the chance for a follow-up attack, Ye Kong moved to attack again, and his sword sliced through the soldier—
-20
Poof!
The armored soldier's HP had been emptied, and his body disintegrated into a fine, sparkling dust.
"As expected, a piece of Bronze equipment is incredibly helpful in combat in the early stages of the game."
Ye Kong felt relieved. Although he was able to use the soldier's unique "AI intelligence" to lure him into a "trap," the City Guard's Armguards still played a crucial role. The two attributes the equipment provided both proved to be extremely useful in the fight.
The City Guard's Armguards were a piece of Bronze equipment, so the basic attribute (Accuracy in this case) value was 130% of an equivalent piece of White equipment. Furthermore, Bronze equipment provided a bonus to one of the Four Attributes (Strength in this case), which made it better than Black Iron gear. This was because the bonus that Black Iron equipment provided (a bonus White gear did not provide), was for a Lower Attribute, which was less useful than one of the "Four Attributes" (because the Four Attributes also affected the Lower Attributes but not vice versa).
The order of importance was accepted to be as follows: Advanced Attributes > Four Attributes > Lower Attributes (such as Attack Speed and Resistance).
For example, if the equipment was a Black Iron Gauntlet, its Equipment Attributes would be Accuracy +5, Resistance +2 (but Strength also increases Resistance). Therefore, the effect of this equipment was inferior to that of its Bronze equivalent.
The City Guard's Armguards were extremely useful, because both "Accuracy +6" and "Strength +2" were relevant in improving Ye Kong's offensive capabilities. This was because in most cases, Swordsman players would want to allocate some stat points to "Strength" to ensure they could inflict enough damage during melee combat.
Assassins, on the other hand, focused on damage from "Poison" and "Bleed," and didn't value Strength. This resulted in the "exotic" Swordsman class being the only Dexterity-type class that needed to increase their Strength attribute.
System Notification: You have slain Qingmu Town - Regular Soldier, and have received 40 points of experience (high level mob kill).
System Notification: You have successfully slain the target for Story Event - The Hidden Traitor (2/3).
Ye Kong glanced at his experience level. Right now, his experience was at 80/100 points, and he was about to fill his experience bar and level up. As one might expect from a high level mob kill, he only needed to kill one more soldier to level up to level one.
However, Ye Kong's primary concern right now wasn't experience, but the items the soldier dropped. After the soldier's corpse had disappeared, two objects had appeared on the ground—bread and a Bronze belt!
City Guard's Belt (Bronze Gear - City Guard Set)
Equipment Attributes: Maximum HP +15, Stamina +2
Level Requirement: Level 0
Class Restriction: Swordsman, Assassin
Set Bonus: When you have the full City Guard Set equipped, you will receive an additional "Glory" bonus.
It was the second piece of the City Guard Set!
"As expected, the soldiers in Qingmu Town had been assigned as 'quest targets' by the Main AI—equipment from the City Guard Set is guaranteed to drop when a player kills one of the soldiers!
Ye Kong couldn't hold back his excitement. If his assumption was correct, by just killing one more soldier, he would surely get the last piece of equipment he needed to complete the City Guard Set and activate its set bonus!
This was all thanks to the "welfare" provided to Stygian players.
Based on how the story event unfolded in his past life, the Stygian players were given less than a quarter of an hour during the invasion. Furthermore, they didn't have the help of the "Assassin's Sword," so killing a soldier wasn't an easy task for them.
Within the time limit they had, they could only kill three soldiers at most!
If the equipment dropped from the Qingmu soldiers had "repeats," there was no way Stygian players would be able to reliably complete the equipment set. Thus, the Main AI must have "fixed" the drops—which meant the equipment the Qingmu soldiers dropped must be different from what the players already had.
"Seems like the Main AI has 'fixed' the drops, and now I get to reap the rewards."
Ye Kong equipped the Bronze belt, and his HP total soared from 30 points to 55 points (the belt gave +15 points of Maximum HP, and each point of Stamina increased HP by 5 points). This was almost double the original amount!
Ye Kong picked up the rest of the items off the floor, and after putting them in his bag, he walked out of the alleyway—
"There's one last target...
"I'll search him out myself!!!"