Fwah!
Pulitzer disintegrated into a wave of sparkling dust and vanished.
"I succeeded."
Ye Kong watched as Pulitzer's corpse disappeared, and he felt relieved from the bottom of his heart.
He had to make far too many calculations and schemes just to get in this one sword strike—
He used the "Glory" effect to meet the conditions, triggering Pulitzer's spring water quest.
He used the blessing ritual of the flask to draw away Pulitzer's attention and cause his reaction speed to lag.
And he used his words to humiliate Pulitzer, intentionally angering him so that he would lose his focus.
He even included the other nearby players into his schemes, using their watchful gazes and their comments to further enrage Pulitzer!
Reputation score, the conditions to trigger a quest, the effect from the City Guard Set, the NPC response system mechanisms...
Ye Kong used all these tools to their fullest potential, and in so doing, he had just accomplished an unbelievable feat. Otherwise, with only the Assassin's Sword, he never would've been able to attack Pulitzer from behind and kill him with a single hit!
Just as Ye Kong released the tension he'd been carrying, a long chain of system notifications sounded one after the other—
System Notification: You have slain Horticultural Priest - Pulitzer, and gained 200 points of experience (high-level mob kill).
Your reputation score with the Horticultural Church has dropped by 30 points, and your reputation level has dropped to "Hostile."
Your reputation score with the Starry Duchy has dropped by 10 points, and your reputation level has dropped to "Neutral."
Your reputation score with the Blind Sect has increased by 30 points, and your reputation level has increased to "Friendly."
System Notification: Your Experience Level is full, and you have been successfully promoted to a Level 2 Swordsman.
System Notification: Congratulations, you have completed Story Event - "The Hidden Traitor - Final Act." Please return to the relevant NPC to hand in the quest.
Swish!
A wave of golden light washed over Ye Kong's body as he was promoted to a level two Swordsman.
Level two!
Even the guild leaders of the Yokai Legion Guild and the Hegemony Guild were only at level one with a nearly full experience bar. They would still need to hunt mobs for about five more minutes before they could be promoted to level two. Moreover, now that they had been caught by the Stygian Army, it was uncertain if they could survive their current predicament!
At this point, Ye Kong was the highest level player in Qingmu Town!
System Notification: Congratulations to Player - lacuna, you are the first player to complete a quest from an enemy faction. The system will now broadcast this announcement to the entire realm. Does the player wish to remain anonymous?
System Notification: Congratulations to Player - lacuna, you are the first player to achieve a "Friendly" reputation level. The system will now broadcast this announcement to the entire realm. Does the player wish to remain anonymous?
"I choose to remain anonymous!"
Ye Kong nodded. The news that Pulitzer had died at his hands couldn't be hidden from the two large guilds in Qingmu Town. After all, he had successfully killed Pulitzer in broad daylight, and many other players had witnessed the act.
However, by concealing his name, Ye Kong could limit the spread of the news of the Qingmu Town assassination incident to the Ethereal Mirage Guild's ring of influence, thereby avoiding the unwanted attention of other top tier guilds.
In this way, Ye Kong would have some leeway to develop himself further.
Furthermore, "Demon Realm" was extremely protective of its players' personal information, and kept it a guarded secret. Even high ranking officials in the Federal Government didn't have access to players' identities. As long as Ye Kong didn't do anything stupid, the Ethereal Mirage Guild would never discover his true identity.
Although, his in-game appearance and name were different in his real life.
.......
Qingmu Town
In a certain area of the merchant street, strawberryjam and rainbowcaramel were both in very low spirits. They were slumped in their chairs as though they were withering away. Strawberryjam was the first to speak, sighing, "I hope that 1st Test player doesn't bear a grudge against us for all this..."
"Ah, this is all because of you. You were the one who insisted on going after that guy and messing with him!" Rainbowcaramel shook her head as she rebuked strawberryjam, her tone revealing some disappointment in her friend's actions. But just as the words left her mouth, a system notification sounded.
System Announcement: Congratulations to an Anonymous Player for becoming the first player to complete a quest from an enemy faction. The player has received a system reward!
System Announcement: Congratulations to an Anonymous Player for becoming the first player to achieve a "Friendly" reputation level. The player has received a system reward!
Two notifications came in a row, and the player who had gotten the achievements was an "Anonymous Player"!
"Is that him?!"
Strawberryjam was shocked, and she leapt off the chair to her feet. At the same time, she noticed the strange phenomenon in the sky—a scene signifying the start of the "Stygian Night Invasion"!
"You're probably right. The player 'lacuna' accomplished all of this. Only he would choose to remain anonymous. Even then, for him to get two system announcements in a row, his style of doing things is too much..."
"Even 2nd Test players are no match for him. We're finished. It looks like he really is a 1st Test player."
Strawberryjam's face turned as pale as a sheet. When she merely considered the idea that she and rainbow might have gotten on his bad side, her heart filled with fear and unease, as well as an irrepressible sense of regret—
"If we had known this was going to happen, we wouldn't have provoked him."
"We're in deep trouble now." Rainbowcaramel's face was looking equally pale. "Now we can only hope that he shows us great mercy befitting his status..."
However, what the two ladies didn't know was that Ye Kong wasn't the least concerned about them.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he had already forgotten about what had happened.
.......
Clang!
After Pulitzer's corpse disappeared, two items dropped out onto the ground. One was a staff that was a pure white color, and the other was a small, silver-gray dagger. Ye Kong picked up the staff first, as it was a piece of Bronze equipment—
Devotee's Staff (Bronze Equipment)
Weapon Attributes: Attack +8, Intelligence +3, Strength +6, Recovery Effect +3
Level Requirement: Level 3
Class Restriction: Cleric, Priest, Bard
It was a decent quality Bronze staff, and it was a weapon tailored to healer classes. Although Ye Kong couldn't use it himself, he could still sell it for some good money. Especially with an excellent attribute in Recovery Effect +3, this alone would be enough to get the various guilds fighting over it. After all, in a party, the importance of a healer class speaks for itself.
Following this, Ye Kong picked up the silver-gray dagger. However, when he read through its attributes, his eyes grew wide, and he hastily stuffed the dagger into his backpack.
Then, Ye Kong put all three attribute points awarded to him after leveling up to level two into Dexterity yet again. Even without including the bonuses from his equipment, if he were wearing nothing, his Dexterity would be at 14 points!
At this moment, aside from the Forest Crystal Core, Devotee's Staff, and the silver-gray dagger, he also found a piece of Stellar Iron, as well as a production drawing for a level 10 "Pants of the Sea Serpent" (Gold Equipment).
The two new items were both system announcement rewards. Stellar Iron was mainly used to refine armor, and the production drawing was a single-use consumable item. After gathering all the required materials, one could use it to craft a piece of equipment.
The system announcement rewards were fairly generous as usual, and Ye Kong was very satisfied with what he received. On the other hand, the other players were close to having a mental breakdown—
Crack! Crack!!!
The Stygian Rifts in the sky grew larger, accompanied by the sound of the barriers grating together. In the next instant, a large number of Stygian Army troops leapt out from the rifts and landed on the ground with a crash one after the other!
Bang bang bang bang!!!
The earth seemed to wail from the impact, and the ground quaked continually. When the dust settled, hordes of Skeletal Soldiers, along with the odd Black Armored Knight, appeared on the streets of Qingmu Town!!!
Skeletal Soldier (Level 2), Undead, HP 60/60
Black Armored Knight (Level 5), Undead, HP 140/140
These were the vanguard troops of the Stygian Army!
"What the h*ll! They've already arrived here so soon?!"
Bigcat was practically on the verge of collapsing. His mail delivery quest was a failure, his experience level was stuck at around 85%, and he was still in a full set of gray equipment. How could he face up to the Stygian Army?!
"Kill!"
Unfortunately, the Stygian monsters didn't care what equipment you had. One of the Black Armored Knights roared out the command, and in the next moment, a sea of Skeletal Soldiers swarmed over, charging aggressively toward the players!
At the same time, the players in Qingmu Town received a new notification from the system—
System Notification: The Stygian Night Kingdom has invaded a town in Yggdmillennia. You have activated the Story Event - "Survival Instinct." Under the assault of the Stygian Army, please try your hardest to survive, and stay alive until reinforcements arrive.
Just like the original story event from the last time, players automatically received the "Survival Quest." However, history didn't completely repeat itself this time, as no players had received the "SOS Quest"—After all, Hudgens' life had been violently cut short!
"D*mn it! We need to run away quickly!!!"
The closed beta testers nearby quickly came to their senses one after the other, and fled desperately for their lives!
None of them had been able to complete the "Mail Delivery Quest," so without exception, they were all level zero players, without even a single piece of White equipment on them. They were definitely no match for the Skeletal Soldiers!
Even more critically, the Skeletal Soldiers outnumbered the players many times over!
"Hurry! Let's make a run for it and head to the merchant street. There are more Qingmu soldiers over there, so they should be able to hold off the enemy for a while!"
"Don't get killed by any of the enemy mobs, or we'll lose all our experience points!"
"Run away! Run, run, run, run!!!"
In that instant, the group of closed beta testers, who could all be called the cream of the crop, were fleeing with their tails between their legs...
Ye Kong remained where he was. He was like a reef in an ocean, entirely unaffected by the stormy seas around him.
Rumble, rumble...
The Skeletal Soldiers all "ignored" Ye Kong, and simply passed right by him. In addition to this, some of the Black Armored Knights who were passing by stopped in their tracks to show Ye Kong some knightly courtesy.
"It's finally begun, the Stygian Night Kingdom's invasion."
Ye Kong gazed at the group of closed beta testers who were fleeing into the distance, and his lips curled up slightly into a smirk.
"I've said it before...
"In this life, I'm not going to let you all have such an easy time."