"I appreciate your kind words of praise, O great succubus—
"Lady Lilith."
Ye Kong bowed deeply. He was behaving very calmly despite the old beggar's drastic change in appearance. Evidently, Ye Kong had guessed the old beggar's real identity a long time ago—the Succubus - Lilith.
Succubus - Lilith (Level 15):
Demon, HP 350/350
She was a level 15 Demon!
As they were currently "allied forces," Ye Kong could see Lilith's level and total HP. Lilith's power was even stronger than Pulitzer's!
"Looks like she's the 'Lilith' that the Blind Priest - Modr was talking about. As one might expect of an assassin from the Stygian Night Kingdom, her strength is certainly great.
"If Pulitzer hadn't used his secret weapon, she probably wouldn't have perished in the assassination attempt, would she?"
Ye Kong looked at the young succubus standing before him and understood everything perfectly: "The one I need to hand in the story event quest to isn't Blind Priest Modr, but the original assassin - Lilith.
"At the very beginning, I received the story event directly from Lilith.
"Now, I'm handing in the quest to her, and I'll receive the story event reward. It's all come full circle. The start and the end are one and the same, which is one of the signature characteristics of a 'Demon Realm' story event."
As he thought these things to himself, Ye Kong moved very meticulously, following the Blind Sect's rules of etiquette with textbook precision. The small party of Stygian players watching him all did a double-take at this.
Observing Ye Kong going through the formalities, the Succubus - Lilith smiled in amusement. "You don't need to be so humble. You've done a magnificent job on this quest, and you're fully deserving of my praise."
Saying this, Lilith stepped closer and reached out to place a hand on Ye Kong's cheek, her beautiful eyes staring deeply into his own.
"Your black eyes are deep and captivating. I am very fond of them."
She spoke in a gentle, yet brilliantly clear voice. It had a kind of unique charm, and her words floated through the air to the listening ears of the Stygian players—
"What's going on?"
"That lacuna, why is he being so intimate with the assassin from the Stygian Night Kingdom?!"
Decadentdude was dumbfounded. He couldn't fathom what had possibly made a Stygian Night Kingdom NPC character become so "close" to a Yggdmillennia player. On top of that, the young succubus seemed to have mentioned something about a "quest."
The other players were also at a loss. Then, next to him princesskaho thought of something—
"Oh no! Is lacuna going to snatch the story event we're after?"
Once she said this, the rest of the Stygian players went pale with shock.
"What? Our story event is going to get stolen?!"
"Doesn't that mean we came back here for nothing?"
"We're done for. We've wasted so much time already, and now we can't even get the story event..."
At that moment, they all felt crestfallen. At first, they were hopeful about having found an "important story event," but none of them thought that the young succubus could be someone else's exclusive NPC. The story event had been taken from them a long time ago!
This feeling they had was like the feeling you get when you pick up a wallet on the street and open it up excitedly, only to find a strip of paper inside with these words written on it: "I've taken everything in the wallet already. Congratulations on finding an empty wallet."
It was a roller coaster of emotions with no reward at the end.
At the same time, Ye Kong noticed the players hanging around, and after a little thinking, he understood their intentions—
"That group of Stygian players must have thought Lilith was holding on to a 'story event' for them.
"Unfortunately for them, I'd taken Lilith's story event long ago, and I've already finished the quest. The only thing I have left to do is to finish handing in the quest and then receive the full story event reward."
It should be pointed out that Ye Kong had completed the entire story event as a "solo player," so he didn't need to split the quest reward with anyone else. This guaranteed that he would receive an awesomely high reward!
As for the party of Stygian players... they wouldn't get even a single scrap!
"This b*stard. He got to it before anyone else..." Princesskaho gritted her pearly white teeth. At this moment, she really hated that lacuna player, and she wanted to just take up her staff and lob a Poison Fire Spell into his face. It was a pity she didn't have the guts to do it.
The other player's reputation with the Blind Sect was higher than hers, so if she attacked him, she would make the Stygian Army angry, and perhaps even the young succubus too. Not only would that end badly for herself, but also the entire party!
For this reason, princesskaho had no choice but to swallow her anger. Her two dimpled cheeks flushed crimson, a clear sign of how angry she really was.
The other players were equally outraged, but they dared not act rashly. Instead, they merely "assaulted" Ye Kong with their vicious glares.
Ye Kong didn't approve of what they were doing, and he said ruefully, "Ahh, if only that group of Stygian players would split up..."
In any case, Ye Kong's reputation with the Blind Sect was high enough that if he attacked them, the worst that could happen was that he would be expelled from the area by the Stygian Army and would lose some reputation score. On the other hand, if Ye Kong managed to kill them, he would receive new items (players who died would drop some of their items), and also increase his reputation with the Starry Duchy. The advantages obviously outweighed the disadvantages.
At present, Ye Kong needed to "remediate" his reputation with the Starry Duchy.
The reason for this was that reputation with the Starry Duchy was far more precious than reputation with the Horticultural Church. If Ye Kong maintained a "Neutral" reputation with the Starry Duchy, he wouldn't be able to receive story events from the Starry Duchy in the future.
He had no choice but to take the hit to his reputation, however, just like when he had killed Pulitzer in front of a crowd of other players—Any action related to a faction would have two effects (both positive and negative).
This phenomenon precisely represented the "duality" of the game "Demon Realm"!
Now that things had come to a head, Ye Kong was left with only two choices—
The first choice was to work hard at salvaging his reputation with the Starry Duchy and raise it to "Good."
The second choice was to continue down this dark path and throw in his lot with the Stygian Night Kingdom. He could travel to the cities controlled by the Blind Sect and use his "Friendly" reputation level to start his game anew there.
"Now, I can only place my hopes in Lilith's reward."
Ye Kong looked at the succubus in front of him and thought hopefully to himself. "After all, she's even stronger than Pulitzer, so she should be able to give me a generous reward for the story quest, as well as reputation with the Stygian Night Kingdom."
His first choice was no longer viable, because in the early stages of the game, the only way to increase one's reputation with the Starry Duchy was to kill players from the Stygian Night Kingdom Server.
However, that group of Stygian players would return to their homeland at the end of the "Stygian Night Invasion," and they definitely wouldn't remain in Qingmu Town. Furthermore, the way they were now, gathered together as a party, Ye Kong couldn't take them on all at once.
It was apparent that the second choice was more beneficial to him, so Ye Kong had no choice but to take it.
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
Lilith looked at Ye Kong, who was deep in thought, and couldn't help but smile charmingly. "It seems like you're still too 'restrained.' What a cute explorer you are."
As she said this, Lilith stretched out an open palm with a ball of red light on it. This was the Divine Bestowment of the God of the Blind - Hodr, and to put it simply, it was the reward for the story event "The Hidden Traitor - Final Act."
This was the true reward for the story event. The earlier quest rewards were just small prizes for completing certain stages of the event. They were just a fraction of the true reward—not even 10%. The final reward was the best part of the entire story event!
Lilith stretched her arm out further and moved her palm toward Ye Kong's forehead.
Once she touched his forehead, it would signify that he had "handed in" the quest.
At that time, Ye Kong would receive a generous story event reward, the value of which exceeded his imagination.
Some distance away, the four Stygian players were also shooting envious glares at him. At that moment, Ye Kong had become the center of everyone's attention.
"It's all over now..."
Ye Kong lowered his head, as though he were a nobleman about to be crowned. The shadow that fell over his face made him look like a ghost—like a spirit that had fallen into the abyss.
They looked on as Lilith's palm drew closer and closer to his forehead...
Swish!
Suddenly, Ye Kong crouched down, avoiding the succubus' palm. At the same time, his right hand flashed with a silver light—
Whoosh!
A sleek ray of silver lunged toward Lilith's chest like a swimming dragon!
On closer observation, that flash of silver... It was the silver dagger dropped by Pulitzer!
Fwah!
It all happened too quickly for Lilith to react in time. She only saw the silver light and a single pair...
Of eyes filled with unwavering determination!
"In the game world of 'Demon Realm'..."
Ye Kong stabbed out wantonly with the dagger, the polished blade reflecting his resolute expression—
"Each story event has its inverse, and everything has two sides!"