"How can this be? The Forest Watchman is dead?!"
In that instant, floralteapot and his other two teammates stopped in their tracks, and stood rooted to the spot.
It was because they had all heard the notification regarding their quest. Apparently, the Forest Watchman had been slain by a mysterious player, resulting in them failing the quest!
As the team leader, floralteapot couldn't believe what he was hearing—
This was because the Forest Watchman was a level four mob, and the players in Qingmu Town were mostly still at level zero or one. Only the best of the best guild elites could reach level two!
The Level Suppression effect in Demon Realm was extremely noticeable, and during the early stages of the game, if there was even a two-level difference between two fighters, the lower leveled character's attacks would be ineffective against the higher leveled character. Due to this fact, floralteapot couldn't believe that someone had killed the Forest Watchman!
It should also be said that their own guild leader was still only at level two. With the "Level Suppression" effect in play, if they were to have any hope of killing the Forest Watchman, they would need to gather up all the guild's elite players to gang up on him!
But even then, they would have to pay too heavy a price.
Any of the elite players who joined in the assault would lose a fixed amount of reputation, and the sum of everyone's reputation loss would be unconscionable. For the Forest Watchman story event, the benefits obviously weren't worth such a heavy loss.
If even the Yokai Legion Guild couldn't kill him, then it was even further outside the realm of possibility for that bunch of casual players.
Unless, of course, that player somehow managed to shrink the level gap to one level... but there was no way that was possible!
All the level three players in the game were gathered in the top-tier cities, where the competition was the fiercest. Why would any of them appear around Qingmu Town?
The idea was so ridiculous that it amused floralteapot—Were level three players popping up everywhere like cabbage? The game had only been released about an hour ago. Even if there was already a small handful of level three players, none of them would be here!
Floralteapot had been standing stock-still for a while now, and his two teammates were getting impatient. The only female member on the team was the first to ask: "Brother floral, what's the plan for us now?"
Hearing this, floralteapot replied in a low, serious voice, "What else can we do now? Since the quest is already a failure, we should go to the 'scene of the crime' and take a look at the situation there. Maybe we can find some clues.
"At the very least, we need to figure out one thing—Who killed the Forest Watchman?!"
His two teammates nodded in agreement. "Okay!"
They set off right away and headed toward the last known location of the Forest Watchman.
The three of them sprinted for a while, when suddenly floralteapot stopped in his tracks and turned to look at something—He thought he saw something to their right.
"What's up?" the female member asked curiously, but floralteapot just shook his head.
"It's nothing. Maybe my eyes played a trick on me..."
At that moment, floralteapot felt like he saw a wispy black shadow, but before he could get a better look, his eyes had lost track of the figure's whereabouts.
Or perhaps he was just hallucinating?
.......
At the same time...
"Huh? Were those guys from the Yokai Legion Guild?"
Ye Kong raced through the forest while observing his surroundings with his dynamic vision (dynamic vision was governed by the player's Dexterity and Stamina), which was pretty decent. His eyes caught sight of three figures, and he even recognized a familiar face among them—
"Floralteapot? As I recall, he's one of aotabo's henchmen, and he's extremely greedy...
"In my past life, when I was in the Yokai Legion Guild, I received a lot of his 'tender loving care.' If not for him, my fundamentals wouldn't have been so poor, and I wouldn't have had to spend so much extra effort to catch up to everyone else in the middle and late stages of the game!
"If it wasn't for him, I would've ranked in the top 50 Yggdmillennia players long ago!"
Ye Kong's eyes turned stony, and he paused for a moment. However, he continued to pick up the pace—
"Forget it. The 'main task' is the most important thing right now. My time is extremely precious, and I shouldn't be wasting it on him!"
Ye Kong wasn't one of those guild players who could use "C" grade helmets, or even the more advanced "B" grade helmets, for free and not have to foot the bill. It was because of this—
Whether it was the length of time they had in the game, or the resources they had at their disposal, Ye Kong was at an absolute disadvantage.
Hence, Ye Kong could only make full use of every second to work hard at improving his initial standings and strive toward preparing for the big event happening in a few months. After all, that event would be the key to saving Ye Bai!
When it came to his most precious little sister, it was easy for him to put aside a grudge from his past life!
Ye Bai's safety was far more important than anything else!
Swish!
Ye Kong skimmed over the undergrowth and crashed straight through the thick mist before disappearing into the depths of the forest...
......
Whoosh!
Ye Kong ran for a long while before finally arriving at a secluded village. This was his target location—the Gray Fog Village!
"I'm here!"
Ye Kong came to a stop in front of the village entrance.
At the moment, the entire village was very quiet. There were NPCs of both genders in the village, but all of them had white hair, and their faces were as shriveled as a thin tree trunk. From the looks of it, none of them were under 50 years old!
The whole scene was very bizarre, yet Ye Kong didn't pay it any mind—
He fully understood what this village was. It was the stronghold of the devotees of Erebos, god of the Ghostly Mist Sect. In other words, the elderly folk in the Gray Fog Village were all faithful devotees of Erebos!
The unique thing about Erebos was that he was a neutral deity and didn't belong to any Pantheon of gods.
Following his lead, his worshippers also maintained their neutrality, and other religious sects were willing to coexist with them so long as they didn't cause trouble for others. They even allowed them to live within their territorial boundaries—Mainly settling them in remote and desolate places.
To put it simply, the devotees of Erebos were used to living in other people's "homelands"...
And the group of old people in front of Ye Kong was a classic example of this.
"As expected, the devotees of Erebos still look like they have their heads above the clouds."
Ye Kong took his first steps into the village, ignoring the old men and women he passed along the way. At the same time, the villagers also ignored him and practiced their "don't bother me and I won't bother you" neutral attitude to a tee.
The atmosphere in the Gray Fog Village was quiet, so quiet it even seemed unnatural. If it weren't for the old folks occasionally interacting with each other, a gesture here and a word there, one might really believe they were a bunch of statues.
Ye Kong quickly arrived at the south side of the Gray Fog Village, where he saw a white-haired old man. His beard was so long it touched his waist, and his belly bulged out slightly. He didn't look like an elderly man but instead a plump, middle-aged man who dyed his hair white.
Gray Fog Village Chief - Clement (LV10)
Humanoid, HP: ???
"Hello there, Mister Village Chief."
Ye Kong cut to the chase and stepped forward while retrieving the "Mondite" from his bag: "This is my quest item. Please accept it."
It was a simple, clear statement, without any room for interpretation.
In the end, the Gray Fog Village Chief was an NPC, and when given specific conditions, he would react with the corresponding response.
There have been many examples of this, such as—
Back then, the Horticultural Priest - Pulitzer had clearly rejected Ye Kong, but was forced by "fulfilled conditions" to remake the Blessed Spring Water, allowing Ye Kong to stab him in the back and send him to the afterlife.
"Congratulations, my dear explorer."
As expected, the Gray Fog Village Chief flashed him a small, stiff smile. He probably didn't fully understand where this player had come from, but that didn't stop him from handing the story event reward over to the player—
"This is a token of my appreciation. Please accept it with my thanks."