Nie Yan reminded Father Nie that the War God Tribe and Asskickers United would inevitably touch upon the interests of the Century Financial Group. It would be troublesome when such a big player took notice of them. So before then, it was crucial to prepare as many hidden cards as possible!
Father Nie left since he still had business to attend to back at the company. Nie Yan finished up dinner and headed upstairs to his room, where he put on his game helmet and entered Conviction.
When Nie Yan logged back on, he was greeted by nothing but darkness. This would continue to be an issue until he increased his Night Vision.
Players on opposite factions were barred from viewing each other's forums, so there was a veil of mystery between the two sides. The game developers added this to spice up the gameplay. However, players could still obtain information on the opposing faction through various other channels. During the server's downtime, the players from the Undead Empire had gathered some intel on Nie Yan.
It was impossible for Nie Yan's identity as the guild leader of Asskickers United to remain a secret. Furthermore, some of his videos had also been dug up and disseminated among the players of the Undead Empire.
Nie Yan's bounty was consequently raised to 500 gold. This was the limit for the players who died to him. They couldn't afford to increase it any higher.
Nie Yan was all by himself, and even though he was a guild leader, he couldn't mobilize any of the members under him. 500 gold was a fair reward. It was enough to entice quite a few experts into tracking him down. After all, such profitable opportunities were few and far between.
Nie Yan naturally understood his own situation, which was why he never stayed in one location for too long.
Nie Yan still hadn't found a village this whole time. As he continued travelling west, a system notification popped up.
You have discovered Falling Gully.
Nie Yan was somewhat familiar with Falling Gully. Before travelling to the Underworld, he had searched up some information about the maps in the Demon Tribe and Undead Empire. He recalled that just a few kilometers from here was a village called Valitin Graveyard Village.
It had a transfer point connecting to the nearest city!
Nie Yan immediately started making his way through Falling Gully. There were piles of rubble everywhere. He saw Level 50 Miner Zombies and an occasional Elite Zombie Foreman roaming around.
Level 50 mobs were a bit difficult to deal with for Nie Yan. But before long, he successfully took control of four Zombie Miners with Undead Rite. He used them to capture a Zombie Foreman, losing three of them in the process.
The Zombie Foreman was a two meter tall hulk of rotting flesh. It was covered in chains and carried a large hammer. It was a bit slow since it moved with a limp, but it was quite powerful.
With one Zombie Foreman, capturing successive ones would be much easier. Nie Yan used Undead Rite to take command of two more. With Lil' Gold and three Zombie Foremen, his mobbing speed increased exponentially.
As Nie Yan swept through the monsters in his path, he suddenly received a system notification.
You have received the Junior Devil Slayer title.
A title advancement! Nie Yan quickly checked the properties of his new title.
Junior Devil Slayer - Increases Influence in all human nations by 22. Reduces the stats of every creature of darkness within 20 meters of the player by 30%.
Extreme Intimidate: Inflict the target with fear, and cripple their movements for 5 seconds. Range: 5 meters.
Extreme Deterrence: Disperse all monsters within the surrounding area for 20 minutes. Not valid if the monster levels exceeds the player's level by over 30.
Divine Recruitment: Summon a Paladin mercenary whose stats are proportionate to that of the player. Requires an hourly fee. Cast Time: 30 seconds.
Rank 1 Paladin Inez: 60% of the player's stats
Fee: 10 gold/hr
Rank 2 Paladin Redmayne: 80% of the player's stats
Fee: 30 gold/hr
Rank 3 Paladin Clementine: 100% of the player's stats
Fee: 50 gold/hr
Rank 4 Paladin Fern: 120% of the player's stats
Fee: 100 gold/hr
Rank 5 Paladin Khalisi: 150% of the player's stats
Fee: 300 gold/hr
…
It went all the way up to a Rank 16 Paladin with an hourly fee that would make an ordinary player faint. These Paladins could buff the players with the most basic blessings. They also had basic attack, heal, and shield skills that corresponded to their rank. The only exception was the Rank 16 Paladin who could use high rank Templar Magic. If a hired Paladin died, the player was required to pay 200% of the total fee.
Nie Yan was a little perplexed by why the Devil Slayer title gave such a skill.
Any holder of the Devil Slayer title was undoubtedly a heaven-defying figure. Outside of pursuing balance, Conviction also generously rewarded the truly powerful. This was because when the federation first created the game, besides using the game helmets to enhance humanity's physique, they were also trying to scout the best elites.
Elite players could obtain extremely powerful skills. Not only Nie Yan, but other players also had the same opportunities. In the previous timeline, there were hundreds of players with the Junior Devil Slayer title. However, they all obtained this title when they were well over Level 100. Perhaps Nie Yan was the first player to receive it at such a low level.
Nie Yan would have to carefully consider if he wanted to use Divine Recruitment. The hourly fee was a bit expensive. It probably wouldn't be worthwhile to summon a Paladin unless he was backed into a corner.
Intimidate and Deterrence also received an upgrade. Overall, the rewards of the Junior Devil Slayer title were pretty good.
Nie Yan thought for a moment. With the Junior Devil Slayer title, it was rumoured he could access a secret shop in Calore and purchase items that were unavailable to ordinary players. The vast majority of goods sold there were for hunting evil creatures. Many of them were quite useful.
Nie Yan planned to check out the secret shop after returning to Calore. He wondered what sort of benefits he could reap from the place.
Nie Yan brought his three Zombie Foremen and Lil' Gold to a thicket in Falling Gully. He saw a flash of magic light up the darkness far in the distance like twinkling stars.
Nie Yan entered stealth and went over there to investigate.
Under his control, the three Zombie Foremen and Lil' Gold followed closely behind him.
Nie Yan was hidden in the darkness. After running for about a minute, he finally got close enough to see over 60 players fighting a giant five meter tall zombie. It had a disgusting appearance, looking like a rotund mass of rotting flesh. It was unceasingly slashing away with the giant machete in its hand.
Nie Yan activated Transcendent Insight.
Zombie Overseer (Lord): Level 50
Health: 173,852/320,000
What a huge amount of health!
It was a Level 50 Lord. No wonder there were so many players!
Nie Yan gazed at this group of 60 players. The frontliners surrounded the Zombie Overseer while the casters in the back fired magic at it nonstop. They were quite organized, with their levels ranging from Level 40–47. He didn't know if the players from the Evil Faction were roughly around the same level as the players from the Righteous Faction. However, he felt these before him were probably regarded as elites. He quickly spotted their leader, a Necromancer who was issuing a steady stream of commands.
The Necromancer wore a black robe with three golden medals on his chest, which dazzled brilliantly under the flashes of magic. He looked to be around 25 years old. He had fair skin and blonde hair, making him resemble an aristocrat. He was probably of foreign descent. Under his command, their teamwork was near flawless. It appeared this fellow was a natural leader.
Nie Yan inspected the Necromancer.
Dark (Necromancer): Level 47
Necromancers were notorious for being a difficult class to level early on. Only after reaching Level 60 and learning the Soul Splitting skill, which allowed them to control more undead, would their levelling speed increase. For Dark to have reached Level 47 at this stage of the game was quite the feat.
Nie Yan was hesitating on what he should do next. Kill these players? For him, this was actually possible!
Since they were in the middle of dealing with a Level 50 Lord, he could probably wipe them all out if he took action. When players from the Righteous Faction and Evil Faction encountered each other, it was usually a case of if I don't kill you, you'll kill me!