When I logged in, I spawned in the open plot beside the Barbarian Chief's tent. A sea of players was crowding the streets and the empty plots around me. All of their eyes were focused on the female swordsman standing outside the Barbarian Chief's tent.
From afar, I could not see her figure clearly, but it seemed like she was wrapping up her speech.
I only heard the last few sentences but it was enough to understand the gist of her speech.
She had basically glorified the Grandeur Guild and vilified the Fortune Guild, reminding players to whom they should be grateful. Also, she had announced that the Grandeur Guild would start recruitment as soon as her party returned from the Penance Quest. After the announcement, she entered the Barbarian Chief's tent with her Party members.
Her speech made me curious as to what I had just missed. So, I nudged a player beside me and asked, "Brother, who was that person? What was she talking about?"
The chubby guy turned around and looked at me like he was seeing an alien. He then loudly exclaimed, "You don't know the
His exclamation drew the stares of surrounding players. Seeing the shock on my face, they treated me like I was some country bumpkin who was impressed by even a ranker in Top 100,000s.
Of course, the shock on my face was for a different reason. For as long as I had known Stivi, she had always used the IGN
What baffled me was the fact that the troublemaker had managed to join a Corporate Guild like the Grandeur Guild, a guild backed by the prestigious financial Grandeur Group of the Pioneer Colony!
From the way she announced the open recruitment for the guild, it seemed like her position was also not low in the Grandeur Guild!
'Oh, fricking hell! If Mom comes to know of this, she is going to nag me again!' This was the first thought that came to my mind.
My brain whirred into action, and I instinctively started to compile a list of my positives and Stivi's negatives to prepare a defense against my mother's nagging.
I have earned Bonus Stat points and completed a Unique quest….
On the other hand, Stivi is going on a Penance Quest…
Wait, Penance Quest? Why is she going on a Penance Quest? What crime did she commit?
My thoughts moving at the speed of light, suddenly came to a halt.
Thankfully, all of this happened in my mind within a few seconds. So, I could still hear the surrounding players' gossip.
".... The
"Good for you, brother. They charged me coins every time I went to see the Chief. I had to pay those dogs 3 coins just to complete one quest. And that quest only gave me a reward of 5 coins. Wu Wu."
"I am a fan of
These snippets of conversations helped me understand what mess my childhood friend had created. She had killed the Fortune Guild Members guarding the tent of the Barbarian Chief!
"Tsk! Tsk! This little troublemaker has evolved into a big troublemaker. She may even provoke a war between the two Guilds." I shook my head and clicked my tongue with amazement. I looked in the direction of the Chief's tent and felt a slight worry in my heart.
In Dreamverse, committing crimes like PKing in the safe zone and stealing would turn your name red. Depending on the severity of the crime, the exp gain would be lowered anywhere from 50% to 100% as long as your name is red.
While the Factions would catch the player and imprison him, the Barbarian Villages had a different way of punishing the Evildoers.
They offered only two ways to get rid of the Penalty - Either be killed until your name changes back to green or complete a Penance Quest.
No matter what they chose, the red-name Players would be wasting valuable time.
The Penance Quest yielded no rewards except for the favorability of the NPCs involved. One might also encounter a fortuitous chance when doing the Penance Quest. However, the reward-to-difficulty ratio was so skewed that it was hardly worth it.
Therefore, most Players avoided getting a red name. Instead of wasting precious time on Penance Quests, they could use it to level up and become stronger. Yet, Stivi and her party had chosen to do the Penance Quest instead of simply dying until their name was green.
Moreover, they had killed 10 players. That too, inside the safe zone!
The penalty for killing 10 Players in the wild would be as high as 70% of Exp loss. So the sentence for killing players in a safe zone would definitely not be small. Her party would lose out on at least 90% of experience until they completed the Penance Quest and cleared their red name.
Since their crime was severe, the difficulty of the Penance Quest would also not be low, and it would take a lot of time to complete. This delay may cause Stivi and her party to fall behind in levels. Her status in the guild may also fall as a result. I did not wish to see that happen.
Regardless of the comparisons from our moms and all the trouble she caused for me, Stivi was still my best friend. The games we played together would not be half as entertaining as they were if not for Stivi causing trouble.
So, I was happy that she was recruited by a Corporate Guild and wanted the best for her. Now that she had landed herself in hot water again, I didn't know how I could help her get rid of this trouble.
While I was busy worrying about her, the devil herself called me. I was surprised and picked up the call. Without any greeting, she directly got to the point.
"Come to the Barbarian Chief's tent in 10 minutes!"
Baffled, I decided to take a look and made my way to the largest tent in the settlement. I quickly found the party of five waiting outside the Barbarian Chief's tent.
They did not look one bit worried about their impending Penance Quest. Instead, they were chatting happily!
Seeing them, my lips twitched with annoyance and my hands itched to give that troublemaker a severe beating!
Rascal! Give me back the 10 seconds I spent worrying for you!