"This..this big shot, please stop." The mage player called out to James who was about to leave.
James turned around and looked at the mage's creeping smile, without responding, silently watching them.
Indeed, he has the demeanor of a big shot.
The mage stepped forward, "Big shot, may I ask how to address you? We are from the Radiant Grove Brotherhood. Let me introduce myself, my name is Michael Rosso. Can we add each other as friends?"
Players cannot see each other's names in the game [ Celestial Realm ]. It's impossible for everyone to have their name, guild name, and title displayed above their head unless they are in a party or friends. Otherwise, everything has to be learned through interaction.
Level can be seen, but if the level difference is greater than 5, the higher level player's level information will appear as a question mark in the lower level player's view.
James tilted his head slightly, "What guild is that? Don't you need to advance to a higher job class before you can create a guild?"
"Heh heh, of course, we will create a guild as soon as we advance. We have 500 members offline..."
James waved his hand, interrupting the other person's speech. "Just tell me what you want quickly?" James was busy and had no time to chat idly.
This big shot is so rude.
The mage's smile didn't falter, "Um...I hope you can sell us the skill book you just obtained. The price will definitely satisfy you, just name it."
Michael knew that high-level players like James usually had a large guild or group behind them, so it was pointless to invite him to join their guild. The main goal was to obtain James's skill book because he had just discovered that James didn't practice the skill book but instead put it in his inventory, which meant he either couldn't learn it temporarily or it wasn't a skill book for his job class.
In the early stages of the game, obtaining a skill book would greatly improve leveling up. The more skills a player has, the greater advantage they have in dungeons and battles. Michael didn't want to miss this opportunity to cultivate some high-level job players for his guild.
James calmly shook his head, "I'm not selling it, that's all." Then he turned and walked away without looking back.
"What kind of person is this?" The priest next to him said discontentedly, having never seen someone so arrogant before.
Michael's expression also turned unpleasant. He had already humbled himself, but James showed no appreciation. The trade failed, leaving an unpleasant feeling. Although his guild wasn't a major one, it still had 500 members. As the vice-leader, he had dignity and face to maintain.
Watching James's departing back, Michael's expression darkened.
James remained unaffected. In his previous life, James was someone who even the leaders of major guilds and factions had to show respect to in the early stages of the game. As for situations like acquiring equipment, James had seen it all before. If the deal was made, the two parties would cooperate. If not, you'd get directly attacked. Those two players were just smiling with knives hidden behind their backs.
In [ Celestial Realm ], many grievances arose from small incidents, or even for absurd reasons. As a second world, many people amplified their dark sides here, freely doing things that enraged others based on personal preferences.
The whole world was chaotic, a world without moral constraints. If you didn't realize this, you would only continue to suffer losses.
In James's mind, as long as it didn't hinder him, he could pretend not to see anything, like just now. If he was level 1, the result would definitely have been a battle because James frequently encountered such situations in the later stages of the game.
That's why James had that demeanor and way of speaking. What's wrong with that? Did it hurt your feelings? If you're not satisfied, come and fight me.
In his previous life, James was essentially one of those players who caused harm.
Soon, James entered the level 5 monster area, deciding to level up to 5 here. Most players were currently at levels 1-2, and the level 3 monster area was already the limit for players. Since each monster area was vast, he shouldn't encounter any players here.
Locking onto a small goblin pig, a level 5 regular monster, in front of him.
Without any unnecessary steps, he drew his training sword and attacked.
It didn't take long before Michael followed, with the priest behind him. The former had a gloomy expression, and the latter frowned coldly, both watching the tall figure ahead. Due to the distance being too far, they couldn't lock onto the small goblin pig, so they couldn't judge the damage James was dealing.
"I think we should just forget it," the priest said after a moment. "The other party has a movement speed buff, we can't defeat him." Although angry earlier, having played games for many years, he knew some players were arrogant. In the priest's mind, James was the kind of person who had the right to speak that way, after all, his level was evident.
So the priest's anger soon dissipated. He had been trying to persuade Michael along the way, but the latter remained sullen and didn't respond.
At this moment, Michael said softly, "I didn't plan to PK him. I just wanted to see how he levels up so quickly."
Michael turned to look at the priest, "Don't you find it strange?"
"What's so strange about that? He probably just did quests," the priest said, puzzled.
Michael shook his head, "I've read some information on the official website and heard from some experts. I feel there must be something fishy, and it's not as simple as it seems."
"So what if there is? He's a high-level player. Oh, come on, let's just go level up. We've wasted enough time already," the priest said impatiently, wanting to level up.
"Let's watch a bit longer," Michael said, turning his gaze back ahead. Then his eyes widened in surprise, "Huh, where is he?"
Hearing this, the priest also looked ahead, only to see that James, who had been killing monsters, was now nowhere to be seen. The small goblin pig was slowly running towards their location.
A bad premonition arose in both of them.
The two hid behind a rock, secretly observing James as cover, but now this obstacle blocked their view of him.
Michael suddenly jumped up, peering over the rock, his eyes catching sight of a fierce figure rapidly approaching them, the other party's eyes filled with intense killing intent.
Michael landed, and the priest next to him said with some alarm, "What did you see?"
"Damn it," Michael blurted out a curse.
Just as the priest was about to ask again, a tall, slender figure suddenly leapt out from above the rock.
To the priest's shock, James landed behind the two of them with a spinning kick, immediately turning without a word and thrusting his training sword at the priest's head.
The sword tip stabbed forward, piercing the priest's brain.
A spray of red blood burst out, and the priest let out a cry of "Aiya!"
At this moment, the priest was utterly dumbfounded. He had just dispelled his dissatisfaction with James's arrogance, only to be directly attacked by the other party for no reason.
Checking his HP bar, the other party had reduced his HP by a third with a single strike.
A fireball spell came flying from behind, but the perceptive James dodged it.
The priest finally reacted, but to cast a healing spell, he had to remain still, so he hesitated.
James struck the priest again with his sword, dealing [ -50 ] damage.
Michael grew anxious, as this was his first time playing a fully immersive virtual reality game, and this scene truly resembled a killing.
"You fool, run!" Michael shouted.
"None of you will escape!" James said coldly, casually striking out another sword blow. The priest's head jerked up, his eyes glazed over as his body went limp and collapsed.
"W-Why are you doing this? We have no grievances!" Michael shouted, utterly bewildered. They were just observing how an expert leveled up, not intentionally harassing or obstructing him. How did it escalate to this?
"You'll understand in the future, so die!" James swiftly attacked with his sword, making short work of the wooden-like Michael with three slashes.
Newbies don't drop experience or loot when killed, but James still carried out the attacks.
After doing all this, a faint red smoke emanated from James's body - the red name status indicating he had committed a hostile act.
Any player who saw James at this moment would get a system prompt allowing them to attack James in order to uphold justice!
[ Evil Value +2 ]
James's expression remained calm and unchanged, as if he had done something completely ordinary. He then immediately resumed killing the small goblin pig.
The Evil Value cannot be washed away. Even after the red name returns to normal, the Evil Value persists, indicating the innocent kills you have committed.
The reason James did this was because Michael and the priest had violated an unwritten code deeply ingrained in James's mind.
This code, in the middle stages of [ Celestial Realm ]'s development in his previous life, had somehow silently spread among the top experts from an unknown source and time.
The code strictly prohibited following or stalking others under any circumstances or reasons. Anyone caught stalking would be killed without mercy.
James had this code burned into his heart.
After the two were killed, James continued leveling up the small goblin pig as if nothing had happened. A few players passing by saw the red-named James and steered well clear. No one dared provoke this evidently powerful and merciless player.