The Bounty Guild was an organization with a long history, as old as the Alchemy House and the Ivory Tower (an organization of spellcasters).
Unlike the latter two, the Bounty Association was legal in some countries but illegal in others. For example, in the territory of the Church of Storms, they were a legal organization and could conduct business openly in big cities. But in the Gold Coin Church, they were an illegal organization and had to behave themselves.
But regardless of whether this association was a legal organization, it was more successful than many legal organizations.
The reason was very simple. The bounty association was very good at networking and had a wide range of business... They received both ordinary guests and upper-class guests, and they even bribed the local official agencies without any scruples.
Just looking at the fact that branch president Kelly Simon openly opened the Oak Bar, an underground branch, in the bar district just two blocks away from the Night Watch, you could tell that this group of people often had dealings with the Gold Coin Church.
In short, this organization had no moral principles. They would do anything as long as they were paid, including but not limited to conducting background checks on the lovers of an official, laundering huge amounts of property of unknown origin, pretending to be alive to legally avoid taxes, spying on legal or illegal organisations, and if necessary, they would even do assassination requests that crossed the red line – of course, they only acted as middlemen and would thus not get into trouble themselves .
Yang Qiu was not only the famous "Nightmare Butcher" but also the behind-the-scenes backer of the new Lord of Indhal, Charlie Rex. Coupled with the shock brought by Yang Qiu's arrival, Ms. Kelly Simon's attitude towards cooperation was quite good, and she quickly reached several cooperation agreements with Yang Qiu, who represented Rex.
The content of this cooperation agreement was roughly the same as that of the Night Watch. The new lord Rex rented the clubhouse building to the Bounty Association at a low price as a public storefront open only to the undead. The Bounty Association was not allowed to refuse the Tarantan Undead from registering as bounty hunters. The Bounty Association provided intelligence assistance to the Tarantan Undead who received bounty missions. The Bounty Association had to bear 40% of the combat losses that might be incurred by the Tarantan Undead in the process of completing the bounty mission... and so on.
Three days later.
Monday, December 9th, Earth time, mid-November in the other world time.
After two consecutive days of weekend activities, the players who had failed countless times in the Rex's Heart Demon dungeon went online on Monday. They all looked a little depressed... Even the monthly artifact auction could not cheer up the dungeon players who were more keen on opening up new dungeons.
"I've already beaten Hal's Inner Demons dungeon to pieces, but I still can't beat Rex's dungeon. Why is the difficulty of this game's dungeons so jumpy? There's no transition between them."
Qin Guan logged in to Exile Town early in the morning and formed a team with his friends to open up the poisonous fog swamp. While squatting in front of the town hall waiting for people to gather, he could not help but complain to his good brother Give Me Medicine. "I think we should first defeat the Ranger Instructor's Inner Demon, then there will be hope for Rex's." He said.
"Come on, I think the first level will hold us back for half a month." Qin Guan leaned back against the wall, stretched his legs, and stretched himself lazily. "Recently, the battlefield is closed during the day and only open during the peak hours at night. The queues are so long. Can't this crappy game optimize the queue mechanism?"
"This is probably because there are too many game contents." The man who was not very keen on playing monster battlefields said casually, "Since the main city map of Nadeli was opened, fewer people are farming monsters during the day. Even if the battlefield is open, it is difficult to gather two groups of people."
"There's nothing to do in the main city of Indhal. I really don't know what these players are thinking." Qin Guan knew the situation and said angrily, "There are no dungeons or quests over there, and there's not even a spawning point. Even if you run around the map and see the scenery, you'll get bored after two days. What's the point of staying there?"
"That's right. They become casual players before they finish the Novice Village dungeon or the map. The players of this game really have no ambition." A player who was busy with the dungeon nearby said indignantly, "It's a pity that my brothers in the old game don't have accounts. I wish they could go online too. They all like to explore new lands. My group was the first one in our server to clear ICC in WoW.
"You weren't accepted when the application was open last time?" he asked.
"It just so happened that a bunch of old brothers of ours went to an offline gathering that day. We were all drinking heavily when the announcement was posted on the official website. The next day, when we sobered up, the digits of the account applications were already over a million." The player who said angrily.
"That's really unlucky." Qin Guan nodded sympathetically. "Pay more attention to the announcement next time. It would be a pity to miss it again."
While this group of people were squatting outside the town hall chatting and waiting for the others, someone suddenly swiped the screen frantically in the Blood Alliance channel:
[Blood Alliance] Mulberry Leaves Fell. "Everyone, hurry up and read the notice!! Hurry up and read it!!"
Qin Guan subconsciously lowered his head, and then he found that a large string of yellow words had popped up on the information bar in the lower left corner:
"Online Patch Update 1.08"
"Open combat profession sub-jobs: Exorcist, Bounty Hunter."
"After consultation between Charlie Rex, Lord of Indhal Territory, Black Mage Yang, Lord of Tarantan, the Night Watch of the Gold Coin Church, and the Bounty Association, the Gold Coin Church and the Bounty Association have decided to open up combat deputy position applications to Tarantan's undead friends."
"The secondary combat job does not affect the combat power, skills, or level changes of the main job."
"During the training of combat secondary positions, there is a chance that your potential value will be increased."
"Combat Secondary Job: Exorcist"
"Players who are level 1 or above and have completed the first transformation can go to the Night Watchman Hall at No. 061 St. Joseph Street, Indhal City to apply to register as an exorcist."
"The exorcist missions issued by the Night Watch Hall can only be accepted by teams, and the number of players performing the same mission must be more than ten."
"You can accept the Exorcist mission repeatedly. There is no penalty for failure. If you cause personal or public property damage during the mission, you will be required to bear 10% of the system compensation. If you succeed, you will receive copper coins and equipment."
"Combat Secondary Job: Bounty Hunter"
"Players who are level 1 or above and have completed the first transformation can go to the Bounty Hall at No. 062. Joseph Street, Indhal City to apply to register as a bounty hunter.
"The bounty missions issued by the Bounty Hall support both team and individual acceptance. You can accept bounty missions repeatedly. There is no penalty for failure. If you cause personal or public property damage during the mission, you will be required to bear 10% of the system compensation. If you succeed, you will receive copper coins and equipment."
The players who were idly scattered around the town hall were instantly blown up. "Holy crap, new game content was released?! I haven't even cleared the dungeon yet!" "Do you dare to launch a new patch so soon?"
These players, who were eager to explore new areas and clear the game, complained a lot, but they acted in unison... running towards the teleportation point.
A group of people ran to the teleportation point at the intersection in a hurry, and when they stepped on the earthen platform, Qin Guan suddenly laughed.
"What's wrong, Vanilla? Why are you so happy?" the player next to him asked curiously.
"I'll laugh at those idiots." Qin Guan said happily, "Their private teleport point in the wild can only be used to teleport back to Exile Town, not directly to Indhal. Whether they commit suicide to return to the city or teleport back to Indhal, they have to wait for half an hour. We get to play the new secondary job, and they have to wait for a while."
All the players enjoyed that; what could be more satisfying than watching the enemy players get into trouble?
"They deserve it for monopolizing the market!" A player who had gained a friendly reputation with the Chamber of Commerce cursed angrily.
St. Joseph Street in Indhal City was the original Club District. Yang Qiu asked the undead to destroy all illegal businesses in this street block, and felt that it would be bad to continue calling it the Club District, so he changed the road sign at the intersection and named it Xinfeng.
Qin Guan's group was originally planning to open up the poisonous fog swamp. With a large number of people and complete professional configurations, they did not consider the bounty mission at all and went straight into the Night Watch Hall No. 061.
In the Night Watch Hall, which was much more spacious and brighter than the players' professional guilds, there was only one counter with a person standing inside. The interior was completely disproportionate to the luxury of the building itself.
It was not that the Night Watch did not value the cooperation with Yang Qiu, but the Gold Coin Church itself was cautious about dealing with the undead. After dragging its feet for a long time in selecting personnel internally, it first sent two marginalized people in the organization to step on the minefield.
Night Watchman Belt was one of the two marginalized people.
Of course, players didn't care whether the Night Watch Hall was deserted or not. In the players' view, there were already too many useless (non-quest-giving) NPCs in this game. As soon as a group of players entered the door, they enthusiastically walked towards Belt, who was standing alone behind the counter.
Qin Guan came out first, glanced at the row of green words on Belt's head, and skillfully displayed the usual lines for interacting with NPCs. "Hello, Belt, your undead friend hopes to help you, please give us an exorcist mission."
From the moment the undead entered the room, the night watchman Belt, whose muscles were tense and nerves were in a state of complete alert, reacted a little slowly for a while.
Yang told them that only by wearing the azalea badge provided by the city hall could they understand the language of the dead. Belt, who was exiled here, received the badge and officially took up his post. Of course, he was also prepared to bite the bullet and communicate with the dead.
He never expected that the undead who had been running around the city and could only scream "KABAKABA" and "WAKAKAKA" during the week could actually speak fluently like normal people. The voice sounded very energetic, like that of a young male.
It seemed that the Nightmare Butcher was not bragging; these Tarantan undead were indeed quite intelligent.
Night Watchman Bert secretly breathed a sigh of relief and responded to the undead according to the reception requirements: "You need to register as exorcists before you can accept the tasks issued by the Night Watchman."
"Oh, yes." Qin Guan patted the bald skull, "Then register us. All of us here will register."
Belt took out a stack of registration forms from the counter, and also took out a dip pen and ink bottle.
"What the hell? He has to fill out the application by hand?" Some players were shocked.
"It's quite formal." Qin Guan glanced at the items to be filled in the form and was also quite surprised. "Uh... there is only one pen. Let's take turns filling it out. Everyone, line up."
"This is too troublesome." He muttered Give Me medicine, but he did not resist and stood casually behind Qin Guan.
The other players also found it troublesome, but the game had many broken rules and the devs didn't seem to care. They complained one after another and adjusted their formation at the same time.
Belt, who was inside the counter, looked at the group of undead that automatically formed into a long snake formation with doubt and surprise.
After all, the Night Watch was a formal organization affiliated with the church and one of the church's legal teams. Although everyone knew that exorcists were just day-labourers for the Night Watch, as long as they were registered, they would be entered into the Night Watch's files and preserved for a long time. It was a sort of status.
If some exorcists were particularly outstanding and had not been killed by the dangerous job, they would be absorbed into the organization of the Night Watch and get a stable job in the church.
Bishop Gene and Captain Clark did not think that this group of undead would ever be absorbed into the Night Watch, but since they had signed a contract with the Nightmare Butcher under the constraints of the "Law of Language", they had to do what they had to do.
Of course, the two leaders who made the decision, and Belt, the cannon fodder who was kicked in to take the blame, did not think that registering the undead would be smooth; no matter how humane and intelligent these undead were, could they all be literate and have names?
Belt had already made plans to personally give a number to the undead who come to register.
At this point, Belt realized that he might have miscalculated many things... Not only did these undead really intend to fill out the registration form themselves, they could also maintain order on their own!
There wasn't much information to fill out on the registration form, so Qin Guan quickly filled out his own, handed the form to the NPC, and then gave the pen to the next person in line.
Belt swallowed and looked at the completed form carefully.
Of course, the players filled in Chinese characters, which the locals could not decipher unless they were wearing azalea badges.
Belt, who was wearing the badge, clearly saw the registration form filled out by Qin Guan. The name column was written as Vanilla Pudding, the age column was filled in as twenty-four, and the address column was filled in as Exile Town.
It was not uncommon for young people in this world to become exorcists.
It was just that the name is a little beyond Belt's understanding.
Belt frowned, his eyes moving back and forth between the words "Vanilla Pudding" and Qin Guan who was standing aside and chatting with other undead.
Vanilla is a spice, pudding is a dessert, how come a male ghost is given such a name?! Who was the mother anyway?
The second registration form submitted by the dead soul was named "Give me medicine."
When Belt received the registration form, the expression on his face was indescribable.
The third voice clearly belonged to a young female ghost, and on the registration form she filled out, the name column clearly stated "Don't talk to me."
Belt: "…"