Chapter 17: Preparations
The plaza in front of the Holy Candle Mass Church was as crowded as usual today. However, unlike in the past, there were far fewer players present. They had probably realized that the church’s storyline wasn’t something that could be easily triggered, and waiting around seemed like a wasted effort.
In contrast, believers formed the main body of the crowd. Today was the church’s Sabbath, and they were all there to pray to Glor. Glor’s sacred number was seven, which was why the church designated the seventh day of the week as a day of worship.
Among these believers, however, a group stood out as clearly out of place.
“Brother Take, are you sure that NPC said the entrance of the church, and not somewhere else?”
“Yeah, there are too many people here.”
“What about noon? It’s almost afternoon.”
“Nonsense, am I the kind of person who doesn’t even read quest descriptions?”
Takebitori was furious and was about to teach them a lesson.
“Sorry, I was delayed by some matters.”
A calm voice sounded. Takebitori turned around and saw the figure that made his heart race.
She still hid herself beneath a loose-fitting cloak. Despite it being noon and the sun shining directly down, Takebitori couldn’t see her face hidden beneath the cloak. It was as if an invisible shadow constantly blurred her features.
If he insisted on seeing clearly, Takebitori felt a palpitation, as if he were about to be enveloped by darkness.
*
After completing the last ritual yesterday, Li Wen had spent the entire night recovering her mana through meditation.
Only recently had her mana been fully replenished. After all, she wasn’t a Mage, so her recovery speed was naturally much slower.
Li Wen glanced around. There were five people in total, three men and two women. One of the taller ones was the female player she had met yesterday. Besides her, everyone else looked like ordinary adventurers, and their professional levels were likely not ideal.
But that didn’t matter. Li Wen needed cannon fodder, not teammates.
“To ensure the upcoming actions are carried out without a hitch, you must follow my commands at all times. Is that understood?”
Everyone else looked at the tall woman. It seemed she was the leader of the group.
“No problem, but there’s one thing we need to clarify first.”
Li Wen nodded in agreement.
“We’re not working for free. At least you need to tell us the rewards upfront.”
Players weren’t easy to fool, and Li Wen knew this well.
“That depends on you. If you follow my instructions obediently, the rewards will naturally be plentiful. But if you only cause trouble, then there’s nothing more to say.”
In other words, the reward depended on the quest’s completion!
Takebitori really liked this approach. Getting rewarded based on quest completion meant the reward wasn’t fixed. Compared to fixed rewards, while the lower limit was lower, the upper limit was also higher. If their performance was outstanding enough, it was easy to get rewards that surpassed the current stage, at least that was how it was in the games she used to play.
However, this also indicated that the quest’s difficulty might be outrageously high. But who was Takebitori? Players only feared not getting enough quest rewards; they wouldn’t worry about a quest being too difficult. As long as the rewards were sufficient, even slaying dragons would be fine!
“Pleasure doing business with you!”
Takebitori didn’t even ask for the specific details of the quest and directly extended her right hand.
“I’m Takebitori, and these are my companions…”
“Pleasure doing business with you. Just call me Mephistopheles.” Li Wen also extended her hand to shake Takebitori’s, but no one noticed her surprise at that moment.
The name “Takebitori,” if it wasn’t a coincidence, then it could only be described as a remarkable coincidence.
Li Wen didn’t know **Takebitori**, but in her past life, she had heard this name quite a bit.
After the Great Convergence of players in her past life, three irreplaceable legendary events circulated among the player community. The first was the famous “Establishment of a Nation” event.
After the initial period of great chaos experienced by players in the early stages of the Great Convergence, everyone was anxious and fearful. Furthermore, the natives had long harbored deep resentment towards these “cockroaches” that could not be killed. In the eyes of those people, most players were probably no different from Purgatory demons.
Therefore, the Order-aligned countries and factions were generally unwilling to interact too much with players. Most players, after the Great Convergence, didn’t even have a safe haven.
It was at this time that the Lone Wolf Players, who were far ahead in level and hadn’t joined any factions, stepped forward. After Arthur’s kingdom was destroyed, they occupied parts of the kingdom’s territory with incredible efficiency. Finally, they gained fame by winning the decisive battle against the Shadow Legion of the Dark Dawn, and a kingdom belonging to players began to be established.
And among the list of those high-level players, the name Takebitori was prominently ranked at the top.
Li Wen’s biggest impression of her was that during the decisive battle, known at the time as the War of National Establishment, Takebitori, by her own strength, single-handedly blocked 30% of the Dark Dawn’s forces, almost crippling them.
At that time, Li Wen didn’t dare to think about such things. She estimated that she herself couldn’t even defeat the regular soldiers of the Dark Dawn.
Based on this impression, Li Wen took a few more glances at Takebitori but didn’t notice anything extraordinary about her.
Of course, judging people by their appearance was not advisable, and Li Wen quickly adjusted her mindset.
“Let’s go, to the West District,” Li Wen said, walking ahead.
“To the West District? If we’re leaving town, shouldn’t we go north?” In the two days since the game opened, Takebitori had done nothing but familiarize herself with the map. If anyone among the players knew Ark Town and its surrounding areas best, it would have to be Princess Takebitori.
Li Wen stopped upon hearing this. She turned back and looked Takebitori and her companions up and down. After all, they were just new players at the beginning of the game. Not only were their levels low, but they didn’t even have a single decent piece of equipment. Either it was what they were born with, or they had found it God-knows-where. There was no need to look at the quality to know it was below gray.
“Let’s get you equipped first. Although I don’t expect you to be of much use, if you all die at once, it will be difficult for me as well. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it. If you die too quickly, consider it your reward.”
Takebitori’s eyes lit up. Even the baseline reward was a set of equipment for each person? This quest was too amazing!
“Alright, alright, anything is negotiable, we’ll listen to you!”
As for the girl’s mention of “dying all at once” and “dying too quickly,” she had automatically ignored it.
Joking aside, which player was afraid of dying?
Takebitori took the initiative to lead the way. Besides familiarizing herself with the terrain, she also knew which iron shops and tailor shops were cheaper, truly having mastered Ark Town.
Along the way, Li Wen also learned about the professions and levels of the five of them. The three men were a Level 2 Guard and two Level 2 Warriors, while the other girl was a Level 1 Hunter. They were all ordinary professions.
As for Takebitori, this girl hadn’t yet learned a profession and was still at Level 0 with no class, as if “I have high standards” was written all over her face.
This was the correct approach. The level cap for ordinary professions was Level 10, and the game was very strict about changing professions. If players wanted to transfer to a Path later, they could only do so forcefully while bearing the punishment of dual classes, but this would result in having one less class than a normal dual-class system, making it a very disadvantageous choice.
Many players, eager to gain an advantage, chose ordinary professions early. When they discovered the difficulty of changing professions, they either lamented and deleted their characters to start anew, or they didn’t want to waste their efforts and forcefully became dual-classed despite various penalties.
At this point, Li Wen remembered the Takebitori from her past life. She heard that her profession was the Blood-Shattering Berserker of the Conqueror’s Path, known as the merciless battlefield grinder.
It could only be said that she was worthy of being among the top players; she had some understanding of the game.
