Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
Chapter 35: Hunter Sect Team in Action
Since Xing Hai’s explanation was rather vague, Xi Wei returned to his office to retrieve a detailed monster compendium and carefully studied the information on Koutao Mermen.
He also took the time to search for records of divine artifacts belonging to the Goddess of Night and the Goddess of Life.
The Goddess of Life’s divine artifact, the Life Codex, was completely lost and had not reappeared on the continent to this day.
This meant that the gemstone on the Scepter of Life could be used by Loli. As for the Goddess of Night…
Her divine artifact was quite unique. It was a dress called the Nightfall Gown, worn on her person.
Currently, this gown was in the possession of a king on the South Continent, and it was frequently worn by his queen.
The Cat’s Eye Gemstone would also be fine for You Ye.
Koutao Mermen were creatures with fish heads and humanoid bodies. They were short, with atrophied limbs and webbed fingers. They could be imagined as having a fish’s skull placed on a goblin’s neck.
Their main base was located in the Gloomy region near the Abyss Eye, but they could also be found in sea areas and rivers. A body of water as large as Winter Lake could fully support a Koutao Merman tribe.
However, they were not as chaotic as goblins. They belonged to the lawful evil alignment and their strength was generally ordinary, at mostTier 1. They could not defeat an armed adult in a one-on-one fight, making them excellent candidates for miners.
With his mind made up, Xi Wei immediately issued a mission to the restless players.
He had no intention of laboriously searching around Winter Lake. He would rather spend that time focusing on the development of his intelligence network.
…
【Ding! Temporary Mission Triggered】
【Mission Name: Search for Koutao Mermen (Image)】
【Mission Description: His Majesty, the King of Winter, has discovered a Mithril mine, but extracting it underwater has become a significant challenge. After much consideration, he has decided to enslave a group of Koutao Mermen to work for him.】
【Mission Objective: Thoroughly search the waters of Winter Lake.】
【Hint: Koutao Mermen prefer habitats with abundant aquatic vegetation and feed on shrimp and crabs.】
【Mission Reward: The first player to find the Koutao Mermen will be marked by the system and receive the highest reward: a Master Grade equipment. Other players will receive ten equipment lottery tickets and 5000 Experience Points.】
…
“Yoho, another mission. Although it’s not a main quest, the King of Winter is producing them like rabbits.”
Yu Ci heard the crisp “Ding!” sound and immediately opened his mission log. As expected, a brand new temporary mission appeared before him.
“Sabotage Bro, you’re awesome! The first to find the Koutao Mermen gets Master Grade equipment, and even if you’re not the first, you still get lottery tickets!”
Sabotage Expert and nearby players like Leisurely Moment and Qing Xi Yue also opened their mission logs to check. They belonged to the same team, named 【Hunter Sect】.
Their team was quite well-known, with five core members. A player named Ash was currently offline.
They were the first team to clear the Black Sword and Sister of Prayer dungeons, and they had high prestige among players, comparable to Call Me Arin’s team.
In truth, it was mainly because Xi Wei felt that players were not performing well and had secretly lowered the dungeon difficulty. Otherwise, very few player teams would have cleared Clemon’s trial by now, let alone the Black Sword and Sister of Prayer dungeons.
The main purpose of dungeons was to improve players’ strength. Making them too difficult was unnecessary, and making them too easy would not provide enough training. Having more than half the players clear Clemon’s trial was the most suitable balance.
The Hunter Sect team members each possessed at least +3 Fine Grade equipment, and even had two pieces of Master Grade equipment.
Honestly, after Leisurely Moment had experienced Master Grade equipment, he had no interest in Fine Grade anymore.
To put it this way, a Master Grade longsword could easily cleave a Fine Grade longsword, provided the angle and force were applied correctly.
Therefore, the current mission was quite attractive to him.
“What does Ash say, is he coming online or not? Send him a message and ask when he’ll be online. If it’s too late, the four of us will do it first.”
Leisurely Moment, the leader of 【Hunter Sect】, asked Ash’s friend, Sabotage Expert.
“I sent it… You probably won’t believe this… Ash Bro has gone crazy since finding out that catching a national spy offered a reward of 100k. He wants to help his favorite author ‘Sleepy Penguin’ get a Great God certification and force Penguin to add more updates, so he’s looking for spies everywhere…”
Sabotage Expert covered his face and said bitterly,
“That’s not even the worst part. He’s been hanging his roommate up and beating him for three days, and his roommate still hasn’t confessed, so he hasn’t been online.”
Yu Ci: “…”
Leisurely Moment: “…”
Qing Xi Yue pushed up his glasses, stroked his smooth chin, his wise eyes flashing fleetingly, and deduced,
“Did Ash Bro ask his roommate any questions? If he didn’t ask, he might keep beating him for another ten days and eight days, and his roommate still won’t confess…”
“Ridiculous…”
“I think it just shows his roommate has undergone rigorous training, and is very likely a spy.”
As the four were discussing, Ash’s avatar finally lit up. Soon, a Crusader player fully clad in +6 Gleaming equipment walked up to the four.
ID: Ash
“Brothers, sorry to keep you waiting. Ugh, I’ve been beating that scoundrel for three days and he just won’t confess, it’s infuriating. Forget it, I thought about it and playing games is more important. I logged in as soon as I saw Sabotage’s message.”
“How did you ask him?”
Facing everyone’s question, Ash shrugged and said,
“How else? I just asked him if he’d confess, if not, I’d beat him, heh heh heh…”
…
After a bit of joking, the group followed the mission prompts and arrived near Winter Lake.
They found many other players already present, each with anxious yet expectant and excited expressions. They were looking everywhere, and many were ignoring the mission hints.
“I think searching around Winter Lake is a foolish approach.”
Leisurely Moment watched the players coming and going by the lake and shook his head.
It was manageable when there were only 500 players, but now with over five thousand players, it was a case of scarcity. Missions like these were becoming increasingly difficult.
“Then what do we do? We can’t just watch while other players are searching, can we?”
“Don’t rush,”
Leisurely Moment smiled slightly, a hint of cunning in his eyes. He motioned for the group to come closer and then whispered,
“You shouldn’t apply the mindset from other games to this game.”
“Cain Continent is a completely open world. Every NPC has their own thoughts and stories; they are like living, breathing people.”
“So, instead of searching aimlessly here, why don’t we go ask the fishermen in the nearby villages? We might get unexpected results.”
Leisurely Moment’s plan made Sabotage Expert and the others suddenly realize. They had indeed been too rigid in their thinking, stuck in the stage of rigidly following mission prompts.
With this thought, they quickly arrived near the Radium Gold mine under construction and found Clemon, who was supervising the construction. They asked him about nearby villages without revealing their plan.
These NPCs were too intelligent. If their plan were to be exposed, they might end up with nothing.
“Villages?”
Clemon pondered for a moment, then took out a map from inside his chestplate and looked at it. He then pointed towards the southeast of Winter Lake and said to the players,
“Go that way, head straight through the bushes, and you’ll see a small stream. Follow the stream upstream for a short distance, and you’ll find a village. I believe it’s called Fishing Fire Village.”
