274 Chapter 274 - Bodyguard Mission (2/2)
The entire bar burst into activity once he said this. Since all those present were part of mercenary groups, they were naturally knowledgeable regarding the different quests Parallel World offered. Although most mercenary groups had dozens of players, not one of the current quests required more than ten players to complete them.
Since Traversing Four Seas had to hire mercenaries for this particular quest, it proved that the quest was not a regular type that players could complete on their own. As a guild with over seven hundred fifty members at its disposal, was there even any issue that their numbers could not deal with? Hence, everyone was wondering about the difficulty of this system-given quest for Traversing Four Seas to be forced to gather all the expert mercenaries in the city for assistance.
Oathless Sword gave the people present enough time to digest this startling news and was sincerely enjoying their reactions. Once everyone calmed down, he continued, ”This quest is the reward Traversing Four Seas got for winning the guild versus guild tournament. Actually, we think that this is a chain quest.”
Everyone broke into activity once more. They had thought up until now that the greatest form of a solo quest was a chain quest, whereas the harder form of a party quest was a competitive quest. Not one of them had heard of a guild quest possibly being a chain quest.
The men of Young Master's Elite looked at Gu Fei. While talks about chain quests had been circulating for so long, Gu Fei could possibly be the only player who had managed to complete one thus far.
This was not due to no one stumbling on to a chain quest but due to most players meeting with failure halfway through or reaching a point where they could not advance any further and could only put the chain quests on hold. So far, Gu Fei was the only player the five knew who had completed a chain quest.
Oathless Sword reveled in everyone's reaction once more before continuing, ”The quest itself is very simple. It is a Yabiao Mission!”
”Yabiao?” everyone asked, shocked. It was jarring to hear a wuxia term being said in this western-style VRMMO.
”It is exactly what it says,” Oathless Sword said, explaining, ”Players are tasked to protect the quest item until it reaches its destination. Based on the depicted route for the quest, people will pass through five different cities and the journey will take about tens of hours upward just from the walk alone. Since the quest requires escorting the item, we believe that plenty of ambushes and robbers are set along the way.”
Everyone more or less got the gist of the matter after hearing this, and someone promptly asked, ”If the difficulty is still unknown, why are you so sure that your guild's seven hundred fifty players won't be enough to complete the quest? Also, what made you look for mercenaries?”
Oathless Sword solemnly replied to the person asking the question, ”Because there's a special condition to this quest. Guild members only have one life throughout the quest. This means that once a player dies, the quest will be deemed as 'failed' for him or her. Therefore, the player won't earn the quest reward.”
”Hmm…” Just as everyone considered the finer details of this condition, Oathless Sword informed them of another quest condition, ”Plus, guild members are unable to change their character registration from their city of origin throughout the quest. I'm sure everyone understands what that means, right?” Without waiting for them to answer, Oathless Sword explained, ”While my guild members can help out at the start of the journey even if they have to sacrifice themselves, once we are dozens or hours away from Yunduan City, there is just no way for the sacrificed members to assist us further when they revive back in the city.”
”So that's why you decided to hire external help. Since we are not restricted by these quest conditions, we can register our characters in the nearest city even if we spend countless hours traveling, allowing us to revive and continue assisting you on the quest,” someone coldly remarked.
Oathless Sword replied, ”All of you present are experts; it is expected that none of you would easily die like our less skilled members. Still, you are absolutely correct. We need that particular advantage you guys possess that will allow all of you to continue assisting us throughout the journey even after dying. Thus, feel free to request the sort of remuneration you expect from this. We can discuss the payment for your losses during the expedition as well. Besides that…” Oathless Sword intentionally paused for dramatic effect before saying, ”The loots we get along the way will be free for all. How's that?”
This particular caveat was indeed extremely generous. According to the custom when hiring mercenaries, any and all items acquired from monster drops or similar things would entirely belong to the employer. Even if prior arrangements were made, the eventual payout would at most be but a mere morsel. Oathless Sword's 'free for all' offer would mean that any item dropped by the monster a person killed would belong to him or her. The present players were deep in thought, causing Ray's Bar to descend into silence.
Oathless Sword already had a victorious smile on his lips when he said, ”That's the gist of the matter. Please feel free to think this through and send me a letter once you've made a decision. Don't hesitate to privately message me if there is anything you're unclear of or if you have any request. We'll take our leave now.” Oathless Sword, Gale Force, and Youthful Reflection left Ray's Bar, while the invited mercenaries remained inside the premise to ponder on the matter: ”To do or not to do….”This word's meaning is similar to hiring an armed escort to deliver an item. Due to the author's phrasing of it and it implying about protecting an item, we had difficulty finding an English equivalent for the word that would give a 'Chinese feel' as the novel mentioned. In the end, we opted to go with the word's hanyu pinyin.