711 Chapter 711 - A New Idea (1/2)
Gu Fei felt humiliated that he did not even know who his killer had been. He was now back in the city, and was unable to access the mercenary channel. But it did not seem like Young Master Han was involved in this attack since no one else from Young Master's Elite was online right now!
Gu Fei quickly pulled out his quest log and had a look. Sure enough, all the quests that he had were marked as failed after he died during the City Wars event, be it the search for Guillermo or the bounty for Oathless Sword's head. Gu Fei had no choice but to head to the two locations where he had gotten the quests before and see if what the NPCs would say about this.
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Outside the city, the 212 members from Carouse were so excited that they could not calm themselves down for the longest time after they had successfully killed Thousand Miles Drunk. Their guild leader Brave Surge was especially thrilled and he really wanted to share this happiness with everyone. In the end, he took a glance at the guild leaders who also had Thousand Miles Drunk as their target: Oathless Sword was not online. Gu Xiaoshang was not online. Brave Surge swallowed his saliva, and could only turn around and celebrate with his own men around him.
Even Brave Surge had forgotten about the reason why they were there in the first place in all that celebration. However, Folding Fan Invader was able to stay composed, and the first thing he did was run over to the spot where Thousand Miles Drunk had abruptly appeared before and carefully searched the ground.
There was nothing that dropped on the ground, so Folding Fan Invader ran back and got a hold of Beyond Thirty Miles, who was still busy cheering with the rest, ”So, is there any progress made to your quest?”
”Quest? Oh, right! Quest,” Beyond Thirty Miles started when he recalled the matter at hand as he quickly checked his quest log for any changes, though the description was still the same as before.
”Do we need to return and look for another NPC?” Beyond Thirty Miles made a guess.
Brave Surge had also come back to his senses and remembered the reason for their operation in the first place. Beyond Thirty Miles did not receive any prompts from the system, and nothing was dropped when they killed Thousand Miles Drunk, so the whole lot of them immediately set off for Yunjiao Lakeside where the NPC Guillermo had parked itself at for the time being. Worried that the NPC would suddenly walk off and disappear, Brave Surge had especially left some of their men behind to accompany it this whole time!
Along the way, everyone was still immersing themselves in the elation and delighted in having killed of Thousand Miles Drunk. Brave Surge momentarily experienced a sense of deja vu, vaguely recalling that time when his guild had first been established, how he and several comrades picked up a guild quest together and had finally managed to successfully slay a BOSS and accomplish the quest after losing many of them one after the other. The excitement everyone had felt back then was very similar to how they were right now.
It has really been a long time since we felt this sort of simple and pure happiness. This must be the thrill of taking down a sufficiently strong opponent! Saying so, it was not as if they did not usually have their own opponents. It was just that the fighting between guild leaders like Oathless Sword and Foe-herder was largely focused on intrigue and all-encompassing in nature. Furthermore, things were always at a head and even if they were to grab an advantage, there was never that sense of pleasure quite like what he had experienced. Instead, it was defeating Thousand Miles Drunk, that sort of BOSS-like existence, that had granted everyone with such a fulfilling satisfaction.
The people from Carouse were all full of energy, laughing and joking all along the way, yet when they got to Yunjiao Lakeside and went to meet Guillermo, they were immediately given the cold shoulder treatment.
”Hey! We've already killed Thousand Miles Drunk!! Stop acting dumb!!” Beyond Thirty Miles wished he could just accost Guillermo forcefully.
”What are you saying all that to an NPC for?” Folding Fan Invader did not know if he should laugh or cry. He maintained his cool composure as he turned to regard Brave Surge.
Brave Surge had utterly experienced what it meant to have celebrated for nothing right now. He was happy that he had managed to slay Thousand Miles Drunk, but there must be a reason for Brave Surge to do so for him to truly enjoy this success. Even though none of them had reacted at the moment before, at least all of them knew deep down that the kill was very meaningful and they would greatly benefit from it. But now, the meaning, the benefit… None of that was present. Guillermo still said the same things he said to Beyond Thirty Miles before, and it was very obvious that there had been no progress in the quest at all.
”How could this be?” The guild channel was buzzing with discussion.
Brave Surge thought for a moment, before suddenly asking, ”Who was it that said that the quest needs to be taken from Thousand Miles Drunk?”
Beyond Thirty Miles pondered about this, as his forehead began sweating profusely. He did not even catch the entire conversation from the NPC when he picked up the quest, and had merely heard what Young Master Han discussed about it. However, that man intended to use him as cannon fodder, and so had no reason to elaborate on matters with him. Beyond Thirty Miles was historically the most befuddled quest holder, not even certain about the details regarding the quest in any sense. He had been in a state of flustered terror when he first exchanged quick words with the NPC, inexplicably getting himself the quest. After hearing everything that Guillermo was telling them right now, it seemed to be saying that someone had obtained something important from this cabin before they did, so they needed to get it back. Nothing it stated explicitly indicated that Thousand Miles Drunk was the perpetrator.
”Ah, then… That means…” Beyond Thirty Miles stammered as he struggled to find the words. Where was Thousand Miles Drunk in all this?
”Search around Yunjiao Lakeside. See if there are any clues. Especially the area around the cabin,” Brave Surge ordered.
Over two hundred men scrambled and began their search while Beyond Thirty Miles looked like a child who had made a mistake, standing right near the corner facing the wall in shame.
”Ultimately, this quest had still started from the cavity. Come along, anyone who knows something about it, gather around. Let's all come together and organize what we know about this quest,” Brave Surge was directing everyone to get to work even as he called everyone together to discuss things through the guild channel.
The one who would be clearest about the details of the quest would of course be the quest holder himself, but the person who had the quest before Beyond Thirty Miles was the traitor Wind Seal who had run off to another guild. Brave Surge could only patch together from all the small details that they learned based on what some people could share about the quest and attempt to paint a fuller picture of everything.
Unfortunately, there was hardly anyone in Carouse who was a questing maniac like June's Rain, nor did they have someone who was a fiend for information like Brother Assist. As a result, all of them were largely indifferent toward the quest's details. Since the guild had only positioned them at the site in order to defend the place, that was exactly what they would do. Nobody cared to listen to the story behind it. Reportedly, this was the sign of an expert as well! When experts quest, they would always seek efficiency or the rewards, so why would they have the time to care about anything about the plot? Because Parallel World was a simulation of reality, the NPCs would not speak like the games of old, where the players could use their mouse and fast forward the dialogue. Plenty of people were bothered by this. It was already something that players avoided, but now, not only did none of them know what was going on, they had to go up and inquire about the matter. How was that possible!?
In the end, Brave Surge could not find any plausible information regarding the quest, and what information he had initially learned from Wind Sea's report was actually far more detailed than everyone's account thus far. But Brave Surge was also too embarrassed to mention this, since he had also adopted the expert's way of not placing much importance toward the plot of the quest. He had heard Wind Seal verbally give his report, but he was barely paying any attention to what was being said. Now that there was no record for him to look through, there were plenty of details he was still quite foggy over. Everything he had said in the party channel was completely vague as well, and when everyone saw that their guild leader was also terrible at it, the others saved themselves the trouble of even racking their brains to recall what little they know.
”G*dd*mm*t!” In the end, Brave Surge did not really get the complete story behind this quest, so all he could do was vent his anger over the channel, ”Everyone, take note! These City War quests aren't normal. Next time, when anyone receives a quest, make sure to get the plot down. There are some things that the NPCs would state that we need to deduce from what we learn according to the plot, right? Take now for example. The NPC said someone else had obtained something, and some people are saying it was Thousand Miles Drunk. We've no idea just why the hell it is Thousand Miles Drunk, but we've all killed him, yet we got nothing out of it. If this isn't a joke, tell me what is?”
”So what are we going to do now, guild leader?” someone asked.
”Let's search around the area first, see if there are any clues to be found,” Brave Surge ordered.
”I've got a thought,” Folding Fan Invader suddenly blurted out.
”Then hurry up and share it with us!” Brave Surge was in no mood to beat around the bush.
”Have we forgotten about someone else?” Folding Fan Invader asked.
”Who?”
”Sword Demon!”
”Eh?” Everyone jolted to a start.
”In the beginning, back in the cavity, it was both Thousand Miles Drunk and Sword Demon that were sowing chaos there together. Those two were already friends from the start, so now that they were designated as city defenders together, they might very well do plenty of activities with one another. If this item retrieval quest we got was really something related to Thousand Miles Drunk, perhaps it's not him, but Sword Demon instead?” Folding Fan Invader continued.
”What you've said... Makes a lot of sense,” Brave Surge nodded his head vigorously.
”Because Thousand Miles Drunk is overwhelmingly powerful, we've all paid no attention to Sword Demon's existence. Everyone, think about it. From what we've found out about the occupation of Encampment no.3, Thousand Miles Drunk had been making his way over from somewhere else. He had only stepped onto the encampment and logged off only after the encampment had been dismantled. Thus, Thousand Miles Drunk actually had nothing to do with the capping of the encampment, which meant it was done by Sword Demon back when everyone was only concentrating on searching for Thousand Miles Drunk! If someone had been looking out for Sword Demon, perhaps we might not have lost the encampment,” Folding Fan Invader said.
”That's right, it must have been Sword Demon!” Everyone nodded in agreement.
”Thousand Miles Drunk is definitely Parallel World's top player when it comes to PK, but for things like quests and the ilk, he might not be on par with a veteran gamer like Sword Demon. That is why I believe, there's a good chance that the target for this quest here is actually Sword Demon, so we should be searching for him instead,” Folding Fan Invader concluded.
”We're hunting for someone again…” Hearing this conclusion, everyone felt like puking.
”Sword Demon isn't comparable to Thousand Miles Drunk, so if someone were to identify him, I doubt anyone would be afraid to attack him. We'll need to move quickly. I feel that these quests found during the City Wars event are very flexible, so if Sword Demon were to be killed during this period of time, perhaps the quest item would be dropped upon his death. And if anyone were to bring this item over to this location, there's a very good chance that they would be able to continue the quest in our stead.”
”You're right! But Sword Demon isn't online now,” Brave Surge said.
”Then we shall wait for him! Sword Demon isn't as difficult to deal with as compared to someone like Thousand Miles Drunk. Now that we've confirmed that Thousand Miles Drunk temporarily does not have anything quest related in his possession, why don't we avoid him? Let us wait till Sword Demon comes online. I do believe the people from Colored Clouds and Traversing Four Seas will also get on around the same time, and it just so happens that we can use them to take on Thousand Miles Drunk, while we focus our attention onto Sword Demon,” Folding Fan Invader had thought this out quite thoroughly.