725 Chapter 725 - I’ve got what you’ve got too (1/2)

Foe-herder was slain. He was saddened by it, but because there were no losses incurred for dying during the City Wars event, Foe-herder was not really too conflicted about dying this one time even though he was a precious guild leader. Reviving back in the spawn point, he was all the more calm and composed, continuing to understand the situation over there through the guild channel as he sought to understand the situation with the various assistance in place. Just as he was about to leave the encampment, he heard the loud prompt from the system. He had been heavily penalized for 20 minutes before he could rejoin the war effort.

Foe-herder was utterly astonished. The players completely understood this penalty rule in practice by now, and dying five times, ten times, fifteen times and twenty times were the various points where a player would experience an increasing penalty of five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes and twenty minutes respectively that prevented players from rejoining the war effort immediately. Ultimately, the twenty fifth time would see the player be forcefully removed from the event entirely.

All the players began to take note of their own death counters especially after the last stipulation was uncovered, and those who had fought very recklessly from the start began to regret their actions. This situation made the players come to the realization: Life should be precious no matter the circumstances, even when it seemed like there were no repercussions for dying.

Naturally, Foe-herder had also taken stock of his death counter, and after the 25 death stipulation was discovered, he recalled his own battle history and based off the single penalty he faced every five deaths, Foe-herder easily determining that he only had died a total of eight times at that point. As a guild leader in charge of a large guild, such a result was rather exceptional. Of course, this was related to the fact that Foe-herder was a Warrior who enjoyed engaging in combat right up on the frontlines. After he began cherishing his life though, Foe-herder had never died another time again, and was still hanging on the record of eight deaths presently. However, he had received a 20 minutes penalty at this very moment, which naturally meant that he had already died 20 times since there was no reason for the system to cause trouble unnecessarily.

Foe-herder anxiously checked the system message record, believing that the system would surely have mentioned something more considering the surprising turn of events.

And that was how he discovered that his death message had indeed been different. Normally when a player died, the system would make a system statement: [You have died], But the recent death he just experienced also had an additional sentence that was added to it: [You have succumbed to an Honor kill].

Honor kill… It was yet another new term that appeared for this City Wars event. Foe-herder had no idea what it meant, but he knew that this 20 minutes lock-out that he was experiencing must be due to this so-called Honor kill, and his single death counted for twelve times.

Is it twelve? Foe-herder felt it was more appropriate to think it was at least twelve. By the system's stipulation regarding dying during the City Wars event, the system seemed to be quite in love with the number five, so it would not really be too huge a leap of logic to think that an honor kill would be worth fifteen counts of death, not twelve. If that was the case, his death count was now up to twenty three, which made sense why he was now stuck in this 20 minutes lock-out. But what made it worse was the fact that it meant that he only had two lives left.

Foe-herder was wrestled with his deep sorrow, inexplicably thinking about the game Contra, recalling about the cheat code up up down down left right left right B A. He truly wished he could give himself thirty more lives…

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”Honor kill? What's that about?” The assassins were still kept in the dark, still treating what happened as a mission completed, not even thinking that what they picked up could have any additional capability to it. Hearing Xi Xiaotian bring forth this new information, they began to suspect that Foe-herder's death was a lot more tragic than what they had initially believed.

”I don't know the fine details regarding this. All I know is that Foe-herder is now being punished, unable to rejoin the war effort for 20 minutes,” Xi Xiaotian said.

”20 minutes, doesn't that mean he had already died over twenty times?” Brother Assist was shocked.

”That's right. He's a guild leader, even one from a level 6 large guild. How could he have died so many times? That is why I believe there's more than meets the eye with this honor kill feature,” Xi Xiaotian elaborated.

”Where did you hear this from?” Sword Demon asked.

”Foe-herder is not exactly a very careful person, and he had no intention of keeping this matter under wraps. He announced it in his guild channel the moment he made the discovery, so word very quickly spread,” Xi Xiaotian explained.

Sword Demon knew what she meant. In a guild, especially a large guild like Cloud Herder, there was simply no telling how many enemy or random spies were hidden among their ranks, especially when there were things like alt accounts and 'smurfs' in the MMOs of old, which were prevalent and bound to be found everywhere. But since Parallel World did not allow anyone to have such things as alt accounts, Sword Demon felt that such a situation should occur a lot less, though it was bound to still exist in one form or another. As for understanding how other guild leaders would be doing this, Sword Demon was still in the formulation stage when it came to executing something similar now that he had become a guild leader as well.

”Ah-ha, I found it!” Fireball exclaimed, as he excitedly announced to everyone, ”[You have completed an Honor kill]. It was me! I did it!” Fireball had been searching through his message logs for the system message, and sure enough, he managed to find this unique line.

”But we still have no idea what this means. Is this 20 minutes lock-out a direct penalty meted out from being Honor killed, or if an Honor kill would be considered as a set amount of kills for this event, instantly pushing his death counter straight up to the threshold above twenty something?” Brother Assist lived up to his name as the lord of analysis. Foe-herder had never considered the possibility that it could be a one off penalty of a 20 minutes lock-out. The moment he received the system prompt, Foe-herder had panicked and thought he had died over twenty times, and he was nearing his final limit.

”Should we grab another mission for Foe-herder and test things out?” Gu Fei had very cruelly made such a suggestion.

”We've no idea if we can pick the quest up again,” Sword Demon mentioned.

Gu Fei immediately announced over the guild channel, ”Are there any of you ladies near the Hall of Guild Creations? Head on over and take a look to see if you are able to grab the mission to assassinate Foe-herder.”

”Hey! Do you think the ladies in Amethyst Rebirth are here to help you run your errands?” Seated nearby, leader July voiced her opinion in person. Since Gu Fei became the guild leader of Amethyst Rebirth, he had suddenly become a very active participant in the channel, ordering the ladies to do this and that on his behalf.

”If it's convenient for them, of course…” Gu Fei quickly added.

July rolled her eyes and could only voice out across the guild channel, ”Help find out if any of you are passing by, ignore him otherwise if it's not along the way.”

Gu Fei chuckled bitterly. Women, they want to nitpick even the small things.

They had also called the ladies of Amethyst Rebirth to join them in this meeting in Ray's Bar, but because they were not the ones who had completed the mission, quite a few of them were lazy to make their way over. That was why July, who was essentially still their guild leader, had come over in their stead to network, but a large amount of the ladies are still drifting about outside, winning the chance to help run Gu Fei's errand this time.

July might have said that there was no need to be bothered with the request if they were not passing by the building, but the ladies were kind-hearted by nature, and they treated it as 'passing by' even if it was 200 meters away. One of them swung by the Hall of Guild Creations and sent a reply, ”Foe-herder's name is no longer listed on the leaderboard.”

”As I suspected,” Brother Assist slapped the table.

”Brother Assist, there's no need to be so excited. What did you realize?” Gu Fei asked.

”I believe this means that the Honor kill feature has the added effect of increasing Foe-herder's death count by a set amount. Think about it, to be able to go beyond 20 times in one kill, such a mission, if it was repeatable, that would mean that Foe-herder would be eliminated from this event after being successfully targeted twice, which is why the system had limited it to a once-off mission. If it was simply a penalty that keeps the player stranded in the encampment for 20 minutes, then that would not really matter, and we would be allowed to keep targeting him for assassination!” Brother Assist gave his analysis.

”That makes a lot of sense,” Everyone nodded in agreement.

”Is there any new information coming from Cloud Herder?” Sword Demon asked Xi Xiaotian. He discovered that this lady has her own information channels, so perhaps they originate from the interactions and relationships that she forged with her very extraordinary clique.

”Nothing else as of yet,” Xi Xiaotian answered.

”Let's go slay him!” Gu Fei stood up.

”I really admire Mile's verve to fondly face difficulties head on!” Brother Assist first praised him before completely ignoring his suggestion, pitching Sword Demon his proposal right after, ”This assassination mission is something that pays out quite well. Why don't we choose a few of the lower ranked guilds, so the ensuing confrontation would be a lot more effortless? Let's earn some contribution score from them before revisiting this matter further.”

”The problem is that a majority of us here already have a mission for a guild leader from one of the large guilds,” Sword Demon was morose.

”I don't have it!” Fireball raised his hand as he had completed his mission.

”That's right! Those who had picked up the mission for Foe-herder should be able to pick another guild leader from a small guild, so let's clear them out one by one. Guild leaders are on another level, and these missions for their heads should earn us plenty of points. I doubt we currently stand any chance of claiming the encampments as of now,” Brother Assist said.

”Yes!” Sword Demon nodded. He felt that Brother Assist's evaluation to be very reasonable, so he immediately turned to ask, ”Who are those that picked up the mission for Foe-herder?”