Chương 208: Black Scale
"Psycho? You are back. How did it go?" asked Merlin as he saw the woman entering the private meeting room. Three players were seated around a table, discussing among themselves; they all focused their attention on Psycho.
"It's fine. That guy looks quite clueless. I don't think he is someone the first elder is using to bait you out. He seems to genuinely not know much about the alliance; he asked a few basic questions and from his body language, he does not seem to be faking it."
"Really? I thought it was quite suspicious that the first elder suddenly asked me to speak to the new recruit. Was I wrong?" said Merlin with a thoughtful expression.
"I told you. You are such a worrywart! They have no proof we are looking for ways to break the contract. It was just a coincidence," said player whose name was Iconsent.
"Then what do you think about him? Is he good enough to join us?" asked another player.
"I don't know. He looks rather ordinary to me but we never know. Maybe he is just good at hiding his thoughts. In any case, he should be useful. If the rumors are true, he should be helping the members of the alliance in dealing with the other dungeons. Times are changing; it is inevitable for us to move from PvE to PVP."
"I see. Then, let us observe him a little more before making a decision. What about asking him to help us? It is fine if he is just a spy sent by the old dungeon masters. It will be more than enough if he just helps us improve our ratings in the next trials that give out rewards." Merlin spoke with a heavy expression.
"Right. The trials. Maybe the next one will give rewards too. How did you all perform?" asked Iconsent.
"This was precisely the main topic of our meeting today. What did you get as ratings and rewards?" asked Merlin.
"Mine was Good. I got two Phantom Cores, one Premium Monster Lottery Ticket and one Drop of Universal Blood."
"Same. There were only so many mobs I could kill around my dungeon," said Psycho.
Iconsent laughed lightly. "Losers! My final rating was Excellent! I got the same rewards as you but with an additional phantom core and another artifact that boost the strength of my monsters outside the dungeon.
Merlin nodded with a thoughtful expression. "That's good. Did you report your true results to the alliance too?"
"Right. What did you get Merlin? It is not fair to ask for our rating without telling us yours!" exclaimed Iconsent. He was proud of having achieved an excellent rating and did not want to miss the opportunity to brag about it.
The other players also shifted their attention to Merlin. He was appointed as their leader due to his previous position in real life but in Anarchy, only results mattered. If Merlin was unable to produce results, he would inevitably have to be demoted.
Merlin briefly glanced at Iconsent and let out a faint smile. It was precisely what he wanted! "It's good that you ask. This way, you cannot say that I was bragging. My rating was Perfect. I collected about eighty thousand Destruction Points. I angered quite a few people but it was worth it."
Merlin was pleased with himself. He let his statement sink and waited for the players' reaction. They were completely stunned. 'Eighty thousand Destruction Points? Just how many entities did he attack to obtain that many points.'
"As expected of you. Regular players like us would not dare to anger so many people."
"That's not fair! It's because your dungeon core gives you an early game advantage! But you don't even want to share its actual effect with us," complained Iconsent.
"The effect of our dungeon cores should not be shared. People might take advantage of it if they learn about it."
"In any case. I am sure you are all curious about the rewards for a Perfect rating. This is precisely the reason why I gathered you here instead of making a random group chat. The rewards are just like Iconsent's but on top of that, I also received a [Void Contract]."
"What? A [Void Contract]?" exclaimed the three other players in unison. They were stunned. The [Void Contract] was the only solution to their problem to this day. It was the only item having been discovered that would allow them to run away from their contract with the Hurricane Alliance without being harmed.
"Yes, but I left it at my dungeon just in case. This is why I am putting some emphasis on the new recruit, Five. There is no doubt that there is going to be other trials like this one where we can obtain more [Void Contract]. We don't necessarily need to pull him to our side; we just need to make sure he will help us to achieve our goal. After all, that's the task he received from the first elder, right?"
...
When Five was left alone, he slowly made his way to the first floor. His goal was to check the requests displayed on the public board to learn about the state Hurricane Alliance but before doing so, he first opened the forum thread he just got invited to.
The forum thread was a place where the members of the Hurricane Alliance shared general information about the world. They would typically avoid giving their own location and information but one could roughly guess these pieces of information from the posts. There were no requirements for the forum; the players were not required to share the intel they had but it was in their best interest to do so. They were all linked to the alliance; helping the other members was also helping oneself.
There were many posts on the forum thread; many spoke about the movement of the church's executioners and the major guilds of the game. Many dungeon masters have already gotten into contact with other players to some extent and they were willing to share this information to avoid creating conflicts.
However, the most popular post was about what Five was looking for. It was about the E26 title. The second most discussed topic was the upcoming Night of Macabre. Using the filter, Five only opened the posts focusing on the E26 title.
Post#1: "The E26 title has already spread in the North East of the Sylvester Empire. My dungeon is located near the coast and I already dealt with ten E26 titleholders this week. It looks to me that they all belong to the same ship crew. Based on the previous posts, it seems that the title is going to spread up to the North next."
Post#2: "I received a notification about an E26 titleholder entering my dungeon earlier. It was only one. My dungeon is located on the East coast but it is next to a very small village. I am willing to bet that the dungeon master is sending his contaminated humans to all the large towns on the coast while avoiding the small ones for now."
Post#3: "Be careful. The players can also obtain that despicable title. However, they lose it once they die but I believe they can get it back after having sex with an infected again."
Five read through the post, searching for information. According to the post, the E26 titles did not spread that much yet. For now, it was confined to the East and North East of the empire. His dungeon was safe; not only was his dungeon located in the North, but it was also in the barbarian territory. Based on the relationship between the empire and the barbarians, it was unlikely that the barbarians would be infected. The players could be but as long as he killed them once, they would be temporarily cured.
'Quite smart. Looks like the person who bought the original titleholder is very active in the East. He chose to spread it near the coast in the main harbors of the empire. If he targets the brothels, it should spread really quickly, especially with all the lonely sailors and traveling merchants who frequent these places. He gets to spread the title very quickly.'
'The question is what is the Hurricane Alliance doing? It is good that they can report the movement of the titles but why are the old dungeon masters not acting? Is it because they cannot find him?'
Five fell into deep thoughts. He absentmindedly continued on his way to the back of the hall where he would be able to look at the board and the pseudo-dungeon cores. However, by being so engrossed in the forum posts, he did not hear the people calling him.
"Hey! New guy! Hey?"
"D*mn. Is he dreaming?"
Seeing Five not responding to his call, the player stepped in front of Five, blocking the way.
The latter reacted at the last second when he saw the black object appear in front of him. He froze and looked up, clearly annoyed by the person's move. Above the player, Five saw "Black Scale. Level 20".
"What?"
"Do you not hear when people call you?" retorted Black Scale, crossing his arms with a frustrated expression.
"My bad but there was no need to step in front of me like that. You could have jumped tapped by shoulder or something."
"Stop arguing with him, Black Scale." Another player said while walking toward the two. His IGN was Forson.
Black Scale frowned but nevertheless, forced himself to calm down. "Fine! Come with us. Our boss wants to speak to you. It is your first time here, you need to greet him."
"Greet him? Who is he?" asked Five with a curious expression. He had never heard of a rule saying that he needed to greet another player.
"His name is A. He is the student of the first elder and one of the seeded players of the alliance. He said you should at least greet him and show respect to those who joined before you. It does not matter if you are to become a team captain, his status is still above yours."
Five narrowed his eyes. What kind of retarded logic was that? "If he wants to greet me, he should have come here. If there is nothing else, I have to go now." He shrugged his shoulders and walked past Black Scale.
"You! You dare refuse the invitation of Mr. A? You think that because your status is special you have the rights to do as you please here?" exclaimed Black Scale.
"I understand that he is a seeded player, but what does it have to do with me? I am an independent team captain. My role is only to take in the requests posted and help others get rid of their enemies. That's it. I do not need to answer to the other players." Five continued on his way without care for Black Scale's reactions. He had already seen this type of retarded person in prison. They were typically the mobs who would bootlick the big bosses, willing to do anything for their protection. No matter what the order was, they would faithfully carry it out.
Behind him, Black Scale was fuming. Forson grabbed his shoulders, preventing him from doing something stupid; he knew Black Scale was short-tempered and loud. The short encounter had already attracted the stares of the other dungeon masters. Many were curious about the newcomer; they had seen him fight against one of the seeded dungeon masters of the Storm Alliance.
He was not weaker than a seeded dungeon master and chances were, he was stronger than Mr. A. They all knew Mr. A's goal was to step on Five once and prove to everyone that he was superior. He needed to assert his dominance to show that he was the leader among the players. However, his goon miserably failed; Five was not intimidated by their appearance at all. He knew the rules well and was not scared of Mr. A.
Five ignored the surrounding players and quietly walked to the request board. The board was a place where the Hurricane Alliance members could publicly ask for help. People who had some resources on their hand could accept the requests. It was an alternative to flooding the forum with requests; this method was quite obnoxious and would often be ignored by most players.
The board was full of requests. Most of them were asking for help to get rid of a neighboring dungeon. To accept, Five just needed to send a friend request to the person and discuss the terms directly. Using the Hub as a link, it was possible for them to transfer a large number of monsters from one place to another.
Five frowned upon seeing the number of requests. 'I am glad I already got rid of all the dungeons in my immediate surroundings. It is possible that other dungeons have a similar system. They are holding each other in check for now...'
Most requests were posted by the players but there were two requests posted by the old dungeon masters. Both had to do with information gathering. The first request was to find and destroy the owner of the original E26 titleholder. According to the information the old dungeon masters gathered, it was most likely that the dungeon was located somewhere in Blasters Bay, an area under the control of pirates.
Unfortunately, the old dungeon masters could not act directly and the new ones did not have any dungeon near it.
As for the second request, it was to locate six dungeons. More specifically, they needed to locate the dungeon made with the dungeon cores representing a sin.
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