Fatal Shot

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The “Town of Exiles” was a unique town around 200 kilometers south of Silvermoon City. From its name, one could tell that the function of the town was to exile! Exile whom? Convicts of the Federation—including a few infamous NPCs and red-name players who killed others or violated federal laws.

Due to the rules of the system, red-name players could not enter normal cities. Otherwise, they would be wanted by the city guards. They could not use some of the transportation, too. As such, after players were red-named, apart from helping their friends transport supplies, their only other choice was to go to the “Town of Exiles,” which was commonly called the “Red City.”

There were many towns of exiles in War. In any location between cities, there was bound to be at least one Town of Exiles.

In some large cities with population capacities of over 10 million, the Town of Exiles beside these metropolitan areas could even house millions of players. It was not an exaggeration to call these towns “Red Cities.”

Players in towns of exiles were safe from the attacks of the Federation’s army, and they could obtain supplies and repair their equipment. The only problem was that in towns of exiles, the prices of ammunition and supplies were several times higher than those in a normal city.

Riding the SCV-Type One Motorcycle nicknamed “Land Bullet,” Feng Luo arrived at the Town of Exiles less than an hour after leaving the Open-Air Mine.

After committing a PK and becoming a red-name player, one needed three days to become a yellow name, and after that, an additional one day to return to a white name. However, this was the situation for a player with a PK value of only one point (one PK). Every time the PK value went up by one, the number of days one remained as a yellow-name player would increase accordingly.

Feng Luo had killed five players from the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group (killing Lonely Gunner and I Love Loli were considered reasonable retaliation). He needed to wait 15 days before he could “turn yellow.”

It was too long. He couldn’t wait that long. His only choice was to go to the Town of Exiles since there was a method to “clear” one from being a red name.

A player wearing a brown jacket on top of a gunner’s combat uniform smiled at Feng Luo, showing a row of yellow teeth. “Hey, brother. First time in a red city?” he said in a familiar tone as Feng Luo was getting off his bike.

He passed him a cigarette and glanced at the SCV-Type One quietly. Enthusiasm flashed in the eyes of this “Yellow-tooth.” An energy motorcycle like this had an aura of power and science-fiction that was the dream of most male players in War.

“No need!” Feng Luo waved his hand and declined his cigarette. He did not smoke because for a Sniper, getting the urge to smoke while hiding was a very troublesome thing.

Yellow-tooth paid the comment no mind and took out a metallic lighter, lighting a bunch of cigarettes for himself as he looked at Feng Luo’s ID overtop of his head. “Hey, brother! Looks like you killed around five people. You got skills!”

Red names were separated by different degrees. The more players one killed, the darker the color. To a certain extent, the red would become dark red. Beyond that, a name would become purple or even black, which was what the players usually referred to as, “so red that it is turning black.” Experienced players could roughly determine the PK value of a player based on the color of their name.

“Brother, if you want to clear your red name, I can provide you with some information,” Yellow-tooth announced. “You just need to pay a finder’s fee!”

Yellow-tooth did not seem concerned about hiding his intention, puffing the cigarettes clipped between his right-hand fingers, which were roasted black.

“How much?” Feng Luo asked. He looked around and noticed that there were many other players like Yellow-tooth in front of him, waiting around at the intersection of the town of exile. Every time they saw the arrival of a newcomer, someone would immediately walk over. It seemed like this had become quite a profitable business.

“For your situation, around 200 to 300 will do,” said Yellow-tooth. “As for the specifics, I’ll collect the payment after it is done.”

“All right!” sand Feng Luo.

He was also very straightforward. It was his first time in the Town of Exiles, and he just wanted to get rid of the PK value as fast as possible. It was far preferable to allow someone who was familiar with the topic to guide him, rather than groping about blindly by himself.

“There are three ways to clear a red name,” Yellow-tooth said. His expression became more formal now that a deal was in place. “The first is to spend money. For PK values below ten, spending 1,000 credits wipes off one point. As for PK values above ten, the price of one point is 10,000. PK values above 100 will require 100,000 credits for one point… The higher it goes, the more expensive it becomes. This method is usually only available for the wealthy.”

That really is dark, thought Feng Luo. For those with PK values above 100, it’s the equivalent of spending 10,000 star coins to reduce the total by one point. Even tycoons wouldn’t be able to afford that!

It would have been a mistake to think that it was difficult to get 100 points in PK value. In fact, PK numbers in the hundreds were not uncommon in War.

For example, in a chaotic battle involving thousands of people, if a Machine Gunner with decent equipment were to seize the right opportunities, clearing a cartridge belt with 1,000 rounds could certainly net him over a dozen PKs. Or, in another instance, if a good Manipulator with high-level equipment were to use an area-wide skill, the results would be similar.

Even Snipers who could only deal single-target damage, if the equipment and awareness were both decent, could similarly net the player with hundreds of kills while hiding in a suitable spot. So, considering how easy it was to kill a player, the money needed to reduce the PK value was indeed expensive.

“The second method is to complete missions,” continued Yellow-tooth, “which involves taking on clearing missions in the mission center in the Red City. The difficulty depends on how much PK value needs to be cleared. However, a deposit is needed when receiving missions, and the deposit will not be refunded if the mission ends in failure.”

This method sounds pretty good, thought Feng Luo. The only thing is that the difficulty of the mission is not entirely clear.

“As for the third method…!” Yellow-tooth pursed his lips and breathed out a green smoke ring. “It’s to PK!”

“PK?” Feng Luo was dumbfounded.

“Yes, PK! If you kill other red-name players, you will be able to clear half the number of that player’s PK value. Killing white-name players decreases the PK value by two fixed points. However, killing yellow-name players is useless.”

“White-name players? There are white-name players here?” Feng Luo looked around. The people around them practically all had yellow or red names floating above them. There wasn’t a white-name player in sight.

“Very few,” said Yellow-tooth. “But there are always some white-names who get here due to missions. Killing white-names reduces a PK count by two. It is much more effective than killing red-name players.” Yellow-tooth showed an evil grin. But then, sensing that Feng Luo seemed to have been moved by this, he hastily added, “However, I won’t advise you to choose the third method.”

“Oh?” said Feng Luo. “Why?”

Feng Luo thought this was weird. PK was clearly the fastest method to clear one’s name. He would not even need to spend money.

“First, it is because the red-name players who come here are mostly not good people. After getting killed, they are bound to hold a grudge. Even if your strength far exceeds them, being the target of revenge for people like that will be quite troublesome.”

Feng Luo frowned. That was definitely a problem. After all, although one could not really kill a person in the game, one could still harass someone to the point that the game became unplayable!

“Second, it is because many people have the intention of using this method, which is why many of them form teams specifically to do this. If you were to make the rash decision to leave town alone, it is very likely you would become a target of people using you to clear their names” Yellow-tooth flicked some ashes.

“My only choice is the second method then,” Feng Luo said. He hadn’t expected there to be so many ways to cleanse one’s red name.

“Yup,” said Yellow-tooth. “I do advise you to clear your name by completing missions. However, if you want to select the third method, I can also introduce someone to you who is quite experienced in this matter.”

“Forget it,” Feng Luo said as he shook his head. “I’ll just choose the second method. Where do I get these clearing missions?”

As for spending money to get rid of the red name, although a price of 5,000 credits wasn’t much, Feng Luo currently had no choice. He was low on money.

“Follow me!”

The yellow-toothed man led him through a labyrinth of roads before finally arriving at a three-story building beside the administration hall.

“This is the mission center in the Town of Exiles,” he said.

Rather than the beautiful NPC who greeted people with a smile at the hunter’s guild in Silvermoon City, the NPC handling mission assignments here was a gigantic, burly man with a beard. He received Feng Luo’s mission application with a cold face and passed a mission chip to him.

After Luo Feng placed the half-transparent chip into the personal computer reader, the mission information was displayed.

Mission Objective: Head toward the forest of exiles and kill a captain of the underground rebel army.

Mission Reward: PK Value reduced by five points; one manufacturing blueprint of the Eye of the Thunder Gun Barrel.

This mission requires a deposit of 2,000 credits!