Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 34 Flutter n’ Sway

Reason number one, Yi Cang found it hard to suppress her own joy out of excitement. Number two, she couldn’t really afford to miss the activity organized by the guildmaster since she was still in the Steel-Blooded Battle Spear guild. Third and most importantly, she wanted to know what kind of trickery Thousand Sunsets was trying to pull off.

However, Ye Ci didn’t really get to interact much with Thousand Sunsets the next day. Both of them had only met with each other at the specified restaurant.

He Xiao looked like he was in a hurry, but he still wore a friendly smile on his face upon seeing Ye Ci. “Oh it’s you, Gongzi. Hurry and go upstairs, they are all in the big private room on the third floor. I’ll excuse myself for awhile since I have some business to attend to, but I’ll be back soon.”

As soon as he finished his sentence, he let the smiling man who had escorted him down earlier to bring Ye Ci upstairs at once. He then briskly walked towards a luxury car that was parked at the roadside, opened the door, got in, and pulled away.

Ye Ci took a glance at that car. Although she couldn’t really accurately estimate its price value, she could easily tell that it was worth at least a few million just from its brand.

“Let’s head up.” the man beside her reminded Ye Ci with a smile.

Ye Ci gave him a nod and followed behind him as they walked upstairs.

This man introduced himself with a smile. “I’m Zero Arsenic, the vice guildmaster.”

The moment Ye Ci heard the name Zero Arsenic, she couldn’t help but to take another few good look at this man. So he was Zero Arsenic.

Although guildmaster of the Steel-Blooded Battle Spear guild was Thousand Sunsets, according to the experience of the previous generation, this man was the guild’s true mastermind.

“How do you do?” Ye Ci nodded as she gave a greeting that was neither humble nor pert. She didn’t show much enthusiasm either.

This was somewhat a surprise to Zero Arsenic. Most members were enthusiastic to meet him, but this person was quite unusual.

“You are Gongziyou, right?” Ye Ci wasn’t much of a conversationalist and Zero Arsenic didn’t want the atmosphere to turn awkward either. Hence, he took the initiative to converse with her as they climbed the stairs.

“Yes.”

“The first time I saw that name, I thought you would be a guy.” Zero Arsenic’s gaze never once left Ye Ci’s face when he was speaking, wanting to catch any trace of emotions on her face. But much to his disappointment, the expression on Ye Ci’s face remained placid. There was neither excitement nor the intention to converse further. Even her replies to him were dull and a little inarticulate.

“It was randomized by the system.”

The invitation today to Ye Ci was not Thousand Sunsets’ idea, but Zero Arsenic’s.

Her name, Gongziyou, was in two First Kills and she had caught Zero Arsenic’s attention. Although Peacock Blue was a hundred percent sure that the GS of this equipment was only 85, the Icy Cave was cleared because of a good team. However, something still felt off to him.

After she had once again claimed the First Kill of the Cruel Pit Boss: Warden Tito, Zero Arsenic immediately contacted Timely Rain and Pickled Pepper Chicken Feet who had just exited the dungeon. The two of them were immediately singing praises of this huntress’ control and command, as if it had been raining flowers. It was nothing like what Peacock Blue had said.

This had greatly piqued Zero Arsenic’s interest in Gongziyou.

As the proverb says: Money can make the devil push the millstone.

Or even better: Problems that can be solved by money are not problems.

And so, he had actually paid someone yesterday evening to investigate Gongziyou’s past. The result that turned up had him screaming in excitement. He didn’t expect at all that this somewhat pale girl was actually one of the best ten players in the previously popular game of the world, the ‘Otherworld Online’.

It seemed like these two First Kills were not mere accidents. Perhaps… Zero Arsenic couldn’t help his mind that was running wild. To think that the repeated First Kills were the achievements of this huntress.

He took another glance at Ye Ci and remembered the words of Timely Rain. “She was so familiar with that dungeon that it almost as if it was the backyard of her house. Her controls were really perfect too. I never knew the true definition of friggin’ awesome until I tagged along with her to the dungeon.”

Ye Ci turned her head to the side to look at Zero Arsenic, wondering what was wrong with this man and why did he keep giving her these bizarre stares.

Right then, they arrived at the entrance of the private room. Zero Arsenic immediately showed Ye Ci the way in. There was about ten tables in the room with quite a lot of people seated around them. Zero Arsenic was doing introductions and it turned out that they were all the main members of the Steel-Blooded Battle Spear guild. Their guild stronghold was also in the same city that Ye Ci had stayed. The objective of this gathering was to discuss the matter of advancing into the Chilly Wetlands.

However to her surprise, Peacock Blue did not attend this gathering of the main members. This made Ye Ci a little disappointed. She really wanted to see how b*tchy Peacock Blue looked like.

As soon as Ye Ci took a seat, someone immediately came up to give her a toast. Fortunately, it was stopped by Zero Arsenic. But she could still feel the the excitement of these main members over yesterday’s First Kill and their great hopes on advancing the Chilly Wetlands.

“How do you feel about the First Kills of these two dungeons? Were they difficult?” They drank three rounds and were half done with their meals. Zero Arsenic, who was sitting beside Ye Ci suddenly questioned her with a smile.

“As long as everyone work well as a team, time will be the only issue in clearing a dungeon,” Ye Ci gave him a look as she evaded the crucial point of his question and gave him a vague response.

After hearing her reply, Zero Arsenic didn’t question her further. He only chuckled and engaged in a few idle chats with Ye Ci. Then he pulled out a bank card and placed it in front of Ye Ci. “Gongziyou, there’s fifty-thousand dollars in here. It’s your reward for getting the First Kill on the Cruel Pit Boss.”

Ye Ci looked at that card. The corner of her mouth curled up into a cold smile. She was right all along.

It seemed like after her two First Kills, Zero Arsenic was a little curious about the previous First Kills she had done anonymously and wanted to rope her in. A new guild like the Steel-Blooded Battle Spear would never match up to veteran guilds that had been established for over more than ten years. They lacked elites, experience and skillful players. There was nothing but one thing that had allowed this kind of guild to sustain up to this scale – money.”

But then again, money was not a long term solution. If they wanted to be powerful, they would inevitably need to pull a few experts into their guild. Without saying further, ever heard of the celebrity effects?

The reason Ye Ci had joined the Steel-Blooded Battle Spear guild now was because she had let Thousand Sunsets down in the previous world. But this didn’t mean that she planned to stay there for her entire life. After all, it was too exhausting to serve a guild attentively and on top of that, she was someone who was used to soloing. Just being restrained in a guild was a great ordeal to her.

But she was afraid that rejecting Zero Arsenic outright would not only make things difficult for her but also Zero Arsenic. After all, he was the vice guildmaster.

And so Ye Ci gave him a smile. “I like to hoard contribution points. Let’s just stick to the 200 points of DP that Peacock Blue had promised me.”

Zero Arsenic was a little startled by her response, but it was very quickly concealed by his smile. When he saw Ye Ci’s firm gaze, he stopped insisting. Because he knew that once she had made up her mind, the outcome would not change or worse, it would make things unhappy for both parties. So it was better to pull back at the right time and wait for the next opportunity.

The gathering was celebrated with songs and dances on the surface, but ended with ulterior motives in each of their minds.

Zero Arsenic invited Ye Ci for a song, but she indirectly turned him down. She called for a cab by herself and returned home.

She logged on to the game. After she did some daily missions, Ye Ci immediately went into the auction.

The few equipments dropped by the Cruel Pit Boss yesterday that no one wanted had all been sold out. A profit of about 2,000 gold coins was made after deducting the auction fee. She sent out 400 gold coins to each of the other four people and then started searching for other auction items that piqued her interested.

Suddenly, a Pure Iron Arrow recipe came into her view. It was every hunter and ranger’s wish to craft their own arrow because it would save them a big sum of money. But not everyone was lucky enough to get their hands on that damned Beginner Arrow Crafting skill book.

This Pure Iron Arrow recipe had been put up on auction for almost 24 hours but it didn’t seem like it had attracted anyone’s attention, or at least not much people could do arrow crafting.

The recipe costed only 10 gold coins, so Ye Ci immediately bought it and learnt it. The Copper Arrows she had been crafting no longer raised her proficiency level so a higher-level recipe was just what she needed. She didn’t expect things to go so smoothly for her to be able to get her hands on a recipe today.

Ye Ci was enthusiastically crafted the arrow at one corner of the Red Lake City when she suddenly received a private message.

“Ye Ci, are you there?”

No one other than Flutter n’ Sway would call her by that name. Or at least, for now.

“I’m here, what’s wrong?”

“Are you busy right now?”

“I’m crafting arrows.”

“I’ll leave you alone then,” Flutter n’ Sway said as she was about to close the private chat.

Ye Ci hurriedly stopped her. “Just tell me if you have something to tell me.” Flutter n’ Sway was a nice person, but she always placed everyone else before her. She’d put others problems before hers even when she was struck by an emergency situation. If someone was a little busy, she didn’t want to bother them.

But then again when would you be free of trouble in game? You’d even get into trouble when you were searching for a place to nap.

Flutter n’ Sway hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Our guild is fighting the Wild Boar King at Plains of Despair but we kept getting wiped out. Can you come over to help?”

The Wild Boar King at Plains of Despair? Ye Ci was just thinking of going to fight it too but she didn’t expect the World Conqueror to be so quick on their feet and had already beaten her to the punch.

The Wild Boar King and the Sandstorm Scorpion were lvl 15 World BOSS. They had about the same amount of difficulty.

However, three cities were scattered around the Plains of Despair so it was frequently visited by many players and guilds, unlike the isolated desert where the Sandstorm Scorpion hid. It was unknown if anyone had ventured into there over half a month. That respawn point of the Wild Boar King had been a chaotic land of battles ever since the day Fate’s server opened.

There was so much hesitation in Flutter n’ Sway’s words. She was just worried that it wasn’t that they couldn’t handle the Wild Boar King but they had instead met someone who was kill snatching. So they was hoping that she could snatch the final killing blow for them. (In Fate, the right to loot a Wild BOSS belonged to the player or the party who landed the final killing blow).

Since she was friends with Flutter n’ Sway and she had requested, there was little reason for her to not go.

Ye Ci agreed without any reluctance. She asked them to manage for a little more while she’d arrive at most half an hour later. She then rode on her red pony and dashed towards the Teleportation NPC.

Fortunately, the Teleportation Master in Fate was very responsible. Very soon, Ye Ci was sent to Scarlet Sand City, which was the closest to the Plains of Despair. She then immediately bolted towards the respawn point of the Wild Boar King without stopping, and not forgetting to ask “Shushu, you didn’t tell Qin Churuo that Gongziyou is Ye Ci right?”

“Nope. If I did, he would be looking for you every single day to make you join the World Conqueror,” Flutter n’ Sway knew Ye Ci’s personality well so she naturally wouldn’t tell. “But hurry, we are almost at our limits.”

After hearing that, Ye Ci immediately ran even faster…