Reign of the Hunters

Ye Ci thought that her name would be forgotten and removed from the Hall of Fame once her level was reset. But recent events had proved her wrong. The name of Gongzi You was made even more famous, but it was now known for its notoriety.

Bounties and wanted posters for her were plastered all over the place, covering virtually every board on the entrances of every major city.

Oh my…

Ye Ci cast another sideway glance at her wanted poster. Not as many players were around as when her name first appeared on the wanted list, perhaps due to how elusive they were, or her rapidly rising level.

But it mattered not to her. She was safe under the effects of her Secret Cloak. As long as she did not announce her presence, not a single one of the players around her could tell who she was.

Ye Ci was here for a dungeon.

Even Dark Players were offered access to dungeons. But unlike the mainstream players, their dungeons were situated in the major cities and small villages on each continent. A Dark Player would have to locate a special NPC that would transport them into an alternate dimension which was made up of an exact replica of the city or village.

But unlike a mainstream dungeon, the content of the Dark Player’s dungeon was not fixed. The enemies located within were an exact copy of what was in the city or village at that time. This meant that the Dark Players would be fighting against copies of NPCs and the players in the city instead of the monsters in a traditional dungeon.

Of course, the players and NPCs in the city would not be affected by the Dark Player’s activity. They would not suffer any losses in terms of experience points or equipment.

The Alternate Dimension Dungeons were the only explorable dungeons by Dark Players, with their only enemies being exact copies of real players.

Ye Ci took out yet another copy of a high level player. She yanked her black sword out from the player's chest and wiped his blood clean before sheathing her weapon. I feel like a serial killer now. She sighed. Then again, looking at my Sin value… I am already one…

Perhaps due to the disadvantages suffered by Dark Players, or perhaps it was because of the developer’s rush to begin the next stage of the game, the rewards for clearing an Alternate Dimension Dungeon was high.

But clearing one was no easy task. Each NPCs and copies of players in the dungeons were controlled by highly advanced AIs that could mimic the skill level of an expert level player. This made the dungeon a good training ground for players new to PVP.

Of course, this also meant that many among the Dark Players decided to quit instead, and started over as a mainstream player.

The number of Dark Players was rapidly dwindling. It was like a filtering process that weeded out the weak while the strong thrived. This meant that the Dark Players would have more capable fighters in the future.

Ye Ci did not know what the developers had in mind, but she would continue pressing on forward until the day she reached her limits.

She had only a mere 76 HP left as she sat panting on the ground. Ol’ Six was not faring any better as well. Even it's tough scales were dotted with small wounds.

The BOSS that she had just defeated was Roland, the Quartermaster of Oasis City. He was not the toughest NPC in the city, but even he had almost managed to kill Ye Ci.

She gulped down a Health Potion before making her way to Roland’s corpse to gather her loot. Her luck had improved by the tiniest bit since becoming a Dark Player. Of the four pieces of equipment dropped by Roland, two of them were suitable for her level and class.

Ye Ci equipped the gears without even the slightest hesitation. While the drop rates of her items were not as high as he other Dark Players, the slight increase in luck meant a world of difference to her.

She then fed a few pieces of roasted meat and gulped down two bottles of wine to recover her Stamina before leaving the dungeon.

Ye Ci headed to the teleporter just like the many around her. Their destination, Eastern Continent’s Grand Arena. A match would be held there. It was a match between a Southern Continent player, Lamb With Fangs, and Western Continent player, Fleeting Time.

Lamb With Fangs was a Ranger. While it was a high Agility class like the Hunter, the Ranger class could be counted as a jack of all trades. It did not have the high Balance of the Hunters, nor Agility as high as Rogue. The class also had a lower DPS compared to Rogues and Hunters, but enjoyed a larger variety of crowd control skills along with the ability to heal.

Ye Ci had never seen Lamb With Fangs in action before. But she did a brief research on the player before the match started.

She was impressed by what she saw. Lamb With Fangs was a skillful player who was able to push his character to its limit.

He was almost as good as Fleeting Time.

And even Ye Ci felt the urge to square off against the player.

Wow, it seems that Spotless Autumn is not the only top-tier player on the Southern Continent. Ye Ci was looking forward to the match between Lamb With Fangs and Fleeting Time.

Ye Ci stared at the large screen at the center of the arena. It was the place where the matches of the PVP tournament was broadcasted after its second stage. The only thing players had to do was to pay a small entrance fee before enjoying the spectacle.

Communications between the combatants and the outside world was cut off by the system to eliminate any possibility of cheating.

The crowd was cheering at the two contestants as they entered the arena.

“And the next to enter the ring was…” the referee dragged out the silence before continuing, “Fleeting Time!”

As the crowd roared with approval, Ye Ci let out a sigh at the man with silvery hair displayed on the screen. What a shame.