Chapter 20 – Killing a Red Named Player (1/2)

Chapter 20 – Killing a Red Named Player

I suppose I’ll check Spiritmyth Pond first. There should be a few treasure chests there, not to mention the drops aren’t too bad either. Though I don’t know whether or not the chests have already been found by someone else. 「Ding!」 While contemplating this matter, Nie Yan suddenly received a notification.

「System: Player Yao Zi (Young Sparrow Hawk) has sent you a friend request.」

「Nie Yan, it’s me,」Tang Yao said in an anxious tone.

「What’s the matter?」Nie Yan asked. The anxiousness in Tang Yao’s tone caused him to furrow his brows.

「I’ve been cornered at Levin Hills,」Tang Yao said depressingly. The only person he could think of who could help him out at this moment was Nie Yan.

「What, who’s got you cornered?」

「People from the Radiant Sacred Flame guild. There’s at least twenty of them! All five of my teammates were killed by those bastards. Only I alone managed to escape… If it wasn’t for Lei Zi (Young Thunder) shielding me, then I would’ve died as well. Right now those guys are blocking the only two exits from Levin Hills.」 Lei Zi was Nie Yan and Tang Yao’s classmate in middle school. However, unlike Tang Yao, he wasn’t very close to Nie Yan, as they had only made brief contact in the past.

Radiant Sacred Flame… Nie Yan had actually heard of this guild before. It was a large guild, similar to Victorious Return. In the past, around the time he had reached Level 60, Conviction’s developers implemented the guild ranking system. Radiant Sacred Flame was one of the guilds that had ranked in the top sixties. Even as the years went by they never fell below the top one hundred.

“Hide well. I’ll be there in just a moment,” Nie Yan advised. Tang Yao would very likely be killed if he was late by even a few moments. Dying meant the loss of a level. This would be an extremely unfortunate outcome for Tang Yao.

Nie Yan entered a scroll shop and bought five Return Scrolls, five Basic Haste Scrolls, and five Basic Strength Scrolls. He only needed to give Tang Yao a Return Scroll and the latter would be able to be safely teleported to the nearest city or town. As for the other scrolls, he prepared them in case he needed them later on.

A single Return Scroll would cost upwards of thirty coppers. As for the Basic Haste and Strength Scrolls, they were slightly cheaper at twenty coppers each. Both these scrolls had a duration of thirty seconds. Basic Haste Scrolls would increase movement speed by twenty percent, whereas Basic Strength Scrolls would increase strength by five points.

For players who weren’t so wealthy, these scrolls were items that many of them couldn’t bear to use. No one would dare act like Nie Yan and buy this many scrolls in one go.

He also bought more Basic Health Potions in preparation for the future.

Nie Yan put away the scrolls and hastily made his way towards the nearest transport point. He was equipped with Bronze-grade equipment that gave stat bonuses such as Dexterity +5 and Move Speed +2. As a result, his current movement speed vastly outstripped the average player.

He quickly arrived at the transport point and teleported straight to Link town. After emerging in the town, he immediately sprinted off towards the north.

「How’d you guys get into a scuffle with them in the first place?」

「We met a Leader-class monster in the area where we were hunting Level 3 mobs. While we were fighting it, a group of people came over and tried to forcefully steal the kill from us, just because they had the advantage in numbers. In the end, our party’s Thief managed to grab a piece of Bronze equipment when the Leader-class monster died. Those guys weren’t willing to accept that, though, so they tried to kill us afterwards. Now three of them have their names marked red.」Tang Yao seemed to be out of breath while he said all this. It appeared that he was still hiding from his pursuers.

「How much longer do you think you can hold out for?」

「Luckily, Levin Hills is a pretty wide area. So as long as I keep moving around, they shouldn’t even think about catching me within the next hour, especially considering how few people they have. That is… unless they call for more reinforcements.」

「One hour is enough. I’ll make sure to thoroughly have fun with them.」Nie Yan was beginning to grow restless. He was equipped from head to toe with Bronze-grade equipment and had learnt many new skills. He was just itching to go, now that he had found new opponents to test them out on.

「What’re you gonna do?」

「This brother is going to vent some frustrations on your behalf,」Nie Yan confidently replied.

「How many people do you have with you?」Tang Yao asked, bewildered. He couldn’t help but wonder if Nie Yan actually managed to bring a lot of people with him.

「None, just me.」

「Is this some kind of joke!?」Tang Yao felt this was simply too ridiculous.

「Haha! What do you think?」Nie Yan replied. At present, most players in the game weren’t that strong. After all, they’ve only been playing the game for about a week. To put it simply, they were all still novices. Even guilds like Radiant Sacred Flame would be hard pressed to find even a single member that could rival Nie Yan, let alone having the bottom ranking runts facing him.「I can’t wipe them all out, but taking care of a few of them shouldn’t be a problem.」

Nie Yan had ten years of experience playing a Thief. He knew all the skills used by each and every profession for PvP. Not to mention he understood combat strategies like the back of his hand. Even if they have more people… so what?

「Don’t go getting yourself killed, though. If the situation starts looking dangerous and you can’t help me, then so be it. Even if I die, I’ll only lose one level. It’s nothing to lose your head over.」

「No worries. Find a place to hide and don’t come out. Just sit back and watch.」

The entrance to Levin Hills was a small ravine that allowed only three to four people to pass through at a time. Steep vertical cliff faces flanked the ravine on both sides.

There were three players guarding this entrance: a Level 3 Berserker, a Level 3 Elementalist, and a Level 2 Priest.

Among the three, only the Elementalist had their name marked red.

Their companions had already gone in to chase after Tang Yao, leaving only these three to guard the entrance.

And the hapless Tang Yao was trapped inside, just like a turtle in a jar.

“Damn! That bastard is as slippery as a loach. Even after all this, we still haven’t managed to catch him. What’s worse is that I don’t even know when this red mark on my name is going to disappear. I can’t even enter any towns or cities until it goes away,” the Elementalist cursed while chatting with his teammates.

“Captain Dian Cang (Blue Drop), don’t be angry. There’s no problem as long as you don’t get killed by someone before your red name disappears. Besides, we gained a lot of profit from this. Each of those five people we killed dropped a piece of equipment,” the Berserker consoled.

“Peh! Those five pieces of garbage aren’t worth ass. If it weren’t for those brats thinking they could actually steal our equipment, putting me in a shitty mood, then this old man wouldn’t even have bothered with them.” the Elementalist named Dian Cang replied disdainfully.

“Captain Dian Cang you’re truly like an invincible god. You managed to single-handedly take out three of them by yourself. Remember when you cast Scorching Flame Explosion earlier? The way you used it was simply too exquisite!” the Priest next to him began flattering and fawning.

“Hmph! Those three were just weak. It only took one Scorching Flame Explosion to take out over half of their health. If it weren’t for their small amount of magic resistance, they surely wouldn’t have survived!” Dian Cang said, somewhat pleased with himself.

The nearby Berserker and Priest were simply followers of this ill-tempered Elementalist. It seemed that his position within the Radiant Sacred Flame guild was rather high.

The three chatted on idly like this.

“Ah! A red name. Looks like today’s meal will be rather decent.” Nie Yan cackled with a strange laugh while hiding far off in the distance. If a player with their name marked in bright red like this Elementalist were to be killed, then not a single a piece of equipment on their body would remain. Everything equipped would drop!

Furthermore, the equipment this Elementalist donned didn’t look half-bad. He wore a blazing red mage gown that resembled flowing flames. He held in his hands a dark crimson redwood mage staff with a fiery blaze that circulated at the top. It appeared to be a part of the Fire Chaser set, but Nie Yan himself wasn’t too sure.

This Elementalist was going down a route that focused on fire damage. The high damage from his fire spells was going to be a slight pain to deal with. The nearby Berserker also looked like he would be hard to handle. As for the Priest by their side, he could simply be ignored. Most priests still haven’t even learned Heal this early in the game. Therefore, they would just follow the team from behind and leech experience.

Dian Cang swept his eyes over the surroundings. The steep inclines of the nearby mountains made the background slightly difficult to blend into. However, Nie Yan had learned the Enhance Stealth passive skill, so it wouldn’t be much of a problem.

He entered Stealth and slowly moved towards those three players.

He grasped the dagger in his right hand, holding it in a reverse grip, and slowly crept closer. At about five meters away, he was able to clearly make out the expressions on each of their faces.

The Elementalist Dian Cang felt something peculiar and glanced over the nearby area. Seeing this, Nie Yan quickly halted his steps and exercised control over his breathing.Seems this Elementalist has a rather high Awareness.

“Captain Dian Cang, what’s wrong?” the Berserker asked with a bewildered expression. He looked around, but all he saw was empty space.

Dian Cang searched the surroundings once more with a more focused gaze, but still didn’t discover anything. He shook his head and said, “Nothing, probably just my imagination.”

Nie Yan faintly knitted his brows. He could tell this Dian Cang was experienced in PKing, because he was able to vaguely sense Nie Yan’s presence from such a far distance.

The more points a player had in Awareness, the easier it would be for them to detect hidden enemies such as Thieves.

I can’t take my opponents too lightly. Nie Yan inwardly reminded himself. Numerous bitter experiences in the past reminded him that underestimating an opponent would often lead to defeat.

Nie Yan lightly tread forward, occasionally altering his walking speed. After calming his mind, he gradually entered a Thief’s stealthing state, and completely merged with the background.

“Captain Dian Cang, who knows where that Arcane Mage could be hiding up in the hills. Maybe Bai Mao (White Hair) and the others have already lost him,” the Berserker said after taking a quick glance at Dian Cang’s expression.

“Oh,” Dian Cang absent-mindedly replied.

“That brat is pretty cunning. He nearly killed Dong Zi (East Child) just now,” the Priest informed after looking at the party chat.

“Mhmm… his defense is too weak,” Dian Cang answered back. He seemed preoccupied with something else.

The Berserker and Priest were quite puzzled. What’s going on with the Captain? Why is he so absent-minded?

By this time, Nie Yan had made his way behind Dian Cang, and was unable to see the expression on the latter’s face.

He was now only two meters away from Dian Cang. Nie Yan attentively gazed at his target’s back. After making some quick measurements, he found that he was about three meters away from the other two. It’s about time. He resembled a cheetah as he patiently stored up power in his legs before suddenly pouncing towards his target—Dian Cang!

“Brat! I was waiting for you to show yourself!” Dian Cang laughed sinisterly. He retreated back and brandished the staff in his hand. “Fierce Flame Ring!”

He had discovered Nie Yan long ago! His eight points of Awareness weren’t something to be trifled with.

Even if they were stealthed, it would still be incredibly difficult for a Thief to leave behind no traces in front of an expert.

The Elementalist had intended to lure Nie Yan closer so he could kill him with the help of the nearby Berserker and Priest!

“You took a fancy to this old man’s equipment? Do you think you’ll still have a life to snatch it with?” Dian Cang smiled disdainfully. He thought Nie Yan was no more than a passing Thief who was lusting after his equipment. One who was urged on after seeing his red name and the type of gear he was wearing. From the start, he never thought Nie Yan and Tang Yao were connected.

Dian Cang finished casting his spell. Immediately, a blazing ring of fire emerged out of thin air, expanding outwards in every direction as it headed towards Nie Yan.