Reign of the Hunters
Chapter 11: Collateral Damage

That voice…

It was something that Ye Ci would never forget, even in death.

That person was the one who trapped her in White Stallion City with the help of ten other pros. They’d even made an oath to make her drop all her equipment. After trying to lose them for a few days, Ye Ci finally ended the fiasco by escaping the city with an expensive teleportation item.

After that incident, Ye Ci would always kill any one of them that she had come across, and they would also gang up on her whenever they had seen her. In the end, Ye Ci had more success in causing trouble to them. The victory rate against them was about 70% to 80%

Everyday Meat from Spring Rain Guild. Ye Ci would never forget about that person even after 10 more years.

That guy’s persistence and stinginess were the stuff of legend. Despite his high level, top tier equipment, and exceptional skills, his character was questionable. He was once listed in Fate’s Black List and was forced out of the game.

Acts such as taking over an entire leveling area was just the tip of the iceberg of what Everyday Meat used to do, but it caused huge trouble for the newbies.

More than twenty of them occupied the junction leading to the newbie village and Wolf canyon, completely sealing off the area.

Truth be told, it was the perfect leveling place to take over.

Wolf Canyon was an important post-lvl 5 questing and leveling area that yielded a lot of coins and experience, while the newbie village was the place where every newbie needed to go.

Everyday Meat had on a full set of Green equipment, and the players with him possessed high quality equipment as well. The most frightening thing about the posse, however, was the blood red color that covered their characters.

Killing a player in Fate was forbidden, and the deed came with a high price. The upkeep for a red-named player was way higher than the upkeep of a normal player. Judging by the red names of the players standing behind Everyday Meat, they were all from Spring Rain Guild.

The Spring Rain Guild did not make it into the top 30. For a guild to be able to afford so many red-named players, its strength should not be belittled.

However, no matter how unreasonable Spring Rain Guild was, there were many more players bolder than them.

A lot of newbie players protested the guild’s actions.

“Who gave you the right to do that!? That place has your name on it?”

“Yeah, you guys seriously think that it’s your property!?”

“Let’s not waste our time talking to them. Go get ’em! A red-name’s items will drop if we kill him!”

……

The already tense situation went out of control immediately. The newbie players drew their weapons and charged at the Spring Rain Guild players. In a situation like this, there was no way Spring Rain guild would just stand still and watch. When Everyday Meat motioned with his hand, almost thirty red-named killers charged out to meet the newbie players in battle with their blood red weapons.

The entire junction erupted into chaos just like that.

Ye Ci climbed on and carefully avoided the warzone. Although Everyday Meat was her nemesis in her past life, she was not dumb enough to instigate a conflict with him at this time and place.

“Boss, somebody was trying to sneak into the canyon!” Shouted one of the players. Everyone’s attention shifted to the same direction.

Ye Ci was about to jump down from the branch and leave when she felt watchful eyes staring at her. She was momentarily stunned stunned. Damn! What had she done to deserve such attention!?

The players that were either fighting or blockading the place stared at Ye Ci.

When somebody paid close attention to you, you might have felt that you were charming. But when so many elves were staring at you at the same time, perhaps the only thing you could feel was danger. It was especially so when you were merely a passerby who suddenly became the center of attention.

Ye Ci pursed her lips and jumped onto the next tree.

－73

－79

－81

She felt a chill creeping down her spine just as she leapt, and her HP bar dropped by half.

“You were attacked by player Rabid Dog, you have 10 minutes to retaliate.”

“You were attacked by player Tianhe Boy, you have 10 minutes to retaliate.”

“You were attacked by player Glittering Diamond, you have 10 minutes to retaliate.”

Streams of system messages flooded into Ye Ci’s ears.

Ye Ci lowered her body and hid among the leaves. She took the opportunity to go into Stealth.

Sun of a beach. Why was she caught in the crossfire? She was merely trying to sneak past the blockade and into the newbie village.

Alas, Ye Ci was never one to be afraid even though she tended to avoid confrontations.

“Damn! Where’s that Huntress!”

“Must’ve died…”

“I did not see a death notification!”

Ye Ci peered out from between the leaves. There were not many left at the junction. The newbies were defeated with little to no casualties on Spring Rain Guild’s side due the difference in level and equipment.

A few players that were coated blood red were looking at Ye Ci’s general direction while literally standing among piles of corpses.

Although her opponent could not see her when she entered Stealth, Ye Ci’s movement speed was halved. If she moved from a tree to another with that speed, the wobbling of the branches as she moved about would attract attention and she would therefore become an instant target.

Ye Ci was formulating a counterattack plan as a strong gust of wind blew past the area. She seized the opportunity to leap onto another tree. She dashed past a few branches, stopped, and nocked an arrow. She took aim at the Hunter, Rabid Dog, and let the arrow loose.

－132

－45

“You have slain an enemy!” The system chimed in. Rabid Dog laid motionless on the ground and Spring Rain Guild members closed in on her hiding spot after a brief moment of hesitation.

Using the howling wind as cover, Ye Ci hid herself among the leaves and repositioned herself rapidly while firing arrows at Tianhe Boy and Glittering Diamond, taking their lives as well.

Ye Ci was about to disengage from the enemy when a sudden agonizing scream pierced thru the air. Before she knew it, Everyday Meat had fallen.

Who did that?

Right after that, arrows and magics peppered his men from every direction.

Everyday Meat’s men fell, succumbing to utter confusion after his death. Despite the ruckus, they were able to get organized very quickly. After all, they were still a well known guild. Even without command, they had split into several groups and headed for the source of incoming attacks.

Nobody, of course, was awaiting them there.

The junction became more chaotic than it already had: the newbies that respawned to reclaim their items, the Spring Rain Guild who were looking for their assailant, and the invisible assailants themselves. The situation was more heated than a pot of boiling water.

Ye Ci backed away after assessing the situation. She was merely retaliating against her attackers and were not interested in such chaotic melee. The ones that attacked her were dead anyways.

Ye Ci’s priority right now was going back to the newbie village to learn skills, then proceed in leveling up to lv10 and getting into one of the big cities.

The battle at the junction raged on. Ye Ci stole a glance at Everyday Meat. A Fireball landed on him just as he was revived, sending him back into death’s embrace. A few red-named players suffered the same fate. Spring Rain Guild seemed to be suffering from an organized ambush. There was no need for Ye Ci to stay.

Ye Ci continued to dash between the trees while stealthed, heading straight for the village and leaving the junction far behind her.

Hunters could learn Capture Pet, Snake Venom Needle and their first Protection skill — Falcon Protection.

Ye Ci was alreading lvl 9 after adventuring in Icy Cave for two days straight. She was 70% away from lvl 10. She took a look at the Level Rankings and saw that Let Go Of That Girl was at lvl 8 80% progress, nearly catching up with her. Ye Ci sighed. That guy was a fanatic in leveling up.

In her previous life, Let Go Of That Girl was very famous. He was Fate’s no.1 leveling madman.

Every game was like a compact society with different people. Some of them loved money or fighting over the smallest trifles. Some of them loved their equipment and arming themselves with only the best gear. Some of them loved to have friends, and they had friends everywhere. Some of them love to level up so that they can always stay ahead of everyone. Many of them love money as well, while others craved for power or even girls. Some of them just loved to have an adventure, while others loved glory. All of them were different in their own way.

Let Go Of That Girl was the sort that liked to level up. Ye Ci knew the person, but at the same time, he was an unfamiliar figure.

She knew him because he was always high up on the Level Rankings board. She was unfamiliar with him as she had never actually met him.

Despite that, Ye Ci was happy to see a familiar name from her last life on the ranking board.

ID: Gongzi You

Race: Elf

HP: 420

MP: 200

Endurance: 37+5 (Equipment buff)

Stamina: 20

Strength: 23+2 (Equipment buff)

Intelligence: 20

Agility: 42+2+5 (Race Attribute) (Equipment buff)

Speed: 2+2 (Equipment buff)

Balance: 20+1+3 (Race Attribute) (Equipment buff)

Perception: 10+1 (Race Attribute)

Traits: Stealth (Racial Attribute), Concealment (Class Attribute), Sly, Diplomacy, Leap, Roll, Haggle.

Her Agility and Balance were high, but she was lacking on Strength.

In a Huntress’s stats, Agility affected critical chance and dodge rate. Balance affected the accuracy of attacking while on the move, and Strength affected the damage value.

Ye Ci’s character had a low Strength and she was not satisfied with her damage value. She could do anything but depend on equipment and Talent in the later stage of the game.

Turning off her Character Attribute menu, Ye Ci walked into Instructor Zol’s wooden house. Good heavens. The entire place was bustling with noise, just like one would expect of a market.