Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 211 This is a Choice (Part 2)

“Do you really mean that?” Wang Jiangnan was slightly hesitant. Although the item would definitely be removed as soon as he filed a report, it would be a bother to the players who owned such an item.

“Of course, don’t I look sincere to you?” Ye Ci blinked. Her expression was indeed full of sincerity.

Wang Jiangnan was sceptical. No matter which point of view he was viewing this from, be it from a normal player’s point of view, Ye Ci’s point of view, or even a developer’s point of view, he came to the same conclusion: As long as someone is not sick in the head, there’s no way the person would agree to it.

“I think you are very sincere, but not that kind of sincere that I’m thinking about.” Wang Jiangnan was very upfront with Ye Ci.

“How so?” Ye Ci raised her eyebrows and smiled at Wang Jiangnan, “The Brooch of Deceit was the special drop of the Sandstorm Scorpion, but it has a very low drop rate. Removing the item will not affect the player’s gaming experience at all, am I right?”

“I’m talking about yours…” as an intelligent person, Wang Jiangnan knew what Ye Ci meant. She was indeed supporting the idea of removing the Brooch of Deceit as an item drop in the future, but not the one she currently own. However, according to Wang Jiangnan, it would only be fair to remove all the Brooch of Deceit. Of course, Ye Ci was apparently against the idea.

“What about mine?” Ye Ci slightly narrowed her eyes, “If I’m not mistaken, I’ve obtained it through normal means. Of course, even if a BUG was involved, I’ve reported it to you people for I am an ethical player. If I’m not mistaken, the employee who reviewed my report was none other than you, Customer Service No.094, Wang Jiangnan. Have you forgotten about that?”

“Of course not, but…”

Ye Ci was quick to cut Wang Jiangnan off, “But what? Are you telling me that none of your people have noticed the design flaw of the Brooch of Deceit when you developed the game?”

Of course, it was something very impossible. There are tens of thousands of designers and planners involved in the process of developing Fate. Every single item was reviewed and processed by different developers before being released into the game. It was highly improbable that something like this would be missed.

Wang Jiangnan was speechless. Although he was not involved in designing the game during the earlier stages of the development process, If he chose to speak up, he would be discrediting the efforts of his predecessors.

Ye Ci took Wang Jiangnan’s silence as a confirmation. She nodded and smiled at Wang Jiangnan, “Nobody thought of the impact of such an overpowered item when they introduced it to the game. This means they deemed the Brooch’s design to be reasonable. Since I’ve legally obtained this reasonably designed item, you can not delete my belonging just because you deem it as a BUG.”

Wang Jiangnan was once again speechless. Ye Ci was going according to the rules of the game. What did he say in the beginning? The rules are used to restrain the players, but people like Ye Ci would always be able to exploit the rules and use any loopholes to their benefit.

She had proven it before, and she was proving it again.

“I don’t care what you developers do to the items that have not been dropped by the Sandstorm Scorpion yet. I am but a normal player, it has nothing to do with me. You don’t even have to tell me about it and ask for my opinion. However, if my belonging is removed just like that without any valid reasons…” Ye Ci said with a smile.

“What?”

“If you did not track my gaming record, you wouldn’t have discovered that the Brooch of Deceit is a BUG. If you don’t know that it’s a BUG, why would you think of removing it from the game?” Ye Ci smiled, “It seems that you’re monitoring your players and breaching their privacies so that you can get promoted. Isn’t that a violation of the rules and a breach of work ethics, my dear Customer Service No.094?”

Wang Jiangnan’s face immediately paled. He looked at Ye Ci and grimaced, “Hey, hey, aren’t you being a little too harsh? I haven’t even said that I am going to delete it…”

“No, no, no. I agree that you should be removing the Brooch of Deceit.” Ye Ci walked up to Wang Jiangnan and patted him on the shoulders. The beautiful smile on Ye Ci’s face did not even make him relax. Instead, Wang Jiangnan could feel an intense pressure.

“You can report this BUG to your superiors, and I can pretend that I know nothing about your illegal actions…” Ye Ci was like a cunning fox, “But, as a return…”

“You want to keep the stats of this particular Brooch of Deceit?”

“Ah, this is why they call you a genius! I find your EQ to be as high as your IQ.” Ye Ci nodded.

“Oi, this will cause a huge trouble for me.” Wang Jiagnan protested. To make changes to or remove certain items while preserving only one of them was a tedious process. It would be easier to just remove everything. Wang Jiangnan was unwilling to involve himself in such a troublesome matter.

“Wang Jiangnan, I seemed to have hidden my ID when I killed Werebeast Shaman Buru, but why was there a betting thread in the forums?” Ye Ci was casually picking her nails. Even her threats appeared to be casually spoken.

“Oi, oi, oi, don’t make such an irresponsible remark alright? I was not the one who did it!” Wang Jiangnan was fervently waving his hands in denial.

Ye Ci refused to believe his words. She stared at Wang Jiangnan silently with a smile on her face, and that predator's smile was one to make him shudder.

Wang Jiangnan sighed after a long moment of silence, “Alright, alright. I know what to do. I’ll get it done.”

Ye Ci was satisfied with his answer. She nodded, and turned around to leave, “I’ll be on my way then.”

“Oh yes, there’s something else I need to ask.” Wang Jiangnan called out to Ye Ci suddenly.

“What is it?”

“Say, do you think that it’s possible for Fate to be like a second life to people in the future?” the look in Wang Jiangnan’s eyes was a mix of sincerity and desperation.

Only dreams can push a human to experience such an emotion, and not everyone had their own hopes and dreams. Ye Ci was touched when she saw the emotion in Wang Jiangnan’s eyes. Although Wang Jiangnan was being vague with his question, Ye Ci knew the meaning behind his words. She knew that he was slowly moving towards fulfilling his dreams.

“Why not?” Ye Ci replied with a smile.

“I-I mean…” Wang Jiangnan was mesmerized by Ye Ci’s glowing smile. He was able to relax , “I mean, even though we have a huge number of players, the vast majority of our player base is made up of youths. The number of middle-aged and older players are not quite impressive. We cannot ignore the fact that middle-aged adults made up a larger percentage of the population compared to the youths. But… I don’t think they will be able to accept this game…”

“Why won’t they accept it?” Ye Ci turned around and stared at Wang Jiangnan, “Where have you heard about it?”

“Well, at least my parents wont.” Wang Jiangnan grimaced. It was very ironic. Even when he was a developer of Fate, his parents was very prejudiced against video games.

“Not everyone in this world is of the same mind. The thoughts of your parents are not reflecting the thoughts of all people of the same age. Why is this a reason to hesitate and hold back? To have a dream is a wonderful thing.” Ye Ci did not want to talk too much about the future. After all, if Wang Jiangnan only moved forward because of Ye Ci’s words, he would not be able to become the future main designer of Fate. This is Wang Jiangnan’s dream, and his life story. There was no need for Ye Ci to play a part in the story of his life. The only thing she could do was to give him advice to encourage him on the road ahead..

Wang Jiangnan sat on the crate and stared at Ye Ci, at her smile, and marveled at how confident and carefree she was. He stared at her when she left the place without even a backwards glance. Wang Jiangnan smiled. He made the right choice by seeking out Gongzi You.

Of course, there was something he would never tell Gongzi You. The Brooch of Deceit BUG was merely an excuse. His true motive of looking for Ye Ci was to listen to her advice. She had once given him the strength to reach for his dreams. When his will began to falter, he immediately thought of Gongzi You. He needed her assurance.

It was as if Gongzi You was a strong flame burning bright, and a tiny spark from her could give him the courage to press forward.

“Thank you, Ye Ci.” Wang Jiangnan whispered to himself, and disappeared from the Silvery Tin Vein.

As expected, the Brooch of Deceit was removed from the game. Of course, nothing happened to Ye Ci’s Brooch of Deceit. When she logged into the game, Ye Ci immediately saw the patch notes, containing a lot of minor changes to the game. One of the notes caught her eyes: Something that should not have existed has been returned to a world where it belonged.

Not a single player knew the meaning behind the sentence, and each of them had their own theory.

With the exception of Ye Ci who was the owner of the first and last Brooch of Deceit in the game, nobody else knew what the Fate officials were talking about. Eventually, people began to forget about the message entirely.

When Ye Ci’s summer holiday was almost over, the Golan Arena was finally introduced into the game.

As the largest arena in the current stage of the game, Golan Arena received a lot of attention even before its release. Unlike the smaller scale arenas, Golan Arena offered a whole lot variety of battle modes to players with a large variety of maps. Players could have friendly matches against players from allying continents, or fight against players from opposing continents.

There competitive modes in the Golan Arena includes 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 and 10v10 battles. Each type of competitive mode put a different aspect of a player’s gaming knowledge to the test, and offered differing amount of Glory Points, which could be exchanged for high quality PvP gear.

Many players flocked towards the Golan Arena because of the hype, but most of them were there to obtain PvP equipment. Although intercontinental wars had not been officially released into the game, players from opposing continents had the opportunity to engage each other in combat. They came to realise that engaging a player who was armed with PvP equipment in their PvE equipment gave them a huge disadvantage. Many players began to recognize the importance of PvP equipment.

After all, the war between continents would be the focus of the game in its later stages. If players were unable to gain good PvP equipment before the system was introduced, they would be at a grave disadvantage. Nobody was willing to place themselves in an unfavorable situation, which is why the Golan Arena became one of the most frequented places by players aside from the other main dungeons.

Ye Ci did not join in on the hype. Due to the sheer number of players flocking to the arena, many of the combatants had to queue up for a long time before they could even enter the arena. It was time that Ye Ci could not afford to waste. Besides, her Epic-tier quest and side quest were at the most crucial moment. She did not want to distract herself with something else.

“After such a long time, I can finally feel your sincerity,” Milada voiced his mind to Ye Ci who was staring at him silently.

Ye Ci sighed a breath of relief. She could finally proceed to the next stage of the quest. However, things were not as simple as they seem. Milada did not allow Ye Ci to proceed to the quest’s next stage, “As a last test of your sincerity, I have a small request for you. I hope you can help me out.”

“What is it?”

“My brother, Andrei, who was the true ruler of this Silvery Tin Vein, was captured by Red Lake City’s Chief Warden Fa’tar. I hope that you can help rescue him.” stated Milada matter of factly, as if it was an easy task.

Ye Ci was shocked. You’ve gotta be kidding me! This guy is asking me to rescue someone from the Red Lake City prison from the hands of Warden Fa’tar? Doesn’t it mean certain death for me?

Fa’tar was a lvl 100 Elite NPC with strong offensive capabilities. He also had an ability that allowed him to summon waves of NPC soldiers. Although he could not summon as many soldiers as the city lord and mayor, they were still more than enough to handle Ye Ci.

This is insane! Even if this is an Epic-tier quest, can you please not give out such an impossible quest? Aren’t you just playing a prank on players?

When Ye Ci was still deep in thought, Milada spoke up again, “Hmm… My brother Andrei has never seen you before. He might not leave with you even if you try to rescue him. Let me give you something that can help you gain his trust.”

Ye Ci was given two options when Milada finished his dialogue. The first option was to receive a pack of very lethal poison from Milada. The description of the poison was very detailed. Lethal Poison: Even a tiny bit is able to cause death. This is the best weapon against Fa’tar and his thugs.

The other option was a ring, which also came with a description. Milada’s ring: This is a ring given to Milada by his mother. A similar ring is also owned by Andrei. He will be happy to see this ring.

Ye Ci was given a choice.

A different choice would result in a different ending. Making a decision in this game was just like making a decision in real life. It was filled with uncertainties that might lead to different outcomes. A wrong choice could spell disaster. That was why we must all be careful when we make our choices.

Ye Ci stared at the two items. Should I choose the poison or the ring?

If she chose the poison, it would be very easy to kill Fa’tar and the rest of the guards, and this might even earn her a lot of Doran Thieves Guild Prestige. However, Fa’tar was the Chief Warden of the entire Red Lake City. There will not be another lvl 100 Elite NPC that could replace Fa’tar’s position. The citizens of Red Lake City would be living in fear when they hear the news of Fa’tar’s death. This would affect the growth of the city badly.

In Fate, certain key NPCs in a city would never respawn after they were killed. Chief Fa’tar Warden was on of such NPCs. His death meant the absence of an authority that would watch over the prisons and enforce the laws of Red Lake City. This would bring civil unrest to Red Lake City.

The only solution was for the lord of Red Lake City to find a replacement from another city as a replacement for Fa’tar. However, Lord Sha’gar was not someone who liked to take care of the administration of his city. He might not even take action to solve the crisis.

When Ye Ci thought of the economy of Red Lake City the would definitely downhill due to the ever increasing crime rate caused by the absence of Fa’tar. The players who were bound to Red Lake City as well as its NPC citizens would suffer a huge loss.

Because of that, the Lethal Poison was immediately rejected by Ye Ci. Although it was the quickest way, it would also bring an everlasting damage to Red Lake City.

The only option left was the ring.

Since the poison was no longer a viable choice, Ye Ci immediately chose the ring without any hesitation. Milada then handed an already worn out ring to Ye Ci.

There was no time limit to the quest. It was the only glint of light in Ye Ci’s very dark situation, and it also meant that Ye Ci had enough time to devise a strategy.

The guide to this qest from her past life was not very helpful. The player who completed the quest did not write about the entire process of the quest in detail. After all, not every player could come across this Epic-quest, which meant that his guide would serve little purpose. The player’s focus was on the rewards offered by the Epic-tier quest.

It was very enticing.

Ye Ci was a greedy person. She might not even have attempted to complete this Epic-tier quest if not for its bountiful reward.

Hiya minna-san! Here's another release of the awesomesauce novel translated by an absolutely awesomtacular translator Jimmi!! Enjoy the chapter minna-san!

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