Chapter 230 A Brief Encounter (Part 2)

There was a river under the bridge, and jumping into it meant that Ye Ci had to swim across while disabling her stealth. However, there was a problem: there were soldiers patrolling the banks as well as players who were leveling up in the vicinity. Ye Ci would attract a lot of attention the moment her character was revealed.

Ye Ci hid in a bush at the side of the bridge as she assessed the situation. There was nothing she could do but to use her Brooch of Deceit. The brooch could disguise her as a player from an opposing continent, but only for 30 minutes a day. Even then, soldiers in any main city could still see through her disguise.

She had planned to use the precious 30 minutes to buy supplies in small towns, but this was no longer possible. She had to cross the bridge with the help of her Brooch of Deceit.

With the decision made, Ye Ci disguised herself as a Human Rogue and walked out of the bush. Her action did not arouse any suspicion - it was common for a stealthy class like Rogues to be sneaking around. She then summoned her little red horse and galloped across the bridge. Despite the horse’s considerably slower movement speed compared to Ol’ Four, traveling with a steed was still faster than going by foot.

Ye Ci’s heart clenched as she crossed the bridge.

It was true that the Brooch of Deceit had managed to trick the eyes of NPCs in the past, but this was the first time the brooch was used against NPCs from an opposing faction. Ye Ci forced herself to appear calm as she rode past the soldiers posted on the bridge.

To Ye Ci’s relief, the Boorch of Deceit worked. She was able to ride unscathed across the bridge, with the sentries remaining oblivious to the fact that there was an Eastern Continent player in their midst.

“You have discovered the Arc Bridge.”

“You have discovered the Kodo Forest.”

As she galloped away to her destination, Ye Ci received more and more notifications from the system about her discovery of locations in the Western Continent. Players would receive a high amount of experience points for exploring maps in an opposing continent, and might even earn a lot of gold coins and honor points if they discovered a map near a main city. As long as one was confident in his or her ability to survive in a hostile continent, the person could easily level up just by discovering the different locations in the continent.

Ye Ci decided against heading to the direction of Light Saint City, as the guards could easily see through her disguise. She opened the map, and headed straight to the Bloody Wilderness. After all, there was only a timeframe of 30 minutes, and she was determined to put the time to good use.

The player population in the Kodo Forest was higher and denser than the player population of the Fragrance Wilderness. The sea of red players was an awe-inspiring sight even for Ye Ci.

The road to the Bloody Wilderness was adjacent to the Bloody Wilderness, and was full of high-leveled monsters. Players would usually form up in parties and take up positions at spawn points, waiting for monsters to respawn. Ye Ci could still remember the terrain during one of her multiple visits to the place in her past life, and her knowledge enabled her to navigate the road with ease.

The atmosphere in the map was entirely different from sunny setting of the map containing Light Saint City. Everything became dimmer and gloomier the moment Ye Ci arrived at the road.

“You have discovered Putrid Trail.” the system notification rang out in Ye Ci’s ears.

Wilted and dead trees lined up on both sides of the tiny trail, and corpses could be seen dangling from the trees. Ghouls would then appear beneath the trees, climbing up the trunk to feast on the corpses. The map was a sharp contrast to the Light Saint City in the adjacent map.

Players who were new to Fate would definitely be intimidated by the horrors in some of the more scary maps in the game. But as they gained experience while playing the game, they became bolder and bolder. Ye Ci could even see female players standing up against the ghouls calmly and picking up loots from their slain enemies.

After an entire year of experiencing what Fate had to offer, the players were already used to such gruesome scenes.

The monsters in Putrid Trial had a fast respawn time, and offered a high experience reward. Even when players receive less experience points as they partied up, the quick respawn timer of monsters made up with sheer quantity. This was why the Putrid Trail was full of 5-man parties.

Members from these parties would then chase away any players who approached their spot.

When Ye Ci entered the Putrid Trail, she received messages from the Western Continent players, “This spot’s taken, please go somewhere else.”

“Make way please, make way please. We’re not responsible for any accidents.”

“We’ve taken this spot. If you wish to level up, please go somewhere else.”

……

Ye Ci received multiple messages, as she went down the trail. In the face of benefits, the friendship between players from the same continent was tossed aside. Ye Ci ignored the players and galloped onwards, hoping to put some distance between herself and the Western Continent players. She only had 3 minutes left on her Brooch of Deceit.

The players in the Putrid Trail were packed too densely together. If her disguise ran out at that moment, she would face certain death.

“Eh? Is that Rogue heading to the Bloody Wilderness?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! He’s heading to the Bloody Wilderness alone? Does he have a death wish?”

“What if he’s rich, and is loaded with stacks of Health Potions?”

“Pfffttt… Does he really think that he’s that good? That place is not for normal players like you and me.”

……

The Western Continent players began their separate conversations as they stared at Ye Ci. After all, the dangers in the Bloody Wilderness is on an entirely different level compared to the Putrid Trail. Not many were willing to venture into the map alone like Ye Ci.

Ye Ci ignored the comments from the players around her, and galloped on to the Bloody Wilderness.

There was 50 seconds left on the effect of the Brooch of Deceit, but the Bloody Wilderness was right in front of Ye Ci. Even the blood red sky of the map was already within sight.

Time was short, but Ye Ci’s little red horse could not move any faster. She even began to regret her decision of not getting a better steed. Then again, she had never thought of the day when she would not be able to depend on Ol’ Four…

She was still a short distance away from the Bloody Wilderness, but had only 37 seconds on her timer.

It should be enough. There’s no player in this part of the map. Even if I run out of time, nobody will see me.

12 seconds left on the timer, and Ye Ci had only the last few yards to cross before she was safely in the Bloody Wilderness. It was a nerve-wracking experience forher. I hope nobody is passing by... I hope nobody is passing by… I hope nobody is passing by… A battle between her and a Western Continent player would definitely attract the attention of the players nearby.

Just then, a player on a unicorn appeared before Ye Ci, galloping in her direction at high speed. Ye Ci could feel her heart in her mouth when she spotted the player’s face.

What’s with this luck? Why am I running into him in a place like this?

Ye Ci knew that she might run into the person when she was in the Western Continent. Then again, who would have thought that she would actually run into him in this particular place? After all… The Western Continent was a large continent.

Fate, however, had other ideas. Ye Ci’s luck was indeed bad on this day. Everything that could go wrong went wrong today. If the player had been any other person, she might have had a chance of victory. Ye Ci could feel the sky darkening all around her.

F*ck it! What’s with this dogshit luck?

That’s right. That person was Fleeting Time.

Despite being at max level, Fleeting Time would still visit the Bloody Wilderness from time to time for the Critical Gem dropped by monsters in that map. With his inventory full of gems, his arrows almost depleted, and food for Little Five running out, Fleeting Time decided to head back to Light Saint City for supplies.

As a player who had been frequenting the Bloody Wilderness, Fleeting Time would of course know all the safe routes in the map. He summoned his unicorn, and began galloping towards the direction of Light Saint City.

It was a bountiful day for Fleeting Time. He was able to loot four Critical Gems and a Flawless Strength Gem. He even had a chance to merge the Critical Gems into a Flawless Critical Gem in the city. The thought of having a Flawless Critical Gem socketed in his bow sent joy into Fleeting Time’s heart.

Before long, Putrid Trail was already within sight of Fleeting Time. As he gazed at the trail from the Bloody Wilderness, Fleeting Time could see the grim forests at both sides of the trail. He hated the Putrid Trail. To him, the place was dark and smelly. He was, however, impressed by the tenacity of the players who would spend days leveling up in the map, braving the stench of rot as they waited patiently for monsters to spawn. They were indeed…. Impressive.

As he entered the Putrid Trail, Fleeting Time spotted a male Rogue with mediocre equipment and a low quality heading in the opposite direction.

He was alone.

Is he heading into the Bloody Wilderness alone?

Well, he’s a Rogue. He just might be able to pull it off if he has good mechanical skills. Despite the relatively low number of solo players in the Bloody Wilderness, there was still approximately 60 of them in the area. They had their own spots in the map, and Fleeting Time could recognize many of them on sight. However, the Rogue was a completely new face.

Fleeting Time dismissed him as just another Western Continent player. After all, every player had their own playstyle. Even if the Rogue was just looking for excitement, he had no right to stop him.

Besides, what he did had nothing to do with Fleeting Time.

As a person who hated to meddle in somebody else’s business, Fleeting Time did not pay much heed to the Rogue. He brushed past the Rogue on his unicorn.

But… Just at that brief moment, something caught the eyes of Fleeting Time…

Hiya minna-san! Hope you guys enjoyed this awesome chapter of the awesomesauce novel translated by me, an awesomtacular translator! Hehe...

How's everybody doing? Happy Thanksgiving for the peeps in the US! And uhhh... It's FriYAY for us here in Asia so we're equally enjoying it as well... Hope everythings going as they should for you people...

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