Chapter 231 Is That Possible? (Part 1)

The Hunter class was a unique class in Fate. they were the scouts of a party in the absence of a Rogue. They were also a class that could go on the offensive, but could perform well when they were on the defence. This was why Hunters could always be seen leveling up solo. A good Hunter would always have an acute sense to his or her surrounding.

Being observant was the basic quality of any Hunter. A Hunter must also find clues from the most trivial of details. A good Hunter like Fleeting Time would always take note of his surroundings. Such practice was like a second nature to him.

The things present in a certain location, the behavior of certain players or NPCs… He noted them down without making a conscious effort. It was very tiring, but you would never know when it would bring you an unexpected surprise.

As Fleeting Time brushed past the Rogue, he caught a glimpse of the seemingly unremarkable ornament on his chest.

What a familiar sight…

It was a brooch. A crude, plain-looking brooch. It was a brooch with a very common outlook, just like the ones that were very common among players. But Fleeting Time had a nudging feeling that he had seen that particular brooch before. But where?

He could not remember at all.

Fleeting Time cast a backwards glance, but the Rogue was no longer in sight. Strong winds blew as Fleeting Time continued on his journey back to Light Saint City, the split second when he saw the brooch lingered in his mind.

How long is a split of a second?

There was once such verse in the Mahabharata: A ksana[1] is but a moment of thought, and 20 ksana makes a shun, while 20 shun is as quick as a tanzhi, and a luoding lasts 20 times longer, 20 luoding makes a xuyu, and there are 30 xuyu in a day.

One can easily deduce how fast a split of a second was.

1 day = 24 hours = 86400 seconds

30 xuyu = 1 day, which means that 1 xuyu = 86400/30 = 2880 seconds.

A luoding = 2880/20 = 144 seconds

A tanzhi = 144/20 = 7.2 seconds

Then a ksana = 7.2/20 = 0.36 second

We can conclude that a ksana, which is a split of a second, is about the length of 0.018 second.

How long is 0.018 second? It might not even be enough for a person to blink his or her eye. What can one do with that amount of time? Nobody would ever know the answer to the question. One thing, however, was certain: Fleeting Time and Ye Ci brushed past each other in the split of a second.

Ye Ci could feel the beating of her heart stop as she held her breath. That brief encounter was like a silent eternity for Ye Ci. She stared ahead at the direction of the Bloody Wilderness, not daring to look back.

Lush green bushes grew on the sides of the narrow past connecting the Putrid Trail to the Bloody Wilderness. A person can easily hide in one of the bushes without risking detection. Ye Ci jumped down from her horse and rolled behind one of the shrubs. Her little red horse, which is a normal steed, disappeared once she dismounted.

In the blink of an eye, Ye Ci and her little red horse disappeared from the Bloody Wilderness.

Ye Ci immediately activated stealth when she was hidden safely behind the bush. It was harder for hostile to detect Ye Ci when she was in stealth due to the talent points she invested into the skill. Despite her relative safety, Ye Ci remained cautious. The person that brushed past her in that brief encounter was Fleeting Time, a player that she must not underestimate. If she was not careful, he would be able to detect her easily.

Ye Ci hid behind the low bushes, listening to the wind that brushed past her head, and her ears. Time was also passing by, accompanying the billowing wind.

When Ye Ci was in stealth, she would not be spotted by any Western Continent players, this meant that she could remain in stealth indefinitely as long as her character was not revealed. However, Ye Ci was a Huntress, which was inferior to the Rogue class when it came to stealthiness. Even with her Empowered Stealth, she might still be detected by a high level Rogue.

Fleeting Time was indeed her deadliest rival in the Western Continent, but he was not the only top-tier player in the Western Continent. The situation was the same in the Eastern Continent. Even when Ye Ci was crowned as the top player in the Eastern Continent, she was not the only top-tier player in her home continent.

She waited patiently in the bush.

Ye Ci had thought that her experience of waiting for sunset in the Southern Continent was the longest moment in her life. She was wrong. As she stared at the timer in the bush, every minute felt like a year. She let out a sigh of relief after 5 full minutes.

She had been studying her surroundings as she hid. However, there was nothing other than the billowing winds in the Bloody Wilderness. There was not a single player around.

Of course, Fleeting Time did not appear as well.

Perhaps he did not notice my presence. After all, the Brooch of Deceit was an overpowered piece of equipment. Only Wang Jiangnan and myself knew about its existence. Even a top-tier player like Fleeting Time is unaware of the effects of the Brooch of Deceit.

Ye Ci concluded that it was impossible for Fleeting Time to detect her presence after making a brief analysis. She slowly crept out of the bush, and pulled out the Goblin Compass to determine the location of Vo’sok.

Vo’sok was once the home to the Goblins. It was then invaded by the Bloodthirsty Undead and Corrupted Orcs after the war between Naga and the Gods. Vo’sok was since removed from existence from any known maps across all realms.

The compass, that would lead her to DeFrei, was given to her by Orthus. According to Orthus, the compass would only work when Ye Ci entered Vo’sok’s boundaries, and according to her quest details, she would be able to locate Vo’sok in the Bloody Wilderness.

According to Ye Ci’s unexplored map, the Bloody Wilderness is a vast and dangerous place. Even Ye Ci herself was unsure if she could traverse through the map and locate Vo’sok safely. Her safest bet was to quickly determine the direction and general location of Vo’sok so that she would not waste unwanted time and resources in exploring the unknown map.

The Goblin Compass, however, had other ideas. As Ye Ci held the compass in her hands, its needle spun wildly.

It seemed that it was impossible to locate the location of Vo’sok by using the Goblin Compass.

Ye Ci let out a sigh. The Epic-tier quest was indeed a tough nut to crack. She then put away the compass, and began advancing in a random direction.

The scenery of the Bloody Wilderness was not as terrifying as its name suggested. Lush green plants and mold covered the ground, while some occasional small bush and shrubs can be seen scattered throughout the land. The only thing that could be related to blood was the skies at the Bloody Wilderness.

The sky was always painted in a shade of red any time of the day, and any day of the year. It would even remain red throughout the four seasons and different weathers. That was probably how the map got its name.

No normal monsters existed in the Bloody Wilderness. The map was inhabited by lvl60 Elite monsters that possessed high levels of intelligence, and huge amount of HP and defence. Ye Ci could only take two of such monsters at the same time. She would be forced to retreat if more of them appeared during the battle.

Of course, the Elite monsters were not the only beings that roamed the map. There was also a big population of leveling fanatics of the Western Continent that were scattered across the map individually or in small groups.

Ye Ci’s progress of exploring the map was hindered by such limitations. She would pick of the occasional isolated monster that she encountered. If the monsters came in pairs, she would then survey her surrounding for any hostile players before engaging them in combat. If the two conditions were not met, she would then avoid the monsters.

The lack of the means to resupply in hostile territory was a huge factor that affected Ye Ci’s strategy. She could not afford to engage Western Continent players in a battle. Besides, her main aim was to discover the location of Vo’sok. She would have difficulties in exploring Vo’sok if she expended too much of her arrows and consumables on hostile players and monsters. Wasn’t it an act of wasting her time?

And time was something that Ye Ci could not afford to waste.

With her movement speed halved as she moved in stealth, and some of the time she spent on killing the monsters in the Bloody Wilderness, six hours had passed when hunger began assaulting Ye Ci’s senses. She hid herself in a bush and logged off from the game after slaying a Bloodthirsty Undead.

Ye Ci informed her parents about her important quest after her lunch, and that she would not be logging off from the game for dinner. Zuo Xiaolan and Ye Nantian who were already veterans of the game knew that players could not log out of the game in certain special quests. They connected two bottles of nutrient fluid to Ye Ci’s gaming cabin and continuously to go offline during intervals of her quest.

Ye Ci then log back into the game after a quick shower. Even she did not know how long she could last after going online, just like how she did not know when she would complete her business in the Western Continent. For the sake of saving time, Ye Ci chose to remain online as long as possible.

A sea of leaves appeared in Ye Ci’s view. She could remember clearly that she hid her character in a bush before going offline. Despite her stealthed status before logging off, the stealth was remove the moment she went online.

Ye Ci immediately entered stealth and studied her surroundings. She then crept slowly out of the bush after making sure that there were no hostile players around.

Dark clouds hung on the sky, and thunder rumbled in the distant accompanied by flashing lightning.

It’s about to rain.

This is certainly not good.

As a game with 100% realism, the change in weather in Fate in a common sight. Players activity and status would also affected by the weather. Sunny and Cloudy days were the most common weather in Fate, and would not affect the players in any way. However, the same could not be said for other weather that occurred on random intervals.

Rain would reduce the visibility of players, and would soak their clothes wet. Characters that were equipped with armor were mostly unaffected by the rain, but the movements of players in cloth armor would be greatly affected. This would affect their ability to perform maneuvers and cast spells.

A windy day would spell bad luck for ranged classes and the wind would affect the range and accuracy of their attacks. Players would need to constantly adjust their aim according to the speed and direction of the wind.

Heavily armored characters would face misfortune areas during the winter. As their characters that were encased in metal armor would freeze to death and their movements would be limited due to the frost. Even the consumption of anti-frost potions could not completely remove such a debuff. Players affected by the cold weather would have reduced carry limit, movement speed, and attack speed.

This was the difference between Fate and its VRMMORPG counterparts, and this was why the experts that migrated into Fate spent a long time to adapt to the game’s weather system.

It’s definitely going to rain.

Rain would turn soil into mud, which was bad news for Ye Ci who was already in stealth. Treading on mud meant that she would be leaving her footprints behind. With the rain limiting her visual ranged, she had to be very careful.

Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way they should be.

Translator's Note:

[1] This entire passage here appears to be taken from some Buddhist/Hindu scriptures which I have literally 0 knowledge of, and I tried really hard to find the English translation of it but I can't. So I'll just have to make do with pinyin until I come across correct and accurate information in the future. I'm really sorry about this

Hiya minna-san! Hope you people enjoyed this awesome chapter brought to you by an awesomtacular translator! Hope you people enjoyed this!

And hey! It's Monday again! Urghhh... I had Monday blue, but I still had to go to school DX Well, at least today was fun! Goofed around with friends until my class started xD

Hmmm... Any Malaysians reading this novel? Give me 3 cheers if you read this and you're a Malaysian! Hip hip hooray! Hahaha... 4 cheers if you're from Melaka, and 5 if you study in MMU Melaka xDD! And yeah... If you're actually a student of MMU Melaka, we can probably hang out in Old LP sometimes xDD I'm always there from Monday to Wednesday in the morning hehe...

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