Chương 98: B2 Chapter 6 - Orange Names

I had feared that Veyra wouldn't be of any help in exploring the map, or even that she'd slow me down if I tried to travel with her. My build was entirely specced just to run past monsters. I had years of experience manipulating the monsters' aggro AI. Sure, Veyra was also experienced with monsters, but she wasn't nearly as good at this specific job. As expected, she couldn't keep up with my pace. The assassin class was just simply better at this job. Luckily, she didn't need to directly keep up.

There was a strategy that let her portals speed up progress by a respectable amount. Cheese. The answer was always cheese. I sneaked and dashed as far as I could alone at my own pace, until I came across a cluster of monsters that would be too difficult to pass without drawing aggro. At that point, I found a safe spot, and Veyra teleported to me. She gave me a single portal, and that was usually enough to let me sneak past even thicker guard patrols.

Teleporting was an intended game mechanic, so it wasn't like we were doing anything crazy, but it still felt cheesy. Veyra's portals more than made up for any nerfs to monster avoidance the devs had tried to implement. Following the cobblestone path deeper into the fourth level turned out to be trivial—way easier, and faster, than my exploration of the Ray Dragon event. The landscape turned to underground farmlands of mostly stunted crops with farmer NPCs trying their hardest to keep the remaining grain alive.

The cobblestone path continued through, but I had an easier time sneaking past farmlands to avoid guard patrols. Sadly, I couldn't talk to Veyra while traveling alone. I instead had to send messages, since joining a voice call was complicated in the wilderness. Any interaction with monsters would cut the call. Text messages, however, were allowed. I sent her one of the memes I'd saved.

It had the caption," My crush: finally hugs me" Wind Virtual: [We have detected another player making physical contact without consent. Push them away? y/n?]" Me: [Attached Image]" The image had a baseball player in the middle of a perfect pitch, except the ball had been photoshopped out, replaced with the system notification. In Wonderwind, throwing the system notification counted as a no to whatever question was being asked.

Veyra:" Yeah, happens every time lol" Assassin:" They seriously need to add an exception rule to that mechanic haha" Veyra:" I mean, it's not a problem for you. I don't just randomly hug you. When have you even seen the notification? With an ex?" I smiled a little and had to [Shadow Dash] past a guard patrol before continuing. Assassin:" Oh, really? You've never randomly tackled me really passionately?" Veyra:"?"

Veyra:" WAIT NO THAT WAS AN EXCEPTION" Assassin:" I'll also give you a hug pass if you want one" The chat read Veyra is typing… for a short while. Veyra:" I'll keep that in mind >. >" I smiled at myself and thought of how to respond. I would have thought talking to Veyra would get easier after we started dating, but the butterflies filled my stomach all the same. I couldn't just get lazy around her now. Veyra agreed to date me when I was at my best. I wanted to make sure I'd remain there.

I crested a hill, and suddenly the sight of a grand castle made me forget my nervousness. Shaltar's castle wasn't just a random fortification in the wilderness. The cavern opened up substantially below, as if I was looking down at a vast forest, except the trees were buildings, the rim protected by a thick black wall. Spires glowed a necromantic green, their tips touching the mist above, where the magical butterflies feasted on ceiling crystals. Assassin:" We've arrived. TP to me."

I accepted Veyra's teleportation request. Her figure appeared, and we both gaped at the view below. The obsidian castle loomed in the middle like a slavemaster overseeing a field of smaller buildings under its command. The green glow—probably necromantic energy—glowed the brightest within its windows. A tower rose from the middle, with a chalice-like cup at its top. Green liquid overflowed and trickled down the tower's walls.

"That," I said, "looks way too difficult for us to clear." Awe tinged my voice. Somehow, views in Wonderwind kept getting more beautiful. Landscapes like this just didn't exist in the real world. Imagination couldn't come up with anything as grand as this. It was like standing in a painting. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The magical light in the dark also told us we were way outclassed.

If something was beautiful in Wonderwind, especially if it glowed green or purple, in an underground city, I could only recommend watching from afar. Zenith Protocol would struggle in this city, I knew already. From Veyra's awed stare, she probably agreed. Suddenly, her head panned to the gates, and she said, "Hold on, look at that line. Are those NPCs?" Carriages and foot traffic were lined up before the portcullis. One by one, they were examined by demonic guardsmen.

The next man, if the ragged hunchback could be called a man, paid a fee and was let in. Interestingly, almost all of the people in line were NPCs with name tags like, Mineral Merchant (NPC, Level 157), or Ragged Traveler (NPC, Level 47). The two horned guardsmen with spears, Guardsmen Of Shaltar (Level 441), were monsters, but their name tags were orange instead of red, indicating that they would only be hostile to us if they had reason to. Orange-named monsters wouldn't attack on sight like red ones.

"That's odd," Veyra said.

"Could this be a player city?"

"Like a semi-safe zone?" I asked.

"No, I don't think any part of that is safe," she said with subtle amusement.

"But this can't just be a hostile zone where everything attacks us on sight, right?" I saw what she was getting at. This wasn't a safe city for players, nor was it a monster camp, but something in between.

"So it's like a player city, except it's run by a tyrant? We can enter, but if we get caught for breaking the laws, like for owning soulshards, we'll be fucked." Veyra's grin panned to me.

"That would be pretty cool, no? Have the devs actually innovated with something for once?"

"If so, that whole place is full of NPCs to talk to," I said.

"Although… A fully active city might be too much content to develop, though."

"Maybe it's possible." Veyra's tone was hopeful as she grinned at the city.

"Wind Virtual took, what, six years to make the expansion? Surely they have some interesting ideas actually executed, right?" I wouldn't have minded either way. I wasn't a huge fan of questing and NPCs, mostly because I was usually bad at both. Veyra looked genuinely excited about the idea, though.

"Shall we head in?" I asked.

"I'd say we should change plans, yeah," Veyra said.

"We'll find much more information inside the city than outside. Might be risky, though…"

"Did you see the notification from the soulshards?" I asked.

"We've broken the law here."

"Yeah, the guards' name tags will go red if we're caught," Veyra said.

"But will that happen on sight? Can they see through our inventories and just know we have soulshards? Or do we actually have to get caught somehow."

"I'd imagine it has to be the latter," I said.

"Would be disappointing game design otherwise." Veyra nodded, now looking thoughtful.

"Sneaking in could still be an option. Looks like the battlements have archers, though. Portaling in will be difficult." I knew at just a glance that I'd struggle to smuggle ourselves in. I'd gone through occasional sneak quests in the game, and they were fun, but they were also much more difficult than running through the wilderness. Castles were usually designed to make sneaking in as difficult as possible, whereas the wilderness was just a bunch of open space with monsters sprinkled in.

"I'd say we should try walking in with garbage gear equipped," I said.

"If the guards let us in, problem solved. We'll lay teleportation stones and we're free. If the guards try to kill us, we'll just run and get out. If we get trapped and die, losses are minimized. We'll have to pay entry fees, but that can't be more than one gold."

"Decent enough plan," Veyra agreed.

"Just keep in mind that new game mechanics could have been added with an expansion. The city will definitely not be safe."

"Hence the gear change. See you in a minute." I tossed a teleportation stone on the ground. As long as nobody destroyed or trapped the stone, we could always return outside the castle with teleportation. The death time-out of two hours would sting, but my idea still seemed like the safest option to me. I teleported back to Mycelara to truly turn my items into worthless garbage. I placed the soulshards into my stash as well, but the system hit me with this notification. [You have stashed Quest Items. Certain NPCs can identify ownership of these items even if your items are stashed. Players with active quests may be able to steal these items from your stash.] Just as expected, the soulshards were these types of items. I'd seen that notification multiple times before. It essentially meant that even if I stashed the soulshards, they weren't entirely safe. If someone had a quest to hunt me down for soulshards, they could kill me for the shards. If I just ordinarily died, though, I wouldn't lose them.

A weird mechanic, perhaps, but I'd grown used to it. When I returned, Veyra was back in her brown common robe. A cloth that had no right to look as good as it did on her. I wore a common cloak as well, though I still made sure mine fit my style. It was essentially just a black hooded cloak. Even in common gear, we stood out in the line to the city. NPCs were ragged from their clothes to their skin, and most were sickly, as if entering the city out of desperation alone. We slowly moved forward.

Most NPCs were let into the city without problems, but a few were cursed off and sent where they came from.

"I can't believe we're waiting in line in a video game," I said quietly. Veyra was just smiling, until we made it to the guards. She straightened her posture and put on a serious look. We said nothing and approached the checkup. The red-skinned Guardsman Of Shaltar (Level 441) wasn't exactly the most pleasant person to approach when entering a city.

His red and black spear would one-shot me even if I wore my real equipment, and with my current daggers, I'd need hundreds of stacks of evisceration for even one percentage of damage. His eyes were black and red, and his jaw was twice the size of any human's I'd ever seen. The look in his eyes was most certainly conscious, despite being a monster.

"Ten silver," he said curtly.

"Entry fee." That was essentially nothing. I placed the coins in his hand and clicked yes on the notification asking if I wanted to offer him ten silver pieces. He accepted it without emotion. Then the fucker said, "Show me your pockets." [Guardsman Of Shaltar (Level 441) wants to inspect your inventory. Let him? y/n] Well, that was a problem. This was exactly the type of situation where stashing the soulshards wouldn't matter in the slightest. The guardsman would see straight through my inventory.

We'd be caught already. I glanced at Veyra, who had the same problem with the other guard.

"Maybe," Veyra said after some thought, "a few of these in your pocket could let us in without trouble?" She subtly offered two gold coins for the guardsman, then another two for the guard on my side. Their demeanor switched immediately. The guards eyed each other for a bit. With a creepy smile, they pocketed the coins, then said, "Perfectly clear." They took a step out of the way, and we entered Shaltar's castle.