Chương 50: Target: Level 15

In a small rooftop room, Ryan tidied a temporary refuge and held Lucy until she fell soundly asleep. He draped his coat over her, then went back out onto the rooftop, gazed up at the stars, and sank into thought. After all this, he could no longer stay with the studio. But he'd already made its name—repaying Rosalind's gift of the login device—so from here, he need only devote himself to what he wanted to do. Much had happened, but a person had to look forward.

Composing himself, he turned the ring on his finger and logged back in. System: [Ding! You have a new message!] System: [Ding! You have a new message!] System: [Ding! You have a new message!] The moment he logged in, prompts kept sounding. He opened the panel—all from Violet.

"Come to Fallen Star City the instant you're on!"

"Not on yet?"

"Come the moment you can!"

"This can't wait!" Ryan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn't guess exactly what she wanted, but a moment's thought made it clear—it surely had to do with tonight's events. Don't tell me, after hiding my identity before, now that I've gotten into trouble she wants to cut ties? If so, he'd have nothing to say; Clear Rain Pavilion was no small guild, and the Violet Club behind her a giant. Offending the power behind Slaughter the World over a nobody like him would be hard to justify.

The warmth and chill of human feeling—nothing more than that. Take tonight: even as he was leaving, not one of the studio members who'd seemed so warm with him had stepped up to keep him. First he went to the Mercenary Tavern, quit the Snowfall Mercenary Corps, and applied for a Bounty Hunter title—so that even without a corps, he could take quests at the tavern. For one who meant to walk alone from here, very convenient.

He could raise his stats through the System's Plunder, but some things required level: entering dungeons, equipping gear, accessing higher-level maps—much was level-gated. So leveling still mattered. A glance at his panel: still Level 10. A long road ahead. Leveling on quest EXP was tough; he'd have to keep running high-difficulty quests, since most quest rewards weighted gear and items over EXP.

"Wait—what's this with my stats?" His eyes sweeping his panel, he paused. His Constitution and Strength had risen about twenty points from before he'd logged off. Could it be— A thought struck him: killing targets in the real world could trigger the System's Plunder too! This System was far from simple. Acceleration he could just about grasp—but plundering attributes off real-world enemies was beyond belief. It gave him an uncanny feeling: as if the real world, too, were a virtual game.

In his last life, the merging of Heaven's Descent and reality had been a mystery to begin with—and now this strangeness made him wonder. Could it be… If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. He shook his head, set the wild thoughts aside, took the ten highest-EXP quests at the tavern, and teleported to Fallen Star City to find Violet.

"You were far too reckless! Actually killing people!" Violet frowned.

"Everyone I killed deserved to die." His gaze sank, his voice beyond dispute.

"Sigh—I've looked into it. What Cassius Lowe and the others did was indeed deserving of death. But do you know how much trouble killing them brings on yourself?" She spoke like one wishing iron would become steel.

"Behind Cassius Lowe stands the Lowe Family!"

"Hmph. If they dare come, I'll kill them all the same." His eyes narrowed, voice cold.

"For daring to lay hands on Lucy, Cassius Lowe got no worse than he deserved."

"Sigh—advice is wasted on you, it seems." Violet frowned and sighed.

"Find time tonight to come to the Violet Club. I've arranged a new identity for you, so you won't have to skulk about day to day."

"You—" Ryan was taken aback. He truly hadn't expected that the one to lend a hand in his low moment would be this Violet, with whom he'd only collaborated a few times.

"As for Cassius Lowe's death, I've done everything I can to suppress it; there shouldn't be a leak in the short term. If the day comes that it gets out, come to the Violet Club—we'll do all we can to help you," she said gravely.

"Why help me?" Ryan frowned.

"Because you're worth it." Violet didn't hide it.

"Working with you can bring Clear Rain Pavilion enormous returns—wholly worth our while."

"Thank you." He offered the word sincerely.

"I can't get away just now, but I'll come to the club tomorrow when I can. We'll talk then."

"All right. Stay safe!"

"Don't worry, nothing will go wrong." Ryan said, "I, Ryan Gunn, always repay a kindness. You've done me a great favor, so if you ever need help, just say the word." With that, he drew a hundred Bronze Fire Seeds and gave them to her.

"I used these in the Fallen Star Valley dungeon—you know their power well. You've helped me greatly, so consider these a gift. I've got things to do, so I'll head off!" Before she could say more, he crushed a return scroll and left Fallen Star City. He had to level up fast now—reach Level 15 in the shortest possible time, forge the Firegold Set, and set out for the Northern Desert Domain. Because in the Northern Desert Domain, an old comrade was waiting for him.

[Quest: Slay the imperial fugitive—Skull-Crusher Moen! Reward: 30, 000 EXP, 100 gold, 1, 000 bounty points!] Thirty thousand EXP—enough to push Ryan to Level 11. Bounty points were the Bounty Hunter's exclusive reward, redeemable for prizes at the Mercenary Tavern; a fine perk. By the quest, Skull-Crusher Moen was lurking near the Hidden Valley on the southern frontier of the Dragon Blood City region. Ryan marked the spot and raced toward it. These next days, he had to raise his level as quickly as he could.