Max swore and cussed as he berated Rone over the audio call.
“Ok, stop, stop, let me expin!” Roempted to pacify him.
“Yeah expin, ‘cause clearly you’re a bloody expert, aren’t you?” Max replied derisively.
“...I’ll ighat ent on at of the fact that your charm went down again. The reason I-”
“Why would you remind me of that?!” Max was devastated. “You know I did 920 damage? Your health is f*g 220! How are you pnning to survive that, go on, expin it to me.”
“...So there is a fourth damage type.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s called critical damage. Every attack has a 1% base ce ering a critical hit, which will multiply the damage dealt by either 2x, 5x or 10x, with 2x having the highest probability. You said the damage indicator was red; that’s the critical hit colour.”
“...”
“If you did that much damage, you probably hit a 5x multiplier, which has a 0.09% ce of on any given attack.”
‘Okay, that seems quite unlucky then...’ “Even if it were 2x, you’d still have died.”
“Okay, fine, fine, so I made a mistake. I admit it. It’s me who’s most affected anyways; I ’t log in for a full day now.”
That was true... Max felt a bit bad for him. “Well, you watch me py. I’ll stream and you give me dires.”
“...Actually, I think I’m gonna go have breakfast. I’ll watch you a bit ter though.”
“?” ‘Uh oh, this wasn’t supposed to happen.’
Max felt like a tourist who’d just lost his tuide. His eravel pn sisted of following the guide around, who’d studied up ohing prior to ing here.
“Okay, well, any suggestions for me before you leave?”
“Yeah, go finish your starter mission and do any follow-up mission you get. That or you go to solo-grind monsters in the woods or join a party with some randoms. I’d reend against joining other pyers actually, because you might get PK’ed.
“What’s PK?”
“Pyer-killing.”
“Oh.”
“Clearly PK is enabled, sidering that you’ve already eradicated 3 people from existence. Anyways, you have that OP css, and your skill with the bow is good, so you’ll be fine. Probably.”
“Your fidence is truly inspiring.”
“All right, I’m hungry so I’m leaving now. Good luck!” Rone hung up the call.
“...”
“...”
Max sighed. As he did so, a cloud of vapour formed in the air in front of him, catg his attention.
‘I hadn’t noticed before, but it’s really cold here.’
It was amazing that he could even feel an in-game temperature. The sensory experience here was leaps and bounds ahead of the previous game. Additionally, since he didn’t feel cold earlier, there robably a meic that warmed you up when you moved around quickly.
With nothing else to do, Max trekked back to the archery range rancher. It was true that he’d accepted a mission from that guy, he’d just fotten about it pletely.
Mission: Battle-Tested
Difficulty: Easy
Description: Every hero o prove themself in battle. You are no different. Defeat 100 enemies a back to Coby when you’re finished.
Milestone 1: Defeat enemies: 100/100 (plete)
Milestone 2: Return to Coby (Pending)
Reward: 1,000 gold
‘Right, his name was Coby.’ Max recalled the ran NPC. That guy also said that he would have another mission for him and that he should e back ter.
Having already grown bored of what felt like a walking simutor, Max broke into full sprint as he ran back to the archery range.
‘Zzooommm.’
The pyer’s muscur strength in the game was determined by their STR and AGI stats, with the starting strength being at the level of an average athlete in real life. For most people, this was surreal, because it would cause them to feel strohan they’d ever felt before. For Max, it felt fortable and familiar since his game avatar felt almost the same as his real body.
Nearing the range, he slowed down when he spotted a gathering of pyers around the facility. Not knowing what they were doing, he listened in to their discussions as he passed by.
“Dude, why is it so hard? What kind of evil game designer makes something like this?”
“I really wanna be an archer but I failed the test. What now? Do I have to choose another css?”
“Everyone spam the devs on the forums! With enough of us, they’ll be forced to fix the test!”
‘Ah, so that’s it.’
Max pitied them. If it weren’t for the new feature redug shaking while aiming, he probably would have failed the test too. That st target was diff-wait.
It was at this moment Max realised that he had on sense, which he had not been using for quite some time.
In the previous dive game, Hero of Liberation, it was necessary to hit bullseyes on all targets up to 60m to obtain the ‘Archer’ title. This was what had influenced his thinking.
During the css test earlier, Max assumed he simply o hit all of the straw targets to obtain the archer css, but upon thinking about it for more than 2 seds, which he had not done, anyone would realise this was plete absurdity. Many of the pyers starting this game would have ouched a bow in their lives. As an archery instructor himself, Max khat such beginners would have trouble hitting a target at 10m, let alohe furthest target which was a whole 100m away. This being the case, the minimum range for passing would most likely be somewhere from 10-20 metres.
Oher side of things, this test should be a ch for experienced archers. Loads of NPCs were capable of shooting 100m in Hero of Liberation, so Max cluded that pyers who were veteran archers in real life would ace the test without much difficulty.
Though, this did raise one question... Why did he get something so grand as a ‘unique’ css just for pleting the test? After all, ‘unique’ meant only one person should acquire it... Maybe he was the first to do it, since he was quick?
“Ah, Gun! Yer’ back!”
Max felt like he was missing something but was heless torn away from his thoughts when someone called out to him. To everyone’s surprise, Max included, it was Coby, tly dropped everything he was doing and rao greet him. “Did ya plete my mission?”
Max instantly felt the gres of numerous pyers.
“Y-yeah, I killed a hundred. Now that I’ve shown my ability, I be of help in any way?”
A useful trick Max had learnt from Hero of Liberation was how to bait out new missions from NPCs. one’s services was a surefire way of extrag new dialogue.
“As’matter of fact, there is! It’s tough, but the town guard are in a bit of a jam and could use yer’ help. Talk t’the guard captain for the details. He’ll be expe’ ya.”
“Okay. Where I find him?”
“He’ll be at the front gate’o’the north wall, just over yonder,” Coby pointed in the general dire. “If yoing, make sure t’go quick, si’s urgent.”
Max nodded a a oint in his map. “I uand. I’ll head there immediately.”
“Heh, that’s what I like ta hear. Best ya get goin’ now!”
Without needing to be told twice, Max fled the area before the nearby pyers could ask questions, speeding bato town toward his destination.
Uhe rest of the pyers who cursed with frustration and envy, a pyer with dishevelled blonde hair watched Max’s reg back with stars in his eyes.
‘So cool!’
...
...
Max arrived at the nate of the town and was impressed by the strong fortifications. Asking around for the guard captain, some soldiers directed him up a dder to the top of the wall, where a peculiar sight preseself.
An elderly man garbed in dark-red military attire sat by a makeshift desk while sing through dots. One soldier approached to inform him of Max’s presence, causing the man to unsciously smile and put down his paper. “Hello! You must be-” The man frowned as the paper immediately blew off the desk and over the parapets.
A moment of silence was held as the paper glided through the air toward the forest north of them.
“I’m sorry.” Max felt pelled to apologise
“Don’t be, I should have used a paperweight.” The man gave a wry smile, but his eyes were dead. That paper robably important. *Ahem* “You must be Gun, correct?”
Max smiled unhappily. “That’s correct, sir.”
“Sir? Haha, no need for formalities, since you’re not my subordinate you just call me Ken.” After ensuring the rest of his papers were secured, Ken turned his chair around to face Max aed his hands in his p.
“As you probably surmised, I’m the captain of the guard division for this town. The reason I’ve called you here is because Coby spoke highly of you, and I have a serious problem whieeds solving. Firstly, I’d like your word that you will keep the tents of our versation private. Is that acceptable to you?”
“Of course. I do that.” Max agreed easily.
“Great, the me expin the full situation.” Ken’s expression ged and a sense of solemnity pervaded the surroundings. The NPC seemed like he was about to say something important, so Max decided to properly pay attention.
“A few weeks ago, we began seeing an influx in the number of missing persos we were receiving iion to the woodnd north of us, Novus Forest. This is obviously uable, so following standard procedure, we sent a scouting group from the town Adventurer’s Guild to secretly iigate the issue.” Ken wore a bitter expression, “However, none of the adventurers returned. Despite being a full party of four, all with levels ie twenties, it is our belief that they were wiped out in their ey.”
‘...So something strong took out the scouts, presumably.’ Max furrowed his eyebrows. It also didn’t go unnoticed by him that the captaiioheir level, firming his suspi that NPCs levelled up just like pyers.
“With such a high level of danger, we were forced to restrict access to the forest.” Ken tinued, “However, this is only a stopgap measure, as the town relies heavily on exports; most of our people’s livelihoods depeirely on logging and fing operations. As such, we o solve the problem at its root.”
Max nodded, “How I be of assistance?”
“I wasn’t done expini.” Ken spoke sharply, but there was no sign of aggression or irritation in his voice. He crossed his arms. “We privately sent out more requests to the stronger members of the Adventurer’s Guild, but no one accepted, likely out of fear from notig the absence of the previous team. We also sent a request to the army for reinforts, but they refused to send anyone on the grounds that we had no evidence of enemy presence.”
Max remembered the game’s backstory, that the human nations were embroiled in war with the Demon Army. This robably the ehe captain alluded to.
“And so, we became stuobody wanting to assist and nary a soul willing to scout. All the while, the people are quickly dipping below the poverty line, and with no ce of any moary aid from our bastard mayor.” Ken spat with acidity in his tone, before f a small cloud of fog as he exhaled deeply to calm himself. It arent that he had been under a great amount of stress due to this issue.
“My vice-captain offered to iigate with a group of volunteers, but I ordered them to stand down while I sent an appeal to the military tribunal, sihe reduced manpower caused by their absence would leave the town vulnerable to attack.”
“They did not ply. Three days ago at dawn, a detat of 20 of my men, along with my vice-captain, Parker, left to iigate the source of the disappearances without my go-ahead. We haven’t heard from them since.” Max briefly spotted a tinge of unease in the captain’s face, before he realigned his emotions and looked Max in the eye, “That’s where you e in. Since you’re supposedly immortal, being a summoned hero and all that, I want you to go in and bring my people back, or at the very least, get me an update on their status. I am prepared to provide you the appropriate pensation if you succeed.”
Max was pletely dumbfouhe plexity of the NPd the world dynamics seemed to be extremely profound. This pletely surpassed all of Max’s expectations; it was inparable to the one-dimensional NPd linear storyline of Hero of Liberation.
Not leaving the captain in suspense, Max bobbed his head in aowledgement, having gotten the gist of the situation. “I have a few questions.”
“Shoot.”
“You could send a rge number of heroes for this, yet you’re only asking me. Why?”
“I couldn’t pay that many people, our budget is already stretched thinly. Additionally, we’ve told the public that we closed the forest due to a powerful mage perf an experiment. This is a flimsy excuse, but if the real truth were to be exposed, it might trigger a mass exodus from the town, as well of all sorts of other chaos. For this reason, I am only pnning to fide in a limited number of heroes, prioritising those with skills. You’re the first I’ve told. I’m having faith in your iy that you won’t go screaming about this from the rooftops as soon as we’re done here.”
“I won’t.”
“Good. What else did you want to ask?”
Max looked over the battlements into the forest. It was densely lined with trees, extending all the way into the distand over a mountain. “It’s a rge forest. Do you have any leads or indication of where they might have gone?”
“Their tracks head straight north. I don’t expect them to have diverged from that dire uhey found something. I am also aware that this is like finding a needle in a haystack, which is why I io send more of you separately to cover mround. Now, was that all for questions?”
“Yes, that should be enough to go on.”
“Very good. Then I take it you accept the mission?”
[ Received mission offer: The Lost Patrol. Accept? Y/N ]
Mission: The Lost Patrol
Difficulty: Unknown
Description: Crisis looms over the town of Novus, where numerous members of the local guard have gone radio-silent after a string of unexpined disappearances in the adjat forest. Captain Ken has personally asked you to find his subordinates aher bring them back or return with information on their status.
Milestone 1: Find the patrol (Pending)
Milestone 2: Either bring back the patrol or report your findings to Ken (Pending)
Optional Milestone 1: Return with evideed to the Patrol (Pending)
Optional Milestone 2: Iigate the source of the disappearances (Pending)
Optional Milestone 3: Obtain evidence of the source of the disappearances (Pending)
Reward: 15,000 gold, subject to ges based on mission performance
‘Woah, that’s a lot of milestones.’
Max felt that he had nearly no ce of actually finding the patrol, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
Thinking this, he acc-
“...”
The game crashed.
