Retrograde Gaming

Chapter 6: Discriminatory Treatment

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

“Oh damn! He slapped the blacksmith!” After a while, a player in the vicinity finally broke the silence.

“I remember now! No wonder he looks so familiar, isn’t he the kickass brother in the pinned forum thread?” Another player suddenly realized this.

“That’s right! I remember it now too, he’s kickass as expected! Yesterday, he slapped the village chief, today, he’s slapping the blacksmith. Look guys, this blacksmith also isn’t retaliating.”

The reason why the blacksmith naturally didn’t retaliate was because of the system’s notification.

System Notice: Since you attacked the newbie village’s blacksmith, Bard, Bard’s Favorability towards you has increased by 20. Current Favorability, Friendly.

“Full beard, hurry up and give me the mining certificate,” Li Huailin said once more after he slapped the blacksmith.

“This brave warrior, if you want the mining certificate, you need to complete the prerequisite quest before I can give you the support class…” The expression in the blacksmith’s eyes all of a sudden turned amicable, he even changed to calling him ‘brave warrior’ instead of ‘brat’. However, before he finished his words, Li Huailin flung another slap.

“Pa!” Another crisp and clear echoed out, the forge quieted down again.

System Notice: Since you attacked the newbie village’s blacksmith, Bard, Bard’s Favorability towards you has increased by 15. Current Favorability, Friendly.

“The mining certificate…” Li Huailin repeated once again.

“Brave warrior, If you want the mining certificate, you must first…” As Bard was speaking, Li Huailin threw another fierce slap.

“The mining Certificate….”

“Brave warrior….”

The group of players watched on as Li Huailin lifted Bard the blacksmith while slapping him fiercely. Bard’s expression from what was one of contempt at the start, then to one of slight ingratiation, and now it was as if he was trying to get on Li Huailin’s good side.

“So motherf**cking obstinate! I slapped you a dozen times yet you’re still not willing to give me the mining certificate.” He looked at the system notice which already stated that Bard’s Favorability was at Worship. However, he still couldn’t obtain the mining certificate. It seemed that the prerequisite quest really had to be completed before he could obtain what he needed. Since Bard was only a low-level NPC in the newbie village, he could only respond to questions in a standardized way. Li Huailin originally wanted to attempt to skip this quest by increasing his Favorability, but this didn’t seem to work.

“Great brave warrior, if you don’t complete the quest I issued earlier, I really can’t give you the mining certificate.” Bard almost knelt down to plea Li Huailin, “Oh, that’s right! I have a hidden quest if you complete it. Not only will you be able to change your Class to become a Blacksmith, but you’ll also be able to receive 6,000 forging experience points. This will directly boost your Forging Technique to medium-grade.”

“Damn!” The surrounding players with Forging as a Support Class were no longer calm. After learning a support class, one would just be at the level of an apprentice. They would need 1,000 points to level up to become a novice blacksmith, and from a novice blacksmith, 5,000 points were needed to level up to become a medium-grade blacksmith. However, after forging an item, according to its quality, one could only receive one to three forging experience points—moreover, after one levels up to a novice blacksmith, any apprentice-level items forged wouldn’t grant any more forging experience. If they still wanted to level up, they would have to throw in some money in order to do so.

However, the hidden quest Li Huailin triggered could actually boost one to become a medium-grade blacksmith right away! This was absolutely heaven-defying. The amount of money that could be spared because of this was ridiculous enough as it were, not to mention the time spared too.

System Notice: The village blacksmith, Bard has issued a B-rank hidden quest, The Perfect Iron Ore, Accept or Not?

“Another hidden quest?” Li Huailin was also momentarily startled. “Is this a solo quest or a group quest?”

“This quest requires you to complete it alone…” Bard replied.

“Tsk, I can’t sell it for money,” Li Huailin said disappointedly, “Accept.”

B-rank hidden quest, The Perfect Iron Ore: Obtain an iron ore with a quality of 25 or above, tip, there might be something you would need in the depths of the mining cave. Reward: 2,000 Experience, 5 Silver Coins, 300 Reputation.

“Abandon.”

Before even looking at the quest’s tip, Li Huailin already abandoned the quest.

System Notice: Do you really want to abandon the B-rank hidden quest, The Perfect Iron Ore?

“Yes.”

System Notice: You have given up on the B-rank hidden quest, The Perfect Iron Ore, you have gained 200 Reputation points.

“Only 200 points.” Li Huailin sighed.

“Great brave warrior, you’re really not going to consider forging? I think that this is an important job to have.” After Bard the blacksmith saw that Li Huailin abandoned the quest, he said this in a slightly disappointed voice.

“Don’t bother me, I’m already depressed as is,” Li Huailin responded, “Give me that quest for finding fangs again.”

“No problem, great brave warrior,” Bard said this while he issued the quest.

E-rank quest, Collect Fangs: Collect 10 fangs from the Fanged Rats. Reward: 300 Experience, 20 Copper Coins.

“300 Experience, and 20 Copper Coins… ah, my heart aches.” Li Huailin sighed silently as he headed out to find the fangs.

It wasn’t until Li Huailin left the village that the players who were dumbstruck finally came back to their senses.

“That kickass brother… he’s really kickass as expected… I’m thoroughly impressed!” A player exclaimed.

“This is the first time I’ve seen a person lift up an NPC while slapping and scolding them, he’s just too manly.” A female player had all sorts of hearts bursting from her eyes.

“I’m even sympathizing with Bard a little, even though the things he sells me are all expensive—a white sword even cost me 30 Copper Coins.”

“Oh that’s right, he seemed to have abandoned a hidden quest just now,” a forging player suddenly realized this, he quickly said to Bard, “If he’s not doing it, give me the hidden quest.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.” The few smiths on the side also immediately chimed in.

Bard immediately changed to his usual indifferent expression. “Get lost you immature dregs! You also want to take on this hidden quest? Beat it!”

“What kind of f**cking discriminatory treatment is this? Brothers! This Bard is a damn b**tch that needs a beating, everyone, let’s beat him together! We’ll be able to obtain the hidden quest after doing so!” A forging player shouted.

“Yeah, let’s beat him!” The crowd responded as they rushed towards Bard.

The following result was tragic, a dozen figures were sent flying out the forge, they not only died once but also received a system notice on attacking the blacksmith. Bard the blacksmith’s Favorability towards them decreased by 20 points and had become the status of: Indifferent. In the future, buying things from Bard would be 40% more expensive. Moreover, since they were of the Forging Class and they needed to buy forging materials here from Bard—they really couldn’t live on.

Just when the dozens of figures were sent flying, Li Huailin was already heading back. The Fanged Rats respawn point wasn’t too far from the newbie village after all, and when Li Huailin was going over there, a few players suddenly stopped him. He initially thought that it was a robbery, however…

“This friend here, are you doing the newbie village blacksmith’s quest that requires 10 fangs? As you can see how many players are leveling up here, it’ll take forever to finish the quest. I’m selling a set of 10 fangs, just enough for you to complete the newbie quest, it’ll only cost 20 Copper Coins—you can save both time and strength—if you don’t have money now, I’ll accompany you to the blacksmith. You just have to give me the 20 Copper Coins from the quest reward.” A lanky player spared no effort to sell this deal.

Li Huailin was quite happy to do so, although he didn’t know how much experience Fanged Rats gave, he would still have had to defeat 10. This meant that he had to die several more times to make up for it—if someone wanted to sell the quest prerequisites to him, he was more than willing to buy them.

After spending 20 coins to buy the ten fangs, Li Huailin quickly ran back. He just happened to see the ten figures that were sent flying as they turned into streaks of white light.

“What’s going on? What happened?” Finding this a little strange, Li Huailin asked the few players who didn’t join in on the beating.

“Kickass brother, you’re back! Damn, there were a few players who weren’t afraid to die, they imitated you and tried to beat the NPC. As you can see, the outcome was a tragedy, sigh… being kickass isn’t something that can be learned,” a player said as he came to this understanding.

“That’s for sure! Becoming a wild, cool, and flipping awesome person like me, not everyone can do it.” With that said, Li Huailin slapped Bard, who was at the side, on the face. “Son of a b**ch, the fangs are here, give me the mining certificate.”

Bard, who originally had a vicious look, immediately looked like a lapdog seeing his owner come back from work, “Yes, of course great brave warrior!”

System Notice: Completed E-rank quest, Collect Fangs, Deducted 300 Experience, Deducted 20 Copper Coins.

System Notice: The village blacksmith, Bard, wants to teach you a support class, Miner, Accept or Not?

“Accept.”

System Notice: Learned the support class, Miner.

“This is the mining certificate, great brave warrior! You can now go to the mining cave. Oh right, I have a mining pick passed down from my ancestors, I’ll give this to you as a present,” Bard said this as he took out a piece of paper and a black pick.

“Damn, why do I have to buy my own pick when I change my class to a Miner? This kickass brother is out of the ordinary as expected!” A player on the side said this in an envious manner.

However, what Li Huailin was thinking right now was, ‘Ah… my 300 Experience… my 20 Copper Coins… my heart’s bleeding…”