Retrograde Gaming

Chapter 9: Don’t Pretend Like You’re Dead

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

As they were talking, the members of the Spiritual World guild were already done taking care of the three zombies, they then walked towards Li Huailin. After taking a brief glance, Li Huailin noticed that there were a total of nine males and one female, these people, apart from Night Flyer who was talking with him, all nine of them participated in the brawl. Night Flyer probably specifically chose these few people, all who were going to change to a close-combat class to participate in this quest, after all, since the newbie village didn’t have any class distinction—the more one added close-combat attributes, the more impressive they would be right now. People with magic type attributes would end up tragically in the newbie village, they would level up slowly and die quickly, but after they changed their classes, their leveling speed would be…

“He’s the one who sold us the hidden quest, he’s called Open-Minded Like A Forest.” Spiritual World Night Flyer acted as the intermediary and briefly introduced both sides to each other. Li Huailin quickly memorized the majority of these people’s names, but he paid special attention to the only female player, Spiritual World Bind Spirit.

“You’re that kickass brother who beat up the village chief?” On the other side, Bind Spirit was slightly curious about Li Huailin. To approach and fiercely slap the village chief wasn’t something that everyone could do, even though Bind Spirit didn’t personally witness the scene two days ago, however, those who were in the party that saw the event all expressed that it was truly kickass, super kickass at that. This was why Bind Spirit also harbored some interest towards this kickass brother they talked about. She never would’ve imagined that she would encounter him today, so she voluntarily came up to say a few words.

“Yeah, do I not look like him?” Li Huailin quickly looked at himself, his equipment was still the newbie’s set of plain cotton clothing. Since he didn’t fight monsters and do quests, he naturally didn’t have any new equipment. The newbie’s set of plain cotton clothing also had an extremely impressive hidden attribute, it wouldn’t break upon dying, this was why Li Huailin wouldn’t end up naked no matter what.

“Uh… can you tell me how you did it?” Bind Spirit asked, somewhat curious.

“Erm… if I must say, then it’s with imperiousness…” Li Huailin raised his head. “For an overwhelmingly domineering man like me, there’s no lack of worshipers no matter where I go.”

“Then…” Bind Spirit seemed to want to say something else, but Night Flyer stopped her.

Night Flyer actually believed that Li Huailin had his own special ability that allowed him to beat up an NPC without repercussions—of course, this sort of ability couldn’t be told to others randomly, her persistent questioning might even alienate this player from them.

“Oh, that’s right, Huailin, you probably don’t have anything important right now, why don’t you do the hidden quest with us? Although you won’t be able to accept the quest anymore, we can share one of its equipment with you after we defeat the boss.” Night Flyer was naturally also extremely curious of Li Huailin, he wanted to drag him along—it was also to understand him more—moreover, he was certain that a boss’ equipment was definitely attractive towards a solo player—of course, he never said anything about having Li Huailin pick first when the boss dropped equipment, nor did he say anything about giving him the best of the pile. But after they defeat the boss later, he would simply give him a random Bronze-grade equipment.

“Oh?” Li Huailin actually considered it for a while, after all, he was also playing the game. He was definitely going to reach level 10 today anyways, it would be better to roam around sometimes—continuously throwing his life away was too boring—doing something else first for a change would be good too.

Besides, he also thought that since he simply gave up the hidden quest, he couldn’t complete it anymore and have experience deducted. After the boss was killed, the experience the boss would give would definitely belong to one of the two parties here, he wouldn’t have any shares. The purpose of his trip here would solely be to grab a piece of equipment, there wasn’t any loss at all. Even if he died, he could simply obtain 10% experience, wasn’t this all quite good?

“Okay.” After considering this, Li Huailin straightforwardly agreed.

“Oh right, didn’t you come to level up? As it happens, we also need to clear some monsters right now. How about I’ll leave the party for now and they’ll invite you to fight monsters? This way, you’ll also have experience. Since I’m already level 10, there won’t be any experience for me if I fight monsters without a class change,” Night Flyer said with consideration.

“Oh, sh*t… No need, no need…” Li Huailin was scared out of his mind, if he really f*cking partied with them, he would have to consecutively die a dozen more times to make up for the experience. He might even farm all the way back to level one if he did accept this offer. “I do things on my own principles and I don’t like to take other people’s benefits. I’ll help you guys fight the boss and just simply take a piece of equipment after, this is one matter. If you guys help me level up, then that would be another matter, I don’t want to owe anyone anything.”

Li Huailin fabricated a relatively acceptable excuse at the last moment.

“Oh…” Even though Night Flyer found this a little strange, he still accepted this reasoning. “Then forget it, let’s go.”

These 11 people continued to clear monsters as they advanced forward. During this time, they also encountered a few scattered zombies. However, they were smoothly disposed of, in order not to draw any suspicions, Li Huailin also followed behind and got in a few slashes. Despite being only level 7, three levels lower than these people, and his weapon the newbie’s Damaged Sword, but because all his points went into Strength, his attack power was actually almost the same as these level 10 players—upon seeing this, Night Flyer found it a little odd, but he didn’t say anything. Certainly, a single person’s damage output couldn’t be compared to that of five people, the experience from the zombies’ naturally belonged to the Spiritual World party in the end, thankfully, Li Huailin wasn’t deducted of any experience.

After clearing the mining path for roughly 15 minutes, Li Huailin suddenly discovered a person lying under an oil lamp, the person wasn’t too far in the distance. The man looked to be probably in his forties, his body was quite sturdy and he wore a suit of light armor. He was sitting against the wall, one hand covering his belly while the other hand stationed the sword into the ground.

Above the character’s head, he had a green name, ‘Neidhardt Muller’, it indicated that he was an NPC, one on the friendly side at that.

‘It’s a quest!’ These three words immediately popped into a few people’s minds.

Night Flyer walked over without thinking, however, beyond their expectations, it was Neidhardt who talked to Night Flyer first.

“You guys have come to investigate the source of the dark creatures at the newbie village?” Neidhardt asked as he looked at Night Flyer, who was standing at the front.

“Yes,” Night Flyer said.

“I presume you guys already know, but the newbie village’s dark creatures were created by a Dark Conjurer, Yazir, who wanted to open the gates of the Demon Realm through a dark ceremony. The dark energy that spilled over in the process contaminated the newbie village creatures.” Neidhardt explained.

“Yes, we already know.” The previous step of the hidden quest already informed Night Flyer of the background story of this quest. “It’s precisely because we accepted this quest that we’re here to annihilate the Dark Conjurer.”

“Just you guys? Hahahaha… cough, cough, cough…” Neidhardt originally wanted to laugh to his heart’s content, however, this seemed to have pulled on his wounds as he suddenly hacked out a mouthful of blood. Neidhardt wiped the traces of blood from the corner of his lips, he then said sternly, “The Dark Conjurer is a level 30 boss, you guys are just a bunch of new recruits without any class changes, no matter how many of you go, you would all just be throwing away your lives.”

“What? It’s level 30!?” “And it’s a boss!?” Although the Spiritual World guild has experienced all sorts of violent storms and waves, to encounter a level 30 boss monster when they were just level 10, even they couldn’t stay calm and collected.

“Be quiet, the system wouldn’t possibly issue an incompletable quest, not to mention, it’s only an AA-rank quest, not an SS-rank quest.” Night Flyer was truly the deputy leader of Spiritual World as expected, he immediately recovered his composure after being slightly shocked.

“What do we do deputy leader?” Spiritual World Fire Head came up to him and asked.

“The key to completing it is definitely this NPC, or else, why do you think the system placed an NPC here? Why didn’t it just make us fight the boss instead?” Night Flyer explained his analysis at once.

“This NPC’s level also seems to be quite high, you guys, take a look at the equipment he’s wearing,” another party member quickly reminded everyone.

“I wonder if your lordship might be able to assist us in killing this Dark Conjurer?” Night Flyer suddenly came up with this idea and tentatively asked.

“To kill dark creatures with my own hands is my bounden duty,” as expected, Neidhardt responded, “However….”

Night Flyer was delighted at first, he didn’t expect that Neidhardt still had a ‘however’, he asked in a hurry, “However what?”

“As you guys can see, I’m already injured, I’m most likely not a match for the Dark Conjurer right now,” Neidhardt said this while he moved aside his right hand, it had been covering his stomach, his abdomen had an injury as expected. However, it was surrounded by dark blood, the condition of the injury couldn’t be clearly seen. “If you guys can help me treat this injury, I’ll also be able to help you guys kill the Dark Conjurer.”

“May I ask how your injury can be treated?” Night Flyer quickly asked.

“Because I was injured by Yazir’s dark magic, I’ll need light element medicinal ingredients. I remember that there are large amounts of Bright Jade Grass on the hillside to the south of the newbie village. You guys can first collect 100 of these first, then, after doing so, hand it to the newbie village’s alchemist, Kevin. He’ll tell you guys what to do afterward,” Neidhardt said.

System Notice: Neidhardt has issued a C-rank quest, Make a Light Potion, Accept or Not?

“Sh*t.” This quest was actually not part of the hidden quest, even Li Huailin, who stayed silent at the back this whole time, received this quest. Fortunately, he wasn’t in a party, so he immediately tapped no.

“Damn… Bright Jade Grass, I know where it is, it’s so far. It’ll probably take an hour or so just to run over there,” Spiritual World Fire Head suddenly said.

“Once we collect it, we’ll have to hand it over to the newbie village’s alchemist, what if he isn’t willing to help us and even asks us to do another mission?” On the side, Spiritual World Dust Machine actually very much understood the system’s dilly-dallying tendencies.

“Deputy leader, we could’ve long left the newbie village, but now we’ve been held up by this quest for two days. Should we still waste time? What if we can’t defeat the boss and be stuck here a few more days?” Spiritual World War Spirit said in a very quiet voice.

Spiritual World Night Flyer also hesitated, after all, it was still the first few days since the server opened. If the main forces of the second team were to be held up, then wouldn’t the entire guild be dragged down?

“How about letting me try something first?” Li Huailin, who hadn’t interjected all this time, suddenly said. He also didn’t have time to waste on this quest, especially since it required him to run errands all over the place.

“What kind of ideas do you have in mind?” Night Flyer asked.

“Just watch me.” Li Huailin suddenly smiled mysteriously.

For some reason, when Night Flyer saw this smile, a sliver of a bad hunch suddenly welled up from his heart.

As expected, Li Huailin immediately rushed in front of Neidhardt, he then lifted up Neidhardt by the collar. “F*cker, are you tired of living huh? You dare tell us to run errands? Don’t pretend like you’re dead!” With that said, a resounding ‘pa’ echoed the air, he slapped Neidhardt hard on the face.

“Oh cr*p!” All the Spiritual World members yelled out in chorus.