"Fellow young heroes, our Profound Yellow Sect is facing internal and external crises, and we urgently need people to come help."
"To be able to gather you all here today is truly my honor. Now that I, Xu, have become the Profound Yellow Sect Leader, I'm determined to restore its reputation."
"So, my friends, are you willing to join our Profound Yellow Sect and help me make it the number-one sect in the Jianghu?"
Xu Nian kept a calm expression, doing his best to play the role of an NPC.
And as soon as he finished speaking—
The players all responded one after another; after all, their identity was already that of Profound Yellow Sect disciples.
Thirty players accepted it quite naturally.
"So much pointless talk! Can't the game designer just cut to the chase?"
"What is this? Just give us the damn quest already!"
"Why are you all in such a rush? Isn't the main story quest supposed to come step by step? Never played an MMO before?"
"Sorry, I'm a tower defense player!"
"..."
Hearing the players mumbling and shouting about taking quests directly, Xu Nian knew the time had come.
"From today on, everyone here is a member of the Profound Yellow Sect."
Xu Nian raised his voice: "Today, I received word that near our Profound Yellow Sect's back mountain, there's a bandit stronghold called Black Wind Stronghold doing all sorts of evil.
How can we just watch them harm common people so close to us?
Wiping them out is to rid the people of evil. Disciples, follow me to Black Wind Stronghold, let's end these bandits once and for all!"
As soon as Xu Nian finished, the players received their quest notification.
[Task: Wipe out the Black Wind Stronghold bandits.]
[Description: Follow Sect Leader Xu Nian to Black Wind Stronghold and slay the bandits there.]
[Reward: Contribution Points * 100.]
Seeing their first quest arrive, the players were all hyped up.
This is exactly the moment they've been waiting for!
This game is supposed to be 100% realistic; in other games, killing and burning feels like nothing—who knows what it'll feel like here.
Will the blood be green here, maybe?
Some other game pulled that move before, after all.
"Quest's finally here. This Sect Leader just won't stop blabbing, though."
"Take the quest, take the quest! Contribution Points can be exchanged for martial arts manuals, which can boost our realm. Power is the real deal!"
"Wait, aren't Contribution Points tradable? Is this the advantage of gold-farming players?"
"Quit yapping. The sect leader already set out. Hurry up and follow, maybe the map will reveal itself!"
"..."
Immediately.
Following Xu Nian's lead, thirty players marched grandly toward Black Wind Stronghold.
On the way, the players gushed endlessly about how detailed the environment modeling was.
Everything here just felt way too real.
Other than a chattering sect leader, everything else was pretty nice.
The spot where Black Wind Stronghold was located wasn't far from the Profound Yellow Sect, just about an hour's walk from the back mountain.
The mountain they claimed wasn't as good as where the Profound Yellow Sect was, but it was overgrown with weeds and dense with trees—a perfect spot to hide out.
Lately, lots of merchant convoys had been hit by Black Wind Stronghold, suffering huge losses.
And the supplies inside Black Wind Stronghold were now Xu Nian's top priority.
Even the players needed food here.
The current Profound Yellow Sect was dirt poor.
Xu Nian definitely didn't want his newly recruited players all starving to death one by one.
Since they still had the energy, better finish off Black Wind Stronghold first.
...
There were lookouts at the foot of the Black Wind Stronghold's mountain.
Watching a crowd come charging up, the lookout guy was freaked out and hurried back to report.
Their boss, nicknamed Mountain-Flipping Dragon, was a one-eyed saber-wielder, a Ninth-Grade Martial Artist, who'd gathered a bunch of real killers—guys with blood on their hands or wanted for murder—specializing in robbing passing merchants here.
When he heard people were coming for their stronghold, Mountain-Flipping Dragon's face changed just a little.
"Over thirty people? You sure about that?"
Mountain-Flipping Dragon hefted the Three-Ring Saber and sneered, "Damn, is it the Liangcheng Government Office mob?"
"Definitely not gov folk. Those guys didn't even bring weapons—looks like they're just here to die."
The lookout had a weird look on his face as he spoke.
No kidding!
They really came here to die!
From the looks of it, they were all just ordinary people, aside from having the numbers, nothing else was impressive.
"Oh?"
Mountain-Flipping Dragon's lips curled up as he chuckled, "Crazy stuff just keeps happening these days! Come on, let's take a look."
Almost a hundred people at Black Wind Stronghold all sprang into action, each grabbing their weapons and heading to the gate.
At this moment, Xu Nian had led the disciples straight to the entrance of Black Wind Stronghold.
Normally, when Jianghu folks ran into each other, they'd announce who they were, toss around a little verbal sparring, test each other out.
But Xu Nian's group wasn't like that.
What was he leading?
Players!
The Fourth Great Calamity!
Would they care about Jianghu etiquette? In their eyes, the Black Wind Stronghold guys were just a bunch of mobs!
Before Xu Nian could even say anything, laughter erupted behind him.
"No one try to steal my kill—this first kill is mine!"
'Evil Queen Morgana' charged up holding a rock, face full of excitement.
Xu Nian: ???
What the hell is this?
Did you not see how many people are on the other side?
Those are all stone-cold killers, and you're going at them with just a rock?
"Damn, this bro is fearless!"
"Morgana? I'll remember that name. For charging in one vs. a hundred, he's earned my Big Brother salute!"
"They've got a lot of people, and actual weapons too—we need a plan."
"What's there to be afraid of? Even if we die we'll just respawn, right? Worst case, we just grind them to death. Morgana, wait for me!"
"..."
With Morgana charging ahead, a few other hot-blooded players followed right after.
Even if they missed the first kill, at least go for second or third, right?
Morgana rushed straight for Mountain-Flipping Dragon, surrounded by his lackeys, and threw the rock at his face with all his might.
The whole Black Wind Stronghold crew was stunned by the scene.
Is this something an ordinary commoner would dare do?
Usually when regular folks saw them, they'd take a detour.
This kid just charged in with a rock—did he not know Black Wind Stronghold's reputation?
Watching the rock fly at him, Mountain-Flipping Dragon brought up his saber to block.
"Bang!"
The rock hit the back of his saber.
The next second, Morgana was kicked hard in the gut by a Black Wind Stronghold thug and went flying, landing flat on his back.
"Kid, which asylum did you escape from? How dare you act up in our Black Wind Stronghold!"
The thug sneered, looking down at Morgana.
But before anyone knew it, Morgana sprang up off the ground and launched himself right at the thug, grabbing a rock from the ground and slamming it down on the guy's head.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The way he did it—even the Black Wind Stronghold goons swallowed nervously.
"Good thing I adjusted the pain sensitivity to the minimum beforehand, or that kick just now would have killed me."
[Player 'Evil Queen Morgana' has slain a Black Wind Stronghold lackey. Extra reward: one Contribution Point.]
Just one Contribution Point?
Morgana eyed the now-brained thug, then looked at the other guys.
With over a hundred of them, that's over a hundred Contribution Points up for grabs.
Add the task reward of a hundred points,
Two hundred points in hand—he could totally become a Game Merchant, selling Contribution Points for money right now!
"Huh? Murdering right in front of this boss?"
Mountain-Flipping Dragon snapped back and shouted furiously: "Get them all! Chop every one of them to death! Let them see what Black Wind Stronghold is made of!"