Godly Hunter

Chapter 36 – Leader’s Badge – Intransient

His in-game name was Woody Forest and he was a mage; the leader of the party of six.

“You think Cold Flow and Co. got to it first?” asked Shallow Words, as she approached and looked around.

She was the priest of the party – a gentle and quiet 21, 22-year-old beauty. She,Woody Forest and the four other people in the party were all from a small but high-flying studio*. Before GENESIS was released, they focused on games with a high percentage of big spenders, then worked exclusively for them. When the news of the ground-breaking game was released, Woody Forest and his team did not hesitate. They sold off all their game accounts and resources and started to focus solely on GENESIS.

*Studio – a group of people who make money from playing games by selling items, offering levelling up services, quest completion, etc.

To players like them, a holographic virtual game was a dream come true. How could they miss out on it? However, the more important reason was that Shallow Wordsand Woody Forest knew that they would definitely make big money from this game.

“No, I know for a fact that Cold Flow’s in another beginner village.” Woody Forestshook his head.

“Cold Flow… Humph! It’s a pity we were short a basket in the previous quest and he gained the advantage. If not for that, he won’t have any business killing the BOSS!” growled the party member named Iron Head.

Iron Head was solidly built and was a straightforward guy. In all the games he’d played, he’d chosen the bold fighter class.

“It’s all my fault. If only my ambush on Cold Flow had succeeded… Then they wouldn’t have finished that quest.” The party’s assassin lowered his head in shame.

“Don’t blame yourself, Sixth. You didn’t do anything wrong. If Cold Flow is so easily ambushed, then he wouldn’t have been competing with us for three years with no clear winner.” Woody Forest patted Sixth on the shoulder.

Before GENESIS, there were already countless studios, big and small. Quite a few were like Woody Forest’s group and the one headed by Cold Flow

was one of them.

All the studios were profiting in harmony and did their own thing. What you earned depended on your own capabilities. However, Cold Flow had a huge appetite and was a risk-taker. He employed various insidious methods to attack his rivals. Woody Forest and his team were not aware of his nature at first and were attacked twice. They had to compensate quite a sum to their clients and their studio had problems that nearly made them disband.

Since then, their enmity for Cold Flow smouldered for three years as the two groups struggled to one-up each other. Unfortunately, neither side was able to do anything about the other.

This time, Cold Flow chose to play GENESIS too and destiny brought the two enemies together again. Both studios had appeared at the same time in Shadow City, one of the three main human cities. Both met the same NPC while levelling up at night and both received the same rare quest.

During the quest, Woody Forest’s group had a greater advantage and completion was guaranteed. Of course, Woody Forest wanted to stop Cold Flow from completing the quest too but was unsuccessful.

Both groups finished that rare quest and the leaders received an additional reward, which was “Leader’s Badge”.

Once they received Leader’s Badge, Woody Forest and Cold Flow knew that they had struck gold. The item allowed leaders to gather their party mates to their side once a day. So long as the party mates agree, the leader can summon fellow quest-takers straight to their side!

Both men’s money-making minds thought of the beginner village BOSS right away. Level 10 Blue Grade and Green Grade equipment fetched good prices at this stage in the game – if they can get their hands on Purple Grade equipment, each piece would sell for several times the amount they used to get for a few single job requests!

They entered the game for money, so with an opportunity like this staring them in the face, Woody Forest and Cold Flow did not hesitate in committing suicide.

Leader’s Badge was a special character-bound piece of equipment. It did not add to attributes but there was no level limit on its use and as long as the party members did not change their nicknames, they could be summoned, even in the beginner village. The party members would have to commit suicide too, of course. They also had to be in the same beginner village map as the leader or else the Leader’s Badge would not be of use.

Woody Forest and Cold Flow had begun killing the Slime King in their respective maps. They did not even conceive the notion that there would be a third party out there with the capability to kill the BOSS.

“If it wasn’t Cold Flow, then who was it?” Shallow Words frowned.

“Let’s split up and investigate the area.” Woody Forest wanted to know too.

His members nodded and each went in a different direction.

Half an hour later, the six convened.

“I didn’t get anything worth investigating. Nobody saw any party that could take on the BOSS.”

“Same here.”

“Ditto.”

Woody Forest and his team shook their heads. They’d come up empty.

“I have something. I asked a player and he said he saw a hunter player heading towards the Slime King. He felt that the player’s equipment was none too shabby and wanted to party with him but the hunter was too quick. He chased after the hunter but was unable to catch him. When he stopped chasing him, he found himself in the Slime King’s aggro-zone and broke out in sweat but the BOSS did not rush out to kill him. Curious, he went to the BOSS’s spot to take a look and discovered that it had disappeared.” Shallow Words recited the story she had heard.

“You mean that hunter player killed the Slime King BOSS? On his own? In such a short period of time?” Shock showed in Woody Forest’s calm eyes.

“Surely the BOSS had been killed before the hunter arrived.” Iron Head sputtered.

But Shallow Words shook her head. “No. That person could still see the BOSS’s silhouette in the distance before it got dark. That hunter arrived after dark, and in the few minutes after he appeared, the BOSS disappeared.”

A single person killed the Slime King one-on-one?

Was there really such an OP person in the game?

… … …

Chen Mo was unaware that someone had discovered his one-on-one fights with the BOSS.

He committed suicide once again and got to Level 10, then got ready to kill the Mutated Slime King. He hired some players and was going to bring them to dig when he saw with surprise that a party was killing the BOSS.

This party’s equipment was not bad. They had at least Green Grade equipment on and the members coordinated with each other very well. They were all skilled players.

They were different from the ones he had seen on the forums. It was the other group.

After exiting Goblin Valley, Chen Mo had gone to the Slime Plains to check if the BOSS was there. He had not expected this party to show up while he was levelling up.

Chen Mo and his hired help did not get close before the party killing the Slime King spotted the four of them.

The female mage in the party glared at Chen Mo and his crew and coldly shouted in an arrogant voice,” if you want to die, do it somewhere else! Don’t interrupt us when we’re killing the BOSS!”