Reign of the Hunters
chapter-4

Ye Ci took a look at the rewards offered by her side quest while traveling towards the next target, Rami the tailor. Much to her dismay, the rewards offered by the quest were still represented by a big question mark.

Despite being curious, she could do nothing about it.

Hiding away her quest log, she walked up to the house of Rami the tailor. After greeting him sincerely, Ye Ci declared her intention and immediately received a quest from Rami: “Collect 10 Rabbit Teeth”.

When she handed in the Rabbit Teeth that she collected beforehand, Rami was a little surprised, “By the Gods. Young adventurer, you sure work fast.”

Ye Ci smiled humbly. She was not fast. It was just the knowledge of her past life.

Ye Ci immediately received another quest from Rami to gather some fur from the Little Boars residing at the outskirts of the village. He gave her a skinning knife with only 10 points of durability left.

She located the Little Boar’s lair after leaving the village. The attack power and speed of a Little Boar were notably higher than that of a Rabbit’s. Ye Ci had to fight them one at a time with her level disadvantage.

With every attack of her dagger, Ye Ci’s proficiency with the weapon increased.

Although the process of killing a Boar was slow, a Huntress’s prowess in melee combat was much superior to a Mage’s. The difference in damage output filled Ye Ci with indescribable happiness.

She had one hell of a time trying to kill these Boars in her past life as a Mage.

In her moment of glee, the system notification rang in her ears once again.

“Your friend Liu Chang is calling, do you want to connect the call into the game?”

Ye Ci trembled at the seemingly normal system notification. Her attacks slowed down, and she even received damage from the Little Boar that took advantage of her opening.

The pain caused Ye Ci to wrinkle her eyebrow. She quickly dispatched the Little Boar and connected the call.

Ye Ci had a long-running relationship with Liu Chang.

20 years ago, four couples lived in a certain residential compound. They married in the same year, got pregnant in the same year, and even gave birth at the same day.

The scene, Ye Ci thought, must’ve been very jovial.

Ye Ci and Liu Chang were two of the four children.

Their story however, did not end there.

The four children played together, and they even went to school together. Despite being separated after residential compound was demolished during their senior years in highschool, the four families retained their friendship.

The four children would still remain very close to each other, if it had not been for….

Ye Ci bit her lip. If only she hadn’t hurt her friends time and time again in the search for glory in her last life.

Ye Ci laughed, as she had the chance to start anew.

Ye Ci hated the fact that she was trembling at that very moment. When the system connected Liu Chang’s call, Ye Ci felt as if her heart was being wrecked by a stage-12 typhoon.

How long had it been since she last heard Liu Chang’s voice?

Was it three years? Or was it five? Or was it even longer?

“Hey! Little Ci, are you playing Fate as well?” Liu Chang was blunt as always. Whenever one picked up her call, the first thing that could be heard was her crisp voice.

“Yes.” Ye Ci wanted to say more after hearing Liu Chang’s voice, but she could not suppress her emotion. She was choked with sobs, and that was the only word she could squeeze out of her mouth.

Ye Ci’s personality had always been cold and detached. It did not trouble Liu Chang at all as she continued with a grin, “I’m going to play as a Priestess. Hehe, Human Priestess. I can heal while dishing out damage. I’ll take care of you!”

Ye Ci was momentarily stunned. She remembered that Liu Chang was also playing as a Human Priestess in her last life. Due to the character’s difficult mechanics, her low level and inferior equipment, Liu Chang was always asking her for help. However, Ye Ci had been busy leveling up back then and hadn’t even bother to help Liu Chang. She had even blocked Liu Chang off.

After that…they had never contacted each other again.

She was lucky that fate had given her a chance to make amends.

Liu Chang was still bragging at how good she would become at the game when Ye Ci gave her a suggestion, “A priestess can heal and deal damage. If you’re doing good, this class could be omnipotent, and if you’re doing bad, it’s known as the thousand-year benchwarmer. Everybody would want you if you’re a master of this class, but the slightest mistake could cost you dearly. Do you want to play as a different class instead?”

Liu Chang was stunned. Ye Ci had never talked much, and although she was great at playing games, she was selfish and would never share information.

But… What was with her today?

“Liu Chang?”

Ye Ci asked, noticing that Liu Chang was quiet.

“Then what class should I choose?” Asked Liu Chang after recovering from her shock.

The question baffled Ye Ci. Liu Chang was always appearance-oriented. She did not care about the difficulty of a game as long as it looked good. Ye Ci was worried that she would not be satisfied with her suggestion…

“How about…. “ Ye Ci was unsure, “ How about a Lycan Summoner…..”

“Lycan Summoner? Is it good?”

Liu Chang’s reaction surprised Ye Ci. She was glad that her suggestion was not rejected right away.

Maybe she never did truly know Liu Chang, but it was still not too late.

“Lycans have higher base Endurance than all the other races. It’s racial trait is Ferocious, very useful in life and death situations. It can summon minions at lvl 5, and it’s very tough character when it comes to fighting, leveling up, or even dealing damage in dungeons.”

“Then I’ll go for Lycan Summoner.” Although Liu Chang was puzzled by Ye Ci’s sudden change of personality, she was happy to accept her friend’s suggestion.

“By the way, when you create your character, remember to select traits such as Diplomacy, Sly, Haggle and Meditate…” Ye Ci told Liu Chang everything she knew.

“How do you know so much?”

Ye Ci was momentarily lost for words before finally coming up with an excuse, “I bought some closed beta information from some workshop…”

That did not arouse Liu Chang’s suspicions. She hung up afterwards and prepared for the server to open at 14:00 hours.

Ye Ci could not suppress her joy. Her excitement manifested into furious attacks against the Little Boars.

After slaying the boar, Ye Ci took out the skinning knife and realised that she had learned the skill “Gather”, but this was only for the duration of the mission. Gather would disappear after the mission was completed.

Although 1 point of Durability was deducted when she gathered from a Little Boar, she managed to collect all the usable materials from the Boar, such as Boar Fangs, Boar Hide, Boar Meat, and Boar Bones.

All of those were needed in the main quest.

The skinning knife disappeared after Ye Ci gathered from the 10th Boar. She did not immediately return to Rami but instead went to a particular tree outside the village.

She would be stupid if she had completed her quests in order just like a newbie.

Ye Ci had her own thought in this matter.

There was a BUG here that had not been discovered until four years after the server was open. Hordes of players flocked under the tree to exploit the BUG once the information was leaked. This triggered a swift response by Glory Corporation and the BUG was removed overnight. Players who exploited the BUG received the penalty of dropping 1 level.

Ye Ci opened the 20-slot Newbie Backpack, which contained a tiny red bottle and a candle.

The candle was for illumination. In Fate, players had to use candles or torches as their light source before learning the skill “Night Vision”.

Ye Ci made a campfire under the tree. She intended to complete the bugged quest before more players could enter the game.

She roasted the Rabbit Meat that had been obtained earlier. Although she had no cooking skills, the meat was sizzling on top of the flame.

“Kaw, kaw….” A brown robin landed beside Ye Ci, eyeing the roasted meat in her hand.

Ye Ci was generous. She threw little pieces of meat to the robin. She did not, however, throw the last piece of meat out. She held onto that piece of meat and handed it to the robin.

The robin opened its mouth wide for that piece of meat.

Ye Ci paid close attention to that particular piece of meat. When half of it entered the robin’s mouth, she pulled the meat out immediately. However, the robin flapped its wings with satisfaction, as if it had eaten the piece of meat. A few golden feathers dropped onto the ground.

It succeeded!

Ye Ci was excited, as the quest was repeatable. When 10 Golden Robin Feathers were handed to an NPC, the player would randomly receive a Skill Book of his or her class.

But…. The robin was an asshole. It would drop its feathers the first time it was fed. After that, the chance of it dropping its feathers was only one in a thousand.

Despite knowing that the rewards for completing this quest were good, a lot of players gave up on it.

But….

Right there and then, this BUG…..