Start of the Hunt (1)

"I think we're the only players that have reached this city before"

"Right...? We're lucky to find that portal that leads to this city, it's quite costly to enter as a visitor but the Grotto of Red Cats dungeon is perfect for us, the Exp as well as the drop rate is quite high"

A pair of men, wearing simple armor and black robe banter with each other.

Both of them are fighting against two Flalynxs and were strong enough to converse while fighting, showing that they have experience in fighting these mobs as well as confidence in their strength.

The one on the left is a handsome man with black hair, holding a mace and a shield.

Each of the strikes that this man landed on the Flalynx created a holy shockwave that healed his allies proportionate to his attacks. On the other hand, the one on the right is a well-built man with full-plated armor and is holding a great sword.

With the two-handed great sword, his striking skill is back with immense strength and power.

It only takes a moment before the two take down the Flalynxs they fought and were quite satisfied with their haul. One of the Flalynx even dropped a material that could be used to craft equipment or strengthen their existing equipment.

But as the two finishes the fight, another two people closed up to them.

"What do you mean this place is perfect for us? Look at my damn hands!" A man wearing a sleeveless combat shirt that also exposes his chest complained. He didn't use a weapon, unlike the others.

Clearly, this man's class revolves around hand-to-hand combat.

Just then the man, DollBill04 beside him snorted, "It's your fault for picking the Monk Class"

"Anyway, where's Nadia? I already told her to not wander too far or she'll be in trouble" he added while looking around, searching for one of his party members that should be around here but gone missing.

Similarly, the others also look around in search of their party member, Nadia.

On top of the fact that Nadia is the only girl in their party that should be protected, she's also the healer of the group, picking the Bard Class based on the cute outfit that the class has for starter players.

"Let's ask the NPCs around, maybe one of them saw where Nadia went"

"I agree, let's split into two groups and search for her. She shouldn't be that far from us"

Nodding their heads in agreement, the party of four separated into two groups.

Each group heads in the opposite direction from the other, cursing inside their minds that they were careless, and take their eyes off Nadia for a moment due to busy fighting the Flalynxs around them.

Considering Nadia is a healer, she was standing behind, so it's not like it's entirely their fault.

Oblivious to the ground of four, behind a rock formation to their side, Nadia is whimpering as she was cornered against the wall and her mouth is covered by the hand of a man with purple glowing eyes.

Just earlier, Blake stalked the party with the help of the Ninja Step skill.

It's the innate skill from the Serene of Black necklace, the sounds that his footsteps make were suppressed heavily, and his presence was also akin to a ghost, untraceable thanks to his EX-grade race once again.

Nadia is the perfect target that he could aim first, she was the weakest and was also behind.

Snatching her was quite easy, and now Blake takes advantage of the subtle rule in the gaming community that the girl member must be protected. As expected, DollBill04 and the others split in search of Nadia.

Blake smiled when everything went exactly as he planned, it's going smoothly.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Nadia wailed in a muffled voice.

Despite her attempt to break free from Blake's grip, she quickly finds that she was unable to do that. Blake's grip was akin to iron clenching on her face roughly, there was no way that she could break free from him.

Moreover, her skills are not focused on fighting right now, so she's helpless.

Ignoring Nadia's struggle, Blake ponders for a bit on which side he will take on first. Out of the other four, DollBill04 is the weakest and the one with the mace who is eleven levels above Blake is the strongest.

As he was thinking, his eyes then locked with Nadia's eyes.

Upon seeing a couple of diamond tears rolling down Nadia's eyes, Blake frowned and quickly averted his gaze away, he felt uncomfortable. Nadia then asked with a muffled voice, "You're a player too, right? I know that we're in a game, but I won't forgive you if you attempt to touch me inappropriately"

"Why the fuck would I do that? Sorry, but you're not that pretty" Blake replied in disbelief.

Of course, as he's a Privileged Player, he can see the actual Nadia.

Nadia in real life was not that pretty compared to the beautiful Angel or even Salana. Moreover, she's a high-school student in the real world, and Blake doesn't want to go to jail for touching her inappropriately even if it's in a game.

It's unclear if the developer can see everything that happens in-game.

But even if the developer couldn't see everything that happens, he would never do something as Nadia feared, 'No matter how desperate, I have some decency in me. I won't do that' He thought.

Upon hearing Blake's honest reply, Nadia's eyes dimmed instantly.

Her heart shatters into pieces due to Blake's sharp words, it was her first time being told straight to her face that she was ugly, by a man nonetheless. It made her angry, and she could only glare at Blake in silence.

Just as Blake was about to think about how to use Nadia, something unexpected happened.

Bite!

[-250 HP!]

"Ouchh! Fuck!"

BOOM!

[Critical Hit!]

[-10,500 HP!]

Debrises and clouds of dust flew to the surroundings as Blake's body stiffened.

Looking at Nadia and finds her in a horrendous state, he covers his mouth in realization. It was pure reflex, his body moved on its own and caused this. "Are you stupid?! Why did you kill her for? Her party members would know if you kill her!" Salana reprimanded.

"I- I don't know! She bit me so my reflex is to punch her hard!" Blake defended himself.

Nadia felt hurt by what Blake said and decided to bite his hand hard.

This stung Blake's hand and his reflex reacted on its own, he was always fighting recently, so his body instinctively activates his Thrust skill and jabbed his fingers into Nadia's throat. It landed as a critical hit because of that.

On top of that, his attack depleted her entire HP bar instantly.

[Player MoonDespoiler has killed Player StarGirl!]

[Player Moon Despoiler's Infamy Level has been increased!]

[Obtained 20,000 Exp, 11 Gold, Staff of Music, and 5 Basic Mana Potions]

[Level up!]

[All stats has been increased accordingly]

[Commit PK successfully: 1/10]

[Congratulation, you have obtained the Newbie Killer Title!]

[Newbie Killer]

Increase the EXP gained from killing players by 20%, and also a 10% physical stats buff on fighting players that haven't committed any PK before.

Upon reading the system prompts, Blake quickly uses the Newbie Killer title.

Additionally, he also looks up to see his own information menu and finds that his name is now tainted with a yellowish hue. It seems the Infamy Level is the same as the regular MMORPG games he played.

With each kill, his Infamy Level will increase, and his name will turn color.

Normally, the highest point of Infamy Level will turn the player's name into red color and is also usually given alongside a penalty of being a criminal. But it seems this world is more realistic.

As long as he's not caught in the act, then he wouldn't be a criminal.

Just before Nadia, or StarGirl's body disappeared into bluish particles after being killed, Blake quickly points at her information menu and uses his exclusive Privileged Skill to pin her location to mark her.

"Lock..."

If she respawned, then he will pay her a visit for the second time.

Looking at the items that shed dropped, Blake took only the pouch of gold and also the 5 Mana Potions. Due to the excessive use of mana, he was running low, so he drank three of them and recover his mana to full.

Now that she died, her other allies would know that she died.

Blake didn't waste any time and dashes in a direction.

Since he has no time to ponder, he decided that he would take out DollBill04 first alongside the player with a sleeveless combat shirt first. If he finished, then he would take on the mace guy who is the strongest in the team.

But before he dashes away, he thought of something and decided to bring the staff with him.

Meanwhile, DollBill04 and the Monk-Class guy stopped abruptly.

[Your party member, StarGirl has been killed!]

"Huh...? That girl again, how can she die against these Flalynx? Even I can take them on if I'm careful enough" DollBill04 uttered while shaking his head, he can't believe that Nadia could die so easily like that.

The man beside him also sighs, "Well, we could only wait for her to respawn then"

Just as the two turn around intending to rejoin the others when they learned Nadia was killed, both of them stopped when they saw someone blocking their way with a big grin on his face.

"What does this NPC want?" DollBill04 uttered in a whispering tone.

Shrugging his shoulders, the man then asked, "Is there something you need help with?"

While waiting for this grinning guy to answer, the Monk-class guy shifted his eyes to the information menu of the NPC in front of him. But then, a frown appeared on his face when the grinning guy's name is MoonDespoiler, it doesn't resemble an NPC at all.

Moreover, the name also has a light yellowish hue instead of being written in pure white.

DollBill04 and the Monk-class guy look at the suspicious figure before out of nowhere, the suspicious figure takes out a white staff from his inventory and threw it to the ground, a couple of steps in front of them.

Gazing at the staff, both of their eyes widened as they recognized the staff.

In reflex, the two of them jumped back to create some distance seeing that the white staff definitely belongs to Nadia. And if the man has it, then he's definitely the one that take her and killed her.

"What the fuck do you want? Why did you kill her?" DollBill04 asked in alert.

Blake's smile then spreads wider before he pointed at the robe DollBill04 was wearing, and at that moment DollBill04 realized who the man was, "You're a player?! Do you really need to be that petty just for a freaking robe?!"

"Wait, his name seems familiar" the Monk-class guy beside DollBill04 mutters.

Pondering for a moment, the guy's eyes then widened completely before his expression soon drains from all colors, realizing who Blake was, "M-MoonDespoiler, he's the first guy that get an EX-grade race! It was in the world announcement a couple of days ago!"

"Shit! You're right, we're fucked!" DollBill04 also remembered and cursed his luck.

If he had known that the one asking for his robe was MoonDespoiler, then he would have been more polite and even given him the robe if he really wants to. But now, it's already too late to repent.

"Sorry guys..." Blake uttered with a malicious grin.

Upon hearing this, both DollBill04 and the Monk-class guy raise their arms to show that they were not going to fight back, "Listen, man, you can take the robe. Don't kill us, it hurts when we died, there's no need for that"

"Yeah, don't kill us!" the other man added pleadingly.

Blake ignored their plead and said, "It's nothing personal, I'm just clearing my quest"

Swoosh!