Lost Prince

The closer Dawei got to the Cursed Heihe, the more frequently system prompts appeared. Unknown footprints. Stray tufts of hair. Trampled brush. Bit by bit, the werewolf's trail was taking shape.

System Prompt:Player has discovered [Cursed Heihe].

Purple text. Again.Another high-risk alert.

Dawei grinned. "Yup. I'm in the right place."

When he first entered the forest, the system had already issued a warning. This river was just part of the same map, so there shouldn't have been another high-risk alert—unless something specific and dangerous was lurking nearby.

"There's no way a river's dangerous by itself," he muttered. "Unless it's got boss-tier piranhas or something—but that's only a threat if I dive in. No… the danger's gotta be the werewolf."

His reasoning felt solid. Then he opened the system's location notes for the river.

Cursed Heihe: A river corrupted at its source by the curse of the Vampire Count.

Dawei's eyes narrowed.

He looked upstream. The river ran black, choked with decay. If the source was cursed by the Count himself, then logically, his lair lay at the river's head.

Legendary monster territory. Yeah, no thanks.

Not wanting to trigger a boss cutscene and get deleted, Dawei turned and followed the river downstream, searching for clues.

The cursed forest stretched endlessly, but the river kept him grounded. The werewolf had to move. He was a living creature. And no game designer would bury a key quest trigger so deep and obscure that players gave up in frustration.

That would kill retention.

"Even if this is a god-level mission," Dawei muttered, "it still has to follow good design logic. Early quests guide players. They don't bury objectives under five hours of nothing."

One night passed. Nothing.

Gray skies, a pale blood moon hiding behind clouds, and a forest full of rot and whispers. Some nightsounds echoed like wails through the trees. It was like walking through a horror film set.

Even Dawei's dark circles had dark circles. A veteran of overnight gaming, even he felt the weight of boredom dragging on his sanity. He lit a cigarette and crouched near the water, analyzing the quest again.

"If this was a standard game, I'd call it bad design. But this—" he exhaled smoke "—this is god-level. The early steps are supposed to test your will."

Because once you completed them?

You were no longer a casual. You were officially climbing the high-end ladder.

"Only a handful of people have ever cleared a god-tier mission," he reminded himself. "There's a reason."

Maybe this wasn't bad design. Maybe it was filtering out the weak.

Eventually, he passed out from sheer exhaustion. When he woke up in the evening, his head was pounding. He slurped cold instant noodles, logged in again—and at long last:

System Prompt:Player has discovered an [Unknown Building].

Dawei jolted upright.

Finally.A light appeared ahead—a faint glow near a small lake created by a bend in the river. A wooden hut stood silently by the water's edge.

"Not a werewolf's den," Dawei muttered. "There's firelight. That means intelligence. Monsters don't light fires."

Could this be another NPC like Great Sage Dioise?

Maybe. Maybe not. Mercenary World had defied every pattern Dawei thought he knew.

Still, his instincts flared.

He approached the door and knocked gently.

The door creaked open.

Standing inside was a handsome, young man with a decadent, worn-down look—like a royal who'd been exiled long ago. He had noble posture but hollow eyes.

And above his head—

Purple light.

Name: ???

No name displayed. Just an identity hidden behind a veil of story. Dawei's hunch was confirmed.

Purple-tier NPC. No name. He's got a backstory. He's important. Guaranteed.

But the same question resurfaced:Is this a mission-relevant NPC… or a red herring?

The man's voice was rough, but carried the calm weight of breeding.

"I didn't expect to see another human here," he said. "Are you a lost traveler?"

Dawei nodded. "Friend, can you tell me where I am?"

If this was a hidden questline, the NPC's dialogue tree would open a unique story branch. That meant triggering it was critical.

The man's expression softened. "Come inside. You must be cold."

Dawei entered and glanced around. The inside of the hut was sparse—well-kept, but with a loneliness that made the space feel hollow.

System Prompt:Would you like to hear the story of the Downcast Prince?

Dawei smirked.

So it was a story event. It didn't look related to the werewolf quest, but that didn't matter.

Every purple-name NPC has value. This might be a side-branch that leads to more influence… or rare items… or even a companion NPC. Who knows?

He confirmed immediately.

Listening is a sign of good manners—and in god-tier quests, even manners might be coded into the mechanics.

The prince sat in the firelight and sighed. "It all began with a kingdom now lost to the fog of time…"