Play The Game

System Prompt:Quest Completed: [Catch the Werewolf Montico]

Dawei had to double-check the text.

The cursed forest plotline was officially marked as complete, even though the resolution had left him with a viral curse, a dead prince, and more unanswered questions than a soap opera finale.

But that wasn't his concern right now.

He had been handed a follow-up quest by the Great Sage Dioise—a mission to strike at the source: Hindlow, the Vampire Count.

This was no longer just survival.

This was war.

For now, the questline sat idle.

The ball was in Dioise's court, and the sage was taking his sweet time rereading ancient grimoires and muttering about ley lines. So Dawei, caught between missions, did what any good gamer did during a cooldown:

He opened a wiki page.

At first, he casually browsed the official site, scrolling through patch notes and regional lore. But something started pulling at him—a nagging feeling in his gut.

He shifted focus from just looking up strategies to reading between the lines. Not the guides. The philosophy. The official developer blurbs, written more like riddles than PR.

Among them, only one player—the first to complete a god-level quest—had ever been officially interviewed. Dawei had watched the clip before, but now, in hindsight, it felt different.

In the video, the player's answers were deliberately vague. NDA? Maybe. Or maybe it was something else.

"Mercenary World is very diverse," the player had said, cool and confident."I think its future is broad. As for how to clear god-level quests... the answer's actually already in the official description. You just need to figure it out."

At the time, Dawei had dismissed it as vague flexing.

But after all he'd been through—the potion, the virus, the cursed inheritance—it sounded like a truth bomb.

He lit a cigarette and leaned back in his creaky chair.

"There are over 300 million registered players in China alone," he muttered. "You're telling me no one's figured out the system's real logic?"

But that wasn't the point.

"The truth belongs to those who can see differently."

That was the lesson.

If Mercenary World played like a traditional MMO, veterans would dominate. But god-level quests didn't play fair. They were built to break old habits.

He re-read the official site from top to bottom. Once. Twice.

And then—he saw it.

The final line of the game's official introduction:

"Even a mortal can kill a dragon. Every player—no matter how new—can one day stand atop the altar."

He'd laughed at it before. Just promotional fluff. But now?

Now it hit different.

"Mortal killing dragon…" he whispered.

That wasn't marketing.

That was the central mechanic.

He wasn't some overpowered tank. He had no gear, no stats, no buffs. He was a blank-slate account who'd burned down an S-class werewolf using firewood, a flammable house, and desperation.

That was mortal-slaying-a-dragon logic.

And the system had rewarded him with a leadership skill, a transformation curse, and entry into a completely divergent questline.

Dawei grinned bitterly.

"You don't get god-tier rewards by following god-tier walkthroughs."

That was the genius of the game. And the curse.

You had to unlearn everything you thought you knew.

In traditional games, the answer was power creep.Here, the answer was mindset break.

The players who came in without expectations had an edge over the veterans. Fresh minds meant flexible thinking.

Veterans like Dawei?

They had to kill their instincts before they could kill a dragon.

He ate instant noodles in silence, then slept. When he woke, he logged in.

The game world stirred to life once more.

Inside the sage's hut, Dioise was still flipping through his spellbooks like a stressed-out grad student the night before finals.

Dawei watched him for a few minutes before asking:

"So… we're up against a vampire count, right? Any chance we actually prepare for that?"

Dioise glanced up, smiled like a man who had been waiting for the question.

"Yes," he said, gently closing his book. "Preparation is essential."

System Prompt:Dioise's favorability toward you has increased: [Eager Expectation]Your reputation in the Hermit Camp has risen to: Friendly

Dawei's eyebrows rose. That was two gains in one—relationship points and faction standing.

He didn't know exactly what Hermit Camp reputation unlocked yet, but he'd played enough games to know one thing:

Special reputation = special privileges.

Whether that meant gear, information, or exclusive class access—it was all good news.

And it confirmed something else, too:

This questline was still live. It hadn't stalled—it was just waiting for player initiative.

"So what's next?" Dawei asked, cracking his knuckles.

Dioise's expression turned serious again.

"To defeat the count… we must strike where he is weakest."

"And first, child… we must go to the place where this all began."