Gulf Town, eastern district.
Wu Shuang jogged along the muddy, puddle-strewn streets, planning to run back to his hideout in one go.
This was his second time running this route, so he was already familiar with the path. Moreover, after his Humanity turned yellow, his stamina had grown noticeably. It was likely the effect of an increased Constitution attribute, allowing him to even recover stamina by eating.
Therefore, there was no need to stop and rest halfway this time; he could easily run all the way back without stopping.
Then there was his new weapon—this Perfect-quality rapier—which gave Wu Shuang's strength a qualitative leap. This was the real reason he dared to sprint down the open streets.
Faced with a living corpse running toward him, he simply swung the sword with one hand, sending half an arm flying into the sky along with foul blood.
Looking over again, only half of the living corpse remained standing while the other half lay on the ground, sliced clean in two at the waist with a single strike.
Afterward, all he had to do was follow up with a thrust into the living corpse's eye socket and give it a twist to finish the kill. It was incomparably easier than before and saved a massive amount of stamina.
He finally understood what it felt like to hold a divine weapon. No wonder martial arts masters were so obsessed with them—it really was that good.
Wu Shuang even began considering clearing out the entire town, already formulating plans to take all of Gulf Town for himself.
What's more, the system was encouraging him to do so, as the newly refreshed side quests were related to this.
【Side Quest 1: Explore Gulf Town and increase the map completion of Gulf Town to above 30%, 60%, and 90%.】
【Rewards: Kingdom Gold Coin ×3,000 / Kingdom Gold Coin ×10,000 / Kingdom Gold Coin ×50,000, Silver Chest of Random Color ×1】
【Note: This is a phased quest. Once accepted, it will remain active permanently. Rewards for each phase will be calculated separately, with each phase counting as completing one side quest.】
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【Side Quest 2: Kill the slimes in the eastern district of Gulf Town.】
【Rewards: Bronze Chest of Random Color ×1. Grants a 30% discount on your next transaction with a Kingdom Merchant.】
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【Side Quest 3: Go fishing three times.】
【Rewards: Kingdom Gold Coin ×50】
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After completing the grave-digging quest, Wu Shuang refreshed his side quests and received three new ones. The first was about town exploration, offering lavish rewards—especially the final phase, which actually gave a Silver Chest.
Considering the Main Quest reward was only a single Silver Chest of Random Color and 30,000 coins, this was massive.
Looked at this way, the rewards for this quest were even higher than the Main Quest. That was why Wu Shuang felt the system was encouraging players to clear out the town—because the map included not only the streets, but also interior maps of the buildings, meaning one had to explore the entire town and check inside every house.
As of now, the map completion in Wu Shuang's Hero Handbook was only 15.3%, still a long way off from 90%. He could only take his time with it. Either way, this side quest was a must-do, but for now, he could focus on fishing first.
...
Slaughtering everything in his path, Wu Shuang took just over forty minutes to get back to the front of Baron Raymont's Estate, having killed eight living corpses along the way.
Aside from using techniques like axe throwing and charging against the first one, he cut down almost all the rest with a single slash of his sword. Mainly, he hadn't realized just how fierce this sword was at first.
A Perfect-quality weapon seemed to be a massive cut above a Fine-quality one, providing a huge upgrade.
“This place...”
Mia said, looking at Raymont Manor with her brows tightly furrowed.
Wu Shuang stepped over the overturned fence into the grounds and looked at Mia.
“What? Does this place look familiar to you?”
“Hmm... Not exactly familiar, but I get a sense of déjà vu, like I've seen it somewhere before.”
“That means it does look familiar.
This is Baron Raymont's Estate in Gulf Town. Well? Remember anything?”
“Raymont...”
Mia tilted her head and pursed her lips in apparent distress, looking rather cute.
Wu Shuang stared at her for a good while before realizing several seconds had already passed. He hurriedly walked inward, since they weren't out of danger yet.
He headed toward where he had hidden the folding ladder. He had stashed the ladder on the first floor, requiring him to climb through a window to retrieve it, which made it far more concealed.
However, with only four Heroes left in Zone 127, hiding it or not made little difference now.
“What is this anchor...?”
“Oh, that was a goblin... merman's weapon. It almost killed me back then. I collapsed right here, and the anchor flew past, practically grazing my scalp.”
Seeing Mia asking, Wu Shuang explained, while pointing to the nearby merman skeleton, which was still over there.
“That sounds pretty thrilling,” Mia commented.
“Thrilling...?”
Wu Shuang scratched his head, feeling that Mia was surprisingly brave, which didn't match her appearance.
It was the same when they encountered living corpses on the road earlier. She wasn't scared at all, ordering Wu Shuang to charge into battle and even complaining that Wu Shuang didn't know how to use a sword, only praising his axe-throwing accuracy...
This was a good thing, but it could also easily cause trouble. He'd have to talk to her about it later.
“Then how did you kill that merman?” Mia asked next.
“Well... I didn't actually kill it. There was a silver knight back then—he stepped in, killed the merman, and saved my life.”
“Is that so... By the silver knight you mentioned, you don't mean that one over there, do you?”
“Huh!!?”
Wu Shuang's heart tightened. He hurriedly looked over, only to see the over two-meter-tall silver-armored knight standing at the side of the manor. Aside from having a few more mud spots on his body, he was no different from before.
Crap!
When had this knight appeared? How had he not heard a single sound? Was it because he had been paying too much attention to Mia?
Dammit!
Wu Shuang suddenly realized that chatting with someone could distract your attention, sometimes even posing a threat to your life. But saying anything now was too late.
He immediately accelerated forward, wanting to duck into the manor.
As for Mia, he would definitely give her a stern lecture later—this girl had way too little sense of danger.
But having just taken two steps, Wu Shuang froze in shock and slammed the brakes.
Because that silver-armored knight actually leaped over at an unbelievable speed—yes, leaped. His figure grew larger and larger in vision, and continuing forward meant risking being squashed flat, forcing Wu Shuang to brake hard and turn around to run back.
BOOM!!!!
Like a falling cannonball, splattering mud slammed into Wu Shuang's back like hurled stones. But he didn't dare look back, inwardly cursing that he was dead meat.
However, immediately after, he heard an old voice—jerky and stiff, as if it hadn't spoken in a long time, carrying an uncomfortable sense of unnaturalness between pauses as it called out...
“Lady... Mia...”
Wu Shuang's eyes widened and his pace slowed down. The silver-white hair on his body tightened, and he turned around almost in unison with Mia to look at the silver-armored knight behind them.
Rate on N.U.
