...

The sound of footsteps could be heard echoing softly inside the cave.

Swoosh!

The footsteps abruptly fell silent as a faint glow of moonlight peeked through the cave's ceiling, exposing two figures.

Both figures wore hooded clothing that concealed their appearance.

The hooded figure who just entered the cave had a dagger pressed to the back of their neck; however, they showed no signs of retaliating.

"The lone raven sings but one word." The person holding the dagger spoke.

"Nevermore." The other hooded figure answered as a few strands of long black hair flowed out the side of their hood and a pair of orchid color eyes seemed to shine under the beam of moonlight. This hooded figure was none other than Azalea.

"If these guys are involved in this, then someone must really want them dead." Azalea internalized.

After following the person she had been tracking into the cave, she quickly discovered that this was no ordinary meeting location. In fact, it belonged to a group she knew quite well.

"Were you followed?" The hooded figure asked.

"Who do you think I am? I took the necessary precautions before coming to this place. But, since you are questioning my skill..."

Out of nowhere, Azalea turned dissolved into nothingness.

"?!"

Before the person holding the dagger could react, they felt something cold press up against the back of their neck—it was a dagger! Just like that, their positions had been swapped!

"...You may pass. Your number is 32." The hooded figure stated.

"Hmph." Azalea lowered her dagger and returned it to the sheath hidden under her forearm as she walked forward into the darkness.

"This has become a bit troublesome." Azalea thought to herself as she disappeared into the depths of the cave.

...

After walking for several seconds, Azalea reached a dead-end that seemed to lead to nowhere. However, instead of stopping or turning back to find another way, she continued to walk forward.

The moment Azalea came into contact with the dead-end, her body phased right through the seemingly solid rock as she arrived in a spacious and well-lit opening of the cave.

"Talisman of Concealment... Their methods have not changed in the slightest." Azalea internalized as she swept her gaze across the room.

The instant Azalea appeared in the room, she drew the eyes of everyone there as they sized her up.

In total, there were thirty-two individuals spread throughout the room. Most of which kept to themselves. However, there was one person who stood completely separate from the group and was facing everyone as they stood on platformed made of stone that was slightly raised off the ground.

After briefly sizing up Azalea, everyone averted their gazes and went about their own business.

"First off, allow me to introduce myself. I am the one who will be heading this gathering. You may refer to me as Q. It pleases me to see that so many have answered the Siren's call." This voice came from the person standing on the platform.

Their voice was distorted, so it was difficult to tell whether it belonged to a man or woman. As for their appearance, just like the others in the room, it was well hidden. The only major difference was that the one called Q wore red concealment clothing and a black mask with no visible features.

NPC Name: Q(???)

NPC Level: ???

NPC Faction: Siren

"The underground organization network, Siren... It's not cheap to get them to post an assignment. Now that I know they are involved, it won't be easy tracking down the client who made the request." Azalea thought to herself.

Siren—this organization was something known only to a small percentage of the playerbase in RML.

Siren took on requests from clients that ranged from simple information collection and theft, all the way to assassinations. They also made certain that the identity of their clients always remained an absolute secret.

Of course, what many people did not know about the organization was that it had a powerful backer hidden in the shadows—the League of the Eidolon!

Before she met Izroth, Azalea had taken on assignments from Siren and was even offered a chance to join the League of the Eidolon. But, in the end, she turned them down. After all, her goal was different from those who typically associated with those types of organizations.

Azalea was well aware that Siren was secretly funded by the League of the Eidolon as they often used Siren as a way of searching for potential recruits for their main organization. In other words, Siren was just a branch on the massive tree that was the League of the Eidolon.

Though if one wanted to gain access to the "Siren's Call", the gatherings that allowed them to take on tasks, they first needed to complete a certain series of quests.

"Now that basic introductions are out of the way, shall we proceed to the main topic of discussion?" Q said as they held the palm of their hand forward.

Zeeeut!

In a flash, a small black and red cube appeared in front of everyone in the room, levitating before them.

Azalea was no stranger to this cube as she held her hand out over the object.

〈System Alert: Identification confirmed! [Codename: Wraith]〉

〈System Alert: Accessing information...〉

After having her identity confirmed, a new system window appeared before Azalea that displayed six faces, six names, and information containing their most recently known whereabouts.

When Azalea saw the faces and names displayed through the system window, her eyes narrowed as her gaze turned cold.

Halls, Guan Yu, Mirage, Midnight, Valentine, and Qi Jiguang—these were all names and faces of her fellow guild members.

"We will always repay kindness tenfold and contempt a thousandfold. If someone helps one of us, then they are helping all of us. If someone bullies one of us, then they are bullying all of us—never forget this."—these words were spoken by Izroth the first time everyone met at the Mystical Realm Palace. And, they still echoed strongly in Azalea's mind.

"Someone dares to hunt our people." Azalea wanted nothing more than to slay every person in the room for even entertaining the thought. However, she knew that this was only a single meeting location and it would ultimately affect nothing. After all, the same exact meeting was also currently taking place at the other numerous Siren locations spread throughout RML.

"The client is willing to pay 115 gold coins for the first kill on each target. Every kill after the first on each target will be worth 30 gold coins. The total collection kill count is set to 10 per target. This means after the tenth kill, the kill request for that specific target ends and it is considered complete. As you all know, the cubes will track your progress and act as a way to confirm your kills. However, the client has made a special request. Should you provide humiliating video evidence of your kill, they will include a bonus of 50 gold coins. This bonus can only be claimed once per target, so keep note of that." Q explained calmly.

"?!" Those in groups began to whisper among themselves as the cave became filled with small mutters.

Everyone was shocked by the generous gold pool of this request. Added together with the bonus, it was a potential 435 gold coins per target—that was close to 78,000 RMB!

If one somehow claimed everything for themselves, it would be a staggering 2,610 gold coins or nearly 465,000 RMB!

Multi-kill requests like this did not come along often since many of the targets were always NPCs or other entities tied directly to RML. It was rare that players were the targets, and even more unexpected that someone was willing to put up almost half a million RMB in a cash pool!

In the minds of those present, these six people must have really offended someone to incur such an unforgiving level of wrath!

"Qi Jiguang... That damned crazed fighter. He'll probably be the hardest person to deal with on this list. Outside those who've reached the Master rank or the Grandmasters, I doubt anyone can handle him. But, there's bound to be some greedy idiots. Maybe we can use them to gauge his current strength." One of the people standing next to four other players said to his group.

Those who successfully completed missions for Siren joined their ranking system. From lowest to highest, it went Initiate, Novice, Disciple, Hunter, Shadow, Master, Grandmaster.

While there was no limit to the other ranks, there were only five Grandmasters in Siren. Each of those individuals had priority on the most challenging, but also rewarding of requests that Siren provided.

At one time, Azalea held the rank of Grandmaster. However, in order to maintain the rank of Grandmaster, it required one to be constantly active when it came to completing requests. But, after meeting Izroth and ceasing her activities in Siren, naturally, Azalea's rank dropped down back to Master.