"It’s just a matter of perspective…"

I said while glancing at the false appearance I had crafted for myself for a moment. A concealed set of godlike equipment, a head of messy red hair and somewhat dispirited features. Yep, it was producing exactly the effect I was hoping for. "Look at me. I’m a trash man wearing a bunch of trash equipment. What do I have to lose? If I manage to kill one of them, it’ll be worth the cost already. If I manage to kill two? You tell me if I’m winning or not!"

Uncle Outspoken chuckled. "Were you ambushed by Blood Alliance?"

"Nah!"

I pointed a thumb at Xinran and said, "My younger sister’s the one who was ambushed by Blood Alliance. She even lost her legs as a result. I’ll pay any price to take revenge for her!"

"I’m sorry, but… your younger sister seems like an NPC."

"That’s because she is. She’s my sister-friend per se…"

For some reason, the guy’s eyes turned green with envy. "So, you’re really going to take revenge for her?"

"But of course!"

"Well, okay. Our men will cost you a lot of money though."

I smiled, placed a palm on the stone table and moved closer to stare Outspoken in the eye. "When did I ever say that I’m hiring your men to kill Blood Alliance’s players? I will do it myself!"

"Wait, seriously? You’re going to do it yourself?"

"Of course I am. All you need to do is to provide me with the intelligence, and I’ll head over to kill the bastards myself. It’s perfectly normal, isn’t it?"

"Okay…"

Outspoken’s eyes were full of pity. He even looked at me like I was a dead man walking. "How would you like your information, exactly?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "I’ll tell you my coordinates every 5 minutes or so. I want you to tell me if there are any Blood Alliance players within 1 to 2 kilometers of me. If you report any to me, I’ll pay you 10 gold per target. What do you say?"

Outspoken stretched his fingers. "Make it 15 gold and it’s a deal!"

"Deal!"

I took his hand and shook it. Then, I added him as a friend. My ID was still Fruit Knife Guard Captain on the friend list, so he had no idea he was really adding the world’s best player as his friend. On a related note, I had also altered the WEL MVP emblem and guild emblem on my shoulder, so not even Lin Yixin or He Yi might be able to recognize me.

……

Outspoken shot me a smile. "So, do you know where you should go to find Blood Alliance members, brother Guard Captain?"

I hummed. "It’s said that Blood Alliance is scattered across the entire map, and that they have no territory or specific meeting spots. That is why I’m planning to just roam around until I run into them."

"You are wrong!"

Outspoken chuckled. "I’ll grant you that Assassin’s Creed is a cautious, intelligent man, but it’s impossible to run a guild without assembling your members for a chat once in a while. It is the same for Blood Alliance. Their meeting spot isn’t fixed, but I’ve found out that Blood Alliance’s meeting spot for this month is a canyon to the northeast of Dragonbone Mountain Range called ‘Blood Mallet Canyon’. There are a total of 7 temporary supply spots in that canyon, which is why there are more Blood Alliance players there than otherwise. I’m warning you though. If you bring too many people with you, they will realize that their location has been exposed and escape.

“Now, normally I would charge you for this level of information, but I have a strange feeling that our business is going to be more special than I imagine. That is why you get this one for free. Good luck."

I smiled again. No wonder he was the vice leader of Intelligence Agency. He was a smart and intelligent man who held god knows how much information within his grasp. He might not be able to recognize me because I had disguised myself, but Xinran was a different story. He might’ve realized who I really was through our earlier conversation.

I fished out 1000 gold from my pocket and pushed it toward him. "Here’s the deposit."

"It’s fine, I trust you. You can pay me after you’ve had your fill." A trace of killing intent suddenly flashed across Outspoken’s eyes. "Did you know that those crazy bastards are targeting our people as well? Hmph. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to destroy them."

I nodded understandingly before rising to my feet. Then, I took the reins and left the courtyard.

Unknown to me though, my onager had left behind a hot, steaming pile of shit.

"Fuck!"

This time, uncle Outspoken’s eyes turned green for a completely different reason.

……

After we exited the courtyard, I teleported straight to Dark Moon City and whispered to Xinran, "Can you hide yourself, Xinran?"

"Of course, big brother!"

She bent down a little and covered herself in a long, black cloak, revealing only her beautiful eyes. The average player would never realize that she was the terrifying Wind Singer.

Speaking of Dark Moon City, its buildings and defenses had been growing stronger day by day. It was also a lot bigger than before. In fact, we were close to reaching our absolute limit and being ready to enter Rank 11. I saw a troop of Dragonlight Cavalry lined up in orderly formations on the training ground. High Fighting Spirits was carrying a battle axe on his shoulder and watching them intensely from the front. "Ready, everyone? We’re heading to Fire Stone Valley to kill a thousand Blood Alliance players today. Do you think we can fuck them all up?"

"YES WE CAN!" Everyone raised their weapons and shouted on top of their lungs.

I nearly let out a sob. This was why I found it incredibly difficult to entrust High Fighting Spirits with training duty. Thankfully, the 2000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen he was assigned with were youngsters between 18 to 28 years old, and the large majority of them were buffoons with low boiling points and the infinite capacity to commit stupidity. They were a match made in heaven to say the least. There was a reason why He Yi was the former vice president of GGS and the current president of her own company, Raincube.

I walked up to High Fighting Spirits and tapped him on the back with the Chill of the Nine Provinces. Then, I asked him in a humble tone, "Hey man. Can you give me directions to Blood Mallet Valley?"

High Fighting Spirits turned around and answered in his honest, frank manner, "It’s just a straight line ten kilometers to the east, man. You can’t possibly miss it. How do you not know how to read a map at your age?"

I smiled again. "Sorry. I’m not very familiar with this region."

"I see. Do you want me to send some men to escort you? There are a lot of high-level mobs on the way. Judging from your looks, one slap from a fiend-rank wolf is enough to kill half of you!"

I nearly threw up blood at his comment. "Thank you, but it’s okay. I’m just exploring the region. I’ll make sure to avoid the high-level maps."

"Okay then. Be seeing you!"

I turned around and hid a snicker. I was fairly confident with my disguise, but now I knew for certain that it would work. After all, not even High Fighting Spirits was able to recognize me. This Master of Disguise Ring is freaking OP!

Swhoosh!

There were two flashes of light, and I saw Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Eyes Like Water appearing in the city. Stranger of Three Lifetimes shot me a glance and commented, "Weird. That red-haired old man reminds me of Lu Chen for some reason. You can practically feel the vulgarity leaking out of his person…"

Eyes Like Water chuckled. "Yeah. I so want to kick him in the ass too!"

Bang!

I stumbled on my feet and accidentally ate a mouthful of dust. I won’t forget this, you two! I’m the one who’s going to kick your asses someday!

……

I checked the map screen after we entered a forest. Originally, my plan was to maintain this pace, but it would take a bit too long for us to get to Blood Mallet Canyon. So, I changed back my appearance, summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon, and flew us to our destination in just a couple of minutes. I switched back to my disguise after we landed at the edge of another forest. The reason I needed this disguise was to bait Blood Alliance’s assassins to attack me of their own accord.

I sent a message to Outspoken. "I’m at coordinates (52552, 79981). Are there any Blood Alliance players close to me?"

A few seconds later, Outspoken replied, "There is one assassin at (52781, 80067) and one at (53110, 79902). This intel is just 17 seconds old. Go get ‘em!"

"Got it!"

I couldn’t help but be impressed by Intelligence Agency’s efficiency. Not anyone could establish such a smooth and responsive intelligence network.

I activated Dark Pupils and observed my surroundings closely. I kept my sword lowered as I sauntered toward my destination, ready to bare my fangs at a moment’s notice. My Dark Pupils revealed three green dots in my sights. Two of them were assassins of Intelligence Agency, and the last one was a Level 214 assassin from Blood Alliance. He was under the effects of Assassin’s Oath right now.

The chance for Dark Pupils to see through the stealthing effects of Assassin’s Oath was around 50%. I turned the skill on and off three times in a row until finally, I saw the second Blood Alliance assassin as well. As I thought, it was just a matter of repeating the skill until it worked. It wasn’t nearly as easy as it seemed, however. For starters, it was incredibly taxing on the mind. It definitely wasn’t something any normal player could pull for a prolonged period.

I closed in on the nearest Blood Alliance assassin. Sensing my approach, he crouched lower, unsheathed his dagger, and activated Ambush.

I feigned ignorance until he came close enough to launch his skill. Then, I took two steps backward, parried his skill perfectly, and cut his throat for 310k+ damage. The assassin couldn’t believe it because it was just a basic attack. "What!?"

Swhoosh!

He died after leaving that parting word. He was shocked because he had received over 300k damage from a Level 211 magic knight. In reality, he would’ve received at least 500k damage if I had summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and empowered myself further with Fusion Armor. The only reason I hadn’t was because I needed to maintain the onager for Xinran and deception purposes. My base Attack was over 40k, and my equipment boosted that number by 5 times or more. That was over 200k effective Attack before accounting for the armor penetration properties of my equipment. Of course I had one-shot him.

……

There was no time to waste, so I advanced toward the second assassin at high speed. The assassin was a smart one though. He turned his Assassin’s Oath off and on as he made his escape. His trick would’ve caused an archer with Clear As Flame turned on to lose sight of him. Even my Dark Pupils were having trouble tracking him as his dot went on and off on the map screen. As expected, there was no easy prey within Blood Alliance.

Rustle rustle...

It wasn’t long before I caught sight of the assassin, or rather the disturbances he caused with his movements. This was a forest, and there were countless elements—the grass, the leaves, the dew, and even the wind—that could potentially break his invisibility.

Swhoosh!

The assassin was a decisive one. The moment I spotted him, he turned back and ran toward me along a random, zigzagging path. He tried to change directions and stab me in the back using the classic backstab + stun skill combo once he got close enough, but it was a mistake. The price of using an entry-level tactic against a Heavenly King was death!

Whoosh!

I slid my foot seemingly unintentionally to one side before thrusting my back toward the attacking assassin. I blocked the first skill with the plate on my arm and turned around just in time to nullify the stun skill. The stun wouldn’t take effect if it couldn't hit the target’s back. For an instant, shock and confusion flashed across the assassin’s eyes.