Game’s Dogma

After resolving the incident with Sky Dominion, everyone resumed their new year event grind.

The event was going to end in around five hours, but they had been fighting under great pressure for hours at this point, not to mention their fight with Sky Dominion. Zephyrwolf and Idyllic Poet were starting to show signs of exhaustion, though Danting, Drako Yau, and Greenstone were as energised as ever.

Drako Yau noticed their fatigue, so he said, ‘Zephyrwolf and Poet, take a break. Danting, we’ll be the vanguards. Don’t force yourself too, Greenstone.’ He then started swinging his spear with even more vigour.

‘Boss, let’s see who can kill more monsters in five minutes’, Danting said excitedly.

‘Sure, but don’t use your magic formation.’

Seeing the two men with seemingly inexhaustible stamina, Zephyrwolf could only admit that he wasn’t as good. After resting for a brief while, he leapt up and made battlecries as he charged at the monsters.

Idyllic Poet shook her head. ‘Hah, men.’

Some time later, everyone present each had over a hundred firecrackers, meaning they had together killed over 500 new year bogeys; they were farming firecrackers at a scary pace.

Normal players would be lucky if they could kill several new year bogeys at this stage. After all, most players were gathering in the popular farming areas. The bogeys would be surrounded and killed in less than half a minute, and it was purely up to luck who landed the final blow. Squads that were trampling over new year bogeys like Drako Yau’s squad were far and few.

It was a stroke of serendipity that both Drako Yau and Zephyrwolf were now both Level 20 after farming in a high level region for so long. Zephyrwolf had received the notification which prompted him to undergo class progression; if not for the event, he really wanted to fly over to clear the quest already.

A hidden class was awaiting him! Just witnessing the might of hidden class bearers like Danting, Fong Sai Yuk, and Sasaki made him drool.

Drako Yau also received a letter from a mysterious person.

‘Kid, you’re Level 20 right? Come find me, I’m at…’

He quickly examined the coordinates written in the letter; it appeared to be somewhere between the cities and the Highlands of John. That place… should be empty though? Still, with how large the map was, it wasn’t a surprise if there were blind spots which he didn’t know of.

Drako Yau scratched his smooth mask. Before he could give it more thought, another letter popped up.

‘Kid, don’t try to put me off—you’ve got a day. Don’t bother to find me if you’re late. You can stay at Level 20 forever.’

Drako Yau was speechless.

‘Nevermind, let’s take care of this event first.’

‘Mask’, Greenstone said. He was the only one who didn’t refer to Drako Yau as ‘Boss’. Naturally, it was because he didn’t receive any benefits and only followed Drako Yau out of his own will.

‘Hm?’

‘Something’s off.’ Greenstone was very stingy with words; he would never say anything if it wasn’t necessary. That alone was enough to draw Drako Yau’s attention.

‘What’s wrong?’

Greenstone pointed at Danting and Zephyrwolf. ‘Their Health’s been going down quickly in the last 30 minutes.’

Drako Yau sent a glance at the two. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; Zephyrwolf wasn’t as energetic as Danting, but he took breaks from time to time and didn’t make any major mistakes. Then the issue was obvious: ‘It’s the monsters.’

Greenstone nodded and said no more. He knew Mask had already understood what he was trying to say.

Drako Yau observed the ongoing battle for a while and soon found out the problem. ‘It’s the new year bogeys. They’re becoming stronger.’

Out of the blue, a new year bogey spawned behind Zephyrwolf. It looked like a mandarin, but its wicked purple eyes weren’t very friendly as it leapt at Zephyrwolf. Drako Yau had a bad premonition.

‘Zephyrwolf! Watch your back!’

Zephyrwolf turned around to see the mandarin hopping it. He chuckled and said, ‘Come on boss, what’s there to fret…’

Boom!

The mandarin landed in front of Zephyrwolf and self-exploded. A large chunk of Zephyrwolf’s Health vanished in a second. As dust rumbled at the explosion site, a holy glow radiated from Greenstone’s staff; he was once again displaying his perfect control of his squad member’s Health. His Heal landed just in time to save Zephyrwolf from death.

‘Wh… What? What happened!’ Dust covered Zephyrwolf’s face while pain radiated through his body. After hearing Drako Yau’s explanation, Zephyrwolf also turned up his pain perception to 40 per cent, but he was regretting the decision right now.

Drako Yau made a sigh of relief, gave Greenstone a thumbs up, and lightly slapped Idyllic Poet, who was yawning as she sat on the ground, in the back of her head.

‘Stop slacking off. Time your Ring of Rebounding Flames to knock away the self-exploding monsters, then finish them off from afar.’

‘Yea yea yea…’ Idyllic Poet groaned listlessly. ‘This is overtime work… Extra pay…’

As the new year bogeys became stronger and stronger, they couldn’t be as lax as they used to be. Even Drako Yau kept his eyes peeled; if a self-explosion monster blew up next to him, he would undoubtedly lose an arm or leg.

An abrupt change occurred when the event was about to end in an hour.

Monsters scurried away into the forests as the ground trembled. The crowded area was suddenly void of its bustle and noises.

At that moment, a system notification popped up. ‘As we enter the new year, monsters continue to invade and cause trouble to the world. However, when humans slay monsters in large quantities, gigantic monsters from other dimensions will stand up for their brethren and make mankind pay their debts of blood.

‘Calculations in progress. In areas where death count of new year bogeys are over 1000, the new year boss will be spawned: Nin.

‘The new year monster is a legendary monster. Legends say that in ancient times, there existed a ferocious monster with the head of a lion and horns of a rhino. “Nin”, the people called it. It is said to reside deep in the mountainous regions all year round, but whenever the new year approaches and the wild animals hibernate, Nin will emerge from its lair and trample over fields and devour humans and livestock.

Squads that defeat the Nin will be rewarded 1000 firecrackers, split equally between each member, and will receive the title “Heroes who Scare Off Nin”. Drawing the lottery while equipping the title will increase the chances of getting rare items.’

‘Squads that defeat the Nin will be awarded the new year outfit: Great Red Cloak.’

Drako Yau’s jaws dropped as he stared at the hill-sized Nin and murmured, ‘Who said this event’s easy?’

The grey Nin was several metres tall and stood on its hind legs like a human. A lengthy rhino horn stood at its snout as it glared at Drako Yau and his squad with its bronze eyes.

Nin swept its gaze at its surroundings and randomly grabbed a large tree with its three-fingered hand.

‘Ouuu!’

Nin uprooted the poor tree and smashed it into the ground like a mace.