This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 569: The Honest Star River

Chapter 569: Chapter 569: The Honest Star River

Star River doesn’t dream!

Falling Feather remembered this guy.

Back in Lost Valley, they had ridden a Cloud Dragonfly together; he was the pilot, and the other was a gunner.

Unfortunately, this fellow wasn’t as lucky as he was, and got taken out on the spot. Although he himself was done for later on, he was fortunate enough to end up with Xiaoyu. Thinking back now, if he had been the gunner at that time, Xiaoyu would probably have been called "Little Star" or "Little River" instead.

Indeed, Xiaoyu was a nicer name.

Both of them were solo players who had added each other as friends, but they barely teamed up. He had never expected he would run into this guy hundreds of kilometers away from City of Dawn.

What a fateful encounter!

"Doing a quest, what else could I be doing?"

Looking at the confused Falling Feather, Star River chuckled, patted the LD-47 hanging on his chest, and continued.

"After this battle is over, I should really get around to leveling up... Damn it, this Game is just too realistic, I still haven’t figured it out after several months."

If this were any other game, level ten would just be Novice Village level, reaching it by following the main quest line.

However, in Wasteland OL, although level ten is still just the level after leaving Novice Village, it takes one or two months of grind to reach it.

He had never played a game with such a difficult leveling system!

The craziest part was that although experience points and levels were quantified, the growth curve wasn’t smooth—sometimes killing would yield experience, sometimes it wouldn’t.

Though Brother Elder Fang wrote a guide on the official website, it was also pretty vague, only casually mentioning "experience gains are positively correlated with risk."

In other words, you could only level up quickly by risking death repeatedly, but if you actually died, the experience accumulated up to the last save would be reset to zero.

How to balance gains, risks, and attrition for the most efficient leveling up, there’s a lot of knowledge involved, and many T0 and T1 players are still researching it to this day.

Of course, it’s entirely possible to play recklessly without considering all these.

Star River did exactly that.

Though he had the idea of leveling up, he was too lazy to consider so much, so he simply took a quest that involved travelling far and took the opportunity to see just how big this game world really was.

"This game is indeed somewhat annoying in bizarre ways," Falling Feather nodded in agreement and casually asked, "...by the way, what’s your quest?"

"There’s a Merchant in City of Dawn called Zhou Nan, who claims his parents and siblings were detained by a Landlord near Town Of Hope, and he asked me to take some money to ransom them back."

This quest...

It sounded strangely familiar.

Watching Falling Feather freeze for some reason, Star River chuckled and wriggled his eyebrows.

"Guess how much the reward is?"

Falling Feather swallowed.

"How much?"

Saving one person was already worth one hundred thousand, to save a whole family... wouldn’t that be in the millions?!

As if to confirm his guess.

Star River’s face bore a smug smile, slowly raising a finger.

"Ten thousand!"

"..."

The air went quiet for a moment.

The atmosphere subtly turned a little awkward.

Looking at Falling Feather’s unresponsive face, Star River’s expression gradually shifted from smugness to embarrassment, and he gave a light cough.

"Uh... Shocked, huh? NPCs in the wild do offer more than official quests, but they lack Contribution Points and regional prestige, so it’s not really that exaggerated."

"How should I put it..." Falling Feather subtly averted his gaze from the misguided boasting of Brother Star River, "...pat on the head?"

"Pat on the head, what the hell?!"

Watching Star River becoming agitated, Falling Feather hesitated but ultimately couldn’t bear to see him exploited by an NPC, so he chose his words carefully.

"Actually... I received a similar quest to yours. I have to go to the Cone Wood Farm to save a person."

"One person?"

"Yeah," Falling Feather nodded slowly, "it was about one hundred thousand, I suppose."

"One hundred thousand?!"

Star River’s eyes bulged, staring at him in disbelief, as if his expression were saying, "Are you kidding?"

But the truth was always cruel.

Something occurred to Falling Feather, who exclaimed "Ah" and said.

"You got this quest directly from a tavern, without going through the Mercenary Guild, right?"

Star River: "Yeah, but that’s not my fault, I was already on the road when I heard from the official website that some Mercenary Guild had been established."

I see.

An epiphany dawned on Falling Feather’s face.

That explained everything.

"Tsk, no wonder... You didn’t take the quest through VM, so not only is the reward low, but you also don’t get mercenary profession experience."

"Holy shit!" Star River nearly sprayed out a mouthful of old blood, completely breaking his defense right there and then.

Good grief.

He thought he had scored big with this quest, picking up a treasure, but it turned out he was just a pure sucker.

Watching Brother Star River beginning to question his life choices, Falling Feather couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt—maybe it would have been better not to tell him the truth.

"Maybe the difficulty is different? That Cone Wood Farm has over fifty thousand people, I heard it’s a closed-off settlement, not so easy to get into... Besides, the employer didn’t mention a ransom, they’re probably planning on having me snatch the person away."

As he said this, something else occurred to Falling Feather.

"Ah right, the ransom... did the NPC give you the ransom?"

Star River nodded with tears in his eyes, bordering on crying.

"Hmm, five thousand dinars... one thousand per person, for a total of five."

The dinar and the silver coin didn’t have a fixed exchange rate, but it was said that on the western side of Central Continent, a thousand dinars could buy an adult slave of average talent.

Within the territories of the Alliance, the trade of people was forbidden; dinars were usually used only as payment for mercenaries or bounty hunters and didn’t have much actual purchasing power.

These five thousand dinars were both the ransom for the redemption target and the advance deposit; he needed to bring the people back safely to the City of Dawn to receive the full bounty from the employer.

Falling Feather scratched his head.

"I do have an idea that could minimize your loss."

Star River immediately asked,

"What idea?"

Falling Feather: "If you snatch the people directly... wouldn’t that ransom money be yours?"

The tasks assigned by the Mercenary Guild probably wouldn’t allow for such an action, but private work should be another matter.

Although the dinar and the silver coin didn’t have an official channel of exchange, one could probably still exchange them for silver coins on the Black Market.

Star River was stunned.

"Ah, that... that works?"

Falling Feather nodded.

"I think it should be fine, after all, the target is a slave owner, and the object is slaves whose freedom has been restricted. According to the ’Player’s Handbook,’ proactive violent acts aimed at lifting personal restrictions are not punishable. In other words, the estates of slave owners and the slave hunters are not protected by the rules of the refuge."

It wasn’t just the slave owners.

Other NPC forces that were contrary to the Alliance’s values or categorized into the chaotic evil camp were also unprotected.

For instance, the Torch Church, Enlightenment Society, and so on.

Though the Alliance didn’t recommend players causing trouble in others’ settlements.

After all, unrecognized order was, in fact, a form of order, and physically eliminating one or two individuals wouldn’t really solve any issues; it might even create new troubles.

However, the phrase "not punishable" had indeed enlightened Star River.

His eyes heated up visibly, as he stared intently at Falling Feather and grabbed his arm.

"Good brother! Help me out!"

"Help you... how can I help." Falling Feather looked blankly at the fiery-eyed Star River, suddenly thought of something, and got a fright, "Damn it, you’re not asking me to help you snatch people, are you? I’ve got my own tasks to do, or maybe I can help you when I get back."

Not being punished by the refuge didn’t mean he wouldn’t be hated by the locals. He didn’t want to be dealing with a task while also handling a bounty hanging over his head.

Seeing that his brother had misunderstood him, Star River quickly explained with a smile.

"Tsk, the help I was referring to isn’t what you’re thinking."

"Then, what is it?"

"You’ve just reminded me," Star River grinned sardonically, pulling Falling Feather to the side and speaking calmly and deliberately, "since the rights of slave owners are not protected by the ’Player’s Handbook,’ then... deception is also possible, right?"

"Deception?" Falling Feather gave him a doubtful glance, "How do you plan to deceive?"

This wasteland had no shortage of clever people.

And this guy had just been tricked by an NPC, so it was hard for him to optimistically think this guy still had the talent to fool others.

Star River chuckled and continued.

"That’s easy, your exoskeleton is called the K-10 ’Iron Wall’, right?"

"Uh, yes..."

"I remember this equipment is supplied exclusively to the Giant Stone City Militia Group and isn’t sold to outsiders... is that correct?"

"That’s not quite accurate," Falling Feather corrected him, "Last month, some militia from Giant Stone City sold off their gear, and some of it did flow out."

Like the set he wore and the ones dressed by Xiaoyu behind him; they were acquired when they sheared the wool, bought almost at a tenth of the price from Brother Fang Chang.

Otherwise, he couldn’t afford it at the internal purchase price of fifteen thousand silver coins.

"I know," Star River glanced at the group of Xiaoyu behind Falling Feather and continued deliberately, "One piece doesn’t prove much... but what if it’s a bunch?"

"Just spit it out... what the hell do you want to do?"

Watching Falling Feather become increasingly wary, Star River grinned devilishly and said.

"It’s simple, if that certain Zhou Nan... who happens to be my employer, becomes a distinguished guest of some big shot in Giant Stone City, or even becomes the big shot himself, then when the Militia Group comes asking for someone... do you think the Slave Owners here would dare to refuse?"

"Holy shit?!" Falling Feather’s eyes widened, "You, you plan to impersonate the Militia Group to con people? Aren’t you afraid of causing a diplomatic dispute?"

"Don’t talk nonsense, what diplomacy is there to talk about with a small settlement?" Star River quickly said, "Besides, we’re rescuing people! You get that, right? Rescuing!"

"But—"

Seeing Falling Feather’s hesitation, Star River continued at a rapid pace.

"Relax, brother, we’re hundreds of kilometers away from Giant Stone City here, there’s no way this can get exposed! Consider it a favor you’re doing for me... Right, you need to rescue someone afterward, right? If this method works, we can use the same tactic once more at the Pinecone Wood Farm! This time you help a brother out, next time the brother will help you! We cover for each other, and without spending a dime on ransom, we can fish out all the hostages!"

Hiss...

That actually makes some sense?

Upon further consideration, Falling Feather thought this idea might actually be pretty good!

The Alliance had just taken over Giant Stone City, and all the surrounding Slave Owners were shaking in their boots. If he pretended to be from the Giant Stone City Militia Group, going to the nearby Slave Owners for a few hostages should be a breeze, right?

No more hesitation. Falling Feather took Xiaoyu and the rest of the gang with physical bodies, and immediately set off with Star River to the south gate of Town Of Hope.

Although the town’s main gate was blocked with barricades, they only stopped goods and vehicles, not restricting people from coming and going; at most, they were warned of the dangers outside and advised not to run around unnecessarily.

As for someone as tough as Falling Feather with a group of fierce-looking enforcers, the guards at the gate didn’t even dare to offer a word of advice, only silently watching them leave.

The Hope Farm, the one in the mission, lay just south of Town Of Hope.

A three-story watchtower stood like a castle amidst a field, surrounded by a large concrete enclosing wall, with only a muddy path leading to the neighboring town.

Mostly freemen lived in the town, while a row of shacks outside the watchtower were likely where the serfs resided.

The Landlord named Kong Lingkai lived inside the concrete wall and was said to be an influential figure in town.

Seeing the Maxim I and Cavalry Guns mounted on the concrete wall, one wouldn’t have a hard time guessing that the guy had made a fortune by doing business with the Alliance.

The two players exchanged information along the way and, while rehearsing their lines, also translated some sentences they might need using VM.

Not speaking clearly is okay; the residents of the Alliance refuge all talk like that. Mumbling actually makes it more credible.

A group of twelve arrived at the side of the gun tower.

A fully armed guard stood on the four-meter high gatehouse, ready for action, as if he had seen them from afar.

Just as Star River was about to speak and state their purpose, the guard on the gatehouse called out.

"Are you from the Alliance?"

Huh?

These folks are quite sharp, huh?

Seeing that they were directly recognized, Star River felt a thrill of triumph, yet he showed no sign of it on his face and, tilting his chin upward, shouted,

"Good that you recognize us! Let your master come out to meet me!"

According to the script he had imagined, upon learning they were from the Alliance, that guard should’ve scrambled to report back, and then the master of this place would’ve politely invited them in, tripping over themselves to welcome them.

However, what neither player expected was, not only did not a trace of fear appear on the guard’s face, but he snickered through his nose.

"Heh, recognize you? You’re the fifth group this month! Making such a big deal out of this tiny farm, you must really be bored!"

Hearing this, both Star River and Falling Feather were instantly dumbfounded.

"What the heck?!"

"The Alliance people have been here?!"

That’s impossible...

They check the official website every day.

If the Alliance had been here, they would definitely have been the first to know.

Seeing the puzzled expressions on both their faces, the guard sneered disdainfully,

"Some who claimed to be from the Alliance came before, trying to intimidate us, demanding we either hand over all the slaves or roll out of here. We nearly believed them! Our master said, if anyone else claiming to be from the Alliance comes begging, we’ll have their Manager come in person!"

Falling Feather and Star River exchanged a glance and conversed with bewildered looks.

’Definitely not players...’

’Don’t need to use "definitely", I can guess it was those Wasteland Wanderers using my ass!’

"Damn it..."

’These dogs are too cunning!’

Using the Alliance’s name to do dirty deeds!

Is this something humans do?!

Taking a look at the translation on their VM, Star River gritted his teeth and shouted towards the gatehouse with a hint of threat in his voice,

"So, you’re not planning on releasing them?"

The guard laughed and said,

"You can have the people if you want, just pay their ransom!"

A mere twelve people, they weren’t worth his fear.

So what if they’re wearing exoskeletons?

Behind him in the gun tower, there are at least five Maxim guns set up, and with fields all around providing no cover, a battle would see these twelve shot into sieves in a matter of minutes.

Seeing the guard’s undaunted attitude, Star River started to have doubts. Gritting his teeth, he said,

"I need to see if these people are alive first."

The guard on the wall took another hard look at him, growing even more confident.

"Oh? You already have a target, huh... Tell me, what’s the name of the person?"

Star River pulled out a piece of paper and glanced at it before shouting,

"Zhou Daniu!"

That name could be said to be incredibly rustic.

However, upon hearing the name, the guard on the wall was taken aback, and his expression quickly changed.

"Did Zhou Nan send you?!"

Star River paused, unsure why the guard had such a big reaction, when Falling Feather hastily helped him out, whispering,

"Your employer is probably a Merchant reared by the Landlord of this farm!"

"I know that..."

"You knew and still said that?!"

"Otherwise, what?" Star River looked at him puzzledly, "If I don’t say who I want to ransom, how the heck am I going to get the person out?"

Falling Feather was at a loss whether to laugh or cry as he said,

"Damn... are you truly clueless or just pretending? You want a hostage! Hostage, understand? You think that bit of money will get the person back?"

Either scare them into handing the person over voluntarily or directly snatch them back. Going to the door with a ransom is absolutely not an option.

That’s like a noose around the neck.

Even if it’s possible to get the person back, it’s definitely not something a few thousand dinars will fix. Depending on the size of the transaction, it would cost at least several thousand to tens of thousands of silver coins.

He was confused by the guy’s reaction too.

Logically speaking, even if this big guy didn’t know the situation in Brocade River Province, his employer should have some idea, right?

There must be some misunderstanding here.

Like, when he accepted the mission, he asked "How can I ransom someone without money," and then the employer gave him those few thousand dinars as extra reward and a deposit for the mission.

This time, Star River finally came to his senses.

"Damn it!"

Watching the guard hurry back to report, Star River abruptly became anxious and quickly started typing out translations on his VM, shouting up to the wall,

"Hold on, friend, I don’t know who this Zhou Nan you’re speaking of is... We’re from the Giant Stone City Militia Group, it’s our leader who sent us to get the person!"

It seems too late to say this now.

"Let your employer come himself!" a loud voice interrupted him, and a man in an exoskeleton stood atop the enclosing wall.

Unlike the Manager, although he was wrapped up tightly in high-end equipment, he didn’t seem very capable in combat.

His pale, old face framed a tuft of black, shining beard, and his dark, shiny eyes were like those of a rat.

Behind him stood a dozen fully armed soldiers, half of their weaponry was from the City of Dawn, and the other half from Giant Stone City, a truly fine collection.

It was a complete contrast to the gun tower beneath his feet.

"Tsk, tsk, grown some wings and think you can fly away from me... you’re ungrateful. If it weren’t for me, you’d never have the chance to leave this place in your life."

Watching the bewildered Star River, the man smirked sinisterly and continued.

"Could you bother to go back and tell your employer I detest such cunning. If he tries to test my limits with such a clumsy tactic again, I’ll chop off his father’s, mother’s, and his elder brother’s hands and mail them to him."

"Of course, I’m easy to talk to. If you want to ransom your family, that’s fine, just pay back what you owe me with interest! Let me think... 10 million Cr should be enough, or one billion dinars also works."

Falling Feather blankly glanced at Star River.

"Is your employer that rich?"

Star River shook his head in bemusement.

"Not really... I guess."

The guy looked like a Merchant, with no small amount of trade, but from his attire, he didn’t seem very wealthy.

Ten thousand silver coins.

That was a fortune.

Looking down at the silent group below the gatehouse, Kong Lingkai’s eyes slightly turned, and he suddenly spoke.

"You’re hired hands too, right? How much did he give you?"

"One... two thousand silver coins."

Falling Feather looked at Star River in surprise, seeing him stand upright, cheeks not blushing, heart not beating, it seemed he had grown a bit.

The man on the gatehouse, hearing the number, showed a pleased smile.

"According to the contract with him, he should have paid me last year’s dividend before this March... Let me think, it should be around one million silver coins."

Upon seeing the translation given by VM, Star River’s eyes widened.

"That much?!"

"Of course. He’s very wealthy, and why do you think he earns so much? It’s all because I gave him the capital to do business with and supplied him with cheap food. Rightly speaking, all the property he has should be mine. He’s too naive to think he can take off the noose from his neck with just ten thousand silver coins."

Kong Lingkai chuckled and continued.

"Let’s make a deal, you bring that guy over from the Alliance territory, and I’ll give you two hundred thousand silver coins!"

Hearing this number, both were shocked.

Goodness gracious!

Two hundred thousand!

Was there this hidden option in the mission?!

Thinking about how much RMB two hundred thousand silver coins could become, Star River felt his hands trembling, but he quickly calmed down.

Kidnapping NPCs within the Alliance territory...

Afraid that if he earned the money, he would not have the chance to spend it.

"Sorry, I can’t agree to that," said Star River, his tone serious, looking up at the man on the gatehouse.

Hearing this, Falling Feather almost spat out.

"Damn it! Are you crazy? You just refused like that?"

Looking at the agitated Falling Feather, Star River asked in surprise.

"Otherwise? Saving someone doesn’t violate the Player’s Handbook, but the nature of kidnapping is different."

Seeing him not catching on, Falling Feather, frustrated, said.

"It’s not... can’t you pretend to agree first, then earn this guy’s trust, and take the chance to save the person?"

Star River was taken aback, completely astonished.

"Damn?!"

There was such an option?

Watching this honest fellow, Falling Feather couldn’t help covering his face, ashamed of himself for having felt a moment earlier that he had grown.

"Is this your first time playing a high-freedom RPG?"

But it seemed he wasn’t in a position to laugh at him.

When he first played this game, he was quite candid, believing whatever NPCs said.

Looking at the argument between the two, the man on the gatehouse showed a trace of disappointment, but that was all.

He shrugged his shoulders, apparently indifferent.

"Then there’s nothing to talk about."

Star River quickly raised his right hand.

"Wait a second, I’ve changed my mind—"

Before he could finish speaking, the sound of bells, followed by bursts of gunfire and coarse roaring, suddenly came from the town not far behind them.

Everyone present was distracted by the gunfire.

Especially Kong Lingkai on the gatehouse, whose face changed immediately upon hearing the urgent bell, as he faintly sensed something was wrong.

At that moment, a servant ran up from behind him, out of breath.

"Sir, big, big news! A phone call just came from the town—"

Before he could catch his breath, Kong Lingkai grabbed him and asked anxiously,

"What happened?"

"The, the Mutants!" The servant’s face was deathly pale, his forehead beaded with sweat despite the cold, as he stammered out, "Mutants... they’re coming!"

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