Straightforward Starry River

Starry River! Luo Yu remembered the guy. Back in Lost Valley, the two had flown a Cloud Dragonfly together—he had been the pilot, and Starry River had been the gunner. Unfortunately, Starry River hadn't been as lucky as him. He had been wiped out on the spot. Though Luo Yu had met his end later as well, a blessing in disguise had led him to take in Yu. Thinking back now, if he had been the gunner back then, Yu probably would have ended up being named Little Star or Little River. Sure enough, Yu sounded much better. Both were solo players. Although they had added each other as friends, they hardly ever partied up. Luo Yu never imagined he would run into this guy seven or eight hundred kilometers away from Dawn City. Talk about fate! "Running a quest! What else could I be doing?" Seeing Luo Yu's stunned expression, Starry River chuckled and patted the LD-47 slung across his chest before continuing. "Now that the war's over, it's about time I buckle down and level up... Damn it, this game is too realistic. It's been months and I still haven't figured it all out." In any other game, Level 10 was beginner-village level, something you could hit just by following the main quest for a few steps. In Wasteland OL, however, while Level 10 was still just barely out of the starter village, it took a month or two of grinding to reach. He had never played a game where leveling was this hard! Most absurdly, although experience points and levels were quantified, the growth curve wasn't smooth at all. Sometimes kills gave exp, sometimes they gave none. Though Brother Fang Chang had written a guide on the official website, it was vague, merely noting in general terms that 'experience gains are positively correlated with risk.' In other words, you could level up fast only by courting death continuously—but if you actually died, all the exp accumulated since your last save was wiped clean. Balancing rewards, risks, and attrition to maximize leveling efficiency involved quite a bit of science. Many T0 and T1 tier players were still studying it even now. Of course, completely ignoring all that and playing blindly was an option too. That was what Starry River was doing. He wanted to level up, but he was too lazy to think so much about it. So he had simply taken a quest that took him far away, taking the chance to see just how big this game world really was. "The game really can be annoyingly realistic in the most bizarre ways," Luo Yu agreed with a nod, then casually asked, "...By the way, what's your quest?" "There's a travelling merchant in Dawn City named Zhou Nan. He claimed his parents and brother's family were being held by a farm owner near Hope Town, and asked me to bring some money to ransom them back." That quest... Sounded rather familiar. Seeing Luo Yu freeze up for some reason, Starry River grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. "Guess how much the quest reward is?" Luo Yu swallowed hard. "How much?" Rescuing one person paid a hundred thousand. Rescuing an entire family... had to be over a million, right?! As if confirming his guess. Starry River wore a smug smile and slowly held up a single finger. "Ten thousand!" "..." The air fell silent for a moment. The atmosphere grew subtly awkward. Seeing Luo Yu's total lack of reaction, the smugness on Starry River's face gradually gave way to embarrassment. He coughed softly. "Uh... Shocked? NPCs out in the wild definitely pay more than official quests, though you don't get contribution points or regional prestige to go with it. It's not totally outrageous, honestly." "How should I put this..." Luo Yu subtly averted his gaze, looking at his buddy who was desperately saving face in entirely the wrong direction. "Pat pat?" "What the hell is 'pat pat'?!" Seeing how agitated Starry River was getting, Luo Yu hesitated. In the end, he couldn't bear watching him get exploited by an NPC, so he softened his words. "Actually... I took a quest similar to yours. I have to go to Pinecone Farm to rescue someone." "Just one person?" "Yeah," Luo Yu nodded slowly. "It pays... about a hundred thousand." "A hundred thousand?!" Starry River's eyes went wide as saucers, staring at him in disbelief, his expression practically screaming 'you've gotta be kidding me.' Yet the truth was always cruel. Luo Yu suddenly realized something and let out an "Ah." "Did you take the quest directly at the tavern? Not through the Mercenary Guild?" Starry River said, "Yeah. But you can't blame me for that! I was already on the road when I read on the forums that some Mercenary Guild had been set up." *So that's it.* A look of realization appeared on Luo Yu's face. Case solved. "Tsk, no wonder... You didn't take the quest through your VM. Not only are the payouts terrible, you don't even get mercenary class exp." "Holy shit!" Starry River nearly spat blood, utterly broken on the spot. Good grief. He had thought the quest paid great and that he had struck gold, only to find out he was a total sucker. Watching his buddy Starry River start questioning his life choices, Luo Yu felt a twinge of guilt, wondering if it might have been better not to break the news to him. "Maybe the difficulty is different? That Pinecone Farm has over fifty thousand people. I heard it's a closed settlement and not easy to get into... Besides, the client didn't mention a ransom, so he probably expects me to just break the guy out." At that point, Luo Yu suddenly thought of something. "Oh, right, the ransom... Did that NPC give you the ransom money?" Starry River nodded, looking ready to cry. "Yeah, five thousand dinars... A thousand per person, five in total." There was no fixed exchange rate between dinars and silver coins. It was said that in the western Mid-Continent, a thousand dinars could buy an ordinary adult slave. Human trafficking was prohibited within Alliance territory, so dinars were usually only used as payment for mercenaries or bounty hunters, carrying little practical purchasing power. Those five thousand dinars served both as the ransom for the targets and an advance deposit. He would need to bring the people back to Dawn City safely before he could collect the full bounty from the client. Luo Yu scratched his head. "I actually have an idea to cut your losses." Starry River immediately asked, "What idea?" Luo Yu said, "Just go snatch the people directly... Then doesn't the ransom become yours?" You couldn't pull that on Mercenary Guild quests, but for private gigs, probably no one cared. Although there was no official exchange channel between dinars and silver coins, they could still fetch some silver coins on the black market. Starry River froze. "Uh... You can do that?!" Luo Yu nodded. "I think it should be fine. After all, the target's owner is a slaver, and the targets are slaves whose freedom has been restricted. According to the clauses in the Player Handbook, proactive violence aimed at ending the restriction of personal freedom is exempt from penalty. In other words, slaver estates and slave-hunting parties aren't protected by Shelter rules." It wasn't just slavers. NPC factions that ran counter to Alliance values or were classified under the chaotic evil alignment were similarly unprotected. Such as the Church of the Torch, the Enlightenment Society, and so on. Granted, the Alliance didn't encourage players to cause trouble in other settlements either. After all, an unrecognized order was still a form of order, and physically eliminating one or two people solved nothing, potentially creating new problems instead. However, that phrase 'exempt from penalty' woke Starry River right up. His eyes lit up at a visible pace. Staring intently at Luo Yu, he grabbed him by the arm. "Good brother! Help me out!" "Help you... How am I supposed to help?" Luo Yu stared blankly at Starry River's burning gaze, then started in fright as a thought hit him. "Holy crap, you're not asking me to help you raid the place, are you? I've got my own quest to do, damn it! Or you can wait until I get back." Not being punished by the Shelter didn't mean the locals wouldn't hold a grudge. He didn't want to carry a bounty on his head while trying to finish his own quest. Seeing that his buddy had misunderstood, Starry River quickly explained with a laugh. "Nah, that's not the kind of help I mean." "Then... what is it?" "You just gave me an idea," Starry River chuckled slyly, pulling Luo Yu aside and speaking in a deliberate tone. "Since the rights of slavers aren't protected by the Player Handbook, then... bluffing them should be totally fine, right?" "Bluffing?" Luo Yu gave him a suspicious look. "How do you plan to bluff them?" There were plenty of smart people on this wasteland. And this guy had just gotten swindled by an NPC; it was really hard to be optimistic about his ability to con someone else. Starry River kept grinning. "Simple. That exoskeleton of yours is called the K-10 Iron Wall, right?" "Uh, yeah..." "If I remember right, that gear is exclusively supplied to the Boulder City Militia and isn't sold to outsiders... Isn't that so?" "That's not entirely accurate," Luo Yu corrected him. "Last month, some Boulder City militia soldiers were reselling their issued equipment, and a portion leaked outside." For instance, the set he was wearing and the ones worn by the Yus behind him had all been scooped up at a ninety-percent discount from Brother Fang Chang during that fire sale. Otherwise, at the current internal purchase price of fifteen thousand silver coins, he never could have afforded it. "I know," Starry River said, glancing at the group of Yus behind Luo Yu before speaking smoothly. "One set might not prove much... but what if there's a whole squad of them?" "Just cut to the chase... What are you actually trying to do?" Seeing Luo Yu's gaze grow wary, Starry River finally showed his hand and chuckled. "Simple. If that Zhou guy—my client—became an honored guest of some big shot in Boulder City, or even became a big shot himself, and the Militia showed up demanding people... do you think the slaver here would dare say no?" "Holy shit?!" Luo Yu's eyes widened. "You bastard... you want to impersonate the Militia to run a con? Aren't you afraid of causing a diplomatic incident?" "Don't talk nonsense! What diplomacy does a tiny settlement have?" Starry River said hastily. "Besides, we're saving people! Saving people, get it?" "But—" Seeing that Luo Yu was still hesitating, Starry River spoke rapidly. "Relax, brother. This place is hundreds of kilometers from Boulder City, there's no way we'll get exposed! Just consider it a favor to me... By the way, aren't you going to rescue someone later too? If this works, we can pull the exact same trick at Pinecone Farm! You help me this time, I'll help you next time! We cover each other, and we can pull out all the hostages without spending a single copper of ransom!" *Hiss...* That actually made some sense? Luo Yu thought it over and decided the plan might really work! The Alliance had just taken Boulder City, and the surrounding slavers were trembling at the sight of them. If he approached the local slavers in the name of the Boulder City Militia demanding a few hostages, wouldn't it be a walk in the park? No sooner said than done. Luo Yu hesitated no longer. Leading Yu and the rest of the fruiting bodies alongside Starry River, he headed straight for Hope Town's south gate. Though roadblocks had been piled up at the town gate, they only barred cargo and vehicles, not restricting people on foot from coming and going. At most, the guards offered a warning that it was dangerous outside and told them not to run around carelessly. As for a ruthless figure like Luo Yu, accompanied by an entire squad of ferocious bruisers, the guards standing at the gate didn't even dare offer a warning, only silently watching them leave. Hope Farm, the quest's destination, lay just south of Hope Town. A three-story watchtower stood like a castle in the middle of farmland, with concrete walls enclosing a sprawling tract of land. Only a single dirt road connected it to the neighboring town. Most residents in town were freemen, while the row of shanties outside the watchtower was presumably where the serfs lived. The landlord named Kong Lingkai lived inside the concrete walls and was reportedly a prominent figure in town. Looking at the Maxim Type I and Lance mounted on the concrete walls, it wasn't hard to guess that this guy had made a fortune trading with the Alliance. Along the way, the two players exchanged intelligence, rehearsing their lines while using their VMs to translate sentences they might need. Imperfect pronunciation didn't matter; Shelter residents of the Alliance all spoke like that anyway. Slurred speech actually lent them greater credibility. The party of twelve reached the base of the watchtower. A heavily armed guard stood in high alert atop the four-meter-tall gatehouse, as though he had spotted them from far away. Just as Starry River was about to state their business, the guard shouted down from the gatehouse. "Are you from the Alliance?" *Huh?* The people here were pretty sharp, weren't they? Seeing that the other side had identified them right off the bat, Starry River felt secretly pleased. Keeping his face impassive, he tilted his chin up and shouted back. "Good that you recognize us! Have your master come out to see me!" According to his envisioned script, upon learning they were from the Alliance, the guard ought to scramble back to report, and then the master here would politely invite them inside for hospitality, practically rushing out without his shoes on. Yet to both players' surprise, the guard showed not the slightest trace of fear. Instead, he sneered through his nose. "Ha! Do I recognize you? You're the fifth bunch this month! Going to such great lengths for a fart-sized farm like this—you folks sure have a lot of free time!" Hearing that, Starry River and Luo Yu were stunned on the spot. "What the hell?!" "People from the Alliance have already been here?!" Impossible... They checked the forums every day. If the Alliance had sent people here, they would definitely have been the first to know. Seeing the bewildered looks on their faces, the guard curled his lip in disdain. "Others came before claiming to be from the Alliance, trying to intimidate us. Demanded we either hand over all our slaves or get out of here. We almost bought it! Our master said that if any more beggars come claiming to be from the Alliance, have their Administrator come in person!" Luo Yu and Starry River exchanged dumbfounded glances, communicating through bewildered stares. *Definitely not players...* *No need for 'definitely,' I can guess with my ass that it's wastelanders from outside!* *Holy crap...* *Those sly bastards!* Doing dirty deeds under the Alliance's banner! Was that something decent people did?! Glancing at the translation on his VM, Starry River gritted his teeth and shouted up at the gatehouse in a faintly threatening tone. "So you don't intend to release the people?" The guard smiled. "You want them? Fine! Bring money to ransom them!" A mere twelve people weren't enough to scare him. So what if they wore exoskeletons? Mounted in the watchtower behind him were at least five Maxim machine guns. The surrounding land was open fields without cover; if a fight broke out, those twelve would be turned into sieves in minutes. Seeing that the guard wasn't intimidated in the slightest, Starry River grew uncertain. Gritting his teeth, he said, "I need to see if the person is still alive first." The guard on the wall gave him a few extra looks, becoming even more confident. "Oh? Got a specific target already, huh... Speak up, what's his name?" Starry River pulled out a slip of paper, glanced at it, and yelled, "Zhou Daniu!" The name was about as rustic as could be. Yet upon hearing it, the guard froze, his expression shifting abruptly. "Zhou Nan sent you?!" Starry River was caught off guard, having no idea why the guard reacted so strongly. Beside him, Luo Yu hurriedly tugged at his arm and whispered, "Your client is probably a merchant kept by the farm owner here!" "I know that..." "You know that and you still said it?!" "What else was I supposed to do?" Starry River looked at him in bafflement. "If I don't say who I'm ransoming, how the hell am I supposed to ransom him?" Luo Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Holy crap... Are you playing dumb, or do you really not get it? What you're asking for is a hostage! A hostage, understand? You expect to ransom him back with that tiny bit of cash?" You either terrified them into handing people over willingly, or you broke in and snatched them back. Showing up at the door with ransom money was the absolute last thing you should do. That person was a noose around someone's neck. Even if they could be ransomed, a few thousand dinars would never cut it. Depending on the size of the merchant's business, it would easily cost tens or hundreds of thousands of silver coins. He was genuinely bewildered by this guy's logic. Ordinarily, even if this buddy didn't understand the situation in Jinchuan Province, his client should have known something, right? There was likely some misunderstanding involved. For instance, when taking the quest, Starry River might have asked, 'How can I ransom anyone without money?' and the client had given him those few thousand dinars as an additional fee and an advance deposit. Finally, Starry River caught on. "Holy shit!" Seeing the guard hastily turn around to report, Starry River panicked. Rapidly pecking at his VM to translate, he shouted up at the wall, "Wait, friend! I don't know who this Zhou Nan is... We're from the Boulder City Militia! Our commander sent us to demand the people!" It seemed too late for that now. "Tell your client to come himself!" A booming voice cut him off. A man clad in an exoskeleton appeared atop the wall. Unlike the Administrator, though this man was wrapped tightly in high-end gear, he didn't look like much of a fighter. His pale, aging face made a tuft of mustache appear jet-black, and a pair of beady eyes darted like a rat's. Behind him stood a dozen heavily armed soldiers. The weapons in their hands were half from Dawn City and half from Boulder City—top-notch gear across the board. A stark contrast to the watchtower beneath his feet. "Tsk, tsk. His wings have grown stiff, and now he wants to fly away from me... It's bad to forget your roots. If not for me, he wouldn't have had the chance to walk out of here in this lifetime." Looking at Starry River's stunned expression, the man smiled sinisterly and continued. "Please do me the favor of telling your client when you go back: I despise such petty tricks. If he tests my bottom line with such clumsy methods again, I'll chop off the hands of his father, his mother, and his older brother, and mail them to him. "Of course, I'm an easy man to talk to. If he wants to ransom his family, he can—just pay back everything he owes me, principal and interest! Let's see... ten million Cr should do, or a hundred million dinars will work fine too." Luo Yu gave Starry River a dumbfounded look. "Your client is that rich?" Starry River shook his head, just as bewildered. "I don't think so... probably." The guy looked like a travelling merchant with decent business, but judging from his clothes, he didn't seem filthy rich. Ten million silver coins. That was a fortune. Seeing the silent group below the gatehouse, Kong Lingkai's eyes shifted slightly. Suddenly, he spoke. "You're hirelings too, aren't you? Tell you what—how much did he give you?" "Ten... twenty thousand silver coins." Luo Yu glanced at Starry River in surprise, seeing the latter standing tall with a straight face, looking neither flushed nor flustered. It seemed he had grown a bit after all. Hearing that number, the man atop the gatehouse broke into a pleasant smile. "According to my contract with him, he was supposed to hand over his profit share from the second half of last year before March... Let me see, that should be around one million silver coins." Reading the translation on his VM, Starry River's eyes widened. "That much?!" "Naturally. That man is wealthy indeed. And why do you think he was able to earn so much? Isn't it because I provided him the capital to do business, and cheap grain? By rights, all his property belongs to me. Wanting to slip the noose off his neck for a measly ten thousand silver coins—the fellow is a bit too naive." Kong Lingkai smiled and continued. "Let's make a deal. Kidnap that fellow from the Alliance and bring him here for me, and I'll give you two hundred thousand silver coins!" Hearing that figure, both players were stunned. Good grief! Two hundred thousand! This quest had a hidden branch like that?! At the thought of how much RMB two hundred thousand silver coins could be exchanged for, Starry River felt his hands tremble, but he quickly regained his composure. Kidnapping an NPC inside Alliance territory... Even if he earned the money, he probably wouldn't live to spend it. "Sorry, I can't accept that," Starry River said in a deadpan tone, staring up at the man on the gatehouse. Hearing those words, Luo Yu nearly choked. "What the hell?! Are you stupid? You're just rejecting him like that?" Seeing Luo Yu's agitated state, Starry River asked with a puzzled look, "What else? Saving people doesn't violate the Player Handbook, but kidnapping is a whole different story." Seeing that the guy still couldn't wrap his head around it, Luo Yu said in exasperation, "No, wait... couldn't you pretend to agree first, win the guy's trust, and then take the chance to snatch the hostages back?" Starry River froze, completely floored. "Holy crap?!" You could do that? Looking at this guileless guy, Luo Yu couldn't help covering his face, feeling ashamed for thinking, even for a second, that he had grown. "Is this your first time playing an open-ended RPG?" Then again, he was hardly in a position to mock him. When he first started playing the game, he had been pretty straightforward himself, believing whatever NPCs said. Watching the two squabble, the man on the gatehouse showed a flash of disappointment, though only a faint one. He shrugged, indifferent. "Then we have nothing more to discuss." Starry River quickly raised his right hand. "Wait a minute, I changed my mind—" Before his words could finish, the tolling of a bell suddenly drifted over from the town not far behind them, followed by bursts of dense gunfire and rough, echoing roars. Everyone present was drawn by the sound of shooting. Kong Lingkai atop the gatehouse in particular—hearing that hurried bell, his expression changed instantly, an inkling of realization striking him. Just then, a panicked servant ran up behind him, panting so hard he could barely breathe. "M-Master! The town... just called—" Without waiting for him to catch his breath, Kong Lingkai grabbed him by the collar and asked anxiously, "What happened?" "M-Mutants!" The servant's face was deathly pale. In the dead of winter, beads of sweat the size of soybeans dripped from his forehead as he stammered, "The mutants... are attacking!"