Chapter 46

Our little kung fu boy stood alone in the grand hall of the fishmen's "palace," fighting a lone battle.

Amid the gazes of the fishmen who were eager to kill him, he sighed softly, pointed at the pocket on the left side of Old Joel's hand embroidered with purple patterns, and spoke at a pace slow enough for King Ranus and his people to understand:

"Before using the divine magic, please, 'wise' King Ranus, please... smell... Old Joel's pocket... I mean, that cunning... human..."

Alpha's words startled Old Joel, who instinctively reached into his pocket. The cold, slippery sensation made Old Joel shudder, clearly aware of what he was about to face.

"... Damn brat..."

Old Joel helplessly covered his pocket, looking at King Ranus, who was sniffing the air—assuming the two small holes above the fish mouth filled with sharp teeth could be called a nose.

Before King Ranus fully digested Alpha's words, Old Joel hurried to make amends:

"Actually... the evil wizard I mentioned is not my assistant. Poor little Alpha is just an incompetent magic apprentice."

Old Joel gently twirled his cane.

"I mean, if you use divine magic to detect poor little Alpha, you will find that this poor child is completely different from the evil wizard.

—In fact, I already have a clue to find the evil wizard."

The last sentence made King Ranus pause. Clearly, the clue to the evil wizard was more important than what was in Old Joel's pocket, so much so that King Ranus completely ignored everything Old Joel and Alpha had said before:

"Assassin... evil wizard... where?"

King Ranus, the smartest of the Blackwater fishmen, though distracted by Old Joel's smooth talk and forgot to use divine magic to detect whether Alpha had killed over 200 Blackwater fishmen, and also forgot to smell what was in Old Joel's pocket, did not forget Old Joel's previous promise:

"Evil wizard... it's like this, though little Alpha is incompetent, he has his own way to catch the evil wizard."

The old fox Old Joel quickly thought of an excuse and pushed Alpha out again. Alpha cursed inwardly but put on a confident smile, cooperating to show that what Old Joel said was true.

King Ranus tilted his large fish head and stared at Alpha for a while with his fish eyes.

"Short apprentice... too small... can't beat the evil wizard!!!"

This guy had completely forgotten that he had just wanted to use divine magic on this "short apprentice."

"No, no, no, Alpha is my best assistant. Though he is small, Alpha has the wisdom to overcome everything!!!"

Old Joel winked at Alpha, who, while cooperating with Old Joel to continue showing confidence, cursed the old fox's ancestors.

From a game perspective, this was clearly an NPC giving a quest. But from the whole situation, this was purely Old Joel setting Alpha up. It was obvious that Old Joel was unhappy about Alpha putting fish eyes in his pocket and wanted to mess with him.

Of course, this time Old Joel wouldn't be as extreme as offering Alpha as a gift. If everything went as planned, this would be a more reliable quest. It seemed Alpha would have to deal with a scapegoat or something, but given Old Joel's devious nature, the quest wouldn't be easy.

However... for the sake of the quest, Alpha endured, standing tall and calmly accepting King Ranus's "inspection."

King Ranus compared Alpha's height, looked at Alpha's "small arms and legs," and shook his large fish head like a tambourine:

"Short... no good... can't beat... King Ranus!"

From the fishmen's perspective, it was not surprising that King Ranus doubted Alpha's strength. After all, Alpha was so small that he didn't even reach King Ranus's shoulder. In the world of fishmen, size determined strength, a simple value in many primitive races.

"No, but I can defeat Charles."

"Roar!!!"

Charles, provoked, roared angrily. The red light on his staff, which had just dimmed, shone again, clearly preparing to cast another "Scorching Ray."

"King Ranus... hates lies!!! Apprentice, challenge... Charles... to the death!!!"

With King Ranus's fierce roar, Alpha's mission in the fishmen tribe was finally revealed. The system prompt also sounded:

"Quest obtained: 'Death Match.' Kill the fishman priest Charles. Quest level: D+."

Alpha pursed his lips. Obtaining a quest was within his expectations, but there was one thing he couldn't figure out:

—If he hadn't let the invisible servant put the two bloody fish eyes in Old Joel's pocket, what would have happened? Would he have been attacked by the Blackwater fishmen tribe instead of facing Charles one-on-one? Or would the quest have been to escape from the fishmen tribe?

If that were the case, it meant that the player's actions could change the quest.

"Change the quest..."

Alpha's lips curled, and the Icchou-kun mode kicked in again. After a brief thought, he shook his finger at King Ranus:

"Wait a moment, great King Ranus, in fact..."

Alpha waved his hand, and two bloody fish eyes slowly rose from Old Joel's fancy coat pocket, clearly the work of the invisible servant. As soon as King Ranus saw the bloody eyes, he roared, nothing could stimulate the fishmen's nerves more.

Alpha pointed at the two still-dripping bloody eyes:

"... I am the true assassin, the evil wizard. Mr. Joel hired me to kill 200 Blackwater fishmen. These two eyes are the result of exceeding the task."

"You're crazy?! No, no, King Ranus, this poor little guy is scared by your power. Don't believe his nonsense!!!"

Old Joel was confused by Alpha's seemingly crazy actions, not knowing what this mischievous player was up to. Was he just trying to get killed to get back at him? From the young man's behavior, he didn't seem like someone who would do something so pointless.

But the Blackwater fishmen didn't think that much. As soon as Charles heard this, the "Scorching Ray" in his hand lit up again, and he mumbled "death match," clearly ready to attack.

However, facing the elite boss's "Scorching Ray," Alpha showed no intention of dodging, instead casually twisting his wrist:

"Yes, death match..."

－－－－－－－－－－－－－分割线－－－－－－－－－－－－

In the Reincarnation Temple, Time Mist was feeling depressed.

—Without a priest to revive, a corpse would be teleported to the Reincarnation Temple after 1 minute and would take an hour to revive.

The white dagger in Time Mist's hand flipped up and down, spinning around her little finger and then bouncing to her thumb. Her fingers were long and white, like carved jade, and even without the dazzling tricks, they looked incredibly dexterous.

But Time Mist's mind was full of thoughts about the seemingly refined but ruthlessly efficient Northshire waste.

However, if you thought this was the protagonist's aura, making every woman fall for him, you'd be wrong.

What Time Mist was actually thinking about was why the mage's "Arrow Shot" had such high damage, almost matching a 1st-level spell. Though she had been prepared for the high damage shown in the video, experiencing it firsthand still left her unsettled.

And why couldn't she run away suddenly?

A 10th-level mage was unlikely to have a spell like "Ghoul Touch" that could paralyze, and even if it was a charged spell from an item, she hadn't smelled the characteristic stench of "Ghoul Touch."

—That was the most disgusting stench in the game...

"Too careless..."

Time Mist shook her head. There was something about this famous waste from Northshire that she couldn't understand.

As a follower of the Lady of the Air, Akadi, her normal attacks had the "Air Burst" effect, causing an additional 50% damage and receiving critical and sneak attack bonuses. This meant her "Backstab" was over 200 points higher in damage than a regular rogue's.

In fact, her "Backstab" had almost hit the maximum value twice.

Yet the result was that she was killed, and in a situation where two "Backstabs" that could instantly kill a 30th-level mage failed to kill a 10th-level mage, she was counter-killed.

"Even with max Constitution, it shouldn't be like that?"

Time Mist recalled the damage she had dealt and compared it with the damage the talented player had dealt to Alpha in the video. She still couldn't figure out why her damage, which was far superior to the talented player's, couldn't kill this waste.

Frustrated, Time Mist shook her head and glanced at the large clock on the dome of the Reincarnation Temple.

—0 hours 47 minutes. The time on the dome clock was different for each deceased person, showing only their own resurrection time.

"Still 46 minutes... 46 minutes? Damn it!!! Damn waste!!!"

Seemingly remembering something, Time Mist suddenly became angry and started stabbing the ground with her dagger.

The other men waiting to be revived, who had been staring at Time Mist's 34D, quickly turned away, either pretending to sleep or getting up to walk around. No one dared to have any improper thoughts about this violent woman...