Chapter 247 - The Air of Expert Trappers
Outside the Hall of Mercenaries, Nightmare of Death on Stealth and his two friends immediately spotted someone standing at the agreed upon rendezvous point. Instantly, he felt his heart chilled at the sight of the person.
Using Sword Demon as an example, although he was not a good looking person, the air of an expert could easily be felt when he lifted his dagger or even when he was merely standing by motionlessly. As for this person before them, he was entirely nondescript, and there was not a hint of an imposing temperament coming from him; instead, he was skeevy-looking. Nightmare of Death suddenly felt extremely reluctant to rest the fate of his job on the shoulders of such a person.
“Is that the guy?” Nightmare of Death asked his friend on the private chatbox. Worried that Sword Demon was nearby, Nightmare of Death kept his distance from his two friends as they traveled along. Although they were now at the Hall of Mercenaries, they were more than eight feet away from it. Nightmare of Death was not worried that Sword Demon would figure out his connection to his two friends, so he had these two do all the arrangement secretly!
“That can’t be…” One of his friends hesitated as he saw the mousy look of the person before them, “My contact said that he is a Hunter, but that guy seems to be a Mage!”
“Oh… Let’s wait some more, then!” Nightmare of Death sighed in relief.
Who knew that just as his two friends moved to wait by the spot, the Mage actually approached them, “Gentlemen, are you waiting for White Leaf Plumage?”
The two men felt stunned, as that was indeed the IGN of the player who had contacted them. As the two skeptically nodded their heads and were about to ask a question, the man began to explain, “He happens to have something on and took his leave. I am his friend, so you can approach me about that matter of yours. We are in the same mercenary group, after all.”
“Oh, how should we address you?” one of Nightmare of Death’s friends asked.
The man meekly replied, “My name is unimportant, so let’s just discuss the matter at hand!”
The person’s reply made him seem moronic. With his downcast eyes and downright passive words, he seemed intent on avoiding the question and getting on with the business at hand. Nightmare of Death’s friends could not make sense of him and could only say, “Based on the mission we have put up, I think you guys more or less got the gist of it; we’re looking to borrow your Hunting Trap skill to PK someone.”
“That’s not a problem. My band of brothers is definitely the best when it comes to the Hunting Trap skill. You’ve made the right choice finding us.” The person thumped his chest as he firmly declared this.
“To brag about his group’s skill without even asking for who the target is… This guy is taking things too lightly. I don’t think we can depend on this guy too much…” one of Nightmare of Death’s friends criticized when he relayed the conversation to him in private.
“Yeah… Just go through the motions with them and we’ll find someone else after!” Nightmare of Death shared the same sentiment with his friend. Just this one conversation showed how undependable the person was. He was even more certain of this when the person regarded the matter so flippantly. Nightmare of Death had some knowledge of how most mercenary groups operated, and this person’s way of negotiating with them clearly displayed his unprofessionalism.
As his friends were about to blow the Mage off, the latter suddenly pointed toward a direction, “That’s perfect. Bring any questions you have about traps to him. I don’t know much about that skill since I’m actually a Mage.”
Nightmare of Death’s friends gazed over in the direction the man had pointed to and saw an even more reprehensible man gazing at them listlessly while tilting his head. He was undoubtedly an Archer from his getup. When the Mage motioned for him to come over, the Archer eagerly strode over.
Uninterested, Nightmare of Death’s friends were about to disengage from this exchange when they suddenly received a message from him, “Wait a sec. Is the guy coming over together with them?”
“Yes!” his friends replied in unison.
“Proceed with the deal, then!” Nightmare of Death was excited once more.
“What?” his friends asked, baffled. The Archer who had joined them looked sleazier compared to the Mage, so they could not understand just what Nightmare of Death saw in the person that abruptly changed his mind.
“I know that guy. There are three Yunduan City players high up on the Archer leaderboard: Royal God Call, Youthful Reflection, and Sakurazaka Moony. He is Sakurazaka Moony, so if he has advanced to a Hunter, he will definitely be very skilled at setting traps. Where else would we find anyone better in terms of the Hunting Trap skill in Yunduan City?” Nightmare of Death sent over this reply.
Nightmare of Death’s two friends were quite convinced upon hearing this. To think that the youth before them was someone who had managed to make it on the top 20 in his job class… They hurriedly flattered him appropriately; this was something that the two would do whenever they exchanged words with an expert. Unexpectedly, Sakurazaka Moony waved them off. “Nahhh. I recently dropped a level, so I don’t have the Hunting Trap skill. I’ve yet to level my way back to level 40….”
The two men were dumbfounded and were about to inform Nightmare of Death of this when Sakurazaka Moony continued, “Still, many members in my mercenary group have the Hunting Trap skill, so I don’t necessarily need to set the trap myself. It’ll be fine as long as I’m supervising the whole process.”
The two relayed this to Nightmare of Death, who readily agreed, “Mhm-mhm. Indeed, the trap method should still work. Nothing much is needed to be said; the most important aspect of the skill is its placement and positioning. He should be able to instruct his men with or without the skill himself. With such an expert at the helm, there shan’t be any problems!”
This matter was entirely dependent on Nightmare of Death, and his friends were nothing but helpers. Since the real employer, Nightmare of Death, approved of Sakurazaka Moony, the two did not have any further opinions and merely asked, “So how many Hunters do you have?”
“How many do you need?” Sakurazaka Moony answered with a question.
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“There must be enough to trap someone 100%. How many people do you need to make that happen?” At the start, the mercenary business was just a matter of one side paying the fee and another providing the necessary manpower. As the market developed, more and more conditions were included to the transaction. The difficulty of a mission, the time required, the amount of manpower needed, the capability of the men, and so on were details that affected the service payment. Naturally, this process would not be so complex if it went through the system, but all these factors came into play when it was a private transaction like this.
“Who’s the person you’re up against?” Sakurazaka Moony asked.
Since he was asking questions and replying far more professionally than the Mage, the two men answered sincerely, “Thousand Miles Drunk!”
The Mage and Sakurazaka Moony froze on the spot when they heard this.
Nightmare of Death and his friends had already expected such a reaction. After all, the target was the so-called number one expert in Yunduan City! While people would think of this as an exaggeration, Nightmare of Death believed it to be the truth after crossing paths with Gu Fei several times. At the very least, he could not think of another player in the city who could handily deal with ten enemies at once. Upon naming a top-tier expert as their target, Nightmare of Death was worried that this for-hire helper would back out; Nightmare of Death was extra scared of that happening as he was truly in dire need of top-caliber experts like the one before him.
Unfortunately, Nightmare of Death must provide their possible helpers the target’s name. He could not just say something like: “His name is unimportant, so let’s just focus on settling the matter with him.” Although Sakurazaka Moony’s Mage originally said that there was no need to talk about IGNs, the target was the reason for this whole transaction; therefore, it was impossible to set the price for this mission without mentioning the target’s IGN.
“So it’s that b*st*rd. I’ll give you guys a 20% discount!” Sakurazaka Moony returned to his senses after that brief pause.
The two friends of Nightmare of Death were equally fearful of Sakurazaka Moony backing out upon hearing the target’s name, so they were pleasantly surprised when Sakurazaka Moony did the opposite and hurriedly informed Nightmare of Death of his agreement.
Nightmare of Death was of course very happy to hear this and rushed to say, “Don’t mind the price. Just get them to quickly gather the required manpower to deal with this matter! That Thousand Miles Drunk is sure to return soon.”
Gu Fei’s coordinates were still at Suoyun Village. Since the level 70 grinding map was quite far from the city, it would take quite some time for him to travel back. Logically speaking, the grinding map would be further away the higher level the monsters were. Nightmare of Death believed that Gu Fei would either hurry back to finish his ‘Bounty Mission’ or gather his friends to continue the hunt for him, which gave them the perfect chance to lure Gu Fei in. Would he still let himself be used as bait like before? Although Nightmare of Death was unwilling, he could only steel his heart to not let his 5 PK points be for naught.
When his two friends mentioned that they could lure Gu Fei to the agreed-upon place themselves, they were able to reduce the price for this mission a bit more. With that, they no longer haggled with the price as per Nightmare of Death’s instruction.
“Where would you be most confident to set the trap up?”
“Since you guys are able to control the target’s path, then there are many places to choose from,” Sakurazaka Moony answered.
“It’s somewhere outside the city, right? Let’s continue this discussion on our way to a suitable spot.”
“He he…” Sakurazaka Moony chuckled, “The closest place will be inside the city.”
“In the city? But all the roads in the city are paved, how are you guys gonna set traps here?” While setting up traps on paved roads was possible, the traps would easily be spotted by people with eyes, rendering the Hunting Trap skill useless.
“He he… I’ve told you that we are experts! Come and follow me!” Sakurazaka Moony turned to call for the Mage, “F*ck*ng hell! Where did that b*st*rd Xiaobai¹ go?! Isn’t he the one who took this mission?!”
“He just saw a lady called Special Water Sprite, so Xiaobai went over to take a look,” the Mage replied.
“Why didn’t you go after him, then?”
“How could I catch up to him?” the Mage replied miserably. Just as the men were about to leave the Hall of Mercenaries, an Archer emerged from a corner of the street and immediately ran toward them. The man glanced at Nightmare of Death’s two friends and extended his hand, “How do you do? Name’s White Leaf Plumage. How’s the discussion?”
Nightmare of Death’s two friends extended their hands respectively, “We are about to go prepare the traps.”
White Leaf Plumage nodded his head cheerily. He then waggled his eyebrow to his companions before boasting, “Hey! That chick isn’t half bad!”
“Did you get her name?”
“Nope, but she stepped right on to my trap. HA HA HA HA!”
These players are getting more immoral than the last! Is this the temperament needed to be an expert trapper? Nightmare of Death and his two friends wondered to themselves.