Chapter 44
With a sigh, the figure in the gray robe continued deeper into the mine.
Ye Bai's spaceship had about five and a half game days left to reach Makur Star. Before that, she would do her best to eliminate their group members a few more times in the game.
**Chapter 30**
One game night, in the "Ruins Mine," "Thorny Slope," and "Old Barn" leveling spots of Tutu City, a mysterious figure wiped out the Makur employees.
The speed of death was so swift that they didn’t even have time to warn their comrades in other areas.
When players are killed in the myriad realms, their real-world spiritual essence is also harmed, plunging them into a period of spiritual weakness. The duration of this weakness depends on the player's real-world mental strength.
For most core members of Makur, whose mental strength ranged from D to C level, this would leave them in a state of confusion, akin to being "lost in cultivation." C-level mentalists would take about an hour to regain their senses, while D-level ones could take anywhere from five to eight hours.
Moreover, if it wasn’t their first death in the myriad realms, the period of spiritual weakness would be even longer.
Due to the unique nature of mental strength, real-time monitoring was difficult. By the time they realized something was wrong, a significant number of employees had already fallen into a state of spiritual weakness. It wasn’t until several members began to recover that the Makur Group understood what had happened.
As a planetary power, the Makur Group had developed on Makur Star for hundreds of years, categorizing its members into ten levels. At this moment, in the headquarters, where only employees above level five could enter, the Minister of the Armed Forces was reporting the situation to three board members:
“A total of 84 group members died in the attack—75 were level five, and 9 were level four… 62% were from our Armed Forces, the rest from other departments.”
“Every member who died in the game suffered an experience penalty, losing one to two levels. Their real-world combat effectiveness has also been severely impacted, expected to only reach half of their usual capacity. The Medical Department estimates full recovery will take 8 to 15 days.”
“From the first level four member who woke up, we learned the enemy’s basic situation. They wore special gray hoods, had unique equipment with extremely high defense, and could even reflect damage. Their weapon was a sword, but they could also cast magical skills. We don’t know if it’s the weapon’s effect, but the damage definitely exceeds level 20, and…”
At this point, the Minister of the Armed Forces paused.
The faces of the three board members grew increasingly grim as they listened. Registering a star network port costs ten thousand star coins, and those who could enter the myriad realms were the absolute core of the group, the main combat force and various special talents of the Makur Group. There were only a little over eight hundred who could enter the myriad realms, with more than five hundred active near Tutu City. Losing one-fifth in a single night was a significant blow.
Péngs, the board member in charge of all visible affairs, pressed, “Is there anything else unusual?”
“According to feedback, all the killed employees dropped a large number of items—materials for monster spawning, gold coins, and even equipment have vanished.”
The Makur Group had dedicated investigation teams for various situations. When the first member reported this, the investigation team initially thought the enemy was trying to find a reason to keep the resources on them as compensation for their injuries.
Within this planetary group, level five members were considered core members, mostly D-level mentalists and a few outstanding F-level employees. Level four members needed to reach C-level mental strength, making them the elite and future upper management of the group. Such a request wasn’t unreasonable.
However, as more and more members woke up, all reported the same situation, leading the investigation team to realize the severity of the matter.
Since the emergence of the myriad realms, deaths had occurred, but items typically wouldn’t drop. Only in extremely unlucky circumstances might one or two insignificant items be lost. This understanding had become common knowledge, and the current mass drop was undoubtedly abnormal, clearly linked to the mysterious figure.
Hú Dé, the board member responsible for biological smuggling, turned to the waiting head of the research department: “Have you found anything on your end?”
“We suspect we encountered a special mission. From the information we have, the mysterious figure operates in the wild at night, and the common trait is that the monsters there drop valuable resources, with levels around 10.”
Just then, the Makur Group’s higher-ups received new information:
“Another batch of group members leveling in the wild has encountered an attack from the mysterious figure. Not only resource points but also members on missions have been attacked, resulting in the loss of 32 level five members and 1 level four member.”
“…” The head of research fell silent for a moment before saying, “Excluding nighttime operations, the enemy’s appearance in the wild suggests they can’t operate in the city.”
The holographic conference room fell quiet for a while, until the usually silent bald-headed doctor, Méi Jiā, broke the silence: “You two handle this. My research is at a critical stage, so I won’t be participating.”
With that, he ended the communication, his figure vanishing from the room.
The higher-ups present showed no reaction to the bald man’s attitude, as if they were used to it.
The remaining two board members exchanged glances. Hú Dé said to Péngs, “I’m currently in Baihua Town, and the escort mission isn’t finished yet. I’ll need at least three game days to return. You can start the investigation in the meantime.”
Péngs felt a spark of inspiration. Instead of directly answering Hú Dé, he issued an order to the Minister of the Armed Forces.
“Consolidate the members in Tutu City, limiting their activities to the urban area. Let’s test if that person only appears in the wild. All members should gather at the outer city mill at dusk. Meeting adjourned.”
“Understood.”
…
In Tutu City, Péngs was also on high alert. With the resources provided by his subordinates and his own B-level mental strength, even without spending a lot of time grinding monsters like ordinary members, he still managed to find time to handle the group’s affairs. He was now level 12 and equipped with a full set of green-quality gear.
After logging in, Péngs rushed to the outer city’s security office.
Through resource collection tasks, he had raised the security captain’s favor to over 30, achieving a “familiar” relationship.
During this time of exploration, the Makur Group’s research department had discovered that once relationships reached a certain level, they could glean a lot of information from these NPCs. Although most of it was trivial, it could also contain task-related information.
Péngs initially planned to ask all the NPCs he had a good relationship with, but as soon as he mentioned a bit of the situation, he noticed the security captain’s expression turn serious.
“Gray robe, indiscriminate killing… If nothing unexpected has happened, your friends may have encountered an assassin’s hunt.”
“Assassins? Hunting?” Péngs perked up, immediately pressing for more details. “Why would they hunt us?”
“I don’t know. They’re a group of madmen who worship killing. They won’t just take your life; they’ll also steal your personal belongings as trophies. They’re a bunch of dishonorable scoundrels… or perhaps they only value the honor of killing.”
Hearing this from the security captain, Péngs felt he was on the scent of a mission: “So there’s no way to resolve this?”
“Resolve? Of course, if you can kill that gray-robed assassin and strip the assassin’s robe off them, I can take you to report it to the inner city’s security bureau. You’ll receive a bounty and commendation. But they’re very good at hiding; once they take off the robe, they can blend into the crowd. You can only find them while they’re still wearing the assassin’s robe.”
“I understand.”
Péngs left, exhilarated. Just moments ago, he received a system notification.
**[You have triggered the quest ‘Assassin Bounty’]**
**Quest Description:** Assassins have appeared in Tutu City. Capture them to earn a bounty from the Tutu City Security Bureau!
**Reward:** Unknown
Péngs immediately returned to the star network and contacted all his subordinates.
Upon hearing the news, the head of research was instantly excited: “Hidden mission! We were right all along; this could be the task to enter the inner city early!”
“That mysterious figure is so strong; it turns out to be a wild BOSS. The probability of wild BOSS appearances is extremely low, and they’re all monsters. This assassin might even be a hidden BOSS among the wild BOSSes!”
“And the items we lost might be on the BOSS. Could it be that after defeating them, we could gain a skill that allows us to reclaim loot?”
The last guess struck a chord with Péngs. In the limitless opportunities of the early exploration phase of the myriad realms, the three board members of the group were also in competition with each other for the mysterious big boss’s favor.
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