Chapter 34

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Book 3, Chapter 34
Failure?

With Wayne"s directions we soon found ourtarget NPC -- an old man with a...mostly rotten body. I thought he was a zombie on the first sight.

Accordingto the scroll, I need to find an old man who was bitten by zombie in DragonState, take his [Desecrated Heart] to the Garden of Life and wash it clean withholy water to finish the quest.

Looking at him, I"ve no doubt he"s now affected byzombie virus or whatever disease it is. He was groaning on his bed. When wecame in he stretched out his hand towards me. I think the only differencebetween that hand and a skeleton"s is a layer of thin skin covering it.

    "Finally,a capable young man! I was hurt by a zombie and will soon turn into one myself.The G.o.ds will not forgive a zombie. I need your help!"

    "So what can I do for you?"

    "After Idie, *cough cough* take, take, my heart...to, to..."

    "Hey! To where? Don"t die so fast! I do know my destination but my quest won"t proceed before you tell me the nextobjective you know!"

I shook the old man violently trying to wake him up.

He did open his eyes. Huh, that actually worked?

    "AmI dead? Am I...in h.e.l.l? And why do you look so familiar?"

    "Oh come on! I"m here for the quest! Tell me now, whereshould I go?"

    "Oh. Go to the Garden of Life and wash my heartusing the holy water there. I will be able to ascend to heaven if you cancleanse it!"

Then he started to convulse like mad, scaring me into jumping back. That was the right decision, because he bouncedup and lunged at me.

He turned for real!

"Spirit Seal!" Wayne quickly stroke aposture, like those mudras in ninja movies, and activated his skill. The old man (zombie) shook, and fellon the ground with a now stiff body.

    " "Kay, That does the trick."

    "Oh nice one. You"re pretty good! Can you getthat heart for me too please?"

    "Forget it. You"re the one doing the quest. I don"twanna touch that thing. Dig in yourself." He gave a small dagger."The great and powerful wizard, master Wayne, now bestow this holy dagger uponyou. Use it well!"

    "Screw you." I kicked him outside the door, whenone of the Phantom Knights came in just at the right time and caught him.

    "Sir! They"re going to break through soon!"

    "Got it. Hold for another minute, then retreat yourdefenses towards my position."

    "Yes sir!"He turned and left.

    I looked at the rotten corpse on the ground. Dammit. Whocame up with this gross idea? Though I"ve seen a lot of fallen body parts orbroken limbs and stuff in the corporation"s laboratories. This one is not anissue.

I triggered my claw blades. Ching! The 1-feet blades sprung out. Thebest part with these claws is that they are very suitable to cause bleedingwounds. Which means i can use them as dissecting tools as well.

I fished out a black-ish heart while trying to suppressthe urge to vomit. This thing itself emits the odor of a corpse that has been exposed to warm and wet weather for a whole week!

I took thebed sheet and wrapped up the terrible organ. Ewwww.

Now I"m looking at a corpse which is lying in a messblood pool. Never expected there was so much blood in this skinny old man. Hewas giving out blood like a water pump when I ripped him open.

    I left the roomto see my team of Phantom Knights holding their position just outside. Yup, thecity guards are powerful enough. These mighty knights could only hold them offfor several minutes.

    I spoke to Wayne: "They"ll not do anything to you.Leave the city by yourself after I get away."

    "You get itboss." He stepped to a corner to see us off.

    I activated my teleport ring. No reaction. Then Inoticed the blinking help bar, which says there is teleport suppression system in citieswhich will prevent red named players from using any means of teleportation. Itis mainly used to prevent criminals from suddenly rushing into a city, killpeople, then escape via teleport.

This means I can only get away by flying. Ihope there"s no anti-air defenses in the city.

I activated my wing bladesbehind my back. Now I think about it, I"ve never tried it before.

Controls....Hmm,seems easy enough. I pushed my feet against the ground hard and rushed upwards.

Weeee! This feels good!

However, I didn"t get the chance to fly very highbefore I noticed a group of city guards in square formation standing on a roofnot far from me.

Oh s.h.i.t. Heavy crossbows!

It"s too late for me to realize whatthey"re carrying. Tons a bolts are now flying straight at me. I already de-summonedthe Phantom Knights. They can"t fly anyway. Phiona and Lucky are distractingtheir main forces elsewhere, Phantom"s [Blink] won"t be enough for me to escapetheir attack range.

Oh yes, I still have my [Absolute Defense]! That"s atalent skill of my wing blades, if I remembered right.

Just as the bolts areabout to reach me, I yelled: "Absolute, Defeeense!!"

A blue, half-transparentsphere shaped barrier appeared around my body. None of the attacks got through.

I thought that"s that last of it when a 3-meter-long super sized bolt flew straightat my head.

The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds turned their city defense ballista towards inside thecity!

Clang! It crashed into the barrier. That thing can break a freaking citywall for christ"s sake!

To my relief, my barrier still bounced it away.

Now that"s certainly Absolute defense. Nothing canbreak it! Several rounds of attacks and a dozen ballista bolts following behindwere all repelled without causing a scratch to me. I"m invincible!

I taunted inmid-air: "None shall defeat me!!"

Yup, that was a death flag.

The blue barrier began toblink, before it complete vanished. Of course there is a time limit!

In the nextsecond, I"m decorated into a hedgehog by countless bolts and died before I canreach the ground.

When I resp.a.w.ned, I found myself in a room with Wayne.

    "Whatwere you doing, boss? Here!" He took out the whole Dark Dragon Lord setfrom the bracelet. "That was awesome! Even when you"re killed you wouldmake it like a grand show. I would thought the system was raining equipment forfree if I didn"t know it was you."

    I began to re-equip my stuff. Only several rings stayedon me after that death. Thank G.o.d I asked Wayne to help reclaim them.

    "Your bracelet is the best tool I"ve ever seen. Itgot everything before they reached the ground! It would be hopeless if theyactually fell into the crowd. You don"t want to know how many people werewaiting to fight over the drops. Anyone who got his hands on one piece wouldget instantly maimed by others."

"Where are we?" I looked around the room. Itlooks like some kind of bedroom.

    "A private estate I bought in the Dragon State."He explained proudly, "I was the first player to buy a house in the game. Thesystem even gave me a reward, any houses I buy from now on will have theirprices cut to 80%! Too bad you can"t sell your houses. Or I"d make a fortune!"

    "No NPC is coming at me?"

"Private estateis like an emba.s.sy in foreign territories. It"s free from the management ofcity NPCs. Speaking of which, that was close! As undead wizard I can seal yoursoul and take it here to revive you. If you were caught by your enemies youwill be transported to jail!"

    "How do I get out now?" I finished putting onmy last equipment. "I can wait for tomorrow and use my barrier again butthat won"t be long enough to get away. "

    Wayne lifted my cloak. "Have you tried this?"

"Invisibility?"

    "Um-hmm. Just walk out while disguised! NPCs won"tsee you."

    "But players may report me to the guards if theysee my name."

"That"ssimple." Wayne raised his hand and made a "slit" gesture againsthis neck.

    "Ohh, I like it."

We logged off after thediscussion. I still decided to wait for tomorrow when my barrier becomesavailable, just to be safe.

Since I got nothing else to do, I drove to the collegelabs to pick up Rose. I figured her researches should be done sooner or later.

WhenI met her, I asked, embarra.s.sed:

"Well... Can you wait for a bit beforeyou get online?"

    "What"s wrong?" She tilted her head.

    "I"m doing a job quest in Dragon State."

"And?"

    "I was killed! Wayne helped me recover my lostgear so I didn"t lose anything apart from two levels. "

(Wayne used aresurrection scroll for he can"t revive players. Using that scroll will losetwo levels, fixed)

I explained, "I"m afraid I don"t have enough a.s.set to save you now. I thought I just needed to get in, but now I can"t get backout! I managed to barge into the city today, though once I accepted my quest I gottrapped inside. And red names are not allowed to use teleportation in cites. Besides, Dragon State is a small city and my target was not far from the city gate. Butthe Bright City is on another level. It"s medium sized, it must have more NPCsthan Dragon State, and the prison is almost in the center. I don"t think I canmake it at this rate. So..I"m sorry but, you"ll need to wait a bit longer. I needto come up with something else."

    Rose kept her smile. "Surely you didn"t think Iwould be angry just for this right?"

    "You won"t?"

    "Hum. Your looks don"t mean you can understandwomen very well. It doesn"t matter if you can"t do it. You"re trying, that"senough."

Rose gave me a peck on the cheek. "Take it slow. Myproject is going well and the professors asked me to go further. So I...probablywill need to spend another month."

    "I promise. I don"t need that much time to find asolution."

"Yeah Ibelieve you. Come, my treat tonight. Don"t pick anything too expensive you hear?"Rose joked.

    I gave her a wicked grin. "So that means I need tofind out which place costs most. When you can"t pay the bill, someone would buyyou as slave, and I can buy you back, then...Eehehehe!"

    "Oh stop it."

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