Chapter 1 The Forest

The players from Cloud City readjusted their formation and stepped into the forest. Sword of No Oath continued to walk at the front, holding the guiding map given by the quest, counting coordinates and moving forward step by step. But after only a few steps, he was stunned, looking at the current coordinates and then at the coordinates of Shade City marked on the map...

Sword of No Oath hurriedly ran out of the forest, checked the current coordinates, then ran back in and checked the coordinates again, finally saying in surprise, "This forest is a Category Two map!"

The players were all taken aback by this news and began to pay attention to the coordinates as well, just like Sword of No Oath who was running back and forth between the forest and the outside. The news of the Category Two map spread among the players instantly.

"Category Two map?" Gu Fei was unfamiliar with this new term.

"It's a map that has independent coordinates..." Brother Righteous explained, then feeling that he hadn't explained it clearly, he gave an example, "For example, caves or houses are usually Category Two maps, with their own coordinates."

"Will the coordinates change in a house?" Gu Fei was sure that they wouldn't, because in his career as a wanted man, countless PK players were caught in houses. Gu Fei was certain that there were no special coordinates in houses.

"Uh, smaller rooms still use the coordinates of the large map, just with simple notations, like (r100,100), which means it's in the room, and if it's (100,100), it means it's on the roof. Haven't you noticed?" Brother Righteous said.

"Oh..." Gu Fei immediately understood.

"But the forest is also a Category Two map; what kind of design is this!" Brother Righteous muttered.

In fact, Category Two maps were not scary; on the contrary, they made it easier for players to identify map coordinates. But the problem was that for the current situation, the Shade City in the guiding map held by Sword of No Oath was marked with Category One map coordinates, which players usually referred to as the "large map," but the coordinates displayed upon entering the forest were Category Two map coordinates. Everyone suspected that this was another deliberate difficulty set by the system.

Some quests themselves had no difficulty in terms of combat or intelligence, but they consumed a lot of players' time due to the long journey or lengthy steps. This was a common trick in online games. Obviously, the Cloud City players attributed the current situation to this type of quest, and everyone was complaining. Some even suspected that the forest had been temporarily changed to a Category Two map because of this quest, just like the mountain road cut off by Black Dragon Mountain.

"Everyone, stop arguing!" At this time, everyone had retreated back outside the forest, and with curses filling the air, Sword of No Oath had to stand up and take control of the situation.

The shout was only effective for the dozens of people in front of him, but these dozens of people turned around and shouted to the back, and one spreading to ten, ten spreading to a hundred, it instantly became common knowledge, and the edge of the forest quieted down.

"Now everyone knows what's going on. Let me ask, does anyone have friends in Shade City?" Sword of No Oath shouted. If they wanted to save time, they obviously needed a guide.

The players whispered to each other, but no one responded. The only discussion that came close was, "Ah, there used to be, but they left later." This surprised Sword of No Oath. He didn't expect that among these thousand or so players, not a single one had friends in Shade City.

"Anyone? Anyone? There will be a generous reward!" Sword of No Oath was unwilling to give up. He had originally wanted to play the friendship card, but now he had to offer a reward. As the saying goes, a great reward brings forth brave men, but Sword of No Oath didn't need brave men at this time, he just wanted a local.

As he looked around, he saw a bunch of shaking heads.

Sword of No Oath stared blankly at Wind Rider and Reflection of Flowing Time, each of whom obviously hadn't expected this situation either.

"In that case..." Sword of No Oath continued, "We can only rely on ourselves to find it. Does everyone want to go in and search right now, or should we go back to White Stone City and rest, and ask around first?"

"Search now!!" everyone shouted. This was simply nonsense. It would take more than three hours to return to White Stone City, and another three hours to come back tomorrow. No one in their right mind would choose to go back and come back tomorrow.

"Alright! We'll lock in the coordinates of Shade City outside the forest first, and then move forward in a straight line, and we'll definitely find it." After Sword of No Oath finished speaking, he locked in the horizontal coordinates of Shade City in the forest. As long as they could walk in a straight line, they would definitely reach Shade City. Everyone was quite confident about this. After all, they were looking for a huge main city, and the coordinate area alone occupied n areas. Such a large target, even if they strayed a little after entering the forest, would definitely be discovered.

Once they understood this point, everyone stopped complaining about the Category Two map of the forest and entered the forest again, full of vigor.

The forest, which was rarely a Category Two map, was indeed extraordinary. The trees were lush and strong, and the forest was equally prosperous from the edge to the depths.

The formation was still Forever In Your Debt at the front, the mercenary group at the rear, and the Young Master Elite Group at the very back. The girls of Rebirth Purple Crystal were not far from them, and the Great Hunt Mercenary Group of Moonchild of Cherry Mound and the others was naturally not far from the girls. Moonchild of Cherry Mound was walking along, saying to Vast and Boundless beside him, "This place is very convenient for setting traps. You don't even need to dig pits. Just sweep away the leaves and throw one in, then cover it with leaves, and there won't be any flaws."

As soon as he said this, someone at the very front of the group let out a cry of surprise.

This cry of surprise was so vivid in the silent forest. As everyone exclaimed, "What's wrong?" the front reported, "Someone stepped on a trap!"

Everyone's heart skipped a beat, and they checked their feet, digging into a very profound question: "Did someone accidentally step on a trap that someone left behind and forgot to take back, or did someone deliberately set it?"

There was no answer yet. Sword of No Oath at the front had already called for Moonchild of Cherry Mound, who was known as the number one trap technician in Cloud City, to go and rescue them.

Moonchild of Cherry Mound quickly went to the front line.

"Did you time it?" Moonchild of Cherry Mound's first question after arriving showed that he was an expert, while everyone else present was an amateur. No one had thought to start timing and calculating the trap's duration the moment they stepped on it. Everyone was ashamed.

"Start timing now!" Moonchild of Cherry Mound said to the others, then picked up a wooden stick from the ground and pulled away the leaves around the guy's feet. The ground in the forest was covered with thick leaves, and sometimes you would step into a pit, which was why Moonchild of Cherry Mound had just mentioned to Vast and Boundless that this place was suitable for traps to survive.

A shiny trap was clamped on the person's foot. Moonchild of Cherry Mound looked left and right, and the others also held their breath, waiting for him to come to a shocking conclusion.

"It's a hunting trap," Moonchild of Cherry Mound announced.

"Damn!" everyone replied. The lurkers only knew this type of trap; what else could it be?

"But I've never seen one like this," Moonchild of Cherry Mound continued.

"What do you mean?" Sword of No Oath, who was nearby, asked.

"It's more refined. It should be a higher level trap." Moonchild of Cherry Mound said, then looked up and asked the player who was caught, "Is there any damage? Can you just not move?"

The person nodded.

Moonchild of Cherry Mound muttered, "Even if the level is higher, it doesn't add any damage. Then the significance of leveling up isn't very great!"

The person had a black line on his face. Moonchild of Cherry Mound seemed to be using him as a guinea pig for scientific research.

Moonchild of Cherry Mound's gaze began to turn elsewhere, and everyone's gaze followed him.

"Don't stop timing!" Moonchild of Cherry Mound shouted. Everyone quickly looked at the guy's right foot again. The person's right foot, with the clamp on it, was being stared at intently by everyone, making him very uncomfortable.

Moonchild of Cherry Mound poked around on the ground with the wooden stick, and in no time, he used force at one end of the stick, and the other end had already picked up another trap.

"There's another one!" Sword of No Oath walked over and frowned.

"Time it!" Moonchild of Cherry Mound said to him.

"I'm timing it!" Sword of No Oath said, indicating that even though he had come over, the others were still looking at the foot!

"Maybe there's more than one!" So Moonchild of Cherry Mound threw down the trap and poked elsewhere with the stick. Everyone followed his steps. Suddenly, there was another "Ouch" from behind, and everyone jumped in fright. Moonchild of Cherry Mound was also startled, but when he glanced back, he was furious. "Are you stupid? Didn't you see me throw the trap over there? Why did you step on it!"

"Wasn't the trap already removed?" the person said dejectedly.

"Is there a skill to remove traps now, bro?" Moonchild of Cherry Mound retorted.

The person had to be ashamed of his lack of knowledge. Moonchild of Cherry Mound then asked, "Did you time it this time?"

Everyone was stunned, then reacted again, and was once again ashamed.

"Quality, quality!" Moonchild of Cherry Mound criticized, and the group swallowed their anger. There was no way around it! There were already few trap players, and even fewer with high skill. Moonchild of Cherry Mound was known as the number one trap technician in Cloud City, but no one knew who the second was. It felt like no one was competing with him for the top spot; the other high-level archer players had all become marksmen.

Moonchild of Cherry Mound poked around, and in no time, he picked out another trap, and his gaze became profound. "It's impossible for three people to coincidentally forget their traps here... This was deliberately placed, maybe, it's targeted at us."

"Who is it, a player or an NPC?" Reflection of Flowing Time asked.

"Haha, I'm free." The first person to step on the trap had now escaped.

"One minute and one second!" Without waiting for Moonchild of Cherry Mound to ask, the person timing had already volunteered the information.

"Including the time we forgot to record earlier, it's at least over one minute and ten seconds, quite impressive," Moonchild of Cherry Mound exclaimed.

"And, it should be a player. If it were an NPC, they would have shown themselves by now, right?" Moonchild of Cherry Mound looked around.