The Abys Kingdom, located on the western side of the continent, is a small state with neither great size nor renown.
To the west, north, and south, there are much larger kingdoms compared to the Abys Kingdom, and to the east lies the empire, the conqueror of the continent.
Surrounded by numerous kingdoms, the Abys Kingdom has opened its doors wide to survive amid powerful nations, resulting in it becoming a trade route for many kingdoms.
Kwahk!
Maybe that’s the reason.
“Kurgh!”
“Wow~ Looks like there’s a good harvest today?”
“This is sweet. Why are the newbs carrying so much these days?”
The Abys Kingdom has devolved into a mere ‘passage’ city, with regions outside of the capital, where merchants pass by, falling into decline.
People say operating trade routes can bring in lots of money, but it’s more like forced openness by powerful nations.
The Abys Kingdom barely receives enough funds to maintain the capital, which are mostly used up by the high-ranking officials of the royal family, leaving little in the kingdom’s treasury.
As commoners struggle with poverty, those residing farther from the capital naturally fall into a haven for crime.
“Then you should just go right through the capital. Why take a long detour just to save some cash?”
“Real talk, haha.”
Two raiders from the Banded Guild, Jackal, clung to the Abys Kingdom like leeches, mocking the player in front of them with chuckles.
The player, who had fallen in a ridiculous way, gritted his teeth and swung the knife he tightly held in his back pocket, but…
“Kuak!”
“Oh dear. You’ll struggle to kill even a worm with that.”
“Next time, stick to the main trade route, alright?”
“I-I’ll report the bounty…”
“Do it for sure, haha.”
Before the knife could close in, the machete pierced through the newbie’s heart, killing him and looting his money and items.
Goods coming in probabilistically through the raider system.
They nodded with satisfaction, glancing at the area around where the vanished player had been, and eventually left the spot.
In Deoen, only about 20% to 30% of people engage in PVP.
Among them, less than 5% train to fight professionally.
Since most users are modern individuals who have never swung a weapon in their lives, they enjoy playing Deoen like a healing life rather than engaging in battles.
The earlier newbie was no different.
He loved traveling through the fantasy world rather than fighting, and fell into trouble while trying to cross into an unsafe area due to lack of funds.
If he had stuck to the designated trade routes, he wouldn’t have run into them, but for an ordinary user, the toll for that path was too expensive.
To earn money in Deoen, one must either work in production or traverse dungeons.
The two raiders plunged deep into the slums.
In the broad daylight, the streets were dark.
In the slums, many people lived, but whenever the raiders passed by, they hastily avoided eye contact and made way to not disturb them.
Raiding isn’t just for users.
After walking for a while, a clean building with a black shine that didn’t seem to belong in the slums appeared.
Creeeak~
“Hey~ Captain! We’ve arrived.”
“Sang-gu, Cheol, did you come?”
“Yeah. Just robbed a guy.”
“Were there any useful things?”
“Not much in terms of gear. But we got some silver coins.”
“Show me.”
Jackal, the guild master, gestured to a spacious table, and one of the raiders poured out the items they had looted.
Normally, raiders would retrieve one or two items, but their job was “Raider.”
This job, which only occurs under special conditions like those in the Abys Kingdom, allowed them to acquire more loot.
“Let’s see… Oh. Got a low-grade magical stone and a medium potion. The sword is rare but usable.”
“Isn’t this worth about 10 gold coins?”
“Not really. We can’t use the auction house, so we won’t get that much. If we sell it in the underground market, we might get around 6.”
The raider band, the Banded, couldn’t use the auction house that demanded honor and status.
The only market available to them was the underground market operating in the shadows.
While the prices in the underground market were pretty high, the hefty fees meant they wouldn’t get much money.
After handing over the goods and receiving his share, raider Sang-gu asked,
“Captain, isn’t it about time we expanded our area of activity?”
“Expand our area?”
“Yeah. With the recent empire war, users aren’t wandering around much.”
A war between empires and kingdoms took place through siege wars.
A major incident that occurred just months ago, where the land they were currently on, including the Abys Kingdom, was trampled by imperial boots.
And that major incident was reversed by a single user.
“It was because of Lily that we returned.”
“True, but there’s also a growing backlash against the empire these days. Trade routes have decreased. The harvest now is lower than before.”
It was a perplexing situation in many ways.
“…Expanding our activity area. Are you suggesting we hit other guilds?”
“Sang-gu seems to mean to expand our range rather than attack fellow competitors.”
Currently, Jackal’s hideout was in a “danger zone” as designated by the Abys Kingdom.
Because it was a danger zone, users didn’t often come here, but that also meant fewer chances for Jackal to be ambushed by someone.
The Jackal Guild was illegally occupying the land without having to pay for land value or taxes.
“If we go to the boundary zone, there will still be quite a few people. If it’s just us, we could become targets, but if we ask around other raider guilds to join, they’ll definitely agree.”
“But if we ask the nearby Raider Guilds to join us, I’m sure they’ll agree.”
Most regions, except for the capital, are in a state of neglect, but if this continues, we might end up starving together.
Before that, we should either expand our territory or move somewhere else.
Jackal pondered over the guild members’ suggestions.
The risks have increased, but it’s certainly a plausible idea.
“Yeah. If I can expand my influence and be like that Grim Reaper…”
The number one raider in the rankings, the Grim Reaper.
Despite his defeat to Lily, he was still strong even without a mythical item.
As proof, he managed to grab hold of a kingdom that was reeling from the aftermath of war and established his own kingdom.
Once a hot topic, one of the large guilds, unhappy with this, challenged the Grim Reaper to a guild war, but they ended up suffering losses and retreated without achieving their goal.
“Does everyone agree?”
“I’m in.”
“I support it, Captain.”
“Me too.”
“…Alright. It was getting uncomfortable just sitting here.”
Other raiders inside the guild building expressed their agreement.
Thus, the expansion of the Raider Guild, Jackal’s activity area, was decided.
■
Slam!
“Ugh!”
“I-I thought this place would be safe…!”
A little distance away from the capital of the Abys Kingdom.
A group of four men and women, their backs laden with heavy backpacks, fled.
This was one of the ‘border areas’ designated by the Abys Kingdom.
On the map painted from green, representing the capital, to red at the edges of the kingdom, this area was marked with a light yellow hue, indicating it wasn’t particularly dangerous.
It clearly showed that raiders hardly appeared…
“Hardly appears, my ass!”
As soon as we moved away from the capital, they appeared right away!
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“I won’t kill you if you pay me! I swear!”
“Ugh…”
“Just go! Those Banded bastards will definitely kill you!”
“I’m not gonna kill you!”
“Shut up!”
There were two opponents.
We had the numerical advantage with four against two, but in terms of level and equipment, numbers didn’t matter.
No, even if conditions were equal, it wouldn’t matter.
“How do you defeat a crazy killer!”
The opponent made a profession of killing people.
On the other hand, our side consisted solely of professionals like carpenters and herbalists.
One among them was a swordsman, but he was low leveled and hated fighting, so he changed jobs.
“Ah!”
“Hyun-a!”
One member of the group tripped over a rock and fell.
As the woman Hyun collapsed, the raiders charged in with more enthusiasm but soon came to a halt.
“?”
“Huh?”
“…Who.”
“What the hell are you?”
Suddenly, someone appeared among them.
‘…Assassin?’
“Who the heck are you?! By the looks of you, you don’t seem like a bounty hunter. Are you one of the Banded?”
“……”
“Don’t you know we’re hunting here? I don’t know who you are, but we belong to Jackal.”
Dressed in a black robe that concealed her entire body, the black-clad assassin stood there.
Her long black hair was tied back, cascading down, and half her face was hidden by a black mask adorned with a rough white X-shaped scar.
With black hair and a black mask. And her eyes looked like they contained deep darkness.
The only bright spot was the pale white skin around her eyes that slightly contrasted with the darkness of her attire.
She peered over with a quick turn of her head.
But the feeling was someone…
“Hehe. In the middle of a hunt…”
‘…Or maybe not?’
Her voice was husky.
A husky voice that was charming enough to appeal even to those who didn’t like huskiness, but it was completely different from that person I had in mind.
That person was filled with white.
“Well, that’s good. I was just in need of some game myself.”
But this person was endlessly packed with black.
“So go ahead and hunt or whatever. If you keep this up, we’ll have no choice but to report to your Guild Master.”
“No. I need to catch this one right now.”
“What?”
Sre…
Two daggers materialized in her gloved hands, emanating a black energy.
They had been there from the start, lurking in that spot.
“What just happened?”
“Whoa?”
She struck.
Before the raider could move or even speak, or perhaps…
‘When on earth did she cut?’
As I blinked, I realized the raider’s throat had been severed, turning into blue particles and dissipating into the air.
Ding!
[Nearby, raider Rapina is currently engaged in PK!]
[Bounty Quest has been activated.]
[You will receive a bounty if you catch the raider.]
…Raider?
“Hehe.”
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