Killing Players—players who specialized in killing other players. Their demographic was quite complex: fifty percent were those who simply enjoyed challenging Powerhouses, forty percent were bullies who liked to prey on the weak and steal other people’s property in the game, and the remaining ten percent were pure perverts.
The official strategy against Killing Players was to place bounties on them and add Bounty Hunters and Knight Orders to the towns. Although the makeup of Killing Players was complex, the universal standard was that they were all very strong and would not be easily defeated by NPCs.
Therefore, once a Killing Player died and underwent resurrection in a city, they had a high probability of encountering Bounty Hunters and Knight Orders.
It was commonly known as kicking a man when he was down.
"Why would the Royal Knight Order spawn at a time like this?!"
Old Man BIG dodged the incoming spear thrusts in a panic. With her Attributes halved due to the death penalty, she had absolutely no way to contend with the Red Hair female Knight wielding a spear in front of her.
The garrison of Balkan City, the Royal Knight Order Leader, [Red Dragon] Marika, was Level 99+. She was one of the strongest NPCs that would spawn to deal with Killing Players. Her exceedingly high, aloof beauty and heroic Spear Skill were deeply loved by the players. In fact, many players intentionally became Killing Players just to catch a glimpse of Marika.
As a side note, Marika was a highly popular cosplay character at offline events.
"Shouldn’t your setting be that you’re busy subjugating Monsters at the Blood River, making your spawn rate extremely low?"
"What are you talking about, you gender-ambiguous freak?"
Marika brandished the spear in her hands, leaving terrifying melted holes in Old Man BIG’s Heavy Armor. Furthermore, a faint countdown Flame lingered on each hole.
"As for you, what is a mere Killing Maniac doing sneaking around a fruit stall?!"
Old Man BIG clicked her tongue, tore off the Armor on her body, and hurled it forcefully toward the nearby fruit stall. The countdown Flame on the Armor just happened to reach Zero. After a brief pause in mid-air, the Armor exploded like a bomb.
While Marika moved to protect the old man at the fruit stall, Old Man BIG took the opportunity to escape from Balkan City, running a long distance without stopping before finally halting.
"Damn it, that basic NPC who mutters about Pink Rabbit every day is actually gone. I searched the whole city and couldn’t find him."
The half-naked Old Man BIG kicked the tree trunk in exasperation. When kicking wasn’t satisfying enough, she even started using martial arts Skills.
"The Armor I worked so hard to craft suffered Destruction at the hands of that woman. I’m so pissed!"
RUSTLE RUSTLE.
A Thief, a Warrior, and a Mage. Three newbie players happened to walk out of the surrounding bushes, only to see a half-naked muscular man with a woman’s voice hugging a thick tree and thrusting his hips up and down.
"He’s humping it like a dog in heat!"
"It looks like he’s trying to use a [German Arch Bridge Takedown] on the tree, but because his Strength Value isn’t high enough, he’s just rubbing against it."
"Ugh, to actually abuse his insufficient Strength Value to do something so perverted."
The trio’s unapologetically blunt conversation made Old Man BIG’s expression darken. She instantly pulled out a large axe and charged at them.
"Holy crap, this person is a red-named player!"
"Run!"
The three newbies took to their heels. Since Old Man BIG was blocking the road into Balkan City, they had no choice but to turn around and run toward the dangerous wilderness. Being killed by a Monster only meant their Attributes would temporarily be halved, but being killed by a player meant their property would be stolen.
Even with her speed halved, Old Man BIG was still faster than the three newbies, so the distance between them was rapidly shrinking.
Right at this moment, at the edge of the horizon, a streak of Shadow approached at high speed.
"I knew it, she would undergo resurrection in Balkan City!"
Blaze sprinted in a posture that practically had him flying close to the ground. After receiving the Blessing, his physical capabilities had significantly increased. From a long distance away, he spotted the Murderer named Old Man BIG, who was currently hunting down other Foreigners.
To prevent himself from opening his mouth and being misunderstood as an enemy by the Foreigners again, Blaze chose to silently brush past the trio. He smashed his fist right into Old Man BIG’s bewildered face, sending the Killing Player flying.
The three newbies stopped simultaneously, their eyes fixed uniformly on Blaze’s back.
"Could that be... a legendary PKK player?!"
"What does that mean?"
"A player-killer killer!"
Old Man BIG rolled continuously across the ground. After finally coming to a stop, she yelled in disbelief, "Why are you here?! Aren’t you a regional boss?"
Blaze didn’t speak. Instead, he quickly closed the distance and snapped Old Man BIG’s highly sinful long-handled axe with a single punch.
[Slaughter Axe]
[The resentment and blood of slaughtered innocents are this weapon’s only decorations]
"Ah! My special weapon!" Old Man BIG let out a tragic scream, but before she could say another word, a wave of Dizziness washed over her, and a sinking feeling came from her legs.
Not far away, the three newbies who had been chased all over the place had actually turned around and applied a debuff to her!
In front of a regional boss?!
"Ah, it’s over."
Blaze struck Old Man BIG in the abdomen with a punch, dropping her HP all the way down to the red zone in one breath.
"[Binding]!" The Thief player among the newbies immediately used a Control Skill on the fallen Old Man BIG, tying the Killing Player up securely.
Blaze hoisted the tied-up Old Man BIG onto his shoulder and glanced back at the three Foreigners who had helped. He really wanted to thank them, but right now, no one could understand a word he said.
After patting himself down, Blaze tossed the only three Copper Coins on his body to the three newbies. He turned around, waved a hand, and dashed toward the back gate of Balkan City.
His crisp, decisive back and reticent mystery left an indelible impression on the newbie players.
"When my level gets higher in the future, I’m going to be a player-killer killer like that too."
"Give it a rest. Those Killing Players are highly vindictive pack animals. That Pro isn’t afraid of their revenge, but you would be."
The newbie Thief looked longingly at Blaze’s back, while the newbie Warrior stared at the Copper Coins in his hand and muttered.
"What is this thing? I can’t tell without an Identification Skill."
"It must be some kind of souvenir that only Late Stage players have. He probably gave it to us to thank us for helping out. I bet we can sell it for a few Silver Coins."
"Sigh, it’s a pity we didn’t team up with him. That was a PKer with a 1.5 million Gold Coins bounty! If he shared even a little bit with us, we could craft a full set of maxed early-game gear."
"We should just be glad we survived. Stop asking for more."
The three newbies were immersed in the excitement of teaming up with a Pro to defeat a Killing Player. Upon entering Balkan City, they immediately went to the fruit stall to sell all the dropped materials in their inventories so they could swap into better gear and continue to grind the game.
After taking all their Monster materials, the old man at the fruit stall handed each of the three newbies a small pouch.
[+500,000 Gold Coins]
"Huh?!" The newbie Warrior’s eyes widened. A massive fortune had just entered his pockets. The reactions of the two beside him were exactly the same.
After checking their logs and seeing that the Copper Coins were valued at 500,000 Gold Coins each, the three of them revealed expressions of sheer disbelief.
ID Newbie
[Thanks to a PKK Pro (Screenshot). He obviously saved us from the PKer Old Man BIG, yet he even gave us this commemorative item (Screenshot of Copper Coins transaction log) to evenly split the Killing Player’s bounty with us.]
ID Golden G
[Hahaha—She actually went, and even got caught by a PKK player! She’s gonna have to reroll her account now.]
ID Pink Double Horn Horse
[Didn’t Old Man BIG have that special weapon, the Slaughter Axe? Asasel took a massive L this time.]
ID Louis the Thirty-First
[Whoa, there are actually PKK players these days who save newbies AND split the bounty? Still, killing a PKer lets you take all the items they have on them. The Slaughter Axe is worth way more than 1.5 million. Factoring in the other rare items, plus Old Man BIG’s cockroach-like survivability, it’s not that strange to share the bounty.]
ID Golden G
[I say, why does this PKK Pro look exactly like the Black Beast Knight?]
ID Whale Pinocchio
[Holy crap, they really look alike! It has to be him!]
[The official rules forbid players from unauthorized modification of models to look like NPCs.]
ID Lumberjack
[Huh? Is the officials’ malice toward PKers so sadistic that regional bosses will now chase them out of their aggro range?]
ID Emperor’s Disdain
[I say, it looks like these three adorkable newbies sold something incredible (Screenshot of Copper Coins transaction).]
ID Please Like—Help
[Am I the only one more concerned about how this old man, whose setting is selling fruit to save his bedridden daughter, can somehow casually fork over a massive sum of 1.5 million? I’m so broke from Enhancement that I could cry.]
ID Censored
[Fuck, could this be some kind of special item?! That Poop Monster Black Knight doesn’t have any ’protect the weak’ mechanics. Those three newbies definitely should have been chopped down as collateral damage!]
ID Wisdom Tree
[I heard from an NPC that the Black Knight is a cursed Lost Home Knight. Did someone actually lift his Curse?]
[Did they use the Saintess’s Holy Water?]
ID Golden G
[I’m heading to Balkan City to find the Black Beast Knight right now! I want to see if I can get some Copper Coins!]
ID Grinding Bishop
[I’m going to kill that old man at the fruit stall. This profiteer definitely wouldn’t tell players that these are very important items when recycling them. He would just silently embezzle them.]
The discussion board became lively, and the three newbies had already been drowned out by the incoming wave of replies.