Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

The Bounty Association, an organization with a storied past, was as old as the Alchemical Room (alchemist organization) and the Ivory Tower (spellcaster organization).

Unlike the latter two, the Bounty Association's legality varied by country—it operated openly in cities within territories governed by the Storm Church but had to skulk in the shadows within the dominions of the Church of Lady Gold Coin.

However, legal or not, the Bounty Association thrived much better than many lawful entities thanks to its adept networking and broad business scope. They catered to both commoners and the elite while shamelessly pandering to local authorities.

This was evident by how Branch Head Kelly Simmons situated Oak Bar, the Bounty Association's underground hub, in the bar district, merely streets away from the Night's Watch headquarters. Clearly, they had been ingratiating themselves with the Church of Lady Gold Coin for some time.

In any case, this organization had no scruples. As long as the price was right, they would undertake any task, ranging from conducting background checks on an official's lover to laundering dubious fortunes, falsifying income records for tax evasion, gathering intelligence—both legal and otherwise—and even facilitating assassinations, albeit as an intermediary.

With Yang Qiu's notoriety as the "Nightmare Butcher" and his backing of Indahl's new lord, Charlie Rex, coupled with the recent spectacle of undead ransacking the bar district, Branch Head Kelly Simmons was more than cooperative. She quickly forged several agreements with Yang Qiu who was acting on Rex's behalf.

These agreements mirrored the one with the Night's Watch: low-cost leases in the club district for the association's use, mandatory registration of Taranthan undead as bounty hunters, intelligence support for undead undertaking bounties, and the association's commitment to bear 40 percent of any damages incurred during missions.

Three days later, December 9, Monday on Earth, middle of the eleventh month in OtherWorld.

The two-day-long weekend instance dungeon event concluded. Players who repeatedly failed in Rex's instance dungeon during the weekend logged in with diminished spirits, and even the monthly auction event was unable to buoy the sentiment among instance dungeon enthusiasts.

"Hal's instance has been cleared, but Rex's still can't be beaten. Why does the difficulty spike so drastically?" Qin Guan lamented to his comrades as they prepared to venture into the Poisonous Marshlands.

"I think we should defeat the Ranger Instructor's instance dungeon first. Only then does Rex's seem feasible," Give Me Medicine suggested. "The Ranger Instructor's instance is difficult at the start when entering. If we can survive past that, it shouldn't be that much harder than Hal's inner demon instance."

"Let's face it, just getting past the first challenge will probably take half a month." Qin Guan leaned back against the wall, stretching his legs out. "Lately, the battlefield only opens during peak hours at night. Queue times are killing me. Can't the game optimize its matchmaking system?"

"It's probably because the game content has expanded so much." Give Me Medicine, who wasn't particularly fond of the monster battlefield, shrugged. "Ever since the main city of Indahl was introduced, fewer people are grinding during the day. Even if the battlefield is open, it's hard to gather two full teams."

"There's nothing much to do in Indahl's main city. I really don't get what players are thinking." Qin Guan was aware of the situation, but still found it frustrating. "There are no dungeons, no quests, and not even grinding spots there. Maybe if it's just exploring and taking in the scenary, things should get boring after a couple of days. What's the point of lingering around?"

"Exactly. Leaving the beginner town's dungeons incomplete and heading to explore like casuals… Players of this game really lack ambition," another dungeon-addict grumbled. "It's a shame my old gaming buddies couldn't get accounts. It would be great if they were in the game; they all love pioneering new content. Our team was the first to clear Icecrown Citadel on our World of Warcraft server."

"They didn't manage to get accounts during the last application phase?" Give Me Medicine asked.

"We just so happened to be at an offline gathering, all getting drunk when the announcement went up. By the time we sobered up the next day, the queue for account applications had already stretched into the millions," the dungeon-addict player said ruefully.

"That's really unlucky." Qin Guan nodded sympathetically.

"Better keep a closer eye on announcements next time. It would be a shame to miss out again," advised Give Me Medicine.

While they were chatting at the town hall entrance, waiting for others, someone suddenly started spamming the blood alliance chat:

【Blood Alliance】Fallen Mulberry Leaves: Everyone, check the announcement! Quickly!

Qin Guan instinctively glanced down, only then noticing a long string of yellow text that had popped up in the bottom left corner of his interface:

———

Introducing new combat sub-classes: Exorcist and Bounty Hunter.

After consultations with the Lord of Indahl territory, Charlie Rex, Lord of Taranthan, Black Mage Yang, the Church of Lady Gold Coin's Night's Watch, and the Bounty Association have decided to open up combat sub-class applications to our friends from Taranthan.

Sub-classes do not affect the combat power, skills, or level changes of the primary class.

Players may potentially gain Potential Value points during the combat sub-class training.

Combat Sub-class: Exorcist.

Players of Level 1 and above who have undergone the first job advancement can apply to become an exorcist at the Night's Watch Hall at 061 New Wind District, Saint Joseph Street in Indahl City.

Exorcism quests issued by the Night's Watch Hall only support teams, where at least 10 players are required for the same mission.

Exorcist quests can be repeated, with no penalty for failure. Any personal or public property damage incurred during the mission will incur a 10% system compensation charge, with successful completion yielding copper coins and equipment rewards.

Combat Sub-Class: Bounty Hunter

Players of Level 1 and above who have undergone the first job advancement can apply to become a bounty hunter at the Bounty Hall at 062 New Wind District, Saint Joseph Street in Indahl City.

Bounty hunting quests from the Bounty Hall are available for both team and individual pickups.

Bounty hunting quests can be repeated, with no penalty for failure. Any personal or public property damage incurred during the mission will incur a 10% system compensation charge, with successful completion yielding copper coins and equipment rewards.

———

The players scattered around the town hall instantly erupted into a frenzy.

"Whoa, a new game update already? We haven't even cleared the instance dungeons or finished all the grinding spots yet!"

"Damn, it's going to be impossible to get a large group together now!"

"They dare to launch an update but never open up player registration?!"

While these bunch of players, who primarily focused on pioneering content, complained and grumbled, they uniformly… rushed toward the teleportation point.

As the group hurriedly made their way to the crossroads teleportation point and stepped onto the platform, Qin Guan suddenly burst into laughter.

"What's gotten you so amused, Vanilla?" a fellow player asked curiously.

"I'm laughing at Lahong and his bunch," Qin Guan said gleefully. "Their private teleportation points only return to Exile Town and they can't directly teleport to Indahl. Regardless of whether they suicide or teleport back to Exile Town then Indahl, they would have to wait half an hour due to the cooldown. While we go enjoy the new sub-classes, they'll just have to wait."

The bunch of players joined in the laughter, gloating over the misfortune of their rival faction.

"They deserve it for trying to monopolize!" a player, who had reached "Friendly" reputation with Undead Merchant Association, said scathingly.

The New Wind District in Saint Joseph Street of Indahl City, previously known as the Club District, was entirely cleaned up of its illegal industries by Yang's undead, deeming the old name inappropriate and thus changing it.

Qin Guan's group, initially planning to venture into the Poisonous Marshlands, didn't even consider the bounty hunting quests and headed into the Night's Watch Hall at 061.

The spacious and luxurious Night's Watch Hall, far grander than the class guilds of players, housed only a single counter and one person behind it—a stark contrast to the building's opulence.

This wasn't due to the Night's Watch's lack of enthusiasm for the collaboration with Yang but stemmed from the Church of Lady Gold Coin's own reservations about dealing with the undead. After much internal deliberation, they sent a couple of fringe members to test the waters.

One of those fringe members was Night Watchman Belter.

Of course, players weren't concerned that the Night's Watch Hall was quiet. To them, the game already had more than enough non-essential NPCs. This bunch of players enthusiastically made their way toward the solitary Belter at the counter upon entering.

Qin Guan led the way, glancing at the green text above Belter's head and skillfully recited the common phrase for NPC interaction, "Hello, Belter, your undead friends wish to be of help. Please assign us an Exorcist quest."

Belter, who had been tense and on high alert from the moment the undead entered, was momentarily sluggish in his response.

Yang had informed them that they needed to wear the azalea badge provided by the city hall to understand the language of the undead. Belter, assigned here, had prepared himself to bravely communicate with the undead, but he never imagined that these creatures, which had been rampaging through the city making incomprehensible noises, could speak so fluently. The one conversing with him actually sounded like a young man.

It seemed that the Nightmare Butcher wasn't boasting; these Taranthan undead indeed possessed intelligence and humanity.

Belter secretly sighed with relief and followed the reception protocol to respond to the undead. "You need to register as Exorcists to take on quests from the Night's Watch."

"Oh, right," Qin Guan slapped his smooth skull forehead. "Then please register us all; everyone here wants to sign up."

Belter took out a stack of registration forms, along with a dip pen and an ink bottle.

"Seriously? We have to fill out the application by hand?" Give Me Medicine was astonished.

"It's quite formal, huh?" Qin Guan glanced over the items required on the form and was also taken by surprise. "Uh… there's only one pen, so let's take turns. Everyone line up."

"This really seems like too much of a hassle," Give Me Medicine muttered but didn't resist, casually positioning himself behind Qin Guan.

The other players also found it cumbersome, but they were used to the game's quirky rules. With some grumbling, they got in line pretty quickly.

From behind the counter, the amazed Belter watched the group of undead form an orderly queue.

Night watchmen were a part of the church-affiliated formal organization and a division that could legally use force. While everyone knew exorcists were expendable for the Night's Watch, once registered, they would be entered into the Night's Watch records and stored for a long term.

If an exorcist proved exceptionally skilled and didn’t perish on a mission, they might even be absorbed into the organization, securing a stable livelihood within the church.

Neither Bishop Lee Jene nor Captain Lynch believed these undead would one day be absorbed into the Night's Watch, but since they had signed a contract with the Nightmare Butcher formed under the "rules of language," they needed to fulfill their duties thoroughly.

Of course, those two leaders making the decisions and Belter, the scapegoat thrown in to bear the brunt, never thought that registering the undead would go smoothly. After all, could these humane, intelligent undead really all read, write, and each possess a name?

In his mind, Belter had already resigned himself to assigning numerical IDs to the undead who came to register.

Only at this point did Belter realize he might have misjudged the situation… These undead were genuinely intending to fill out the registration forms themselves and even maintained order autonomously!

The registration form didn't require much information, so Qin Guan quickly completed his, handed the form to the NPC, and passed the pen to Give Me Medicine.

Belter gulped hard and focused on the completed form.

The players had filled in the forms in Mandarin characters, which natives couldn't decipher without the azalea badge.

With the badge on, Belter could clearly see that Qin Guan had filled in "Vanilla Pudding" for the name, "24" for the age, and "Exile Town" for the residence.

Dying at the age of 24 in this world wasn't all too rare, so it wasn't particularly pitiful.

But the name was beyond Belter's comprehension.

Belter furrowed his brows, his gaze shifting between the name "Vanilla Pudding" on the form and Qin Guan, who had stepped aside to chat with other undead.

Vanilla is a spice, while pudding is a dessert. How did a male undead come up with such a name?!

The second undead to submit their form was named "Give Me Medicine."

Belter's face was scrunched up with confusion as he received this form.

The third, whose voice clearly belonged to a young female, had boldly written "Don't Talk to Me" in the name field of her form.

Belter: "…"