Game’s Dogma

Outside Honno-ji, Akechi Mitsuhide had already put his helmet back on. He said with a cool look, ‘Oda Nobunaga, your time is over.’

He slowly levitated up into the air and clasped his palms. After a short while, he gradually spaced his palms apart, forming an orange fireball between them.

As the fireball grew larger, it suddenly swelled up into a ten-metre-wide fireball along with the raging wind. The Akechi soldiers gazed at Akechi Mitsuhide who levitated in the air like the god of fire. One after another, they subconsciously knelt on the ground.

Akechi Mitsuhide snickered cruelly before throwing the gigantic fireball at Honno-ji!

The fireball smashed onto Honno-ji like a meteor. As the final straw that broke the camel’s back, Honno-ji exploded and blew up into smithereens.

The underground room where Drako Yau and the others were hiding shook violently. The candles flickered and waved while small chunks of stone rained down from the ceiling.

The sounds of explosions served as Honno-ji’s requiem. Along with the temple, the hundred youth guards and Mori Ranmaru also turned into ash. They hadn’t let a single person reach Oda Nobunaga even until the last of them died.

As if they were in a daze, their vision switched from the underground chamber to nothing but hazy white.

‘Quest complete: The Honno-ji Incident.

Successfully protected Oda Nobunaga.

Extra condition accomplished: survival of Lady Noh. One extra skill point granted.’

When everyone awoke from their dream-like state, they found themselves in a forest. What Honno-ji? What fire? Everything was no longer present.

Just that they weren’t as excited about completing the quest as they thought they would be. Though they completed the quest, its storyline was too much of a tragedy.

Oda Nobunaga, the demonic hero of his time, had his hands stained in blood his entire life, but all he could do in the end was hold Lady Noh in his arms in silence. They were like parents who had lost their child.

Mori Ranmaru was indeed only Oda Nobunaga’s squire, but he was favoured by both husband and wife. And now, he had sacrificed himself to buy time for his master’s escape.

Everyone couldn’t muster up words for a while.

‘Alright, let’s see what everyone’s rewards are,’ said Drako Yau as he stood up.

As the boss, he couldn’t sulk for too long.

They realised their rewards were all the same though.

‘Level up once and gain two additional skill points. Relationship with the Oda clan is now “friendly”. Gain one extra skill point accomplishing extra conditions.’

In other words, the quest gave them three valuable skill points—a very precious reward. Skill points were even rarer compared to epic equipment as rewards.

Apart from legendary equipment, basically all epic equipment would gradually become obsolete along with their levels. Skill points, however, were always useful regardless of their levels. There was no such thing as having too many skill points.

Every player had plenty of skills.

Level 5, 7, 10, 15, 18, 20, 23, 25, 28, 30, 35, 40.

Players could learn new skills at these levels, and there weren’t any skills left after Level 40. Afterwards, players would spend their skill points on a particular branch of their skillset. This was why playstyles truly made a difference after Level 40. Even with the same class, everyone could specialise in different aspects and playstyles based on how they distributed their skill points.

Each of the above level thresholds also unlocked one to two skills when including passives. It just went to show how valuable skill points were. Levelling up once as a reward was also very convenient and saved them a lot of time, especially when levelling up was such a tedious task now. It took at least a week for the faster players to level up once, let alone the slower ones.

They hadn’t found a use for their friendly relationship with the Oda clan as of now.

The quest difficulty was proportional to its rewards.

When Windstrider was scouting out the area, he saw a monk enter the tiny temple sneakily before disappearing into the wall behind the small statue. They would’ve failed the quest for sure if not for the monk.

Legends had it that Honno-ji monks first came into contact with European firearms when conducting missionary work in Tanegashima. It then became a crucial base of operations that promoted the use of firearms throughout ancient Japan during the Sengoku Period, which was why it had hidden stashes of gunpowder.

However, the hidden warehouse contained not only gunpowder, but also wine and meat. Some fake monks weren’t as dedicated to Buddhism as others after all.

Drako Yau’s plan was to have Windstrider and Danting rush over to the warehouse and unload all of the gunpowder inside in order to make space for them to hide in.

Because Drako Yau was the one who received the quest, his rewards were even more bountiful. He levelled up twice and was now Level 27. Including the extra skill point for keeping Lady Noh alive, he received a total of four skill points, and his relationship with the Oda clan was ‘close’ instead of ‘friendly’.

Everyone’s strength increased vastly because of this quest.

Danting, Level 30.

Greenstone, Level 28.

Idyllic Poet, Level 29.

Windstrider, Level 29.

Sasaki, Level 28.

Drako Yau, Level 27.

Danting, having reached Level 30, also learnt new skills and was all over the moon.

‘Boss, you’re finally back.’

The quest didn’t seem to have lasted very long, but a whole twelve hours had passed since they started the quest. Zephyrwolf immediately cried out at them once he saw them return.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Dark World sent people over and challenged us to a guild war. Their guild master, Moon something was it, also stirred things up on the forum! Everyone’s laughing at us now!’

‘Oh…’ Drako Yau scratched his chin. ‘Guild war, huh. You can just decline it.’

‘What?’ They were all startled. ‘But…’

Drako Yau glared at them and said, ‘What do you think a guild war is? We’re talking about a war between hundreds or even thousands of players. How can Howl of the Tempest Wolves take on such an opponent right now?’

Everyone couldn’t refute his words. What he said was very true, but still… It was a very cowardly decision.

‘I know what everyone’s thinking. If you don’t want this situation to go on, go recruit more members and train them well.’ Drako Yau clasped his hands and gave the order. ‘It’s been a hectic day. Go get some rest.’

Meanwhile, the official forum had already caught wind of Howl of the Tempest Wolves’ decision of declining the guild war, bringing them the scrutiny of countless players. The guild’s reputation also nose-dived due to this incident, and some members even left the guild. Not that it bothered Drako Yau though. Trials and tough times helped filter out gems among rocks; keeping those who weren’t dedicated to the guild was pointless anyways.

Windstrider…

Or rather, Cheung Fung was exhausted as he went to work. It was all because of ‘The Honno-ji Incident’ quest. He hadn’t slept at all and went directly to work, but he knew he screwed up the moment he entered his office.

Everyone was cheering and in a joyous mood. Some female colleagues were putting on thick layers of makeup, while their male counterparts were constantly inspecting their attire for wrinkles.

Startled, he took five seconds to realise what day it was. They were invited to another company’s party, though he had forgotten about the company’s name already. It also involved taking a flight over to the Third Eastern City.

The ten Eastern Cities’ numbers weren’t completely meaningless.

The First City was the most prosperous of them all, where top companies of various sectors set their bases of operations at. Just residing in the First City was a symbol of success. As for the Tenth City, it mostly consisted of labour-oriented work. Most factories and production lines were situated in the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Cities.

Cheung Fung was currently in the Ninth City, and the company he worked in was a wood product post-processing company. Although he was a white-collar worker, his daily workload was dull. He had once thought of resigning, but he held himself back—because his mum would beat the hell out of him if she knew he resigned because of a game…

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