This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 569.1: The Honest (Dumb) Star River

Daydreaming Star River!

Falling Feather remembered that fellow.

Back in Lost Valley, the two of them had piloted a Cloudfly together. He was the pilot while the other was his gunner.

Unfortunately, the guy had not been as lucky as him and got blasted on the spot. Although he later died as well, he had been blessed in disguise and picked up Little Feather. Thinking about it, if he had been the gunner at the time, Little Feather would probably have been called Little Star or Little River.

Sure enough, his Little Feather sounded nicer...

They were both solo players. Though they had added each other as friends, they had hardly ever teamed up. He had never expected to run into that guy, much less 700 or 800 kilometers away from Dawn City.

What a coincidence!

“I’m doing a quest! What else would I be doing?”

Seeing Falling Feather stunned, Daydreaming Star River chuckled, patted the LD-47 hanging on his chest, and continued, “Now that the war’s over, I really ought to grind some levels properly... Damn, this game is too realistic. It’s been months and I still haven’t figured it out.”

In other games, reaching LV10 was just a novice-village rank, reached by following the main quest a few steps.

But in Wasteland Online, while LV10 was also only able to get them out of the newbie village, it took a month or two of grinding to get there.

He had never played a game where leveling was so hard!

The most ridiculous part was that although experience and levels were quantified, the growth curve was not smooth! Sometimes killing gave experience, sometimes it did not.

The official site did have a guide written by the trusty dusty Ample TIme, but it was vague, only generally stating that experience gains were positively correlated with risk.

In other words, only by constantly flirting with death could one level up quickly. But if someone actually died, all experience accumulated since the last save point would be reset to zero.

How to balance gains, risk, and attrition for maximum leveling efficiency involved no small amount of know-how. Plenty of top-tier players who were in the T0 and T1 brackets, were still researching it.

Of course, one could also ignore all that and just mess around. That was exactly what Daydreaming Star River did.

Although he intended to level up, he was too lazy to think so much. So he simply picked a long-distance quest and, along the way, went to see how big the game world really was.

“This game really is annoyingly realistic in the most random ways,” Falling Feather agreed, then casually asked, “Right... What’s your quest?”

“There’s a traveling merchant in Dawn City named Zhou Nan. He claims his parents and his brother’s whole family are being held by a farm owner near Hope Town. He asked me to bring money to redeem them.”

That quest... Sounded somewhat familiar.

Seeing Falling Feather go blank for some reason, Daydreaming Star River grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “Guess how much the reward is?”

Falling Feather swallowed. “How much?”

If saving one person was 100,000 silver coins, then saving a whole family... Wouldn’t that make him a million?!

As if to confirm his guess, Daydreaming Star River’s face wore a smug smile as he slowly raised a single finger.

“Ten thousand!”

“...”

The air went quiet for a moment.

The mood cooled in a subtly awkward way.

Seeing no reaction from Falling Feather, Daydreaming Star River’s expression shifted from smug to embarrassed. He cleared his throat lightly. “Uh... did I scare you? Wild NPCs do pay more than official quests, but there aren’t contribution points or regional reputation. It’s not that exaggerated, actually.”

“How should I put this...” Seeing his brother try to save face in the wrong direction, Falling Feather awkwardly averted his gaze. “Should I pat your head?”

“What the hell do you mean?!”

Watching Daydreaming Star River get worked up, Falling Feather hesitated, but in the end couldn’t bear to see him exploited by an NPC, so he phrased it gently. “Actually... I also took a similar quest. I need to rescue someone from the Pinecone Ranch.”

“One person?”

“Mm.” Falling Feather nodded slowly. “My reward is around 100,000... I think.”

“100,000?!” Daydreaming Star River’s eyes went round as he stared in disbelief.

But the truth was always cruel.

Suddenly Falling Feather thought of something and exclaimed, “Ah, did you pick up the quest directly in the tavern? Not through the Mercenary Guild?”

Daydreaming Star River frowned. “Yeah. But don’t blame me. I was already on the road when I read on the official site that some Mercenary Guild had been founded.”

So that was it.

Understanding dawned on Falling Feather’s face.

Case closed.

“Tsk, no wonder... You didn’t take the job through the VM, so not only is the payout lower, you’re not even getting mercenary class experience.”

“Damn it!” Daydreaming Star River almost spat blood then and there, tilting off the face of the earth on the spot.

Good grief.

He had thought the quest paid pretty well, like he had struck gold, only to find out he was just the perfect mark.

Seeing his brother Daydreaming Star River slip into an existential crisis, Falling Feather felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe he shouldn’t have told him the truth.

“Maybe the difficulty’s different? The Pinecone Ranch has more than 50,000 people. I hear it’s a closed settlement and not easy to infiltrate... Besides, the employer didn’t mention a ransom. Odds are he expects me to snatch the guy.”

At that, Falling Feather suddenly remembered something. “Right, the ransom... Did that NPC give you the ransom money?”

Almost in tears, Daydreaming Star River nodded. “Yeah. 5,000 Dinars... He gave me 1,000 per person, five people total.”

There was no fixed exchange rate between Dinars and silver coins. It was said that in the western part of the Central Continent, 1,000 Dinars could buy a slave of ordinary aptitude.

Within New Alliance territory, the trade in people was banned. Dinars were usually just used as payment for mercenaries or bounty hunters and had little actual purchasing power.

Those 5,000 Dinars were both the ransom to redeem the targets and an advance deposit. He had to bring the people safely back to Dawn City to receive the full bounty from the employer.

Falling Feather scratched his head. “I’ve got an idea that could minimize your loss.”

Daydreaming Star River asked immediately, “What idea?”

Falling Feather: “Just grab them and go. Then, the ransom is yours, isn’t it?”

One couldn’t do that with a Mercenary Guild commission, but private gigs ought to be off their radar.

Even without an official exchange channel between Dinars and silver coins, the black market should still convert some into silver coins.

Daydreaming Star River froze. “Uh... Can we do that?!”

Falling Feather nodded. “I think it should be fine. The targets are slave owners and the people are slaves being deprived of freedom. According to the clauses in the Player Handbook, proactive violence aimed at lifting personal restrictions is not punishable. In other words, slave owners’ manors and slave-catching teams are not protected by the shelter rules.”

Not just slave owners. NPC factions that clashed with New Alliance values, or were categorized as chaotic factions, were likewise unprotected.

For example, the Torch Church and the Enlightenment Society.

That said, the New Alliance still did not recommend that players stir up trouble in other people’s settlements.

After all, an unrecognized order was still a form of order. Physically eliminating one or two individuals did not truly solve problems and could create new ones.

However, learning it was not punishable lit a spark in Daydreaming Star River.

His eyes heated visibly as he stared at Falling Feather, grabbed his arm, and said, “Good brother! Help me out here!”

“Help you... How exactly?” Falling Feather stared at Daydreaming Star River’s blazing gaze, then suddenly realized something and jumped. “Whoa, you’re not asking me to help you kidnap them, are you? I’ve got my own quest to do. Or you wait till I get back and I’ll help you then.”

Not being punished by the shelter did not mean the locals wouldn’t hate him. He didn’t want to juggle a quest with a bounty nailed to his head.

Seeing his brother misunderstand, Daydreaming Star River hurried to explain with a grin, “Hey, that’s not the kind of help I meant.”

“Then...?”

“You just reminded me,” Daydreaming Star River said with a sly smile, pulling Falling Feather aside and continuing unhurriedly, “Since the slave owner’s rights aren’t protected by the Player Handbook, then... scamming should be allowed too, right?”

“Scamming?” Falling Feather eyed him suspiciously. “What kind of scam are you thinking of?”

There were plenty of clever people on the wasteland.

That guy had just been fleeced by an NPC. It was hard to be optimistic about his ability to con others.

Daydreaming Star River snickered and went on, “It’s easy. Your exoskeleton’s called the K-10 Iron Wall, right?”

“Uh, yes...”

“I remember this model’s supplied only to Boulder Town’s militia and isn’t sold publicly... that’s right, isn’t it?”

“That’s not quite accurate,” Falling Feather corrected him. “Last month some Boulder Town soldier resold their gear. A portion of it made its way outside.”

For example, the set he wore, and the ones on the Little Feathers behind him, were all from that event. It was bought at about 10% of its original price from Ample Time.

Otherwise, at the current internal purchase price of 15,000 silver coins, he couldn’t have afforded it.

“I know.” Glancing at the Little Feathers behind Falling Feather, Daydreaming Star River continued slowly, “One set doesn’t prove much... But what about a group?”

“Just tell me what exactly do you want to do?”

Seeing Falling Feather’s eyes grow wary, Daydreaming Star River revealed his dagger with a grin. “Simple. If that Zhou fellow, my employer, had become the guest of some big shot in Boulder Town, or simply a big shot himself, and the army came to order them to give my guys up, do you think the slave owner here would dare say no?”

“What the...?!” Falling Feather’s eyes widened. “You’re planning to impersonate Boulder Town and run a con? Aren’t you afraid of causing a diplomatic incident?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. What diplomacy does a tiny settlement have?” Daydreaming Star River blurted. “Besides, we’d be saving people! You get that, right?”

“But...”

Seeing Falling Feather still hesitate, Daydreaming Star River pressed on, “Relax, brother. This place is hundreds of kilometers from Boulder Town! There’s no way we get exposed! Just chalk it up as a favor I owe you... Oh, and aren’t you going to rescue someone too? If this works, we can rinse and repeat at Pinecone Ranch! You help me this time, I’ll help you next! We’ll cover each other, spend zero on ransom, and pull all the hostages out!”

Ssssss...

That actually sounded kind of genius.

On second thought, Falling Feather felt the idea might really be pretty good!

The New Alliance had just taken Boulder Town. Slave owners in the surrounding area trembled at the sight. If he waved the Boulder Town banner and went to the nearby slave owners to demand a few hostages, wouldn’t that be easy as pie?

He decided to act at once.

Falling Feather hesitated no longer. With all his Little Feathers and Daydreaming Star River, he headed straight for Hope Town’s south gate.

The town gate had barricades piled up, but they only blocked goods and vehicles, not people coming and going. At most the guards would warn that it was dangerous outside and advise folks not to run around.

As for a hard case like Falling Feather leading a pack of fearsome thugs, the guards at the gate didn’t even dare to try and dissuade them. They could only watch silently as they left.

The farm in the quest lay just south of Hope Town.

A three-story blockhouse stood like a castle in the middle of the fields, a concrete wall enclosing a vast tract of land, with only a muddy track leading to the neighboring town.

Most people in town were free, while the row of shacks outside the blockhouse were likely where the slaves lived.

The lord named Kong Lingkai lived inside the concrete wall and was said to be a prominent figure in town.

Judging by the Maxim I and the Lances mounted on the concrete wall, it was easy to guess he had made a fortune trading with the New Alliance.