Filled with murderous intent

"Congratulations to the Spirit Fox Guild for achieving the 'Desert Tyrant First Kill'! Guild reputation +3000!"

"Congratulations to the Spirit Fox Guild for achieving the 'Desert Tyrant First Kill'! Guild reputation +3000!"

"Congratulations to the Spirit Fox Guild for achieving the 'Desert Tyrant First Kill'! Guild reputation +3000..."

A system announcement popped up three times in a row in the message windows of every player in the newbie village.

The players were stunned by this news for a few seconds, and the entire village fell into an eerie silence.

Soon after, the players in the newbie village began to discuss intensely...

"No way, I heard that the Spirit Fox Guild was going to be wiped out in the Sandfall City, but now they've cleared it all of a sudden?"

"This is interesting, the Spirit Fox Guild gained 3000 reputation points, and their fame skyrocketed. They might even surpass the Pale Blue Guild soon, right?"

"Probably not, the Pale Blue Guild is also preparing to explore the Dragon's Abyss, so they won't fall too far behind the Spirit Fox Guild."

"The Spirit Fox Guild is amazing, right? All female players, and they're still so powerful?"

"Yeah, the cursed storm surrounding the Sandfall City is extremely terrifying. You can imagine how strong the boss inside must be. I don't know how these female players managed to clear it, but I admire them..."

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the Dragon's Abyss, Pale Blue and Blue Water, along with others, saw the announcement.

The siblings exchanged glances, and then Blue Water said, "Brother, the Spirit Fox Guild's reputation is almost surpassing ours..."

"I know, it seems their reputation is only 50 points behind us now," Pale Blue said with a worried face.

"Until yesterday, their reputation had dropped a lot... How could they clear the dungeon and catch up in just one day? We can't underestimate the Spirit Fox Guild, or they will surpass us."

Blue Water nodded, "Then we must hurry to explore the Dragon's Abyss." "Yeah," Pale Blue said, looking at his full set of black armor, freshly acquired from a Dark Knight. The attributes were top-notch.

"Don't worry, we know the monsters in the Dragon's Abyss like the back of our hand, and with this divine armor set, our exploration will be much more efficient. We won't be caught up!"

With that, Pale Blue waved his hand, and the fifty elite members of the Pale Blue Guild charged headfirst into the Dragon's Abyss without looking back.

Back at the tavern, Leo saw the system announcement, shook his head with a smile, and opened his friends list. Thanks to the high experience dropped by the Desert Tyrant, Cassandra was now level 29, Goldman level 27, and Lily was still level 29.

Leo knew that in this game, every ten levels was a milestone. Though it seemed like there was only one level between 29 and 30, a huge amount of experience was required to level up. Currently, on the level ranking list, "Emperor" was still far ahead as the only player above level 30... and this guy was already level 31.

"Not bad, this Emperor," Leo touched his chin, "This guy must have had some good opportunities, and his gaming skills must be pretty good too. He's gaining experience much faster than the average player."

Looking at the guild rankings, the top ten guilds' rankings remained virtually unchanged. The Emperor Guild was still the first, and the rankings of the Pale Blue Guild and the Spirit Fox Guild hadn't changed either. It was clear that these major guilds were working hard to earn reputation points, not wanting to lag behind others.

The only change that caught Leo's attention was that the Black Paradoxical Blade Guild had moved up from eleventh to tenth place.

As Leo was looking at the various rankings, another system announcement was released:

"Ding! Congratulations to player 'Charlotte' for reaching level 30! She has become the second player in the newbie village to reach level 30! The second place in the level ranking has been updated!"

Since she wasn't the first one to reach level 30, the system didn't repeat the message three times. However, no player would overlook this piece of news.

This news also surprised Leo because he knew Lily's game ID was "Charlotte."

"This girl leveled up pretty fast, huh?" Leo looked at the system announcement and sighed, "I thought it would take her the whole night to get from level 29 to 30, but she leveled up in just half a day."

With that in mind, Leo decided to go to the Forbidden Forest to check on her.

...

After the system announced Lily's level up to 30, most players just marveled for a moment and then continued with their tasks.

Only the chairman of the Black Paradoxical Blade Guild became furious upon seeing the news.

"You bunch of good-for-nothings! Worthless!" The chairman of the Black Paradoxical Blade Guild was so angry that he cursed, and several elite members stood in front of him, heads down.

"It's a multi-million-dollar deal! We were tasked to assassinate Lily within a month and not let her level up too high. Now? She's actually ranked second in the entire newbie village! And you haven't even found a trace of her! Worthless!"

After cursing, the chairman still seemed unsatisfied and gave a fierce kick to one of his subordinates.

"Chairman, I think there must be something fishy about this," Morpheus spoke up. As the chairman's capable assistant, he always played the role of a strategist in the guild.

"Nobody knows where this girl is leveling up. We've spent a lot of money to track her down and sent out people from the guild. But there's been no news for so many days. It's just too strange..."

The chairman looked at him, discontentedly saying, "What do you want to say? Just say it!"

"Chairman, last time I sent an assassin to kill her, but it failed. However, we found out that she was with an informant named 'Leo.' In recent times, 'Leo' has been elusive, and almost no one has seen Lily. So, I guess she's been hidden by Leo," Morpheus slowly explained. "I think we can start with this 'Leo' informant and try to find Lily's whereabouts through him!"