Orchards

Training area of the Warrior Association,

"I am sorry, Sir. It is too early and none of the instructors are available. Please come back at 12:00."

Li Wei sighed. After leaving the trading area, he came to the training area only to learn that no instructors were available at the moment. The instructors were NPCs that only taught others as a part-time job. They would usually spend their day doing quests. Even the few old retired warriors would take it easy and only start instructing at 12:00.

"Alright! Thank you for the information," answered Li Wei before leaving the Warrior Association.

He decided to immediately go to the orchards. Many players were already at the orchard. If this quest was not available, they would definitely have chosen to go to the dungeon instead but with the quest, they would be able to earn more but with less risk.

The orchards were not very far from the town but unfortunately, the ones where the quest took place were the furthest away. It took Li Wei two whole hours to get there. The orchards looked like a real forest with the only difference being that all the trees looked like each other and were orderly arranged.

Li Wei was not very familiar with trees, but he would notice it whenever he would enter a different section of the orchards since the fruit trees would change. Along the way, Li Wei saw many farmers taking care of the trees; inspecting them to check the state of the fruits and sometimes even killing some giant mosquitos and other insects.

At the section dedicated to berries, Li Wei presented the piece of paper to the farmers.

"Alright, sir. You can take a basket if you need it there. The berries are found here but if you go down this way, you will eventually reach the section of the apples. Please don't come back too late. We will be returning to the town at 18:00. If you come back too late, you will have to wait for tomorrow to get your rewards," said one of the farmers.

He indicated a pile of baskets that the NPCs were using to collect fruits and then pointed to the apple orchards.

"Thank you," answered Li Wei.

The quest simply implied collecting fruits and Li Wei had the choice between berries and apples. He chose berries because they were more accessible. For apples, he would need to climb the trees to pick them. As for the berries, he would simply need to crouch and pick them since they came from bushes.

However, Li Wei was not the only one with this reasoning; most players were also roaming through the field of bushes, searching for berries. The fruits had a relatively short respawn timer of about 2 minutes, but it was a competition among players. As soon as one berry would appear, the closest players would all rush to it but there can only be one winner.

Occasionally, giant mosquitos would appear in the orchard but considering the number of players present; none of the insects would last for long.

After speaking to the NPCs in charge of the orchard, Li Wei directly started to roam around the field. He did not need any basket since he had his inventory. As he entered, he received the glare of the nearby players; they were naturally unhappy at the idea of getting another competitor.

There were a lot of players in this cluster and so, Li Wei decided to keep walking to find a less popular spot. It was still early in the morning and the other players were also doing the same thing. After a few minutes, the players would effectively end up evenly distributed across the field if they maintained this peaceful attitude.

Li Wei quickly found a good spot with fewer players and started to pick berries here and there. It was basically a game of who had the best eyes and the fastest reaction. Li Wei easily picked up the pace, but it did not last long before other players started to enter the orchard.

A few minutes went by where Li Wei swiftly picked all the respawning fruits near him. He already collected 13 fruits; the quest looked very promising. A few Giant mosquitoes also appeared but none were close to Li Wei. As for the Fruit thieves, none of them were spotted yet.

More and more players were coming; it was inevitable that fights would break out. A few skirmishes happened, but it was nothing compared to when one of the main guilds of Verdan Town stormed the place.

"Get the hell out of there! We, Exodia, will take this spot for the day!"

A loud voice resounded through the field of berries as a large crowd of players appeared at the entrance.

"Who do you think you are? This is a public place!"

"Do you think we are scared of you?"

Many players' voices were also heard near the entrance.

Li Wei was standing quite far from the entrance. Aside from the first shout, he did not hear the players complain but he could see that a fight was about to break out. From his point of view, he saw a large group of players suddenly appear with their weapons drawn. They looked imposing and threatening.

The nearby players drew their weapons but were all calmly retreating deeper into the orchard. Li Wei was intrigued by the newcomers, but he simply thought that it was yet another fight for who would be able to monopolize the orchards. The rewards were generous, and everyone wanted a slice of the cake but so far, an equilibrium was set such that players did not fight too much among themselves. If they fought, then other players would simply take advantage of that.

But now, the situation was different. Li Wei suddenly saw the large crowd charge at the nearby players. There were so many of them that the solo players were easily overwhelmed and killed in a matter of seconds.

"This is a warning! We advise all of you to leave this place! We would prefer to resolve this peacefully but if you want to fight, we are ready!"

Hearing the new announcement, Li Wei frowned. He turned towards the crowd of players and started to approach the scene. The other players were also doing the same. Players were killed right in front of their eyes. They could not continue to ignore the situation and continue picking up fruits.

More than 400 players were currently picking fruits at the orchard while the newcomers, the members of Exodia only amounted to 300 players. However, the 400 players mainly consisted of small parties and solo players there to take advantage of the quest. A few small guilds also dispatched some players there, but none were willing to openly confront Exodia.

At Verdan Town, Exodia could be considered as one of the big guilds. Resisting them would mean a death sentence to the smaller guilds. Although they held the number advantage, the players simply did not want to be the first to speak. The few players that initially tried to resist had already been used as an example.

"What are you waiting for!? Quickly get out of the field! We don't have time to lose! You are lucky we are not heartless! You guys can still go to the apple orchards!" exclaimed one of the players of Exodia.

The normal players grumbled. What sort of tyranny was that?

"Brothers and sisters! How can we allow that? If we allow them to monopolize all the resources, we will always be stepped on! It starts now, and we will always remain under their feet!"

"We cannot allow that! We have more people than them! If we fight together, we will without a doubt win!"

Facing this behavior, there was no way the players would remain silent. Many were scared of taking the brunt but with so many players, there was bound to be some with leadership qualities who would not accept this situation.

Two players from small guilds voiced out their opinion. They both came from the same guild, Damocles and had about 50 players there. Compared to Exodia, they chose a more peaceful approach when coming to the field and used their numerical advantage to get the majority of the fruits. It was in a way a monopoly but not as extreme as what Exodia was doing.

The two players were both rogues, they quickly drew their daggers and turned towards Exodia. The other players of Damocles also reacted. Many were reluctant to fight Exodia but since their leader was speaking, they had to give him face.

And effectively, as soon as one person spoke and stepped forward, the other players quickly followed through. They immediately supported Damocles who was effectively fighting for their rights.

"You think that because you are a guild you can order us around?"

"We will not step down like that! Fight us if you dare!"

The players were shouting and even Li Wei who was a crowd follower also prepared to fight. He was standing at the very back since his picking spot was quite far from the entrance.

Li Wei immediately remembered encountering a member of Exodia in the past and recalled how they often went for ruthless methods like this. He wanted to resist them but as a solo player, how could he fight against 300 players? But now that someone elected himself to lead all the players of the field, he was ready to attack.

However, to his surprise, the members of Exodia did not seem alarmed by the new development. They simply smiled as the guild leader stepped forward.

"Are you sure about that? We are peacefully allowing you to leave this place!" said the guild leader. He was a tall man with a scar on his face; his IGN was Dark King.

"Huh? Peacefully? We won't stay silent like that!" exclaimed the guild leader of Damocles as he charged forward. The other players of Damocles also followed through!

Dark King coldly smiled, "In that case, don't blame me!" He did not even draw his blade and simply stared at the charging wave of players. There were no signs of anxiety or nervousness on his face.

At that moment, dark shadows suddenly appeared and without warning, violently struck the players of Damocles who were leading the charge.

12 cloaked figures positioned themselves between Damocles and Exodia and with a single wave of attack, completely stopped the charge. Among those who took the brunt of the attack, more than half were lying on the ground with barely any HP left while the other half had been instantly killed.

Li Wei instantly froze. "What was that?"

"Haha! We will give you all one more minute to leave this place! Or else." Dark King raised his hand and placed his thumb against his neck before making a slicing motion. All the other members of Exodia were coldly smiling while the cloaked figures remained still without moving. Their features were completely hidden but their levels could be seen floating above their head. They were all level 25.

The players of Damocles angrily stared at the cloaked figures. Why were they there? This fight had nothing to do with NPCs. The other players immediately hid their weapons. They did not want to become the target of these NPCs. They calmly waited for Damocles' reaction; that guild had already been elected as the temporary leader in this operation. Fighting level 25 NPCs was not impossible considering that they were 400 players but with Exodia backing them, it would definitely be a very tough fight.

Damocles' leader slowly got back up, his HP was dwindling at about 25 and he quickly drank a Health Potion.

"What did you do? Why are NPCs helping you!?"

"That is none of your business. Please leave quickly! Only 40 seconds left. I don't want to resolve to violence again!" sarcastically said Dark King. He had an evil smile on his face as he knew they had won. It was certain that they secured the orchard of berries for themselves.

Li Wei was furious. It would clearly be detrimental to him if Damocles chose to retreat but what could he do? He could not simply oppose level 25 NPCs and a whole guild by himself.

"D*mn. Where is the Yu Family? Aren't they supposed to quickly become the big boss of this town?" internally said Li Wei.

Damocles' leader stared at Dark King. He was reluctant to leave but, in the end, he had no choice. Exodia was already labeled as a guild leaning towards the negative side of society. He already brought some trouble over himself by stepping up, but he could at least salvage part of his actions by leaving now.

Without saying anything, Damocles' players slowly walked away while coldly staring at Exodia. They made a terrible loss today, losing not only a good spot for the quest but also losing 5 players.

The other players including Li Wei all silently left. They could not stand against Exodia by themselves. Under the hidden stare of the cloaked figures, the fields were very quickly deserted with only Exodia's players left.

The owners of the fields did not really care about the development. They could clearly some sort of conflict arising in the distance, but they did not intervene. As long as the fruits were collected, and the orchards were not damaged, they had no reason to fight.

They knew that by posting the quest, some fights would happen, but they were being funded by the empire to quickly harvest all the fruits. They did not know the reason but since they were getting additional gold, they were happy to cooperate and put up the quest.

...

After the players left, one of the cloaked figures turned toward Dark King. Next to him, another player, that Li Wei would recognize as Skywalker, was quietly standing there.

"We have dealt with the nuisance. Do your job now," said the cloaked figure with a ghostly voice.

"Of course. We will immediately start," said Dark King as he signaled to his guild members to quickly start collecting the fruits.

Skywalker lightly coughed and asked, "may I ask when the first payment will come through? We are taking a lot of risk by working with you!"

The cloaked figure quietly stared at Skywalker for a moment, "You haven't even delivered anything, and you are already thinking about the payment? Do your job first, the potions are already ready!"

Dark King lightly tapped Skywalker's shoulder. "I am sorry! I apologize on behalf of my brother, he is not very smart! Of course, we will fulfill our part of the deal first!"

The cloaked figure did not say anything. A pale white mist flowed out of his hood as he slowly started to vanish. As Dark King and Skywalker raised their head, they realized that all the 12 cloaked figures were already gone.

Skywalker let out a sigh of relief, "That was scary!"

"I told you to let me deal with them! Evil Cults are not too different from those gangs in real life. The only difference is they worship gods while the gangs only think about getting money and territory!"

"As long as we accomplish our mission, Exodia will definitely be able to contend with the large guilds like the Golden Mansion! We should do our task quickly and leave this town!"