Chapter 7 - First quest

We ran into the alleyway where Liana had exited earlier.

My footsteps echoed loudly on the trash and dirty water-filled ground. Now, I was in the slum area of the city, where the poor lived in poverty and desperation. The stench of excrement, alcohol, and vomit made me want to cover my nose.

Luxurious buildings made of marble and gothic-style roof were nowhere to be seen.

I began to survey the area, noticing the rundown buildings, from the rotting wooden doors to the walls that looked like they could collapse at any moment. Some people sat in front of their homes, with blank stares that made me feel uneasy.

My heart ached at the sight of this slum area, which was far different from the prosperous city life I seen before. However, I also felt an unpleasant vibration in the air that made my heart race.

"Focus on your current goal, there is a princess waiting to be rescued," the cat said, reading my expression.

"I know," I replied. "Are you going to use tracking skills or something to find the princess?"

In video games, I knew that tracking skills were usually skills belonging to the hunter, Ranger, and even Assassin, but I guessed that the cowboy job also had tracking skills.

"That's right, I will use my saga's skill to track her down."

Eh, cowboys don't have tracking skills?

Wait, why did I think he had a cowboy job?"

"Then why didn't you warn me that someone was coming towards me earlier?"

"You have to believe me, I really couldn't sense the presence of the princess earlier. I thought it was a PK trying to give me the death penalty!"

PK or Player Killing is the act of killing other player characters in the game. This usually happens in games with PvP features where players can fight with each other directly.

In some games, PK is considered a negative action. However, in some other games, PK is allowed or even officially held as part of the game's mechanics and PvP strategy.

So of course, Unbound Boundary would allow PK actions among players, but the problem here is that this cat seems to be one of the targets of PK.

And here we are, a level 0 beginner and a suspicious veteran trying to save the imperial princess.

"Also, about that, what is the death penalty in this game?"

The punishment if you die.

That is one of the features of many online games.

Simply put, there are several types of punishments for characters that die in the game; for example, losing a few levels or having their status reduced for a certain period of time. This will make players try to avoid death, so the game should also have some form of punishment for them.

That's why I was waiting for the cat's answer, but...

"You won't be able to log in for 24 hours."

That was unexpected.

".... What did you say?"

"When you die here, you will be blocked and cannot enter Unbound Boundary for 24 hours."

Are they crazy?

Okay, Sunshine did say this world was just a game, but thinking that there's a death penalty that makes you unable to play...

"And the scariest thing is not that you can't play the game. It's a fact that, during your punishment period, the world of Unbound Boundary will run normally for those 24 hours. Let's say there is a quest that is currently ongoing and belongs to you. That means quests like that will be ignored for 24 hours. For a realistic world like this, that is something to be afraid of."

If this suspicious cat and I disappear for a full day, then the quest we received will... I don't need to say what the end of that will be.

Let's try not to die. Although I don't know what a level 0 player like me can do."

I mean, will I be useful?

While thinking about it, we finally arrived at what seemed to be a former district square.

"Well, we finally made it here, but...."

The cat stopped in front of a broken fountain. Immediately after that, a new window appeared within my field of view.

<Rex Bermenster has invited you to join his party.>

<Accept request? YES/NO>

I knew from the beginning that the name floating above the cat's head was fake.

"It would be easier for me to protect you if I could always see your status. However, because there is a level difference between us, we cannot divide Exp points evenly, so your share will be proportional to your role during battles."

"You know, in any case, Exp points are not useful for me right now."

Because that's what often happens in MMORPGs, when a single player fights and defeats a monster, all the Exp will be given to that player; on the other hand, it will be different when fighting in a party.

In this game, there are two methods of distributing Exp points.

The first is an even distribution. It happens when several people form a party with the same level zone, and it will divide the total Exp of the monster equally among all party members.

The second is proportional distribution. It is a method that divides the amount of Exp received by party members in proportion to their roles during battles. In Unbound Boundary, "active roles" not only include the amount of damage dealt but also support actions such as healing.

However, for level 0 (without a job) like me, Exp points are not something important.

What is most important now is to successfully complete this quest and save the girl. Getting a job and leveling up can be done afterwards.

"And... YES."

I then pressed the "YES" button on the window.

A few seconds later, a simple party screen opened, and there I could see the cat's name had been added. Because the empty space on the screen could still accommodate four more names, it seems that in this game, the maximum number of members in a party is six people.

Okay, the cat's status - Rex is now displayed along with his name. Hmm, it's displayed there, but...

What is this?

Rex Bermenster

Job: Gladiator

Level: 100 Total Level: 718

Saga: Three Headed Beast, Cerberus

His level is over 500, which means he is the owner of a Supreme job.

Should I start calling him Lord Rex now?

As I was surprised by Rex's level being higher than expected, Rex suddenly released all the equipment he was wearing, leaving only a small bag on his shoulder and a strange glove in his hand. Then he said,

"Beast Transformation"

The bone glove suddenly dug into the cat's hand and then elongated and enlarged, covering the entire body of the cat, giving it a strange bone appearance, but suddenly the bones changed shape, creating a new bone structure, then flesh appeared and covered the bones, followed by skin and fur. Finally, the bone glove reappeared in the creature's hand.

A 4 meter tall tiger stood on its hind legs, the tiger had a very muscular body shape that gave a clear intimidation to anyone who saw it.

The tiger-Rex was shirtless and barefoot, wearing only pants around his waist and a bone glove on both hands.

Man, this is such a surprising day that I can't be surprised anymore

Then he opened his mouth, filled with sharp teeth that seemed to be able to tear even iron.

It sounds like how a king would speak,

A voice filled with majesty comes out of his mouth.

"Leo, listen to me. This is about the difficulty level of quests in this world. For each quest, the Administrator responsible for it not only analyzes the environmental information of the relevant area, but also the background of the individuals involved in each quest. Then, with all that information, the difficulty level of a quest will be calculated and the way to solve the quest will be determined."

"Eh?"

Analyzing environmental information and someone's background? Of course, doing that one by one, for each quest, is something that an Administrator could do, but what does that have to do with the current situation...

"So, I suspect that the reason for the high difficulty level is because this is a Time Limit Quest with a short deadline."

He voiced his thoughts little by little,

"Because I am here and have an advantage in fighting against many enemies, I believe that the enemies we face are at least as strong as me or even stronger."

"The reason why the quest was given to you may be because the knight order could not reach the place in time, or perhaps they were unable to fight the person who kidnapped the princess."

"In other words, our enemy is a Supreme, a player who has successfully brought his saga to form 7, the highest form currently available."

Then Rex opened his mouth again,

"We need to make a plan to complete this quest, but first, Cerberus..."

*Clank *clank *grrrr

The sound of clinking chains combined with dog growls filled my ears as three chains appeared from the tiger's right hand tattoo.

The chains then wrapped around Rex's body, shoulders, and neck, but they didn't stop there. They continued to stretch into the air, seemingly unaffected by gravity.

The three ends of the chain are shaped like the head of a growling dog.

"Search for signs of life within a 500-meter radius."

And so our first quest began