Surveyance

"You. You are toward the top of the bounty list right now, right?"

Bjorn nodded and motioned toward his bright red name.

'Is this guy trying to apprehend me? I heard that NPCs won't act on you inside of the city, unless you directly cause some sort of conflict here…'

The guard bowed his head in shame, then reached into his pocket and withdrew a small handful of money.

"I've seen you adventurers taking quests from people… I need your help with something."

The NPC leaned back against one side of the alleyway.

"I have long work shifts, and I don't have any time to watch around my house. I need help… urg, I feel creepy just saying this."

The guard turned to look into Bjorn's eyes.

"I need you to spy on my daughter. She recently got a boyfriend, but from the few things I've heard about him, he's not that great."

The guard rubbed two coins between his fingers as he spoke.

"He has a private woodland he hunts on, and my daughter told me that she was going to go out to it with him today… I needed to find someone strong enough to defend themself and my daughter, in case things go awry."

If anyone else had been in Bjorn's position, they might start doubting the guard's true motives.

Hiring the city's most notorious new red-name, a person who went around murdering other adventurers to steal from them, just to gather some info on his daughter's new boyfriend?

It was especially odd, since the guard was constantly surrounded by similar-leveled players.

Bjorn didn't put any thought into this.

'Hm, spying on a shady boyfriend… and it's out in the woods! If this dude has his own private forest, I bet he's loaded! Heh, if he messes up at all… I wonder what kind of loot he'll drop?'

"Sure. I'll bring you his head."

The guard nodded in satisfaction until he fully processed Bjorn's words.

"W- wait, not that! I just need you to keep an eye on them!"

Bjorn walked over and placed a hand on the guard's shoulder.

"It's alright, I think we're understanding each other perfectly."

Bjorn winked as he accepted the quest and started walking away.

"Wait, really…"

The guard's voice trailed off as Bjorn turned the corner, disappearing from sight.

'Oh no. Please tell me I didn't just hire an assassin to kill the city mayor's son just because he hung out with my daughter once…'

Out on the main street, Bjorn angrily poked his singer at a translucent screen hanging before him.

'No, you stupid system! I know there is no error, and there are no permissions I'm lacking! Just let me use the damn minimap!'

He'd already managed to talk the system into giving him the quest details correctly. But actually finding the venue was an entirely different story.

The system seemed prepared to pull out all of the stops this time.

Different languages, a buggy minimap. And outright refusal to provide verbal instructions to the private hunting grounds where the quest would take place.

'Seriously, there's no way it's like this for everyone else! I would've heard countless complaints about this thing being a prick in my last life, right? I haven't heard anyone saying anything different now as well, so this seems to be an issue mutually exclusive to me.

That said, I can't think of why it hates me so much! I never did anything to anger it!

-

Ding!~

Existing.

-

'Gee, thanks, system. You know, you would make a terrible therapist AI."

-

Ding!~

Rude.

-

'What do you mean, rude?! You're the built-in assistant who refuses to do its job! You're the rude one! And did you just call me rude after insulting my existence?'

After vowing to file a detailed report to the developers when he logged off for the night, Bjorn decided to ignore the unhelpful system and turned to strangers for help.

Within a dozen minutes, Bjorn was standing outside of an ornate gateway blocking off the entrance to the forest ahead.

The gate was latched shut with a very heavy-duty-looking chain, but Bjorn could see a gap underneath it a few meters to the right.

It was a pretty obvious whole that surely everyone saw coming as some sort of trap.

Still, as some sort of trap, it would still provide an entrance for Bjorn to enter the forest.

.

Ding!~

If you had followed my guide, you would've gotten here a whole two minutes faster. I even put it up as a hologram for you, but you just ignored it!

-

Throughout the entire walk, Bjorn hadn't noticed any changes in his field of vision, aside from the houses and streets.

Every part of his HUD looked the same.

-Ding!~

I didn't want to hugely affect your view with my changes, so I set the opacity to .5%. No need to thank me.

-

'Just piss off and let me do this quest alone if you're not going to be of any help.'

Bjorn ignored the front gate and instead crouched down next to the hole running underneath the fence.

It looked like a tight fit, but nothing Bjorn couldn't manage.

'The guard said that they should be either here already or showing up soon, so the best course of action for us right now is…

Bjorn wasn't a fan of PvE quests, but once the prospect of murder became involved, his interest suddenly spiked.

'I'll scout out the area and prepare an ambush! This kid's head will be mine!'

Bjorn paused for a moment as he looked down to double check the quest info.

'Ah, I'm only supposed to be watching this guy, not killing him. Unless an opportunity presents itself, I should do my best moving around the secret and sticking to my goals.'

Bjorn didn't feel any remorse or fear as he wandered into the private works. Even if he killed this NPC and permanently ended its life, what was there to feel bad about?

It was just some lines of code.

Heck, it was just a bunch of lines of code with a death assignment set out for it, and if it hadn't been Bjorn taking its life, it would've ended up dead by someone else's hands eventually.

'Heh, this is the only type of quest that I'll accept!'

Just as Bjorn was about to start walking further into the forest to search for his targets, he heard a pair of voices approaching from outside the fence.

One of them was female, and the other male.

'Hah, here they come! This kill mission will be pretty easy!'

Just like how Bjorn predicted when he overheard the voices, the duo's identities were confirmed when they pushed through the gate and entered the forest.

"Look at this! My dad's woods are the best, right?"

The teenage dude gestured around proudly.

"I guess…"

Bjorn's fingers tightened around his dagger.

'This kid is definitely trying to flirt with the guard's daughter right now! I have full leeway to send him to the afterlife now!'