CHAPTER 369

“Torrent Knights! With a heavy heart, I must announce a tragic event. Just an hour ago, our 24th Hunting Patrol Squad, who were sent to search for refugees, was ambushed by Gnoll bandits while returning to camp.

The five-man squad led by Paladin Julio fought bravely and determinedly to protect the civilians. Though three died in battle, they successfully repelled the bandits. Although the victory was hard-won and filled with glory, it was undoubtedly a terrible loss.”

In a large camp in Seicob territory, Honorary Knight Typal stood on a wooden crate, sorrowfully announcing the terrible news to 20 well-trained RP party “Paladins” before him.

Although these fellows were neither holy nor knights, let alone well-trained, their imposing presence in uniformly dyed recruit chainmail was quite intimidating.

As Typal delivered this “terrible” news to the knights, some of the refugees they had gathered also showed expressions of sorrow.

They didn’t know that players only needed 3 days to resurrect after death, they were simply mourning the deaths of these brave people who protected them on their way to Crimson Citadel.

However, Typal’s voice suddenly rose as he exclaimed passionately:

“However, we cannot ignore that the two remaining members of the heroic 24th Hunting Patrol Squad still completed their mission! They safely escorted 17 homeless refugees to our camp, giving these innocent people the possibility of starting a new life.

This embodies the creed of our Torrent Knights, and more importantly, it shows how the will of the Holy Light inspires our warriors to never retreat even in dire situations and never abandon their duties!

Let us applaud our knights with enthusiasm!”

“Clap clap clap”

Scattered applause arose as the two young players who survived the encounter stepped forward solemnly, raising their fists to their chest plates while the surrounding NPCs expressed their respect to the young knights with great admiration.

This scene looked quite proper, but many in the crowd were quietly criticizing.

“Look, if Old Hu and his four brothers had spent some time getting their basic swordsmanship to proficient level, they wouldn’t have been reduced to just two survivors when encountering an equal number of gnolls. Those weren’t even elite gnolls, just regular bandits, and they only attacked because they were starving.

After the large-scale bandit suppression, local gnolls wouldn’t dare to cause trouble unless they were about to starve to death.”

Torrent Knight “Archmage Marin” whispered to his companion “Ranger Captain Patton” who was applauding halfheartedly in the crowd:

“It’s embarrassing just talking about it, fortunately the NPCs didn’t see what happened.”

“What can we do? Old Hu was dead set on playing an administrative role, complaining about back pain whenever asked to practice swordsmanship. What back pain? This isn’t real life.”

Ranger Captain Patton was equally disdainful of today’s events as he complained:

“Also, I totally agree this game has the best tech in the world, but could the dev team not make NPC personalities so realistic? I just went to pee by the river and encountered some women washing up.

I hadn’t even pulled up my pants when they started screaming, making me feel totally awkward.

Damn, now all the female NPCs look at me strangely.

But I really didn’t mean to”

“What are you two whispering about? We’re commemorating our comrades here, can’t you be serious!”

Typal’s eyes flashed as he scolded them. Caught red-handed, Marin and Patton could only admit their fault. After Typal’s gaze moved away, Marin continued complaining:

“What commemoration? They’ll be alive again in three days anyway? Not to mention, Old Typal’s OCD is getting more and more unmanageable. I feel like if he keeps playing like this, he’ll end up just like Uncle Fording. No, he’s even worse than Uncle Fording.

At least Uncle Fording has a wife willing to put up with his quirks.”

Patton shrugged and didn’t say anything more.

A few minutes later, the RP party’s commemoration ended, and they escorted nearly 400 gathered refugees toward Morland Village, accompanied by four young mountain folk guides.

This search party’s ability to find so many refugees in three days was entirely thanks to the mountain folk guides from the Ancestor’s Woods. Although hiring each of them cost 10 gold coins, having them versus not having them was a completely different quest experience!

After “One Punch to Destroy the Galaxy” disclosed this method on the forum, over 30 guides from the Ancestor’s Woods had been hired in just these few days.

As individuals blessed by the forest spirits, the mountain folk were very sensitive to events happening in the Seicob territory.

Where refugees were hiding in this grassland and forest terrain was no secret to them. Although the mountain folk were willing to help for free, before leaving, Little Countess Sharon specifically instructed the elders that they must charge money for their services!

She said Lord Murphy’s warriors valued fair trade, and they would feel uneasy if they didn’t pay. Indeed, when the mountain folk stutteringly said hiring guides would cost money, the warriors were very quick to pay.

Just these few days of searching had earned the mountain folk guides quite a sum, but they wouldn’t spend the money carelessly. They would uniformly submit it to the elders, who would then organize merchant caravans to go to the barbarian tribes of Ice Bay to purchase some “local goods” according to Little Countess Sharon’s instructions for continued trading with the warriors.

In short, thanks to Little Sharon’s operations, the mountain folk were successfully integrated into the warrior quest chain, allowing everyone involved to achieve a win-win situation.

The refugees got housing and work assignments to start new lives under Murphy’s command; players completed quests and got construction points to buy various good items from the black market shop to increase their strength; the mountain folk got money while clearing outsiders from their forests; Crimson Citadel got labor force while Lord Murphy was delighted seeing refugees being sent back to Morland Village for registration every day.

Everyone was satisfied with this great arrangement!

“Lord Murphy’s Winged Cavalry is coming to receive us!”

Typal, riding his horse at the front, saw dust rising in the distance. He took out his telescope from his saddlebag to look ahead, then turned back and shouted, making both players and NPCs rejoice.

Soon after, over a dozen tall Winged Cavalry members arrived with an equal number of recruits.

Leading them was a captain under Knight Valand, who lifted his visor on his armored warhorse and called out to Typal who was on horseback:

“We are ordered to receive and escort the refugees to Morland Village. Are you soldiers of the Torrent Knights?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Hearing his team’s name spoken so solemnly by the NPC, Typal couldn’t help but stick out his proud chest, then he heard the Winged Cavalry captain say in an odd tone:

“Your leader, Sir Fording, broke his leg falling off his horse last night. He’s currently recovering in Morland Village, along with over 30 of your brothers. He hopes you’ll go join him.”

“How embarrassing!”

Upon hearing that Uncle Fording broke his leg, many RP players in the crowd immediately covered their faces. Even Typal couldn’t maintain his composure. Good grief, was this really their second-in-command of the Torrent Knights?

Did a knight this incompetent really need to exist?

Maybe they should just expel him later to avoid future embarrassment.

But they still needed to save face for now, so Typal nodded solemnly and said:

“Thank you for helping our companions. We have 427 refugees who have been initially registered, now fully transferred!”

He handed the roster to the Winged Cavalry captain before him, who nodded and wrote Typal a receipt. This could be exchanged for construction points from the civil servants at the administrative office.

427 people meant 43 construction points, which divided among them would give each person basically 1.5 points. It sounded pathetically little.

But the Torrent Knights didn’t just have this one search party in action. The thousands of people found over the past few days were already enough to contribute 20-40 construction points to each of the current 81 members of the Torrent Knights.

At this rate, if three teams didn’t slack off, then by the end of this phase of the “Transia Population Census” quest, each person could get 120+ construction points, which was already enough to exchange for 1-3 rare weapons and armor, a grimoire, or an advanced skill manual at the Blood Rat Gang’s black market.

For new players who just entered the game, this reward could be considered quite substantial, especially since equipment in this game truly retained its value very well.

Moreover, they could level up and complete quests while searching for refugees. Basically, after completing one phase of quests, the overall strength of the entire knight order would see tremendous improvement.

After all, they fought as a group, and as RP players who valued experience, their demand for equipment and power wasn’t that strong to begin with.

Especially since the Torrent Knights had dedicated quartermasters who would collect and craft various consumables to distribute for free when needed, this alone made them different from other players’ lone wolf and small team playstyles.

“Yo, Village Chief Typal!”

While the Winged Cavalry NPCs were receiving the refugees, over a dozen recruit players also rode their warhorses close to the Torrent Knights, led by Joy Stick’s deputy Tiger Leopard Rider Lin.

This guy had run dungeons with Typal before, and they were quite familiar with each other.

He greeted Typal in a strange translated accent:

“Look how miserable you all are. Honestly, if your fellows keep looking so dejected, I’ll have to kick their butts with my boots.”

“Be serious! Knight, you represent the Winged Cavalry with its glorious traditions.”

Typal looked at Lin’s cool shiny plate armor and the battle armor specially equipped on his warhorse with a sour expression and replied:

“As for my knights, they’re just tired from eating and sleeping in the wild. They’ll eventually discover their potential and catch up to seniors like you, I firmly believe this.”

“Yes yes yes, we old players are the worst, just love bullying newbies like you.”

Lin grinned and said quietly to Typal:

“Don’t say your brother isn’t looking out for you. In three days Commander Valand will be recruiting the second batch of recruits. Quickly gather those among you who meet the endurance and strength requirements and are willing to learn mounted combat to reclass as heavy cavalry to sign up.

Even if they don’t become Winged Cavalry, the horsemanship and charge tactics training during the recruit period is the best experience you can find in Transia!

This time Dou and Jie are in charge of registration. I’ll talk to them in advance about prioritizing our own people.”

“No problem!”

Typal’s eyes lit up as he immediately promised:

“We can provide at least 20 people.”

“20 isn’t enough, they’re recruiting more this time. 30 would be best! Also got some news, heard the dev team is about to do something big.”

Lin shared his inside information, winking as he said:

“Someone got Brother Alpha to talk. Starting next week, new slots will be released every week. If you can still find people, get them quickly! Didn’t Brother Alpha privately tell you and our Brother Stick about the ‘stronghold’ thing before?

I guess next week’s update will be related to this.

If the dev team gives you guys stronghold management rights but you can’t handle it, tsk, that would be really embarrassing, brother.”

“Mm.”

Typal nodded without saying more. After watching Lin lead the recruits away escorting the refugees, this RP party leader clenched his fist with electrifying eyes.

He returned to his brothers’ ranks and called over several captains to tell them:

“Brothers, a friend I met during my travels told me some secret news, the mysterious portals in Transia will have fluctuations soon. You need to recruit more members for our Torrent Knights in your respective taverns. This land needs us, and needs them!”

“Don’t worry, Typal.”

The big guy with the ID “Rock Savageham” said in a deep voice:

“There are plenty of trustworthy brothers waiting to be summoned. As soon as the portal opens, the Holy Light’s warriors will rush to Transia to join the grand occasion! And our Rock family’s Rock Ironham, Rock Giantham, Rock Earthham and Rock Woodham are all ready to go!”

“Yes, our Torrent Fort will soon stand on this land.”

Typal looked back toward Seicob territory, thought for a moment, then said to the others:

“We need to quickly demonstrate our ability and courage to Lord Murphy. I propose we don’t rest, you follow the guides back to Seicob territory while I go to Morland Village to get Fording and his soldiers. We’ll make several more trips in the coming week.

Let’s strive to lead more than 10,000 refugees for Lord Murphy before the mysterious portal opens!

This way, he can allocate more soldier slots to us. Of course this isn’t a transaction, we’re simply spreading the Holy Light’s teachings through our good deeds”

“Still have to go?”

Hearing Typal’s proposal, Archmage Marin immediately said with a bitter face:

“Can I apply to stay in Crimson Citadel?”

“Hmm?”

As Typal’s cold gaze fell on him, Marin immediately stood at attention and shouted:

“Report commander, I mean I want to better serve the team, so I want to go to Lady Tris’s alchemy cottage as a slave- uh, I mean apprentice! I need some money as startup capital.

But this way I can earn money for the team while training in alchemy. Then we won’t need to waste extra funds on consumables in the future.”

“Mm, that’s more like it.”

Typal nodded with satisfaction, counting out 5 gold coins from his spirit bag to give him as startup capital, while instructing Archmage Marin to set up a liaison office for the Torrent Knights in Crimson Citadel.

He heard that after the administrative office’s work teams complete the factory construction in Anderma Hills, they would begin large-scale shop construction in the city. They must rent one at a low price then.

Meanwhile, in the midnight chamber of Blood Vulture Halls.

Meow King and Joy Stick, who had been trapped and unable to log in for a full seven days, finally returned to their beloved Transia right on time.

The moment he opened his eyes, Meow King immediately let out a wolf howl, leaping up from the stone platform and falling to his knees, spreading his arms toward the sky and shouting with his hoarse voice:

“Ah, great paw of Avalon, your loyal servant has returned once again to your blessed Transia! I swear! I swear I’ll never leave your holy land again.

Ah, I’m finally back!

Let me breathe in some of this damn damp air from the vampire crypt! Ah, I missed you all so much, f**k, reality is so f**king boring, it’s so much better here.”

“You weren’t saying that when the girl was giving you a massage!”

Joy Stick got up next to him and kicked the embarrassing Meow King, saying:

“And I paid for it too, what a waste.”

“I’ll pay you back next time, good brother. Come on, let’s hurry and do quests. Seven days! Wonder how far those guys have gotten ahead of us.”

Meow King rushed to the spirit storage locker to retrieve his equipment, then followed Joy Stick out of the midnight chamber while chattering away.

As soon as they came out, Joy Stick froze in place.

Before his eyes stood two vampire girls wearing Blood Vulture robes, one with twin tails supporting another long-haired girl with blood-colored cloth covering her eyes.

When he saw her, Joy Stick suddenly felt as if his consciousness had leaped out of his body and connected with the life before him in an indescribable way.

Especially a part of the spiritual senses that had almost completely merged.

Like an invisible chain locking these two people from different worlds together.

Joy Stick couldn’t describe this feeling, but Melia Korando before him stepped forward with her sister Winnie’s support, proactively bowing to Joy Stick and saying:

“Welcome back to Transia, Master.”

“Holy shit!”

Joy Stick swore with ice-cold hands and feet.

“Holy shit?”

Meow King beside him was completely dumbfounded.

That “Master” called out by the vampire girl made his hair stand on end as his frightened gaze jumped back and forth between Joy Stick and this girl.

After holding it in for a long while, he finally grabbed Joy Stick’s collar and screamed:

“You better confess honestly! What did you and Brother Alpha trade? Why did he give you a cyber wife? Most importantly, why don’t I have one! This isn’t fair! I want one too!”