MMORPG: The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei could vaguely make out the silhouette of a person inside the fire, but the blaze made it hard for him to recognize who it was.

The witch took off her cloak, revealing a frail old woman beneath it. She had a face full of wrinkles, and a head full of receding white hair. The creases on her face were so deep that they could trap flies in it.

The old woman was not alone. Lying under the table was the body of another elderly woman much younger than the witch, but hidden away from sight by the fire.

The corpse was still fresh like it had just died not too long ago, but it was definitely there even before Jiang Fei stepped into the hut. Dead NPCs did not show up on the map. Coupled with the darkness inside the hut, this caused Jiang Fei to miss the lifeless body on the floor while he was still in it.

The witch lowered her head and muttered words softly that only she could hear them.

“Father, I’ve completed everything that you have asked of me, now all that’s left is the final instruction.”

The elderly woman then glanced up towards where Jiang Fei was standing before continuing her monologue.

“Sorry big brother, but Miluya can’t bear to let you see me in this state. This is goodbye, my beloved big brother.”

“SWISH”

Miluya tore open a hole in the space-time fabric and disappeared in a faint glow of light.

“Eh? Where did she go?” Seven Stars Warrior gasped as he was startled when he saw that the silhouette had mysteriously disappeared.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t see her anywhere on the map. Maybe the witch is dead?” Jiang Fei guessed.

“Boss, I know it feels bad to lose a bet, but isn’t silencing the witch and burning down her hut a bit too much?” Little Rain asked timidly.

“Really? You think I’m that narrow-minded?” Jiang Fei rolled his eyes.

“And even if I really did kill her, do you think I can actually able to set fire to the hut?”

The witch’s hut was an NPC structure inside the game. Unless it was a requirement from a quest, it was impossible for players to destroy, less setting fire and burning it to the ground.

“Now that you mentioned it, that’s really weird!”

Everyone started to find the whole situation bizarre.

It did not take long for the fire to finish its job. The hut itself was tiny, to begin with, and could not possibly contain enough materials to fuel the fire. Soon, all that was left was a pile of ashes where the hut once stood.

“Boss! We found a body.”

As soon as the fire burned out, the guild members went in and checked out the remains.

Jiang Fei quickly made his way over to inspect the charred corpse left after the fire. But unfortunately, the corpse’s face was already burned beyond any recognition.

“Looks like this witch is really dead.” Seven Stars Warrior sighed in disappointment. He did not have his map uncovered yet.

“Aww man, that sucks!”

Many of the other guild members there were also waiting to get their maps revealed and were also disappointed by the witch’s death. But no one there, including Jiang Fei himself, could tell that the charred corpse was not the same witch as the one that had read Jiang Fei his fortune.

The dead elderly woman was in fact, the real owner of the hut. But somewhere between the time when she had helped the first player with uncovering his map and before Jiang Fei’s arrival, Miluya had gotten to her first and killed her inside the hut, out of sight from the other players. She then proceeded to don the witch’s cloak and impersonated her, eventually leading to the events that took place there.

Miluya was now almost at the end of her lifespan. The girl was aging at a much faster rate than what Jiang Fei had assumed, and was still aging faster. It had only been one week since Jiang Fei last saw Miluya, but the girl had already gone from looking like a lady in her mid-twenties to an eighty years old grandma.

Miluya knew that her life force was nearing its end, and was overjoyed to be able to see Jiang Fei once more before she died. Her shaky voice was a direct result of her trying to contain her excitement when speaking to Jiang Fei. Burdened with the guilt of killing Ou Yezi and her unwillingness to allow her beloved big brother to see her old and wrinkly like this, she chose to hide behind the cloak during their reunion.

“Welp, she’s dead now, nothing we can do about that. Get that guy back here, I want to see what did he find.”

Jiang Fei looked at the body and instantly knew that he would not be able to uncover his map now. He then remembered the player who had first discovered the hut and had his map uncovered.

“Boss, my map shows an area on the map that was still covered by the fog of war even after the witch had uncovered it. It feels like something is covering the area up on purpose,” the player reported.

“That’s interesting! Send me the coordinates!” Jiang Fei raised his eyebrows when he heard the player.

“Yes boss!” The player quickly gave Jiang Fei the coordinates to the unrevealed part of the map.

“That’s so far away!”

Right after Jiang Fei checked the coordinates he received against his map, he was surprised to find that the entire Celestial Realm was much bigger than he had initially thought.

“Boss, are you really sure about going there alone? Do you want me to get a few members with flying mounts to escort you?”

Seven Stars Warrior knew that their boss would decide to go there immediately after acquiring those coordinates.

“No need to do that!” Jiang Fei dismissed the proposal.

Seven Stars Warrior was currently the strongest member in the guild. But even his character was only at level 99 and had yet to ascend to Celestial tier level, which puts him in a similar position as the other guild members. Against the Celestial NPCs that Jiang Fei is planning to fight, the guild members would not be able to help him and would only end up as cannon fodder.

“But boss…” Seven Stars Warrior wanted to persuade Jiang Fei to change his mind but was immediately turned down with a wave of his hand.

“It’s fine. If you guys really want to be of any help then go level up more. As long as you guys still don’t make it to Celestial tier, going with me won’t be of much help, and you guys would also be dragging me down.”

With that said, Jiang Fei summoned the Evol. Skygliding Dragon and took off towards the direction of the mysterious shrouded area.

After a few hours of continuous flying, Jiang Fei finally arrived at the border of the shrouded area. But he was running out of gaming time for the day.

“Well, I don’t think I can find out much if I go in now. And if I get forcefully logged out midway of a fight, that would be really bad!” Jiang Fei thought to himself. He decided to continue his investigation the next day.

Jiang Fei logged out from the game to another peaceful day at the base. He crafted a few sets of equipment using some of the newly generated Energy Crystals and also drafted a small team of fighters from the Martial Art Alliance to begin training them to adapt to new weapons.

These martial artists were not used to operating firearms. Without sufficient training, they would not be able to properly unleash the full potential of their weapons in battle. Jiang Fei had initially wanted to take things slowly, and gradually build up his army over time. But after the meeting with Z0-11, he wanted to quickly whip them into shape for the raid on the enemy Unknowns.

Jiang Fei had assigned Bella and the other girls as weapons and equipment instructors which upset the fighters and made them reluctant to follow their orders. They were not content with having a bunch of young girls in charge of their training. But they were also not expecting their instructors to be level 5 Metahumans! After a simple demonstration of the difference in their power levels, the fighters finally ate humble pie and started learning how to operate energy weapons in earnest through Jiang Fei’s training program.

The girls had all been implanted with some basic knowledge on Namekian technology upon their revival in the medical bay and were already familiar with the use of energy weapons. But as level 5 Metahumans themselves, these weapons were nothing more than just toys to them. However, that did not prevent them from performing their given duties.

With the matter of training going smoothly, Jiang Fei had nothing more to worry about in the real world and could now give his undivided attention to hunting down the remaining Celestial NPCs in the game. To him, this was just as important as bolstering their fighting strength in the real world. Every single NPC killed inside the game was one less Android to fight later.

And when night time finally came, Jiang Fei logged into the game and began his investigation of the shrouded area.