MMORPG: The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei followed the quest guide and made his way to the North. After two hours of an excruciating swimming session, Jiang Fei finally arrived at a small sea trench.

“F*ck this sh*t!” Jiang Fei roared disgruntledly. That was the first time he felt that the Skygliding Dragon was such a fortune.

Although Jiang Fei was given an underwater mount to ride, Jiang Fei could not use it since the Evol. Skygliding Dragon had forbidden Jiang Fei to ride on another mount! That was the downside of having an Ancient tier mount! Since Jiang Fei could not ride a mount to assist his travels underwater, he had to rely on his own limbs. Not that he was a bad swimmer, it was the fact that he had to swim further than any human ever did!

Thank god that the lair of the Bandits was not too far away from the Gold Watercity. Two hours of swimming was long, but the thought of swimming back for another two hours made Jiang Fei incredibly annoyed.

From the edge of the trench, Jiang Fei could see nests that were made using seaweed and rocks. There were a few species of Seafolks living down there and most of them were dressed poorly. It was a vast difference between those who lived in the city and those who lived down in the trench.

“Are these bandits the ones that Mirage wanted me to eradicate? They don’t look malicious…” said Jiang Fei to himself.

“Who are you!” a frightened voice came from behind when Jiang Fei was looking down.

“Hmm?”

Jiang Fei turned around and found a little head sticking out of a small rock not far from where he stood.

“Who are you?” Jiang Fei asked.

“I am Crawlie!” said the little guy who came out.

It was the first time Jiang Fei had seen such an odd creature. It was only about 40 centimeters tall and had a huge snail-like shell behind his back. He had a long neck which only made him look identical to a garden snail.

Crawlie (Humanoid, Normal)

Level: 40

Health Points: 100%

Note: Low tier Seafolk.

Jiang Fei examined the little creature and found that it was so weak that it was not a threat. Only then did he ease up and relaxed.

“What are you doing here?” said Jiang Fei as he squatted down to talk to the little creature.

“This is my home! What are you doing here?” said Crawlie as he stuck out his neck further, pretending to intimidate Jiang Fei.

“This is your home? Are you one of the bandits?” said Jiang Fei.

“Bandits?!” Crawlie cried, horrified and took several steps back.

“Are you one of the people who came from the city to kill us?” said Crawlie as he got ready to run for his life.

“Huh?”

Jiang Fei was stunned. He had scared the little thing without any effort. He had thought that the bandits that he was supposed to kill were more… malicious and evil…

“WAHHH! THE CITY PEOPLE IS HERE TO KILL US AGAIN!” Crawlie cried from the top of his lungs and ran down the trench.

“Run for your life!”

“Run! Don’t look back!”

…

If Crawlie’s cries of terror were the first domino, the chaos that ensued in the trench was the falling of all the domino pieces that grew wilder by the second. Many more of the Seafolk that were dressed in tattered clothes rushed out of their seaweed nest and ran further down the trench.

“What is going on…?”

Jiang Fei was stumped. He had no idea what he should do next. He was only a man. One man against an army of bandits. If they were the real thing, Jiang Fei would be swarmed by them instead of running away!

With doubt, Jiang Fei hid his hammer away and leaped down the trench. Once he was inside the trench, a powerful odor overwhelmed him. It was the tell-tale signs of poverty. The water inside the trench was murky and dirty. Food and excretion were floating around as if both were the same thing. The hygiene in this place was far worse than any place that Jiang Fei had ever known.

Jiang Fei fixed his sight on the escaping Seafolk and identified that there were many of them were over Level 70. There were a few of them, like Crawlie, were under Level 50. However, no matter how hard Jiang Fei searched, every single one of the Seafolk that was running away was Normal tier monsters.

“Why did the city call them bandits when they were just a bunch of cowardly creatures? They are so weak that they would not fight even the weakest Makruras Patrolman!” said Jiang Fei to himself. Something was wrong and Jiang Fei needed to understand why.

“Am I at the wrong place?” said Jiang Fei. The first thing Jiang Fei did was to check the quest guide. There was nothing wrong with it. The GPS system in the minimap had indicated that he was in the right place.

“Nothing is wrong. I am at the right place,” said Jiang Fei.

Just when he started to doubt the game system, he heard a faint sobbing coming from somewhere behind him. It sounded like someone was crying of fear yet tried their hardest to muffle their voice. It also sounded like the cries of pain.

Jiang Fei followed the sound and found Crawlie crying his eyes out at one of the destroyed seaweed nests.

It seemed that Crawlie had gotten his leg crushed by the seaweed nest during the chaos. He was seen biting a piece of thick seaweed, trying his best not to make any noise.

When Crawlie realized that Jiang Fei was watching him cry, he spat out the seaweed and started crying even louder.

“Please don’t kill me! Wahhhh! Waaahhh! Don’t kill me!”

“Tell me what is going on,” said Jiang Fei as he lifted the almost weightless seaweed nest that was crushing Crawlie’s leg.

“I’m just a young boy! Please don’t kill me! I want to live! I want to grow up!” cried the poor little creature.

“When did I say anything about killing anyone,” said Jiang Fei as he tucked his hands in his pocket.

“Eh?” Crawlie gasped. He calmed down a little and stood up.

“Were you not from the city?”

“Yes, I am from Gold Watercity.”

“WAHHH! You are going to kill us all!”

Crawlie went back into a weeping little boy.

“If you don’t stop crying, I’ll snap your leg off this moment!” Jiang Fei roared angrily.

“Umph!” Crawlie sucked in a deep breath and tried his best not to cry.

“Now, tell me, why fear the people from the city? Tell me the truth or I’ll snap both your feet off!” said Jiang Fei with a pretended angry glare.

“Umph!” Crawlie was clearly scared down to his very soul, but eventually, he calmed down and explained everything to Jiang Fei.

Crawlie and the other Seafolk were considered as the weakest amongst all the beings that had lived in the sea. Their combat power was close to zero, making them a natural prey to practically anything that could put up a fight. Naturally, to compensate for their lack of combat power, they were gifted with an ultimate power that would prevent the death of their species; the ability to procreate at insane speed!

Hence, for a species that could multiply faster than rabbits, it created a problem for the Nagas that lived in the city. With the number of mouths to feed, food around the area became scarce. That was the exact reason why the Naga and other higher tier Seafolk had considered these lower Seafolks as bandits. They assumed that these weaker species were deliberately trying to starve the other Seafolks.

Hence, occasionally, the city would send out a few soldiers to conduct a cleansing to reduce their numbers. It was called as cleansing since they were seen as a pest that would eventually cause harm to other Seafolks.

“Oh my, oh my…”

Jiang Fei had a headache. He could not figure out who was to be blamed for this great misunderstanding.

These weaker Seafolks had to resort to procreating fast in order to prevent the extinction of their species. It was only a natural counter to being a prey to almost every predator in the sea! However, due to their unchecked procreation, they had caused a draught in resources for other Seafolks. It was very much like algae in a pond that would kill fishes due to their overgrowth.

To ensure their own survival, the stronger Seafolk had to resort to mass killing.

“Bah! This is truly uncalled for!”

If he had killed these poor, weaker Seafolks, he would be completing the quest and helping the Seafolks living in the city. On the other hand, if he had let them go, he would only be troubling the people in the city! Even if he let them go now, there would be other soldiers sent to kill them sooner or later!

“Am I supposed to teach him the art of contraceptive!?” cried Jiang Fei.

It was inevitable. It had to be done in order to please both sides.