(Edit: High level vs low level pvp is now limited with the exception of unrestricted zone)

Chapter 6: Bounties

Empress was broke once again. After purchasing the castle, her coffers ran empty. She sighed as she looked down upon Northfront City from a rooftop. She needed to find a way to make some cash. With money, she could afford to hire more servants and restore her castle to its rightful shape.

Robbing a bank may have been viable in the starting zone, but now it wasn’t a good idea.  Normally player versus player combat was limited to level range.  However, banks were set in unrestricted zones, allowing high levels players to pick on the weak.  Luckily, she had some other ideas to make money.  

Empress teleported towards Northfront Plaza, one of the busiest zones in all of DoG Online. As she approached, NPC guards watched her cautiously, emanating incredibly powerful waves of energy, reminding her that they could kill her instantly if she caused trouble.

As she entered the plaza, hundreds of other players entered her sights. Some flew, some walked, some teleported. Some wore spandex, some wore casual clothing, and some wore full plate armor. They carried various weapons too. They had everything from katanas to assault rifles.

Empress sighed in admiration. The population of Dawn of Gaia was truly diverse.

After taking a moment to appreciate the view, she headed towards a crowd that was gathered around a board. The word “Bounty” was highlighted in bold upon its surface.

 Right before she approached the board, she opened up her character menu.

Name: Empress

Level: 10

Powers: Force field level 5 (86%), Minor teleportation level 5 (72%).

Notoriety: 2150

Fame: 1300

Credits: 0

She sighed as she looked at the pathetic values. She desperately needed to increase her wealth and strength.

After gazing at her status for a moment, she turned back towards the bounty board. The bounty board was organized by reputation points and by credit reward. In order to take on a certain mission, you had to have a specific amount of notoriety or fame.

With 2150 notoriety, Empress was qualified to take on a level 2 mission. Missions increased in level every 1000 reputation points. There were a total of 100 levels, indicating how far behind Empress truly was.

She cast her eyes over the information on the board. She needed to find a mission that suited her level of expertise. After reading the information for a while, she found a good target.

Missions that required notoriety had targets who were superheroes, while missions that required fame targeted villains. Since Empress used her notoriety to find a mission, she would be targeting a superhero.

The target in question was named Rex. He was a level 13 hero whose superpower was supposedly super strength; he had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Apparently he had arrested a low level villain, resulting in a bounty placed on his head in revenge. The reward for defeating him was 100,000 credits.

Empress accepted the mission without hesitation. She didn’t believe the target would be difficult to kill. 

Just as she was about to walk away, she felt stares on her back. Numerous eyes fell upon her.

Vivian felt her skin crawl.

“Why are they staring at me?” she wondered uncomfortably. Although her outfit was pretty eye-catching, it was nothing compared to the other people nearby.

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It was at that moment she heard a few whispers. The words “Empress”, “bounty”, and “one million” caught her ears.

She went pale. She looked at the bounty board once more, this time looking at the section organized by credit reward.

At the one million mark she saw her name and a picture of her face. 

“Rai!” She gnashed her teeth. He was the only person she could think of who would put that much money on her head.

This would make her life much more difficult. She didn’t want to die. Although she had zero credits and was already low on the leaderboard, she didn’t want to fall further than she already was. Death was also surprisingly painful. Most importantly, she didn’t want to give Rai the satisfaction of getting his revenge.

Luckily, she had one boon. Only people with equal levels of fame or notoriety could accept the bounty. This would at least prevent high level players from getting the reward by killing her.

The bad news was that one million credits was a ton of money to low level players. It would be hard to say how many people would hunt her down.

She needed to leave, fast.

Empress used her teleportation ability, trying to gain as much distance from the plaza as possible. Although she would be safe in the plaza, she couldn’t afford to stay there forever.

The second she teleported, dozens of players dashed towards her. Greed was evident in their eyes.

Almost instantly, a beam of multi-colored light headed towards her back. A ray of darkness followed closely.

She threw up her barriers, barely managing to block the attacks. Her force fields trembled under the impact.

Empress’s face turned ugly. The players were strong. She needed to lose them as soon as possible.

The chase continued. Players dashed through the streets of Northfront City. Various abilities were employed in an attempt to stop her movement.

One player split into dozens of clones, dashing down various streets in an attempt to flank her.

Another player used a scrying ability, allowing them to always know Empress’s location.

Empress wasn’t a meek lamb though. Whenever she would get the opportunity, she would hurl a barrier towards the chasing players. Although she had failed to kill anybody, numerous people suffered from broken bones.

The only reason why Empress was able to escape so far was because of her teleportation ability. However, teleportation was draining, and she wasn’t the only person with a movement power. They were catching up quickly.

Empress panicked, realizing that she had ran into an unrestricted zone.  

At that moment, a songlike voice echoed through the streets. Causing the victim and her pursuers to freeze in place.

All of a sudden the voice increased frequency, becoming a high-pitched scream that forced Empress to summon a barrier around her ears to block the noise.

She was lucky. Shortly afterwards, the heads of her chasers exploded, turning the entire street red.

Empress’s eyes went wide in horror. That could have been her. A few more seconds and her barriers would have cracked.

It was at that moment, a woman descended from the sky. It was Crescendo.

Crescendo waved at Empress with a smile.

Vivian removed the barriers from her ears warily, ready to put them back up at a moment’s notice.

“Sorry about that~” Crescendo sang, “I’m glad you’re a quick thinker. I would have hated to kill you~”

“What are you doing here?” Empress asked, narrowing her eyebrows.

“Helping you!” Crescendo smiled, “I was in the plaza and saw the situation. I just wanted to provide some assistance.”

“Well, thanks.”

“No problem~” Crescendo laughed, “Anyways, I better get going. Cya around~”

Empress watched Crescendo leave, confused.