Mission: Eliminate Fugitive 00379!

All three missions were similar, simple and straightforward. The only difference was the number of the fugitive and the location.

Still in a weakened state, Xiao Hua left Black Mist City and didn't rush immediately. The NPC's location for the current mission was quite close, and he estimated it would take about an hour to arrive. An hour later, his weakened state would still have more than ten minutes remaining.

"Tukuang brother, do you have any means of obtaining news from outside the city?" On the way, Xiao Hua asked Tukuang. Black Mist City was quite isolated, but Tukuang was one of the local strong figures in the city. If anyone had access to information, Tukuang was definitely one of them.

"It depends on what kind of news. For major events, it's impossible not to know. For minor events, with so many cities and no access to forums, it's a matter of luck. As for trivial matters, nobody can help. Why, is there something specific you want to know?" Tukuang asked curiously.

"Indeed, I want to know if any players outside have received main quests. The game's first chapter and main quests have been open for a month now; theoretically, someone should have received them by now."

"On that note, I'm not sure. So far, I haven't heard anything."

"Can you notify me as soon as possible if you get any news on this?"

"No problem, I'll contact you if I hear anything."

It seemed Tukuang was busy and soon ended the conversation.

Without any news from Tukuang, Xiao Hua had no choice but to focus on reducing his PK value. He walked leisurely along the road, deliberately controlling his pace. By the time he reached the mission location, his weakened state had just expired.

The NPC wouldn't be waiting there for him to kill. The mission location was a rocky area, and his task was to find the fugitive among the rocks and eliminate them. According to the mission prompt, he could use the search function of the Assassin Badge. If he couldn't find the fugitive using it, he would have to wait another eight hours to try again!

Looking at the messy rocks, Xiao Hua decisively used the search function. After obtaining the fugitive's location, he quickly ran over. After turning several corners, he found the fugitive next to a sharp rock.

The fugitive was a black-clothed NPC. Upon seeing Xiao Hua suddenly appear, the fugitive looked shocked and immediately tried to run away!

"You want to run from me? Dream on!" Xiao Hua sneered, with over 500 agility and the speed boost from the Phantom Ring. If the fugitive could escape, then nobody could catch this guy!

As expected, after running about ten meters, Xiao Hua caught up to the fugitive, closing the gap to a couple of meters. He used Shadow Assault, leaving the fugitive with no chance to escape.

Unable to escape, the fugitive became desperate, turning around with a dagger to stab Xiao Hua viciously.

The fugitive seemed to be an assassin, using one skill after another. Fortunately, the system was somewhat lenient, as the fugitive did not possess Stealth. Otherwise, it would have been a headache.

After fighting for a while, Xiao Hua discovered that the fugitive had average defense but high intelligence and was quite devious. Often pretending to show weaknesses to lure Xiao Hua into attacking, if Xiao Hua attacked, the fugitive would counterattack, causing damage to Xiao Hua in exchange for taking a hit.

With Xiao Hua's current attributes, eliminating the fugitive was easy. High output, attack speed, dodge rate, and critical strike rate made the fugitive seem like a mere target. Watching the high damage numbers pop up over the fugitive's head, mixed with various poison damage, Xiao Hua felt quite satisfied. He intentionally slowed down his attacks, prolonging the fight rather than quickly finishing off the fugitive.

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"I'll take you down!" The fugitive shouted after being toyed with for a while, his hatred growing.

Hearing this, Xiao Hua was alarmed. This reminded him of Leite. Was this guy planning a mutual destruction move?

The fugitive's eyes turned red, and his body swelled up. It looked like he was entering a Berserk state! After berserking, the fugitive's figure blurred as he charged at Xiao Hua, much faster than before, indicating a significant increase in attributes.

"Hehe! I can go Berserk too!" Xiao Hua was undaunted. Having the equipment, he wanted to make good use of it. The ultimate force ability of the Phantom Ring had a cooldown of only two hours, perfect for this situation.

Ultimate Force!

In an instant, Xiao Hua dodged the attack aimed at his chest with ease. Standing beside the fugitive, he swung Queen's Blade upwards, unleashing four swift strikes.

Bang! Bang!

Two critical hits occurred among the four attacks! With Xiao Hua's extremely high attack power and the additional damage from the venom, the fugitive's HP was nearly depleted, finally falling to the ground. Next to the corpse, ten black stone coins popped out.

Xiao Hua originally thought such an NPC wouldn't drop anything, but unexpectedly, ten black stone coins appeared. However, he had no use for black stone coins, so he left the corpse behind and returned to Black Mist City to turn in the mission.

After turning in the mission to Lina, he took another mission.

An hour later, Xiao Hua arrived at a vast plain. This time, the fugitive had nowhere to hide, and Xiao Hua spotted the fugitive at a glance. Seeing Xiao Hua, the fugitive naturally ran away again.

"No creativity!" Shouting as he chased, Xiao Hua gleefully pursued the fugitive.

This time, the fugitive was a thief, offering even less resistance against Xiao Hua. Without playing around, Xiao Hua quickly brought the thief down to a sliver of health.

"Hero, if you let me go, I can offer you something in exchange for my life!" Facing imminent death, the thief did not berserk like the assassin but instead knelt down, begging for mercy.

"Oh, what do you have? Let me see first." Xiao Hua said with a smile. Deceiving NPCs wasn't new to him, and he had no psychological burden doing it, needing no second thoughts.

"Here..." The thief raised his head, reaching as if to take something out, but halfway through, he suddenly touched Xiao Hua!

System Notification: You were stolen a "Large Life Recovery Potion"!

Damn it, stealing from him! Didn't he know Xiao Hua was the top thief in the game who stole without getting caught?

Xiao Hua waved his hand, and Queen's Blade flashed white light, instantly taking down the thief. Next to the corpse, besides the ten black stone coins, the Large Life Recovery Potion that was stolen also dropped out.

"The NPC thief setting is somewhat similar to players!" Seeing the potion reappear, Xiao Hua remarked in surprise.

In the game, thieves can steal from players, but apart from increasing PK value, there are some special rules restricting player theft. If the theft fails, the victim remains unaware. However, if successful, the stolen item is marked by the system. For the following hour, the victim receives updates every two minutes on the item's coordinates. During this period, the item cannot be traded. If the thief is killed, the stolen item drops with 100% certainty, and the thief suffers double death penalties.

This setting is somewhat similar to the theft of guild warehouses, but unlike guild theft, anyone can pick up the dropped item once the thief dies. After someone picks it up, the system removes the mark, ceasing further notifications. Compared to guild theft, it's much more lenient. In the beta test, a famous theft incident occurred where a guild escaped the Myth Guild's pursuit thanks to this setting, losing only one piece of equipment while successfully stealing the rest.

This setting was one of the complaints from the Myth Guild, but the game developers did not change it.

Although Xiao Hua had fantasized about stealing from players, it was too troublesome. Each theft attempt, whether successful or not, adds +1 PK value. According to beta testers' experiences, less than ten percent of stolen items were worn equipment; most were items in the backpack, mostly inexpensive potions. Now that the game had adjusted the stealing skill, Xiao Hua knew the chances of stealing worn equipment were even lower. However, the possibility still existed, and player complaints about the low probability were dismissed by the developers citing luck.

Thus, theft incidents in the game were not frequent, and rumors of players losing top-tier equipment were unheard of. Part of the reason was that PK was prohibited in cities, and stealing was considered a form of PK. Attempting to steal in the city would result in immediate capture by city guards, with the stolen item returned to the victim.

On the other hand, attempting to steal in the wild was practically suicide. In the wild, if someone saw a thief suddenly appear, they would likely kill them without hesitation. Killing the thief would be justified, and nobody would pity a thief with ill intentions lurking nearby!