Chapter 155

Puck!
Bobobo’s axe slammed into the user’s shoulder. At the same time, a message appeared stating that hostilities had begun, and Bobobo and his guildmates continued to swing their axes at the panicked user, who tried to flee.
“You bastards…why are you suddenly–”
Soon after, the user uttered his last words and collapsed. Bobobo and his guildmates looked around with smiles on their faces. The sudden PK caused the players to look at Bobobo and his guildmates and then turn away and go their separate ways. Bobobo turned his gaze back to his guildmates and said, “I’m sorry.
“Let’s go reset the offender count.”
Bobobo and his guildmates had just killed a user, and their criminal stats had gone up. Since we only killed one user, and it wasn’t an NPC, we didn’t increase the criminal level that much, but we had to reset it just in case.
Jumbled
Bobobo and the guild members began walking to the temple to reset the criminal count.
“By the way, Mr. Bobobo, how many of us are you catching?”
At Nekton’s question, Bobobo thought for a moment, then spoke up.
“Did you see the guild mark earlier?”
“If you mean the blacksmith I just killed, I saw him.”
“There’s six of them now, but it’s only going to get bigger, so just kill the guy with the guildmark, and don’t worry, the guild will cover the cost of resetting your offender count.”
“Hmph, I see.”
Just like that, Bobobo and Necton arrived at the temple talking, and after resetting their criminal numbers, they headed back to the entrance of the imperial palace.
“Oh, there it is again!”
As if they had been waiting for them to arrive, just as they reached the entrance to the palace, a user wearing the Smith Guild’s guild mark walked out of the palace. Upon recognizing the user’s face, Bobobo smiled broadly.
“Ha-ha-ha, Smith’s Guild Guilmar!”
Bobobo smiled broadly, because the user who had just come out was Gilma of the Smith Guild. Bobobo smiled eerily once more and spoke to the guild members.
“Let’s go.”
With that, Bobobo and his guildmates began to walk along the Smith Guild’s path.
“I don’t see any guards, so where do we start?”
Necton, looking around to make sure there were no guards, said to Bobobo.
“Looks like they’re headed to the exchange anyway, let’s go to the user area and catch them.”
But Bobobo shook his head. He was on his way to the exchange anyway, and in a few minutes he’d be in a user area that guards rarely patrolled, so it wasn’t too late to kill him.
“Yes!”
Necton nodded in response to Bobobo’s words. A moment later, as they entered the user area, Bobobo ran forward and blocked the path of the target, Smith Guild’s Gilma.
“…?”
As expected, Smith Guild’s Gilma looked at Bobobo who stood in front of her with a puzzled expression, and Bobobo smiled and said.
“You must be Mr. Heimer?”
“…Yes, but who are you?”
“We’ll talk about that later… just die!”
Bobobo swung his axe at Heimer, who looked puzzled. Heimer, already sensing that something was amiss, quickly ducked back as the axe flew by and shouted, “I’m out of the way!
“What, what are you doing!”
Bobobo said nothing in response to Heimer’s cries, only swung his axe in silence. Unlike the blacksmith who had been killed earlier, Heimer dodged the blow.
“W-what are you guys!”
However, Heimer couldn’t help but look puzzled when he saw the approaching Twin Axe Guild members. The approaching Twin Axe Guild members began swinging their axes like bobobos.
“Y-you bastards.”
Eventually, after dodging the axe, Heimer cried out through clenched teeth as his guildmates continued their relentless axing.
* * * * *
Heimer and Leto, founding members of the Smith’s Guild, which was based out of the Imperial Palace Forge, and the user smiths were talking with serious expressions on their faces.
“Heimer, this time it was Dinger…”
“…Mr. Dinger?”
“Yes.”
Heimer frowned slightly at Leto’s words.
“Is it them again?”
“Yes.”
“Ha ha… assholes.”
Heimer sighed deeply and muttered to himself.
“…”
“…”
But Heimer’s ranting didn’t deter the user smiths. It was then. Leto opened his mouth and spoke.
“I’m not sure…”
Leto shook his head, then continued.
“I don’t think the reason they’re killing us… is for the meritorious errand they said they were doing.”
“Really?”
At Heimer’s question, Leto turned his gaze to the valveized workbench in front of him.
“The people who are killing us now… are the same guild that Ming Hu robbed.”
“The Twin Axe Guild?”
“Yeah, I’m guessing he’s killing us as revenge for the fact that his guild was treated like an asshole guild by the blacksmith.”
Heimer and the User Blacksmiths nodded at Leto’s words. They had a point. When Heimer and the User Blacksmiths nodded in agreement with his words, Leto continued.
“Shouldn’t we tell Mingfu about this situation and ask him to help, since he once said that if there was anything he could do to help, he would…”
“No.”
But Heimer shook his head and disagreed with Leto like a knife.
“With your help, I’m sure I can get away with it this time, but what if it happens again? I can’t always turn to you for help.”
As Heimer had said, if I told Ming Hu, we could work something out, but there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again, and I couldn’t go to Ming Hu for help every time it did.
“So… what are you going to do?”
Heimer smirked at Leto’s question.
“We’re not going to let them into the palace anyway, so we’re just collecting karma for the time being.”
“So… What about the elixirs, are we giving that up for the time being?”
After hearing Heimer’s words, the user asked. Heimer responded to the user’s question, still smiling.
“No, we’ll schedule a time once a day and go in a group, and if we go in a group, they won’t be able to touch us because of the number of criminals.”
“What if they still attack?”
“If they still attack… I think we can take turns hiring soldiers, though it’ll cost us a lot of credit, and they won’t be able to touch you if you’re with them.”
Leto and the users nodded at Heimer’s words. Then a thought occurred to Leto, and he opened his mouth to speak.
“But… wouldn’t that stop them from attacking us, but it wouldn’t solve the underlying problem?”
They would be safe for the time being if they stayed with the soldiers, but that would only make them safer, not solve the situation. The users nodded again in agreement with Leto’s words. Heimer, however, had a strange smile on his face.
“…?”
Leto looked questioningly at Heimer, who had a strange smile on his face, and Heimer opened his mouth to speak.
“Hmph, that’s sooner rather than later. I… I got a promotion quest.”
“What! Really?”
“Holy crap!”
Heimer’s words startled Leto and the users. Leto said to Heimer with a surprised look on his face.
“So you’re a full-fledged blacksmith now?”
“Yes, I think I’ll be a full-fledged blacksmith soon, haha!”
Laughing out loud, Heimer continued with an eerie smile.
“The day I become a full-fledged blacksmith… this situation will end. Until then, do as I say.”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“I can’t wait for that day to come!”
The grim faces of the users lit up.
* * * * *
[You have completed the quest].
[Helioca’s notoriety has increased by 800,000].
[Gain an additional 10% Merit for being recognized by Canon].
[Helioca’s notoriety increased by 80000].
“Good luck.”
“Goodbye.”
After completing the quest, Ming Hu bows to Cannon and walks away. As he walked, Ming Hu opened his character window to see how much Merit he had earned to date.
Nationality : Helioca [Empire]
Age: 22 Occupation: Blood Knight/Strong Smith
Reputation: 676000 Achievements: 54442970
Levels: 256
Life: 3176050
Mana: 11420
Blood pressure: 1573
Strength : 157330 [15733(+7200)] Dexterity : 165 Constitution : 607(+500) Intelligence : 10 Wisdom : 311
Dexterity: 319
Seeing the official map made me smile.
“Now… Let’s go shopping.”
Ming Hu muttered as he closed the character window and opened the pet window. In the first and second slots, Prominus and Karot had nothing but weapons and no other equipment. He could easily outfit both pets now, if he was good enough.
“Above all… It’s important to buy them, but…”
Of course, there was something more important than the two pets’ gear.
“Oops. I should have gone to the guitar shed first.”
Even more important than the two pets’ equipment was the Guitar Storehouse. After collecting the merit points, Ming Hu went back to the treasure room to buy the bracelet, and after purchasing the bracelet, he went to the guitar warehouse and was moved to tears by the items there.
“If only… I wouldn’t have bought the items.”
There were items in the Guitar Warehouse that were more important to Ming Hu than anything else. Ming Hu closed the pet window and began to walk to the treasure trove, hoping to match the items in the Miscellaneous Storage with those in the Prominence and Karot.