Chapter 66: Zero Hour

After eating, Furuwa logged off, saying she had some homework to do. Horiya and Ichigo also went offline since they wanted to do some research on the game, maybe find a faster way to farm XP or whatnot. But really, this game has only been out for a little over a week. Hardly anyone could be called an expert and create tutorials. Jim logged off too, since he needed to prepare material for his lecture tomorrow.

So, only Hina-nee and I were left behind. We sighed and decided to just head to the inn and rest for a little before setting out again when it was nighttime.

"That was clever, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee snickered as we walked.

She was, of course, referring to how I told the others a half-truth, half-lie method on how to farm XP as fast as possible.

"Yeah, well… I still couldn't trap Furuwa," I muttered, slightly frustrated with myself.

"That's not your fault, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee smiled and comforted me. "Chiaki-san is just really careful. Also, I don't think she saw through your plan at all. I believe she was being genuine when she said she worked better alone."

"Hm… maybe," I sighed. "Well, for now, let's just head back to an inn, and-"

"CALLING ALL HUNTERS! EMERGENCY!" a loud voice suddenly boomed, echoing across the city. "I repeat, this is an EMERGENCY! All Hunters who can hear this, meet at the guild - NOW!"

Hina-nee and I exchanged glances, and gave a firm nod. Together, we set off in the direction of the guild branch to investigate.

*****

When we arrived at the guild, there were tons of people inside, even more than there had been this afternoon when we first registered. It was extremely noisy and rowdy as everyone tried to figure out what was going on.

"Everyone! Calm down! The situation will be explained shortly!" a handsome young man wearing a suit and square glasses yelled, and the crowd quieted down a little to wait patiently.

I noticed the guy I had beaten up was also here, though he didn't seem to have noticed me yet. I took advantage of this and ran a quick little 'Inspect' on him.

[Name: Hiaki Leo]

[Gender: Male]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 20]

STR: 60

AGI: 30

INT: 30

DEX: 30

MAG: 10

LUC: 30

Hm… fairly balanced stats, with the exception of STR and MAG, the outliers. His name, however, made it clear that he's a hybrid - one of his parents was Japanese, while the other was probably foreign. Unless, of course, that was a fake name. I wonder if that was possible, using a fake name. It should be, for privacy reasons - at least, if it were possible, I would definitely use it. The default setting was just your real name though.

I scanned the rest of the crowd and noticed that I was unable to 'Inspect' some people. They were probably the natives of Ascentia - non-players, in other words.

Hiaki was 3 levels above me right now, so I decided to use his stats as a standard and compare them to my own, since I haven't done that in a while, having been so busy. Pulling up the 'Profile' tab of my System, I observed.

[Name: Igarashi Kaze]

[Gender: Male]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 17]

STR: 120

AGI: 100

INT: 49

DEX: 50

MAG: 40

LUC: 5

I was shocked at how strong my STR and AGI stats were, but I didn't let it show on my face. Hina-nee peeked over my shoulder and covered her mouth in surprise, but quickly hid her expression. My STR stat was twice as much as that of a player 3 levels above me… but perhaps that wasn't a good enough comparison.

Hiaki's stat total was 190 - the total amount of SP you would have upon reaching Level 20, for normal players. However, my stat total was 364, despite being three levels lower. With a little calculation… my current overall power level was equivalent to that of a Level 38, which should have 370 SP to spend. In other words, I could currently fight someone who was double my level.

I shifted my gaze to the SP and AP column, and saw that I had 20 SP and 4 AP to spend. However, I didn't get the chance to level up my stats now as the young man from earlier grabbed a megaphone of some kind and shouted into it.

"Everyone, I apologize for the wait!" he began, bowing deeply. "Just now, we were trying to recruit as many people as possible, because this mission… it will be extremely dangerous."

Even now, there were only around fifty people, but it was probably the most they could muster given the time - 8 PM. Most people had already returned to their respective homes to just relax and rest, and most players who had jobs or school the following day also have gotten off already.

"I heard this was an emergency quest?" someone amidst the crowd asked.

The man nodded. "Yes, but please save the questions for after I'm done speaking. We don't have much time."

An emergency quest… according to what I read in the Hunter's Handbook, these usually have extraordinary rewards but are quite difficult as well… meaning lots of XP. Looks like Hina-nee and I hit the jackpot this time - we need to take advantage of this and climb levels ahead of the other four.

"This emergency quest this time is regarding a Monster horde that has been spotted south of the city, in the Keldo Forest," the man explained. "Our scouts have predicted that they will reach the city gates in four hours - at midnight."

"What?! In just four hours?!" a roar erupted through the crowd.

"How has no one found out about this earlier?!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"I went to the forest myself just earlier today! There were no Monsters!"

"Quiet down!" the man yelled through the megaphone. "The reason why no one has spotted them during the daytime was because they are only visible at night - and obviously, no one travels to the forests after dark. We only managed to find out about it today because they're currently at the city's defensive borders and are working to break down the force field there!"

"But if it's just a few Monsters…" someone began.

"It's not just a 'few'," the man interrupted, and his expression turned grim. "It's a horde - hundreds of them, at the very least. The force field will not hold long."

"What?!" a collective reaction of shock emerged from the crowd.

"Not only this, but they are a species we have never seen before," the man continued. "They look like floating white ghosts, and can freely pass through all forms of physical attacks. Moreover, if you let them come into contact with you for long enough… they will appear to extract your soul, turning you into one of them. Many of our scouts have fallen to this ability."

"So, only hidden arts are effective against these… things?" a woman amongst the crowd asked.

"That is correct."

"How strong are they, on average?" another asked.

The man frowned. "Individually, they are not really strong, but as I said, there are over hundreds of them, and they can only be harmed by hidden arts. Additionally… if you are touched…"

"Speaking of, what do you do after being touched by one of them?"

"Try and break free from their grasp," the man replied. "However, beware. Breaking free is no easy task as their grips are extremely strong, and if you are unable to do so within three seconds, you will have your soul taken and become one of them as well. So, the best option is to just not get touched in the first place. As for the reward… I will get to that in a second. Any more questions?"

The crowd murmured quietly amongst each other, but no one else spoke out.

The man, realizing this, nodded in satisfaction. "Good! The reward of this emergency quest will be 1,000 gold for every Monster you slay! After you take one down, remember to use your guild card to capture evidence! However, make sure no other Monsters are in the area, lest you get attacked by surprise!"

The crowd roared in excitement. 1,000 gold for every Monster… that means if you killed ten, you would receive 10,000 gold.

"One more thing - I suggest you form groups, there is strength in numbers," the man advised, and the Hunters did as told.

This seems like a great deal on the surface, but there were many problems to this. For example, this would lead to many people trying to steal kills - the guild card would only activate for evidence-taking if you were the one who killed the target, but whether you stole that kill or not doesn't matter.

Undoubtedly, this could lead to internal conflict between the Hunters, and many will choose to work alone despite him telling them to form groups.

But of course, that wasn't any of my concern. To Hina-nee and I, this was like a godsend of XP, especially since our foes were Monsters this time around. All we needed to do was just take advantage of it.

"Is everyone ready?" the man asked the crowd after a while. "We don't have much time! If we are to make it to the forest before the force field breaks, we have to leave now!"

"Ready!" the crowd shouted back, having formed many groups already. However, there were just as many groups as there were Hunters working solo. Hina-nee and I would, obviously, be a duo.

"Alright. Let's head out!" he announced. "As for the name of this operation… it shall be 'Zero Hour'!"

Zero hour, for midnight… I like it.

With that, we set out of Qilian City. The citizens who didn't know the context were a bit frightened to see so many Hunters head out all at once, but didn't dare to stop us and ask questions. It was clear we were in a hurry, after all.

Hina-nee and I purposefully took up the rear end to not attract any attention. A hologram appeared in front of us as we walked towards the gates.

[New Public Event]

[Zero Hour]

[Slay the Phantoms invading Qilian City. Time remaining: 00:03:46:78.]

Phantoms, huh?

I noticed that many of the other Hunters up ahead also had a similar hologram appear in front of them, while some didn't. That was the difference between players and the natives of this reality plane - the NPCs. Of course, the NPCs themselves didn't know any of this, but we, as the players, did.

Dismissing the holograms, we exited Qilian City in search of the white ghost-like Monsters.