Chapter 422 - 416 : A Surprise Meeting

"Hmm? Any problem?" The burly NPC who led the others alongside the merchant turned back and glanced at the NPC who had collided with Sato.

"Nothing, boss. Just some dumb kid who had his eyes behind his head." The NPC answered nonchalantly.

"Okay. Just keep your head focused on this mission."

"No problem boss. Isn't it just to find a kid and his sickly mom? This should be easy."

As the duo discussed, Sato had already reached his carriage and taken a seat as he waited for the carriage to get filled. 

Some carriage stations operated by time which meant that at a certain time, the carriage would depart regardless of whether it was filled up or not, just like it's done in almost every transportation company in reality. At the same time, some carriages operated on a different system that required the carriage to get filled with passengers before it would leave. The station Sato had arrived at worked in that exact way.

The carriage had a total of 25 seats and 16 of them had already been booked. To pass the time, Sato opened up his system interface and began browsing the forums to get updated on the important events that had occurred recently.

[[ System interface :

Forum Headlines :

GOD TYRANT MAKES AN APPEARANCE WITH 30 DEAD AND 23 RUNNING WITH THEIR LIVES…

ILLICARD VS HUNTER X; THE BEEF THAT LIVED THROUGH VRMMORPGs

THE LARGEST MANHUNT SO FAR; THE HISTORY OF THE TEAM LEADER OF SEVEN STAR GLORY AND THE SHAME THAT BECAME OF A SUPER GUILD'S BRANCH…

MONSTER WAVE DEFEATED; SOVEREIGN STANDS SUPREME!!!…

LIFESTYLE CLASSES COULD BE THE NEXT THING. CLICK TO LEARN HOW…

. . . ]]

'A god class player has already made an appearance?' Sato grimaced as he read the first headline news.

Since he didn't specify a location for his forum feed, Sato's feed was filled with the top popular headlines from the different servers that operated on IR's mainnet, hence the reason why he saw various news not particular to Black Rock province.

The news about the appearance of a god class player was ranked number one because not only were such players very rare to find but they usually wouldn't be active this early in the game. An unspoken rule existed amongst the apex players to avoid facing off with weaker players unless it was related to their dignity or something very important to them. Therefore, news related to either god-ranked Experts or even monster-ranked Experts was almost impossible to find this early in the game. It was as if they had disappeared and couldn't be found. Apart from a few clips with their appearance in it, this was the very first battle video released that showed a battle between a god-ranked Expert against a team of players hence the reason it had the most views and was ranked at the top of the forums.

Next in line was a battle between two famous monster-ranked Experts; the first one being a popular dark player that terrorized a lot of players and guilds, including super guilds. As for the other player, he was a hunter; a group of players who targeted dark players. 

Just as dark players targeted players, hunters targeted dark players. They were usually hired by other guilds to hunt down a dark player or take care of a dark team or guild that have been harassing them. In simpler, terms, they were mercenaries who specialised in killing. However, unlike dark players, hunters didn't kill players only. They also ran dungeons[1] and helped other teams slay BOSSES, including world-class BOSSES.

The most popular hunter guild was the Liberation League and Hunter X was one of the guild's vice guild leaders. He and Illicard had a fight that began in a different VR game and they had carried their bad blood through more than 2 VR games already, with IR making it the 4th one. Due to the pre-existing bad blood between them as well as their ranks, the hype for the battle was at the highest; only below that of the news related to God Tyrant.

As for the third place on the top headlines, it went to none other than Sato, for not only taking on a super guild branch's raid team as well as that of a top 1st tier guild's at the same time but also leading a team that took the first kill for a world-class BOSS. The latter alone was more than enough to earn him a spot on the headlines much less the former added in as a topping. This lead to the news related to Sato taking third place. 

4th place was also an interesting piece of news that managed to attract Sato's attention as it had to do with his cousin, Genma's guild, Sovereign.

As Sato read through each headline as well as the tags related to it, the carriage slowly began to fill up. Only 2 seats were left empty before the driver arrived and announced that they were about to depart. Though confused about the development, Sato didn't think much about it.

"Hiyaa!"

The carriage driver swung his whip at the 2 creatures that pulled the carriage.

The monsters looked like horses except that they had a more aggressive aura around them as well as their ferocious appearance that could scare the bravest of dogs. With a larger mane, aggressive red eyes, and a more muscly but taut physique compared to that of horses, these monsters didn't look like your average farm animals. They were Holfers, strange monster beasts that were said to be an evolved version of regular horses due to cross-breeding with a certain type of monster as well as the natural absorption of man into their body to improve genetics.

Holfers were wild creatures that weren't easy to tame and so, required the aid of a beats tamer to pull it off. After birth, a young holfer could easily overpower an adult horse and in adulthood, they were equivalent to 6 horses. Because of the difficulty in breeding them as well as in raising them and breeding, Holfers were quite expensive and only used by carriage companies for transportation. Since there were much luxurious and cheaper alternatives out there, holfers weren't so common on the roads, especially in towns. 

The carriage kept moving on the road for a while, exiting the city in just 10 minutes whereas it would take Sato 30-40 minutes just to do the same by feet. After moving on the road for almost another 10 minutes, the carriage came to a stop as two individuals joined the ride and occupied the last two seats. Coincidentally, the two seats just happened to be in front of Sato. Beside him was another seat but it was occupied by a rude-looking NPC.

The passengers were a bit surprised at the sight of the duo but they didn't think too much about it, presuming that the duo had already booked their seats before or something.

As the duo's seats were positioned right in front of Sato, they walked towards him and Sato was able to get a good glimpse of them. He was surprised to see that it was a pale-faced middle-aged woman and a young boy who supported her with his arms. As for the reason for his shock, it was because the young boy so happened to be the guide that had led him around the city.

"Long time no see." Sato greeted with a smile.

"Oh mister, it's you!" The young boy said with wide eyes. He was stunned to see Sato here as he never expected the young man who had recently arrived in the city to suddenly depart from it.

"Hmm." Sato simply nodded without saying much. There was no reason to inform the young NPC of his destination so Sato didn't bother to do so.

"Is that your mother?" Sato asked as he glanced at the pale-skinned lady beside the young boy. He looked quite similar to her and since the lady looked older, Sato presumed her to be his mother.

"Yes, sir." The young boy simply replied and said no more.

Seeing that he wasn't going to say much, Sato no longer paid him any attention.

"Why don't you go take a seat and stop wasting our time. Don't you know that the carriage hasn't left yet cause you're still standing?" The NPC sitting beside Sato growled at the young boy while giving a side-eye to Sato.

"So-sorry about that." The young boy hurriedly replied as he escorted his mother to her seat before taking his.

Sato ignored the NPC who gave him a bad eye since he wasn't bothered to argue with an NPC. However, Sato still noticed a malicious glint in the NPC's eyes as he glanced at the young boy and his mother.

Sato frowned at this but since the NPC didn't make any move, he didn't do anything either.

With the duo finally taking their seats, the carriage driver resumed the journey as the holfers began running at full speed once again.

"The target is with me. I repeat, the target is with me."