Chapter 134: A Straight Flush With a Joker Part 2

…… So it means that I’ll have to venture a little bit far to get to the GGC convention center, but for now let’s try and verify if that quest is really a Unique Quest flag.

「Say, Rust, I know that it’s been a while since you last logged in here, but do you actually know if this quest wasn’t taken by someone else already?」

「…… I think we’re fine for now. Besides, not that many people are aware of that quest in the first place.」

The quest in question, “Punching the Apostle of the Abyss” was supposed to be given by the NPC named “Self-Proclaimed Great Pirate Staude”. But it seems that they only know so much, for they didn’t manage to push that quest any further.

「The first time we came here Rust got in a fight with the NPCs…… Um, and it only got weirder from there.」

「They were all so squishy…… Hardly even worth drawing my bow…… And they forgot to address me properly.」

「Ah, that’s right…… Rust uses both “Magic Bows” and “Great Bows” respectively, hence her STR is quite high. So when it comes to NPCs, just punching them normally is enough to send them flying.」

「Ahh……」

I had no words to say to that, but the fact that Rust would start brawls just like that hardly came as a surprise to me. Apparently during their brawl they’ve been stranded in some really far and remote location, and that’s where they found the “Self-Proclaimed Great Pirate”. Does that mean that in order to find him we need to beat the crap out of a certain number of NPCs? But remembering Pencilgton’s words, assaulting the NPCs would still give you negative karma. Does that mean there was something else? Another possibility that was beyond my comprehension at the current moment?

First of all, killing the players and killing the NPCs was considered equally as bad in this game. In a system like that, only a small minority would consider exploiting the NPCs instead of going out of town and fighting monsters, bosses and clearing the dungeons. It wasn’t a hole in the system…… more of a blind spot, really.

「So, I guess the quest itself is…… To hunt down this whole Ghost Ship, right? That’s what this Pirate-Wannabe Sh*thead wants?」

「Sh*thead is a little bit……」

「Oh, hey, if he’s like that, then “Sh*thead” is putting it lightly. At least I think so.」

Even though Mold may have thought it was going a little bit overboard, I must say that in my eyes it was really hard to become a “Sh*thead” just like that. You’d really need to earn your title through lots of hard work, and that would only serve to prove me right. Take “Sh*t Chronicles Online”, for example. It’s not everyday that some game manages to reach those levels of “Sh*ttiness” without actually trying to do just that.

There was even a character in “Sh*t Chronicles Online” like that. A character of pure evil, who’s every action and word were the epitome of sh*ttiness, of which even that character was not aware of. As a part of the story he was the beloved child of spirits, and as a villain he crossed paths with the Heroes on many occasions, every time becoming even sh*ttier than the last. Sending thugs after the party, poisoning wells, setting forests on fire, breeding monsters, stealing key items from the places they were supposed to be enshrined in…… He wasn’t evil or a threat. Just a major nuisance and inconvenience.

And even though you keep defeating them over and over again, they just keep coming back for more ass-whooping. Why? Because of a bullsh*t reason like “The Fairies love you more than me!” Not to mention that making someone like that a boss is a complete and utter joke, hardly ever worth mentioning in walkthroughs or creating them wiki pages.

Just how someone like that was able to come back for more beating and grow in power is beyond me. Not to mention causing major inconveniences to the party, to the point where you had to beat him again in order to have some peace and quiet for a while. And how can other NPCs allow such a guy to run free and do whatever the hell he wants!?

If Sh*t Chronicles Online were rated R-18, then surely a sh*tty villain like that would meet a rather gruesome end by the hand of all the people who were tired of all of his sh*t. But is that a good thing to do? Is it a correct way to handle a character like that? But no, in the game after you beat his ass one last time he realizes his mistakes and you’re all back to being best friends? Just give me a fucking break……

「That’s right, to become this “sh*tty” you’d really need to work hard to earn such a questionable title……」

A few minutes later.

「Good to see you, laddie! I am the Great Pirate Strude! Be sure to remember that, cause I’m the one who said it!」

It’s a really strange feeling, but just from that one line I already knew that this quest is really going to be a major pain in the ass.