Chapter 168: The Red Name Enters the City

With an excited heart, Nie Yan walked towards the location of the dark golden chest. Upon reaching it, he tried to open the chest with the key.

The key fit the lock perfectly. Nie Yan could feel that the lock mechanism inside was extremely complicated. Even an expert-level lockpicker might not be able to open it.

System: Opening treasure chest. 1%… 10%…

After a while, the chest clicked open.

Nie Yan reached inside and pulled out quite a few items. This chest was truly a treasure trove. He tallied up the items:

Essence of Fire Spirit: Quantity 3.

Magical Black Gold Pattern: Quantity 6.

Magical Rune Stone: Quantity 6.

These were all materials needed to craft the Rider’s Crossbow of the Headless Knight Doro. If Nie Yan had to search for these materials himself, he wouldn’t know where to start. Fortunately, opening this dark golden chest directly provided these raw materials. As for the other two materials required for the crossbow—high-grade magical nanmu wood and high-grade fire mother crystal—they were somewhat expensive but occasionally appeared at auction houses, so they weren’t particularly rare.

Besides these materials, Nie Yan also obtained a gem and a skill book.

Dark Gem (9): Can be socketed. Additional attributes: Converts 10% of attack into dark piercing damage, 1% chance to ignore defense. Equipment requirement -10%.

This gem was actually of quality level 9, making it an extremely rare and valuable gem. Nie Yan gave a bitter smile. Although he had such a great gem, he couldn’t find suitable equipment to match it. Putting such a high-quality gem into low-level equipment would be like sticking a flower into cow dung. Unless he could find equipment of sub-legendary grade, it would be more suitable. If he could craft that rider’s crossbow, it would be a better match for this gem.

As for the other skill book, after taking a look, Nie Yan’s body trembled. It was actually the Lockpicking skill, and not just any—it was the best Lockpicking Expert skill book! It came with two special effects: a 10% chance to gain an additional point of skill proficiency each time a treasure chest is opened, and ignores chest level +1.

Currently, he only had the basic Lockpicking skill, but for Nie Yan, increasing his Lockpicking skill proficiency wasn’t difficult. He knew the locations of many locked treasure chests and could spend some time leveling up his Lockpicking skill, which would allow him to open higher-level chests.

After learning the Lockpicking Expert skill, Nie Yan stood up and scanned the nearby area. There were no other chests left, so he got up to leave. His backpack was almost full. If it weren’t for another magical rune backpack he had obtained later, he would have run out of space long ago.

It was time to return to the city. Anyway, his reputation in Karol City had already exceeded 30 points.

He took out a black robe from his backpack to hide his appearance but gave up since his red name status couldn’t be hidden.

Nie Yan began to activate the recall scroll. A flash of white light enveloped him, and he returned to Karol City’s teleportation array.

At this time, there were many players gathered around the teleportation array in Karol City. Some were forming parties to level up or hunt monsters, others were waiting for teammates, and some had just teleported in from various locations. They all looked at Nie Yan, dressed in a black robe, with stunned expressions.

“Damn, he dares to return to the city while having a red name. He must be suicidal, suicidal! Tell me if you want to die, I can send you back to the graveyard.”

“How many people has he killed? His red name is so intense.”

“Isn’t he afraid the guards will kill him?”

The players murmured and made way for him. Nie Yan, wearing a black robe that concealed his face, exuded an air of mystery and danger. Unable to see Nie Yan’s face, the players’ first impression was that this guy was extremely dangerous!

Nie Yan glanced at the nearby players, who felt a chill and quickly retreated.

PK was forbidden within the city, but Nie Yan’s red name still made the players feel immense pressure.

A group of fully armed, silver-armored Karol City guards approached, and the players quickly made way.

“This guy is dead meat.”

The players were delighted, thinking Nie Yan had no chance against these guards. This squad of Karol City guards were all at least level 100 elites, their uniform equipment exuding a strong aura of authority and discipline.

However, what happened next was like a thunderclap, leaving them all stunned and their minds blank.

The group of Karol City guards did not attack Nie Yan. One of the guards even stepped forward respectfully.

“Honored Demon Hunter, greetings,” the guard leader said respectfully.

Nie Yan nodded slightly and ignored the guards, walking directly toward the Bull Tribe guild headquarters. These guards were only responsible for maintaining order and had no authority within Karol City, so there was no need to acknowledge them.

Nie Yan passed by the guards clad in silver armor.

Nothing happened. The guards didn’t dare to kill this red-named player, which completely defied the players’ expectations.

“Damn, impressive! The guards didn’t dare to kill him!”

“He didn’t even acknowledge the guards. What a realm of mastery!”

“That Bull Tribe member is gone!”

“He entered the Bull Tribe guild headquarters. Could he be a member of the Bull Tribe?”

“Amazing! The Bull Tribe has just risen recently. It’s said that their elite team cleared more than ten high-level expert dungeons in just two days. Their guild leader, Bull Man Ya Zi, is even more powerful than Po Tian. Damn, I should have joined the Bull Tribe earlier.”

Soon, videos appeared on the official website with titles like “Red Name Appears in the City!” and “Invincible Red Name Intimidates the Guards!”

Nie Yan entered the Bull Tribe guild headquarters. Players entering and exiting the guild headquarters were startled upon seeing Nie Yan and quickly moved aside.

A red name was extremely intimidating. After retreating, they suddenly remembered—they were in Karol City! Red names shouldn’t be able to enter the city. In theory, a red-named player would be killed immediately upon arrival at the teleportation array by the guards, who always killed red names with a single blow.

Nie Yan walked into the Bull Tribe guild headquarters.

“Hey, who is he? He’s so impressive, daring to enter the city with a red name!”

“You didn’t see the guild emblem? He’s one of our guild members. He might be one of our guild leaders.”

Guild members whispered among themselves, watching Nie Yan enter the guild headquarters with great surprise.

Nie Yan opened the guild warehouse and stuffed all the equipment he obtained from the Illusory Realm into it. As for the crafting recipes and similar items, he planned to deliver them to the Starlight Pharmacy.

“You finally came back. Damn, you scared me. Why hasn’t your red name gone away yet?” Guo Huai exclaimed in surprise.

“As long as your reputation in Karol City reaches more than 30 points, you can enter the city,” Nie Yan replied. Now, players in the city might be shocked to see a red name, but in the future, when more people have high reputations, especially after the fortress war system opens, there will be more red names in the city, and people will gradually get used to it.

“No wonder you dared to come in,” Guo Huai said, suddenly understanding.

“How is the guild developing now?”

“The operation is going well. Our guild membership has exceeded 30,000. The largest guild in Karol City, Triumph Empire, only has 80,000 members so far. Of course, their entry requirements are stricter, so their members are of much higher quality than ours.”

There was a certain limit to the number of guild members. A level-two guild could recruit up to 50,000 members, while a level-three guild could recruit up to 100,000. The more members recruited, the greater the demand for guild resources. Too many low-level players would consume a large amount of guild resources, reducing the resources available to high-level players, which would hinder the guild’s development.

“We should appropriately raise our recruitment standards.”

“Yeah, we’re discussing recruitment criteria. Considering only levels isn’t enough,” Guo Huai nodded. Recruitment standards definitely needed to be raised. Players who hadn’t participated in guild activities for a long time or who were indifferent to guild activities should be expelled. Only then could the guild’s cohesion improve.

“How about the land?”

“I’ve already helped you purchase 36 plots of land in eleven cities, all transferred to your name. If this were to be revealed, it would shock many people. I estimate that the total number of plots owned by several major guilds combined wouldn’t match the number you alone possess,” Guo Huai said. If all these plots were developed into shops, even collecting rent alone could support several large guilds like Triumph or Holy Roman Empire.

“Okay,” Nie Yan wasn’t particularly surprised. He turned to Guo Huai and said, “Our development is going well. We should proceed step by step and steadily. I’ve heard that Triumph hasn’t stopped their underhanded tactics?”

“There have already been more than 300 players killed at least once by Triumph members. Triumph is keeping a close watch. Some players are ambushed as soon as they leave the city, even without wearing the guild emblem. We’ve also discovered some spies from Triumph in our guild. We just expelled a few days ago,” Guo Huai said. He was now quite troubled. If this issue wasn’t handled properly, it might lead to players losing faith in the guild.

Players currently had high hopes for the Bull Tribe. Therefore, despite the number of players killed, they still chose to remain in the guild. However, if this continued without resolution, the problem would become serious.

“If they block us, we don’t have to endure it silently! If they kill a hundred of our members, we must retaliate and at least maintain our momentum. Additionally, we must strengthen our defenses. Players should avoid sharing their training locations with others. With such a vast map, they may not necessarily find them,” Nie Yan said. This was the only solution. Otherwise, if Triumph continued to harass the Bull Tribe members during training, the Bull Tribe would eventually be driven to despair.

“But Triumph Empire is powerful. We might not be able to withstand them for long.”

“I’ll think of a way,” Nie Yan said. Suddenly, he recalled a famous player organization from his past life—the Assassin Alliance. The Assassin Alliance probably hadn’t been established yet. If he could join such an organization and attain a noble rank, he might be able to pay some money to make Triumph’s life difficult.