Chapter 195: Cheng Mouren Also Has His Day as a Bounty Target
The Knights of the Round Table had already transitioned from defense to offense. After the failed night raid yesterday, Prince Allen forcibly recalled the soldiers who were scattered, attacking other villages, and began to gather more forces.
As a results-oriented individual, Prince Allen would not listen to the sophistry of the foreign mercenaries under his command, who were the players. After confirming their disheveled retreat and that they had not caused any fatal damage to the Britannian camp, he decisively settled the side quest he had previously issued as "failed."
Not only were the rewards gone, but the main quest reward was also slightly reduced, cut by about 2000 gold.
More importantly, even if they ultimately completed the main quest, the quest settlement would inevitably suffer a rating drop due to the failure of one side quest.
Those who accepted the quest were dejected, while most of those who didn't outwardly maintained composure, but inwardly they were probably rolling with laughter.
Although they didn't profit, seeing their peers lose money made them happier than making a huge profit themselves.
However, the few players who successfully escaped were clearly not the type to suffer losses in silence. After returning, they immediately teamed up and directly withheld the critical information about key figures they had seen during the night raid.
Want to know all the information from last night's raid?
Two thousand gold! Thank you! No haggling! We'll add 200 gold every time you ask!
Hearing these people suddenly raising their prices, the other players who had chosen not to accept the quest because they lacked ranged and escape abilities looked as if they had swallowed a dead rat.
These night raid failures who had narrowly escaped death seemed less like they were trying to recoup losses and more like they were simply trying to annoy those who had been watching the show.
Because, strictly speaking, the information they held was time-sensitive. As soon as the Britannians advanced to a certain position, what they saw last night would also be exposed to other players, and the information would completely lose its value.
But even so, they wouldn't make it easy for those damned guys!
Due to this shared understanding, the few night raid failures who had narrowly escaped death actually banded together, which greatly surprised everyone else.
One could see a hint of the reason from the faction assignments in Metal Slug.
Players usually assigned to the so-called 'righteous' faction were mostly PVE-oriented players with low PK values, high story excavation, a preference for team activities, and a liking for serious story progression.
Players assigned to the so-called 'evil' faction, on the other hand, had a high probability of being high PK value 'red names,' preferring to profit from killing and looting rather than digging into the story, not sparing even their own NPCs if the reward was sufficient, and mostly PVP-oriented lone wolves.
Based on this distribution, players in the villainous faction generally had slightly higher individual combat power than players in the righteous faction.
So when the red names started to band together, other red names were the ones who found it most unbelievable.
"Oh? A player made it onto the list?"
Just as the player community in Silver Fortress was feeling annoyed by their peers holding critical but not-too-critical information hostage, they saw an update appear at the bounty board in the fortress hall.
The current main quest for Britannian faction players was to break through the interception of the Dual-Sword Knight and kill Prince Allen himself, while the current main quest for Roman faction players was undoubtedly to break through the obstruction of Lancelot and Percival and kill Arthur, the wielder of the Sword in the Stone, who was preordained as the new King of Britannia.
Moreover, unlike the righteous faction players, who could theoretically benefit from the success of a few powerful player teams, allowing everyone else to reasonably get main quest settlements, the villainous faction actually focused more on showcasing individual player abilities.
As long as Arthur died, other players who didn't participate in the attack could, of course, still get settlements, but players who participated in the attack and killed Arthur would receive an exceptionally high extra bounty!
As Grand Duke Garibaldi's younger brother, Prince Allen not only had a loyal and powerful Knights of the Round Table but was also so rich he could burn money.
Arthur, as the future ruler of Britannia, had a bounty of a full 50,000 Chosen Coins for his killing!
Lancelot and Percival were also on the list, each with a bounty of 30,000.
However, directly below these two, Cheng Mouren's half-body portrait, wearing his sunfire mask, was prominently displayed, and his bounty reached as high as 20,000, far exceeding the slightly famous leaders and elite knight NPCs of the Knights of the Round Table below. This was almost double the basic reward for their current main quest.
Don't dwell on where Cheng Tian's half-body portrait came from; just assume it's magical, just like how Prince Allen's knights, at this 5th-century point in time, were all wearing armor prototypes from the 14th or 15th centuries.
"Who is this guy?"
Players who hadn't participated in the night raid discussed animatedly, visibly eager to act.
Compared to Arthur, who was definitely a leader template + BOSS unit, a player with less than half his bounty was clearly an easier target.
Upon seeing this bounty, some players suddenly realized something. They quietly slipped away from the fortress hall, found those who had participated in the night raid yesterday, and began to try to haggle for information, insisting on a spatial notarization to ensure the information's authenticity.
However, this involved another layer of intrigue.
They could see the bounty notice, and others naturally could too. Moreover, compared to those who stayed in the fortress at the time, they clearly knew more about Cheng Tian, aware of seemingly rough but nevertheless useful information such as war elephant mounts, Blessed Blades, Sanction Arrows, and wyvern mounts, which could provide a head start if known.
These people who wanted to buy information were not so much after Cheng Tian's information as they were observing the attitude of these night raid failures.
If they chose to sell the information, it would prove that the masked player was difficult to kill.
If they chose to stubbornly refuse to sell, it would, on the contrary, indicate a higher probability of killing him.
It wasn't until the messenger of Dual-Sword Knight Balford began to issue orders to them one by one that the players, each with their own intentions, began their respective actions.
"Damn it! As expected, these foreign mercenaries are unreliable!"
Upon learning from the messenger and other informants that not all the foreign mercenaries had arrived, Balford's expression visibly darkened.
In his opinion, the combat power of those foreign mercenaries wouldn't affect the battle, but their complete disregard for the orders of the commander personally appointed by the Prince made him very displeased.
Even with the setting of 'sword and magic,' the basic historical background was still medieval Europe. Even with the aid of magic, legion warfare usually lacked flashy tactics; it was all about a head-on confrontation.
Thus, around noon, Britannia's Knights of the Round Table and Rome's Silver Knights both stopped at the mid-line of the Great Plains, approximately one kilometer apart.
Arthur, representing Britannia, and Balford, representing Prince Allen, both stepped forward with a deputy. They quickly met eyes at the mid-line between the two opposing armies, preparing to enter the trash-talking phase.
However, from the moment a dozen or so players appeared on the battlefield, many things could no longer proceed at the pace of the native NPCs. Someone would always follow their own rhythm, completely disregarding the thoughts of others.
"Wandering God's Ancient Soul Banner!"
Accompanied by a not-loud but extremely penetrating roar, eight stones with special engraved patterns suddenly descended from the sky, directly engulfing both Arthur and Balford. The next second, all four men and four horses seemed to be affected by some kind of anti-gravity, thrown and suspended in mid-air—
The Eight Trigram Formation!