I wasn’t overly surprised when I saw Lana’s group being ambushed by a gang of NPCs at the bottom of the ravine. Despite the antagonistic nature of the trial, many aspirants had evidently deemed it necessary to group up in order to increase their odds of survival. It was a good strategy, but I doubted even childhood friends felt much trust towards each other at this moment.

  Although solitary players were the minority and in disadvantage, I still preferred it over having to leave my back open to unreliable allies.

  That was just a quick way to get backstabbed.

  I didn’t leave my hiding spot until the skirmish began. From a glance, it was clear that the NPCs had this fight in the bag.

  “Though admittedly, Carlos is doing a surprisingly good job keeping two fighters at bay single-handedly.”

  Unlike Carlos who was clearly not unused to swordsmanship, Lana was swinging hers around like a baseball bat.

  Skulking along the edges of the ravine, I kept to the shadows while the fighting escalated.

  Lana’s male companion was surprisingly the first one to fall, but not without leaving a gaping wound on his killer, functionally taking him out of the action.

  Additionally, despite her feral combat style, Lana was clearly struggling as she kept retreating backwards. With each step, she was brought closer to the wall of the ravine and thereupon, her death.

  “Should I?” I hesitated on what to do. With the two groups occupied, I believed in my ability to sneak past the whole skirmish relatively undetected. Moreover, even if someone did catch sight of me, I suspected they wouldn’t prioritize me over the person swinging a sword in their face.

  “Urgh…” I gritted my teeth in frustration. I had told myself I was done fighting in this trial, but here I was, itching to join the fray anyway.

  Ultimately, my decision boiled down to the simple fact that I kind of liked Lana’s spunk. For all the irritation she’d caused me, I didn’t want her journey to end like this. Not when I could easily change it.

  “With this…” I thought as I snuck up to where Lana and her opponent were battling. “I will have made amends for the bear incident. There’s no way she would ask for the talismans back if I saved her life.”

  [“You have successfully launched-”]

  [“Result: +1 Stealth Lv.”]

  Ignoring the prompts, I took advantage of Lana’s opponent’s singular focus and attacked from the side.

  The poor teenager didn’t even have time to register my blade before it was over.

  I pointedly didn’t look away as his decapitated head bounced and splattered against the ground, leaving disgusting bloodstains in its trail. The realism of the game once again crept up on me.

  “You made this decision.” I squashed the nausea like a bug before it could fully emerge. “He was just an NPC.” I repeated my mantra but to little effect. Nevertheless, it dawned on me that killing this teenager didn’t affect me as much as Ye Feng’s death had.

  A feral looking Lana seemed like she was ready to attack me before her eyes suddenly widened in realization of who I was. Nevertheless, despite recognizing me as a fellow player, she didn’t lower her sword.

  “Smart.” I approved inwardly, my eyes unconsciously drifting to the numerous prompts that had manifested before me.

  [“You have killed a mortal human with a sword. Swordsmanship proficiency has increased marginally.”]

  [“By repeatedly wetting your sword in the blood of your enemies, you have shown little hesitation in your intent to kill other human beings. Though the guilt weighs on you heavily afterwards, you willingly bear the burden while continuing to dispense your personal form of justice. You have hereby unlocked the supremacy “Killing Intent”. You can follow the progression of your supremacies under the cultivation tab.”]

  [“Congratulations! You are the 5th player to unlock a supremacy. Would you like to announce your achievement in a world-wide announcement?”]

  Postponing the prompts for now, I picked up the two talismans that the headless adolescent had dropped, bringing my total up to eleven.

  Just as I was about to leave, however, Lana whispered harshly.

  “Wait!” She slowly lowered her sword, huffing and puffing from exertion. “Why’d you help me?” She hissed at me with a suspicious look. Her eyes were clearly scrutinizing my expression.

  However, this was neither the place or time for a conversation.

  Shaking my head, I gestured towards the ongoing skirmish. Carlos was slowly losing ground against his two opponents while their final teammate looked like he was ready to pass out with a number of wounds riddling his physique.

  “Aren’t you going to help them?” I asked, trying to avert her attention from me. With her, they’d be three versus three.

  However, to my surprise, she shook her head.

  “No, those morons can eat a sword for all I care.” She frowned at the two players who I’d assumed were her teammates. Shaking her head, she looked at me with a hesitant look.

  “You wanna gang up?” She asked suddenly, catching me off guard.

  “To ask that here of all places.” I smiled mirthlessly.

  “I don’t mind having this conversation later.” I expertly postponed my answer.

  Unfortunately, the furrowed eyebrows on Lana’s face indicated that she’d picked up on what I was doing. Nevertheless, she must’ve partly agreed since she nodded in response.

  “Lana!” Carlos yelled as he deflected a sword. “Where do you think you’re going?!”

  Pausing on her way towards the slope, Lana scoffed as she looked at her former teammate.

  “You two seem like you got this.” She answered him. “They are just NPCs after all.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

  Gesturing her to follow, Lana nodded while she shouted over her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be going ahead!”

  “You bitch!” Carlos cursed loudly as he swung at his opponent. “I’ll fucking get you for this!”

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  Shaking my head at their bickering, I wisely chose to stay out of it. My objective was complete. Not only had I advanced across the ravine, but I was two talismans richer as well.

  “So…” Lana followed me with a pleased skip to her step. I didn’t know their story, but it was obvious that there was no love lost between her and her former party. Not that I was going to stick my nose where it didn’t belong. “Since we’re sort of allies now, I can’t keep referring to you as the thief now, can I?”

  Shaking my head at her roundabout way of asking me for my name, I continued walking. The slope was steep, but it didn’t take long before we left the ravine behind us.

  “My name’s Bishop.” I answered once we had ascended the slope.

  “Like the chesspiece?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you like chess?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Then why did you name your character-”

  Turning around, I looked Lana in the eyes.

  I admit, her spunky attitude wasn’t the only reason I’d saved her, she was quite pretty too. Nevertheless, despite deceiving appearances, I wasn’t actually a hormonal teenager who’d let his decisions be dictated by every cute girl that crossed his path.

  I might’ve been, at one point in my life, but I liked to believe that I had learnt from my mistakes. People liked to say that wisdom comes with age, but in reality, it was more apt to say that it came from committing mistakes and self-reflecting enough to learn from them.

  And I knew for a fact that I liked reflecting on things. Which helped me a lot in situations such as these.

  The simple truth was that I’d helped her because I hadn’t wanted her to die. That was it. It wasn’t because of some misbegotten hero complex nor was it because I wanted a tag-along to ask me twenty questions for the remainder of my journey

  “Then again…” I frowned at her confused countenance. “I have recently discovered the disadvantages of being a solo player…”

  Furthermore, maybe it was time for me to start cultivating some beneficial relationships with future sect members.

  When all was said and done, I only had one issue with partying up with Lana.

  “Can I trust you?” I asked bluntly. Albeit spunky and cute, Lana had also shown a proclivity to abandon her teammates in the thick of things. It wasn’t exactly an attractive trait in a potential ally.

  Lana looked at me dumbfoundedly. Yet, after a brief moment, she shook her head mirthlessly.

  “Would you trust me even if I said yes?” She sighed in defeat.

  Honestly, after thinking about it, I found that I probably preferred her answer over an immediate and thoughtless affirmation.

  “I have eleven talismans.” I revealed suddenly, scrutinizing her reaction closely. If she attacked, I was confident in my ability to defeat her. Killing another player wouldn’t faze me at this point.

  There was shock and surprise, but no conspicuous signs of jealousy or greed blossoming on her countenance.

  “She’s either an excellent actress…” I thought. “Or a surprisingly good person.”

  Although I liked to believe that the latter was true, I wasn’t willing to extend my trust to her just yet.

  Nevertheless, I had made my decision. And before I could start second guessing myself, I sent her a friend request.

  Lana’s eyes widened in surprise as an invisible prompt supposedly appeared before her.

  [“New friend ‘LanaekilI’ registered.”]

  And so, my once empty friendlist got its third occupant.

  …

  Once we had gotten suitably acquainted with each other, I directed my attention to the prompts I’d ignored up until now.

  [Cultivation]

  [Name: Bishop]

  [Age: 15]

  [Cultivation Aptitude: 14 ★]

  [Affinities: Sword, Water]

  [Affiliation: White Tiger Sect (Rank 4)]

  [Rank: Provisional Outer Disciple]

  [Cultivation Stage: Mortal]

  [Cultivation Method: N/A]

  [Qi: N/A]

  [Proficiencies]

  [Swordsmanship - Beginner Lv. 7]

  [Stealth - Beginner Lv.2]

  [Meditation - Beginner Lv. 1]

  [Supremacies]

  [Killing Intent - Beginner Lv.1]

  My stealth had levelled up, inadvertently pushing my meditation proficiency down to last place. Hopefully, this was something I could remedy once I got accepted into the sect.

  Then, there was the new supremacy that had been added to the bottom of my cultivation tab.

  After a moment of deliberation, I decided that it was in my best interests not to announce my new trump card to the rest of the playerbase. My reasoning was probably the same as the four other players who’d learnt their supremacy before me.

  Nevertheless, it was surprisingly difficult to dismiss my useless sense of vanity.

  “Still…” My brows furrowed as I thought about my new ability. “With 10,000,000 active players, shouldn’t more people have unlocked Killing Intent by now?”

  Compared to my scanty four kills, there were undoubtedly plenty of players who’d killed a lot more players and NPCs than I had during these past four days. Consequently, I couldn’t figure out why there weren’t more supremacies circling around already.

  “There must be some kind of hidden criteria that I’m not seeing…”

  I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice the weird looks Lana was shooting at me.

  “Bishop?” Lana questioned, jolting me from my daze with an unimpressed expression on her face. “This really isn’t the time to be walking around in a daze.”

  A bit chagrined, I nodded. She was right after all.

  We advanced in a comfortable silence for a while before Lana felt the need to ruin it.

  “Bishop.” She began, sounding a bit hesitant. “I was wondering… what is your stand on killing NPCs?”

  Hopefully, she didn’t notice me flinching after hearing her question. But based on how needlessly perceptive the woman was, I doubted she’d missed it.

  “I don’t like it…” Unlike her other inane questions, this one felt like it deserved a proper answer. “I’ve only killed two NPCs so far, and I can’t say either of them was a pleasant experience… I know they are NPCs, of course, but with how realistic the game can be…” I left the rest unsaid.

  When Lana remained quiet, I continued.

  “But,” I looked towards the distant mountain. “Recently, I decided that I would do what I have to do in this world. Not only to survive, but to flourish. And if that means I have to slaughter NPCs, then I’ll just have to bear the burden.”

  “Definitely not his real appearance…” I heard Lana mutter softly before shaking her head with a faint smile on her lips.

  “I get what you’re saying.” She responded. “Since my first session, I haven’t been able to get over how lifelike the NPCs in this world can be.”

  I nodded silently; I felt the same.

  “So…” A dark expression appeared on Lana’s face as she continued. “When Carlos, Deus, and the others started killing and taking joy in hurting the NPC we stumbled across…”

  Surprise turned into anger when I realized what she was saying.

  “They tortured NPCs?” I asked for clarification.

  Seeing her nod I immediately regretted not taking the opportunity to kill Carlos and his friend down in the ravine. I had considered it of course, but ultimately I had decided not to risk it with how many they were.

  Maybe it was hypocritical of me to hate him for it seeming as I wasn’t exactly innocent myself. But the thought of someone taking joy in murdering NPCs sent a wave of repulsion through my stomach.

  With neither of us in any mood to continue the conversation after that, the silence returned.

  Furthermore, as we advanced towards Mount Longhu, the landscape continued to change. The persistent mountainous terrain that had accompanied us until now eventually became flatter and flatter as wide-open plains and cultivated fields replaced the thickets and trees.

  The only thing that remained ubiquitous was the looming presence in the distance. And now that we were closer, the sheer scope of the mountain became harder and harder to ignore.

  It was like we were walking towards the world border, tall enough to pierce the heavens.

  The open fields also meant that it became increasingly easier to spot our fellow contenders. If there ever was a time to be wary, it was now.

  Having said that, it seemed like most aspirants who’d reached this point weren’t eager to risk dying.

  Thus, keeping a steady eye out for any potential ambushes, Lana and I entered the final phase of our journey.

  …