Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 108 Yep! I’m a Thief!

Ye Ci could not get Ol’ Four to move no matter how hard she tried. It stood behind her, refusing to do anything at all. If its loyalty was not at 72, it might have even thought of running away.

“Gongzi, hurry and get your pet to attack the BOSS, we don’t have enough damage output!” Let Go Of That Girl shouted out in panic. As the secondary tank, he was suffering due to the lack of damage output in the party. If they had enough damage output, he would need to hold the BOSS for a lesser amount of time. With the lack of damage output, he was literally dancing between the thin line of life and death.

Ye Ci looked at Ol’ Four helplessly and let out a sigh, “This fella’s loyalty is not high enough. I don’t have any food to feed him left, and he’s now on a strike and he refuses to listen to my commands.”

“What kind of pet is that? The arrogance is real in this one!” Let Go Of That Girl’s words caused the Hunters in the party to begrudgingly shed tears. Yep, yep, before the Loyalty bar was filled up, pets were like their masters! Especially those rare pets, they were like the masters among masters.

Why couldn’t a Hunter’s pet be like a Summoner’s minions? They were always hard working, and could endure hardships. They weren’t picky and snobbish like a Hunter’s pet. Ye Ci had exchanged notes with several other Hunters about their experiences in rearing their pets. She discovered that every one of them had at least a Novice tier cooking skill… They were such a misfortunate bunch.

It was fortunate that the BOSS had very little of its HP left. The healers however, had to go through a lot of trouble. After consuming a lot of Mana Potions, they barely managed to sustain their healing spells. Just as the BOSS was about to fall, Ye Ci’s private message channel rang up. Since she had nothing to do but stand still and hit the BOSS, Ye Ci connected the private call.

Flutter ‘n Sway’s voice immediately entered her ears, “Ye Ci, Ye Ci, what happened?”

“What do you mean by ‘What happened’?” Ye Ci was baffled by Flutter ‘n Sway’s sudden question. Just what was she talking about?

“The forums! Things are going crazy over there!”

“Oh? Are you talking about that thing between my guild and Full Moon’s Night? It’s all settled now, there’s no need to panic, it’s nothing big…”

“What do you mean by Full Moon’s Night?” Fang Susu immediately cut Ye Ci off. She seemed to not understand Ye Ci’s words. Apparently, it didn’t matter for her even if she did.

Ye Ci narrowed her eyes. She had noticed that something was off, “Susu, what are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you read what’s going on in the forums? The forum, and the world chat is in an uproar right now!”

“I’m in a dungeon.”

“Somebody posted a thread anonymously this afternoon.” Realising that Ye Ci did not know about the entire ordeal, Flutter ‘n Sway began telling her the entire story. A thread with the title “The Eastern Continent’s Top Huntress Gongzi You Is A Thief” appeared in the forums after lunch hour. It was posted by a smurf. Apparently the person who posted it did so anonymously.

All the attention that was originally focused on the Upwards Ho! vs Full Moon’s Night thread immediately shifted to the thread, and its views soared. Gongzi You was like an iconic symbol for a lot of players. She was a role model for Hunters. Her mechanical skills and game awareness were what the Hunters sought after. Her equipment combo and the distribution of her Talent Points were secrets that all the Hunters had dreamt to obtain.

Somebody had even offered to buy information regarding Gongzi You’s Talent Points and equipment in real world cash.

If something happened to a person like Ye Ci, not matter good or bad, it would still become a source of gossip. That was why the thread immediately attracted countless attention.

The content of the thread was: Gongzi You went against the arrangements made by the higher ups of Steel Blooded Battle Spear and had acted willfully. She disregarded guild rules and always went out to dungeons with random players. After receiving no restrictions from the guild admins, Ye Ci’s attitude worsened. She did not take part in any guild activities. The most infuriating fact was that she had refused to take part in the guild battle against another guild as a Battle Commander. This cost a huge amount of losses to the guild. Gongzi You was not even remorseful of her actions, and had instead gotten into an argument with the guild’s administrators for the rights to be a party commander.

When the guild admins did not appoint Gongzi You as a commander in the last ever dungeon she took part in as a member of Steel Blooded Battle Spear, she refused to help the guild out, and once again caused massive losses. She then left the guild when her request to be granted the rights to take command was refused, and immediately led another major guild into the Frosty Wasteland and got the First Blood for them. Gongzi You was literally using Steel Blooded Battle Spear’s resources while colluding with the enemy.

If such actions were proof that Gongzi You’s character was questionable, then her most abominable act was to ransack the guild warehouse when she left the guild. She had been granted access to the guild warehouse due the the trust of the guild admins, but she had betrayed that trust! The losses suffered by Steel Blooded Battle Spear were immeasurable. This had hurt the guild greatly.

As a summary, Gongzi You was only a skillful thief. She stole from the guild. A thief like her did not deserve to be idolized! A person like this should get the hell out of Fate!

The person who posted the thread had even said that he was a normal guild member who had joined the guild at the same time as Gongzi You. He had posted the thread because he was angered when he saw the the guild was ruined by such a despicable player. The guild had even left Gongzi You alone after she left, but she had still tried to sabotage the guild time after time. She was even the cause of Steel Blooded Battle Spear’s disqualification in the Dragon Dance competition.

Those were the reasons that drove the person to post the thread.

Flutter ‘n Sway read almost all the content of the thread out loud. There was a literacy grace within the thread. It managed to portray Gongzi You as a totally despicable person with a mere hundred words. The thread had managed to stir up emotions among the players. Since the thread was written from the viewpoint of Steel Blooded Battle Spear, the guild was portrayed as the victim who was very generous and sincere. It was as if it was a player’s good fortune to be able to join that guild.

Ye Ci did not say much after listening to Flutter ‘n Sway’s words. She soothed her emotions and told her that she would look into the matter after she was done with the dungeon. Knowing that Ye Ci was in a dungeon, Flutter ‘n Sway hung up, not wanting to disturb her.

Ye Ci narrowed her eyes. Even if she had not seen the thread with her own eyes, she could guess what was going on. But, since she had not seen it in person, it was too early for her to make a conclusion. She then made up her mind to prioritize clearing the dungeon.

The second BOSS was taken down without a hitch. It yielded a lot of equipment. However, it was not something that Ye Ci was interested in. She sent a private message to Overflowing Ink, “Are we going to continue?”

“Nope, I think everybody is tired. We’ll call it a day and continue tomorrow.” Overflowing Ink looked at Ye Ci. It was already well past dinner time. If they continued exploring the dungeon, it would disrupt the sleeping schedules of the party members.

“Alright, I’ll be on my way. You can inform Remote Depths of the the time we’ll be gathering tomorrow. He’ll let me know.” With that, Ye Ci went offline.

The thread was easy to locate. It was at the most notable spot in the forums.

If the words had already stirred up a lot of emotions, the OP had even attached a lot of pictures to the thread. For example, a screenshot of Steel Blooded Battle Spear’s guild warehouse before and after it was “ransacked” by Ye Ci. There was also a supposed “screenshot” of the guild warehouse of Upwards Ho!, proving that Ye Ci had stolen from Steel Blooded Battle Spear… This caused yet another uproar.

There was of course, a large number of players questioning the validity of the thread. A number of them were just there to flog the cur that had fallen into the water. A vast majority of them however, were only there for the gossip. The thread quickly became more popular than the Upwards Ho! vs Full Moon’s Night thread.

There were a few types of individuals that were hated in games:

Liars

Traitors

People who betrayed the goodwill of others

People with bad character

The Ye Ci that was portrayed in the thread fit all four criterias. Her reputation reached rock bottom. Despite the overwhelming public opinion condemning Ye Ci, there were still people who questioned the authenticity of the thread. World Conqueror and Blank Space were the first to question the contents of the thread.

The were others who had questions of their own as well.

Good Ol’ Days: I’ve got some suspicions regarding the screenshots. You’ll only know that you’ve been ransacked AFTER you’ve been ransacked. Who the hell would readily take a screenshot of the state of their guild warehouse before it was ransacked? Not only that, how did a picture of Upwards Ho!’s guild warehouse ended up with a “normal guild member” of Steel Blooded Battle Spear? I’m afraid we still need to further investigate this matter.

……

Flawless Reflection: The person claimed that he was merely a “normal guild member.” This makes me wonder. How did a “normal member” find out about what happened between the guild administrators? Is this a result of the guild admins proclaiming it to the public? How could they be generous if they’ve literally told everyone about it? I’m actually very interested in the identity of the OP.

……

NightAndDay: Was the “guild battle” mentioned in the thread the fight between Steel Blooded Battle Spear and Tang Dynasty? I didn’t see Gongzi You around that time. But even if she was there, could she turn the tide of a battle involving thousands of players? What you think Gongzi You is, a GM?