To Harden One's Own Weak Heart

 

As Tongqiu finished taking all his possibilities into consideration, he surprisingly stopped moving once his right foot made the first step towards this 'adventure' of his.

'Can I really do this? Am I... capable?'

It was really no absurd joke. To be the bloodstained hand, cause of a few thousands of deaths wasn't a simple feat, reasonably nor mentally. And Tongqiu was really just a kid, taking into consideration how his growth was not only halted but immensely regressed every since he was 13... the fact that these are 'bandits' doesn't change one bit that they are still human lives. Although New Earth no longer adhered, and instead rejected, the saying 'taking one life is enough to never be able to go back' or 'every time you take a human's life, a piece/part of your humanity is consumed', it was really, no fucking joked, to kill few of thousands of people.

Such heavy weight, why would he willingly carry it? Can't he just go back and farm like before with the Wild Murderous Boar little animals? Can't he just walk back to the Novice village and make... a... party?

Tongqiu's eyes suddenly clouded, but only for 5 seconds. Then his determination took over, his head was cleared, his heart...

'So what if I end up liking it? So what if I don't find it disgusting, never?! So what if I get used to it? Isn't who I am, something that I was NOT made into, NOT pushed to be, NOT molded to be but instead what I embraced when I met 'it' head on?!'

Raising his head, gazing at the blue-grey sky, his gaze just as contradicting from his delicate-roughened face and his broken grey eyes.

'About to rain?... Even better, then.'

With nothing else to add, dear little Tongqiu easily made his way towards the 'long-forgotten' outer section, his abominable name was soon to be also be embraced by the him now, and the word 'forging' was but secondary when towards his will, it was evolving.

...his heart unshackled.

***

There were some players that were joining together at certain spot of the Novice Village, the extreme east side of it, to be precise. At the beginning, there were only around 15 or so figures with stern faces. After a couple of hours, their stern faces started forming a worried and left-alone-like emotions along their stern, hopeful countenances.

Finally when the third hour and many more dozens of minutes time of waiting came, there were about more than a thousand players all surrounding them. These players now gathered were those who managed to see, read and understand an almost negligible thread on the forums, where a Novice Village where players literally managed to kill a couple of NPCs were immediately retaliated by a 'curse'. First of all, the system heavily punished all the players coming from that Novice Village, officially declaring their permanent ban from the game, their detention by the law from such absurd behavior without letting be done questioning and going through 'justice' while the instigators and guilty hands would suffer even worse, allowing the players to only be able to ponder on what it was; all the same while not allowing them to 'log-out' from the game for the next 5 hours. A incident that the whole New Earth should've already protested against, however, the first thing that Crestfallen Industry did was mention just a couple of their doings inside the game, which was enough for the whole New Earth to know these people just committed atrocious 'crimes of war'.

Secondly, the main reason why the system didn't allow the players from logging-off, it wasn't a simple childish punishment. The 'cure' was all about it. After their evildoings, the souls of those they terrorized until the end were seemingly in a 'hunt' for them. One could only imagine what kind of things they would see each time one of these non-physical forms made contact with their heads. Unfortunately, and as the saddest point of it all, the NPCs relatives of the wronged now dead souls took their own lives, making it a utterly, living hell for any was from not only the Novice Village, but also all of the available areas around it. The system informed that the remaining population of that Novice Village NPCs were instead transported in between all that was happening towards a safe area, one where not even 'the gods' would dare desecrate.

It was, in short, a big reprimanding from the Crestfallen Industry, now game company. But that wasn't what made all these players join in to meet these 15 peculiar players. It was the fact that they understood the enormous vitality of such events, making them waste their whole farmed gold coins to make an announcement. Basically saying, The secret towards the Novice Villages has been utterly uncovered, if no one wants to either lose out on a great future for Rising Essence or be part of a heinous crime, come to the extreme east of our Novice Village, this needs to be done fast so please, hurry up!

At first, no one cared, but from a couple hundred views to a solid count of 4 billion views in 4 hours after the thread was posted, not only these more than a thousand  players, even more and more were coming towards the Novice Village. The one Tongqiu came from was a sinner of neutrality, there were some who were quite proactive in their defense of the people in these villages and didn't even need to make one single announcement, let alone multiple of them to at least garner their attention somewhat.

"Is it true what happened, but does that mean then, that as long as we don't do anything to them we'll be fine?"

"Yeah, yeah!!"  "What's the problem after all?"  "You only want to recruit us into your stupid association."    "Yeah, that's right! It could be that you guys only want us to do the dirty job, and get the whole credit don't you, motherfuckers?!"

As an endless amount of unneeded hate and speech of 'I control my own fate' wannabees. The leader of the 15 main characters here, was completely calm and waiting for these sullen ignorant rats to rant about before hitting them real hard. Ha had a more or less 30 cm long blonde hair, cloudy green eyes mimicking that of a lagoon. Sharp long nose without going to extremities of shapes and a larger than most men mouth, with pale-rose colored lips. If it wasn't because he didn't had pointy ears, everyone would've mistaken him as an elf race. As he was even around 2,3 meters tall and although appeared slim, his body looked sturdy as well. The nightmare of men, the summoning of leviathan for women.

The only 'royalty' among New Earth were to be the founding clans, but, of course he didn't had any aura from 'aristocracy'. It was more like a genuine hero in the making.

Finally, he spoke: "Ladies, gentlemen, players... Journeyers if you'd like. My name is Raoundozia, and I bet a few of you may have already heard or even spoke with me. Letting that aside, the focus on this gathering is to make you all aware, that there are purposes which were left to be known only if someone went 'behind the scenes' and did peculiarities. Now I can't tell for sure what are those things to do, I have no idea after all, I only heard it from some of my friends on other Novice Villages. The point is, I'm here to make you all understand that if we were to maintain our absurd noncommittal attitude, we may as well get completely wiped out by the hidden, untold forces from beyond the 'hunting areas'. I say... for these extremely important immense open areas, there is a need to get rid of them, to cleanse our surroundings before we are truly able to move forward. Who knows what kind of... benefit would await us, this could even possible trigger an event, an extremely unique and advantageous event that'll give us acknowledgement and reputation like no other! What say you, people? Can't care to at least try once? Let me tell you something final. I think this was made to challenge us, test us. And we are already 90% failed. There's only a slight chance to keep this Novice Village at bay, as well as it is possible that situations like these where we'll have to unite together and 'clean up' here and there from enemies will be the main progression of the game! Now I'll await your answers, 4 hours later, I'll give you 4 hours later to prepare, we are going to that bandit mountainous area. Unfortunately, most quests about them have disappeared, which I can only say, it's for the worst."

As Raoundozia was uttering his few last words, he took a side-ways, scornful glance at the immense crowd of now almost 10k players. As he then turned his head swiftly, and his body moved along his momentum, fourteen people half a step right behind him, they were headed towards the Marketing area.

...

Silence, this time making an appearance for two purposes, to slap back those foulmouthed people, and to allow their muddle heads to regain ability to think.

"Shit. Think he's right?"

"I-I-III don't know! Those quests truly kind of disappeared tho, only that lame ass greedy NPC is still going at it non-stop."

"Uhm, whatever. We got- ah, motherfucker. He said we have 4 hours to think it over, no? Then what the hell are we doing so desperately thinking, on to your own shit you idiots!"

And so, the crowd of people shared their knowledge among their Novice Village, trying not to go up to the forums. Which seemed ridiculous when a post by a certain "Knight Raoundozia" actually made a thread about something extremely important to announce, of course, tomorrow he would only explain.

---

 

While players barely got caught of their situation in their Novice Village Area, Tongqiu was showering in waiting, letting the -slow dropping and small amount of tears coming from the sky- now rapidly falling down tears from slaughter, prickling into any being even with no skin like trees, to wake up to the heavily rain pouring. But Tongqiu felt this wasn't the limits for raining, at least for this day which he himself is making history with.

As his body was still resting, standing unmoved among a genuine sea of corpses all around him except perhaps 3 inches from where his feet were standing. Breathing in, out, in out and finally having made his breathing invisible to the naked eye. He moved, checking his special quest progress: [Outer Section Bandits purged: 3,704/4,080.]

'It's been only 4 hours... who knew being a monster was tiring, heh.' Tongqiu had a slight derisive grin forming at his right cheek, he drunk a couple dozen of 'tear drops' from the sky. Then he continued, as he was nowhere near finished.

Among the killing, he met a few 1 Star Elite, and surprisingly a few 2 Star Elite, which didn't had any kind of extra skill or move, barely better stats. So, with his now completely reborn strength, he easily managed to farm SP to immense amounts. [SP+358.] 

After around 40 minutes of searching all over the whole outer section, he exhaustively completed the damn first part of this questing.

*PING*... first objective [Outer Section Bandits purge: 4,080/4,080.] has been completed, move into the inner section to receive the next objective.

Nah, he took his damn time to appreciate the resting time. Then, he moved onwards inner section, once again, and a final time.

*PING*... as you've already completed the first objective, next objective available is: [Inner Section Bandits purge: 0/2,170.].

'Ah- oooeeeeeeh, fuck.'

He was about to move but suddenly, he saw a very different looking bandit, this one had an obvious higher disposition than any he had fought before, looking straight at him: 

[Sub-Leader's Second in Command Bandit]: Type: Human, Grade: 3 Star Elite, LV: 9, HP: 2,150. A position which fools envy, smart ones pity, and courageous one die for.

Rising up his Sunfacing Brilliant Gladius with one each hand, he once again alerted his own mind. Before charging at his target. 

-480, -25.

HP: [1,645/2,150].

The bandit barely saw something, before his left arm was cut off and his head kicked away. At the moment he was in a crawling position however, two -unnoticeable in the distance- glints orange colored were already aiming for his head, forcing him to use both hands, one to move his well-forged machete to block them, the other to but his forearm onto it so as to mitigate the incoming raw strength. To no avail, as the orange glints suddenly moved in extreme precision a little backwards and next towards the bandit's left and right. 

As Tongqiu was about to attack, he extremely precisely used his right hand to direct his Sunfacing Brilliant Gladius into a thrush where he maimed the bandit's arm, as his left hand was used to hack at the bandit's right should, and keep him in bay. Finally, they each landed perfectly. The left handed Sunfacing Brilliant Gladius having achieved its aim faster than the right handed one, as intended.

-475, then the right handed gladius came in, -900.

[270/2,150.]

A critical hit! For hitting such an obvious weak point and with such perfect precision as well as the correct move, the bandit's  scream echoed as the drowned instantly below the heavy 'tear pouring' heavens' clouds. Tongqiu merely continued by stabbing in and out non-stop his right handed gladius, going a little overboard, but in the rain he thought it was fine to 'unleash' a little why not.

*PING*... you've killed a 3 Star Elite, Sub-Leader's Second in Command Bandit, LV9. As a reward: SP+27, Fame+27.

He was only 10% away from LV6, he didn't know if it was fast, compared to other players; but he didn't care too damn much, this battle was a sneak attack. He couldn't imagine what kind of damage he'd receive from this motherfucker. These were barely better than a LV10 2 Star Elite Bandit in his opinion, how monstrous would those LV10 3 Star Elite be, then? Sigh, the harsh life of a devoted man to justice. At least his gains at SP and Fame were comforting him enough. 

Tongqiu may have not bought any more skills, one reason because he still didn't know what class to become, but mainly because the damn idiot was too lazy to check all skills available, he may have had found one that complimented his battle-style well enough without inclining towards any class, but no, the damn stubborn fellow was just too lazy.

As he felt the extensions of his body about to be pierced by the pouring dagger-like rain, as well as his future ballistic endeavor here in this 'holy' mountainous area. He nonchalantly made his way among the trees, humps and sunken sides of the mountainous area, painting it with a discolored red, thanks to the extra water added in at every second. It was as if the raining itself was trying to show him that he could ultimately not be done with these evildoers nor himself in slaying them. As well as telling him that the only important matter in choosing such a path, such a bloody path was about carrying 'it' with you without end. Not to lament the blood in your hands, that shit washes away.

An hour and a half later, with obvious massacre improvement skills. Tongqiu completed the second objective.

*PING*... second objective [Inner Section Bandits purge: 2,170/2,170.] has been completed...

And as he expressionlessly made his way into the core section bandits area, his exhaustion was there, lunging on his arms and a legs. Clouding his mind and heart... that's when it stopped. Tongqiu abruptly turned his eyes towards the core section, turning fierce and only giving the system popping up an informative glance before ruthlessly starting to run around like crazy, like a beast set free.

*PING*... with the completion of previous objectives, next available is: [Core Section Bandits purge: 0/734, and Leader Bandit: 0/1.]

***

At the foot of the mountainous area, Misty region, mostly known -by Tongqiu- as the outer section bandits area.

At least a couple tens of thousands of players, manifested with only but their own armor and weaponry, each and every single one of them... was puking non-stop. It was probably a hidden feature, unknown if it was thanks to this special rain, if it just happens in this situation or because the 'evildoer' which was Tongqiu, had a special main quest. But, inhuman figures as well as their blood and even some shit which were previously being 'made' into being by Tongqiu, were now prettily lined up at the very foot of the mountainous area, a whole circle of such 'spectacle' was open and free to anyone. Hence the couple tens of thousands of players, even some experienced 'fighters' in real life were puking just as much or directly more than anyone else. Raoundozia was the first to try and make everyone put their shit together.

"M-ma-ugh-mages, I mean, those that have ma-ma-uggghh-... mage-like skills, could you use some to bury these... filth...(?) so that we may enter, please?" As Raoundozia said such, he simple went to the side as to let 'mages' have their try, as he kept on puking...

---

 

A bandits horrified face, the one who previously would even take some of his subordinates as 'maids' in bed and who knew what else. Was know kneeling, not because of choice, but because he although now immobile, was impaled by one of the extremely fast orange glints from his collarbone all the way to his separation between his back and rear. His face finally turned incredible ugly with his mouth wide open to all sides posible as he felt some kind of hypothermia but instead of the now actually daggers-like cold, merciless shaped rain, from the exhaustion of his whole body taking damage at once.

[Vice-Leader Bandit]: Type: Human, Grade: 3 Star Elite, Level: 10, HP: 200/3,350. A fearless manslaughter, and man'eater' machine, an useless intelligent being more like a beast, blinded by ignorant power.

-1,116.

A critical and pierce effect, finally ending the Vice-Leader Bandit's puny remaining HP. It's been an hour since he started on his journey through the core section mountainous area. It was way too much more fast-paced and life-threatening. His hp went all the way to 213 as he was only a few meters away from the poorly made stairway towards a hill-sized area in the uppermost of the highest mountains of all Misty region mountainous area. He could even see the Novice Village he was from, dozens of thousands of kilometres away. As he took a Light Red Potion one after another, as well as his last two Minor Curative Potion, he finally once again after so long, took his Self-Harming Dagger, ready to start at any moment. He walked upstairs.

 

...

---

Author's Note: I swear I'm not being lazy, just the deaths of 6,984 enemies isn't that amazing to see. Trust me.