MMORPG: Martial Gamer

<Accept!

<System Notification: You have accepted the hidden quest "Recognition of Kings", S rank quest. Seek the approval to join the hidden Neutral Faction.

"A mere faction quest is rank S?" Wang Yu was startled.

Although Wang Yu was new to the world of gaming, he had joined the game for quite a while. He knew that faction quests were mandatory like storyline quests. The similarity between mandatory quests was that they were relatively easier.

Yet, the quest given by the hermit was rank S, hence Wang Yu was puzzled.

"To survive in this chaotic world, you must pick a side. You must be strong enough to stop the others from harassing you."

"That makes sense, but what should I do to deserve recognition?" Wang Yu continued asking.

"The Neutral Faction is not a group by itself. It simply represented of attitude of solitariness. To deserve the recognition, you must first seek approval from one of the three neutral races."

"Three neutral races? What are they?"

"Titans, Dragons, and Elves." Hermit continued, "Only these three races could stay clear of the worldly matters and be free from war."

In the backstory of <<REBIRTH, Titans were the ones who created the world. They were equivalent to god itself. Holy God, the Devil, and all that nonsense were just their descendants.

The Elves were believers of mother nature, and the dragons simply believed in their own strength. The three races were extremely powerful, and did not participate in the worldly matters. Neither of the two factions dared to provoke them.

"Erm, can I give up on the mission?" Wang Yu could not stop sweating.

Although Wang Yu had yet to come in contact with elves, he was remembered the strength of the Titans and Dragons vividly.

All of them were powerful existences at level 200. Even a mere level 35 dragonkin, Blood Dragon God, was strong enough to slain an entire city.

"Of course you can, but if you do not join a faction, you would become a free-thinker, and can’t continue with your storyline quests...Oh, and the gold is non-refundable." Hermit laughed and said.

"..." Wang Yu was speechless.

"I have three tokens here, you can pick either one to take the trial!" Hermit took out a hammer, a jewel, and a leaf.

"I choose the elves!" Wang Yu pointed at the leaf without hesitation.

Wang Yu had fought Zeus before, but Zeus did not concede his defeat. It was likely that Zeus would try to backstab him this time. As for the dragons, Wang Yu was lucky that the dragons did not devour him, since he had the title of <Dragon Slayer and -50 fame for the Dragon faction. The elves were an obvious choice.

At this point, Wang Yu could not help feeling sad about his fate. He was not a bad person, and yet ended up as enemies with so many powerful foes.

Hermit passed the leaf to Wang Yu and told him, "The elf tribe is at the City of Elves, I hope you can gain their recognition."

As a neutral city, the City of Elves was located in the same region as Twilight City. Wang Yu used the teleportation formation, and arrived in a flash.

The City of Elves was an giant ancient tree. All the residents and players here resided on the tree.

Even the area outside the city was full of forests. Under the influence of the city’s cultures, most players here were either bowmen or thieves.

From the backstory, Wang Yu understood that the elves were not weaker than both the dragons and the titans. Elves and dragons were the first two species to be created by the God of Creation. The dragons were lazy and violent, but the elves were kind and hardworking.

Yet, the elves were the ones who almost destroyed the entire world. They used magic without any restraint, and ended up devoiding the world from the element of magic. As a result, the demons broke through the barrier between hell and their world. Darkness descended, and the elves were torn apart as well. The elf tribe at the City of Elves was merely a small group that was left behind.

Of course, this was ancient history. Elves were no longer as old-schooled and racist as the legends described them as.

After Wang Yu passed the Hermit’s token to the elven tribe leader, Alice, she spoke to Wang Yu politely, "So you are the Hermit’s disciple. If you want to prove yourself, please get to the Wonderland Forest and bring back the heart of Stone Golem King."

Alice ignored Wang Yu right after she finished speaking, just like a queen.

After receiving the quest from Alice, Wang Yu felt that the quest was not as hard as he had expected. Wang Yu had thought that he needed to fight against an intelligent elven NPC, turned out he just needed to kill a lame-sounding boss.

However, as soon as Wang Yu had left the city, he understood why the quest was rank S.

It was a huge forest outside of the city, and many players were seen grouping up to grind levels.

The moment he entered the forest, his minimap somehow disappeared, and he received the following message, <System Notification: You have discovered the cursed forest. You have obtained 1000 experience points as a reward."

In the beginning, Wang Yu could follow the other players around. But after half an hour, the monsters’ level started increasing, and there were lesser and lesser players around. Eventually, Wang Yu was lost.

Without a single other player, and having lost his minimap, Wang Yu had lost all sense of directions.

’F*ck, who the hell designed this stupid map? How could anyone survive this?" Wang Yu cursed out of frustration.

If it was in real life, Wang Yu could still tell the directions with his common knowledge. However, this was in game, and many phenomenons could not even be explained by science, so he was clueless.

The only way left was for him to commit suicide to return to the city, and then enter the forest again.

However, Wang Yu could not do that. He was not concerned about his experience points, but rather, whether the hidden quest would be cancelled if he had died. Wang Yu dared not take the risk without being sure of it.

"What should I do!" Wang Yu was like a cat on hot bricks. He had wanted to ask the Quan Zhen Sect members for help, but on second thought, he realised that they had never been here before either, and asking them was pointless. They would probably laugh at him as well, so he gave up on the idea.

Just as Wang Yu was out of options, he heard a voice.

"Brother, do you think that boss has been discovered already?"

"It won’t be. That map was hidden really well, even I only came across it by luck. If I did not have a special item to mark its location, I wouldn’t be able to find it too."