“Do I need a reason to kill?” What a domineering response!

“You bastard!” The leading player lifted his own blade as he charged. His blade glowed faintly.

Spatial Fiery Chop!

Blue Maple slashed with his sword qi, composed of bluish fire. He vanished with a flash and appeared right in front of that player in the next moment.

Damn! The player was so frightened that he jumped, and decided to leap forward. Nobody could avoid being on the defensive passively in mid-air, unless they possessed skills like Airborne Somersault like Blue Maple did. Nobody could evade any attacks, either, and this was just he result that Blue Maple wanted.

Blue Maple took a quick step forward and chopped down with his sword.

Clang!

Tch. Is that all you have? The player parried Blue Maple’s attack in the air, and his mocking eyes expressed what he wanted to say.

You parried that? Then, try this.

Cold Light Slash!

What!? The player watched as Blue Maple swiftly withdrew his blade and slashed at his neck even faster than before. He could still have dodged the attack by twisting his body if he had been standing on the ground, but he couldn’t do that because he was in mid-air. He could only stare in fright at Blue Maple’s blade as it sliced across his neck. He had no time to dodge!

-1125!

Ziiii... It was the sound of a blade slicing across his throat.

Sweeping Sword Slash!

Blue Maple quickly unleashed another Sweeping Sword Slash as he swung his sword horizontally!

-612, -389, -227, -109!

Blue Maple’s Cold Light Slash was at Rank 5, and had a base attack damage of 130%, adding an additional 40% against weak spots. Heavenly Fire’s Fire Explosion effects also amplified the skill, and was the reason why its attack damage was so terrifying. Sweeping Sword Slash’s first stage was amplified by Fire Explosion, but the subsequent damage ticks were not because the blade didn’t touch its target, so it couldn’t trigger Fire Explosion.

Bam!

That player’s corpse was sent flying through the air. No player could take Blue Maple’s attacks, which were almost 2500 in damage, unless that player put all his attribute points into Toughness or Endurance. Blue Maple didn’t even look him in the eye from the beginning to the end, let alone their name and rank.

Heavenly Fire covered Blue Maple’s blade as it vanished with the flames, and Blue Maple absorbed it back into his body.

Liberating, handsome, and fierce!

Blue Maple’s performance could be described with these three words after the Priestess was bullied. Blue Maple had eliminated seven players in the blink of an eye, and the last player didn’t last longer than a moment before he too perished under Blue Maple’s blade. Most importantly, Blue Maple’s expression was still cold and emotionless, like he didn’t care about anything else in the world, and his outfit made him appear so handsome and cool. However, some other players quickly reacted as they realized what was going on.

“You… you killed the the Yamato Guild’s Vice Spear Magistrate! You’re going to be in huge trouble!” one of the players told Blue Maple after he realized what had just happened.

The Yamato Guild sounded powerful, but Blue Maple didn’t care about all that.

Blue Maple knew about this appointment. This military title originated from Japan’s era of warring states, and was equivalent to a regimental commander. However, a deputy regimental commander sounded a little weak.

There was no surprise, because these were players who had been in the game before. There were but ten million people in the game. This player was just a guild’s deputy regimental commander from Japan’s warring states, and useless to Blue Maple in terms of his fighting ability.

Blue Maple didn’t care about the other players’ discussions, and he didn’t even glance over at the beautiful Priestess that he had just saved as he walked directly to an information desk. Blue Maple made use of the fact that these players were still afraid of him and that they stepped aside when they saw him, easily arriving at the information desk to find a quest.

“I’m here to start a quest.” Blue Maple took out his quest card and handed it over to the NPC.

The NPC was a girl wearing a kimono. Blue Maple was not very used to that attire, as he was too familiar with older European styles.

“Hey, did you hear what I said? It’ll be too late if you don’t escape right now. Why are you still accepting a quest?” The player’s intentions were good, but all those words meant nothing to Blue Maple as he ignored them.

“I’m sorry, sir. There’s been a small problem with the quest that you are receiving. The quest’s difficulty has been increased due to certain unforeseen circumstances. We are very sorry about that. Do you still wish to continue with the quest?” The pretty NPC dressed in a kimono bowed continuously as she apologized, and Blue Maple almost felt like he couldn’t take this manner of conversation.

Ding! Game Announcement: A powerful Jiangshi King has appeared, and it also has to be exterminated. Therefore, the difficulty of your quest, Desolate Graveyard, has increased. If you have no other teammates, the quest’s difficulty will be Rank SSS. Are you still willing to continue?

“I accept.” Blue Maple didn’t care about his quest’s difficulty.

Information about the quest was displayed on Blue Maple’s floating panel. Other people couldn’t see it, so other players didn’t know what Blue Maple’s quest was.

“Alright, sir. These are the consumables for the quest. Please keep them carefully; they will help you in completing your quest.”

Blue Maple glanced at the small bottle that was handed over and stowed it immediately.

Ding! Game Announcement: You have obtained a Yang Qi Pill.

What does that do?, Blue Maple thought to himself, confused.

“Hey, you. Are you pretending not to hear me as I’m reminding you out of the goodness of my heart?” Only now did Blue Maple realize that a girl was standing in front of him and blocking his way, and she appeared angry.

“Whatever,” Blue Maple answered plainly as he walked around the girl coldly. He didn’t even see what she looked like, and he didn’t check her name and whatnot.

“You!” The girl didn’t expect Blue Maple to react like that, like he didn’t care about her at all.

“Why are you like this! Hmph!” The girl stomped her foot angrily. Everyone who recognized her knew that she also belonged to a guild, and was the Divine Guild’s Bow Magistrate, Moon Spirit.

Blue Maple didn’t care about that at all. All he wanted to do was complete his quest as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to stay in a place with so many people.

Blue Maple walked out toward the main entrance, and everyone in the way stepped aside to let him pass. They were terrified after Blue Maple’s remark that he didn’t need a reason to kill, along with the fact that he was decisive with his targets and extremely powerful. Tragedy could befall any of them if Blue Maple decided he just didn’t like someone!

“Uh…” A soft girl’s voice could be heard.

Blue Maple didn’t seem to hear as he continued walking out.

“Uh… please…” Her voice grew a little louder.

Blue Maple still continued on his way out.

“Please… please wait!” The girl’s voice was a lot louder than before, like she had mustered a lot of courage.

“Aiyo.” Blue Maple finally stopped because he realized that someone was pulling on the tail of his coat.

“Uh, eh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pull you back.” The beautiful Priestess from before was so frightened when Blue Maple turned around that she frantically covered her face with her hands. She seemed terrified of Blue Maple.

She waited for a few moments and realized that nothing was happening.

“Eh?” She opened a gap between her fingers and realized that Blue Maple had already left through the Mercenary Union’s main entrance. “Please, please wait!” She wanted him to stop as she chased after him.

Moon Spirit muttered under her breath, “Seems like he didn’t do all that for White Cherry. He didn’t even care about her as he walked away.”

Blue Maple was already out of the Mercenary Union’s main gate. He checked the map he had obtained after accepting the quest as he sauntered along. The snow was getting heavy, but not a single snowflake landed on Blue Maple’s clothes as his Heavenly Fire automatically diverted them away.

“Please wait!”

She still managed to catch up. Why couldn’t I just restrain myself? Blue Maple thought to himself, feeling a little frustrated. He didn’t interfere because he was trying to be a hero or whatever; he did it all for other reasons. However, Blue Maple was starting to feel burdened now that a girl was getting involved with him.

“Please, please wait!” White Cherry’s words were a little incoherent, probably because she was panting or because she was just shy, even though she didn’t run for very long.

White Cherry ran up before Blue Maple and blocked his path bravely. Blue Maple stopped, and stared at the pretty girl before him. She could be considered a young and pretty girl, and seemed about as old as he was.

“I’m very grateful for what you did!” The girl bowed, her body bent ninety degrees when she saw that Blue Maple wasn’t doing anything as she expressed her gratitude.

I’m so annoyed with Japanese decorum. They bow so exaggeratedly, Blue Maple thought to himself. If people from other countries bowed slightly to thank him, he would probably respond with an “oh” and walk away.

“You can get up,” Blue Maple responded plainly.

White Cherry finally straightened up and stared at Blue Maple, like she was hoping that he’d say something. People would typically respond with something like “It’s alright, that was nothing.” However, Blue Maple’s reply was much colder.

“I’m going,” Blue Maple uttered as he turned away to leave.

White Cherry was left rooted to the spot in shock.

White Cherry seemed to think of something, like she was making some decision as she caught up to Blue Maple again.

Blue Maple was strolling in front of her as he went through his map and the information about his quest, while White Cherry followed behind him quietly. They continued in this strange arrangement all the way to the city gate.

“That’s him. That’s the fellow who killed our Vice Spear Magistrate, and stole one of our people!” A group of players were amassed around the gate. Even though the guild system hadn’t been released yet, every player who belonged to the same guild before would have their own mark. Obviously they were all from the same guild.

“People never change,” Blue Maple muttered under his breath. White Cherry heard what he said, and clenched her little fists.

Some people just didn’t care about who was right and who was wrong; everyone against their interests was wrong. They still didn’t forget to mark themselves as righteous people. Personalities like that were rather common, like it was something innate.

However, there was no way those people could stop Blue Maple. It didn’t matter how many people there were, because Blue Maple could reach up to an entire Town’s diameter with Heavenly Fire if he used everything he had... but there was someone following him.

Blue Maple wouldn’t care about things that didn’t concern him, but he could be considered the one who had brought White Cherry over. Even though she made her own choice to follow him, he didn’t do anything to chase her away, mainly because he didn’t know that players would be blocking the gate.

Blue Maple believed that a guild going after him would just list him as wanted, and people would attempt to kill him when they saw him. He didn’t expect them to block the gate to catch him, but that was Blue Maple’s fault as a rookie. He should have known about this method of killing people.

“Hey, why are you following me.” Not a single tinge of emotion could be detected in Blue Maple’s tone. He was asking a question, but he sounded like he was narrating something.

White Cherry didn’t seem to care about the people outside the city gate, but Blue Maple’s question made her feel a little anxious. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down before she replied, “I also don’t need a reason to follow you!” White Cherry exclaimed after mustering all her courage.

Blue Maple didn’t move. He didn’t turn around to look at her, like he was thinking about something.

“I’ll consider this a warmup before the quest.” Blue Maple paused for a moment, talking to himself and walking toward the group of people outside.

“Stay at the entrance.” Blue Maple sounded like he was giving an order, and was clearly speaking to White Cherry.

Blue Maple continued walking toward the city gate. Flames emerged from his left hand and quickly condensed into a blade. The wind and snow billowed and made his robe messy as the blue flames swayed in the wind, giving the group of players outside the gate immense pressure. Truly formidable individuals didn’t have to do anything to intimidate others!

Blue Maple didn’t remove his Seal. He didn’t have to do that to deal with these people!