Deep in the woods, insects chittered, and leaves rustled. A pack of wolves, covered in thorns and scratches, made its way to a crowded clearing. Within the center stood a large wolf, covered with thick black fur with a brown pattern. It stood upright on its two hind legs as a human would, and had two red eyes along with horns growing out of its head. Many scars and burns lay alongside its flank, as well as on its face and back, with a jagged scar crawling down the bridge of its nose. It had quite a gruesome face as if it had been caught in some kind of experiment or trap. A metallic contraption, weathered by time, was slung over its shoulder.

It watched as its brethren bowed before him, bearing news and prey. They dropped their bundle on the grass floor before him and departed, moving back into the bushes. He was reminded of simpler times, when he'd go out to hunt in the woods, bringing back a rabbit or two or even a deer when he got lucky. Nowadays they had a change in prey, going from rabbits and deer towards human prey. It wasn't as delicious, but it was plentiful dammit, and they had mouths to feed. His mouth salivated unconsciously, as he wiped away a drop of saliva on his lips. If only he wasn't like this...

No, if he wasn't like this, then none of it would have happened. He wouldn't be living in this horrid forest, full of monsters like him, ready to pounce upon the smallest shred of weakness. He'd be living with a family that actually cared about him, that loved him, not one that obeyed him only because he was stronger. It was all that bitch's fault, that woman, that all of this had happened. If only he'd killed her back then, then he could have lived a comfortable life. But he couldn't go back, and so he had to live with it. He could feel himself gaining power, from the cavern underneath. The things that came out of that place weren't edible-- he'd tried, but they just didn't taste good-- but they helped make him stronger, not to mention the rest of the pack.

His revenge would have to wait, however. Even though he didn't want to admit it, if he went up against that bitch now he'd be torn to shreds in a heartbeat. Besides, there was a bigger problem at the moment. The little green things that never went outside of their walls had been making a move over the past week. Humans, coming from where he didn't know, had been coming to that city and had been destroying his pack. One, in particular, had already killed over 50 of his valiant brethren. He could no longer let this continue.

He let loose a howl he had been saving for a long time. It was time to show these humans who the real predator was.

"This is so. Fucking. Boring. All he does is eat, sleep, and train. For fuck's sake, how hard is it to go and fight something?! Do something interesting for once!. God, they should be paying us more for this shit."

A woman sat at a computer, her hand supporting her chin as she watched the heavily armored figure on the screen. A man worked right next to her, the two computers side by side, occasionally turning his head to the side and looking out the window onto the city below.

"Well, it's about to get interesting soon." The man got up and walked up to her from behind, massaging her shoulders.

"What do you mean?" She asked while still looking at the screen.

"I sent one of the ABs over. Combined with FJSJ, and things should get pretty interesting."

"You what?" She turned her head over her shoulder before going back to the screen. "Oh whatever, you covered your tracks, right?"

" 'Course I did. We've gotta make it "realistic" after all. I just planted a few thoughts about "getting revenge for its brethren" and the stupid beast took the bait."

"Great! I'll be looking forward to the... wait, which boss did you send over?" The woman began to pale in color as she turned to face him.

"Oh, I just picked a random one. I think it's a wolf boss? Why what's-" The lady got up from her seat abruptly before grabbing the man by the collar.

"You stupid fucker, what have you done?! Shit, we're so screwed! Send it back! Send it back now!"

"Calm your tits-"

"I will not calm my goddamn tits, you fucking idiot! You sent the Huntsman over, you dumb piece of shit! Shit, shit, I gotta get out of-" She ran towards the door, only to find a man in a black suit waiting for her.

"What's going on here?"

"N-nothing, nothing's going on boss! Everything's perfectly normal and-" The being desperately tried to cover up the screen, blocking it with their body. The man in the black suit pushed her aside and scrutinized the screen, before turning to the unlucky duo.

"Which one of you did this?!" he thundered, spitting on the two. The woman cowered and wiped his spit off her face. "It was all Adam! I told him that it was a bad idea, I swear! I had nothing to do with this at all!"

"You fucking bitch, you helped me with-"

"He's lying! I barely even know him, in fact, I don't know this guy at all!"

Suddenly, both workers felt pressure deep in their throat. Their faces started to turn blue and their veins began to pop. Tears poured out of their eyes, streaming down their faces as they begged silently for air. Only then the pressure stopped and they breathed in big gulps of air.

A crowd of soldiers silently walked into the room, grabbing the two by their arms. They struggled to get free but to no avail.

"Get your hands off me! This is illegal! My lawyer will see you in-"

"Send them in." The boss said, a stern expression on his face. His cold gaze shook the duo and for a moment, they stopped struggling. Then they realized what he just said and began struggling even more desperately.

"Nononono please! Just one more chance! I promise I'll never do it again, I'll work overtime for 6 months, just don't send me into that hellhole!"

"It's all his fault, so why am I being punished too! I had nothing to do with this, I swear! I swear on my life, so please let me go! I have a family to care for!"

As they pleaded for their lives, two more soldiers walked in, each with a black headset in their hands.

The usual horde of monsters was approaching the gates. Markus could see foxes and snakes, along with a few hobgoblins and golems in the distance, but there was a disturbing lack of wolves.

There's no way I killed too many of them. Something's up.

While he waited, he observed his surroundings. Most of the players surrounding him were bunched up in groups, with one group, in particular, exuding an ominous aura, which was probably some kind of buff. A few of the other groups exuded similar auras, but the one coming from this group felt more intense.

A few of the faces in that crowd seemed familiar to him but he couldn't place it. They were all dressed similarly, with tattered underclothes and dirty, scratched armor. Many of them had scars and marks on their faces and arms, signs of battles prior.

He turned his attention back to the horde. Sure enough, something was wrong. The monsters were disorganized as if they had been startled by something...

The rumbling wasn't stopping. Instead, it was intensifying... He sensed the change in the air and instinctively braced himself, covering his ears.

A piercing howl came from the woods. Whoever sent it was far away yet it felt like they were right next to them. Some of the people winced, holding their heads, while others collapsed, blood spurting out of their ears, noses, and a few out of their eyes. The stench of piss quickly pervaded the air. And just like he expected, it had no effect on the group he noticed before. Definitely a unique skill, he thought.

Christ, what was the game coming to? Unique skills used to be so hard to get, that even among the last 100 or so players, less than half of them had one, by which he meant the personal kind. And now the system was giving them out like candy, he thought, looking back on his memory of the leaderboard.

Unlocked Stability! Acquired Sound Resistance Lvl 1: It reduces sound damage, dumbass. What'd you expect?

His ears were ringing and he couldn't focus, but he could still see the words on the screen in front of him. It appeared that the shitty item descriptions had finally gotten to his skills.

He shook himself and slapped his cheeks, before focusing on the mana in the air. Unfortunately, he couldn't detect anything, meaning that it hadn't been amplified in any noticeable way. Whatever sent that scream over was definitely too strong for him to handle alone.

There shouldn't be any monsters around that level right now though...unless it's the boss...Why is it attacking now?

Quest Received! This is a Story Quest. This Quest may not be refused.

Defeat Balthazar, Queen's Huntsman!

You are in some deep shit.

This guy wasn't supposed to come out until much, much later.

So we'll level the playing field just a tiny bit.

All players within the vicinity of Ganbara City triple all stats and bars.

There's your help. Oh, and don't forget, NPCs cannot interfere directly with story battles.

Have fun!

Rewards: 10,000,000 Credits, Permanent Boost to all stats, 1 Tier 4 box, 1 System Key, ???

Failure: Death, Destruction of Ganbara City. Need I say more? Now get to it.

What the fuck?! A Tier 4 boss?! What the hell am I supposed to do?!

Each demon city had a different "story", based on what the city was known for. For example, New York City was known as the "Big Apple", so the story it was based on was "Snow White". However, because the game was meant to be realistic, it would twist and warp the stories, so that the good people often turned out to be evil and vice versa. As such, Snow White was the boss residing in NYC.

To help combat each demon city, however, a story boss was created. The story bosses usually had some level of animosity towards the boss in each demon city (since they were from the story themselves) and could be persuaded to help the players. More often than not, however, the players ended up having to fight the story bosses, since the SBs didn't like players either.

In this case, the story boss for NYC was the huntsman from Snow White, the supporting character told by the evil queen to bring back Snow White's heart. He had a large amount of animosity towards Snow White, but could not be reasoned with if too many wolves died...

According to the forums from his previous life, the huntsman carried two weapons: an oversized crossbow and a shotgun. The crossbow shot poisonous bolts while the shotgun fired buckshot as well as piercing rounds. Neither weapon could be destroyed, at least not by the current players, and each weapon's ammo was created using mana. Plus, this guy had been absorbing earth mana from the dungeon, meaning that he could utilize the earth element to bolster his attacks even further. Add in the fact that this guy could send forth probably around a hundred or so wolves to attack the city as well, and the prospects of survival seemed downright impossible.

Luckily for Markus, there were a few ways that he knew to beat the huntsman. The bad news was that the chances of one of them working were nearly abysmal, while the other would take some careful planning and luck. The third way, which was the way the huntsman was defeated, was never shared on the forums since each story boss was unique.

So there was really only one way he could defeat the huntsman: getting the NPCs involved.

Sure, the quest said that the NPCs couldn't directly interfere, but if they were doing it under the pretense of defending the city, then it was allowed. The problem with this way, however, was that the player contribution needed to stay above 50%. If the NPC contribution level was higher than the players', then the players would receive no rewards and the drops from the huntsman would go to the NPCs. While considerably better than failing the quest, it practically made the chances of destroying NYC drop to 0%. This was because the drops from a story boss often had something that would weaken or do extra damage to the demons in that city. For example, one of the drops from Tokyo's story boss was an EMP, which would shut down all machine-related monsters as long as mana was supplied.

He checked how much araden he gathered earlier. Weighing it in his hand, he guessed he had around half a pound of it. He then opened up the shop and bought the things that he needed. Then he got to assembling them into bombs.

This time, however, there were a few new things he was trying. The huntsman boss was, one, a boss, and two, he had an entourage of about a hundred bloodthirsty wolves. Therefore, wrapping araden in ganbea leaves wasn't exactly going to do the trick. So while buying things from the shop, he also got several bottles of water, along with the empty bottles he had on hand. He then separated the bottles into two groups, since he was going to test which bomb was more effective. He poured out the water in one group so each bottle had a small amount of water, then ground up araden into pieces and dumped it in the bottles, shaking it up until the water in the bottle was a red, orangish color. For the second group, he dumped out all the water and did the same thing. The second group was in case the first group were duds, but he had tried it before in his last life so he thought it would work.

There were also a few other plants that he had encountered in the forest earlier. One of them was morkaweed, which was a gray flower speckled with bits of brown and white. When it was burned, it created a large amount of smoke. Another one was the kalden flower, which increased the burnability of whatever it was rubbed onto. These flowers were a little harder to notice since they were green, but thanks to how the game mimicked seasons, the yellow spots on the flowers made them easier to distinguish from the green needles and bright reds and oranges of the forest. For these plants, he wrapped them together in regular ganbea leaves since he was planning to use them as smoke bombs, in case he gathered too much aggro.

Crafting has become Lvl 2! Concentration has become Lvl 4!

Outside of the gate, he could hear numerous wolves howling in unison. He could also hear the screams and cries of not players, but other monsters. Wolves weren't picky about food, as long it was edible, and could withstand the levels of poison found in other animals.

When he was finished, he carefully placed each bomb into his bag, separating the smoke bombs by placing them in his hands. Looking around, most of the players had fled. Even the group from before was missing. The only stragglers were those that had bled from the noise before and were currently lying unconscious on the ground.

Meanwhile...

"Is this thing broken? He's just sitting there!"

"Come on, be patient. There's no way that this guy just sits in a room for a few hours every day."

"We've been watching this thing for 10 minutes and nothing has happened! Ugh, my precious money!"

"Wait, hold on! Look!"

"At what? Is he actually doing something now?"

"Yeah, he's...never mind, he's just leaving the room."

"Oh hahaha, very funny, you little shit."