Chapter 17: I found you

“The Holy City seems to have issued a top-level wanted order.”

“Oh.”

Zong Mi didn’t seem concerned in the slightest.

Instead, he looked around the temple with considerable interest.

After their narrow escape from the Holy City, he and Xu Yue had ended up here.

The teleportation array given by the Dark Priest mentor naturally led to the Dark Priests’ headquarters.

So they had crossed an entire continent, traveling from the Holy City in Central Continent to the Domain of the Dead in Southern Continent.

The Dark Priest Temple wasn’t much different from most structures in the Domain of the Dead.

Its architecture was simple and severe, favoring minimalism.

Occasionally, inverted crosses decorated the corners of the walls, while Dark Priests hurried back and forth through the halls.

Compared to Black Wizards, who loved dressing in black robes, the biggest difference was that Dark Priests wore the symbol of the inverted cross on their garments.

It represented the power they had gained after turning their backs on the Goddess of Dawn.

Speaking of the Domain of the Dead, Zong Mi felt somewhat conflicted.

He had caused quite a lot of trouble here in the past.

Back when he had nothing better to do, he became an advisor to a vampire count.

The rebellion they attempted ended in failure.

Later, he traveled to the Black Forest at the border between the Domain of the Dead and the surface world—a place no one dared enter—and became close friends with the most powerful Black Wizard of the era.

Although Zong Mi had eventually stolen the God of Magic’s harp and run off with it, he occasionally felt a little guilty whenever he returned.

“Here.”

Xu Yue was a straightforward person.

After completing his quest with his mentor and learning a unique skill developed by the Dark Priest mentor himself, he was in an excellent mood.

Without hesitation, he paid Zong Mi the remaining 2,500 gold coins.

“By the way, do you mind if I upload the Holy City footage to the StarNet forums?”

“What footage?”

“The video of us carrying out the mission in the Holy City.”

Xu Yue patiently explained.

He had noticed that Zong Mi occasionally lacked knowledge of even the most basic game systems.

His older cousin was exactly the same.

Xu Yue’s real-life identity on Earth was a military logistics officer.

He had signed the agreement to enter Descend and joined the Human Alliance, just like every other human player.

The Human Alliance was humanity’s sole united front.

Its members consisted of every human who entered Descend through nutrient pods on Earth.

Although everyone treated Descend as a second world and competed through ranking ladders, humanity as a whole was surprisingly united.

Earth’s resources had long been exhausted.

Humanity had undergone genetic modification.

The people who remained were all highly capable individuals.

Under those circumstances, personal advancement came second.

Gathering information about Descend for the benefit of humanity was far more important.

Take the Holy City, for example.

Very few players had ever visited it.

Xu Yue had used this class advancement quest as an opportunity to thoroughly explore the city.

The resulting information was extremely valuable.

Naturally, he intended to upload it to the forums.

“If people watch the video, we’ll earn gold. I’ll list your ID as a co-creator, and we can split the profits equally.”

Seeing Zong Mi hesitate, Xu Yue assumed he was worried about profit sharing and quickly volunteered the offer.

“Fine.”

The moment money became involved, Zong Mi stopped caring.

He waved a hand.

“Pleasure doing business with you. See you around.”

For some reason, Zong Mi couldn’t shake a strange sense of unease.

He still had two Divine Favor mission items tucked away in his inventory.

Normally, someone with his mental fortitude wouldn’t feel nervous even after stealing such treasures.

After all, guilt wasn’t exactly something he possessed.

Which made this feeling even stranger.

“Wait a second.”

Xu Yue had just finished uploading the video and closed the StarNet interface when he noticed Zong Mi preparing to leave.

“Brother Zong, what are your plans next? Have you accepted that incomplete main storyline quest the top-ranked players are gathering for?”

Recently, the Human Alliance had been issuing recruitment notices.

One of the former ranking leaders had discovered a fragment of Descend‘s main storyline quest.

Coincidentally, that player happened to be Xu Yue’s cousin.

His cousin was the type who locked himself away and played games in isolation, so all recruitment matters had been handed over to Xu Yue.

As a Dark Priest with a wide social network, Xu Yue was well suited for the task.

The thought had simply occurred to him.

Historically, every expansion update had been related to the main storyline.

During the first expansion, players fully explored the world map of Descend.

The second expansion was triggered by players becoming involved in the side quests of a major empire.

Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that the third expansion would also be connected to the world’s main storyline.

“What incomplete main quest?”

Zong Mi recalled the rumors he had overheard at the Gazi Exchange and immediately became interested.

The incomplete main quest might very well be related to the plague currently spreading throughout the Skaman Empire.

He was paying close attention to that matter.

And if he could participate in the next expansion event, perhaps he wouldn’t end up in such a miserable situation again.

“It’s a large-scale dungeon located near the border between the Domain of the Dead and the Elven Forest. They’re recruiting players for a joint operation. The rewards are pretty generous too. If you’re interested, just message me anytime.”

“Sure. Sign me up. When the operation starts, send me a private message.”

Zong Mi agreed immediately.

He had already added Xu Yue as a friend.

At the moment, Xu Yue was the only non-NPC in his entire friends list.

“Easy enough.”

Xu Yue escorted him to the entrance of the Dark Priest Temple before heading back.

He was still marveling at the discovery.

So this was a lone wolf expert from the first tier of players.

Making friends with someone like that wasn’t a bad thing.

Even now, Xu Yue still couldn’t determine what class Zong Mi belonged to.

The fact that he had broken through the Holy City’s anti-teleportation array was enough to make anyone shudder.

By all logic, if even Xu Yue couldn’t judge his strength, Zong Mi should be somewhere within the top two hundred players on the ladder rankings.

Out of curiosity, he opened the ranking board to search for the ID “Zong Mi.”

Then he saw the name listed directly beneath Rank One.

Xu Yue: ???

Xu Yue: !!!

No wonder the ID had sounded familiar.

It was the mysterious powerhouse who had suddenly appeared at the top of the rankings and become a legend on the StarNet forums.

Xu Yue stared in utter disbelief.

He repeatedly checked his friends list.

Again and again.

It really was the same two-character name.

By the time Xu Yue fully recovered from the shock, the video he had uploaded had already exploded in popularity on the forums.

That alone would’ve been surprising enough.

But he had even received a private message from his cousin.

[Baili Kong]: You know Rank One?

[Baili Kong]: Offer whatever price is necessary and recruit him into the dungeon team.

Meanwhile, Zong Mi had encountered a small problem of his own.

After stepping out of the Dark Priest Temple, he glanced nostalgically at the dark skies of the Domain of the Dead.

To be honest, he quite liked the weather here.

Sunlight rarely reached this land.

The entire region lay below sea level.

The wastelands were illuminated only by floating skeletal torches.

The atmosphere suited the place perfectly.

And it was because of that single glance—

That Zong Mi’s eyes suddenly began to heat up again.

However, no colorful lines appeared.

That meant he wasn’t observing the future.

He was firmly in the present.

In the distance, a thick sea of black mist rolled across the horizon.

Beginning at the border of the Domain of the Dead, skeletal dragons soared through the sky, lifting their heads and releasing defiant roars.

Standing atop one of those bone dragons was a man.

Long ash-gray hair flowed down his back.

His black robes billowed wildly in the wind.

His expression remained as cold and indifferent as ever.

Only when he saw Zong Mi did the Black Wizard reveal a faint smile.

A chill instantly shot down Zong Mi’s spine.

The smile seemed to say only one thing.

Found you.