Chapter 13: A New Quest

“The Village Chief seems to be troubled. If you have time, you might want to go and ask her about it,” Qiuxia said to Mo Ming after he turned in the last quest to her.

“The Village Chief…?
Thank you,” Mo Ming nodded upon hearing Qiuxia’s words.
“Is there anything else I can help with?”

“Not for now.
You can go about your business,” Qiuxia shook her head and waved at Mo Ming.
“Work hard to improve your strength.
When you reach level 10, come and find us again.”

The “us” Qiuxia referred to should be the 5 NPCs whose favorability had increased when he completed the previous quest; they were clearly all related to it.
However, from Qiuxia’s words, it seemed the Village Chief had nothing to do with that quest… It had to be said that this was a very strange thing, as the village chief in a novice village was usually a key figure in quests.

But according to Qiuxia, that quest could only be continued at level 10, so Mo Ming could only set it aside for now and head towards the Village Chief’s house.

As mentioned before, the Village Chief of Novice Village No. 2 was a beautiful young woman, a very eye-catching figure.
Because many people had previously crowded around the Village Chief’s house to look at the pretty girl, and the Village Chief hadn’t been giving out any quests, Mo Ming had never gone to see her, only glancing from a distance… but when he came over this time, the crowd of onlookers was gone.

The reason for this was that the number of players who had been watching the Village Chief was too large, obstructing her normal activities, so they had been dispersed by the village guards.
And besides Novice Village No. 2, there were quite a few other villages with beautiful female chiefs or other pretty girls, so this kind of incident was not uncommon.

Some players went to the forums to complain about this, and some even went to customer service to argue about it.
Due to the large number of people, the official website had to issue a special statement, the gist of which was as follows—

The NPCs in 【Horizon】 are all advanced artificial intelligences with their own independent thoughts.
They act much like ordinary people and have their own emotions.
We hope that while enjoying the game, players will not treat them as simple, fixed programs, and certainly not do anything out of line.
If things go too far, you will be punished by the system.

After the official announcement, most players naturally refrained from such behavior.
Of course, there were some who refused to believe it and deliberately went to find female NPCs to flirt with or even molest, but not a single one of them escaped; they were all punished—the former, after being warned by the NPC, continued to flirt and were taken away by the NPC guards to be locked up, while the latter were kicked out of the game and locked up by the system before they could even act.

The Village Chief wore a red-themed zhiju, her long black hair coiled in a bun at the back of her head.
Her delicate facial features, combined with her noble aura, gave her a very elegant feel.
What was most eye-catching were her dark golden vertical pupils and her long, pointed, elf-like ears—neither vertical pupils nor long ears were things an ordinary human could possess.

Her already beautiful appearance, enhanced by her noble aura and the touch of fantasy from her vertical pupils and pointed ears, presented a breathtaking beauty.
It was no wonder so many people had gathered here before.

“Hello, Village Chief,” since the Village Chief was sitting in her own courtyard, Mo Ming didn’t rush in but knocked on the surrounding fence from the outside.

“You must be Born Without a Name.
Please, come in,” a satisfied smile appeared on the Village Chief’s lips as she spoke after Mo Ming.

In fact, the Village Chief had noticed him from the moment he approached, but she had just sat there watching him, only making a move after he spoke.

There were a few people nearby, some intentionally and some not, who all noticed the Village Chief inviting Mo Ming in, and so Mo Ming shocked the onlookers for the third time—after the players who tried to force their way into the Village Chief’s house were all taken away by the guards, it wasn’t that no one had tried to “knock on the door” like Mo Ming, but this was the first time the Village Chief had allowed a player to enter.

And so, the event of Mo Ming entering the Village Chief’s house was, naturally, screenshotted by the onlookers and posted on the forums.

Although it was already past 3 AM Beijing time, there were still quite a few people browsing the forums, though they were mostly chatting in the popular threads.
Since there weren’t many people on the forums at this time, almost every new post was noticed, and the post with the screenshot of Mo Ming entering the Village Chief’s house was naturally seen as well.

Soon, someone raised a question: Why does this person look a bit like the Mob-Snatcher?

【Horizon】 had built-in screenshot and recording functions, but by default, it would blur the faces of the players being filmed.
This was done to prevent secret filming and protect player privacy.
Of course, with permission, one could apply to the system to not blur the faces.

Although Mo Ming’s face in the previous video had been blurred, players could still identify him through his equipment and body type.
Although Mo Ming’s body type was not at all prominent, the bracers, leggings, and boots he wore were very distinctive, especially the bracers; no one had been seen wearing the same equipment.
So, even if they couldn’t be certain, there was reason to suspect that this person was Mo Ming.

And so, the discussion in the thread immediately shifted to “Is the person in the screenshot the Mob-Snatcher or not,” and then it went further and further off-topic… If Mo Ming were to browse the forums for a bit, he might even exclaim something like, “So I’m already this famous?”

“Born Without a Name, I have heard of your great deeds from the villagers.
On behalf of the entire village, I thank you,” the Village Chief said to Mo Ming with a very proper smile on her face.

“You’re welcome.
It was my duty,” Mo Ming could only be polite in response… he wasn’t used to being thanked like this.

“Originally, for solving so many troubles for the villagers, as the Village Chief, I should thank you properly.
But now, there is nothing of value here that I can offer as a reward,” the Village Chief sighed, a worried look flashing across her face.

“I heard from the villagers that you seem to be troubled recently.
If you don’t mind, you can tell me, and I will help you solve it,” Mo Ming said, getting straight to the point… after all, that was his purpose for coming here.

“You don’t have to call me Village Chief.
You can just call me by my name, Seya,” Village Chief Seya continued, “As for my troubles, there is indeed one, but…”

“Village Chief Seya, if there is anything you need help with, please tell me.
I will help,” Mo Ming repeated upon seeing Seya’s hesitation.

“…” Seya didn’t answer immediately, a hesitant expression on her face.

Because Mo Ming had entered the Village Chief’s courtyard, some of the people who were just passing by had gathered around out of curiosity.
And these onlookers, in turn, attracted more onlookers… It was fortunate that there weren’t too many people, otherwise they would have been driven away again.

Unlike those on the forums who had only seen Mo Ming in videos and pictures and had to guess his identity, many of the onlookers here had personally had their mobs snatched by Mo Ming… Although Mo Ming’s appearance was very ordinary, the kind of unremarkable face that would be lost in a crowd, many people still remembered this famous Mob-Snatcher.

There must be a reason why Mo Ming was able to enter the Village Chief’s courtyard and speak with her, and from the looks of their conversation, it was clear that Mo Ming had triggered some kind of quest—due to the protection of player privacy, when certain quests were accepted, the dialogue between the player and the NPC would be blocked by the system, preventing other players from hearing it.

As for the time when Mo Ming had turned himself into a human cannonball and smashed the roof of Blacksmith Hu’s house, and was then confronted by him, because the blacksmith was only asking for compensation at first and hadn’t triggered a quest, their conversation was not blocked by the system… If that conversation had been blocked, not so many players would have suffered.

In addition, in a player’s private territory—such as a house purchased in a city—blocking could also be set up.
If the blocking function was enabled, then even if you were talking to someone at the edge of your courtyard, people outside wouldn’t be able to hear a single word.

After hesitating for a moment, Seya finally spoke.

“Born Without a Name, you’ve been running around the vicinity of the village recently, so you must have noticed, right?
The animals near the village used to be very docile.
But for some reason, they’ve all become aggressive recently and have even harmed many villagers.
These suddenly aggressive animals have severely affected the daily lives of the villagers, which is why they entrusted you adventurers to deal with the frenzied animals… but the effect hasn’t been very good; the animals are still very aggressive.”

This was something Mo Ming had indeed noticed—the names of the monsters near the village: Aggressive Hen, Aggressive Wild Rabbit, and so on.
And some of the villagers’ quests that only required killing monsters and not materials also mentioned things like, “Recently, some of the nearby animals have become a bit aggressive, affecting my xxx.”

Mo Ming had originally thought it was just a game setting to give players a good reason to fight monsters.
He didn’t expect there to be a quest related to it?

“I believe there must be a reason why these once docile animals have suddenly become so aggressive… Born Without a Name, could I trouble you to go a little further north of the village and see if the animals in the farther areas have also changed?
After all the trials you’ve been through, with your current strength, you should be able to do it.”

“No problem, leave it to me,” Mo Ming nodded in agreement—hearing Seya’s last sentence, this should be the quest that could only be accepted after level 6.

【Quest Accepted: Investigate the Anomaly (Somewhat Difficult)

Quest Content: Go north of the village and kill 30 monsters of level 6 or higher.

Quest Requirement: Level 6 or higher

Quest Description: The monsters in the village have become unusually aggressive recently, harming many villagers.
To gather information, go 5 li north of the village and investigate whether the nearby monsters have also become aggressive.

Quest Reward: Experience, Favorability with Novice Village No. 2.

Failure Penalty: None】

From the lack of a time limit and penalty, it should be a normal quest for after level 6… Due to Mo Ming’s flawed attributes, a quest that would only be rated 【Normal】 for an average player became 【Somewhat Difficult】 for him.

And the reward being only experience and reputation, not even a single copper coin or white-quality gear, reminded Mo Ming of what Seya had said just now: “But now, there is nothing of value here that I can offer as a reward”… It seemed there really was nothing of value.

But Mo Ming didn’t care much about that.
After accepting the quest, he shouldered his Novice Sword and set off towards the north of the village.