Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 9 Old Friends

Ye Ci suppressed a laugh and nodded, “Yes yes yes, big sister Clingy Wolf.”

No matter how she looked at it, the name was rather comical…but she would never say it out loud, not ever.

“Oh yes, I’ve just found out that Dong Yin and Yi Cang are playing this game as well….” Liu Chang changed the topic abruptly.

Ye Ci was lost for words.

The four of them grew up together.

They went to school together, came home together, sat for exams together, received their results together, got beaten up by their parents together, even their birthdays were celebrated together. In spite of everything, people change. Ye Ci became lonelier and lonelier as she grew up. Since when had her happy years started to change?

Was the change brought about by herself?

Ye Ci couldn’t even muster the courage to remember how badly she had hurt Dong Yin and Yi Cang in her past life. She trembled after their names were mentioned by Liu Chang, a searing pain spreading across her chest.

“Little Ci, Little Ci, what happened to you?” Liu Chang raised her voice after receiving no response from Ye Ci. It pulled her back into reality.

“Nothing, I’m listening.” Ye Ci hid her absent-mindedness with a smile.

She was reborn. She was given the chance to make amends, to save her relationship with Dong Yin and Yi Cang.

Liu Chang continued yapping away for quite some time and finally hung up the call after they exchanged their in-game IDs. Of course, Liu Chang laughed at Ye Ci’s “neutral” name.

Ye Ci laid there on the bed, unable to sleep well. Images of her childhood flooded her mind. She didn’t have much of the memories after she had grown up. She couldn’t even remember the things she had done in those 10 years of her previous life. She could only vaguely remember making a lot of mistakes, and now was the time to rectify them.

Although she restlessly slept, Ye Ci woke up at 7 in the morning due to her circadian clock.

After washing her face, Ye Ci entered the game again.

Before she could enter the game, there was a new patch to be installed. It was a newly added ranking system. There was an option, “Do you want your ID to be listed in the rankings?”

Ye Ci declined. This time, she intended to lay low.

She could see the rankings right after logging into the game. In Ye Ci’s memory, the ranking system was also released on the second day of Fate. Her rebirth did not cause much of a butterfly effect to the world.

Ye Ci hesitated for a moment before clicking on the rankings.

She was curious to see if the people she knew in her previous life would be listed.

Even if they were her adversaries, even if the only thing she could remember about them were their names, even if they were her friends… Perhaps she had no friends at all back then.

Fate was very pragmatic when it came to the ranking system. It ranked only 5 simple factors that were able to directly represent a player’s strength.

Level, Wealth, Equipment, Quest Completion, and Karma.

There was also a Guild Ranking right below the Personal Ranking. The guilds were ranked by their Wealth, Equipment, Quest Completion, and Karma.

The Guild Ranking was empty, as no Guilds that were recognised by the system had been formed yet.

Only the names of the top 20 players of each category would be showed on the ranking board. Ye Ci could only search for familiar names from the 100 names that were listed.

Fate’s server was a global server, therefore the names of a few foreigners could also be seen on the board, automatically translated by the system. One in particular caught Ye Ci’s attention — Fleeting Time.

If Ye Ci remembered correctly, Fleeting Time was an American player that she had fought against in the PVP Competition. He was an Elven Hunter. They were matched up against each other three times. The first two of their matches ended in a draw, but in the last match, she was completely destroyed by his unpredictable movements, extreme positioning, and ruthlessly fatal attacks.

That match made Ye Ci realised that Fleeting Time intentionally hid his true strength in the earlier matches.

Ye Ci undoubtedly lost that battle and had not been able to get first three for the PVP match. When Ye Ci once again mustered the courage to fight against him, he had disappeared… This had been one of Ye Ci’s lifelong regrets.

Ever since that season’s PVP match, Fleeting Time was given the title of the Hunter God. Videos of his gameplay went viral on the internet with millions of views.

It was that fight which had caused Ye Ci to wholeheartedly study everything about the Hunter class. From there, she extended her research to all of Fate.

She could not help but laugh. She should thank Fleeting Time. If it hadn’t been for him, she would not have been able to know so much about Fate after her rebirth.

This time, she would definitely duel with this person again.

As a Huntress against a Hunter.

Chinese players were veterans when it came to games that required much investment in terms of time and money but offered little content to the players. No foreigners could ever hope to compete with China when it came to leveling up.

The top 5 players on the Level Rankings were all players from China: Let Go Of That Girl, Golden Man, Clear Skies Snowy Land, Coltfoot (the name of a flower), and Seven Leaves Flower. Not only did they level up fast, their names had also appeared on other rankings aside from the Karma Rankings.

Ye Ci could not hold back her laughter. Rebirth. She could still meet someone she had known through her rebirth, even though they had once been enemies. Despite having been so, these familiar names touched her heart deeply. Ye Ci looked at Let Go Of That Girl who was ranked number 1 in the Level Rankings. This person was very close to her level, which was 40% of lv7.

She knew all the shortcuts and BUGs, but somebody was still able to catch up with her. He must’ve skipped sleep to do just that.

Closing the Rankings list, Ye Ci decided to replenish some arrows. She would once again challenge Icy Cave. She refused to believe that she had such bad luck!

Before she could reach Natasha’s little cottage at the Crossroads, Ye Ci received a friend invitation. It was from Liu Chang’s “Clingy Wolf”. Ye Ci accepted the friend request without thinking.

Liu Chang’s crisp voice entered her ears right after, “Hey, hey, what’s the level of my little Gongzi?”

Ye Ci’s attributes were hidden. Even if if was open for public viewing, the players could only see her equipment but not her name and level.

“What is your level?” Ye Ci did not reply, and instead had thrown the question back.

Liu Chang was happy to answer that question. The main reason for her to wake up so early in the morning was to brag! She did not sleep until 4 am in the morning after cutting her call with Ye Ci.

“I”m lvl 5 now! I’ve finally learnt my first skill! I can summon Fire Minions now! Wahaha! I bet you’re jealous!” Liu Chang bragged nonstop in the voice chat. If there was no ceiling in her house, her wolf’s tail would’ve risen right up into the sky! “Tell me, which map do you want to go to? Don’t hesitate! I, your sister, will take care of you! I’m strong! Against monsters, I show no mercy…”

Liu Chang was still yapping happily when Ye Ci asked curiously, “Weren’t you only lvl 3 when you called me last night?”

“Uh…” Liu Chang was momentarily lost for words. It took her awhile to admit to Ye Ci that she had joined a party and was busy leveling up throughout the entire night.

Ye Ci sighed. “You could rest in the Gaming Cabin, but it was nowhere as comfortable as a bed…” She asked, “You wanna go explore a dungeon?”

“The dungeon!” Liu Chang’s eyes immediately lit up after hearing the magic word. She nodded her head rapidly.

“Come to the Elven Forest, I’ll wait for you at the Crossroads. We’re going into the Icy Cave.”

“Sure! I’ll be there right away!” Liu Chang immediately abandoned the idea of looking for handsome men at the village entrance. She headed straight for the Elven Forest, and with glittering eyes, she asked, “Isn’t Icy Cave the dungeon that got completed SOLO by a mysterious person yesterday?”

The certain “mysterious person” coughed slightly and said, “Get Dong Yin and Yi Cang to join us as well…”

“Forget about them. One of them is a Human and the other is an Orc. They’re like 10,000 miles away from us! I’ve just talked to them, they’re only lvl 3!”

Since there was nothing Ye Ci could do about it, she opted to ask for Dong Yin’s and Yi Cang’s ID and added them as friends. The four created a voice channel and began to chitchat.

Liu Chang’s voice was the loudest as usual. She spared no effort in bragging to Dong Yin and Yi Cang, provoking jealousy from the duo. Ye Ci could feel a long-lost warmth creeping into her heart as she listened to their interaction.

It was as if she was back in her childhood days.