The Grand Duelist

[A Kingdom-wide quest has been distributed.]

[Capture the Traitor and the Escapee!]

Quest Difficulty: ???

The sovereign of the Kingdom, Oliver Oligarch is angry that a traitor from the Underground Penitentiary for Heinous Crimes intervened with the schedule execution earlier in the day. He has established a Kill Order for that traitor and a Capture Order for the female companion of that rebel.

You, a valid resident of the Kingdom of Nether is tasked to cut down the head of that rebel, and capture his female companion! 

Although this quest is dedicated to Capture and Kill Order...

Great rewards are also promised if you report valuable information about the location of that rebel to the Guild Leader of the Crimson Guild, Vladimir!

Note: Finding that particular traitor and his female companion may be like trying to find a needle within a haystack. But rest assured. The Kill and Capture Order will make the identity of those traitors clear!

Quest Clear Conditions: Kill the Traitor marked with a Kill Order and Capture the Companion of that Traitor marked with a Capture Order.

Quest Rewards: ??? (Guaranteed)

Quest Failure: Nothing.]

At this moment, a system notification appeared right in front of every player affiliated with the Kingdom of Nether. 

"!!!"

"A Kingdom-wide quest? Wait? Someone actually intervened with the execution of a Legend earlier?"

"Holy shit! This is big news! I'll be logging-out for now. I've got to report this!"

"Wait, how are we even supposed to find two people inside this huge-ass Kingdom?"

The players who received the system notification were astonished and joyful.

Who wouldn't be happy to receive a quest that had clear conditions for clearance and without any failure repercussions?

The players practically looked like they were about to jump in joy when they received the quest.

But when they finished reading the entire quest...

They frowned for the Kingdom of Nether was huge.

It had a population of about a hundred million people.

Half were NPCs and the other half were players. Finding two people inside such a huge kingdom could be considered as a cumbersome and difficult task.

"It says here that the Kill and Capture Order will make those traitors clear. Does this mean that we'll know about who our targets are for as long as we can see them?"

"That should be the case.. I'll be going now to Reinhardt."

"To Reinhardt?"

"Did you even play the game within the last few days? The execution happened at the Capital City Reinhardt so we should start our investigation there..."

"Is that so? Then I shall go too."

With the distribution of the Kingdom-wide quest...

A mob of players marched en masse towards the Capital of the Kingdom of Nether, Reinhardt.

Meanwhile, the certain player that everyone was looking for was currently in the search for the location of his comrade, Alice.

"Just where did that woman go?" Joseph gulped several vials of Health Potion and he finally pushed his Health Points to the maximum. It was about ten minutes since his battle with Vladimir ended, but he still hasn't found Senior Krid's disciple, Alice.

"As far as I can remember... There were explosions around here when I was fighting that guy earlier..." Joseph thought to himself.

He scanned his surroundings and found that there were indeed traces of battle within the area.

A lot of wooden stalls were riddled with holes and the faint smell of gunpowder faintly lingered in the air along with...

"Wait..."

"This smell..."

"The smell of blood!" Joseph's exclaimed, and he turned to look at the direction where the intense smell of blood originated from. He rushed towards that place and there...

He found a bloodied Alice whose body riddled with dozens of coin-sized holes.

"Shit!" Joseph instantly went to her side and popped open a Health Potion. He knew that he had no time to waste, for an injury this severe could easily kill somebody.

Reaching his hand below her nose...

Joseph sighed in relief when he found that Alice was still breathing.

"Can she swallow?" Joseph carefully raised her head, checking for any blockage within her throat.

When he found that there was nothing in the way.

He made her drink the Health Potion that he had in his hands.

But since Joseph had no way to see the Health Bars of NPCs, he couldn't do anything other than feeding her every Health Potion that he had to make sure that she would recover her health as much and as fast as possible.

However, as soon as he fed her the last Health Potion that he had. He noticed that even though the rosy-color of Alice's cheeks finally returned...

She was still profusely bleeding to the extent that Joseph couldn't even believe that she was still alive after this much blood came out of her body.

Nevertheless...

Joseph must do something against the heavier injuries that the Health Potions didn't manage on healing.

But...

"Uh..." Joseph hesitated.

It was because the more severe gunshot wounds that Alice had were around her thighs and belly-button. If Joseph wanted to patch them up...

He must strip her naked and thoroughly search her body for other wounds in order to make sure that he had everything covered.

Fortunately, Joseph's hesitation only lasted for a moment.

"Fuck it! It would be unreasonable for her to blame me when I only wanted to help her!"

He then cautiously lifted Alice with his hand, while his free hand worked on slowly rolling her to the side.

Afterwards, he took the robe that he had from as an Inquisitor of the Underground Penitentiary and used some of it as a temporary bandage to cover her wounds.

Unfortunately, Joseph found that the amount of fabric that he had was insufficient to cover every nook and cranny of Alice's body.

Because of this, he had no other choice but to strip his pants off and use some of it as temporary bandages. After sealing off most of Alice's wounds, he utilized the remaining fabric from his pants as a yarn so that he could wrap Alice around the remaining fabric of his robe like sushi.

He then lifted Alice from the ground and hoisted her on his shoulder like carrying a sack of potatoes.

But before he could even a step forward to escape...

A system notification appeared right in front of him.

[A Kingdom-wide quest has been distributed.]

[Capture the Traitor and the Escapee!]

[You are being marked with the stigmata of the Kingdom-wide Kill Order.]

[Under the effects of your title, "The Sun That Overlooks Everything.]

[You have resisted.]

"Kill Order and Capture Order? I don't know anything about the Capture Order, but why does it feel like I know something about this Kill Order? It feels like I heard something about this word, but I just can't remember it..." Joseph thought to himself when suddenly...

A bright orange marker appeared on top of Alice that he was carrying on his shoulder. The bright orange marker was in the shape of a circle and had the word, "Capture" written in bold letters.

"So that's the Capture Order? Wait, that's the Capture Order?!" Joseph fiercely turned around and when he found that there was no one looking at them...

He swiftly covered the bright orange marker floating above Alice's head.

But the Capture Order was seemingly incorporeal...

It could be seen, but couldn't be touched. And likewise, it couldn't be covered.

"Fucking hell man, this is bullshit! I can't hide it? How am I supposed to escape from this place if I can't hide this shit?!"

Joseph gnashed his teeth in frustration.

He couldn't understand the actions of the one that should be behind the distribution of this Kingdom-wide quest. In other words, he couldn't understand what the King of the Kingdom of Nether was doing. Wasn't he supposed to be Senior Krid's sworn brother? Why was he doing this?

Does he really want to fight against Senior Krid to the bitter end?

Joseph tried his best on making some sense regarding the actions of the King. But before he could even think any further, footsteps rang out behind him and he had no other choice but to hide somewhere for the meantime.

"Boss, why did we even come here? This place is the nearest to the Central Square. I don't think that the traitor would actually hide near the place where he was last spotted."

"Stupid... Can you not speak if you're not even so sure about what you are saying? Take a look at this place. The smell of gunpowder and blood is lingering in the air. It's clear that there's a recent fight that happened in here! And didn't you guys hear those explosions?"

Joseph peeked from behind the wall where he was hiding and found at least five players walking towards his direction.

"Goddamned it, five players... Judging from their equipment. It's likely that they are high-leveled players... With me carrying Alice like this, I can't fight them... I must escape!" Joseph concluded.

He cautiously observed the movements of the five players approaching his direction as he slowly crawled his way out of the area with Alice.

"Holy shit, you're right, boss! You're really a genius, boss! Now, what should we do?"

Pa! 

A smacking sound rang out when that player asked.

"Are you stupid? You're the one that's supposed to help us find those players!"

"Me? Boss?" 

"Of course, you are! You asshat! Aren't you a Hunter? Use your [Track] and see if you can find fresh footprints in the area..."

"Oh yeah! I do have that boss! Okay, I'll be using it now, alright?"

Joseph gulped a mouthful of saliva when he heard what the players were talking about. [Track] was a skill that if used, could enable a Hunter to see tracks left behind by enemies that recently passed by an area. In other words, if that Hunter really used [Track]. He could easily find Joseph and Alice.

"Shit! Goddamned it!" Joseph inwardly exclaimed. He rolled Alice to the side and he was about to take the Rapier of Grandeur and Beauty out of his Inventory when shadows suddenly descended towards the five players.

"Bastards! Who are you guys?! How dare you sneak attack us!"

"AHHH! SHIT! MURDERER! THERE'S A MURD-"

When the shadows descended, some of the players managed to scream.

But their cries were cut short as a streak of silver flashed by their throats, instantly ending their life by sending their heads rolling on the ground.

"Goddamned it bro, you were too slow! They even managed to scream! What if their screams attracted the attention of other players. This would become more troublesome!"

"Hahaha... I'm really sorry about that, bro..."

"No, it's fine. What's more important is we're finally here..."

"Yeah, right... Hahaha... Did you hear that, sir? I assume that you still remember us, right?"

The shadows slowly transformed into the figures of several men who started cajoling each other.

After a short talk, one of them turned to look at Joseph's direction and asked...

Joseph slowly raised his head and he was pleasantly surprised when he saw the identity of the shadows who came to his rescue.

"You are..." A smile escaped on Joseph's lips.

"Kayn!" 

[Author's Note: Every character that has names will not be abandoned in this novel.]