Chapter 10:

The daylight was always vexing. Under such “full exposure”, vampires easily grew fatigued, and as the scorching noon approached, Murphy had already retreated indoors for a light sleep. “Ding dong” The notification sound from the forum roused Murphy from his half-asleep state. Glancing at the forum, he saw there were new messages in the application area. New trial application links just went out and there were already greenhorns showing up? So eager? Murphy opened the application and saw the applicant ID “Precipitation Niuniu Is Not Afraid of Difficulties” with a tag【Athlete】. This immediately amused him. It was clearly one of Ah Yuen’s dormmate’s friends that the good student had specially recruited. That kid was really diligent. He looked over the applicant’s questionnaire answers and preliminarily judged them to be purely innocent college students without much social experience, like the dormmates, so he approved them. Murphy the old fox just loved these pure youths, they were so easy to lure into doing things. But in the application area there was other information too. Those bizarre IDs really opened Murphy’s eyes to the weirdness of the world, just look at the bizarre names these idiotic netizens used? 【Black Stockings Under the Keyboard】 was still relatively not abstract, but the rest made Murphy’s eyes hurt. 【Led More Than Three to Five Pecks】,【Day One No Fap】,【Electronic Succubus Old Tune】. Abstract galore! Too abstract! The “Introduced By” field in the questionnaires for these few also had Meow King’s ID written, so they were likely his real-life friends. True to the promiscuous boot-licking man’s reputation, his social skills really were top-notch. Murphy was truly curious about Meow King’s circle of friends now. But honestly, the questionnaire results for these few guys were all really good, rich gaming experience, loved roleplaying, eager for challenges and hardcore gameplay, law-abiding. They were perfect rookie candidates in Murphy’s eyes. As if! Such consistent results must have been filled out under Meow King’s “careful guidance”, right? Murphy felt a bit like trolling them. But then he thought about how he had absolute control over the player accounts and could ban them anytime, plus he urgently needed to fill out the roster now. He could appropriately lower the screening standards. If worse came to worst and he confirmed these guys weren’t suitable, he could just throw them into the “cannon fodder group” and make them take on the most dangerous missions. A terrible gaming experience would scare off these misfits eventually. He just didn’t know what would happen to those mysterious gaming helmets if the players got banned. Surely they wouldn’t spin 360 degrees and self-destruct, right? Hmm, probably not going to explode, right? Murphy shrugged and also approved those four. With that, he had twelve available troops filled out, plus himself and the “temporary assistant” Miriam made fourteen in total. That was already enough for a battle! Provided the Witch Hunters didn’t “respawn” on his face right now. Based on the conclusion Murphy had sneakily peeked from the player group, it would take some time from application approval to helmet distribution, even using the fastest logistics channels everywhere. The average was probably 6-12 hours. It had been over two hours since Maxim set out. Factoring out detours, plus vampires being unable to rapidly move en masse during daylight, Murphy concluded: If all went well, the powerful reinforcements would arrive earliest this evening. That meant, in the most optimistic scenario, he just had to endure through this day to be completely safe. As for whether this abandoned piece would be given up by the vampires? Murphy didn’t worry about that at all. When Maxim departed, he had already left a contingency plan. As long as that loyal blood servant survived to deliver the message, those Midnight Hunters would definitely come rescue him! “I’ve put all the usable weapons and armor you requested in those still intact rooms at the village entrance, as instructed. Anything else you need me to do?” Having donned an old leather armor and carrying a Witch Hunter light crossbow on her back, Miriam walked in and asked Murphy, her tone not too friendly. Murphy didn’t mind, saying: “If the Witch Hunters come during the day, I won’t be able to fight in the sunlight, so I need you to act as bait.” “You want me to go die?” Miriam’s expression changed as she clenched her fists, but Murphy shook his head and said: “No, just help draw their attention so my summons have a chance to ambush and divide their forces. Like how you baited and killed that Witch Hunter in the basement, you should be familiar with that. The female leader finally spoke, her tone cold, hoarse and tinged with weariness. She raised her left hand in a small wave, and the remaining seven immediately dispersed into an assault formation. Gripping the ornately carved wood handle of her hunter’s sword, she said to the two squad leaders on either side: “Regardless of what Marus did to this village, it’s certain he clashed with that bounty-hunted vampire messenger here. I trust Marus and his men’s combat ability, that vampire messenger is either dead or heavily injured at least. We must obtain the message in his possession. At all costs. What about the other squads in the area, Norman?” “Checked in with hawk signals around noon, all other squads besides us are retreating from the border. This tactical interdiction has achieved its objectives.” The veteran hunter secured his crossbow and surveyed the silent village, even able to see the overturned carriage and bloodslave corpses at the entrance. He answered: “After bagging that vampire messenger, we’ll also be leaving Transia, perhaps forever this time. I detest this place and hope this is our final mission here.” “But this village gives me an ill feeling.” The one-armed hunter sneered, “Now it’s twilight, even if that bloodsucker is hiding here, he wouldn’t dare face us directly. And two hours later it’ll be night. I don’t know about you, but I’m not keen on hunting a vampire powerful enough to kill the madman Marus after sunset.” The huntress hesitated briefly before gesturing: “Second squad remains outside on watch, first squad follows me in.” Order given, the previously tense subordinates fell silent. The one-armed Porter affixed a mechanical clawed gauntlet over his stump, flexing the wicked blood-stained tri-bladed talon, then followed behind the huntress with three others dismounting into the village. However, the stench of charred and sunbaked corpses immediately caused even these hardened warriors intimately familiar with the hells of man to recoil. This scene was not the aftermath of battle, this was one-sided slaughter and butchery! “Marus should count himself lucky to be dead!” The one-armed veteran spat, coldly said: “If he still lived, I’d strangle him myself. The Battlemaster explicitly prohibited such acts time and again.” “But I heard the Circle’s spirit masters were unhappy with the Battlemaster’s leniency in enemy territory. Those cold fish clearly preferred madmen like Marus who know no restraint.” One of the spirit-talented hunters mumbled under her breath. Unable to stomach the carnage, she stepped forward and smashed a special vial on the ground. The azure particles mixed with the ambient spirit energy to generate a gust of wind sweeping through the village, dissipating the foul odors slightly. “Avalon above, when will this hellish slaughter end?” The scout murmured, kneeling with palms to the earth as the other three stood guard, her mediocre spirit talents manifesting in a pulsing emerald light. In the next instant, her senses expanded like radar through the earth beneath the ruins. As she swept her perception over the devastated village, she told the vigilant sword-wielding leader: “No living people in the village. Marus’s body is in the basement behind the village, skull blasted off and no pants on. I can guess what he was up to before dying, a truly vile beast. Wait, no! There is a living person! A young injured woman bleeding in a house at the far left end of the village! She’s badly weakened, no threat.” The huntress nodded, gesturing forward with her fingers. The clawed veteran and a middle-aged rifleman immediately advanced in a two-man stack towards the indicated position, while the remaining two kept scanning and guarding. This entire scene did not escape Murphy’s eyes. The vampire was currently hiding in the shadow of the tallest water tower, carefully observing this formidable-looking group. He shrank back further into the shade, confirming the enemy had split into three groups, before entering the forum and opening the group chat: Alpha: 【@all members guys, get ready to log in! Test time!】