The sprawling fountain plaza in Red Leaf Town was packed with several thousand players.
Thanks to the influx of new players into Divine Realm, Red Leaf Town—the most prosperous settlement among the surrounding small towns—had nearly twenty thousand residents. The sudden lockdown of the fountain plaza by the Martial Alliance naturally drew the attention of every other player nearby, who all wondered what was going on.
It wasn't just casual players who came to investigate. Every major guild sent scouts as well, eager to find out what the Martial Alliance was after.
But when all of them arrived at the fountain plaza, they discovered that the Martial Alliance was here for revenge—and they were doing it inside Red Leaf Town itself. No matter how you looked at it, Red Leaf Town had a player protection system. If a fight broke out, the town guards would show up, not only to arrest people but to execute red-named players on the spot and throw them in jail. Ganking someone inside a town was never a smart choice; the best you could hope for was a lose-lose outcome.
At the current stage, no matter how many players there were, none of them dared to provoke the town guards.
Everyone knew how powerful those guards were.
The guards patrolled the town on a regular basis, and a simple observation was enough to reveal their stats.
A regular town guard was Level 60, and the guard captain was an Level 80 Elite. No number of players would make a dent against them. Fighting back meant certain death—or rather, the current generation of players wouldn't even have the ability to resist before being put down.
Yet no one expected what happened next. Someone actually made the first move—and it was the lone player who struck first.
Everyone assumed that player was dead for sure.
But the final result completely defied expectations. A single person killed over a hundred of the Martial Alliance's players and forced the rest to freeze in terror. It was absolutely insane.
Unfortunately, no matter how powerful you were, you couldn't escape the guards—not when you fought inside a town.
The city guards who had rushed over had already surrounded the fountain plaza and begun suppressing and arresting every player who had been causing trouble.
"Brother Night Edge, I'm sorry. This is all my fault," Huo Wu walked over and said.
Shi Feng's name was now so deeply red it was practically black—just glancing at it sent a chill down one's spine. Counting the ones from before, Shi Feng had killed well over a hundred players. At that level of infamy, if he died, he'd lose at least seven levels' worth of experience. And the guards had already surrounded them. They would certainly execute every red-named player on sight, leaving Shi Feng no chance to escape.
But that wasn't even the worst part. Once killed by the guards, respawning meant immediate imprisonment. The duration of the jail sentence was proportional to the infamy level. With Shi Feng's current crime value, he'd be locked up for at least five or six days before his infamy was cleared.
The Martial Alliance players looked at Shi Feng with smirking faces. They would be punished too, but compared to what Shi Feng was about to endure, their penalties were a joke.
"Don't worry," Shi Feng said with a smile.
Ke Le and the others just smiled and said nothing. Ziyan Liuyun in particular—this wasn't the first time she'd faced a scene like this. The last time something similar happened, it was also because of the Martial Alliance. She hadn't expected history to repeat itself.
This left Huo Wu and Shui Niu completely confused.
Why were Ke Le and the other companions so utterly unconcerned about Shi Feng?
"Relax, Sister Huo Wu. The boss isn't exactly an ordinary person," Ziyan Liuyun said with a grin.
The moment she finished speaking, the guard captain in his silver-gray heavy armor walked over.
"Esteemed Demon Hunter, we meet again. Is there anything I can assist you with this time?" The guard captain wore a smile and was unfailingly respectful.
Compared to last time, Shi Feng's reputation was even higher now, so the guard captain had grown correspondingly more courteous.
Though Shi Feng and Ke Le took this as perfectly natural, everyone else was stunned—especially the Martial Alliance members. Their eyes nearly bulged out of their heads. Shi Feng was plainly a mass murderer, and instead of being cut down, the guard was practically bowing to him. What was wrong with this world?
"Isn't that Night Edge?"
"I remember him. Last time, he killed Martial Alliance members right in front of the guards and got off with just a small fine. I was speechless back then. Later I found out that if a player becomes a noble and earns noble privileges, they can kill other players right in front of the guards without any real punishment—just a fine at most."
"Why haven't these Martial Alliance guys learned their lesson? They still dare to go after Night Edge inside Red Leaf Town. Don't they know he's a noble here? They're idiots."
"You might not know—the current Martial Alliance in Red Leaf Town is different. The old members are long gone. Even leadership has changed to that guy Fengyun Wuhui. The current members all came from other towns, and a big chunk of them are total newbies to the game, so of course they don't know about any of that."
Some knowledgeable players shook their heads and chuckled, feeling there was no hope left for the Martial Alliance as a guild. Before going after Night Edge, you'd think they'd at least do some research on the guy. After all, he was the one who had cleared the Hell Difficulty Dark Moon Cemetery.
Hearing these explanations, every Martial Alliance member's face darkened instantly. Only now did they understand why Shi Feng had been so calm. But things had already gone this far, and all they could do was watch in bitter resignation.
"Esteemed Guard Captain, this isn't the first time the Martial Alliance has caused trouble for me inside this town," Shi Feng said with a smile. "Is there any way to prevent incidents like this from happening?"