Sword Among Us

Chapter 1004: Head Hunter

Baoding was located to the north of Yellow River City. It was a huge city that was situated to the south of Shijiazhuang and to the north of Beijing.

Baoding was not very famous in the Chinese server, but there was a small town outside Baoding that was famous throughout the game, and there were few Chinese players who did not know it.

Dragon’s Gate!

It was rumored that many years ago, Dragon’s Gate was not known by this name, but after Tatars invaded that one time, hundreds of people from Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency worked together with heroes who wandered about the land to ensure peace and various elites from big sects to protect the town. They defended the town for three full months, and in the end, the walls around the town were all destroyed. The people from the sects all died, and only the leader as well as a few bodyguards from Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency were left struggling at the throes of death.

Blood dyed the entire town red.

The corpses of the elites from various sects and the guards from Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency could be found everywhere in the town. The people’s corpses and corpses of the elite guards were so numerous that they could not bury them all!

That fight allowed Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency to have its name ring through the world of martial artists.

Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency also formed a life and death bond with the people in the town, which was why they decided to set up a branch over here to connect the heroes of the south and north together.

That fight allowed Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency to use their courage and honorable attitude to intimidate those from the righteous and evil paths. The bandits from a circular area of dozens of miles would not even stop the carts escorted by Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency.

Because of it, the town had its name changed to Dragon’s Gate.

After that fight, Dragon’s Gate turned into the only town in the Chinese plains that did not have its walls repaired. At the same time, it turned into an important hub for the heroes from the south and north to meet up. All sorts of people could be found there, and even when the people from the righteous and evil paths mixed around in that place, they never bothered each other. The criminals there would not be hunted down by government officials, and this showed just how great was the influence of Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency in this place.

However, to the players, Dragon’s Gate was a town of quests that they could not ignore.

As their qi realms increased and the demands for their clan quests increased, the requirements of the quests for Reputation Points and Chivalry Points also increased day by day. Every time they got a quest, they needed to hand over tens of thousands of Reputation Points and Chivalry Points…

In the Chinese server, only when the players received quests from a bodyguard agency to protect carts or people would they be able to get a large amount of Reputation Points within a short amount of time. As for those in the evil path, they had to do the exact opposite. Their main quests were to steal cargo and kill people.

Dragon’s Gate was the largest bodyguard agency in the Chinese server!

It was also one of them few bodyguard agencies which could hand out high difficulty quests, which attracted plenty of Chinese players over from everywhere.

A few ten thousand players would practically come over to the town!

It was precisely because of this reason that restaurants, teahouses, as well entertainment houses like brothels and poison lanes around Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency increased. In fact, it gradually gained the shape of something amazing—a city without walls that stood at the key position connecting the south and north!

*****

Dragon’s Gate did not lack restaurants.

And in those restaurants were the newest and most timely information from everywhere in the Chinese server. Those were the places that players who did not have a lot of power and did not have a lot of money to spend were willing to stay. They could gather a lot of information about rumors circulating around the markets and restaurants, and from there, easily understand the situation in the current world of martial artists.

There were also people in the restaurants who were specifically there to collect information.

A man who looked handsome and gentle walked into the hall of a restaurant near Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency, and right when he entered the place, someone immediately smiled, raised his hand, and waved him over.

“Hey! Over here!”

No one would take unkindly to people shouting loudly and greeting others just as loudly in this place. Instead, it would just make them seem rather bold and sincere.

“Uncle Sword.” The handsome man smiled and walked over to sit beside the middle-aged man.

“How are you? Have you been doing well recently?”

“Same old.”

The handsome man smiled. There seemed to be a grave look that refused to disappear from his eyes.

The middle-aged man across him ordered a pot of wine for him. “Are you lying to me? Everyone knows that my information is the most updated in Dragon’s Gate. Did you actually think that I wouldn’t know what happened to you?”

The handsome man said nothing.

“Alright, I won’t be wasting my breath with you on this. My offer still stands. If you work for me, even though I can’t help you fight against Class One Hall and Blood Alliance, as long as we’re in the territory of Dragon’s Gate Bodyguard Agency, we don’t have to worry about Class One Hall.” Uncle Sword was in his forties, and he had quite the reputation in this place. When he said this, the people sitting by the tables around them cast envious looks at the handsome man.

The handsome man just smiled wanly, sighed, before he answered, “Uncle Sword, you know that my goal is different from yours. I have a job outside, and I can maintain a living. I didn’t come into World of Martial Arts to gather information and work for others. I’m sorry.”

Uncle Sword was not at all surprised about being rejected. “Tea Words, I know that your dream is the same as many other people’s, but you must understand your current situation. You offended Class One Hall and Blood Alliance. If you want to become outstanding in the game, unless you delete your character and restart, you will not be able to stand out in your life.”

Tea Words said nothing.

The handsome man sitting across Uncle Sword and who looked a little desolate was Tea Words, who was the vice faction master of Beautiful Robes Faction in the past.

Uncle Sword continued trying to persuade him, “A month ago, you were killed twice by Blood Alliance in the plains, and you can’t train at all. You can only do quests to gather information, and this is something I knew since the day it happened.”

Tea Words kept silent.

“Over this period of time, I am the one who provided you with information quests, and you’re diligent as well. You did pretty good, and you’ve already earned money that is about enough for one Illusion Life and Death Pill. Reality has shown that you youngsters’ heads work fast, that’s why I want to cultivate you into my successor and have you support Head Hunters! Once you officially join Head Hunters, you’ll be the vice sect master, and by then, you’ll be getting several folds of what you’re getting right now!”

“Uncle Sword…”

“Don’t be in a hurry to reject my offer. Think about it.” Uncle Sword stopped talking for a while before he said, “Even though you mentioned that the coursemate of yours has moved among the ranks of the top-class elites in the game right now after he returned, over the past two months, he has never contacted you or the original members of Beautiful Robes Faction. He might not remember you, and Beautiful Robes Faction might not be able to rise from the ashes again.”

He patted Tea Swords’ shoulder, and he was prepared to get up and leave when a group of people suddenly rushed inside like the wind was behind them.

“Boss, this is the latest news! And it’s awesome!”

“Uncle Sword, quick! It’s top-class news! If we sell it, we’ll definitely get a lot of money out of it!”

The group of people rushed inside hastily, and the words they said caused the people in the restaurant to have their expressions change. They surrounded the group.

Head Hunters’ information had always been classified into different ranks.

Top-class news was second only the unique, major news, and it was to be urgently and quickly spread out.

Uncle Sword immediately stopped moving and sat across Tea Words. He also had those people sit beside him.

The group’s lips moved.

Tea Words just watched them communicate through private messages. His eyes had narrowed while he observed a person’s moving lips. During that period of time, he carefully concealed the shock in his eyes.

“I understand. I will distribute the reward to you later according to how much top-class news is worth.” Once Uncle Sword listened to the news, he quickly returned to normal. He waved his hand and had his subordinates leave. His gaze moved to Tea Words once more.

“It’s indeed top-class news… Tea Words, do you want to know what is happening in the game right now?”

Tea Words had already looked away at that moment, and he shook his head gently.

The way Uncle Sword received his news was incredibly old-fashioned. He received his information from the markets, cities, and streets, and those were not considered hidden news as well, but this sort of free information was still quite profitable in the current world of martial arts.

For example, when something major happened to the south of Changjiang, it might also affect the north of Changjiang, and though it will soon cause an uproar in the forums, the information will only travel into the game half an hour later, sometimes even longer.

That period of time was a space for profit.

Head Hunters was in charge of gathering information and contacting buyers on their own to sell their information to the players who needed them the most.

These buyers could be certain designated players, and they could also be small sects, but they could also be major existences like Wind Assault Tower.

Hence, that was how their information was classified into different ranks.

They would set the price of their information based on how urgent this news needed to travel.

Tea Words had once helped Head Hunters gather a bunch of high-ranking information, such as the location for certain NPCs, certain quest items appearing in the market to be publicly sold, and even information about players who had the Killer Star effect on them.

“You seldom run into top-class information.”

“You’re right. When top-class information appears, it will get us at least ten million or even money that is worth more than one hundred million. If we handle it well, we can earn even more.” As Uncle Sword spoke, he quickly released ten messenger pigeons while smiling.

“Right now, I’ll tell you that this information is related to Happy.”

“I know.”

“Oh?” Uncle Sword was stunned.

Just now, those from Head Hunters had rushed inside in a hurry, and they accurately mentioned the time Class One Hall’s branches had been attacked. During this time, Tea Words did not receive any messenger pigeons.

This was something that happened dozens of miles away, and it was impossible for Tea Words to have learned of it, unless, of course, he had other spies and helpers in the restaurant.

“Why don’t you tell me what you know?” Uncle Sword did not quite believe in Tea Words.

Tea Words smiled and drank a mouthful of wine before he said, “Let me guess, the receivers of your message should be the alliance masters in the cities in the coastal area to the south, right?”

Uncle Sword might have been prepared to hear the information he was already familiar with from Tea Words, but he was still not prepared to hear Tea Words mention the receivers of his letters straightaway.

“I wanted you to come and help me in Head Hunters because of your intellect and how up to date you are with information. Besides, you seem to have quite the decent information network yourself.”

“Uncle Sword, you praise me too much.”

Tea Words smiled softly. “Even though my ambitions do not lie in Head Hunters, since you’ve been taking care of me, I’d like to give you a suggestion, it’d be best if you widen your potential buyers for this information.”

“Why don’t you go into detail about that?” Uncle Sword’s eyes lit up.

In truth, obtaining information was not difficult, but they would truly need to use their heads when it came to think of more suitable buyers during the short period of time before the news spread out.

The more buyers they had, that meant that the space for profit for the news would also become bigger.

“Since Happy has already prepared to take down Class One Hall’s branch at Shijiazhuang, he will definitely cause quite a number of sects who will want to attack Class One Hall. Aside from the sect alliances in the coastal area in the south, who are the furthest away from Beijing and have the most power in fighting against Class One Hall, I actually think that the sects in the north can also take action. Happy has come from Nanking, and he might not be thinking about destroying only one normal branch. He might have greater ambitions!”

When Uncle Sword listened to the later half of his speech, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed before he sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s a bold thought you have!”