After she turned in the quest, Malcolm had one last thing to say to Lila.
"Lila, thank you again for recovering the village's losses. If you encounter any more of these... spies, you have my authorization to kill them on sight."
A thrill shot through Lila. He ans there'll be more.
Turning to her squad, she gave a firm order. "Not a word of this mission gets out."
"Got it, boss!" they replied in unison.
Lila nodded, but a new problem was already brewing. The Ascendant gear from the Mysterious Point rchant had to be a trap. The Burning Horde wasn't in the business of handing out free power-ups to players.
She faced a dilemma. Should she warn the rest of her guild? As their leader, she had a duty to protect them from scams. But if she did, word would get out, and other players would beco wary. If they didn't fall for the trap, how could she and her team farm the points from the quest?
It was a thorny issue for soone so young. Lila didn't yet have a deep understanding of human greed. She didn’t know that in the real world, people would ignore their own families and even the police to wire money to a scamr, all for the promise of a massive return. In their minds, anyone trying to stop them was just jealous, an obstacle on their path to riches.
In fact, so players in Starlight Village already sensed sothing was off. The topic was heating up in private chats.
"You guys hear about that Mysterious Point rchant?"
"Yeah, 1000 points for a piece of level 30 Ascendant gear? That's insane."
"Did you get one?"
"Nah, they were all gone in minutes. Only a few hundred people got lucky."
"I heard Lila's squad killed the rchant afterward. Said he was one of The WarChief's guys."
"So what if he was? NPCs can't run a little black market on the side?"
"Aren't you worried the stuff is fake?"
"But what if it's real?"
"I don't know, man, I have a bad feeling about it..."
"Let ask you this. An NPC pops up in front of you, offering a level 30 Ascendant piece for 1000 points. Are you taking that deal or not?"
"Ugh... I probably would, yeah."
"There you have it."
...
In the end, Lila posted a lukewarm warning in the guild channel.
Attention all: If you encounter the Mysterious Point rchant, we advise against making any trades.
Her tone was flat, and she ntioned no penalties for disobeying. After posting it, she muttered to herself, "That's the best I can do. It's up to you to have so self-control."
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The ssage, predictably, just confused most of her guild mbers, who started debating its aning in the chat. Lila strictly forbade her core squad from participating in the discussion.
Instead, her team split up, taking positions to patrol different areas: the northern quarry, the eastern logging camp, the entrance to the eastern forest, and the southern mine. They covered every major entry and exit point of the village. For the rest of the day, they did nothing else but camp the spawn points for the Mysterious Point rchant.
Two hours later, a ssage ca from Rena.
"Got one. Northern quarry."
"On my way. Stall it, don't let it get away!" Lila replied, quickly rallying the squad and heading north.
Along the way, they saw dozens of other players sprinting in the sa direction. By the ti Lila arrived, a crowd even larger than the last one had sward the Mysterious Point rchant, everyone elbowing their way to the front. Lila's squad hung back, watching the shambles with amusent.
Hazel, however, couldn't shake a feeling of guilt. She looked up at Lila. "Lila... is this right? Just watching them get scamd?"
Before Lila could answer, Rena ca over and ruffled Hazel's hair. "Hazel, don't waste your sympathy. They won't listen to us. They'll just see us as competition trying to screw them out of a good deal."
As if on cue, an argunt broke out between two players nearby—a couple, by the looks of it.
"Babe, go get one of those Ascendant pieces..." the woman whined.
"Honey, I really think this is a bad idea. It feels like a setup," the man replied cautiously.
"Everyone else is buying one! What are you so afraid of?"
"Seriously, this has to be a scam."
The woman's voice sharpened. "Are you going to get it or not?! You never get any good drops, and now you're being cheap!"
The man sighed in defeat. "Fine, alright."
Watching from the side, Hazel gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to march over and slap the girl. In that mont, she understood exactly what Rena ant.
Once the rchant's stock of 1,000 items was sold out, Lila and her team descended with weapons drawn, making short work of the Phantom Warbrute.
Over the next several hours, they found more of them all over the map: the eastern logging camp, the forest entrance, and even one in the western farmstead that must have crawled up from the river.
By the ti night fell, they had taken down a total of six Phantom Warbrutes. The squad had rotated twice, rotating mbers to give others a chance.
Besides Lila, Rena, and Hazel, everyone had participated. Those who were swapped out weren't thrilled to leave, but the twenty thousand points they'd each earned were a nice consolation prize.
As for Lila, Hazel, and Rena, they had each raked in a staggering 60,000 points. Staring at their point totals, it felt unreal.
What happened in Starlight Village was repeated in villages across the server, though with different outcos. So communities caught on quickly and sent players searching for the quest-giving NPC. They eventually found the Apprehend the Spy mission, but their slow start ant they didn't manage to kill all the Phantom Warbrutes.
The most successful among them only earned 50,000 points. In other villages, multiple teams discovered the quest and ended up competing, splitting the rewards so much that their individual shares were small. And then there were the clueless villages, where players were still waiting for the Mysterious Point rchant to respawn well past 11 PM.
On the second day of The WarChief's invasion, at 11:00 PM in Starlight Village, a system-wide announcent echoed through the zone.
System: It has co to our attention that multiple spies from The WarChief have been operating outside the village, using the guise of low-priced Ascendant gear to defraud defenders of their points. Thanks to the diligent efforts of Lila, Hazel, Rena, and their allies, the enemy's plot has been foiled and your losses recovered. All defenders who were deceived today will be refunded 60% of their points. Please check your personal notifications for details.
The server chat exploded.
"WTF! It was a scam?"
"No way, the stats on my Ascendant gear were legit."
"They were... holy shit, the item na just changed."
"Dammit, it turned into a piece of junk! All the stats are gone! And I've got a curse debuff—minus 15% to all stats, can't be dispelled, and it lasts for 24 hours!"
"We really got scamd!?"
"Why only 60% back?!"
"Where's the rest of our points?!"
"Lila! That bitch and her crew took our points!"
"Yeah! Let's get them!"
As always, those who had fallen for their own greed needed soone else to bla.
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