Gu Fei sensed the resistance on the women's faces but didn't think too much about it, as these girls had always given him that kind of look. He took a few steps forward, ready to share the information he'd gathered, but he burped loudly, without any restraint.

The smell of alcohol intensified, and the girls hissed and scattered as if avoiding a plague.

"Sorry about that!" Gu Fei covered his mouth, smiling awkwardly.

"Alright, everyone, let's disperse!" Yue Qi clapped her hands.

"Hey..." Gu Fei wanted to say he had something to say, but seeing everyone fleeing as if from a famine, he didn't say the words and instead let out a deep sigh, "Sigh..."

"You have something to say?" Luo Luo noticed Gu Fei's expression and stopped. Now there were only three people left in the room. Yue Qi was always the last to leave the guild, and Xiao Yu... was still over there banging on the treasure chest!

"This time, the guild mission we received should be a two-way one..." Gu Fei explained what he had learned from Brother You.

The two listened quietly, and Yue Qi nodded. "I know. I didn't make a mistake. Our mission is indeed to find treasure chests."

Gu Fei was stunned.

"Someone is deliberately messing with us, not wanting us to complete the mission," Yue Qi said.

"Oh? Do you know who it is?" Gu Fei asked. *If you don't know, I can tell you*, was Gu Fei's unspoken thought.

Unfortunately, Yue Qi nodded. "Zongheng Sihai."

"Oh... you already knew!" Gu Fei was a little disappointed. After all that effort, he realized his trip was for nothing because they had already found out the information.

"This matter probably won't end here. Qianli, you need to be careful outside in the future," Yue Qi said, looking Gu Fei up and down. "Oh, you're not wearing a guild badge? That's alright, they probably wouldn't think that there's a man in my guild." Yue Qi's smile looked very forced.

"What's going on exactly?" Gu Fei asked, puzzled.

"Zongheng Sihai... this guild has had conflicts with us. The mission thing is probably their revenge, so everyone be careful," Yue Qi said.

"Oh, I see." Gu Fei glanced at Xiao Yu, who was still fiddling with the treasure chest! It seemed she wouldn't stop until she smashed the thing to pieces.

"Then I'm leaving." Gu Fei greeted the three and left the guild.

Watching Gu Fei leave, Luo Luo glanced at Yue Qi. "Aren't you going to tell him about that matter?"

"Forget it, he doesn't need to know. He's just a temporary member; it's better not to get him involved," Yue Qi said.

Luo Luo said worriedly, "I really didn't expect it to be such a coincidence that that person was born in Cloud City like us."

Yue Qi was silent for a long time, then suddenly said, "Luo Luo, are there any outstanding mercenary groups right now?"

"You want to find outsiders to help?" Luo Luo was a little surprised.

Yue Qi sighed. "Our current situation makes it impossible to compete with them."

"Don't forget the original intention of building this guild: to gather a few girls who also like online games for simple gaming," Luo Luo said.

"Things have changed, haven't they?" Yue Qi forced a smile. "Who would have thought it would be such a coincidence that this guy also happened to be born in the same main city as us. This game probably won't be simple again. Now that so many girls are following me, I need to find a way to get through this first hurdle."

Luo Luo didn't say anything. "Mercenary groups... I'm afraid there isn't a mercenary group that can compete with Cloud City's number one guild right now!"

"If one isn't enough, then find a few more!" Yue Qi said.

"I know you're not afraid to spend money," Luo Luo said with a wry smile. "The problem is..."

"Mercenary groups? I know a powerful one!" Xiao Yu suddenly spoke up. Yue Qi and Luo Luo were startled. They were so focused on discussing things that they had forgotten there was a girl playing with a treasure chest nearby.

"Xiao Yu, you know?" Yue Qi smiled. What could this scatterbrain remember?

"I heard about it when I was doing solo quests. The SOTU Mountain Bandit Leader quest was completed, and they hired this mercenary group for help," Xiao Yu said seriously.

Yue Qi and Luo Luo exchanged glances. Capturing the SOTU Mountain Bandit Leader was currently considered the most difficult quest that could be accepted but was impossible to complete. Just entering the Black Dragon Cave meant fighting monsters above your level. An average player could only last five minutes inside. Some time ago, someone gathered a large group to jointly attack, and they managed to make it all the way to the Boss, but they were all wiped out and sent back to the city. Since then, no one dared to try again.

"This quest was completed? When?" Luo Luo asked. Completing such a difficult quest should be big news, but she hadn't heard anything about it.

"It seems like it was yesterday," Xiao Yu replied.

"Oh..." Luo Luo understood. It was yesterday, so the news probably hadn't spread yet.

"What's the name of the mercenary group?" Yue Qi began to think there was hope. This mercenary group seemed very strong, as long as it wasn't a mercenary group raised by Zongheng Sihai themselves.

"I forgot," Xiao Yu said.

"How many people are there? Who's the leader of the mercenary group?" Yue Qi asked again.

Xiao Yu racked her brains.

"Forget it, forget it!" Luo Luo laughed. "Don't ask Xiao Yu anymore. I'll go find out!"

"Go ahead!" Yue Qi said with a serious face. This mercenary group had become a great hope for them.

=====

In Cloud City, Gu Fei was wandering around, pondering the problem. Yue Qi said that she had a history with Zongheng Sihai's people. For them to bother with a small mission, the history must be serious. Seeing Yue Qi's expression, she didn't seem to want to say too much, so Gu Fei didn't press her.

Parallel World hadn't been around for long, so there hadn't been enough time to build up so much hatred. This history must have happened in a previous online game, or perhaps it happened in real life? Gu Fei wanted to find Brother You to ask again, but he felt embarrassed since he had just asked him a few minutes ago, so he reluctantly resisted. Thinking about how Yue Qi and the others gathered information, Gu Fei felt he needed to learn from them, and immediately left the game.

Logging onto a search engine, Gu Fei felt a bit lost. When he typed in "Yue Qi," the search results were predictable. Later, he accidentally typed in Luo Luo's name, Luo Hua Wuqing, and a novel-like online game experience actually appeared before Gu Fei's eyes.

In this story, Luo Hua Wuqing was just a supporting character, a gofer mixed in with the main plot. The real protagonists were two people, one called Yue Qi Liuhuo and the other called Bu Xiao.

Bu Xiao actually loved to laugh.

This opening line shocked Gu Fei, and he repeatedly praised the talent of the current writers.

Gu Fei wasn't there to appreciate novels. After a quick scan, he learned the origin of the conflict.

This was a story of love and hate, lies and truth, deception and being deceived, very cliché and extremely cliché. In the story, Yue Qi Liuhuo was passionate and generous, and was ultimately deceived by Bu Xiao and left with nothing. Gu Fei doubted whether this was the calm and composed guild leader Yue Qi he knew.

But the climax of the story didn't end there. After Yue Qi left the game in despair, another character suddenly appeared, using even more sophisticated means to deceive Bu Xiao to an unsightly state. Rumor had it that this was Yue Qi Liuhuo reborn, returning in a more advanced form to seek revenge.

Filled with hatred, Bu Xiao eventually chose to leave as well. After all, it was just an online game, so the story came to an end.

But now, in Parallel World, it seemed that a new chapter was about to be written. The person Yue Qi mentioned having a history with, Gu Fei guessed, was this guy named Bu Xiao.

=====

At this time in the game, Luo Luo left the guild and went to the tavern where solo quests were issued. There were many types of quests in Parallel World. Like the ones you could accidentally receive on the street, these were called NPC storyline quests. Once you did them, you wouldn't get them again, and the rewards were quite generous.

The solo quests that players actually talked about were the ones that the system in the tavern refreshed every hour for players to accept. The number of these quests was limited, first come, first served, but you could repeatedly accept them. Using quests to grind experience mainly relied on these solo quests. And capturing the SOTU Mountain Bandit Leader was one of these, known as the most difficult solo quest currently available.

It was always easier for girls to ask around for information. Luo Luo casually asked a few players, but everyone's reaction was the same as Luo Luo's when she first heard it. They were very surprised that a mercenary group could complete the quest to capture the SOTU Mountain Bandit Leader.

It seems that the news hasn't spread yet, even after a day. Luo Luo thought to herself, and temporarily left the tavern to go to the Mercenary Hall.

The Mercenary Hall had two halls. The East Hall was where the system issued mercenary missions. Most ordinary mercenary groups took missions from this side. The West Hall was where players sought help, and this was where the true nature of mercenary groups was reflected: take money and eliminate disasters. Mercenary groups with a professional spirit would choose missions from this side.

The most direct way to see the strength of each mercenary group was the record books in the two halls. Luo Luo went to the record book in the West Hall and patiently flipped through it.

Finally, in the completed missions, Luo Luo found the words "Capture the SOTU Mountain Bandit Leader."

A mage received this quest and couldn't complete it, so he hired someone at a high price at the Mercenary Hall. The date was yesterday.

The mercenary group that accepted this mercenary mission was... Luo Luo's index finger slid across the record book, and she found the information she needed: Gongzi Elite Group.

Mercenary Leader: Han Jia Gongzi.

=====

A bit later... There's been a problem with the internet lately. I often can't get on for a while, but then it secretly gets better... I don't know why.