The First Meeting Had Her Giving Him a Ring-What Would She Give Him After They'd Known Each Other Longer?

Guiji's Red-Name PK Value had reached 9 points, breaking through the first threshold for increasing the drop rate of Bloody Chests. Once opened, it would randomly select two items from those she had possessed or equipped while alive.

Because the circumstances at the time had been rather special, Erin, who had searched the chest, had not had time to check what she had drawn. Only now did she finally have a chance to take a look.

The purple full-body bodysuit Guiji had worn in life was somewhat similar to Knight Armor. It occupied the chest armor, leg armor, and footwear slots simultaneously. Its greatest function was actually to increase her synchronization rate with her younger sister, allowing them to better unleash the effects of their combination skill. Even so, Guiji's Bloody Chest loot pool had theoretically reached a maximum of thirteen items.

Although her frequent hunting of newcomers had not helped her get through the main storyline, she had indeed accumulated quite a lot of miscellaneous equipment.

Erin was lucky. She drew a relatively valuable accessory ring from the equipment system, along with what was probably Guiji's main weapon from when she was alive.

The ring came from the green Excellent-grade magical items of Diablo. It was called the Ring of Charged Bolts. As its name suggested, the spell Charged Bolts had been engraved and sealed inside it. Once activated, it could simultaneously release three Charged Bolts whose damage fluctuated wildly between their upper and lower limits, whose flight speed was slow, and whose trajectories were erratic. It had five charges, and once they were exhausted, the ring had to be taken back to the return space and recharged for money.

The other main weapon was a "Catachan Mk. III Combat Blade" from the world of Warhammer 40K: Darktide. Its rarity was blue Excellent-grade, and it had two effects: "+15% damage against unarmored units" and "When your teammate lands a critical hit, your critical-hit chance increases by 10% for six seconds."

It was obvious that this equipment was designed specifically for dealing with newcomers who had little protective gear, as well as for fighting alongside one's twin teammate.

No one knew how much blood from unlucky newcomers had stained it, but now, the thing belonged to Erin.

"Finders keepers. This is for you. I'm keeping the dagger—I happen to still be missing something for self-defense."

After directly closing the description of the Ring of Charged Bolts' effects, Erin tossed it straight at Cheng Tian.

Cheng Tian caught the ring and displayed godlike hand speed, stuffing it into his equipment slot at the fastest possible speed. He also actively concealed the ring's physical collision with his body.

Cheng Tian hated wearing rings and other accessories because they affected the feel of his grip on pot handles, sword hilts, and gun grips.

"...What a rich lady. I'm broke right now. If you need me to repay you with my body, I can—"

"Get lost!"

"Coming right up~~"

Cheng Tian performed a graceful sideways flip and temporarily left the scene of trouble.

Yasha had escaped. This could indeed affect Erin's upcoming objective, but it was not as serious as it might seem.

Although Erin did not know who Guiji was, judging from the other party's high PK Value but low combat power, as well as her obvious behavior of being blinded by money and charging straight at Cheng Tian, Erin determined that she was a Red-Name Player who specialized in hunting newcomers.

Such behavior was deeply despised, shameful, and cowardly in the player circles Erin frequented. Therefore, even though they were not part of the player group that called themselves the "Punishers" and took pride in hunting Red-Name Players, they did not reject killing Red-Name Players either.

Those who kill will always be killed in turn. That's common sense, my friend~

Considering the twins' exposed health-loss safety skill, the defensive shield whose source—skill or scroll—was unknown, and their decisive retreat after seeing their arrows intercept the Earthsplitter Wave, they were probably operating in dungeons with survival as their main priority. They had likely already been scared witless at this stage, and even if someone actively searched for them, they would not be easy to find.

So Erin very straightforwardly put the fleeing Yasha out of her mind and began dealing with the other matters at hand.

The first thing to do was ensure that Cheng Tian's bounty mission was progressing.

Erin was the kind of player who pursued challenges only after making sure they did not interfere with serious business. Thus, she had to help Cheng Tian gather all the quest items required for his bounty mission before considering any high-difficulty challenges, ensuring that no matter what happened, they would still have the best fallback plan: hand in the quest items and run.

It had to be said that this girl's way of doing things made Cheng feel extremely comfortable and highly compatible with her. Cheng Tian really had been planning to handle his own quest first.

Judging from the current situation, however, she seemed prepared to help him with it.

The Gray Contract was the only contract that could be signed at any time for a small amount of money. Its effect allowed contracted teammates to sense each other while within ten meters in a straight line, and enabled them to share kills against certain types of quest targets. Killing a teammate would not produce any drops at all.

The reason it was called the Gray Contract was that it could be forcibly terminated unilaterally by paying a fine.

For example, the 2,500-party fee Cheng Tian had paid had been covered by the rich lady. Paying double that amount as a fine would allow the contract to be terminated directly, though after forcibly ending it, there was at least a one-minute cooling-off period.

As for the other, more advanced contracts, they required completing quests or consuming special items to form. There was the "Twin Dragons Contract," limited to two people; the "Oath of the Round Table," for three-person teams; and the "Baseball League," for four-person teams, among others. Contracts of these types even provided additional attribute bonuses.

Now that the two of them were teamed up, even if Erin killed the target required for Cheng Tian's quest and opened the resulting chest, it might still drop the quest item Cheng Tian needed.

Just as Batman had feared, it was truly the Moth Gang's turn to suffer.

Because the dungeon Cheng Tian had entered did not have the "original" dungeon modifier, Gotham City, which should have been a linear level, had directly become a freely explorable open map. The subsequent stages, which should have appeared along a fixed route, had likewise transformed into areas whose terrain was shaped by the districts controlled by gangs built around individual supervillains.

In theory, players could even run through four areas in succession and eliminate all the main-story bosses involved during this relatively unimportant bounty mission.

As mentioned earlier, however, killing them would not affect the bounty mission at all. Instead, it would prematurely cut off the possibility of accepting related quests later.

Erin naturally was not arrogant enough to think she could break through layer upon layer of obstacles and kill four supervillains controlling the resources of entire gangs within a mere seventy-two hours, especially with Batman certain to interfere... But if she killed only one, then the extra challenge would be just right.

She had merely chosen Killer Moth from among the many possible targets, and he happened to be connected to Cheng Tian's quest-item objective as well. Naturally, there was no reason not to do it.

As luck would have it, Cheng Tian had a fairly detailed map of the various factions' territories. That bartender truly had not cheated him, either; he had not given Cheng Tian some piece of junk for ten gold coins. Even without it, though, it would not have mattered. Erin knew the Old Factory District in Gotham East, where the Moth Gang was located, like the back of her hand.

If her guess was right, the lockdown there would definitely be even tighter. That also meant they could encounter the Moth Gang's enemies more frequently and in greater variety within a shorter period, which would help Cheng Tian with his quest.

Cheng Tian was not tired, and Erin was even more energetic. After discussing it together, the two of them immediately slipped toward the Old Factory District under cover of night.

What neither of them knew was that this freshly formed duo had already made it onto the entire Moth Gang's must-eat list...