(An extra chapter for "Huozhengtinghao")
"Ding!"
The veteran player Meow Brother was riding his demon-hunting steed with all the pomp and posture expected of an Oak Knight, leading his buddies in pursuit of a band of fleeing gnolls.
With a replica holy blade at his waist, he swung his witch's staff and cast a thorn snare ahead, tripping one of the gnolls' hyenas. Feeling rather pleased with himself, he was about to ride forward and finish it off when a light chime suddenly rang from his player interface.
He looked down and saw that the quest had been updated:
Main Quest Updated! The gnoll threat within the territory of the Count of Cadman has fallen below the safe threshold. The first phase of the "Gnoll Menace" operation has ended successfully. The second phase has officially begun! The hunting grounds have expanded from the territory of the Count of Cadman to all of Transia!
Notice!
As the story progresses, this phase will unlock the limited-time team dungeon "Decisive Battle at the Andmar Hills," along with the new selectable factions "Sico Winged Hussars" and "Mysterious Faction."
For details, please refer to the update post on the "True Otherworld" official forum.
"Damn! This game always springs updates on us!"
Meow Brother cursed under his breath.
But he'd already had a feeling that the war against the gnolls was about to take a turn. The reason was simple: lately, he and his buddies had been hunting gnolls in Baron Lim's territory, but the enemies had dropped off sharply in both number and quality.
When the event had first started, they could ride around for thirty minutes and find at least two gnoll nests. Now, even with Smoke Mulberry's Eagle Eye helping them, they could only kill a few dozen gnolls a day.
Their haul