My players are too fierce!

Knowledge is the foundation of a city.

[Limited-Time Closed Beta Event: Migrant Attack]

[Our beloved Emma has been targeted by a gang of thugs. In the name of pursuing fire, she will crush them!]

[Minimum requirement for the event: Ensure that the NPC "Emma" survives!]

[Rewards: The event prize pool is now open; specific details depend on the overall task completion rate on the server]

[Event Failure Penalty: NPC "Emma" permanently dies!]

[Note 1: During the limited-time event, killing enemies will not earn you 'Ash Coins'. All contributions will be accumulated and settled after the limited-time event ends.]

[Note 2: During the event, fallen players will be resurrected in the Knowledge Nest. Their sanity will be deducted normally, and the means of recovery are limited. Please be vigilant.]

Seven players reconstruct their bodies from the ashes rising in the flames.

Hakimed confirmed that he had already seen the description of the limited-time event on the forum.

The mission is simple: save Emma's life during this event.

However, after Hachimedes caught a glimpse of a tiny figure huddled behind Emma out of the corner of his eye, he revised his judgment.

Protect Emma while protecting other friendly NPCs as much as possible.

The former concerns the bottom line of whether the task is completed, while the latter is most likely linked to the degree of task completion.

This task itself leans towards cooperative objectives and is currently within the PVE category, but it's possible that the developers might add PVPVE or similar gameplay elements in the future.

At least the underlying architecture of the game "Gods of Ashes" does not seem to exclude PVP.

However, there are only 7 players now, and they are all acquaintances, so it's unlikely that a fight will break out.

However, right now...

Apart from the swordsman, Awei, and David, who had their equipment bound to them, everyone else, including Gale, left their swords and pistols at the tavern and did not come along.

Changing maps doesn't inherit regular equipment, unless you pay extra to bind it.

After taking stock of his own and the team's status, Hakimed turned to look at Emma.

She was comforting another catgirl who was clearly frightened.

In the latter's eyes, besides the fear of strangers, there was also curiosity about this novel fire.

"This is?"

Kashima was faster than Hachimede, and his eyes revealed the innocent foolishness of a college student, seemingly stemming solely from his fondness for catgirls.

"My sister, Cabbage."

Emma answered casually.

She had spent more than a week in the tavern and had already figured out the nature of these people.

He's not inherently bad, and he doesn't discriminate against mutants; he's just a bit abstract.

Hakimed kicked Kashima aside and asked, "Who is our enemy?"

"A gang of refugees," Emma said, stroking Cabbage's little head. "Mainly because there are a lot of them."

"They're probably not the main problem," Emma said, untying the cabbage, opening the bedside table, and taking out all the supplies. "The main thing is, why did they arrest me?"

A hand-cranked flintlock pistol, slightly cruder than Kuangfeng's own, with a total of twelve homemade rounds of ammunition beside it.

Emma prepared this gun not for fighting, but for Cabbage.

In case she gets lost in the spirit world one day and can never wake up from her dream, Cabbage must use this pistol to execute the unclaimed body and avoid some worse consequences.

What remained were two small iron knives, three ghost fire bombs, and some miscellaneous alchemical reagents and materials.

"There are many mutants here, so the refugees wouldn't have targeted us without reason."

"Someone must be pulling the strings behind this!"

Huh? This mission has wave-based gameplay?

That's interesting. I wonder if it's an endless mode.

Despite his thoughts, Hachimed continued his preparations for battle, tossing a homemade iron knife to the toad and instructing the knife-wielder to bleed Ah Wei's paint bucket.

It has to be said that the 2 points of flesh attribute are really useful. Although the base stats don't increase much, it's still pretty good for making materials.

Kashima pulled Emma aside and asked what those alchemical reagents and materials were for. He wanted to try his professional cocktail-making skills and see if he could create something good.

Apart from the toad on lookout, the other idle men joined him in building obstacles out of debris in a pipe that could only accommodate three adult men side by side.

"Someone's coming."

The toad, who had been assigned to stand guard at the gate, came to report on the situation.

Outside Emma's house, three thin, short gang members were "pushed" forward to scout ahead.

Inside the pipe was some unknown light source, orange-yellow, quite different from the incandescent bulbs in Hive City. It was clearly a witchcraft concoction created by evil mutants!

Sending people to scout ahead is essential.

If these three don't come out, they will need to rush forward to help their employer maintain order in the hive city; otherwise, they will go from being refugees to becoming the source of chaos in the hive city.

If these three come out, they need to swarm them. Within gangs and families, the employer's reward money is never divided equally.

Three gang members stood in front of the pipe entrance, carrying sticks made of some kind of scrap metal.

One of them, with his eyes closed, carefully lifted a corner of the curtain and asked the other two.

Stories of being cursed for seeing things one shouldn't have seen are rampant in the hive, and he doesn't want to become the protagonist of a horror story.

"Ugh, it's a mess inside, I can't see anything, except for a... fire? It seems a bit different from the barbecue we usually eat."

One of them said.

Seeing that the two brothers were unharmed, the last man mustered his courage and walked deeper into the pipe.

"Hey, that mutant's right next to the fire! Come quick, one of you!"

The man looked over the pile of junk by the door and saw Emma by the fire, head bowed, seemingly doing something. He excitedly whispered to his brother behind him.

The three brothers rushed in, carrying ropes.

"Take them alive!"

Inside the pipe, someone shouted something.

Bang!

A dark figure suddenly sprang out from behind the pile of debris and punched the last person in the forehead.

The man's neck snapped to the side, and he flew out.

The shadowy figure was the swordsman.

"Take him alive! What are we supposed to ask if you've killed him?"

Hakimed had just led his men to charge forward when he was momentarily stunned by the swordsman's actions.

"Sorry, hehe, I couldn't stop myself," the swordsman looked at his fist, scratched the back of his head, and said apologetically, "All I have right now are killing techniques."

He hadn't expected the enemies in this time-limited mission to be so fragile.

In Dead End Town, he wouldn't die without punching those zombies on the street four or five times.

[Illustrated Guide: Nest City Migrants, Unlock Progress: 8%]

They were the enemy from the moment they came in with weapons.

This is just killing some human-modeled enemies in the game...

The problem is not big.

The remaining two were tied up with the ropes they had brought with them.

"Speak, who sent you?"

Emma walked over, wanting nothing more than to kill all the scum who had ruined her home!

The two were terrified.

They never imagined that a mutant's lair could produce seven, no, six burly men!

The intelligence was wrong!

Aren't these people afraid of the mutant curse?

"How many of you came?"

"One...a little over a hundred, I guess?" one of them blurted out, desperate to save his life. "My whole family is here!"

Emma's gaze sharpened; things were really serious.

The fact that they have the resources to gather a hundred or so displaced people... it's definitely not a simple case of black market sleight of hand.

He is a disciple!