Xiao Yi read the details of his mission again and sighed. The little human mage was a bit pitiful. He had chosen to steal something from someone else after he was killed by a mob while AFK, mocked them, and pissed off a rich player. That was the reason given for the assassination.

Simply put, he was a scumbag first and met a player that happened to have the funds to continuously send hits out until he was satisfied. If an assassination was successful, the little mage would lose a level.

Sleepy held a black-throwing star shuriken with red paint adorning the tips and twirled it in his hands for a moment before throwing it at Ryuk.

It hit the other's neck, but not enough to kill him. Ryuk and his friend immediately jumped up from the table and faced the beam where Sleepy was crouched. Ryuk flashed an attack toward the beam as he landed on the ground, but Sleepy jumped down lightly before it was able to hit him.

Taking his duo swords in his hands, he watched as the two looked around with stupefied expressions.

‘…’

He placed the swords against Ryuk’s neck and unknowing if the little mage had noticed or if he was just aiming randomly, a bulb of light hit Sleepy. His figure appeared to everyone just as he slashed Ryuk’s neck and the other fell to the ground pitifully.

He had expected something more exciting, but Ryuk really just let himself be killed.

The crowd that had gathered watched as Ryuk fell to the ground and immediately backed off as they looked at the blood elf with a black nameplate in fear.

A player who killed at least 1000 players who didn’t wait to cleanse his name between killing sprees.

Yet, despite this… This black-named player wasn’t on any ‘be warned’ lists in their guild notes.

Who the hell is this man? How did this person kill so many people without anyone noticing?

Sleepy flicked the blood off his swords and placed them behind his back before tilting his head both in-game and in real life. He decisively typed in general chat.

Sleepy: “Well, that was a bit boring. Poor mage.”

Ryuk, who was still dead on the ground: “Why did you kill me?”

Sleepy: “You offended someone.”

The crowd understood - assassins were the only people who could kill someone in a safe zone.

Ryuk was always in a safe zone lately so someone hired an assassin to take him out.

But who was this assassin? They weren't on any leaderboards.

Sleepy disappeared without looking at the chat and Ryuk was revived by his friend.

Ryuk: "I know I was just killed, but shouldn't we recruit him to our guild?"

Yashi: "I tried. He's already disappeared, and he has whispers and friend requests turned off."

Ryuk: "…"

Xiao Yi, who didn't know what was being discussed, teleported back to the last capital, walked over to the assassin board, and noticed another S target had been posted while he was completing his last assignment.

‘Don’t be boring.’

An assassination request for another assassin by an assassin.

Interesting.

He looked over the request and it had much more information than the assassination of Ryuk.

The target was a rogue assassin who used to be the leader of a guild of assassins but ended up passing the leadership to someone else and disappearing. The next time the guild saw him, he killed one of them due to a job posting. The guild had a rule, made by this person, that they would not hunt other assassins, and they felt that he had broken the rule.

Xiao Yi tapped his finger against his cheek as he read.

The guild leader was said to be an alt account of a pro player but it was never confirmed.

He thought that was interesting. Was he said to be an alt-account because he was skilled at assassination? There was no proof? Was this to scare away assassins or to make them feel better about posting?

Nothing was said about his rankings, but his name was clear.

Nightmare.

He knew the name, it was the second on the assassin leaderboard. Right underneath his Frost account.

Furthermore, it was a blood elf just like his.

He looked at the gold reward - it was the highest reward that could be offered. He raised his eyebrows.

He needed gold. Well, specifically, his alt account needed gold and he didn't feel like switching to his main account to transfer it. It would be too annoying to transfer gold between accounts every time he switched.

He didn't mind offending anyone.

He also felt like it was a fun challenge.

He accepted the task and looked at the map. He was very close to him, in the mountains outside of the city.

His invisibility was still on cooldown, but he didn't mind. A fair fight sounded reasonable to him.

An assassin on the leaderboard deserved at least that respect.

While maneuvering Sleepy through the city and along the path that split the mountain, he kept his hand on his cheek. He imagined where he would be if he were taking a leisurely stroll in the mountain terrain.

Sleepy hopped gracefully up the wall surrounding the pathway and landed on the left side. In his opinion, it was the more scenic route. He jumped on a branch and gracefully glided through the trees with his eyes focused.

He moved for a while before he saw a person in the distance and jumped down from the trees, moving lazily through the forest towards the person.

As he got closer he could see the character in front of him and although he couldn't see the nameplate yet, he knew he had found him.

A blood elf was leaning against a shattered ruin, at the top of what seemed like a broken old castle tower. Xiao Yi could see straight up the tower from where he was - the entire side was broken, leaving just a stairway up a few feet to where the player was.

He had long black hair that was tied up with a black ribbon, showing pointed ears with earrings adorning both ears. His face was covered by a mask, and only deep ruby eyes could be seen which were the signature of the blood elf class. He was wearing a neat black outfit with a sword hanging from his waist and his arms were crossed as he leaned.

Sleepy moved closer to him and he could see the nametag. He wasn't surprised that it was black. It read: Nightmare.

Xiao Yi didn't plan to attack, he didn't know if the character was AFK.

He also didn't plan to hide.

Taking his hand off his cheek, he walked through the broken stone structures around him. He sat up straight, jumping twice to ignore the stairs, and landed right in front of Nightmare.

Nightmare didn't move, so he didn't move. He just stood there, patiently waiting.