Goblins. Everyone knows these green creatures that have small humanoid structures, a wild personality, high reproductive rates- and no, they don’t do anything sexual with females of other kinds– though it would have been pretty fun to see them do something like that— or not, anyway, they were goblins.

They were one of the simplest creatures that players killed and since they gave good Exp, people raided their villages in the forest pretty frequently.

They were found in the dungeon of Arrbo as well, so the dungeon was frequented by the players on a regular basis.

The Goblins weren’t that great fighters or that strong creatures, but they knew how to set traps so they were sometimes a big headache to the players who had no experience with their tricks.

There is a saying that if one meets the wrong kind of Goblin pack, they would be humiliated before they get killed. Or, depending on the pack, they might even earn some great loot along with a good amount of Exp.

They were famous mobs, and just like slimes, since there were many kinds of goblins in the world, even the high level players went after the more advanced and evolved versions of these creatures.

Still though…

“Ghrrrrr…!”

-Ooooooooooooong!

-Booooooooom!

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

In this battle, the creatures that they were facing surely were the same goblins that they knew- but after being corrupted by the dark energy, they had fallen to the control of evil.

They had lost all sense of their original nature, and were now monsters with a little bigger, even tougher bodies.

Their weapons were enhanced with the dark energy that had completely overtaken them, and the green bodies that they had were all turned black because of the dark energy.

They had become slaves to the dark energy and there was no way to save them. Only deaths awaited them.

-Swiiiiiiiiiiiish!

-Booooooooooooom…!

They weren’t simple goblins anymore so even though it took more than a few players to work together to take care of them, they were merely big chunks of Exp for the players.

“Dieeeeee! You bastards!”

“Kill them! Kill them all!”

“For the empress!!!”

Players were shouting funny things as they cast their spells, used their weapons, and cut down the enemy’s forces.

A completely different atmosphere had clouded the entire town of golden moonlight. The central fountain in the plaza was empty once again.

The walls were full of the defenders, the players, and the natives who were trying to protect their town from the invasion of evil.

The dark magician was nowhere to be visible, but the dark energy was surrounding the town on all sides.

Players fought and killed the goblins but there were enough of them for the players to not get bored of them.

The higher level players were dealing with the goblins in smaller groups while the lower level players were helping out in whatever way they could.

The walls were being guarded and inside of the town walls, the important people that the players were supposed to guard were also being looked after by the certain chosen players.

A great reward was on the line right now so the hundreds of players of the moongold town were having fun taking down the enemy, earning rewards, and gathering contribution points.

-Booooooom!

-Swiiiiiiiiiiish…

Players using long range weapons, bows, magic spells, magic scrolls, items that threw projectiles from the town walls were all helping out to deal with the goblins and the occasional minions that appeared out of nowhere.

Those little black things were the main problem that the players had to deal with. If they got into the town and somehow managed to kill the important person mentioned in the quest, they would lose everything they had fought for and would not even gain anything in return.

It wasn’t something the players would ever want, so they were doing their best to keep the black goblins of darkness away from the town.

But of course, Light only existed where darkness once prevailed.

“Aughhhhhhhh!”

-Swish.

-Click!

-Swash! Swash! Swash!

Tempted by the greater benefits offered from the dark side, some players would always act to disrupt the flow of this kind of large scale quest so that they could get the best kind of benefits all for themselves.

Doing the same thing as everyone else was old fashioned already so if they do what the others were doing as well, they would not be anything different from them.

Thus… all over the world of <NO> [Trolling] prevailed.

Player Killers at least had some kind of self respect since they killed the player just because they could do it or wanted to do it for benefits.

Trolling on the other hand was an act where the players betrayed one another and did things that were not morally or ethically right.

In quests of this scale, there were always players who aimed for the failure of the quest so that they could obtain unique rewards from the system.

It was much better than sharing the reward with such a large group of players, so the incident where the players themselves aimed for the failure condition of a quest was not that rare.

Alex as well as the other experienced players already knew Trolling would be inevitable this time as well, so she had already set out countermeasures against it.

“I didn’t even-.”

-Oooooooong.

-Puchak!

In the town of Moongold, just like any other town, city, or nation, there was an underground organization here as well.

As long as these people were getting paid enough, unlike the players, they would do anything to satisfy their customers.

They did not know what the trolling was as the natives but they knew the bastards who mess with their turf and indirectly help the evil that even they despised, were better off dead.

So, with the help of the guard captain and the Mayor, she hired the best help she could and along with some players that the mayor and the guard captain trusted, they had assigned them some areas with the mission of cleaning up the rotten apples.

“Aghhhhhhhhh!”

-Boooooooooom!

They were also looking after the important people and keeping an eye out for the minions’ actions and movements.

The covert operation that was taking place throughout the town wasn’t known by many since every unit had their individual tasks that they needed to take care of, so only a handful of people actually knew everything that was going on inside the town.

The Mayor was looking at everything going on in the town from the highest position in the town, the high bell tower present beside the central plaza.

“Yes…”

The guard captain was out in the forest, dealing with the dark minions and figuring out the current location of the dark mage who most certainly was present somewhere in the forest.

The mages were supporting them from the town walls while the knights and the other guards dealt with the others and protected their companions.

Casualties were inevitable but they were dealing with it in such an efficient way that the death toll was kept to minimal.

“Protect her!”

“…life begins death!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Thanks to orders from authorities and an extra reward promised from the guard captain as well as some ‘unknown’ merchants, a hidden reward for saving the native lives was going to be issued.

They did not receive a system message about this, but the sources were solid. So… the players were prioritizing the native lives over their own, protecting the ones that they wouldn’t usually even care about.

[{ “We are back to this damned place…” }]

Players were materialistic, but in the end, this was all for the contribution points.

Everyone was doing what they could to help the Mayor defeat the dark mage. But, unknown to most of the player’s knowledge, the ones who were playing the biggest part in all of this, were two certain low leveled individuals.

[{ “How will we destroy that magic circle?” }]

They announced that they could shut down the Dark mage’s magic circle by themselves. An absurd statement that even the guard captain and the Mayor found unbelievable…

It wasn’t something someone could just do as they wanted anyway. The dark mage’s magic circle was unlike the normal magic circle.

It was a directly connected gateway to the evil’s dimension. Normal humans like them would die the moment they get too close to it.

Shutting it down without the help of a high priest who possessed holy energy of great purity was impossible. That’s why the guard captain knew they would have to fight the dark mage in his strengthened form.

But her announcement just changed everything. And though it was absurd, they believed in the two of them one more time.

[{ “You will have to help me with this one, El darling.” }]

The two of them were back in the house that belonged to Miu, the little gecko. And… they were looking down at the sinister grand magic circle on the ground once again.

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