The old butcher stared at him for a moment, then glanced at the pieces of rabbit meat in his hand.
He simply smiled and handed the pieces of meat to the old man. "Here, sir. This is the meat you asked for."
Unlike the uninterested butcher sitting at the counter, the old man was the complete opposite.
He examined each piece of meat one by one.
Forsyx saw him shake his head while inspecting a few stab marks on the meat.
He thought that the old man might reject it, but then the old butcher just moved to the second piece without saying anything.
Soon, the old man placed down the last piece of meat and nodded to him.
At that moment, a notification popped up in front of him.
Ding!
[Butcher Quest 1 Complete.]
[Do you want to take the reward and exit the chain quest, or would you like to take the second quest?]
Forsyx smiled at the second notification.
Even with the system involved, the NPCs still relied on classic tricks like baiting players with free work.
Basically, it was gambling on the player's part.
Everyone who completed the task would definitely choose the second task, and this way, the old coot would get all the meat for free.
Forsyx sighed and said to the old man, "Sir, do you have any other task for me?"
It was a simple question to move through the chain quest.
From the start, when he saw the butcher's skill token, he already had the idea that there would be some twist to it.
After all, the butchering lifestyle skill was very popular among veterans, though most newbies thought otherwise, as he once did.
The old man just nodded to him and pointed toward the slaughter den. "I need some help here."
Ding!
[Chain quest!!!
Quest: Butcher's Hunting Quest 2.
Quest Rank: E-
(Only players with level 10 or less can take part.)
You have proven your worth by completing the first task.
After seeing your willingness to serve a greater cause, the old butcher requests your help in processing some Timin pigs in the slaughterhouse.
Task: Kill and process 5 different types of meat pieces from 2 Timin pigs.
Pigs available for butchering: 5.
Reward: Advanced Butchering Skill, coins based on the number of pigs used.
Failure Condition: Wasting all 5 Timin pigs without extracting suitable parts.
Failure Penalty: Pay 20 copper coins for each pig wasted and 20 copper coins for renting the butcher's knife.
Note: To help with the task, the butcher lends you his butchering knife. Destruction of the knife will result in a penalty.
]
Forsyx just rubbed his eyes at the second quest notification.
If the first task was a race against others, then this one was about the mental fortitude of the player.
After all, killing a small creature differed completely from killing a monster of your size.
Even though the quest didn't mention a total number of Timin pigs, he was sure they were limited. It would be first come, first served.
If you were late, you would not even get pigs to butcher, thereby failing the task automatically.
The old man shouted at a young butcher standing to the side. "Hey, Henry, lead this young man to the pigs."
Forxsy saw that Henry was just standing there trying hard not to puke.
Henry looked relieved at the task and nodded to Forsyx. "This way, warrior."
Soon, Henry led him to a deeper section, and the moment he stepped in, he heard curses.
"Shit, shit—there's so much blood!"
"Ahhh, this shit's on my leg!"
"Haha haha! Scream, you little piggy!"
"Shut the fck up! I'm trying to concentrate here!"
He saw several people all screaming and cursing while trying to kill the pigs.
In Apex Ascension, it was difficult to tell players apart from the general NPC population. Though for some reason, all the NPCs could always tell who was an NPC and who was a player.
The only way for a player to tell them apart was by threatening their life.
NPCs would do anything to protect themselves—after all, they only lived once, unlike the immortal players.
But if you killed an NPC in the open, you'd get fcked in the game.
Though there was no such problem in the beginner village, since most of the players wore the same white and brown combo.
Even without these common clothes, it was much easier to tell them apart here.
All the NPC butchers he saw earlier were much more efficient. This place, though, was a chaotic mess.
Many were screaming just to gather the courage. Some were even sobbing for the pigs.
Heck, he even spotted a psycho who was laughing while jumping around, covered in blood.
Apex Ascension wasn't just about external realism; it also included internal realism. That internal realism was going full-on here.
There was a 50 percent minimum pain synchronization setting in Apex online. That allowed players to feel about half of the pain that they would have experienced in the real world.
Like if someone got stabbed in the game, they would feel the pain, and for many players, getting used to this half-pain setting was the toughest task.
It stopped many from being reckless in the game.
Though he actually played with 70 percent pain sensitivity, as it increased his natural intuition and skin sensitivity, which was very important for him.
This introduction to pain sensitivity kind of did wonders in the game.
As it led to many emotions, which were impossible for traditional games of the past to emulate.
That same thing was happening here in the slaughterhouse.
Even though killing a pig wouldn't hurt you physically, it was not the same mentally.
It was a kind of test—to see if people who were only used to killing mosquitoes could deal with a real creature.
After all, these pigs weren't your average monsters attacking you. They were helpless creatures whose sole life purpose was to be killed.
He shook his head and continued to follow Henry.
Henry took him to one of the empty sections and said, "Wait here and get your tools ready. I'll be back with your pigs soon."
Forsyx nodded his head and sighed.
Now that he had a bit of free time, he said, "Player status."