Chapter 6 Chapter 6: The Military Command Token A Hidden Quest Unlocked
The copper coins and the Wolf Ring were nice.
But Ethan's eyes kept returning to the third item sitting quietly in his inventory.
Small. Heavy. Silver.
【Military Command Token】
Description: Special item. Purpose unknown.
To anyone else, those two words, purpose unknown, meant trash. Inventory clutter. The kind of item you stare at for three seconds and vendor for one copper just to free up a slot.
And that's exactly what happened in his past life.
The player who'd scored the Wolf King's first kill had picked up this token, turned it over, read "purpose unknown," and dropped it on the ground without a second thought.
A girl passing by had picked it up out of curiosity.
She'd wandered into town, talked to the right NPC by accident, and triggered the only hidden quest in Maplewood Town.
What followed was the kind of story people told for months. She'd skyrocketed through the early game while everyone else was still grinding Level 3 wolves. The first-kill player, furious, humiliated, had hunted her relentlessly, demanding she hand over the rewards that were "rightfully his."
She'd eventually found powerful allies, completed the quest, claimed the rewards, and came back to kill him herself.
Ethan had heard the story secondhand, deep into his first life, when it was ancient history and completely irrelevant to his own survival.
He'd never forgotten it.
He tucked the token carefully into his inventory, stood up from the hillside, and circled wide around the eastern edge of Silverwood Forest to avoid the crowd still milling around the south gate.
The walk back to Maplewood Town took about four minutes through Level 1 and Level 2 starter zones.
He passed groups of players in ones and twos, all of them hunched over Level 1 rabbits and Level 2 deer, faces tight with concentration, weapons swinging slowly and awkwardly. Every kill taking thirty seconds, forty seconds, a full minute.
Ethan watched them and felt something quiet move through his chest.
Not contempt. Something more like grief.
They had no idea.
They thought they were in a game. They thought the worst thing that could happen was losing a few minutes of progress on a respawn. They were laughing, complaining about drop rates, arguing over kill credit, completely alive in the way people only are when they don't know what's coming.
In his past life, Ethan had been dragged into NeuralVerse a full 24 hours after these players had started. By then, the early developers had already hit Level 7 and 8. They'd already figured out that death was real. They'd already started organizing.
And when order broke, it broke fast.
Desire without consequences was just desire.
Desire without consequences and power was something else entirely.
Men who'd seemed normal in the real world had transformed overnight. Players who'd gotten a head start became warlords. The ones who came in late like Ethan, became resources. Tools. The men ground monsters for currency they never got to keep. The women who were pretty enough got it worse.
Ethan had survived by being useful. Fast at farming. Quiet enough not to draw attention. Small enough to be overlooked.
He'd lived like that for a year, under someone else's boot, telling himself breathing was enough.
He'd been wrong about that too.
In this life, he thought, watching a teenage girl cheer as she finally killed a Level 1 rabbit, I won't be anyone's resource.
I'll be the one setting the rules.
---
Maplewood Town was nearly empty when he arrived.
Most players were outside grinding. The cobblestone streets that had been packed twenty minutes ago now held only a handful of NPCs going about their scripted routines and a few players who'd apparently decided to explore the town itself.
Ethan pulled up the map and navigated west.
The Mayor's House sat on a quiet street at the far end of town, a modest two-story building with a covered porch and a small garden that looked like it hadn't been tended in a while.
Mayor George Holloway was sitting on the front steps in the afternoon light, hands folded in his lap, expression aimed somewhere in the middle distance. The posture of a man trying to look calm and failing completely.
Ethan approached and triggered dialogue.
"Mayor Holloway, you look troubled. Is there something I can help with?"
The old man shook his head slowly, eyes not quite meeting Ethan's.
"You're kind to ask, young adventurer. But what I'm dealing with... I don't think it's something you could help with."
Ethan reached into his inventory.
Placed the silver token in his palm. Held it up.
"Maybe I can."
The change in the mayor's face was immediate and total.
His eyes locked onto the token like a man seeing water after three days in the desert.
"The Military Command Token"
He stood up from the steps without realizing he had done it.
"How, how do you have this?"
"I found it," Ethan said simply. "On a Lord-class Wolf King in Silverwood Forest."
Something crumpled behind the mayor's eyes.
"Silverwood Forest..." He was quiet for a moment. "Then Lord Commander Harris has... he's gone. I feared as much. It's been too many days with no word."
He pressed his lips together, composing himself, and looked up at Ethan with an expression that sat somewhere between desperation and fragile hope.
"But the threat to Maplewood Town remains. And if this token found its way to you, perhaps that means something."
"Perhaps you're the one."
He met Ethan's eyes directly now.
"Adventurer, will you take on this burden? Will you help save this town?"
A system panel materialized in front of Ethan, clean and centered:
【Ding~ Congratulations! You have triggered the sole Hidden Quest in Maplewood Town:
"Guardian of the Valley"
Hidden Quest rewards far exceed those of standard quests. However, difficulty is sub
stantially higher and failure carries severe penalties.
Please consider carefully before accepting.
Accept / Decline?】
