The Hunter's Game - Chapter 5

Excited, I flicked ash from my cigarette and began looking forward to morning.

If I was right, the Black Goat Shop held the answer I wanted.

My only chance to defeat Snake Nine was to trigger hidden quests and obtain Black Goat cards.

At last, I had found the patch to the game’s loophole.

At nine the next morning, October 14, the Black Goat Game officially began.

The dealer issued fifty game coins to each player, in denominations of one and ten.

I placed five ten-coin pieces in a small bag strapped close to my body.

Overnight, the twenty players had divided into three groups: Snake Nine’s team of eleven, the Fat Man’s team of eight—I called them that because their leader was fat—and my one-man army.

The other two teams had already marched out to tackle the merchants’ quests. I waited until they were gone before leaving the villa at an unhurried pace.

After getting my bearings, I headed straight west.

I passed seven or eight shops along the way—a clothing store, a toy store, a ceramics shop—and saw several groups doing quests. From their actions, I pieced together how the tasks worked.

They were simple and closely tied to ordinary life.

To earn a Sun card, a player had to help a shop make sales. Merchandise could be sold only to customers, never to players. Reach the shop’s target revenue within half an hour, and you received one Sun.

Each shop’s target naturally varied with its circumstances.

No more than two players could attempt the same shop’s challenge in the same time slot.

It sounded easy, but was difficult in practice. Sales patter and business skill mattered, but foot traffic mattered even more. Catch a busy period and the target might be effortless.

The Moon-card quest was brutally straightforward: carry sacks of rice from a rice shop to a restaurant three hundred meters away.

The work had to be done by hand, without tools or anyone else’s help.

Deliver five sacks and you earned one Moon.

Five sacks weighed fifty jin—twenty-five kilograms. Pure manual labor.

What surprised me most was that only Sun and Moon quests had been released.

Star quests would not open until noon the next day.

Now that was interesting.

After last night’s analysis, I believed every feature of this game existed for a reason. Nothing had been chosen on a whim.

Why make everyone wait for the Star quests? That mystery would have to remain for now.

After walking west for more than ten minutes, I spotted the clock tower. At the top, an elegantly decorated Black Goat Shop came into view.

I pushed open the door—and stared at the merchandise in shock.

Rows of shelves were filled with plush goats of every design.

They were admittedly rather cute.

I picked up one wearing boxing gloves. A tag around its neck read: Hercules Strong Goat. Ability: summons a strongman to transport ten sacks of rice. Single use.

Another goat wore bright red lipstick. Its tag read: Genius Salesman Mouthy Goat. Ability: summons a livestream host to boost sales. Single use.

Even an idiot could tell that Strong Goat supported Moon quests and Mouthy Goat supported Sun quests.

Strong Goat cost four game coins. Mouthy Goat cost five.

Just as I had expected, they were outrageously expensive.

Only a sucker would buy one.

Then I picked up a goat clutching an abacus. It was called Invincible Bookkeeping King Math Goat. Ability: summons a professional accountant. Single use. Price: three game coins.

I guessed it supported Star quests. Those probably involved keeping a shop’s accounts.

In one corner, apart from those three varieties, lay a goat wearing a mortarboard. It looked scholarly at a glance.

I was about to pick it up when a voice interrupted me.

“That is an All-Knowing Sage Goat. This shop has only five in stock. Its ability is knowledge of every secret in town.”

I looked up. An old man with a goatee and an immaculate suit regarded me calmly.

“Secrets? How many secrets does this town have?” I asked.

He smiled mysteriously. “Five goats know five different secrets.”

I lifted a Sage Goat from the shelf. One look at the price tag nearly made me put it straight back.

Before I could, the old man spoke again. “Scarcity creates value. The Sage Goat may be expensive, but it is worth every coin. Its secret will not disappoint you.”

He even gave me a cryptic wink.

I wavered. I knew the goat had to be connected to a hidden quest, but it was fucking expensive. And with five to choose from, it was like buying a mystery box. Who knew which secret was actually useful?

“Each one is a unique limited edition,” the old man said with a salesman’s smile. “Once you buy it, its secret belongs to you alone.”

His words dropped like a stone into my mind, sending my thoughts churning.

Buy it, and the secret would be mine alone. How could anyone resist that?

The old man was a master salesman. He understood exactly how to manipulate desire.

I gritted my teeth, hardened my heart, grabbed a Sage Goat at random, and carried it to the register.

“Ring it up!” I growled.

With great difficulty, I pulled a game coin from my bag and handed it over. The gleaming number 10 on its face stabbed me in the eyes.

Ten game coins. One hundred thousand US dollars, gone just like that.

This had to be the most expensive plush toy in history. Not even those luxury horses, donkeys, eagles, or old-lady dolls could fleece a customer this brutally.

After the purchase, the old man cheerfully explained how it worked.

“There is a button on the Sage Goat’s chest. Press it, and it will tell you what it knows.”

I held the plush in both hands and steadied my nervous excitement. With all the solemnity of opening a mystery box, I pressed the button.

A sweet, childish voice emerged clearly from its soft body.

“Let me tell you a secret…”