[i]“Our healers really are trash.” - Young female voice.
“I mean, it’s day one of the patch.. we probably have time to learn the boss mechanics anyways.” - Gruff male voice.
“There’s no excuse, as the leading raid guild- we should have this shit on lock, day one.” - Younger male voice.
“Guys I think there’s someone in my apa——-.” The female voice went silent, cut off by the sound of her IRIS dying or being disconnected. Though her avatar remained, frozen in a blank staring daze. 
[hr]

[h3]Opening Day : Crossroads Update [/h3]

The city of Bell was packed like a theme park, as the capital city of the new zone it was inevitable. The zone had a rustic old-fashioned feel to it, wooden buildings, grassy plains as far as the eye could see with hills and mountaintops in the unreachable distance. It was beautiful, one of the most artistically astounding zones to date. 

“Dad, do you wanna scope out any quest hubs? See if there’s a new reputation to grind? Whatcha’ wanna do?” A leather-clad teenage avatar with a basic protagonist appearance, brown messy hair and daggers at the hip spoke.

“Or we can look for that rare ore that was datamined, spawns once a day and it’ll probably be great for crafting.” An elderly female avatar with salt and pepper hair and mild aging spoke in a boisterous feminine voice, flashing big bright teeth placing plated hands on her waists. 

The marketplaces were the most packed, nearly impossible to pass through the roadblock without some form of guide. The NPC’s of the town were visibly overwhelmed, sweating and raising their tone to find some sense of organization in the herd of players. “Stay in line! Don’t cut, armor sets are to the left and potions to the right! The blacksmith closes at eight p.m!” 

The plywood shacks behind the marketplace though? Smoke trails suddenly began arise from them, subtly, but it was there. The crowds of people were too busy picking every resource from the town they could, like a swarm of locusts before they set off the strip the surrounding area of what they could find afterwards. It was frightening more than anything. But they should have paid attention, maybe some of the more perceptive avatars would have noticed but none seemed to take action before the assault began. An inferno bloomed from all six shacks behind the marketplace, and began to consume the market stalls nearby and damaging some of the lower level players in the city.  

“Bell is PvP enabled!” Screamed a few rowdy players in the roaring crowd, and then suddenly the chaos. The bandit guild “Our World” began to attack any lower level players ythey saw, setting off more explosives in other remote buildings as they ran for the town exits. A large telecom screen attached the tin water tower at the center of town beeped in announcement to attempt to break the chaos, prompting a large list of player names with a huge “Hunt” title at the top.

[1:] Burlap
[2:] Razalgul
[3:] Dodgr

Hunt - “Our World, Our City in Danger” 

A quest would be added to every players Log, promoting them into a tutorial about the newly implemented mechanic. [b]A player has been marked for toxic behavior, they are now able to be engaged like any NPC enemy in the wilds. The marked player can be stunned, but not mind-controlled, and retains all abilities before they were marked. Hunt Quest offer unique rewards based on the crimes committed by the player whom is being defeated, tutorial complete.[/b]
[/i]