↫ Previous Chapter ⬖ ⬩F⬩L⬩Y⬩ ⬗ Next Chapter ↬
Chapter 19
Your money was well spent.
The girl naturally did not know about the players’ unspoken criticism.
The wrath enveloping her frame dissipated. With a smile, she introduced herself. “I am called Ling Huai, the patron god of Glazed Light River.”
Jiang Chen and Fang Jingxing’s hearts skipped a beat.
The concept of “god” existed within Wandering Dream.
The three races of Human, Demon, and Supernatural all had their own gods they believed in. Sculptures were arranged within each territory’s main palace hall, silently and taciturnly being guarded by clansmen. But for a long time now, these were simply the game’s background, their existence akin to that of folklore. To this day, no genuine gods had appeared. This was the first time.
Glazed Light River was the mother river of all rivers on the continent. Its position was self-evident.
This hidden mission originating from her, based on her designation, was clearly not simple.
The girl tilted her head. She blinked mischievously and then took a deep breath before saying, “This is impossible.”
Jiang Chen: “……”
Fang Jingxing: “……”
The girl stuck out her tongue. “I have not spoken with anyone for quite a while and opened with a joke.”
She returned to the topic at hand. “For some reason, I am confined to this river and cannot come out for too long. I swear I have no ill intent. Can you two do me a favor?”
Jiang Chen looked at the “Help” or “Don’t Help” choices and felt it a bit superfluous. Otherwise, could there really be players who would choose “Don’t Help”?
Might as well be like the regular storyline and let the system reply on behalf of the player, to avoid……he had always been curious about alternative routes.
He raised his hand and once again looked at the screen before his eyes. In the end, he could not restrain himself. “What will happen if we choose ‘Don’t Help’?”
Fang Jingxing said with a smile, “Don’t know, you try.”
Jiang Chen queried, “If it’s a failure, can we no longer receive it?”
Fang Jingxing replied, “Then I will leave the party, and you try again? If you really cannot receive it, then I will receive it. We can then party up and hit it together. The mission will be shared.”
Jiang Chen nodded and watched him leave the party. He chose “Don’t Help”.
The girl’s eyes immediately turned red. She choked out, sobbing, “I have stayed in the river for a long time and could meet you only after great difficulty. This is fate bringing us together. You will help me.”
The transparent screen once again popped up, but there was only one choice left —— Okay, I’ll help.
Jiang Chen: “……”
He just felt it was even more superfluous.
He added Fang Jingxing back into the party and chose to help.
The girl turned tears into laughter. “Fantastic, I have a big brother. His name is Jiali. Help me look for him, and then take him to come see me. This is my token. You two, take this and give to him to see; she should be able to believe you.”
Jiang Chen took the token.
The girl said, “I last saw him in Broken Star City.”
She paused and took out another item. “I cannot enter the town, but I can go to other rivers after some difficulty. I know you actually did not want to help. This matter is inconveniencing you too much, so this is a gift for you two. When needed, you can use it to summon me.”
Jiang Chen: “……”
Fang Jingxing: “……”
The girl saw him accept it and then put the shoes on the ground. She advised, “Glazed Light River is the mother river of the continent. In the future, don’t throw things in here again.”
After she said this, she turned around and returned to the river.
The two people left behind looked at each other.
Jiang Chen said, “If I initially chose “Help”, would she had given something else?”
Fang Jingxing said, “Possibly.”
Jiang Chen remained silent.
As a result, he was bothered by this type of multiple-choice question mission.
Fang Jingxing smiled and said, “How about we give up the mission, start over, and see?”
Jiang Chen asked, “Can you still receive it again after giving it up?”
Fang Jingxing said, “Not sure.”
In the regular storyline, players could start over after giving up.
But this was a hidden plot. He also did not know if players could have a second chance after giving up.
Jiang Chen said, “Forget about it. Just do it like this.”
The two then left the river and took the route they came from, swimming back to the opposite bank.
They were now being watched by several people. When they had arrived, someone had been shadowing them. This time, there wasn’t a very good area to hide in nearby, so they could only swim to the opposite bank first.
The river within these outskirts was approximately three hundred meters wide. The opposite bank was wooded, and as there just happened to be, there was a bend. It was, contrary to what they expected, very easy to hide.
At present, players were still on the other side of the river trying to find them.
The army of streakers from just recently had scattered, but there were people dispatched to secretly stare at their movements. They had followed the two all the way to the neighboring town. They saw the two dither by the town gate for a moment before unexpectedly walking in the direction of the river bank. They thought that this time, those two must be hitting the hidden plot and became very excited.
However, they were afraid of beating the grass to scare the snake[1] and did not dare to come too close. They all withdrew to the woods beside the road and cautiously forged ahead. In the end, they were not careful and lost track of the other party again.
“How are things; found them yet?”
“No.”
“Fuck, how can they disappear in the blink of an eye?!”
“Those two people must have something.”
“Hey, over there!”
The people nearby simultaneously raised their heads and saw those two swimming at a pace neither urgent nor slow before climbing onto the bank.
Everyone: “……”
As it turned out, they ran to the opposite bank!
“Impossible, we had just allocated several people to especially stare at the river surface and saw no one swimming!”
“Therefore, I said they had something!”
“Pah, how good must this technique be to allow people to not be seen?”
“Precisely……”
While they discussed, they recalled how they were easily shaken off last time and gradually fell silent.
What if……what if those two were not ordinary players and really big experts?
Fang Jingxing saw them and laughed, calling out, “Are you busy?”
Everyone choked.
Someone among them asked, “You two were just on the opposite bank?”
Fang Jingxing replied, “No, we were having a swimming competition.”
Everyone: “……”
You damned liar!
Fang Jingxing amiably said, “Since you are busy, see you later.”
Immediately, hatred bred courage within everyone.[2] They straightforwardly trailed after the two in broad daylight, all the way to town. They watched the two step into the teleportation formation and disappear without a trace.
As the first small town to connect to the outside world within the territory, this teleportation formation could transfer to any of the three towns and four wild areas. And each of these seven regions had a teleportation formation. Who knew where they went!
Everyone had no way out and could only return to debrief.
Jiang Chen and Fang Jingxing teleported through the three towns before arriving at the main city, Broken Star City.
Broken Star City was situated at the center of the continent. The main palace hall was located due north and was nine floors high. Its grandeur and majesty could be seen from a far distance.
The city took up a vast amount of land, being ten times the size of a small town. Countless NPCs lived here, and trying to find one person was the same as fishing a needle from the sea.
Fang Jingxing said, “The hidden plot has a certain degree of difficulty. According to that plot from the closed beta, the person we are searching for is most likely not here, but we should be able to find relevant clues here. Basically, all NPCs have the possibility of providing clues.”
Jiang Chen voiced his agreement and casually chose a direction. He began talking to an NPC.
Glazed Light River ran through the continent, but not across the towns. The only civilized area it entered was Broken Star City.
Within the city were twelve bridges from east to west, all shaped each unto its own. It was a well-known destination to check-in. The two walked from south to north, and then from north to south. Most of their strength was spent crossing over the four bridges. Jiang Chen’s patience had been exhausted completely.
He felt that relying on this luck of his, he should not have been able to trigger any hidden plot.
It would have been better for him to spend this time and energy to hit an instance and level up.
Fang Jingxing also felt a bit bored strolling around. While he was thinking about saying something, he suddenly saw two familiar shadows in a small plaza to the side — an Exorcist of the Human race and a Divine Warrior of the Supernatural race. Near them were an additional seven to eight people. Due to the distance, he was not able to clearly see their IDs.
He said, “Go, take a look over there.”
The two of them arrived at the small plaza and saw that the Exorcist really was Escape Empath.
Escape Empath was holding a lot of feed as he sat on the ground and fed the pigeons.
Pigeons inside the game could only eat, not defecate, so the ground was extremely clean. He felt absolutely no pressure sitting on the ground. Smiling, he asked, “Here to take a look at the gang?”
Fang Jingxing said, “No, passing through.”
Escape Empath did not ask much and waved at the Seal Master. “Pigeons here can be fed here, want to try?”
Jiang Chen accepted the feed he offered and sat cross-legged on the ground, silently feeding the pigeons.
Fang Jingxing saw this and knew his mood was poor. With a smile, he asked, “Where did the pigeon feed come from?”
Escape Empath said, “Can be bought from the NPC over there.”
Fang Jingxing then went to buy some, returning to feed together with them.
A short while later, players were passing by. They focused on the Seal Master and Master of Darkness and immediately contacted the backbones of the gangs. “Found them!”
The spirits of the gangs’ backbones roused.
A teleportation formation was too much of a road open in all directions. They only had a portion of people able to leave the territory. Their manpower was very limited, so some people were dispatched to comb the small towns and surroundings. The rest kept on leveling. They did not expect to actually be able to find the two.
They hastily asked, “Where?”
“The main city.” The member said, “Escape Empath found that pigeons in the small plaza could be fed, and he is leading a group of salted fishes from As One Wishes to feed pigeons. The Seal Master and co. are also there.”
The backbones of the gangs immediately felt bitter and hateful simultaneously.
Those who handle cinnabar were stained red; those who work with ink were stained black.[3] Those who entered As One Wishes became salted fish.
Those motherfuckers joined for less than a day. The hidden plot was completely untriggered!
The “became salted fish” duo finished feeding the pigeons and slowed down a bit.
Escape Empath also just happened to finish and got up, saying, “Well, you’re here, so come with me and take a look at the gang, recognize the entryway.”
The two thought about it and then followed.
The players could also buy a house in the city.
An inch of soil within Broken Star City was worth an inch of gold. Only the big gangs and local tyrants could afford to buy it. As One Wishes’ deputy gang leader was a local tyrant and bought the largest courtyard house within the city. A garden, a lake, everything that should be there was there. The lake inside the house could even be fished at. Moreover, the earnings were higher than what could be fished from the wild lake outside.
He took the new members to the large gate and pointed at the NPCs on both sides. He introduced, “People who are not in our gang need to have permission to enter. If they rush in, they will be sent packing by these two. This is my pick from the city protection militia. I chose the two most powerful.”
Jiang Chen knew they were definitely also the most expensive but declined to comment about this. He followed them inside.
When brushing past, he paused for a moment. Inwardly thinking, this was also an NPC in any case, he then chose to chat lightly with the NPC.
Subsequently, a moment later, that guard opened his mouth, shocked. “This……this is Ling Huai’s token! How come you have it?”
Jiang Chen: “……”
Fang Jingxing: “……”
The members of As One Wishes had stupefied expressions. They all looked back and forth between the duo and the uncle guarding their family’s gang’s gate.
Escape Empath was also very surprised. “This is your mission?”
Fang Jingxing recovered his spirit and smiled, patting his friend’s shoulder. He sincerely praised, “Your money was well spent.”
⬖ ⬩F⬩L⬩Y⬩ ⬗
The author has something to say:
Look at Chapter 9 for the system mentioned in the previous chapter; it had been mentioned already. Simply speaking, this is the direction a profession would develop toward in the future.
Thanking everyone for their overlord tickets and nutrient solutions, muah
Footnotes:
[1] beating the grass to scare the snake: alerting an enemy
[2] 怒从心头起，恶向胆边生: anger rose from the heart, leading to hatred breeding courage
[3] you are the product of your environment
↫ Previous Chapter ⬖ ⬩F⬩L⬩Y⬩ ⬗ Next Chapter ↬
Wow, I guess his awful luck with drops is compensated by his luck with missions.