Chapter 219: The Land of Oath
"What is the Barcelo River?" Yang Ying asked after looking at the first line of words in the task text.
"It's just a river." The player who started the quest group was named Virgin. She was a rare player who named her ID in a fantasy style. She was a tanky violent warrior with a unique style. Her voice was androgynous and her personality was carefree, but she was indeed a female player. "It's a big river in the country where our Innadri territory belongs. It's a bit like our Yangtze River. Don't airship ads often appear on the street stalls in the main city? The slogans include things like 'Easily cross the Barcelo River'."
Yang Ying said "Oh". She didn't stay in the main city for long. She walked around twice to see what was new and then ran back to the Exile Town to play. "What level have you reached?"
Virgin looked annoyed: "Just... still working on the first stage."
Yang Ying: “…”
"This mission is very annoying, Sister Ying. It's definitely not our problem that we're stuck here." Wilkin looked back at the team and waved to one of the players, "Fanfan, come and talk to Sister Ying."
The player with the ID Don't Talk to Me above my head came over holding the hem of his robe.
"The mission was triggered by Fanfan?" Yang Ying said. She was familiar with this girl, a girl who looked calm on the outside but had a hot temper in Zaan on the inside. She was very much to Yang Ying's liking.
"Yeah, it's rare for me to be lucky after playing for so long!" Fanfan said proudly, "Today I went online to the town hall to brush up my reputation as usual. When the people in front of me accepted the quest, Lao Yang just handed out the quest in a businesslike manner. But when I walked up to him, sister Ying, guess what happened? Lao Yang, who usually has a deadpan face and doesn't like to talk to anyone, actually took the initiative to talk to me! The people who just took the quest in front of me were stunned!"
The NPCs in this game are not friendly to the players. They either avoid the players as much as possible or ignore them and treat them as invisible. If an NPC suddenly behaves abnormally and takes the initiative to talk to the players, even a newbie will know that a hidden quest has arrived.
"Then what?" Yang Ying asked curiously.
"Then Lao Yang said that he had been seeing the Barcelo River in his dreams recently, and thought it was a sign of what was going to happen. He asked me if I was willing to help him solve the problem, and I took the task." Fanfan was very happy. "The guy in front of me who had accepted the reputation task was so anxious that he said he was willing to help. Lao Yang ignored him. Hahaha! I am really lucky!"
"Alright, alright, you've already boasted about this five, six, seven, eight times." Virgin frowned and pushed away Fanfan who was only concerned with showing off.
Yang Ying thought of the style of solving problems when entropy does not increase, so he calmed down and read the text information carefully.
"At dusk on a certain day in the New Year, Lord Yang called you."
"Lord Yang claimed that he had been dreaming about the roaring Barcelo River. The rushing water seemed to be repeating someone's name. And in the far west, it seemed that someone was trying to respond to the Barcelo River's call."
"Lord Yang is convinced that the mysterious response came from deep in the Tarantan Wasteland, west of the Exile Town, where perhaps some unknown secrets are hidden."
"Between the mountains and the water, in , is the place where the stone tablet is reflected."
"Found the Promised Land (0/1)"
"Hmm... you mean the mission location is between the mountains and the water, in a place with a big stone tablet in the middle of a swamp?" Yang Ying finally understood why they were stuck at the first stage. "It's poisonous, right? The Tarantan wild map is so big, with mountains and swamps everywhere. How can we find it?"
"I think the key point is the description of the words 'Endless Water Marsh'." Wilkin said, "Sister Ying, do you remember that a while ago, Brother Lahong and his outdoor group found a map full of low-level slime monsters? The monsters there are even denser than in the mining map. You can get a lot of slime monster skins just by brushing them, and the NPCs in the mining map are willing to accept these skins."
"Remember, wasn't it said that later on, because it was discovered that there were too many patrolling elite monsters on that map, no one went there?" Yang Ying said.
Although the main city maps of Westram and Innadri have been opened, most players are still willing to stay in Exile Town. The biggest reason is that the monster spawning points in Exile Town are very dense.
Even if you don't go to the spider's nest and there is no large group to pull into the poisonous fog swamp to open up the wasteland, it is also possible to brush the wild map - now the big rat blocking the door can no longer keep the players' desire to wander the wild.
The only problem is that, although there are monsters everywhere in Tarantan outside of the Exile Town, these monsters are not suitable for all players to kill... Solo players or small team players may unexpectedly spawn elite monsters that will wipe out the team, or level 1 and 2 monsters will always appear in places where large teams are camping, which will greatly affect the monster killing efficiency.
"Before I discovered there were so many elite monsters there, Fanfan and I went there to spawn them alone." Wilkin said, "The place where the slime monsters spawn is a large swamp next to a lake, the kind that seems to have no end, and there are mountains on the other side. It's also located to the west of Exile Town. I think the promised land required in this quest is probably there."
"Then what?" Yang Ying's eyes lit up.
"That's the problem. The swamp is too big. When we went deep into it to look for the stone tablet, we were killed by a group of coordinated elite monsters. Then we were killed again by a BOSS with his minions. It was so disgusting." Wilkin spread his hands.
"Then we can only pull a large group over to fight. If we clear them all the way, we will eventually find the place." After hearing this, Yang Ying called people in the Blood Alliance channel.
It was still easy to form a group at this point in time. When Entropy Does Not Increase was launched, Yang Ying had already expanded the task force from a dozen people to forty people - because she led the activity book every weekend, her appeal among players to form groups was still quite high.
Before the large group of players set out, Qin Guan, Sang Ye Luo Le, Give Me Medicine and other elite fighters in the Blood Alliance also came online on time, and were pulled ...
When the large group of nearly sixty people arrived at the swamp that Wilkin mentioned, there was almost nothing to be afraid of. Even a level 5 BOSS with his minions could be defeated by the players.
Pushing all the way to the depths of the swamp, the players discovered a stone tablet standing alone between heaven and earth.
Tarantino is located close to the central part of the continent of Naples, so it snows in winter, but not heavily.
In the midst of flying snow, in the swamps that were frozen into a thin layer of ice and shattered if stepped on, the scene of sixty or so undead souls slowly approaching the stone tablet, stepping on the muddy and frozen water that was over their ankles. This scene was secretly captured by a peeping black magician into the Light and Shadow Stone (an alchemical prop that can record images but not preserve sounds).
The stone tablet, which was more than two meters high, had its east-facing side flattened by some human hands, and a row of simple and strong characters commonly used in the Napalm Continent were left on the tablet with a tool like an axe: "We will eventually return to our hometown."
Entropy But Increase read out the words on the stone tablet that could be translated into Chinese by the Imprint Matrix. Even though she was already convinced that this world was indeed a game world, she still felt a certain shock.
"Heroic spirits, the call of the Barcelo River, we will eventually return to our homeland... This seems to be an epic quest of a hero returning home?" Qin Guan, who had also read the quest information, said excitedly, "Damn, the rewards for epic quests must be very generous, right? Will it be even more awesome than the world view breakthrough quest?"
The entropy that just felt touched and shocked for a moment: "..."
Fanfan, the one who triggered the task, immediately patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, I won't take the reward for myself. Let's follow the rules. We should auction it when it's necessary and roll it when it's necessary!"
Entropy does not increase: "..."
Well, there is no need to be moved by the plot of the game. It is all a designed program anyway. Entropy wiped out the second-year thoughts in his mind and called out to everyone: "Since this is the mission point, there should be an NPC who can provide information for the next mission. Let's spread out and look for it."
More people means more work, and soon a player discovered a skull hidden in a pile of aquatic plants not far from the back of the stone tablet.
In real life, if a skeleton head was found in the wild, these players would be so scared that they would call the police immediately. In the game, the players who were also skeletons would not mind whether this thing was unlucky or not, and they all actively salvaged the scattered skeletons from the surrounding mud...
After some effort, I pieced together this "scattered" NPC, and it finally "came to life" - a friendly green name "Webster Jack" appeared above its head, and green soul fire appeared in its dark eye sockets.
"You are...fellow countrymen? No, no, you don't have the breath of your homeland. You are...fellow countrymen of the dead."
The "alive" NPCs acted out the story without any player interaction: "My fellow undead, thank you for saving me and bringing me back . But I haven't found the comrades who promised to return home together. Can you help me?"
"Of course, of course, who are you looking for?" Fanfan, who had a task, stepped forward actively to interact.
The NPC seemed to be lost in thought and thought for a long time before answering: "Matthew Belt, Thomas Blood, and... oh, and Susan, Susan Ken Radisson... After leading the enemy into the Tarantan Wasteland, it wasn't long before there were only four of us left..."
"We were lost in the depths of the wilderness. Hunger, fear, and the horrific pressure of being hunted by the enemy almost drove us crazy."
"But we can't turn back. We can't bring the enemy back home. We have to buy as much time as possible for the Grand Duke's army..."
At this point, the undead NPC named "Webster Jack" suddenly whimpered in pain: "Ah... Actually, we all know that we can no longer see the scenery of our hometown, and we can no longer hear the sound of the Barcelo River... But in my eternal sleep, I can always hear the sound of the Barcelo River flowing, and that sound sounds like it is calling our names. My fellow undead, can I boldly believe that it is my hometown calling us? Is it my hometown waiting for us?"
"Of course, of course." Fanfan didn't actually listen carefully to what the undead NPC was saying. He even thought it was too long-winded and responded perfunctorily.
The mastermind who took the screenshot behind the scenes as evidence held his forehead with his hand.
He used Entropy and Miaobishenghua, two brainy players, as anchors, and selected trigger targets based on their relationships to ensure that the two players could participate in the mission. But obviously, the players he chose were not the kind of people who would immerse themselves in the game plot...
