Chapter 220: Undead Tool Man
The purpose of the quest "Elegy of the Barcelo River" is to allow players to dig out the heroic spirits of the Rhine Kingdom from the depths of the vast Tarantan Wasteland.
And these heroic spirits, of course, do not exist.
It's not that there are no heroic spirits in this world, but only in countries that worship the righteous or evil gods of the death system can heroic spirits survive by relying on the power of the righteous or evil gods - in the western countries of the Napalm continent, there are organizations such as Valhalla and the Heroic Trophy, but in countries outside the west, if you say that heroic spirits have appeared, then you are mocking all the righteous gods that are not of the death system.
In short, what was dug out from the Tarantin Desert could not be heroes in the actual sense, but only heroes in the spiritual sense - the heroic souls who had sacrificed their lives bravely for the people of the Rhine Kingdom.
In order to ensure that there are no mistakes in the details, or at least not to embarrass the Gold Coin Church which is currently in its honeymoon period, this Heroic Spirit must not show off in front of the world. The No. 1 Heroic Spirit actor named "Webster Jack" fell apart after explaining the plot.
The player with the ID "Don't Talk to Me" and collectively known as "Fanfan" was dumbfounded at the time: "Holy crap, this NPC is dead?! What should I do? I wasn't paying attention to the plot!"
En Bu Zeng was not moved at all. She had encountered this kind of thing many times. "It's okay. I recorded it. This NPC asked us to go find the other three. Once we find one, we should send their skeletons to Innadri."
Fanfan & the people who were present but didn't listen to the NPC's speech finally covered their chests and breathed a sigh of relief.
Next, the players continued westward according to the instructions of "Webster Jack" to find three other mission objectives.
According to NP C Webster, when they first fled to this area, they were exhausted and had no ammunition or food.
That night, they rested on the plain, which was not a swamp at the time. Everyone was very pessimistic and depressed, feeling that there was no hope of escaping.
When Webster tried to commit suicide to ease the pain, Thomas and Susan, who were equally desperate, said that they could definitely go back and they vowed that they would eventually return to their hometown.
As if to ensure that their fragile wills could be solidified by words, Thomas took out an axe and cut a flat surface on a large stone near the camp, and Susan used a long knife to carve the words vowing to return home on the stone tablet.
The four of them swore a vow in front of the stone tablet and encouraged each other to survive.
The next day, they decided to be strong and look for life in the wilderness. They traveled westward together, hoping to cross Tarantin and reach the Principality of Shega on the opposite side. The Principality of Shega did not have much contact with the Rhine Kingdom, but because of Tarantin, there had been no friction or hatred for thousands of years. As soldiers of the kingdom, although it was impossible for them to ask for reinforcements from the Principality of Shega, they could get life-saving supplies.
But ... not long after they set out, they encountered groups of magical beasts.
Webster's horse had its leg bitten off by monsters and was trapped in the monster group. When his companions who had broken out of the encirclement found that he had fallen behind and tried to return to rescue him in panic, Webster resolutely put his sword across his neck.
"Let our souls meet again in our hometown!" Webster shouted and cut his own throat.
Before death came, Webster looked at his three companions who were crying and running away with relief. That was his last memory of being alive.
This is a very touching plot, but unfortunately, even though they are both undead, they do not share the same joys and sorrows. When NPC Webster recounted the past with emotion, the players just felt that it was long-winded, and few people listened carefully...
After walking several kilometers west and approaching the hilly area, the players finally used identification skills to scan the human skeleton half-buried underground.
After dragging the skeleton out, they searched around for a long time for scattered bones to piece together the skeleton. The name "Susan Ken Radisson" immediately appeared in green letters above the head of the skeleton.
Having learned from the previous lesson that the storyline fell apart gloriously after Webster explained it, this time the players listened to the storyline more seriously:
"Did you find Weber? It turns out that he has really been waiting for us at the place where we made the oath." Susan Ken Radisson was also very happy and gave the plot content quickly. "We really should have gone back then. Even if we died together, it would not have meant that we were separated for so many years after death."
"I forgot how I died. Maybe I lost consciousness before I died. When I regained consciousness, I had been wandering alone in the wilderness for a long time."
"I can't find my long knife. That's the weapon my mother made for me with her dowry... But compared to the long knife, I want to find Tom (Thomas), Matthew, and Weber more... I miss them so much..."
"My father died when I was young. When the lord recruited soldiers, he required every family to send an adult militiaman. In order to prevent my thirteen-year-old brother from going to the battlefield, I had to go on my own..."
"In the army, women like me are always the target of ridicule. If I don't fight back fiercely against anyone who tries to slight me, I will end up in a terrible situation... Everyone said I was a crazy woman, a vicious woman who would kill her husband. They no longer wanted to take advantage of me. They began to isolate me and intensify the bullying of me, a woman who was rejected by everyone."
"Only Tom, Matthew and Weber did not want me, a woman who threatened the status of men, to die on the battlefield as soon as possible like the others. They regarded me as their sister, companion and comrade-in-arms. They would lend a hand to me when I was in danger, just like men would help their comrades in crisis."
"We fought side by side. Together with countless soldiers, we blocked the enemy at the banks of the Barcelo River. We all thought we would eventually win and drive the enemy out of the Rhine. But we didn't expect a rebellion to break out in our rear... I don't know who intercepted the Archduke's supplies, preventing his army from rushing to the front."
"Our men became fewer and fewer, while the enemy became more and more numerous... His Excellency the Marshal had no choice but to arrange for His Royal Highness to retreat. Our troops, pretending to be the royal army escorting His Royal Highness to evacuate, led the enemy into Innadri."
"Innadri has no decent army to support us. We cannot lead the enemy to the town where people live. We can only flee westward..."
"Perhaps the enemy realized they were following the wrong target after they entered Tarantan. Who would bring His Royal Highness the Prince into such a dangerous wilderness? But they refused to let us go and continued to chase us all the way..."
"In the end, we no longer had the energy to care whether the enemy was still behind us or whether the Grand Duke's army had arrived at the front in time... We just wanted to survive..."
"But this is already wishful thinking... Waver used his suicide to force us to abandon him and let us escape, but we were unable to escape in the end."
"I woke up from a long sleep and just wanted to find the three of them. Since only Weber returned to the Land of Oath, then... Tommy and Matthew should be up high, right? They are both Tachia people. When they mentioned the Tachia territory that was first conquered by the enemy, they always said that the mountains in their hometown were very majestic, unlike the short mountains in the south. When they climbed up the mountains to graze, they always felt that they could touch the sky with their hands."
After explaining the plot, the dim green fire in Susan Kenradin's eyes went out like a candle blown out by the wind, and the complete skeleton form was scattered into a pile of bones.
This time, the players who were listening carefully to the NPC's narration of the story fell into silence.
"I really shouldn't listen to the plot carefully..." Qin Guan took a deep breath, "It's really healing!"
“It’s so tragic!” Fanfan, the hot-tempered girl who always plays games with her eyes closed, is about to cry. “This Susan is almost the same as Hua Mulan, but her ending is not as good as Mulan’s. At least Mulan became a general and survived to go back to see the emperor!”
Entropy frowned and thought.
So far, she hasn't seen any difficulty in this task.
As long as you have a slightly stronger team that is not so easily wiped out by wild monsters, and are willing to listen carefully to the plot, you can do it step by step.
But given the nature of this game, would it be so easy to set a task as a hidden task?
After thinking for a while without any clue, En Bu Zeng could only wait and see: "Let's find the other two NPC skeletons first."
There is a mountain next to the place where Susan was found. Climbing the mountain in winter is not difficult for players who control the bodies of the undead. Even if they slip and fall, they will just lose some blood and pick up some bones.
After searching several mountains, the players found the remaining two NPCs on the top of one of them.
The discovery process this time was almost effortless... The two NPCs were not hiding somewhere scattered, but were sitting side by side on the top of the mountain, facing east, with even some dry vines and mosses crawling on their skeletons.
This design is obviously very retro, and Yang Qiu must have spent a lot of effort when "forging" it... ahem.
In short, regardless of whether the moss on the dry vines on the NPC skeleton was grown using alchemical potions, anyone who has just heard the stories of the first two NPCs and then seen this scene again would be very shocked - even the Earth players whose nerves have been washed to ashes by all kinds of clichéd and bloody movies and TV dramas cannot remain indifferent to this scene.
"Damn, I actually want to cry!" an orange cat said excitedly, "They are so miserable that they have to climb up the mountain to look at their hometown even though they are dead as bones. Shouldn't these heroes return home in glory? Has no one looked for them?"
En Buzeng walked quickly to the two skeletons and looked at the skeletons carefully.
There were many obvious scars visible to the naked eye on the two skeletons (they were originally taken out from an ancient battlefield...), which showed that they were indeed warriors who had experienced battlefields before they were born.
Although damaged, the skeleton was relatively intact, not scattered everywhere like the previous two NPCs.
But... there was no soul fire in the eye sockets of these two complete skeletons, and there was no name on their heads.
Enbuseng thought for a moment, then called Fanfan, who was on a mission, to come over and put the two skeletons into a bag.
After Fanfan collected the skeletons, he said in surprise, "The mission is accomplished. The next step is to deliver the four skeletons to Innadri!"
There was even greater doubt in Entropy's dark eyes... Is this the end?
With this confusion, Entropy and the other players returned to the city and teleported to Innadri.
As soon as they entered the Innadri City Hall, the players who had rushed over to hand in their tasks were startled.
The NPC Lord Charlie Rex led a large group of human NPCs , waiting there solemnly to receive the remains.
What's even more ridiculous is that there are a few reporter NPCs with very old-fashioned film cameras hanging around their necks, taking pictures of the undead.
Entropy does not increase: “???”
Something is wrong! Something is very wrong! Something is wrong with this mission!
Entropy does not increase. It feels like she is not doing the task at all, but has become a tool to complete the task!
Just when Entropy was doubting his life due to the strong sense of disharmony, the Lord NPC Charlie Rex came up heavily to receive the remains and solemnly announced the next round of tasks.
"The Elegy of the Barcelo River"
"Found the Promised Land (1/1) (Completed)"
"Found the remains of the hero (4/4) (Completed)"
"Investigate and sort out the martyrdom of the heroes (0/1)"
Fanfan, who was already smiling happily and waiting to receive his reward, was excited when he saw there was a new part.
But when he heard that there were still unfinished steps and the entropy was not increasing, he was unexpectedly relieved.
It's not that she's a bitch, but the tasks that can be completed easily and seem like they were designed by the planner are simply not in line with the style of this game!
With this mentality of "I am right after all", En Bu Zeng happily dragged the resentful Fan Fan into the archive room provided by the NPC to study...
Yang Qiu, who used players to achieve the purpose of "collecting evidence", observed from the perspective of his elder sister Yang Ying, who was burying her head in the files and studying how to restore the reputation of the four national heroes, and nodded with satisfaction.
He would rather personally perform hidden tasks and operate behind the scenes than to get one of the two, Wonderful Writing or No Entropy, to do this task, because he values the seriousness of these two die-hard task-makers - they are not human ghosts, but they need to find evidence to vindicate human heroes from historical books (legendary novels) recorded by humans themselves. Even if this matter is brought to the Rhine royal family, they will have to admit it with a pinch of their nose!
Could it be that even the non-human ghosts believe that there are real heroes among you humans who deserve to be remembered, but humans themselves are so shameless as to refuse to acknowledge them?
The trick of "foreign monks are good at chanting sutras" is not only believed by people on Earth!
As for whether the four civilian soldiers who only appeared briefly in the legendary novel and were not even considered supporting roles were really as great and glorious as the undead "researched" them to be...it's not important!
History can be rigorous, but it can also be not rigorous when necessary!
It has only been a few years since the Soviets entered Berlin and overthrew the Nazis, and yet America still dares to brag to the world that it was America that defeated the Nazis and saved the world?
It is obvious that the United States has been waging wars everywhere and creating chaos and crimes everywhere, yet they are still making anti-war movies glorifying the United States one after another and shouting human rights slogans louder than anyone else?
As long as you don't have to be shameless, nothing is a problem!
