Chapter 24 Hidden Mission
In the dark and humid underground cave, water droplets sliding down the stalactites fall to the ground, making crisp dripping sounds.
Suddenly, there was a sound of splashing water. A skeleton was squatting on the bank of the quietly flowing underground river, scooping up water with a gourd ladle from a bucket.
After filling the bucket half full, the skeleton carried the tin bucket and walked back to the "medicine field".
As they walked, water droplets slid down the outer wall of the bucket and sprinkled onto the only "herb" in the medicine field, a piece of human hand leaf quietly crawling on the ground.
This human hand... no, this leaf, seemed to have activated some kind of switch. It suddenly sprang up, holding onto the long vines, and fiercely grabbed the metal bucket filled with water...
The skeleton was quick-witted and quick-handed, and with one foot he stepped on the leaf that was ferociously attacking the bucket.
Then... the skeleton bent down slightly, identified the vines of this "herb", confirmed that this one did not need watering, and immediately left with the bucket.
From a distance, the herbs that seem to be connected into one piece are actually planted individually. It’s just that the leaves of this strange vine are so dense that they fill most of the space left between the plants, and you can’t see them unless you get close.
The skeleton walked to a clump of herbs He scooped water with a gourd ladle, carefully avoiding the leaves and watering the roots of the vines.
But because the leaves are too dense, no matter how careful you are, water droplets will inevitably splash onto the leaves, so the leaves that were originally lying quietly are activated and start dancing...
"Fuck!" The skeleton had to endure the frantic beating of countless leaves holding the slender vines like the Thousand-armed Avalokitesvara. While beating the leaves away, he insisted on continuing to water the roots of the vines...
Jiang Wei, standing at the tunnel exit, stared at the scene in amazement.
He trembled and called out the interface, and read the mission information again...
As a dedicated and professional gamer, Jiang Wei would definitely read the plot and task text carefully when doing tasks:
"Managing the Medicinal Field"
"Tending the medicinal fields for Lord Tarantan Young."
"'Big Leaf Vine' is a desert herb with extremely high economic value. Its active leaves can be processed into magic powder. Eighty years ago, the black magician Yang obtained the seeds of Big Leaf Vine while traveling in the desert and planted them in the underground medicinal field of Exile Town."
"The big-leaf vine is not afraid of pests or weeds, so there is no need to remove pests or weeds. When taking care of the medicinal field, you only need to pay attention to watering. When the surface of the plant vines shows signs of wrinkling and cracking due to lack of water, you should water it in time."
"Because the leaves of the big-leaf vine have very poor waterlogging resistance and are very easy to rot when exposed to excessive water, please try to avoid the leaves when watering."
"If leaves accidentally rot during watering, they should be removed immediately to prevent the rot from spreading."
"If the plant is not properly cared for during the mission, and the plant rots due to lack of water or excessive moisture on the leaves, resulting in the loss of the entire large-leaf vine, all players who participated in the mission to care for the medicinal field will have their corresponding work hours and reputation points deducted."
The style of the mission introduction is very normal. It not only introduces the value of the herbs in the medicine field, but also introduces how to care for these herbs. Although the last explanation makes people feel a little uncomfortable about the "collective punishment", it is understandable considering that this is to prevent players who have hatred for each other from tripping each other up when they are carrying out the mission together.
No matter from which angle you look at it, players who receive this task will not think that this task is difficult - there is no need to remove insects or weeds, just water the plants. It is much easier than moving bricks.
Anyway, before seeing the real thing, even the most imaginative players would never imagine how fucked up this herb is...
Jiang Wei read the mission description again with a look of doubt on his face. When he looked up again... he found that the bucket that "European sturgeon" carefully hid behind his back when watering was grabbed by countless leaf hands stretched out from another large-leaf vine. Just as it was about to pour water on itself, the European sturgeon was so scared that he dropped the gourd water scoop and snatched the bucket from the leaf hands with sweat on his forehead...
“——What a lunatic! This is called Big Leaf Vine? It should be called Grandpa Vine!!”
Jiang Wei screamed, and under the pressure of being "punished by association", he dared not stand by and watch, and immediately rushed over to help...
With Jiang Wei's joining, the two of them finally managed to get the bucket back.
But because the sturgeon had not had time to pour out more water, two-fifths of the water left in the bucket overflowed in the scramble and fell on a leaf hand that was clinging to the edge of the bucket.
Then... Jiang Wei witnessed with his own eyes how vulnerable these leaf hands were to waterlogging:
Just by being hit by less than half a cup of water, the thick and solid leaf hand was like a foam model doused with sulfuric acid. The "wound" quickly melted into liquid pus and dripped down, and the festering part spread rapidly to the vine connected to the leaf hand...
"Fuck it!" Jiang Wei yelled at the top of his lungs.
Although he was not playing the Cthulhu game, he could feel his SAN value dropping madly!
Fortunately, the beluga, who had been working on gaining lord reputation for several days, was right next to him. He immediately grabbed the rotten leaf hand and twisted it off the intact vine, thus preventing the entire plant from being affected.
And the leaf hand that was twisted off...actually seemed to have some kind of biological nerve reaction, and it kept struggling and twisting slightly until it completely turned into pus...
Jiang Wei: “…”
Jiang Wei silently took a few steps back, and then a few more steps back.
He regretted it.
He shouldn't have come.
Whoever wants to earn this kind of shitty reputation can do so. He thinks he doesn't need to do it. It's also a good idea to choose to change his job to Ranger.
Having resolved a crisis, the European sturgeon let out a light breath, looked up at Jiang Wei, still without saying hello, silently picked up the gourd ladle, and continued watering quietly alone.
As for this guy's attitude... it seems that from the beginning he didn't think that "only those who work hard can win" would have the courage to stay and become brothers in distress to jointly improve the lord's reputation, so he was too lazy to waste time dealing with him.
Jiang Wei: “…”
Suddenly I felt like if I turned around and left, I would be like a loser...
But if he had to stay and continue this damn mission just to save face, Jiang Wei felt that the sacrifice was a bit too much, and it was really unnecessary...
Just as Jiang Wei was hesitating, two more players, each carrying a metal bucket, walked out of the underground passage with innocent faces and entered this strange space.
"Someone is already working on the lord's reputation... Damn! What is that?!"
The players walking in front could see the heavy-tasting plants in the medicinal field, especially the sturgeon watering the field while fighting with the dancing leaves, and they let out a soul-stirring roar.
"Oh my god, this is the big-leaf vine? The herbs we need to take care of in the mission look like this?!" Miaobishenghua was completely stunned. "Holy shit - the magic instructor with thick eyebrows and big eyes actually secretly grows this weird thing?"
When Entropy Buzeng met Miaobishenghua during the mission, he also had a fucked up look on his face: "...Although I have thought that the Resurrection Instructor is a black magician, and the herbs planted in the medicine field cannot be ordinary herbs, but this is too weird..."
"Yes, the black magician who resurrected the undead doesn't seem to be on the side of justice. He seems to be a super villain who is plotting to conquer the world." Miaobishenghua was still in shock and complained wildly, "Wait a minute, what's going on with our players? The resurrected undead? The minions of the evil black magician?"
"I think it should be. The nurse branch that can be transferred to after Lord Yang's reputation bar is called Dark Prophet, which is very different from the priest in traditional games..."
Complaints aside, the two girls, who had already decided to switch to magic and play nanny for their friends, still walked into the cave bravely and followed the example of the European sturgeon to get water from the underground river at the innermost part of the cave...
"Boss Ouyang, is there anything I need to pay attention to when doing this mission?" The cheerful Miaobishenghua took the initiative to greet the cold Ouyang.
The European beluga glanced at the two of them, and said in a friendly manner: "Don't put too much water in the bucket, otherwise it will spill and splash on the leaves when you walk. If a leaf gets rotten due to excessive water, remove it immediately, otherwise the whole plant will rot."
“Okay, okay!” The two girls responded in quick succession, imitating the sturgeon’s example by protecting the bucket behind them and watering the plants carefully…
Then... due to his lack of experience, Miaobishenghua leaned forward a little, and was grabbed and lifted up by dozens of frantically dancing leaf hands, and was thrown away while screaming...
Fortunately, Entropy worked with her and quickly took her bucket away, thus avoiding a disaster.
"What the hell is this mission?" The brilliant penman who was thrown out ran back crying.
She had just returned to her position, protecting the entropy of the two buckets of water from increasing. She defended the front but not the back, and was successfully attacked by a clump of large-leaf vines in the back, which slapped her in the face and made her speechless.
"Damn it!" En Buzhan became furious and picked up the gourd ladle to fight back.
"Stop fighting and water them quickly." Beluga reminded again, "These plants are brainless. It's embarrassing to lose, and it's meaningless to win."
The two girls continued watering with an angry look on their faces...
Jiang Wei, who had been standing nearby and paddling for more than ten minutes, silently picked up the bucket and walked towards the underground river.
The girl didn't say no, so how could he, as a man, say he couldn't do it!
"Tsk tsk, what a boring self-esteem..."
In the town hall above the cave, Yang Qiu sighed and diverted his attention away from the four players who were busy brushing up his reputation.
Although he didn't know the mental journey of how one can only win by working hard, but just by looking at his performance, Yang Qiu could guess with his knees that this guy wanted to give up at the beginning... If he hadn't been compared with the two female players, it would have been too embarrassing. Yang Qiu had no doubt that this guy would have turned around and changed his job to the Walker Apprentice.
So men are creatures who always like to stir up trouble. The two girls didn't even pay any attention to him, but he just started to compete with himself.
But this is not a bad thing. Yang Qiu is desperately short of magic powder and he wishes there were more people to help him look after the extremely delicate large-leaf vine - if this thing is put outside, it must be cultivated by buying alien slaves. Humans cannot handle those aggressive leaves that only know how to mindlessly grab water and will die if drenched.
The cheapest and most affordable orc slaves cost dozens of gold coins each...
In short, it’s awesome that players are willing to work hard just for worthless numerical rewards!
Yang Qiu happily turned his gaze to the person who had been designated to trigger the hidden task.
Since no players were looking to change their jobs for the time being, he put the matter aside and finished the hidden quest first.
The tasks currently released are all mindless and repetitive tasks. They can stimulate players' enthusiasm in the short term due to the numerical rewards, but they will definitely not work in the long run.
This group of players is very willful. During the forced liver activities, there are always some maverick players who don't care about the copper coin income and only play things they are interested in online. Now that the forced liver activities have come to an end, if we don't quickly give them something to do, these bored lawbreakers will make a big fuss.
I was targeted by the game producer and was asked to take medicine, but I didn't realize that the biggest opportunity and the biggest risk were about to hit my head. After watching the auction of the undead horse, he returned to the treasure expert's construction site with only two points of potential left to upgrade, and accepted the task to continue moving bricks.
If you raise the reputation of NPC Pansy to Friendly and reach level one, you will be able to receive the job transfer to Walker Apprentice and obtain a Walker primary weapon.
When the relationship becomes intimate, Pansy will give the player a three-piece ranger equipment, including a magic defense breastplate, running speed shoes, and wrist guards that can increase strength.
Once you reach Respect, Pansy will open up the job branch to Treasure Expert and will also release special side quests for Treasure Expert to the player.
It is unclear from the reputation bar what kind of profession-specific special quests Pansy will give, but just looking at the equipment listed next to the reputation bar, no one would doubt the value of this quest - after all, the career introduction of the treasure expert clearly states that this profession is born for wealth!
Although he is a science and engineering guy, he also has an adventurous side. Not to mention how much he likes the career setting of treasure expert, he is very active even in mindless brick-moving tasks and never gets bored...
After working hard in the game until dark, the NPCs were about to go home and rest. The players, who had learned not to harass the NPCs after being hacked to death countless times, handed in their tasks and left one after another. Some hurried to the resurrection point to log off and eat, while others planned to go and visit the zombie NPCs.
After watching the auction of the undead horse, he logged off and had dinner. He didn't plan to log off. He returned the task tools to Pansy and went alone to the zombie NPC with the highest cost-effectiveness for the task that Qin Guan had told him about.
When I was filming Fraud Pearl, I lent him 150 copper coins. I didn't ask him to pay in RMB. I just told him to pay her back with copper coins when he was free. Since I accepted her favor by giving me the medicine, I naturally had to pay her back as soon as possible.
The accumulated garbage was repeatedly cleared, and many of the dilapidated wooden houses were demolished. The Exile Town became much more spacious. Standing at one end of the street, you can clearly see the situation at the other end of the street. You can run freely without worrying about accidentally tripping and falling, or bumping into a dirt wall.
I was calculating how long it would take me to complete the task to pay off my debts and get the medicine I needed. When I turned a small path, I didn't pay attention to my feet and I kicked something. I screamed "Ouch!" and flew out.
"Who the hell throws things around?!"
Give me medicine and get up from the ground, picking up the bones while turning your head away in annoyance.
Then his hand shook, and the tibia he had just picked up fell to the ground.
He saw the wooden house on the roadside that had been preserved because it was relatively intact. The wooden door was slightly open, and an arm with tattered sleeves and gray skin stretched out from the door and rested on the steps...
"...Zombie NPC?"
Remembering that I was playing a game, I quickly put aside the thought of "accidentally running into a murder scene" after taking the medicine given to me, picked up my shin bone again and pressed it under my knee, then curiously reached out and pushed the wooden door open.
Then, he trembled again...
This arm, really, only has one.
The arm was not connected to the body of a zombie NPC with a green name above its head.
“This… In addition to the normal zombie NPCs, there are also incomplete zombies in this town?” Give Me Medicine stepped up the stairs suspiciously and looked into the wooden house.
This wooden house had obviously been cleaned for the players. The interior was relatively clean... well, very clean. The walls were bare, there was no furniture, and not a single piece of clutter could be seen.
Give me medicine I looked down at the zombie arm lying alone on the steps, wondering if a zombie NPC had dropped his hand here, and then I found... under the arm, there was an old, yellowed, and rough parchment.
I gave him the medicine without thinking too much, and bent down to pull out the parchment.
When he picked up the parchment and saw the characters on it...his task panel popped up automatically:
"You accidentally discovered an ownerless broken arm, and underneath the broken arm, there was an old letter."
"Triggers the hidden mission "Family Letter", do you want to accept it?"
“What the hell?” My hands were shaking as I held the parchment paper while giving me the medicine. “A hidden mission?!”
Without hesitation, I chose to take the medicine immediately.
A "Side Quest" column immediately refreshed on his task panel, and the "Family Letter" task appeared in the column, but there was only the task name, and no task text.
At the same time, the parchment in his hand, which was filled with unknown characters, also showed the Chinese translation:
"Dear Anna:"
"It's the 128th day since I came to Tarantan with General Charlotte. I miss you and our home every moment."
"The pioneers established our own town in Tarantan. General Charlotte announced that he would select one of us to be the mayor, and the mayor would then select the political officer, sheriff, and tax collector."
"I am very happy for Arlin. He is the most stable, reliable and wisest person among us. I believe he will be the best candidate for mayor."
"I want to run for the position of sheriff. My father was a respected sheriff. I am proud of my father and I hope our children will be proud of me too. I believe you support my idea, my love."
"I look forward to the day when you bring our children to Tarantin."
"Love you Maurice."
