abcnovels
Chapter 25: Quest Mobilization
Chapter 25: Quest Mobilization
Chapter 25: Quest Mobilization
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[Letters to Home]
You have inadvertently discovered a severed arm without a body. Beneath it lies an aged letter.
Obtained letters: 1/5
———
Give Me Medicine viewed the updated progress bar on the quest panel, then hastily tucked the parchment into his waist bag and started searching the small wooden house.
"There's nothing here!"
Give Me Medicine had no choice but to give up the search after five minutes. This tiny wooden house had been cleared by countless players during quest runs. Besides dust and scattered dirt, there was nothing else to be found.
"Could other players have taken them? No, that can't be. If the letters were taken by someone else, this hidden quest would have been triggered long before I arrived."
A frowning Give Me Medicine pondered for a bit before a thought struck him. "Wait a minute, I'm not the only one that uses this path. There were two players who were ahead of me earlier, so how could they not have noticed the severed arm?!"
He quickly ran out of the door, and at that time, a player was conveniently jogging past from the direction of the respawn point.
Give Me Medicine stood on the doorstep and called out, "Hey buddy, doing a quest?"
The player stared at Give Me Medicine strangely as if he didn't understand what this person was up to; then, recognizing the stranger as one of the three closed beta veterans, he politely responded as he passed by the front of the small wooden house, "Yeah, Brother Meds."
Give Me Medicine watched as the player turned the corner, then he glanced down at his feet. The severed arm was still resting on the doorstep.
This was after all just a game, so Give Me Medicine didn't feel like he had encountered a supernatural event or run into a ghost.
"Could it be… the key item that triggers the hidden quest isn't visible to everyone? Perhaps only specific players that meet certain conditions can view it?" Give Me Medicine started to get excited. "Just like a fortuitous encounter in Jisan, where numerous players on the same server are digging for treasure and exploring hidden caves but only one lucky person out of thousands can trigger the Three Mountains and Four Seas event?!
"The hidden quests in the game are equivalent to fortuitous encounters of other PC games! This makes sense!
"Wahahaha! I'm the true luck god!"
Give Me Medicine was overjoyed and immediately took screenshots of the severed arm and parchment letter. Then, he spiritedly picked up the severed arm and went off to find his companions.
Previously, Blossoming Strokes had been grinding zombie quests nonstop to earn copper coins for Give Me Medicine and hadn't had time to increase her reputation with the Mage Apprentice Instructor. Now that she was currently making progress, Give Me Medicine didn't want to disturb her.
———
Qin Guan, who was capturing video footage and shooting scenes on the southern ruins in the town, looked up to see Give Me Medicine running toward him excitedly, seemingly holding something in one arm, but there was nothing there.
From afar, Give Me Medicine shouted, "Vanilla! Vanilla! Can you see what this is? Do you see anything?"
Qin Guan: "…I see a clown."
Give Me Medicine first pulled Qin Guan to a spot further away from the ruins to ensure that they wouldn't be discovered by the enormous rat. Then, he proceeded to fill in Qin Guan all about the hidden quest.
"What the heck!" Qin Guan exclaimed anxiously. "Can this quest be shared? Share it with me if it's possible!"
"Let me check." Give Me Medicine carefully examined the hidden quest's description in the quest log. "It can't be shared with others, but those who have the hidden quest can invite others to form a team and complete it together. Team members can receive rewards based on their contribution to the quest… F*ck me! Gaining Exile Town reputation is the reward!"
"Territory reputation has been introduced? When did that happen? Was there an update on the official site?" Qin Guan remarked in astonishment.
"I checked the official website when I logged out to eat, but there were no updates or announcements. Don't worry," Give Me Medicine replied. "According to what's stated here, the first person to achieve 'Friendly' standing in Exile Town… will become the mayor? The hell?!"
"Hurry up and read the whole text! Look through it carefully!" Qin Guan exclaimed, exasperated.
Give Me Medicine was the sort of reckless hardcore gamer that had great enthusiasm grinding for game values or participating in events but never bothered to properly read the plot or quest texts.
This time, Give Me Medicine focused and carefully read through the quest description. Now it dawned on him that this hidden quest was far more than a simple fortuitous encounter; its importance was more significant.
"Oh my goodness! This quest… It's an activation quest for the opening of Exile Town. Once its completion reaches 60%, exploration mode will be unlocked, allowing players to form teams and venture out of the town to fight monsters!" Give Me Medicine exclaimed in astonishment.
"At 70% completion, Territory Prestige system will be unlocked. The first player that reaches 'Friendly' standing will become Exile Town's mayor, and the position will rotate monthly based on the highest Territory Prestige during the settlement day…
"At 80% completion, Blood Alliance system will be released. Players can contribute resources and copper coins to Lord Yang to obtain land to establish their own Blood Alliance base. These bases can serve as a respawn point and a storage facility for blood alliance members."
Qin Guan took a deep breath and grabbed Give Me Medicine by the collar. "What else?" he urged.
"I-if the player fails the quest due to improper actions or if the completion rate is below 60%, the aforementioned features to be unlocked will be temporarily suspended and postponed until the next triggered hidden quest…" Give Me Medicine cried out.
Qin Guan: "…"
Today was the fourth day since the game's release. But for the players, their time spent in the game had already exceeded what they experienced in a week of reality.
During this week, other than a handful that didn't care about game values or were interested in making some extra pocket money, the majority of players had been grinding tirelessly.
Finally, when the unscrupulous developers decided to hand over the conventional gameplay elements such as monster hunting and guild establishment to the players, it turned out to be tied to a randomly triggered hidden quest. If the quest failed, Give Me Medicine, as the trigger, would undoubtedly be subject to the wrath and condemnation of many angry players…
"…I understand." Qin Guan patted Give Me Medicine's shoulder. "Don't rush to complete this quest alone and avoid wandering aimlessly to prevent any accidental mishaps. Log out early and get some sleep. When you wake up, after midnight, send me the screenshots you took. I'll rally the big shots in the forum and mobilize them to tackle this quest together.
"Your share of the quest rewards may be split, but at least you won't bear the responsibility alone. What do you think?"
"Let's do it! Thank you, Vanilla!" Give Me Medicine nodded vigorously.
The idea of monopolizing the quest rewards and not allowing others to get involved was something that Give Me Medicine, an adult, would never entertain. Considering the hardcore nature of the game, just mindlessly grinding reputation quests alone was more than enough to bring players to tears.
Tackling a heavyweight hidden quest linked to the opening phase of the game's content all by himself was pure wishful thinking!
He intended to keep playing this game for a long time and didn't want to be labeled as an eternal sinner right from the start!
Between midnight and 2 a.m. was when the forum for "OtherWorld" was most active. Players needed to wait until after midnight to download the screenshots and gameplay videos they had captured throughout the day from the official website. Many players would casually share their screenshots and videos on the forum to garner some attention and boost their name in the game.
For the community of players, these visuals that they could see in the game every day had since lost their novelty. However, considering that the total number of players was only 300 while the number of registered forum accounts was several tens of thousands, it meant that there were still a massive number of keen video game fans who were quite interested in this game which they couldn't personally experience.
At five minutes past midnight, a post titled "Shocking! Hundreds Witness Conclusive Evidence That Vanilla Boss is Busty!" appeared on the forum, instantly capturing the attention of the non-playing enthusiasts and rapidly gaining popularity.
This post, shared by one of Qin Guan's fans, presented multiple-angled screenshots and a comprehensive view of the scene where Qin Guan equipped the Orb of Deception and completely overshadowed everyone at the Knight Instructor's construction site.
Amid the crowd of skeletons in shabby white T-shirts and shorts stood a remarkable female warrior with wavy black hair, exuding an air of elegance and confidence. The description of her overshadowing presence was absolutely accurate, without a hint of exaggeration.
To add insult to injury, after several pages of replies from both non-playing enthusiasts and genuine players, the original poster sneakily shared two additional images provided by someone else, captured at the Treasure Expert's construction site.
The first screenshot depicted a muscular illusory disguise of the big shot with the female character, dressed in a magnificent Renaissance-style evening gown. As soon as the image appeared, countless non-playing enthusiasts burst into laughter.
The second screenshot was Blossoming Strokes' illusory disguise.
"Argh, my eyes! I'm going blind!"
"Oh no! My eyes!!!"
"Thank you, OP. Now my supper is ruined."
"Censor it! Censor it! I'm going to report this post!"
"My god! Even the governor in a miniskirt would be 100 times more pleasant to the eyes than this thing! What did Madam Blossom do to deserve such punishment?!"
"Give up, Madam Blossom! Don't be human! Your skeletal frame is a thousand times more adorable!"
…It was fortunate that Blossoming Strokes was still grinding in the game and hadn't logged out since accepting the Mage Apprentice reputation quest. Otherwise, she would have been infuriated by this bunch of clamoring non-players.
What was even worse was that some non-players, with a talent for stirring up trouble, merged screenshots of Blossoming Strokes and Vanilla Pudding, then gleefully posted the finished product on external websites.
Then, this heavily contrasting image was further edited to create memes such as "Your online girlfriend vs. your real girlfriend," "What you see in the mirror vs. the real you," "Someone else's wife vs. your wife," and so on…
After receiving the screenshots sent by Give Me Medicine, Qin Guan had been tirelessly editing videos. It wasn't until 3 a.m. that he finished producing a well-edited video combining game content and a mobilizing message, which he immediately uploaded to Bilibili and the game forum.
Then, Qin Guan took a shower and had a quick meal before preparing to wear his headset and continue his gaming session.
This routine was "invented" by players who confirmed their bodies were asleep when they were in the game. By wearing the headset before going to bed, they could play while asleep and continue sleeping once they logged out without needing to wake up. Using a U-shaped pillow to protect their necks, they would wake up the next day without any discomfort.
The only downside was that they could only log in for a maximum of 12 hours within a 24-hour period. If they played too late into the night, they would have to count the hours they could be online for the next day.
Before logging in, Qin Guan refreshed the official website and checked the forum.
And then… he noticed that whether in the video's comments section or the forum, both players and non-players, regardless of whether male or female netizens, were calling him "wife"…
Qin Guan: "??"