Chapter 288: The New Round of Business (1)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After getting rid of the Alumera messenger, Han Xiao went to look for Frenzied Sword and the others. He was going to test the dungeon creation function.
Han Xiao went to the building next door, and none of them were home. Han Xiao scratched his head. He took out his laptop, ran a program and searched through the images of all the hidden surveillance cameras in the sanctuary to find a match for these four faces. Not long after, the locations of these four were found. Maple Moon was learning new fusion recipes with Emerald Grass. Green smoke was billowing out of the drugs. A few honest players stood to the side, probably there to test the drug.
Hao Tian was in the arena doing a Challenge. As a pro player, he had very high expectations for himself, and he never stopped honing his skills.
Frenzied Sword was getting beaten rapidly by Hila like a sandbag. Hila had taken Han Xiao’s advance and found an Inhuman to train and develop her power. Aurora sat in her wheelchair and watched while hugging Bear Cub, and Bun-hit-dog was recording excitedly. Bun-hit-dog was closer to Frenzied Sword. He felt very happy, seeing that Frenzied Sword was getting beaten brutally... true friendship.
Han Xiao headed to Hila’s house and called the others on the way.
Just as he entered the yard, a black shadow flew away above his head. It was Frenzied Sword, and without thinking, Han Xiao pulled him down from the sky.
Hila stopped her training, her floating red hair dropping down and going back to curly hair that extended to her waist, and the red light in her eyes faded away. Han Xiao looked at Frenzied Sword, who looked miserable, then nodded in his heart. The Hila now resembled who she was in his previous life much more.
Bear Cub struggled to stand on Aurora’s lap, fell onto the ground, and then ran to Han Xiao. The cub climbed up his leg, hugging on Han Xiao’s neck and swung like a backpack. Bear Cub was very well taken care of, and its weight had almost doubled.
Han Xiao raised his hand and slapped Bear Cub away, then looked at the combat information on the interface. Bear Cub was LV 18, four levels higher than when he had brought it back.
Sharp Claw Ice Bear species, rather good growth potential.
Hila felt complicated. She was full of hatred toward Germinal Organization, but she had never thought that such a big organization would ever be destroyed completely. Her hatred and grudges disappeared with that ground shaking explosion. She remembered when she had first met Han Xiao—who knew that weak, pale-faced test subject would have such legendary achievements after just one year?
Seeing her expression was abnormal, Han Xiao took out his laptop, opened a few photos, and passed it to Hila. The photos were the ruins of the Germinal Organization headquarters after the nuclear explosion, captured by Six Nations’ drones. It was black and scorched earth.
“After an explosion like this, they’re most likely all dead. Even if there is anyone left, it will only be those of insignificance, so don’t have to worry about Germinal Organization coming back unless they are tired of being alive.” Han Xiao paused before saying. “You were once a member of the Germinal Organization, so you are on Six Nations’ wanted list too, but you are on my side now, so Six Nations won’t be against you anymore.”
Hila frowned. “I never agreed to be your subordinate.”
Aurora raised her hand and said, “I want to be.”
Hila reached out her hands bitterly and messed Aurora’s hair. Aurora’s golden hair had grown longer, reaching her ears.
They chatted for a while till Hao Tian and Maple Moon arrived. Usually, Han Xiao would only summon them if something good was going to happen, so they were looking forward to it.
Han Xiao used the dungeon creation function. After some contemplation, he selected the Dark Crow Valley operation. To create dungeon crystals, this was suitable for the standard of the players at the moment.
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LV30 Dungeon Crystal—[Dark Crow Valley Operation]
Introduction: Dark Crow Valley is one of the Germinal Organization’s bases in the Southern Continent, destroyed by Stardragon and Hesla. This will be your test.
Dungeon Type: Backward Time Travel Dungeon
Player Completion Count: 0
Highest Dungeon Completion Rate: None
Record Holders: None
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“Dungeon Crystal?” The four of them exchanged looks.
The average level of the player at the moment was 30, so they were starting to come into contact with dungeons. There had already been 11 fixed dungeons found on Planet Aquamarine, which meant that these dungeon crystals could be earned multiple times from a character by repeating the mission. They mostly came from the various organizations, and they were all small five-man dungeon.
New dungeons meant new opportunities—the four of them completed the mission and received the reward. A white rhombus crystal appeared in their hands, and they could enter the dungeon by shattering it.
“This is a five men dungeon, so we need one more person,” Frenzied Sword immediately said. “Let’s see if we can at least complete it with ‘Normal’ grade.
Because of Han Xiao, they always stuck together, so they were very familiar with each other.
Hao Tian nodded. “Okay, I’ll ask Rebels Shall Rule from Team one of Sky Territory.”
Nobody had any objections. The four of them came to the square, and after waiting for a while, Rebels Shall Rule ran there full of joy. God Hao Tian was his idol, so he was very happy that he could just be with his idol.
The five of them formed a team.
“Let’s enter the dungeon and take a look.”
Frenzied Sword shattered the crystal. Fog gushed out, covered the five of them, and disappeared from the crowded square.
...
Their vision blurred, and when it recovered, the surroundings had become a forest. It was night, and it was difficult to even see their own hands.
Backward Time Travel Dungeon let the players participate in an event that had happened before by duplicating that event.
The notification showed on their interfaces
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You are soldiers of the Dark Crow Valley Base. Hesla and Stardragon troops are going to invade. Your mission is to protect the Dark Crow Valley Base as best you can.
Dungeon Start Countdown: 10 minutes
Dungeon Goal: Survive until the end of the event. Reward: 15,000 EXP
Optional Mission I: Kill five Stardragon or Hesla agents. Reward: 30,000 EXP
Optional Mission II: Protect the real intel in the base from leaking. Reward: 45,000 EXP
Optional Mission III: Pan Kuang and Ji Jie survive. Reward: 70,000 EXP
Optional Mission IV: Defeat Stardragon and Hesla alliance. Reward: 110,000 EXP
Dungeon Failure Conditions: Annihilation.
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“Such high rewards!” Rebels Shall Rule was shocked. As a very important member of the guild, he had seen a lot and knew a lot. The LV30 dungeons that the players had seen at the moment usually only had two to three missions, and the total reward was 70,000 to 80,000 EXP. Yet, there were five missions in this dungeon with so many rewards!
Rebels Shall Rule then thought about it, and his face turned serious. “However, the higher the reward, the more difficult it will be.”
The other four exchanged looks in confusion.
Is that so?
Never felt any part of the missions from Black Phantom were difficult...
“We are different,” Bun-hit-dog said with a heavy heart. He did not have the heart to correct Rebels Shall Rule.
Frenzied Sword looked at the notification and said with surprise, “The dungeon will only start in ten minutes, but we can already move freely. What does this mean?”
This the first time that they had met a dungeon with a countdown, so they were a little lost.
Actually, the countdown would only appear in more difficult dungeons. The players would enter the event sometime before it happened so that they could do some preparation. The time for the start of the mission was the night when Hesla agents were going to steal the intelligence, so the players had the opportunity to prevent that. If they successfully did and changed the beginning of the story, the difficulty of the entire dungeon would drop from ‘Hell’ to ‘Difficult’. However, the interface did not notify them about this; the players had to explore this themselves.
In the future, when Han Xiao opened this dungeon, after the players in the sanctuary got tortured by it a few hundred times, only then would they find the correct way to start the dungeon.
Of course, at the moment, the five of them were unaware of the importance of those ten minutes; they started the dungeon as usual. However, this was their first time in this dungeon. This type of dungeon was different from those that were just about killing monsters; it was more realistic and more difficult. The five of them had fun in agony, going around and around like headless chickens. They could only follow the job given by the base and patrol.
One day passed this way. During their patrol on the second night, Bun-hit-dog suddenly received a headshot.
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Your teammate [Bun-hit-dog] has died.
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“What‽” The rest four of them were horrified. They looked in all directions immediately, but the forest was dense. The night was dark, and they had no idea where the enemy was.
Bang!
This time, it was Hao Tian who took a headshot. The rest of the three felt like the enemy was everywhere, and they were understandably anxious.
Hao Tian’s voice appeared in the team channel. He said very seriously, “The interface said I received a lethal attack. The person that killed me was Black Phantom!”
They were dazed. It turned out this was a dungeon with Han Xiao in it! And as the enemy!
They were very discouraged.
Han Xiao’s dungeon creation function was to cut out an event that would be generated into a mission. The characters in the dungeon were all mirror images, replaying events exactly as they had happened. It had nothing to do with the original person, and they had a certain amount of dungeon enhancement.
After three consecutive shots, all three of them died. Their visions blurred again, and they were back in the square. They had spent one day in the dungeon, but only ten minutes had passed in the outside world; the flow of time in the dungeon was different.
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Dungeon [Dark Crow Valley Operation] Failed.
Dungeon Cooldown: 3 hours
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The five of them all smiled bitterly.
This was way too difficult. They did not even know how they died.
...
On the other side, Han Xiao saw the return of the five of them from his surveillance image, confirmed the dungeon crystal to be effective, and started pondering.
“Dungeon crystals can only be distributed through mission rewards and can’t be sold for money. Its use to me is to gather more players and give them more benefit, so the players will be more willing to do things for me. Also, the players will know about my experience through the dungeon, which will in turn increase my position. These are all rather indirect benefits... I can’t sell the dungeon crystals, so there’s no direct benefit.”
Han Xiao suddenly paused. He slapped his head and laughed. “I’m thinking about this the wrong way. There’s no need to sell them...”