<h4>Chapter 59: B-ss Mission Triggered?</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>MJ_ <strong>Editor: </strong>Millman97
From enlisting in the Stardragon Army to joining underworld societies, there was nock of work opportunities for yers in the Western Capital. Even just by walking on the streets and interacting with NPCs, there were plenty of quests waiting to be triggered. From the money that they earned from thesemon quests such as “Find the Missing Purse”, “Rescue the Cat Stuck on the Tree”, and other collection missions, it became clear to Sleepy Winter that exploring had been the right thing to do.
Of course, as the Western Capital was a high-level zone, there were many ces that the trio found inessible at their current level. Rainy Kim had been rejected at the gates of the Western Capital Academy while Twinkle Fried Rice had been held at gunpoint when he’d tried to enter District 1, almost giving away his first death.
The day after, the trio enlisted in the Stardragon Army, thereby gaining their firstbat ss: [Recruit]. After a couple of training quests, their Faction changed from [Stardragon] to [Stardragon Army], and they earned the rank of [Private].
Out of goodwill, Sleepy Winter messaged Frenzied Sword to let him know about being able to join the army, but Frenzied Sword only replied briefly in acknowledgement. For some reason, he seemed uninterested.
What Sleepy Winter did not know was that Frenzied Sword was preupied with trying to win Han Xiao’s favor.
In order to test out the limitations of the quest function, Han Xiao entertained Frenzied Sword and issued him with all sorts of strange quests, such as [Kick Ten People in the Ass], [Strip a Patrolling Officer of His Shorts], [Remain in a Ballerina Pose for Five Minutes], and many more.
From these tests, Han Xiao learned that as long as the maximum reward was able to match the quest’s difficulty, he would be able to choose any type of quest scenario that he wanted.
Meanwhile, things were a bit different on the receiving end. Frenzied Sword, who found himself only being assigned crude and twisted quests, gradually began to develop a sense of fear toward Han Xiao.
Nheless, he religiouslypleted all of the quests as the experience that Han Xiao rewarded him with was several times more than the standard reward. That alone was enough for him to ignore his own morals.
The quests allowed him to level up rapidly, and he used the earnings themself to learn more basic skills from Han Xiao.
The beta test might have been unexpected for Han Xiao, but overall, it did not do much to disrupt his ns. The beta yers were simply too scattered and few in number to have much influence on their respective startings. Twelve days was not enough time for them to level up significantly.
It would take longer for a breeze to develop into a storm.
In the long haul, however, the influx of yers would be like a gold mine to Han Xiao.
Helping to strengthen Frenzied Sword was only the first step. Soon, his progress would definitely catch the attention of the other yers and his own association. His association would certainly capitalize on it and release information on this ‘secret NPC’ in order to gain poprity. That was when the money and experience would start pouring in for Han Xiao. Frenzied Sword might have thought he was hogging Han Xiao to himself, but he was actually dancing in the palm of his hand.
...
[Official Launch Countdown: 126 Days 11 Hours 32 Minutes]
Aside from crafting [Incendiary Bullets], Han Xiao spent most of his free time browsing the forums.
Although it was usually buzzing with discussion and yers would frequent it while their characters were dead or had set up shop, there were only beta yers posting now.
“The women on Aquamarine are so beautiful!”
“Urgently looking for party members to fight the Sand Bandits. Location: Fallen Dragon Valley, Longtune. Coordinates are...”
“A shot of Brighton’s magical floating city.”
“I somehow transformed myself into some tentacled monster. How do I change back?”
“Damn it, teach me how!”
...
Most of the threads were posted to request help or share information. Some parties also used the forums as a means to record and share their progress.
There were over a dozen beginners of various civilizations avable in the beta—magical civilizations, scientific civilizations, and religious civilizations, to name a few. The societal structure of each also varied.
The most popr seemed to be Winterfrost, which was ruled by the void demon race. The also served as an outpost for the Destruction Army, whose aim was to ‘destroy all civilizations’. In Han Xiao’s past life, they were an enemy who had given him quite a headache.
As Han Xiao refreshed the forum page, a new thread caught his attention.
“First B-ss quest!”
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. He recalled that the first B-ss mission had only appeared after the officialunch. How could someone have unlocked such a high ss mission during the beta test?
Curious, he entered the thread to see that it was already erupting with discussion.
“Who are you trying to fool? I haven’t even seen a D-ss quest yet.”
“Are you dumb? He posted pictures as proof!”
“They must be fake! Why is there only a quest name but no quest information?”
“Nice try, clown. Who would want to share their quest information with you.”
“It must be super hard. I’m still at the beginner zone. Does anyone know how to get out?”
“The poster is the official ount of the Throne of Gods guild. They’re legit. It should be true.”
“Does anyone know which this is?”
“All of you are noobs.”
“Sorry, my dog ran over my keyboard.”
...
Han Xiao chuckled. In his nostalgia, he continued reading through all the banter before finally checking out the contents of the original post. There was only a cropped screenshot of a quest name.
_____________________
B-ss Quest: [Investigate Zero]
ˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉˉ
Han Xiao scrolled up to check the poster’s name.
‘Throne of Gods?’
The Throne of Gods was a prestigious guild that boasted a line-up of renowned gamers. They were so big that they even had their own line of goods.
In his previous life, Han Xiao had once taken up an assignment to strip their leader and take pictures of him in various embarrassing poses. He had then posted them on the forums with the title: “Shocking! Why would the leader of the Throne of Gods...” and charged a fee for viewing. While Han Xiao had earned his money, he had also ended up being chased around by the entire guild for an entire month.
‘Ah, I miss yer killing...’ Han Xiao sighed as he turned around to look at Frenzied Sword, causing him to freeze up.
Han Xiao shook his head.
If things went as they had previously, the Throne of Gods would join the Germinal faction to be the biggest yer guild on their side. It was already looking likely.
Germinal must be hellbent on getting him this time, for even beta yers to be able to acquire the mission to look for him.
For the average yer, it would be impossible to evade the notice of Division 13 while trying to locate Han Xiao by themselves. Normally, it would take arge amount of people to even have a chance of seeding. However, the Throne of Gods did not seem tock manpower.
As he considered the situation, Han Xiao finally decided on which Germinal base to act upon next.
...
The Throne of Gods guild had 15 yers in the beta test. It was a team of core members led by both the leader and the vice-leader. Before the beta test started, they had already decided to list science as a preference.
Their reasoning was simple—since the world of Gxy had a ‘gctic’ setting, science would definitely be a core driving force of the game. As such, they were all able to start together on Aquamarine and had also quickly purchased a map to begin exploring.
The leader, Jupiter, was the one who decided to join the Germinal Organization. Their starting zone had also been close to a Germinal base.
Jupiter thought that the Germinal Organization was probably the strongest faction on the as they able to stand strong against all of the nations on their own. Choosing them had nothing to do with favoring their ideology or anything like that. After all, their only priority was to get stronger.
And reality did not betray their expectations. After joining Germinal, they were brought to the Dark Crow Valley Base where they underwent tough training to be low level grunts.
The biggest gain that they received there, however, was none other than the B-ss quest, [Investigate Zero].
The only information provided by the quest was that the target, Zero, was currently residing within Stardragon.
At present, the 15 members were having a top-secret meeting to discuss how they wouldplete the quest.
“This is our first B-ss quest,” said Jupiter in a low voice. “As there doesn’t seem to be fighting involved, with our level, we have a good chance of seeding. The rewards are extremely good. With them, we will definitely be able to be the number one guild!”
“All we know is that Zero is in the country, but Stardragon is just too big,” added Poseidon, a core member of the guild. “The beta test period is too short, so I think that we should only aim toplete the quest after officialunch. Now, we should just do some preliminary investigation.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“The quest information only tells us that Zero is an enemy of the Germinal Organization. If we manage to kill him, will there be a bonus reward?”
“Nice thinking, as expected of our leader.”
“But that would most likely be A-ss difficulty,” pointed out Poseidon.
“There’s no impossible quest in a game. We just have to find the way,” answered Jupiter matter-of-factly. “The officialunch is one week after the end of this beta test. During this period of time, we will also have to discuss the matter with the rest of the guild.”
“In any case,” added Shiva, the vice-leader, “with the backing of our gaming organization, we are the ones with the highest chance ofpleting this quest.”
“That is true,” agreed Jupiter.
“It would be faster if we made use of the other yers,” suggested Poseidon.
Jupiter’s eyes lit up.
“Good idea. Let’s release Zero’s face and put up a reward for any valuable leads.”
Rich guilds had their way of doing things.