Chapter 155: Finished the quest?
Rover asked: "So... where can I find one?"
Olivia continued: "It appears randomly in the VIP section of the supermarket, or randomly when you open a first-tier supply crate at the end of a round."
"However, the drop rate is extremely low. It is, after all, a defense tower with exceptional power and potential, so a low drop rate is only natural. I don’t have any spares right now, otherwise I’d just give you one."
Rover went completely silent after hearing that. Did this woman actually have a thing for him? Why was she being this generous? They had never even met in person, and this was only the second time they had ever spoken. Why was she being so warm toward him?
He didn’t understand it, but Rover kept his manners intact and smiled: "Thank you, Olivia. The information you’ve shared is genuinely invaluable to me."
"Don’t mention it." Olivia laughed, sounding genuinely pleased. "Later on, if you really do break away from the complex, you could link up with my territory. That way we can watch each other’s backs."
Rover didn’t decline the offer, then continued: "So... with the Tenants I have, how far do you think I can hold out?"
The pastor spoke up: "Probably through Round 10, after which you’ll reach that point."
"That point?" Rover asked, puzzled.
"That’s right." The pastor explained patiently. "Among those of us with Intercoms, a few have managed to clear all 10 rounds. But what awaited them wasn’t freedom or a return to the old world. They were taken to a different space entirely."
"Once transported there, they lost all contact with us. Even the Intercom stopped working. It’s like that place is completely cut off from this world."
Rover frowned and asked: "Then... how do you all know this? I mean, once they were taken there, they couldn’t exactly contact you to pass on that information, right?"
"True." the pastor answered. "But we found something, remnants left behind by those who had been to that space, though for some reason they were able to briefly appear back here for a short time."
"The information they left behind is extraordinarily valuable, scattered across various places in this world. But finding any of it is far from simple."
"Tsk!" A woman’s voice cut in suddenly, dripping with contempt. "So much talk. You’re all just scared that when you get to that world, you won’t survive."
"As long as you’re strong enough, it doesn’t matter what world you end up in. Right, Rover?"
"Exactly." Rover answered.
The woman continued: "You don’t need to stress about it either. With 4 Tenants who’ve awakened Epic-grade bloodlines, even if you were a pig you’d still grow wings and fly."
"Tenants can’t betray you anyway, so just pour every resource you have into them. That way, down the line, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the glory they bring you."
Rover heard that and found it a little funny, but what she said seemed to be the truth.
Given everything they had just told him, with 4 Epic-grade Tenants, even a pig would sprout wings under those conditions.
And on top of that, he had an SSS-rank Class. That made him more like a dragon being watched over by gods. Getting through all 10 rounds probably wasn’t going to be his biggest problem.
The biggest problem would likely come from other Survivors. That was the thing. If monsters weren’t the main threat, then other people were.
Strength alone wasn’t the only thing needed to survive. He needed a community, an alliance with real backbone.
No matter how strong he got, he was still one person. But what if he had allies alongside him?
Rover decided he’d bring this up with Morie and Nanoe. When it came to thinking things through like this, he genuinely didn’t know where to start.
"Alright." Rover smiled. "Thank you all. So, back to the original question, what resources do I need to prepare before breaking away from the complex?"
Olivia spoke up: "Gold coins are the most important thing. You’ll run into some Lamp-bearers and Arbiters along the way, and you can trade with them using gold coins."
"Beyond that, you’ll occasionally encounter special merchant monsters. You can buy items from them using gold coins or whatever they happen to want."
"As for materials, you’ll need a massive stockpile of food, wood, iron, forge stone, and above all else, Energy Crystals."
"Energy Crystals?" Rover asked, puzzled.
"That’s right. You can’t access them yet at this stage, but starting from Round 5 onwards you’ll start finding them after defeating monsters, or mining them from Energy Crystal veins."
Rover took all of that in and quietly filed it away. Well, not that he needed to, because Morie was sitting right beside him and had already been keeping track for him.
Morie whispered something to him, and after listening he continued: "Have any of you encountered other races in this world?"
"We have." the woman spoke up again. "I once came across some Spidary. They look like spiders but have human upper bodies, moving through the fog. But when I saw them, they didn’t seem particularly friendly and I couldn’t communicate with them at all."
The pastor said: "I’ve run into a few special races as well. The most memorable were the Pixies. They were fairly friendly, but only a handful of individuals. The proudest by far were the Elves. When I found them, I nearly got killed."
"Pixies, Elves..." Rover heard those names and frowned, then asked: "What about the Titan Clan?"
"Ah!" Dark Lord spoke up. "I ran into them once. They are an absolute nightmare. Damn it all!"
"You’ve met them?" Rover caught onto that immediately and asked right away.
"That’s right." Dark Lord said. "Those Titans are terrifying war machines, no other way to put it. I watched just 3 of them wipe out an entire skeleton army, Dragon Skeletons included."
"What the hell! What the actual hell! Those things are monsters. I swear I have never in my life seen anything with that kind of raw combat ability."
"Seriously?!" the pastor asked. "That strong, but then why haven’t I ever come across them? If that’s the case, they should have taken over the entire world by now."
Olivia spoke up: "There’s a rule in this world. The races won’t actively attack each other unless... that race is under the ownership of another Survivor."
"Even though the Titan Clan is incredibly powerful, wild Titans will not proactively attack other races. And even when under a Survivor’s ownership, Titans will not wipe out too many members of other races either."
Listening to everyone talk, Rover felt a mild headache coming on. He glanced over and gave Morie a small signal.
She smiled and shook her head, then pressed a light kiss to his cheek before scooting closer to the Intercom and starting to take notes on everything being said.
Rover didn’t step out after that. He just wanted to sleep. He needed to recover his strength. When Nanoe’s group got back, he was going to have to "attend" to them as well.
He didn’t even notice when he drifted off, but at some point the sound of knocking at the door pulled him back, followed by Nanoe’s voice: "Rover, I’ve got a gift for you..."
Rover frowned, slowly opening his eyes. It was nearly midnight, almost the next day.
He groggily pushed himself up and shuffled over to open the bedroom door.
He saw Nanoe, Selina, and Monica inside the room, their faces glowing with cheer, and he felt completely confused.
He knew well enough that with their intelligence and strength, completing a side quest wasn’t exactly a tall order, but when they came back they hadn’t just returned happy. They were also bringing him gifts?
He scratched his head and frowned: "You finished the quest?"
"Of course!" Selina laughed. "Master, I actually thought that quest was going to be tough, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Next time there’s a side quest, count me in, okay?"
Monica exhaled a long, relieved breath and smiled: "Lucky it wasn’t that hard either. Actually kind of entertaining."
Rover heard that and felt even more confused. This quest had abilities sealed, which meant Nanoe and Monica couldn’t use any of the powers they had gained after awakening their bloodlines.
Selina was better off. Her skillset was sword-based, so she wasn’t affected nearly as much.
Was the quest just that easy?
"Walk me through what happened." Rover said, brow furrowed. He was getting increasingly curious about what they could have possibly gone through that left them in such good spirits.
Nanoe pulled Rover over to the sofa and started recounting everything from the moment they boarded the bus to when they arrived at the gathering point for the quest.
When he heard about what happened on the bus, Rover thought those men were genuinely unlucky. They had walked up to the most beautiful flowers in the forest, only to find that the beauty came laced with lethal poison.
They had put on a show of being scared, but once the quest began they all went straight for Nanoe’s group.
The quest they received was a game of hide and seek. Simply put, the participants would be split into two teams, one hiding and one seeking.
The hiding team got an advantage. Five Resentful Spirits would join their ranks, while the seeking team received no support whatsoever and could even be attacked and eliminated by those five Resentful Spirits.
In exchange, however, the seeking team’s rewards were astronomically high.
To be specific, you could only locate Survivors. If you stumbled upon a Resentful Spirit instead, you would be killed and judged as having failed.
Rover scratched his head and asked: "So... which side did you all pick?"
Selina smiled: "Master, all three of us, me, Nanoe, and Monica, decided to go with the seeking team."
"Heh?! You three really took that kind of risk?" Rover was taken aback. He knew they were strong, but a gamble like that didn’t seem worth it.
Nanoe smiled: "Rover, I chose the seeking side because I had already spotted a pattern in the way this game worked."
"What pattern?"
All three of them smiled in the same mysterious way at the question.
"Hey! Just tell me already. Stop keeping me in suspense." Rover asked, genuinely curious.
Selina laughed: "As it turns out, those 5 Resentful Spirits aren’t actually that powerful. Ordinary people simply can’t touch them. The Spirits, on the other hand, can touch ordinary people through the rules of the game."
"However, once we awakened Epic-grade bloodlines, we could attack those Resentful Spirits directly. Monica could even use her puppets to devour them."
"So what I did was track down those Resentful Spirits first, then had them point out where everyone else was hiding."
Rover: "..."