Chapter 729: Destruction of the Mithril Refinery
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After logging into the game, Zhang Yang continued to raid the four remaining towers. After spending close to 10 hours or so, Zhang Yang cleared all the tower and headed back to White Jade Castle to report to Gulaj.
Although the quest had taken close to 30 hours, the rewards that he reaped were rather worth their while. Equipment alone was already worth a crap ton of coins. There were 3 complete sets of Cloth Armor type, 2 complete sets of Leather armor type, and 1 complete set of a Heavy Armor type. There were still 15 random equipment that could make up 3 sets which will end up leaving 6 pieces of equipment to spare.
Even though they were only Mythical tier, having a set equipment was still worth a lot of gold coins, even though they were not the strongest equipment around these days. It would be worth a lot more to those set equipment hoarders! If the equipment is the right one, the price of it could reach as high as a few hundreds of thousands.
Zhang Yang waltzed his way casually, instead of rushing his way towards the Explorer’s Hall to submit his quest to Gulaj.
"I see…Ho…Very interesting indeed!" said Gulaj as he examined the reports from Zhang Yang. After he had read all the reports that Zhang Yang had given him, Gulaj crossed his arms and calmly addressed the matter to Zhang Yang. "It would seem that the Spectres have obtained an ancient magic created by the God of Darkness himself. It has something to do with producing a secret weapon called the Darkness Falls.
‘Ding! You have completed a quest: The Spectre’s Secret. Obtained 5,000,000 Experience Points, 100 Military Points!’
Zhang Yang asked, "Gulaj, could you give a little more information about Darkness Fall?"
The greenish little Goblin raised his head and turned around. "It is common knowledge that all Spectre are afraid of the light. The fire in the sky. Or as they called it, the Right Eye of the Benevolent God. As all Spectre are an atrocity to the gods, in daylight, their powers would plummet. In fact, they could only cough out 60% to 80% of their true strength."
Gulaj took a chair, sat on it and lit up a smoking pipe before continuing. "Understanding their weakness is part of my job. And so are their strengths. When the sun sets and the moon rises, the Spectre can fight at their full power. Darkness Fall is their ultimate weapon for a good reason. It is not something that will directly destroy the world. No it’s far worse than that. It a magic barrier that will encase the all land, preventing the sun from casting its rays onto the earth. The land will lose all its warmth. Darkness Fall, is what the name literally meant. Darkness shall befall the earth for all eternity, stripping away all warmth and light. The earth shall decay and the Spectre shall prosper with all their might."
Gulaj sucked in a puff of smoke and finished the pipe in a single suck. "There’s something else. Darkness Fall has the ability to turn soulless corpse as their own. Use your bucket head and think carefully about what I just said. If Darkness Fall gets activated, all who have perished in the world will rise. Think of all the past heroes and legendary warrior rising up, only joining the Spectres! Could you imagine Ares the God of War raising his sword against all of life?"
Clearly, Darkness Fall was not some menial quest.
"Hm. I understand the depths of the situation. Tell me, has Darkness Fall been successfully built?"
"Sigh…You’re the same as those powerful warriors that are all muscle and no brain! If the Spectres have managed to build the Darkness Fall, would I be here still talking to you?" said Gulaj with an annoyed expression.
"A simple no would suffice," said Zhang Yang with a straight face. "So, it is not completed yet. Either that or it is not activated just yet. If I could destroy that thing. I would still save the land."
"Hahaha! Destroy it? Boy, are you far too ambitious for your age. Still, I applaud your bravery and kindness. If you want to destroy it, you best make haste now. I have scouted the Spectres and they are doing some shady activities lately. I suspect that the construction of Darkness Fall has almost reached its completion stage. That is probably the main reason behind the recent Spectre attacks."
Gulaj hops off the chair and crossed his arms again. "Warrior. You have my trust. I hereby bestow on you a crucial mission for the sake of all beings that lives and breathes. Head over to Ryu Ayer Castle and strike them at their source. Hidden behind the stone walls is a large Mithril Refinery. It takes a large quantity of Mithril to construct Darkness Fall. If you could disrupt their resource production, they could never even finish the construction! Imagine having a massive sailing ship without its deck!"
‘Ding! Gulaj has a quest for you: Destroy the Mithril Refinery. Will you accept it?’
[Destroy the Mithril Refinery] (Difficulty Level: S)
Description: Gulaj has entrusted the task of destroying the refinery in Ryu Ayer Castle to place a halt to the production of Mithril which was crucial to the construction of Darkness Fall. Warrior, Ryu Ayer Castle is heavily fortified by Spectre. To protect the refinery the Spectre had increased defense in and out of the castle. You cannot do this alone.
Progress: Destroy the Mithril Refinery
Participant Limit: 10
Reward: Experience Points +10,000,000 Military Points: +500
‘Ding! You have received a quest item: Goblin’s High Explosive Bomb – 3rd Gen. Prototype x 1!’
500 Military Points?! That much?! What more, the quest could be shared with 9 more players! However, those who had not yet reached Level 160 could not initiate the Spectre Invasion quest. Even if Zhang Yang is to recruit Han Ying Xue and Sun Xin Yu, they could only help out but not receive any quest rewards, even after completion.
No! This cannot be allowed. 500 Military Points was a large number that could not be ignored. 5 Military Points could hire one normal tier soldier. Elite tier soldiers would cost 100 Military points. 500 Military points could be exchanged for 100 normal tier soldiers or 5 elite tier soldiers! It’s so precious that Zhang Yang could not ignore it!
Zhang Yang was stunned. He stopped his tracks and went into deep thought. Since the quest does not have a limited time, and the reward is already fixed to begin with, Zhang Yang decided to postpone the quest until his core members had reached Level 160. Until then, he will be doing side quests and earning menial amounts of Military Points.
Hundred Shot’s Red Dragon and Fatty Han’s Phoenix were godly grinding aides. However, their prowess can only be emphasized when there is a sea of monsters. Although they could still kill individual monsters at a faster rate than normal players, it was not much to be accounted more. After all, multi-target killing is their specialty.
The problem then, was most of the hunting grounds were occupied with many players. If Zhang Yang was to forcefully conquer a zone for himself, he would have to sortie his guild to do so. Even though Lone Desert Smoke was capable of such a feat, it would not be worth the time and effort of doing so. What more, it would only be an act of self-sabotage.
In the end, it will always come down to the same problem in any MMORPG game. The more the players are, the lesser monsters there will be for everyone.
There was another way to gain levels fast. That is, to fight in dungeons, over and over again. However, at their average level then, a Level 140 dungeon’s monsters would have Level 155 monsters as the highest. Players who have reached a higher level will only receive reduced monster experience points. However so, the rate will definitely be higher than chasing after monsters in an open-field.
If Zhang Yang is to take the First Clear Achievement of the Death Abyss Grouped Dungeon, he would not fight in the War Canyon, anymore. However, it was still an undecided choice. War Canyons do have their fun. Players could use their Transformation there to fight a large number of strong players. Even though China can never place their footing on the first place, they were always moving up and down at the second and third place. At the very least, they could try the normal mode.
As for grinding, there was no need to go for the Hardcore mode since the entry limit was once every seven days. It would be good to farm some strong equipment there. As for experience points, normal mode would suffice, since the monsters were easier than normal and secondly, they could repeat the dungeon as many times as they want.
As such, Han Ying Xue and everyone else formed a party and raided the normal mode of the Death Swamp dungeon to quickly reach Level 160. All the effort invested into grinding was just to reach Level 160 to qualify for the Spectre Invasion quest.
After sleeping soundly for one night, Zhang Yang came to the office the next day with a heavy heart. Cheng Xue Yao was not present. She had only left him a message saying that she will leave to An Jing City to retrieve the evidence. It would take close to a week to travel back and forth.
Zhang Yang took the message and placed it aside for now. The bridge is closing in, and it was almost time for him to cross it to meet his foe. As much as Cheng Xue Yao’s dignity, if something were to turn up wrongly, he will take her in as his women. As much as scoldings from the two lionesses at home, he will take it willingly and earnestly. At that moment, he was greatly torn. In one hand, he had a chance to have the exquisite woman, on the other hand, he already had two lionesses at home who loved him dearly. The conflict in him only made him guilty.
Again, he will cross that bridge when he gets to it. For now, he would need to solve some other stuff. Zhang Yang sent a professional to check the office. Lo and behold, they found a total of 27 hidden cameras. According to the professionals, those were extremely expensive, and top-quality cameras that spy agencies would use! When Zhang Yang knew about, an unknown rage boiled up in his stomach. It was extremely fortunate that he had been a good boy in the office and had never even touched them once! What could happen if he is caught during the act!?
As such, Zhang Yang called Fatty Han to the office and planned an abduction. After working hours, Zhang Yang had Fatty Han sabotage Liu Xin Min’s car and abducted her after. They brought her to a hidden, soundproof room. Zhang Yang blindfolded her, muffled her hearings, and even used voice changing tools to change his own voice to hide his identity. The interrogation starts and ended rather quicker than expected.
The fear of the unknown is humanity greatest threat. Not knowing what that is going to happen will send a person into mental stress. Liu Xin Min was unable to see, hear, nor make any noise as the time slowly passed by. She was not someone trained to overcome the stress. Heck, if she is Charlie’s Angel, she would have escaped the room in a heartbeat. In fact, Zhang Yang did not need to do anything at all. All he did was left her there for one night and she had caved in immediately.
Liu Xin Min had revealed everything that she knew about her employer to Zhang Yang. After confirming about the true enemy, Zhang Yang removed the blindfold and revealed himself to her. Naturally, she was both angry and shocked. However, when Zhang Yang had released her restraints and allowed her to leave, the women refused to leave his side. She spouted something about Zhong Xiu Hua being a man that would never allow loose ends to roam free. Especially after being caught. As she is to go back home and act as if nothing has happened, she will be "taken care" of.
Zhang Yang remained unfazed and unmoved. However, Fatty Han always had a soft spot for a woman begging for help. As such, Liu Xin Min’s sharp eyes had brought her to Fatty Han’s legs and pleaded him instead. Failing to resist her charms, Fatty Han had agreed to lend a hand whilst posing like a hero to save the damsel in distress.
Zhang Yang was fine with it. He had no objection to whatever that Fatty Han does. On the other hand, with Sun Xin Yu on the line, Zhang Yang could never end the hostility towards Zhong Xiu Hua. Since the man had taken his first step, Zhang Yang shall do the same. If not, he will only be treated as a fool. It is all a game of chess, then. Like Chess, if someone has moved their Bishop to a position to kill his King, he must do something to block it. As such, he allowed Fatty Han, his "Knight" to distract the opponent by taking out the pawn. Although that would not do much damage to Zhong Xiu Hua, it does help divert his attention.
Fatty Han had arranged a hidden place to live in Zhou Su City and had Liu Xin Min to live there for some time. It was a good plan to have her at his side, since there was still valuable information that he could get out of her. The woman had been tangled with Zhong Xin Hua for so years, so there would definitely be something that would be useful to him.
There was just one thing that bugged Zhang Yang, Zhong Xiu Hua was not Liu Wei. If Zhang Yang does manage to collect evidence to use against Zhong Xiu Hua, they could only solve this quietly. It was all the same for him as well. If Zhong Xiu Hua wants to strike Zhang Yang, he would have to do it covertly to avoid Sun Xin Yu. If the two great political families clashed, it would be something far worse than an all-out war in ‘God’s Miracle’.
As events reached to a certain point where Zhang Yang could not extract any more useful information from Liu Xin Min, Zhang Yang then placed his focus on the game to collect more Military Points, whilst waiting patiently for Cheng Xue Yao to return from An Jing City.
In a few days later, Zhang Yang was doing his work in his office when he received a video call. The man in the screen was slightly older than Zhang Yang had anticipated and was rather handsome. The man had a cold yet mature aura around him. When Zhang Yang picked up the call, the other side did not speak. He merely stared at Zhang Yang and hung up after a quiet scoff.
Without a doubt, the man was Zhong Xiu Hua!
The man knew something was odd when Liu Xin Min had not contacted him for a while and decided to reveal his face to Zhang Yang. It was a message. A message to tell Zhang Yang that he was unfazed and unscathed at what Zhang Yang had managed to do. The man was too self-centered and was ridiculously confident. That was what Zhang Yang saw in the man. With Sun Xin Yu as his ultimate Aegis, if the two of them were to have a war with each other, it would only be limited to the game. Zhang Yang smiled. He may not be a genius in politics and business, but he could at least handle three Zhong Xiu Huas at the same time in the game!