Chapter 1288: 417. Darkness Grows
Magic Small Town, a cafe next to Fountain Square.
Cucumber Slice and a few others gathered in a private room, discussing tasks.
They logged on immediately after server maintenance ended and became the first batch of Wizard Apprentices at the Magic Academy.
Over the past two days, they had visited every region open to players, triggering many side quests.
Now was the time to compile the information at hand and draft a rapid promotion plan for Boss Jin.
“I triggered the tasks of cleaning the Academy Corridor and cleaning the Castle’s toilets,” one player said,
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“These two side tasks refresh every 30 minutes, and only 20 players can perform these tasks at the same time. Although the tasks only involve sweeping and wiping glass, they’re not that simple.”
The player played a video clip.
In the video, he was wiping the toilet’s mirror.
Just as he wiped the third mirror, a sneaky shadow flashed across the mirror, sending shivers down one’s spine.
The player slammed the pause button and froze the video on the frame where the shadow appeared, saying,
“See that? That’s it. I suspect it’s a clue to some hidden task. After this shadow flashed, I kept hearing strange noises from the toilet and mysterious stains appeared.”
Cucumber Slice asked thoughtfully,
“Can you catch that shadow?”
The player shook his head:
“No. It moves too fast, and the toilet cleaning task is timed. If I waste time trying to catch the shadow, I definitely won’t finish cleaning the toilet in time.”
Cucumber Slice clapped his hands and said, noveldrama
“Hmm, it seems like this is a difficult hidden task. Generally, such tasks are one-time and have better rewards. Record it and let’s send it to Boss Jin later.”
Strawberry Juice used the game’s built-in notebook feature to enter the task’s information.
The number of hidden tasks seemed few.
In this hour-long team meeting, Cucumber Slice and the others summarized no fewer than thirty clues to hidden tasks.
Strawberry Juice packaged the clues and sent them to Boss Jin, along with the team’s quick promotion plan.
Following this scheme, Boss Jin would need only 55 days to advance to a First Rank Wizard and officially use the power of magic.
Golden Dragon in the Sky replied quickly.
He asked Cucumber Slice and the others to gather in the Grand Hall of the Magic Academy to assist him in completing all hidden tasks.
When the boss commands, the subordinates dare not disobey.
Cucumber Slice told his teammates to go ahead and secure a spot for receiving side tasks, while he waited for a moment in the Grand Hall.
Soon, Golden Dragon in the Sky arrived, and Cucumber Slice went up to greet him, saying,
“Boss Jin, this way please; the brothers have already secured the side tasks for you. You can go straight there and accept the tasks.”
Golden Dragon in the Sky patted Cucumber Slice on the shoulder, his face breaking into a satisfied smile:
“Very good. With you profession players who are experts in plots and tasks, I really save a lot of trouble. My other juniors only know how to fight and grind; when it comes to tasks, I have to rely on you.”
Cucumber Slice smiled modestly and asked as he led the way,
“Boss, I heard that we had a conflict with other Great Guilds yesterday? What happened there?”
Yesterday, when the Great Guilds assembled their fleets at the edge of the Black Hole, ready for confrontation, Cucumber Slice was leading his team to gather task information, so he wasn’t very familiar with how the conflict unfolded.
Upon hearing this, Golden Dragon in the Sky sneered:
“Someone was jealous that we were the first to complete the plot tasks, and since they couldn’t deal with us directly, they resorted to underhanded methods.”
Cucumber Slice frowned slightly, guessing what might have happened.
He listened as Golden Dragon in the Sky continued,
“This morning just after the game went live, several players applied to join our guild with new characters. The guild management accepted them because they offered to donate to the guild and even took them to the Black Hole for tasks. I just didn’t expect that these bastards were spies sent by ‘Arrogant Fantasy’. After buying the Escort Ships, they sprayed our guild’s emblem on them and made trouble outside the Black Hole, provoking public anger. The people from ‘Arrogant Fantasy’ took advantage of this and came over to start a battle, claiming that our ‘Gold Dragon’ guild was intentionally monopolizing the Black Hole, preventing other guilds and loose players from doing tasks. Isn’t this just looking for trouble?”
Cucumber Slice remarked,
“That’s really too sly.”
“That’s not the end of it,” Golden Dragon in the Sky huffed,
“After I found out the situation, I immediately kicked those bastards out. However, no matter how fast we acted, it was not faster than them. Just as we cleared up the situation, forums and short video websites were already swarming with paid trolls smearing our guild. Clearly, ‘Arrogant Fantasy’ planned this carefully. They not only planted spies in our midst but also bribed self-media and online trolls to create momentum for themselves.”
At this point, Golden Dragon in the Sky took a deep breath, his tone relaxing somewhat:
“Fortunately, the task of assembling our fleet yesterday coincidentally triggered the fifth level of the plot task, otherwise a brutal guild war would have been inevitable.”
Cucumber Slice opened the game interface and looked up yesterday’s hot topics.
Indeed, the public opinion was overwhelmingly against the “Gold Dragon” guild, accusing them of trying to monopolize the Black Hole, with no one caring to investigate who actually started the conflict.