Chapter 714: Two Options

Chapter 714 Two Options 

“An instance dungeon’s flow of time is sometimes different compared to the outside world. It is not like you don’t know about that!” Despite having stopped biting Chen Xiaolian’s shoulder, Qiao Qiao’s fingers continued to pinch the tender part of his waist. “Do you know? Since entering this instance dungeon, I spent every day shouting into the guild channel, hoping to one day hear a reply.”

Qiao Qiao’s voice grew shaky. “I… … when I first entered… … I spent nearly every hour shouting for you all, but no one ever answered… … after one month, I would shout three times per day, once for morning, afternoon and night… after three months, I stopped calling out. I was fearful. Do you know, Xiaolian?! I am afraid of this feeling of loneliness! I thought I would have to live in this instance dungeon forever and never get to see you all come for me!

“Even when I was in World’s End, I never had to experience this type of loneliness! There, I knew I had died! I could wait forever for you to come. But here, in this instance dungeon, I am a living human! I have expectations of you! But… … you never came!”

Qiao Qiao buried her face in Chen Xiaolian’s chest and her tears wetted the front part of his clothes.

“I am sorry, Qiao Qiao.” Chen Xiaolian gently stroked Qiao Qiao’s long hair and he hugged her tightly, pulling her body in to press against his.

“You have to make it up for me!”

“All right, I will make it up for you.”

“How will you make it up for me?”

“Whatever you say.”

“I have been waiting here for 203 days. You…” Qiao Qiao’s voice, which had been loud enough for all to hear, suddenly fell. She leaned close to Chen Xiaolian’s ear as she spoke. 

“Huh?! I can’t eat so much!” With a pale and terrified expression on his face, Chen Xiaolian jerked his head to face Qiao Qiao. 

“I am not asking you to make it up to me in one day!” Qiao Qiao, who had been weeping just moments ago, suddenly smiled as she threw Chen Xiaolian a look. “We’ll have plenty of time in the future.”

Roddy poked at Lun Tai and Bei Tai, who were standing beside him. The three of them exchanged glances. Next, evil grins appeared on their faces. As for Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi, they had been staring blankly in ignorance. It was only after seeing the evil grins on the three did they realize what Qiao Qiao meant. They immediately blushed [1].

None of them noticed Soo Soo, who was standing at the farthest position, watching Qiao Qiao with an emotionless expression. A tangled look appeared on her face.

Then, with a soft sigh, she turned around.

“Qiao Qiao unnie… … you are back. But… … what should I do?”

Soo Soo mumbled to herself with a voice that no one else could hear.

…

Big Miss Qiao was Big Miss Qiao after all. Despite having lost control of her emotions for a moment, she quickly recollected herself, returning to her original self who could chat merrily and swear about. She gathered them all to sit in a circle around her and listen to her experience within the half year that she had been here.

After exiting World’s End, the scenery around her was refreshed and she found that she had entered an instance dungeon. However, she was unable to figure out the details of the instance dungeon.

After spending a few days asking passers-by, she was able to – with the help of her abysmal knowledge on history – figure out that she was in the Three Kingdoms era. However, with the exception of the names Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Cao Cao and that Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, Qiao Qiao knew nothing else. She didn’t even know the names of the Five Tiger Generals.

This instance dungeon was very big. It was practically a self-sufficient world with many ordinary NPC humans. For an Awakened like Qiao Qiao, surviving in an ordinary world such as this was not difficult. However, she did not choose to live in the city. Instead, she found a small village outside Jiangling City to settle down in.

She was unable to view any information within her personal system’s interface. The only exception was that the timer was still active. Other than that, it was as though she was actually living in the ancient era. 

It was not until this very day, after sleeping into the late morning hours, did she notice a change. 

In addition to being able to hear the conversation between Chen Xiaolian and Roddy through the guild channel, she found that the details for this instance dungeon’s quest had appeared in her personal system as well.

However, the quest that she could see was different from the others.

“Although I can see the quest objectives in my personal system, they are greyed out. It seems they are not activated. Even now, that remains to be the case,” said Qiao Qiao helplessly. “There is something strange, though. In the past, we could only see the quest objective for that specific stage. At present, I can see the quest objective for every stage, including branch quests.”

Qiao Qiao then shared the interface in her personal system with the others through the guild channel. Within it were the specific details of all the quests within the instance dungeon.

[Changban Hillside instance dungeon. No. SD9502

[Storyline: Cao Cao’s army is heading south. After accepting Liu Cong’s defeat, he pursues the fleeing Liu Bei. Difficulty level: [C-]. Firearms, energy-tier weapons, technological skills and props above [C] class are restricted in this instance dungeon. 

[Quest objective for the first phase: All Players and teams will be randomly sent into the instance dungeon area and be given the prop [Liu Bei’s army register]. At the same time, the prop [Cao Cao’s army register] will appear on the radar. Total number: 20 pieces. 

[Individual Players and teams with [Liu Bei’s army register] will be identified as Liu Bei’s soldiers. Individual Players and teams with [Cao Cao’s army register] will be identified as Cao Cao’s soldiers.

[[Liu Bei’s army register] can be dropped while [Cao Cao’s army register] cannot be dropped. It will only drop after death. System observation: [Cao Cao’s army register] takes precedence.

[Stage 1: 24 hours after the first phase begins, faction affiliation will be locked. No further changes can be made.

[Stage 2: Quest for Liu Bei’s faction. Follow and protect Liu Bei until he reaches Jiangxia. Everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 500 points. If Liu Bei dies, quest fail.

[Additional quest for Stage 2: Quest for Liu Bei’s faction. In addition to Liu Bei, protect the following characters until they reach Jiangxia to gain rewards (points):

[Jian Yong, Mi Fang, Mi Zhu, Sun Gan and Yi Ji [2]. For every survivor in this list, everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 50 points. If everyone in this list survives, an extra bonus of 100 points will be given.

[Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun. For every survivor in this list, everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 100 points. If everyone in this list survives, an extra bonus of 200 points will be given.

[Zhuge Liang. If he survives, everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 500 points.

[Madam Mi and Madam Gan. For every survivor in this list, everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 500 points. If everyone in this list survives, an extra bonus of 1,000 points will be given.

[Liu Shan. If he survives, everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 2,000 points.

[Stage 2: Quest for Cao Cao’s faction. Follow Cao Cao in his pursuit of Liu Bei and kill Liu Bei. Stop Liu Bei from reaching Jiangxia. Quest will be completed when Liu Bei dies. Liu Bei’s killer will receive 500 points. If Liu Bei successfully reaches Jiangxia, quest fail.

[Additional quest for Stage 2: Quest for Cao Cao’s faction. In addition to killing Liu Bei, killing Jian Yong, Mi Fang, Mi Zhu, Sun Gan and Yi Ji will give 50 points. Killing Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun will give 100 points. Killing Zhuge Liang will give 300 points. Killing Madam Mi and Madam Gan will give 500 points. Killing Liu Shan will give 2,000 points.

[Hidden quest:

[Hidden quest 1: Quest for Liu Bei’s faction. Divine Judgement for the Criminal of Han. After entering the second stage, kill Cao Cao. Liu Bei’s faction will be victorious and everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 5,000 points.

[Hidden quest 2: Quest for Liu Bei’s faction. The Iron Walls of Xiang and Fan. Convince Liu Bei to kill Liu Cong. Every Player in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 1,000 points. Assist Liu Bei, have him abandon the idea of fleeing and instead occupy Xiangyang and Fancheng. Next, defend it for three days. After successfully completing this quest, all Players in Liu Bei’s faction will receive 2,000 points. The rewards for protecting the important NPCs in Liu Bei’s faction will be added as well.

[Hidden quest 3: Quest for Liu Bei’s faction. Rulership over Yuanzhi (Xu Shu). Find and protect Xu Shu’s mother until the instance dungeon ends to receive 1,000 points.

[Hidden quest 4: Quest for Liu Cong’s faction. Succeeding the Father. Without picking up [Cao Cao’s army register], discard [Liu Bei’s army register] and kill Liu Bei to obtain the system prop [Liu Cong’s army register] and be given the identity of Liu Cong’s soldier. At the same time, Liu Cong will change his decision and defy Cao Cao. Assist Liu Cong in his defence of Xiangyang and Fancheng for three days. After successfully completing this quest, all Players in Liu Cong’s faction will receive 20,000 points.

[Hidden quest 5: No faction. Ownerless sword. Kill Xiahou En and obtain the [A+] class Azure Band Sword]

After looking through the contents of the quest description that Qiao Qiao sent over, all of them stared in shock at Qiao Qiao. All of them were at a loss for words.

“Shocking, right? When I first saw it, I was even more shocked.” Holding a can of potato chips that Roddy had brought in with his storage equipment, Qiao Qiao munched down noisily on the chips and said, “This is my first time seeing such a detailed description for a quest objective.”

“This is practically… … practically…” Roddy stared with widened eyes. However, even after staring for a long time, he was still unable to find the words for it.

“It is just like a game guide!” Chen Xiaolian helped him finish his sentence. “Additionally, it is the one meant for editors on the developers’ side!”

“That is true,” said Lun Tai. After recovering from the shock, he sucked in a breath of cold air. “The details for every quest stage have been written down. It even includes all the hidden quests. Cao Cao’s faction, Liu Bei’s faction, Liu Cong’s faction… … the different options and the rewards for success are all written down. Just think of how much effort one could save with the ability to see these quest details.”

“Usually, we can only act according to the prompts given by the system, taking matters one step at a time. Sometimes, there won’t even be any prompts and we would have to figure it out by ourselves.” Roddy clenched his teeth. “Even if there are any prompts, they are usually vague, consisting of only a few sentences. It would never tell us what to do in detail. As for the hidden quests… … stop joking, man! Without seeing this, who could even think that there is a Liu Cong faction?!”

“Enough, let’s not go there first.” Chen Xiaolian waved at Roddy to get him to quiet down. “Now, let us analyse how much information Qiao Qiao’s quest descriptions have given us.”

After Chen Xiaolian said that, everyone there tacitly nodded their heads, shut their mouths and sat down.

“First of all, we can determine that a certain BUG has appeared for Qiao Qiao. The biggest possibility as to how this BUG came to be is her resurrection from World’s End. Additionally, she was directly sent into an instance dungeon. Both Bai Qi and Zhao Yun are currently not aware that they are Irregularities. Thus, at present, I cannot ascertain if this BUG is exclusive to Qiao Qiao.

“Secondly, this BUG with Qiao Qiao, does it only work in this instance dungeon or…”

Having reached that point, Chen Xiaolian looked at them with a smile on his face. There was also a trace of excitement. “In the future, whether it can be used in every instance dungeon is something we cannot be certain of yet. However, if it can…”

“Then, we are gonna be rich!” Roddy rubbed his fists and his body trembled with excitement. “RIII… …. ICHHH!”

“Yes. This will be of great help to us in future instance dungeons. Judging by the list of quests here, it appears that the system will only issue out a small portion of quests from the list. Additionally, the issued quests are always painstakingly misleading.”

Chen Xiaolian sorted his thoughts and slowly said, “Take for example the initial state of this instance dungeon. Everyone is given [Liu Bei’s army register] to become a soldier in Liu Bei’s army by default. As for [Cao Cao’s army register], there are only 20 of those. Additionally, they will drop upon death. This setting is practically that of the system deliberately telling the Players to fight for [Cao Cao’s army register]!

“It is true that Cao Cao’s army is stronger compared to Liu Bei’s army. Thus, by standing on Cao Cao’s side, the chances of victory are much higher. However, the rewards available to those in Cao Cao’s faction are much smaller compared to the rewards available in Liu Bei’s faction.

“Under the system’s sneaky guidance, those that can obtain [Cao Cao’s army register] and join Cao Cao’s army will certainly be the strongest among the Players. In fact… it is possible that the other Players would have died, killed before the second stage had even begun. In that case, there will be not a single Player in Liu Bei’s faction!

“As long as the important figures in Liu Bei’s army survives, everyone in Liu Bei’s faction will receive points. However, for those in Cao Cao’s faction, they can only gain points by killing Liu Bei! Needless to say, it is even possible that they might end up dying to NPCs as well. Assuming a 10-member team joined Liu Bei’s faction, the total amount of points they could receive is 10 times that of Cao Cao’s faction!

“However, the system will never give such a detailed description of the quests to ordinary Players! They will only know that it is possible to join either Liu Bei or Cao Cao. The quest objective in Liu Bei’s faction is to protect Liu Bei until he arrives in Jiangxia while the quest objective in Cao Cao’s faction is to kill Liu Bei. As for the rewards for protecting the other NPCs, the system will never notify the Players!

“Next are the hidden quests… … mm, the first one, Divine Punishment for the Criminal of Han. This one may be possible for the Players to complete, albeit by mistake. However, the rest of them… … I believe that without any knowledge of it, almost every Player would never make such a complicated decision to complete such a difficult quest branch. At the same time, though, the more difficult the hidden quest is, the higher the reward for completing it becomes. By taking the Liu Cong route, the reward for successfully completing the quest is 20,000 points. We are talking 20,000 for every person!”

Despite having already seen the number earlier, hearing Chen Xiaolian repeat it again caused their hearts to palpitate uncontrollably.

“Let me make a radical example. If we had entered this instance dungeon normally and Qiao Qiao is able to use this BUG to obtain the complete list of quests, we could have chosen the most rewarding route from the get go. Share the information with the other teams and ask them to do Liu Cong’s hidden quest. As long as we have enough men on our side, our side becomes stronger. Even if Liu Cong is very weak, with nearly every Player and Awakened ones standing beside him, it will not be too difficult to stop Cao Cao’s attack. Then…”

“We would practically be duplicating points! Duplicating!” said Lun Tai.

“Naturally, this operation will not only allow us to quickly earn a huge number of points. It will also allow other guilds to grow at the same rate as us. Thus, how we go about it will depend on the circumstances within the specific instance dungeon.” Chen Xiaolian poured a pot of cold water onto the topic. “Besides, whether or not Qiao Qiao’s BUG can be used in the next instance dungeon is still unknown. For now, we should do well to not get happy first. Otherwise, we will end up getting dejected.”

“Big Miss Qiao, if you tell me that BUG cannot work in the next instance dungeon, I will kill myself.” Roddy looked at Qiao Qiao with a gaze that was so solemn it almost seemed as though he was attending a memorial. “I am not joking.” 

“Then, let’s discuss our current situation.” Chen Xiaolian patted Roddy with a smile and continued, “Despite the hidden quest routes, Liu Cong had already surrendered and Liu Bei had already left Fancheng. Thus, we have missed the window of opportunity to complete The Iron Walls of Xiang and Fan and the Succeeding the Father routes. As for the remaining two, Xu Shu’s mother and obtaining the Azure Band Sword are of no help in completing the quest. There is no need for us to bother with those. Thus, there are only two options for us to complete this instance dungeon.

“First, kill Cao Cao.

“Second, escort Liu Bei to Jiangxia.”

After saying that, he raised his head and smiled. “Which option should we choose?”

1 In Chinese, ‘eat’ can also mean have sex.↩

2 Those names are for characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They are mostly officers under Liu Bei. Madam Mi and Madam Gan are Liu Bei’s wives while Liu Shan is his baby son.↩