1251-1260
Chapter 1251: Night and Shadow
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After a while of chatting, the duo soon began working on their own.
Bloody began coming up with a detailed plan for the coming year following the information and documents she had.
Lin Huang, on the other hand, created a message with his communication device and sent it out.
"Old Yang, I'm Lin Huang. I've just arrived in the God Territory of a great world today. Are you still doing what you were before? I'm in a hurry for three fake identities; the sooner, the better. It's inconvenient for me to make video calls and phone calls to you here, so we can keep in touch by text."
Although there was a shield-like restriction in the guest room, theoretically, the outside world would not find out about whatever that was happening in the room. However, it was Whale13's territory after all. Nobody knew if the room was bugged, so Lin Huang thought it was better to err on the side of caution.
He got a reply within ten seconds the text was sent. "Send me the names and photos. Come up with your identities. I can make Protoss identities too, but they are easily exposed in a God Territory above grade-5, thus I don't suggest doing that. Also, no matter what identities you're counterfeiting, you'd better disguise yourself properly and not expose any flaws."
"I'll send you the identities right away. Give me a minute. Can I ask approximately when I'll get them?" Lin Huang replied as soon as he saw Yang Ling's reply.
Yang Ling responded again a moment later, "It doesn't take long to create fake identities. It can be done within half an hour at the most. However, it takes time for the logistics of the identity rings. If you're in human territory, tomorrow will be the latest you can get them. However, since you're in a God Territory, there'll be a transfer in logistics. They'll only reach at least three days later.
"Moreover, not all God Territories have goods receiving points in the Shelters. All Shelters of grade-5 and above undoubtedly have receiving points, but only approximately 10% of grade-3 Shelters and around 30% of grade-4 Shelters have receiving points.
"Send me your Shelter code. I'll check the closest receiving point for you. I'll send the goods to the receiving point then, and you'll have to pick them up yourself."
Lin Huang had never expected a God Territory's logistics system to be so backward.
"Sure, I'll pick them up myself. I'll send you the documents soon."
Lin Huang began discussing with Bloody again after exchanging messages with Yang Ling for a while.
"I've come up with a rough identity, but I'm not sure which tribe to use. I'll get Yang Ling to make one up for me. You should think of an identity to disguise as. Come up with one for Kylie too."
After all, they were in Whale13's territory. For safety purposes, Lin Huang did not summon Kylie directly.
"The both of us will use our real identities," Bloody replied almost without hesitation, "We're going to stay in the core zone for a long time after all, and we might need to talk to people often. It might backfire easily if we disguise as other people, so we'll just use our names and tribes."
"It's too risky to use your real identity." Lin Huang frowned slightly when he heard her suggestion.
"There's no harm actually. Kylie's and my characteristics will stand out even more if we use our identities. Under normal circumstances, if something were to happen, it's easy for one's real identity to be tracked. Then, it'll be more difficult for one to get away. It might be troublesome to others, but you can recall us back into card form which can wipe all trails immediately. If something really were to happen, all I need is to send you a message to get you to recall us back into card form." Bloody seemed to be adamant about using her own identity.
"Besides that, they don't lack powerhouses with high access in the core zone of the God Territory. There'll be even more trouble if they find out about our fake identities. By using our real identities, even if they discover something wrong, we can say that we're from a mini world. To avoid trouble, we bought fake identity rings, but we registered our authentic details. Even if the Protoss contacts our tribe to verify, there won't be any problem at all."
Lin Huang thought Bloody's explanation made sense indeed.
Although Yang Ling had superb skills when it came to creating fake identities, this was the great world after all. Moreover, just like Bloody said, the core zone of the God Territory had many powerhouses with high access. If someone's access was high enough to track their fake identities, that would spell trouble for them. However, if they were to register their fake identities with genuine information, even if the Protoss was to expose them, the most they could prove was that their identity rings were fake but their identities were authentic.
Even if Bloody could not find the exact tribe, other wisdom-types would definitely come forward to vouch for her. Meanwhile, Kylie was a pure God's Blood herself who belonged to the Nephilic Judge Tribe which belonged to the superior bloodline among the Protoss. Among the superior bloodlines, there were only a few of them. As soon as she was exposed, the Nephilic Judge Tribe would definitely come forward for her.
Bloody only made the decision after some careful consideration and concluded that it would be safer to use their real identities.
Lin Huang stopped disagreeing with Bloody's decision after some careful thoughts to himself.
After creating the three identities, Lin Huang sent them together with the Shelter code to Yang Ling.
Yang Ling soon replied with two messages, "Your location is really remote. I've checked. There are two receiving points that are closest to you. One is the Start Shelter (grade-3) and the other would be the Jupiter Shelter (grade-4). While the grade-4 Shelter is slightly closer to you, it doesn't make much difference. So, which receiving point do you want me to send them to?
"Also, I've told you that fake Protoss identities are easily exposed in the God Territory. Are you sure you want your summoning beast, Kylie, to disguise as a Protoss? I'm not responsible for any after-sales service if there's any problem with that."
Lin Huang replied while smiling after reading Yang Ling's message, "Send the goods to the grade-3 receiving point then. As for Kylie's identity, it's alright to disguise her as a Protoss. I won't force you to take responsibility if something goes wrong."
Two words popped up within three seconds Lin Huang sent the message. "Got it!"
After sorting out the fake identities, Lin Huang opened the Royal trading page and began looking at disguise god rule relics.
Soon, he saw two relics that he desired.
One was a black mask named Night. The mask was pure black and was adorned with golden droplets so tiny that one almost could not see them with their naked eye. They were like stars that lit up the night sky. Apart from that, there was a white precious stone the size of a thumb mounted on the forehead, resembling a full moon.
The effect of the mask's rule could isolate any energy from penetrating from the outside. Not only did it block Divine Telekinesis and Divine Power, but it could also block a majority of energy impact, creating a certain level of defense.
The second relic was a cloak with a hood named Shadow. The cloak was pure black without any decoration or patterns. The effect of the rule was disappearing, including blocking one's aura from being detected by the outside world.
In the beginning, Lin Huang struggled a while as he wondered which one to purchase. In the end, he decided to purchase both of them.
The starting price of a god rule relic was up to a million Divine Stones. Both god rule relics were expert-grade, so their price exceeded ten million Divine Stones. To be exact, both of them cost 46 million Divine Stones. It was not a small figure even to the wealthy Lin Huang.
He happened to only have just over ten million Divine Stones. He would have to sell lots of his resources to gather 46 million Divine Stones. That was the reason why he was struggling with which to purchase in the beginning.
However, after some consideration, he eventually decided to splurge on both the god rule relics for safety purposes.
Chapter 1252: Money Boss
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In order to get money to purchase god rule relics, Lin Huang only left behind a couple of demigod and god relics that he usually used and sold the rest on the Royal trading market.
To sell all those demigod and god relics, he set them at a rather low price. They were even slightly cheaper than the market price. However, the speed of the goods being sold was much faster than Lin Huang expected.
Within less than ten minutes, up to a hundred demigod and god relics were sold.
"I thought I'd need at least two to three days to gather the remaining 30 million or so Divine Stones despite selling them cheaply. I can't believe I made close to 10 million Divine Stones within ten minutes!" Lin Huang said as he checked the buyer record. However, he began to appear doubtful after doing so.
"What's wrong?" Bloody noticed his expression immediately.
"This person seems to be the only one who bought up to a hundred of my goods just now," Lin Huang said through voice transmission while grinning, "The buyer record shows that it comes from the same account with the username 'Money Boss'."
"One can tell from the username that the person is loaded," Bloody said amusedly, "In reality, it's not strange that this person bought so many things. You priced them slightly lower than the market price since you're in a hurry. Anyone would know that they'd be sold at a much higher price if they were sold at an auction. This Money Boss has most probably bought so many demigod and god relics for reselling purposes.
"Of course, there's another possibility. He might happen to have an underling who's lacking equipment, so he desperately needs demigod and god relics. He bought the equipment for his underling without hesitation as soon as he saw what you were selling.
"The second possibility is too much of a coincidence. Moreover, this person has the username 'Money Boss'. There's a higher chance that he's a businessman…"
As Lin Huang was chatting with Bloody, a message popped up on the Royal trading page all of a sudden. Lin Huang looked closely to see a message from Money Boss that he was discussing with Bloody.
"Why's that guy looking for me?"
Skeptically, Lin Huang tapped open the message that the person sent through the Royal trading page.
"Hi, Mr. Lin, I saw that you're selling many demigod and god relics today. They're slightly cheaper than the market price. I suppose you're in need of money, aren't you?"
Lin Huang did not create a username on the Royal trading page and only showed his family name which was the default setting. He could not help but raise his brows upon receiving such a message coming from Money Boss out of nowhere.
"Why do I have a feeling that this is an usury advertisement? Is this guy offering me usury?"
Though skeptical, Lin Huang decided to chat with him to see what exactly this buyer wanted. He did not answer the person's question. Instead, he gave a straightforward reply, "Give it to me straight and don't beat around the bush."
Money Boss's message came one to two minutes later. "Well, I'm a businessman. Apart from doing some middleman business to make some commission, I do loans too to make some money from interest. I'm sending you this message to see if there's a chance if we can come up with a business deal, Mr. Lin."
As expected, it was an usury advertisement!
Lin Huang chose to reject decisively, "I won't take a loan from you."
"Usury isn't what I'm doing. The annual interest is only 4% as long as you pay it off within three years. You can consider it, Mr. Lin." Money Boss had yet to give up.
Lin Huang did not expect the rate to be even lower than the housing loan on Earth. "What if I fail to pay everything back within three years?" he asked curiously.
"The interest will be doubled for payback within three to ten years, which is 8%. It will double again for payback ten to 20 years, which is 16%…"
'And you said it isn't usury..,' Lin Huang thought to himself secretly.
"I was just asking out of curiosity. Neither do I have the habit of borrowing money, nor do I have any interest in your usury business."
Lin Huang thought the person's hopes would be killed and he would stop clinging onto him after his reply. Never did he expect another message to pop up just when he was going to turn off the trading page.
"Since you aren't interested in taking a loan, we can talk about another business, Mr. Lin."
Lin Huang frowned slightly and replied with a question mark.
"I've looked through the number of goods and prices that you are selling this time. I speculate that you're in need of money, Mr. Lin. The price of goods you're letting go is 30 million Divine Stones. To be exact, it's over 35 million Divine Stones. No offense, but may I know if you're going to purchase something with the money?"
"I think that's none of your business!" Lin Huang thought the person was nosy.
"I don't mean to disturb you. Perhaps I can help you get a bargain if you're using the money to purchase goods. I'll apologize for disturbing you if the money is for something else and I'll no longer disturb you."
"Get me a bargain?" Lin Huang was skeptical. This person's way of making business was clearly out of the ordinary.
"Yes, I'll get you a bargain. I'll take 30% of the difference while you'll enjoy 70% of the discount."
Money Boss seemed to be worried that Lin Huang might not understand and soon sent another message. "Let me give you an example. If an item's original price is 10 million Divine Stones, I'll save two million for you if I manage to bargain for eight million instead. You'll pay me 30% of two million as commission, which will be 600,000. That means you only pay 8.6 million for something that was originally 10 million."
"You mean you'll purchase the goods at a bargain and resell it to me? How can I trust you not to sell it to me at a higher price? It's totally possible for you to purchase a 10 million item at eight million and sell it at 12 million to me. If I'm desperate for the item, I suppose I'll have to accept the price you offer, wouldn't I?" Lin Huang voiced his doubt.
"I've considered such risk and doubts in trust for my clients' sake. Therefore, I'll only be responsible for getting the bargain for you. You'll have to complete the purchase yourself as I won't be participating in the deal. After the purchase is done, you'll pay me the commission as agreed," Money Boss replied.
"Do you really trust your clients? What if I take my word back and refuse to pay you the commission after the deal is done?" Lin Huang thought the person was pretty naive.
"I've encountered clients who've backed out on their words. However, they died soon after the deal was done without exception."
Lin Huang did not think that the person was boasting after hearing what sounded like a threat. After all, the person dared to trust his clients. It proved that the person had a high possibility of being able to control the risk of his clients breaking their promise.
"What's the confidentiality of the deal like?" Lin Huang was a little tempted now. After all, the two items would add up to 46 million. Even if the person only managed to get a 10% discount and take the 30% commission, he would save over three million which was quite a significant figure.
Clearly, Money Boss came to Lin Huang upon noticing that he was purchasing something expensive.
"I'm just a businessman who wants to do business. I won't reveal a word about the business of all of my clients to anyone. There's nothing to worry about, Mr. Lin."
"Alright, there are indeed two items that I'd like to purchase. I'll need to discuss the collaboration details with you to decide if we have a deal." Lin Huang finally agreed to discuss more with the person since Bloody, who had been sparing a portion of her attention to observe the conversation, nodded.
Chapter 1253: Death Sickle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Within two hours, close to 40 million Divine Stones worth of items that Lin Huang was selling in Royal's market were almost sold. In reality, over 90% of them were purchased by Money Boss.
Lin Huang was finally relieved to have gathered enough money to buy god rule relics during his trip to the God Territory this time.
"I've got you a bargain. It will be a 22% discount for Night. The original price was 25 million and now it's 19.5 million. You get 25% off for Shadow, which was originally priced at 21 million and is 15.75 million now. In other words, you're only paying 35.25 million for something that was 46 million. The difference is 10.75 million. I'll be taking 30%, which is 3.22 million. Let me round it up for you. Just transfer me 3.2 million after you've paid the buyers."
"So, how do I trade with the sellers?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"You'll have to send the sellers a personal message. Tell them that you're the buyer Money Boss mentioned. After that, just follow the steps they teach you."
"Sure, I'll transfer you the commission after the deal is done."
Just when Lin Huang was done messaging Money Boss, he contacted both sellers immediately. The sellers changed the price of the items without hesitation as they changed their privacy to be visible to Lin Huang's account.
The Royal trading system was very unique. Product logistics on the page did not matter, whereby the products would be transferred to the storage equipment the buyers set up directly as long as the purchase was successful.
The next official trade was completed smoothly within a minute. Lin Huang was finally relieved to see two extra god rule relics in his storage space.
He scanned through his storage equipment with his Divine Telekinesis and checked properly, confirming that both god rule relics were fine. Lin Huang then clicked Money Boss's account and transferred the 3.2 million Divine Stones in commission over.
"I've transferred the Divine Stones to you. Please check."
"Got it. It's a pleasure working with you! Please get me to bargain for you again if you're getting more god rule relics or business that's more than 10 million Divine Stones in the future," Money Boss replied almost instantly.
Lin Huang could not help but smirk when he saw the message. "I'll definitely look for you next time."
"Is it done?" Bloody had been sparing a portion of her attention to Lin Huang's progress.
"I've gotten both of the god rule relics. I've checked them and all are good." Lin Huang nodded.
"I'm basically done on my side too, but it's a little inconvenient to finish the master plan now." Bloody was also cautious. After all, they were in someone else's territory now. "Let me give you a rough idea. We'll discuss the details after I'm done with the master plan and I'll send it to you tomorrow.
"First of all, you'll have to summon Kylie after leaving this Shelter. The three of us will head to the Start Shelter to pick up our identity rings. Later on, Kylie and I will head to the core zone of the God Territory. You'll disguise yourself and head to the next grade-3 Shelter.
"I've given a good thought about your identity. It's best that you aren't a lone ranger. The great world is different from the gravel world, and you'll encounter plenty of trouble since you have no organization background. Although Royal is a huge organization, its headquarters is in a human territory that's too far away from the God Territory. Distant water cannot quench the present thirst, thus it's best that you join an organization in the God Territory.
"There are a couple of major organizations in the God Territory, but currently there are only two that are recruiting and are suitable for you. One would be the Combat God Temple while the other would be the Death Sickle.
"The Combat God Temple is the best choice for your need to kill a great number of virtual god-level monsters alone. The Combat God Temple is the biggest mercenary troop in the God Territory, whereby they take on all sorts of group hunting missions all year long. If you join them, not only can you hunt all sorts of monsters, but you'll be given mission rewards from the Combat God Temple too.
"However, the biggest disadvantage of joining the Combat God Temple would be the lack of freedom. The reason being, all members will be put into a small troop and they'll have to move as one unit. Although the troop can choose their own missions most of the time, sometimes there are some compulsory requisitions that you can't say no to."
Lin Huang frowned a little upon hearing this point. "Tell me about the Death Sickle then."
"The Death Sickle is the biggest assassin organization and its main business is all sorts of assassination missions.
"The Death Sickle is very lax on their member recruitment. Almost all tribes can register as their reserve members regardless of their ability. The reserve members have all the freedom they want, and they can even reject all the missions. Of course, that would mean not having benefits at all.
"As long as the reserve members complete three assassination missions within a year or accept three specific missions within ten years, they'll become an official Black Sickle Assassin."
"So, there are ranks among Death Sickle members?" Lin Huang could not help but interrupt to ask.
"Yes, the ascending order of ranking in the Death Sickle would be the reserve, Black Sickle, White Sickle, Golden Sickle, and Blood Sickle. There are only seven Blood Sickle Assassins, all of whom are on heavenly god-level. The seven of them control all of Death Sickle's decision-making."
"So, what're the benefits of the higher ranks?" Lin Huang asked again.
"The higher the ranking, the higher the grade of mission one gets and the better the reward. Reserve, Black Sickle, White Sickle, Golden Sickle, and Blood Sickle correspond with the grade of the mission. Reserve members can only take missions below virtual god-level, Black Sickles can only take missions below true god-level, White Sickles can only take missions below heavenly god-level missions, and so on and so forth…
"Not only are there mission rewards for completed missions, but there're also accumulated points. One will earn a place on the Death Leaderboard when they have sufficient points. There are three leaderboards for the Death Sickle, which are the Black Sickle Leaderboard, the White Sickle Leaderboard, and the Golden Sickle Leaderboard. There are only 100 names on each leaderboard which will be renewed every day at 00:00. Throughout the month, those who manage to rank the top ten will receive a handsome reward.
"Those who are usually on the Black Sickle Leaderboard are top virtual god-level powerhouses. Those who rank the top three will receive a reward that is at least comparable to a god rule relic each month. The rewards for the White Sickle Leaderboard and the Golden Sickle Leaderboard are even better."
"One per month would mean that one will get 12 god rule relics in a year. I've only gotten two god rule relics after my hard work in the gravel world and spending most of what I had. Meanwhile, the few of them on the leaderboard can earn that within two months! So, what's the disadvantage of joining the Death Sickle?" Lin Huang turned his head to ask Bloody immediately.
"You must complete at least three missions each year if you become a Black Sickle. You can pick the missions within your own level. If you fail to complete a few of them in a year, you'll be given a few specific missions in the next year. The specific missions are usually those that basically nobody is willing to do because they're very risky."
"Secondly, the number of hunts will definitely be lesser than those in the Combat God Temple if you join the Death Sickle. After all, the killing in the Combat God Temple is done in battles with many enemies. It's more suitable for you to elevate your combat strength."
"I'll join the Death Sickle. I can go to battles on my own when there's no mission. I just won't get the reward that the Combat God Temple will be giving," Lin Huang shared his thoughts, "To me, the Combat God Temple's restriction is too much. Besides that, I'll have to fight in a team, so there'll be many techniques that I can't use. I think the Death Sickle is better for me since I can fight on my own."
"I figured you'd choose that." Bloody shrugged helplessly.
Chapter 1254: Start Shelter
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang and Bloody bade farewell to Whale13 early the next morning.
While Whale13 was surprised, he said nothing. All he did was pat Lin Huang's shoulder heartily. "Go if something has come up. Don't delay your business. Please come play at my Dust Shelter anytime when you're free. I'll welcome you with open arms at all times!"
Lin Huang summoned Kylie after bidding farewell to Whale13, and as soon as they left the Dust Shelter, he disguised himself using the two god rule relics.
The three then headed to Start Shelter at ease.
According to Yang Ling, the identity rings would need at least three days to reach the receiving point. Therefore, they were not in a hurry.
Under normal circumstances, they would need to transfer at only five Shelters to get from the Dust Shelter to Start Shelter. However, there were two grade-4 Shelters among them. For safety purposes, they decided to take a longer en route whereby they transferred 11 times at grade-3 Shelters along the way.
Fortunately, none of their identities were suspected at all. Bloody would even request the Shelter guardian for permission to read at their archives at each Shelter. None of the 11 Shelters rejected her, which allowed her to gain access to more documents and information.
Apart from asking about the mission at the beginning, Kylie was cold and arrogant as usual. She did not even ask about the details of the mission, and Bloody was the one who took the initiative to tell her.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang spent most of the time shopping at underground black markets and auctions. Whilst familiarizing himself with the market prices, he was trying his luck with worthy items.
His new disguise was a man in a black robe that was transformed from his god rule relic, Shadow. It was completely different from earlier and was adorned with a simple golden pattern from the pure black before.
Meanwhile, his mask was transformed from his god rule relic, Night. The delicate mask was now pitch black. It was so black that it could even absorb the diffused reflection of the light. Apart from that, there was a layer of black mist lingering around it.
The hoodie of the cloak would hide whatever that was beneath it even during the day as long as the light did not shine directly on one's face. After putting on the mask, even if the light were to shine directly, one could only see a black silhouette.
Three days later, the trio arrived at the Start Shelter.
Lin Huang was a little shocked to see skyscrapers and crowds when they arrived. "Why's this Shelter so crowded? I suppose a grade-4 Shelter isn't as crowded as this!"
"Although Start Shelter is only a grade-3 Shelter, it has the top standard among grade-3 Shelters. The crowd is even larger compared to some remote grade-4 Shelters," Bloody explained through voice transmission.
"I heard the guardian of Start Shelter, whose name is Start, is a pure Protoss. His father is a rather famous Heavenly God who's also the guardian of a grade-5 Shelter.
"Due to his background, many guardians of grade-3 and grade-4 Shelters nearby are willing to be his friends, and they have trade agreements with Start Shelter. When Start Shelter was newly built, many neighboring guardians brought businesses and immigrants to them, making Start Shelter develop quickly. After Start Shelter elevated to a grade-3 Shelter, Start's father used his connection in the God Territory to get him the privilege of a receiving point. Since then, the Shelter prospered completely."
"A pure Protoss whose dad is a Heavenly God…" Lin Huang frowned slightly. "We don't even have identity rings now. If we visit him, we might expose ourselves."
"We don't have to visit him this time. There are up to a million people coming in and out of Start Shelter every day. There are always True Gods and Protosses coming in and out. If Start has to host those guests every day, I guess he'd have to host at least a hundred times throughout the year.
"I heard that he's arrogant whereby he looks down on ordinary Protosses and True Gods, and he doesn't care to befriend them. Moreover, we're only staying for a day or two to pick up our stuff. There's no need to embarrass ourselves by visiting him."
"So, you're not going to their archive?" Lin Huang asked.
"Although Start Shelter is crowded, it's just a grade-3 Shelter after all. I'll have many opportunities to visit grade-4 and grade-5 Shelters in the future."
"Then, let's look for a place to stay. We'll leave right after we pick up our stuff. Let's not have any contact with him." Lin Huang began browsing for hotels as soon as he was done speaking.
The receiving point of Start Shelter was located in the central zone of the entire Shelter which was also where the guardian residence was. They were only less than a kilometer apart from each other.
It was the most crowded place in the entire Shelter. Above 90% of the luxury hotels in the Shelter were located in this area, making up more than 70% of the Shelter hotels that were in the central zone.
Although they had no identity ring in the God Territory, Lin Huang picked a small hotel where registration was unnecessary. He got them the biggest three-room suite in the hotel.
When they opened the door to the suite, Lin Huang realized it was the crudest room that he had ever stayed in since he traveled to this world.
Although the three rooms were close to 100 square meters large, the walls were all white and the ceilings were made of plaster. Apart from a bed, a wardrobe, a table, and a chair, there were almost zero decorations.
Although there was a fabric couch in the living room, it looked like it had been there for at least 20 years. The coffee table before it seemed to be made of glass, but there were four to five cracks on it.
Lin Huang thought that the glass coffee table might crack entirely if he were to put an ashtray on it.
"Let's change hotels." Lin Huang did not mind the place, but he felt bad for the two ladies, Bloody and Kylie, to be staying at such a place.
Kylie glanced through the living room quickly. "We'll stay here since it's only for one or two days."
"We don't have identity rings now. I suppose hotels that accept frauds like us would have similar conditions. It doesn't really make sense to change to another hotel. Let's just stay here then," Bloody agreed to stay too.
"Alright then. Let's tidy up our rooms. It might be slightly bearable if we clean it up a little," Lin Huang suggested.
Both ladies nodded in agreement.
The trio spent half an hour to tidy the rooms completely. Although it did not look like it had been renovated, at least, it was more pleasing to the eye than before.
Lin Huang thought he would let the ladies stay in the bigger rooms while he occupied the smallest one.
However, Bloody realized that the smallest was only six or seven square meters large. The entire room was cramped with the bed and a wardrobe. Not only that, there was not even a tiny window for ventilation. Therefore, she suggested staying in the same room with Kylie while Lin Huang took the bigger room.
Kylie did not reject the suggestion.
The man and the two ladies then stayed in the Start Shelter's small hotel.
Chapter 1255: 0618
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After a night at the small hotel, Lin Huang's communication device vibrated all of a sudden before dawn came.
He tapped it opened and realized that it was an unknown number.
"Your stuff should arrive at the Start Shelter in the afternoon today. If you guys aren't there yet, please get there as soon as you can to pick them up. There are plenty of flaws in the God Territory's logistics system. It's very common for some Shelters to lose parcels. The longer the parcels are left at the receiving point, the higher the chances of them being lost."
Lin Huang knew it was Yang Ling who sent the message without even looking at the signature.
"We arrived yesterday." Lin Huang turned off the communication page after the brief reply. He peeked at the time. It was only 4.51 a.m. Through the window, he could see that the sky was still dark, so he turned around on the bed and pulled the blanket over himself, shutting his eyes again.
He slept all the way past seven in the morning, only stirring calmly upon hearing the chatter between Bloody and Kylie.
Lin Huang walked to the living room to see both Bloody and Kylie there. He said through voice transmission, "Yang Ling said the stuff will arrive around the afternoon. We'll have breakfast soon and walk around. In the afternoon, we'll head there straight to pick up the stuff."
After washing up, the three of them put on their black robes again and headed out.
Lin Huang was already disguised as a man in a black robe. Meanwhile, as Bloody and Kylie looked exactly like Protosses, they would definitely attract unwanted attraction if they were to check into such a small hotel in their own forms. Therefore, they put on a cloak and a mask just like Lin Huang did when they checked into the hotel. Both their cloaks and masks were god relics. However, the small hotel was located in the central zone of Start Shelter which was close to the guardian residence. Not many True Gods would step on Start's feet and pry with their Divine Telekinesis as they wished.
Moreover, most people who would stay at such a small hotel were usually problematic. They were either fugitives or were hiding something embarrassing. They knew where they stood, so they would not pry to avoid any unnecessary incidents.
It was only 8 a.m. after spending some 20 minutes eating their breakfast.
The auctions and markets at the Shelter had yet to open. However, the underground market was already opened for business.
The Start Shelter black market was in an alley somewhere next to the guardian residence. In reality, the guardian, Start, was the mastermind behind the black market. Most of the people in the Shelter knew that, but nobody dared say it out loud.
Start had a Heavenly God supporting him, and as a Protoss himself, nobody dared to report his business. Everyone knew that the most that would happen to the black market would be it closing down even if someone were to report it. With Start's background, it was basically impossible for him to be punished.
The three of them took a stroll at the black market. They spent over two hours to look at all the shops and stalls. Since they did not see anything they wanted, they left the black market alley empty-handed.
After getting out of the black market, they casually strolled through the auctions and markets that had been opened for a while.
It was past 1 p.m. when they were done shopping. Figuring that he had yet to receive any notification about their parcel, Lin Huang took Bloody and Kylie to a restaurant with a good reputation for lunch.
As they began eating after the dishes were served, Lin Huang's communication device vibrated all of a sudden. Again, the message still came from an unknown number. Lin Huang knew it was Yang Ling who sent it as soon as he tapped it open.
The message was brief with only two sentences. "The logistics system on my side shows that the stuff has arrived at Start Shelter. If you're not busy, it's best that you pick them up today. I took some time to check the God Territory's receiving point, and I found out that the Shelter always loses parcels."
Naturally, Bloody and Kylie saw the contents of the message since Lin Huang's communication device messages were set to pop up.
"Let's go there right after we finish lunch," Bloody said instantly as she was concerned that the stuff might get lost.
Lin Huang nodded and turned off the communication page. He then proceeded with lunch. It was not even 2 p.m. when they exited the restaurant and headed straight to the receiving point immediately.
The receiving point was on a main road. The shop was pretty large, and there were two lines queuing at the entrance. The longer line was for the delivery of mail with some 20 people there. The pick-up line was shorter as there were only six people queuing.
Lin Huang and the other two queued quietly behind the pick-up line and waited for the people before them to collect their stuff patiently.
The first of the six picked up their stuff and left successfully. When it was the second person's turn, he began arguing with the shop owner.
"My stuff should've arrived last night! The pick-up details on my communication device clearly state that my stuff arrived at 11.21 last night. Now, you're telling me that you didn't receive them?!" It was a muscular elephant-person who was yelling loudly.
"Why are you screaming?! I told you that we didn't receive it. Isn't it normal to lose parcels? You're not the only one whose parcel is lost," responded the shop owner who was a skinny and short human-faced monkey around 1.4 meters tall. Although he was almost a meter shorter than the elephant-person, the latter was nothing to him.
"You guys are doing logistics as your business. Does it make sense for you guys to lose stuff?!" The elephant-person was enraged to hear such a nonchalant answer.
"You should ask around and see which receiving point in the God Territory never loses their parcels." The human-faced monkey did not intend to apologize at all. "I can only say that you have shoddy luck to lose your parcel. There's no one to blame. Stop blocking my way and interrupting my business."
"I won't leave if you don't give me my stuff! I'll block your entrance and paralyze your business!" The elephant-person began throwing a tantrum.
"Are you sure you want to block my way?!" A cold gleam flashed through the human-faced monkey's eyes. Almost at the same time, a terrifying aura came out of his body for merely a second.
Even the pupils of Lin Huang and the other two who were queuing at the back shrank. The human-faced monkey's aura was clearly at peak virtual god-level. They could tell by the intensity of his aura that he was but a step away from stepping to true god-level.
The elephant-person who was supposed to collect his parcel peed in his pants then and there. He only had imperial-level combat strength and had never come in such close contact with a Virtual God before.
Fortunately, the aura was fleeting. If it really suppressed him, losing control of his bladder might not be the only thing that would happen; his soul might collapse shortly.
"Get lost!" The human-faced monkey scoffed. In turn, the elephant-person turned around and ran away while shuddering. He dared not stay even for a moment.
The expression of the people queueing at the back became complicated when they looked at the human-faced monkey again.
"Next!" The human-faced monkey pretended like nothing happened as he called out to the next person.
The pick-up queue was moving fast. It was Lin Huang and the rest's turn within three minutes. Not one of the next five people after the elephant-person lost their parcels, much to their relief.
"Pick-up code: 0618," Lin Huang stated his pick-up code directly.
The human-faced monkey lifted his head to peer at Lin Huang and subsequently glanced at Bloody and Kylie who were wearing masks and cloaks. He spoke a moment after lowering his head, "I can't find your pick-up code here."
Chapter 1256: The Guardian's Visit
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang could not help but frown a little when he heard the human-faced monkey announce that he could not find the pick-up code. However, nobody could see the expression on his face since he wore a mask.
Next to Lin Huang, Bloody spoke up first, "Do you mean that our parcel is lost?"
The human-faced monkey squinted at Bloody. "Since we can't find the pick-up code, it's usually stolen. Smaller items are susceptible to that."
Bloody turned her head to look at Kylie next to her after hearing that. She nodded at her imperceptibly.
Kylie stretched her arm out and took off her mask, revealing her cold face. At the same time, she released her pure God's Blood aura and recalled it immediately.
The human-faced monkey was stunned when he saw Kylie's human features. Subsequently, his expression changed dramatically when he sensed the fleeting pure God's Blood aura of the Protoss.
One must know that they were in a God Territory, thus it was Protoss territory. Among Protosses, pure Protosses were the most arrogant and bossiest. Moreover, most of them had a terrifying background.
Whilst the human-faced monkey was unsure about what to do, Bloody, who was standing aside, spoke again, "Boss, why don't you look for it carefully again?"
The human-faced monkey nodded immediately. "Perhaps I missed it just now. Let me check again."
Kylie glared at him coldly and said nothing. She put on her mask again.
The bunch of people queuing behind did not see Kylie's face. Only a handful of them sensed her fleeting Protoss aura and knew what happened while the rest of them were confused.
"Isn't the owner all high and mighty? Why is he giving in now?"
"Yeah, he always calls the shots whenever the parcel can't be found. Whoever questions him would normally be chased away. Why is he looking for the pick-up code for the second time today?"
The human-faced monkey held his head down and checked again. Soon, he lifted his head and passed Bloody a little carton the size of a palm.
"I found it. Indeed, I missed it earlier."
The trio did not trouble the human-faced monkey further after taking the parcel. They turned around and left immediately.
The human-faced monkey was relieved when he saw them leave without saying anything. Although he was confident in his ability, he dared not offend any Protoss. It was the Protosses' territory after all.
Lin Huang and the other two did not expect such an incident to happen. Fortunately, they managed to get their identity rings in the end. They returned to the small hotel as soon as they received the parcel.
After they got into the hotel room, they opened the parcel. The three rings had different styles, but there was a little label on top of each ring. Among them were Bloody and Kylie's names while another one had 'Xie Lin' written on it.
The name of the label was correct. Lin Huang used a fake name of Xie Lin, switching around the name Lin Xie that he had used in the past.
They removed the label after retrieving their identity rings. Then, they began claiming ownership by dripping their blood onto the rings. After the ownership claiming was done, the three of them began familiarizing themselves with the identity rings.
Although the identity ring in the great world had many features that were different from those in the gravel world, most of the functions were similar. The functions on the page were just slightly more complicated with different interfaces.
Lin Huang merely spent a few minutes to learn all the functions of the new ring.
Bloody had used Lin Huang's identity in the past under his authorization, so with her intelligence, her speed of picking up the information was even faster than Lin Huang. She spent less than half a minute to familiarize herself with the identity ring completely.
Kylie spent a little more time on it since she had never used an identity ring before. Under Bloody's guidance, she only learned how to use the identity ring roughly half an hour later.
At the same time that the trio picked up the identity rings, a piece of news reached Start Shelter's guardian residence quietly.
"There were three people who are suspected to have disguised as Protosses at the receiving point earlier. We've confirmed them one of them is a female pureblood Protoss. The other two were disguised, so we failed to detect their real identities. We speculate them to most probably be Protosses too. The three of them have a combat strength of beginner-stage virtual god-level."
Half-naked, Start, who was revealing his muscular body, raised his brows slightly as he read the message while sitting in a cultivation room with his legs crossed.
"Three beginner-stage virtual god-level Protosses…Why bother to disguise themselves just to pick something up?"
A ring of waves reverberated behind Start just when he mumbled as if he was talking to himself. A rather husky voice came slowly, "There are three possibilities. The first one is that the goods are extremely important. Secondly, the goods are shady. Thirdly, the three of them are shady. There's a certain chance that the three possibilities overlap one another.
"They probably don't want to attract any attention picking up their stuff at your territory. After all, Start Shelter is just a grade-3 Shelter."
"Interesting…" Start smirked.
…
In the small hotel, the trio who were familiarized with the identity ring's applications were preparing to leave Start Shelter when someone knocked on the hotel room's door all of a sudden.
Their expressions changed.
"Who is it?!"
A thick male voice came behind the door slowly, "Your humble one is Start. I heard that there are three Protosses of the same kind staying here, so I thought I'd make a trip to visit."
The three of them were stunned to hear that. Never had they thought that the Shelter guardian would come to them when they were leaving.
Lin Huang merely hesitated for a moment before he walked forward in big steps and opened the door. "It's the Master Guardian. What a pleasure!"
Start glanced at the three of them. With his True God's vision, he saw through Bloody and Kylie's disguises.
Although he was not sure if Bloody was a Protoss, a glimpse was all it took for him to confirm that Kylie was the pureblood Protoss who had revealed her face at the receiving point earlier.
He shifted his attention and his gaze landed once more on Lin Huang who had opened the door. However, he could not see what was hiding under his disguise, so he could not help but feel doubtful.
"You sure are uptight with your attire, little brother."
"I've been scared of the cold since I was born, so I wore a bit more," Lin Huang responded while smiling, "Please come in, Master Guardian."
Start nodded and walked into the room. He could not help but shake his head after looking around. "I suppose the three of you didn't have to stay somewhere so crude even if you don't want anyone to know that you're in my Start Shelter, did you?"
"We just don't want unnecessary trouble," Lin Huang responded, "May I know if there's anything that we can do for you, Master Guardian?"
"Nothing, I just heard my people say that they saw Protosses of my own kind. I thought I should meet you guys and make friends." Start turned around and looked at Lin Huang with a smile.
"That's all?" Lin Huang asked while frowning a little.
"That's all!"
"We're just here to pick up a parcel. We'll leave today," Lin Huang said clearly. He did not want any trouble or to be friends with the guardian.
"You're leaving so soon? I thought of getting you guys to stay at my residence if you're staying for a few days more. This is my territory, and I should be a good host since it's a rare occasion to meet Protosses of my own kind," Start invited, grinning.
"Thanks for your kindness, Master Guardian, but we can't take it. There's something that we need to handle as soon as possible, so we won't be staying. If we have the opportunity to come to Start Shelter again, we'll definitely stay longer and make it a proper visit." Lin Huang's rejection was very cordial. He was mentally prepared to attack if Start insisted on him staying.
However, Start seemed to really have no ill intentions. He nodded and said warmly, "I shan't get you guys to stay since there's something that you must deal with. Let's exchange contact numbers to keep in touch. If you guys are free to come to Start Shelter again, just come straight to my residence. I'll welcome you guys at any time!"
Then, he bade farewell to Lin Huang and the other two after they exchanged numbers.
Lin Huang thought it was strange when Start left. "What was that guy thinking? Did he come all the way here just to get our number?"
However, Bloody had seen through Start's trick. "He wants to check our identities through our contact."
"So what if he finds out about our identities?"
"After all, Kylie exposed her pureblood Protoss identity. Perhaps he has the intention to keep in touch with us because of that. If Kylie's tribe is from a major organization among the Protosses, having her contact would create the possibility to be in contact with a major tribe. If he finds out that we're insignificant among the Protosses, he'll just delete our contacts and cut ties. All he did was waste a couple of minutes to meet us."
Chapter 1257: Death Sickle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At Start Shelter's guardian residence, a shirtless Start sat in the middle of the cultivation room. The communication ring on his finger vibrated all of a sudden. He opened his eyes slowly and tapped on the message that just came in.
"I've identified the three of them. Among them, the man isn't a Protoss. According to the archive records, he's a quadruple-mutated mysterious-type. The two females are Protosses, the tribe of one of which isn't recorded, so she should belong to an insignificant tribe. The other one is a pureblood Protoss. According to the records, she's from the Nephilic Judge Tribe."
"From the Nephilic Judge Tribe?!" Start could not help but raise his brows.
Although the Nephilic Judge Tribe was considered a rare tribe due to the number of Protosses
whereby there were only some 100 people in the entire tribe, many of them ranked high among the Protoss. Moreover, more than one of them that were Heavenly Gods.
In other words, Kylie was much more powerful than Start when it came to their background.
Although Start's father was a high-level Heavenly God, among the Nephilic Judge Tribe, there were three high-level Heavenly Gods that were known to the public at the moment. It was said that even one of them was going to be lord-level.
"It seems like it's necessary for me to get closer to them," Start nodded lightly.
After some thought, Start decided to speak to his father to give a brief description of Lin Huang and the other two. He sent his father a text.
A moment later, a reply came. "Give me their contact numbers."
Start then sent all three of their contact numbers over.
Within half a minute, another text came. "You're being deceived. The three identities are fake. It's a heavy offense to disguise as a Protoss. I've reported the two fake Protosses to the related organization."
Start was stunned to see the message. 'They're fake?! But I sensed a pureblood Protoss's aura from one of the ladies clearly.'
Although he was secretly doubtful, Start did not suspect his own father, so he did not ask further. All he did was reply, "Alright, Father. I know now."
'Since Father has found out that their identities are fake, there must be something wrong with them. Perhaps the pureblood Protoss's aura that I sensed was the disguise of that lady's god rule relic…"
Start squinted slightly after exiting the communication page. He spread his Divine Telekinesis quickly so that it covered the entire Shelter immediately. However, he could no longer sense Lin Huang and the rest.
…
After sending the guardian, Start, off at the hotel, the trio left Start Shelter right away, going on their own ways.
Bloody and Kylie took the effort to head to the grade-4 Stop Shelter.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang passed through a couple of grade-3 Shelters consecutively. Following the route that Bloody planned, he headed to the grade-3 Shelter, the Iron Fist Shelter.
After getting out of the Iron Fist Shelter's dimensional portal, he headed straight to where the Death Sickle was.
Among grade-3 Shelters, the Iron Fist Shelter was considered the top in terms of how it was modeled. It was even more crowded than Start Shelter. The main reason was that this Shelter happened to be located among some ten grade-4 Shelters, so it naturally became an interchange point.
Apart from its fortunate location, the Iron Fist Shelter had existed for over 30,000 years, thus it was considered one of the oldest grade-3 Shelters left behind in the God Territory at the moment.
The Iron Fist Shelter would have been upgraded to a grade-4 Shelter if not for the fact that there was no inhabitable planet close to it. However, although it was only a grade-3 Shelter, the Iron Fist Shelter was considered to best even grade-4 Shelters when it came to its population. Many organizations made it their stationary point for the convenience.
Lin Huang was there for the Death Sickle.
Although it was a major organization, the Death Sickle was rather low-key on their conduct. Their stationary point was located in an alley of the Iron Fist Shelter black market.
Lin Huang found the place soon according to the coordinates Bloody found.
The Iron Fist Shelter black market was crowded even during the day. It was packed like the morning market with people going in and out of the nine intersecting alleys in the black market.
There would even be shouts of bargains from time to time on both sides of the road. Lin Huang felt suspicious that he might be in the wrong place.
Fortunately, he found the two-story building in the picture that Bloody gave based on the coordinates that she marked. The short building only had two floors. The tiles on the top floor were dark-green while the door was black. A red lantern was hung at the entrance, its illumination adding a tiny bit of liveliness to the entire building.
Lin Huang shook his head while smiling. Although low-key, this building was out of place compared to the other houses around it. The houses around were basically three stories high with tall roofs, and they were at least five meters taller than the short building. All of the roofs had red tiles. None of them were of any other color.
After making sure that he got the right place, he strode in confidently. He glanced around quickly as soon as he stepped in.
The lobby was rather dim. There was a long counter just across the entrance, but it was unattended. To be exact, there was nobody in the entire lobby.
"Anybody here?!" Lin Huang shouted since nobody came to greet him.
A silhouette walked out of the shadows not far from Lin Huang as soon as he spoke.
His pupils shrunk a little because he did not sense the person coming at all.
"You look like a stranger. I guess it's your first time here. Are you here to delegate a task or to pick something up?"
The man who walked out of the shadows was skinny. There was a scar that was close to five centimeters long under his left eye which looked a little like a tearstain. With a black tail on his back, Lin Huang could not tell what kind of monster it was.
This person's aura was very well-preserved whereby one could not tell his combat strength at all. However, judging by his appearance out of nowhere, Lin Huang could tell that he was at least a high-level Virtual God. There was a high possibility that he could even be a True God.
Lin Huang observed the man for a while and quickly looked away, announcing, "I would like to join the Death Sickle. What should I do?"
"Give me your contact number. I'll send you the registration form to fill in," Scarface said expressionlessly.
After sending his contact number to Scarface, Lin Huang received the registration form almost instantly. Scarface turned around directly without waiting for Lin Huang to tap open the form and said stonily, "Send it back to me when you're done."
"What do I do with the parts that I don't know?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"Leave it blank," Scarface replied without even turning his head.
Lin Huang scanned through the registration form roughly after opening it. In reality, there was nothing much to be filled. He did not bother to ask Scarface further, so he filled up the form after skipping a few questions which involved his privacy. He then sent it back to Scarface.
Within a minute, Scarface appeared out of nowhere again.
"Should I fill in those that I left blank?" Lin Huang had come up with a story himself. Never had he thought that Scarface would toss him a wooden token immediately.
Lin Huang held his head down to look at the token after catching it. It was only the size of half a palm and seemed to be made of ordinary wood. There was the character 'reserve' written in the middle of the token. He realized that it was the Death Sickle's reserve token.
"Enter the code on the token on the page that you've just registered on. You'll be an official reserve member when the binding is completed."
Chapter 1258: The Torturous Reserve
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After performing a surprisingly simple registration at Death Sickle's base, Lin Huang soon left the black market and found a nearby hotel to use as a temporary residence.
Only when he was at the hotel did he begin to study Death Sickle's website in earnest.
As Bloody had said, it was easy to join the Death Sickle organization. All he had to do was fill in an incomplete form and he immediately became a reserve member.
However, reserve members had extremely limited access.
On the official website, apart from public messages that could be found on the internet, the forum only contained a section for reserve members and a section for missions. There were also access restrictions in the missions section; he was only able to look at reserve-level missions.
As for the forum itself, there were access restrictions on even the message and trading sections.
"That's what you get for being a reserve member. It's no different from being a passerby," Lin Huang could not help but exclaim after giving the website a general once-over.
Not long after though, Lin Huang found a sticky that was pinned to the reserve members' section. The post was entitled Rules and Regulations For Promotion of Death Sickle Members.
He clicked on the post immediately, which took him less than a minute to read. Now he finally had a complete understanding of how Death Sickle's ranking system worked.
Just like what Bloody had found earlier, Death Sickle members were ranked in the order of reserves, Black Sickle, White Sickle, Gold Sickle, and Blood Sickle.
A normal registration would make one a reserve member straight away.
Reserve members only needed to complete three assassination missions within a year or take on three designated missions within ten years to become official Black Sickle members.
In actuality, there was also a real-name registration process that would allow one to bypass the reserves level and directly become a Black Sickle member.
However, this particular process required a recommendation from an official Death Sickle member. Not only that, the person would need to register their real name; their combat strength and ability had to be above virtual god-level as well. They would also have to pass an actual combat assessment. They could only skip over the reserves level and become a Black Sickle member if they passed their identity checks as well as their combat assessment.
Two conditions had to be fulfilled for Black Sickle members to be promoted to White Sickle members.
The first was to be in the top three places on the Black Sickle Leaderboard's monthly rankings for three consecutive months.
The second was to complete a True God assassination mission, which was a trial mission assigned when the promotion was requested.
The conditions for White Sickle members to be promoted to Gold Sickle members were similar.
Apart from being in the top three spots on the White Sickle Leaderboard monthly rankings for three consecutive months, one also needed to complete a Heavenly God assassination mission.
The conditions for Gold Sickle members to be promoted to the highest rank of Blood Sickle were even stricter.
The basic condition for promotion was to maintain the number one spot on the Gold Sickle Leaderboard monthly rankings for three years consecutively without missing a single month.
They had to carry out three trial missions, each to assassinate a half-step Lord.
"Judging by that last condition, although on the surface it seems as if there's no lord-level guardian in Death Sickle, the seven Blood Sickle members should at least be at the level of half-step lord instead of the ordinary peak-stage Heavenly God," Lin Huang exclaimed, unable to restrain himself, "If these seven Blood Sickle powerhouses have the ability to kill half-step Lords, the power of seven of them combined might be on par with a Lord."
After Lin Huang had finished reading this pin, he checked out other pins on the forum as well as the stickies with the most comments.
He only returned to the main page after scrolling over the reserve members section for over three hours.
"The access for reserve members is too limited. I must get promoted to Black Sickle level as soon as possible so I can take on missions to assassin Virtual Gods." Now that he had a rough understanding of Death Sickle's organization and hierarchy, Lin Huang was able to come up with a plan very rapidly. "I don't think I'll be able to go the route of using the identity check, so I can only be promoted through normal channels. That means I'll need to complete three reserve missions."
Once he had considered things to this point, Lin Huang clicked on the missions page and began looking for missions that suited him.
Due to the restrictions, Lin Huang could only access the reserves missions listed in the missions section. Despite that, he found plenty there
to occupy him.
After giving the matter some thought, Lin Huang chose to sort these missions by distance.
He wanted to be promoted as soon as he could, so naturally the closer the mission was, the better. He did not bother to take into consideration the difficulty level and the reward points.
"Mission: Assassinating Ai Yun"
"Location: Iron Fist Shelter"
"Target's Details: Son of Ai Rong the Iron Fist, combat strength: imperial-level"
"Mission Reward Points: 10,000 points"
Lin Huang was stunned when he saw the first mission that popped up according to distance.
The location was the Iron Fist Shelter, which was the Shelter that Lin Huang was currently in. In addition, it was worth 10,000 mission reward points. The points were comparable to those awarded for killing a new first-rank True God.
Lin Huang had never heard of Ai Yun. However, the name Ai Rong was familiar to him because it was the name of the Iron Fist Shelter's guardian.
According to the information that Bloody provided earlier, Ai Rong had been a ninth-rank True God since time immemorial. No one had yet been able to measure the extent of his abilities.
Lin Huang then looked through Ai Yun's information again. He discovered that not only was the boy Ai Rong's youngest son, he was also Ai Rong's only remaining son.
However, Ai Yun was only imperial-level in combat strength—or at least the combat strength that he demonstrated to the outside world was only imperial-level, and he did not seem to harbor any potential for cross-ranking battles.
Perhaps it was because Ai Yun was only imperial-level that the mission was also open to reserve members.
However, Lin Huang skipped the mission without hesitation and went straight to the next one on the list.
This mission was nearby, but it was not worth offending a top True God just to get promoted to be a Black Sickle member.
After spending some ten minutes doing simple filtering, Lin Huang selected three missions that he deemed suitable.
"Kill the Boa Seal Shelter guardian Vine Boa."
"Kill Violet Rat Shelter guardian Lumi Rat."
"Kill a Poisonous Swamp Frog to retrieve venom."
Both Boa Seal and Violet Rat Shelters were grade-1 Shelters. Moreover, they were both on the same planet and near the Iron Fist Shelter.
The reason nobody was willing to take on these two missions was not that both Shelter guardians were so powerful, but because both Shelters had a massive number of monster tribes in them. Though they were merely grade-1 Shelters, they housed about a million members of the same tribe. The population alone was comparable to that of a top grade-3 Shelter.
Meanwhile, both of the missions were only published in the missions section for reserve members for a reward of 100 points, respectively.
Given these missions were high risk and low return, it made sense that nobody was willing to take them on.
The Poisonous Swamp Frog was located on a miasmic planet close to the Boa Seal Shelter and the Violet Rat Shelter. The entire planet was covered in toxic mist, and almost all living things in its ecosystem were poisonous.
The layer of toxic mist alone could affect most living beings below virtual god-level.
Given that the reward points were low—only 300 points—it was only natural that nobody was willing to take such a risk.
All three of the missions happened to be in the same area and they were not far away from the Iron Fist Shelter. Lin Huang selected them without hesitation.
Chapter 1259: The Simple Reserve Missions
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Less than an hour after deciding on his missions, Lin Huang arrived on Kraft Planet, the location of his intended target.
The entire planet seemed to reek of rot and decay. Murky raindrops fell from the gloomy sky. There were no plants to be seen, and faint traces of animal claw marks and snake trails were visible in the muddy soil.
"The stench in the air is terrible," Lin Huang could not help frowning a little under his mask.
A moment later, a Bug Tribe army appeared in front of him.
The Bug Tribe army was made up of two pseudo-mythical-level Bug Servants and 20,000 imperial-level purple gold-rank Bug Tribe fighters.
"Both of you take 10,000 fighters each, head to the two respective Shelters on this planet and wipe them out. Bring me both of the guardians' bodies and make sure they're intact, then handle the rest of the carcasses yourselves. Don't forget to look for loot while you're at it."
Both Bug Servants selected 10,000 fighters each and went their separate ways after the order was given.
Perhaps the massive tribes of the Boa Seal Shelter and Violet Rat Shelter intimidated other people; for Lin Huang, that proved no obstacle to his hunt.
No matter how many boas and rats there were, their numbers were child's play compared to his Bug Tribe armies.
The Bug Tribe army produced by the four Bug Tribe Queen Mothers had exceeded 300 million from very early on. Not only that, the weakest Bug Tribe fighter was at imperial-level purple gold-rank in combat strength. Any random fighter sent into battle would be no less powerful than either of the guardians, Vine Boa or Lumi Rat.
Besides, apart from the Bug Tribe fighters, there were two pseudo-mythical-level Bug Servants and seven mythical-level bug beasts that were on the same level as the Queen Mothers.
Two Bug Servants and two 10,000 Bug Tribe armies were definitely sufficient to handle two grade-1 Shelters.
The reason the Shelters had to be wiped out was to prevent news spreading to Protoss about the appearance of the Bug Tribe, which would attract unnecessary trouble.
After the Bug Tribe armies had departed, Lin Huang activated Divine Telekinesis and was very soon able to observe the battle situation.
Within ten minutes of their departure, both Bug Tribe armies encountered hunting teams that were outside of the Shelters.
Both hunting teams comprised over ten elite members of their tribe. However, the poor things were killed almost as soon as they discovered the Bug Tribe armies. As for the Bug Tribe armies themselves, this did not slow them down at all as they advanced towards their targets.
A little over half an hour later, both of the Bug Tribe armies arrived at the Shelters they had been assigned to and commenced a one-sided massacre.
Although the members of both of the Shelters outnumbered the Bug Tribe armies by a hundredfold, the battle was one-sided, as was to be expected. Attacks from countless beasts and rats could not break the defenses that the Queen Mother had so painstakingly drilled into her troops.
Within ten minutes, both of the Shelters were completely wiped out. No lives were spared.
After leaving behind a small team to search for loot, both Bug Tribe armies separated into 100 individual small teams respectively to search for other hunting parties that might still be outside the Shelters.
The 200 Bug Tribe teams spent around two hours combing the entire planet and killing several hunting teams in the process. After making sure that there were no survivors, the Bug Tribe teams reformed their squadrons then returned to Lin Huang in a collective army along with all the beast carcasses and loot.
Lin Huang only collected the loot and both of the guardians' bodies. The rest of the carcasses he gave to the army to bring back to the Queen Mothers as raw material.
Having successfully killed two birds with one stone, Lin Huang immediately headed to his second destination – the Misty Toxin Planet.
Just as its name suggested, the Misty Toxin Planet was a planet covered in poisonous mist.
The entire planet was shrouded in gray mist all year round. Powerhouses below virtual god-level and even imperial-level powerhouses were not immune to the lethal poisons that were to be found within the mist itself.
As Death Sickle only published this mission in the reserve members section and the reward points were a measly 300 points, it was perfectly natural that nobody was willing to take the risk.
Lin Huang had been willing to attempt this mission because it was close to the location of the previous two. Another reason was that since he had Divine Fire within his body, he was not afraid of the toxins on the planet.
However, the moment he set foot on the Misty Toxin Planet, Lin Huang found he could not take the stench of the poisonous mist.
"This toxic mist reeks a hundred times worse than the air on that other planet. It's making me sick…"
He felt disgusted as soon as he inhaled, so he had to stop breathing and put his body into breath-circulation mode.
With his imperial-level combat strength, although he could not keep up this internal breathing mode indefinitely, he could maintain it for three to five days.
The mission for the Misty Toxin Planet was to kill a Poisonous Swamp Frog and retrieve its venom.
It did not take long for Lin Huang to locate the Poisonous Swamp Frog's toxic swamp on the missions map. He summoned Thunder and set off for his destination at a furious gallop.
Thunder took less than two minutes to travel over 8,000 kilometers
and galloped faster than the local monsters on the Misty Toxin Planet could see with the naked eye. As a result, Lin Huang and Thunder encountered no obstacles along the way.
Lin Huang could not help frowning a little under his mask as they arrived above their destination—a bubbling purple-black swamp with steam rising from it. Before setting out, he had read from the mission details that most of the toxic gases on this planet came from the huge swamp currently below him.
The swamp covered close to a third of the entire planet. It was 500 million square kilometers, which was comparable to the earth's entire surface area.
According to data records, there were less than 100 Poisonous Swamp Frogs in this entire swamp.
Apart from Poisonous Swamp Frogs, the swamp was also home to other monster species; at a count, these ran into tens of thousands. Taken altogether, the various monster tribes added up to at least billions in number.
Finding a Poisonous Swamp Frog in this swamp was definitely like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Fortunately, Lin Huang had a solution. He gestured with his hands and summoned Grimace.
"What the hell is this evil-smelling sh*tty place?!" Grimace complained the moment he materialized. Subsequently, he shut down his breathing system immediately.
"A toxic swamp on the Misty Toxic Planet in God Territory within the great world," Lin Huang informed him before continuing, "I accepted a mission to find a Poisonous Swamp Frog…"
Lin Huang projected the Poisonous Swamp Frog's likeness as he spoke, "Capture one for me, I don't care if it's alive or not."
"In this swamp?" Grimace asked.
"That's right."
"How big is the swamp?" Grimace enquired again.
"Approximately 500 million square kilometers."
"That's not exactly easy," Grimace smirked.
"A set of god relic flying daggers or a god relic puppet, take your pick." Lin Huang knew that Grimace was looking to get some benefits for himself.
"I'll go for the flying daggers then," Grimace gave his answer after some consideration.
"Sure. Off with you now," Lin Huang nodded without hesitation.
"Alright!" Grimace seemed to be in a good mood since he had managed to get what he wanted. He activated his God Territory directly, covering the maximum radius of 20,000 kilometers.
A moment later, all monsters within the Territory fell under an illusory spell.
Grimace turned his head and asked Lin Huang, "Is one enough? Do you want a few more?"
"No, one is fine." Lin Huang did not expect Grimace to be so efficient.
Lin Huang had almost finished speaking when a gigantic silhouette suddenly thrashed out of the swamp.
Lin Huang scrutinized it closely. The Poisonous Swamp Frog was a gigantic frog monster five meters tall, weighing at least three tonnes. Its body, wreathed in toxic black mist, was bound by Grimace's telekinetic thread. Yanked out from deep within the swamp, it hit the ground hard in front of Lin Huang and promptly fell unconscious.
Lin Huang did not hesitate as he used the telekinetic thread to pick up a flying dagger and slit open the Poisonous Swamp Frog's chin. He retrieved its venom as if he had done it many times before…
Chapter 1260: The Top 10 Most Deceiving Mission (Black Sickle Version)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang had spent less than a day completing three fairly difficult reserve missions.
He headed straight to Death Sickle's base in the Iron Fist Shelter as soon as he completed the missions, and handed both over both the beast carcasses and the Poisonous Swamp Frog venom.
The reception staff was a lady with hair that was permed into large, loose waves. She was rather surprised when she received the mission items.
"These three missions have been sitting there for ages. Nobody was willing to accept them, and we never expected that anyone would be able to complete them either," the lady muttered softly as she processed the promotion paperwork for Lin Huang.
Very soon, the formalities were completed. The lady looked up at Lin Huang.
"It's Xie Lin, am I right? I've submitted your mission results and proceeded with your promotion formalities. It usually takes around three minutes to update your level. If nothing changes after an hour, come back and we'll handle that for you."
Lin Huang headed straight back to the hotel after leaving Death Sickle's base.
He clicked on Death Sickle's official website and saw that his level had indeed been updated. It had been upgraded from the initial 'reserve' to 'Black Sickle' now. Apart from that, the default image changed from the word 'reserve' to a pair of crossed black sickles.
Not only that, there was a change in his access authorization too.
The previously locked trading and forum exchange sections were accessible now. The missions section no longer showed only the section for reserve members; there was a Black Sickle section as well. The message section now gave him access to Black Sickle level information.
Lin Huang could finally see Death Sickle's Black Sickle, White Sickle, and Gold Sickle Leaderboards.
Apart from the code names used by Death Sickle members, the leaderboards recorded combat strength, the number of completed missions, the number of failed missions and total reward points.
"Code Name: Fallen Star"
"Combat Strength: Virtual God rank-9"
"Number of Completed Mission: 1361"
"Number of Failed Mission: 33
"Total Reward Points: 6071518"
…
"Code Name: Destiny"
"Combat Strength: Virtual God rank-9"
"Number of Completed Mission: 1368"
"Number of Failed Mission: 59"
"Total Reward Points: 5712623"
…
"Code Name: Twin"
"Combat Strength: Virtual God rank-9"
"Number of Completed Mission: 1281"
"Number of Failed Mission: 88"
"Total Reward Points: 5112513"
…
Almost all of the top 30 names on the Black Sickle Leaderboard were at Virtual God rank-9.
Lin Huang looked through the Black Sickle Leaderboard for a while before turning his attention to the White Sickle Leaderboard.
"Code Name: Virtuoso"
"Combat Strength: Seventh-rank True God"
"Number of Completed Mission: 768"
"Number of Failed Mission: 0"
"Total Reward Points: Access denied due to low authorization"
Lin Huang was shocked when he saw the details of the No.1 name, Virtuoso.
"His combat strength is only at the level of seventh-rank True God and he's taken on very few missions, but he's still on the top spot?!"
The person listed after Virtuoso was a ninth-rank True God who had completed 3,619 missions. Although he failed 78 missions, he was still ranked No.2. Clearly, the missions that Virtuoso took on were more difficult so the reward points had to be very high.
"He didn't fail at any of those 700-over difficult missions?" Lin Huang's attention was drawn to this particular point.
Obviously, this person with the codename Virtuoso was very powerful.
On the White Sickle Leaderboard, the person in the No.2 spot failed 78 missions while No.3 completed over 3,700 missions and failed 126 missions. The next person in line had over 200 failed missions.
It was obvious that White Sickle-level missions were not easy to complete.
After browsing the White Sickle Leaderboard for a while, Lin Huang proceeded to look at the higher-ranked Gold Sickle Leaderboard.
The person who ranked No.1 there was no other than Buried Heaven who was famous in the entire God Territory. Even Lin Huang, a recent arrival to the God Territory, had heard of him.
"Code Name: Buried Heaven"
"Combat Strength: Ninth-rank heavenly god-level"
"Number of Completed Mission: 5128"
"Number of Failed Mission: 13"
"Total Reward Points: Access denied due to low authorization"
…
After checking out Buried Heaven's statistics, Lin Huang was convinced that Virtuoso, the top rank on the White Sickle Leaderboard, was a genius. Buried Heaven ranked No.1 on the Gold Sickle Leaderboard and had ninth-rank heavenly god-level combat strength—yet he had failed 13 missions.
Meanwhile, the people who ranked second and third after Buried Heaven had failed more than 50 missions.
After a general look through the three leaderboards, what impressed Lin Huang most was not the Gold Sickle Leaderboard, nor Buried Heaven who was ranked the most powerful. It was Virtuoso who ranked No.1 on the White Sickle Leaderboard.
Unfortunately, as a Black Sickle member, Lin Huang did not have the authorization to access details of White Sickle and Gold Sickle members.
Interest piqued, Lin Huang tried hunting for information on Virtuoso over the internet but found nothing. In contrast, information on Buried Heaven could be found easily; there were even many videos of him killing his targets.
Buried Heaven's modus operandi was different from other assassins; one might even call him an anomaly. He never bothered with sneak attacks— in every assassination he appeared before his targets in full sight and made no attempt to disguise or hide his face. He would confront his targets directly, kill them, and leave.
He had also never prevented any spectators from recording his battles, nor did he care about the consequences that might ensue after his videos were posted on the internet.
As for the storm of mocking and teasing after the videos of his two failed missions went viral on the internet, he had never responded to any of it.
"This Buried Heaven is quite an interesting guy."
After closing the page, Lin Huang reined in his curiosity and began to look through the forum's message section.
Before beginning anything, the most important step was to retrieve information related to the task at hand. This was the advice that Bloody had given to Lin Huang.
As a result, Lin Huang thought he would check out the message section to see if he could find anything useful before he officially took on any missions.
Reserve members were denied access to the message section. It was Lin Huang's first time checking it since his promotion to Black Sickle level.
Based on popularity, the top thread was one entitled 'The Top 10 Most Deceptive Missions (Black Sickle Version)'.
Lin Huang could not help clicking on the thread after seeing the title.
"The No.1 Most Deceptive Mission:"
"Mission: Killing the Wine Ant Queen."
"Target Information: Bug Tribe Wine Ant Queen, mythical-level, Virtual God rank-9 combat strength (might elevate to true god-level anytime). Has four pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians whose combat strength is also peak Virtual God rank-9. She has over a hundred million Ant Tribe fighters under her, all of them at virtual god-level. The Wine Ant Queen can produce up to 1,000 Ant Tribe fighters every minute when she has sufficient resources…"
"Mission Reward Points: 300,000 points (Excluding points for selling bug carcasses and pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians. Extra 10,000 points for each kill.)"
"Challenges of the Mission:
1. The Wine Ant Queen has at least a hundred million Ant Tribe fighters, all of which are at virtual god-level. Not only that, she does not stop producing Ant Tribe fighters along the way. Even a beginner-stage true god-level powerhouse would find it hard to go deep into the colony. As soon as one's Divine Power is exhausted, a True God would die in the colony.
2. The four pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians are individually almost as strong as True Gods. Not only that, all of them have different abilities. Some are good in long-distance attacks, some excel at close-range combat, while others specialize in control and defense. The four bug guardians have been fighting together for years. When they join forces, even a second-rank True God might not be able to defeat them.
3. The Ant Queen is mythical-level herself. Her ability might be comparable to a first-rank True God were she to go into battle.
4. The star zone where the Wine Ant Queen resides is a battleground in itself. Apart from the Ant Queen, there are also other powerful Bug Tribes around.
…
Lin Huang was all fired up after reading the mission's description, instead of being discouraged.
Perhaps to other Black Sickle members, this mission seemed impossible; it was practically going to one's death even. Lin Huang, however, was not at all afraid of these sorts of Bug Tribes with a Queen Mother.
The numbers of the Ant Queen's troops were merely numbers as long as their ability was below Nightmare Tapir.
The incredibly high 300,000 reward points were very tempting as well.
After all, for Black Sickle members, ordinary missions to kill Virtual Gods were only worth between 100 to 10,000 points. Only limited, difficult true god-level missions would have reward points over 10,000.
The 300,000 reward points awarded for killing the Wine Ant Queen were because the difficulty was much higher than assassinating ordinary beginner-stage True Gods.
If this mission was posted in the missions section for White Sickle members, most of the beginner-stage True Gods might be afraid to accept it; only medium-rank True Gods would dare to take the risk. After all, although True Gods had Divine Fire within their bodies, as soon as the drain on Divine Power surpassed the speed by which Divine Fire could produce Divine Power, one's Divine Fire might be exhausted too.
This mission deserved to be called the No.1 Most Deceptive Mission.
After reading through the mission's full description, Lin Huang considered it for a little, then proceeded to check out other missions on the leaderboard…