LIGHTNOVELONLINE
Chapter 135: Financial Expansion Route
To gamers, anything that was a game meant that there would always be a strategy. If a quest seemed impassable or a monster seemed undefeatable, then it was just a matter of finding the right approach.
Striking with a sword proved futile, so players began brainstorming other methods.
A player took off their T-shirt and soaked it in smelly sewage water, attempting to wipe off the stain but to no avail.
Another player gathered wood chips and dry moss, attempting to use fire again, without success.
Yet another player tried to pry off the layer of the wall with the stain which was equally fruitless.
"What the hell! Is this just designed to annoy us?" Yang Ying kicked the wall in frustration.
"Wait!" Orange Cat suddenly shouted, pointing at the wall. "Look closely!"
"Huh, what?" The others were confused.
"The height! Its height has changed!" Orange Cat exclaimed excitedly. "When Sis Ying was standing there, the stain reached her shoulder. Now it's down to chest level!"
Phantom quickly scrutinized the wall, especially the marks left from their earlier attempts to pry it. "For real? Eh! This thing has slipped down a little!"
"Uh So, what do we do next?" Yang Ying looked toward Orange Cat expectantly.
"Huh? How should I know? I just noticed the stain move down," Orange Cat replied sheepishly.
All the other players: ""
With the intellectual player Blossoming Strokes absent as she had gone to earn money off NPCs, the group of players was at a loss. Exchanging glances with each other, they soon turned their eyes collectively toward Zhao Zhenzhen, seeking guidance.
Study Obsessed, boldly stepped forth, cozied up to Zhao Zhenzhen and unleashed the charm offensive. "Sis Zhao, do you have any insider tips? Can you share them with us~?"
Phantom gaped in surprise, evidently not expecting their normally bold companion to resort to such a tactic.
Zhao Zhenzhen, expressionless: ""
"I don't have any insider tips. As you all know, I'm just a tool player for the Undead Merchant Association," Zhao Zhenzhen said with mixed feelings. "But since physical attacks are ineffective, why not try magic attacks?"
The players' gazes quickly shifted to Phantom, a wealthy second-generation and the only mage among them.
Phantom slapped his forehead. "Damn, I've been playing as a healer for so long that I forgot I'm a mage too."
Study Obsessed's voice instantly rose a pitch higher. "Hurry up!"
"Who was it that convinced me a mage's value was greater as a full-time healer?" Phantom muttered under his breath, pointing his thick wooden staff at the stain and casting Shadow Force.
Purplish-black shadow magic oozed toward the irregularly shaped stain on the wall, dissolving into it like a sugar cube in a cup of coffee.
The unevenly colored black stain, darker in some areas and lighter in others, appeared to become more concentratedthe lighter parts turning pitch black.
Players: "The heck?!"
"Hey, this doesn't look like a successful attack, right?" Only Orange Cat called out.
"Uh, hold on." Undead mage skills deal damage to non-undead creatures and heal undead ones, right? Could this thing be an undead creature?" Fallen Mulberry Leaves asked.
Zhao Zhenzhen inhaled sharply.
Yang Ying asked in bewilderment, "Ah? This thing is a friendly?"
Zhao Zhenzhen felt a lump in her throat.
"It comes and goes without a trace and clings to the walls. It does sound like the haunting spirits or ghosts from movies," Phantom agreed, nodding. "Ghosts and spirits are undead, so they're part of our faction. My interface didn't show any attack information either. That was probably like healing, and a friendly wouldn't run."
Zhao Zhenzhen hesitated to speak.
"But that doesn't make sense. Why would one of our own sabotage us?" Yang Ying mused. "When we were fighting that water monster, Fallen Mulberry Leaves and I almost got pushed into the gutter."
"Exactly." Fallen Mulberry Leaves nodded. "It always causes trouble when we're farming monsters, clearly with ill intent."
"Let's not get into that right now. Phantom, keep casting and see what happens," Orange Cat instructed.
Phantom continued casting spells at the stain.
At present, the majority of veteran players had Potential values ranging around 80-90. Phantom, being a hardcore player, surpassed the mean and had broken 100 Potential value, just shy of enough reputation to initiate his second job change.
A Potential value of 100 was a significant milestone. Crossing this threshold, regardless of whether one had changed classes or not, enhanced a player's energy bar (usable mental power); both the upper limit and recovery rate saw a substantial increase.
For classes like undead mages and undead warriors, where casting skills equated to draining energy, crossing the threshold meant that time to fully recharge energy bars was reduced by at least 30%what used to take over ten minutes was now replenished under ten.
Phantom spent two full bars of energy using Shadow Force, a dark magic spell. Under the sustained input of dark magic, the irregular stain on the wall gradually became a rounded, full 3D image. It smoothly slid off the wall onto the floor and then, as the players watched intently, vaporized into a mist, coalescing into a semi-transparent human form.
The players let out a collective sound of awe.
Zhao Zhenzhen, the only one aware of the truth, mustered all her willpower to not retreat and stood firmly at the front line.
This semi-transparent figure, composed of swirling black mist, was different from the ghosts in movies. It lacked a discernible face, unlike films where actors' faces were shown for dramatic effect. This more realistic apparition revealed its true form without any theatrical attempts at communication. Instead, it malevolently attacked Yang Ying, who was closest.
"What the heck? It's ungrateful too? Don't think I will spare you just because you are an undead!" Infuriated, Yang Ying unsheathed her sword and hacked away.
Ghosts, typically intangible, should be immune to physical attacks. However, having absorbed the dark energy "gifted" by the players, this ghost had formed a semi-physical body. Yang Ying's strike caused a rippling, mist-like tear in the left chest of the apparition, causing a wisp of mist to escape from the cut.
"Ehh? It can be struck!" Yang Ying exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
"Is it showing a health bar now?" Fallen Mulberry Leaves, upon hearing this, gripped her sword with both hands and launched Blade Dance, a skill that targeted all enemies within a 30-degree radius in front of her.
Other players, wielding various small daggers, also joined in on the onslaught without hesitation.
"Make way, Sis Zhao!" Players from behind pushed past Zhao Zhenzhen to get to the front and eagerly unleashed their skills.
In the chaos of blades, the newly "enhanced" and semi-corporeal sewer ghost, which had just lucked into physical form, was quickly dispersed by the relentless attacks before it even had a chance to defend or flee.
[]
[Territory Prestige gained by each participating player: 80.]
[Acquired Inferior Magic Residue: x2]
The players, who were desperately in need of prestige, rejoiced in ecstatic celebration. "Wow, this type of monster gives territory prestige, and so much of it!"
"Awesome!"
"The monsters here are actually so rewarding!"
"Let's search for more of these ghostly monsters, hurry!"
"Master Phantom, stop healing at random, conserve your mana!"
Emboldened by their success, the players weren't satisfied with just lurking near their temporary camp to farm water monsters anymore. They joyously began scouring the city's entire sewer system.
Zhao Zhenzhen, witnessing firsthand how the players learned to adapt their strategies against surreal ghostly entities: ""
It seems that treating this place purely as a game was actually quite effective for those players
With daybreak approaching in the "game," Zhao Zhenzhen left the group of frenzied players and returned to the surface to manage the photo studio business.
The studio's primary clientle, middle-class women, rarely visited in the morning. During the early hours, Zhao Zhenzhen, Ben, Brook, and Vivian, whom Brook had recruited as a "shop assistant," busied themselves with cleaning the studio, organizing clothes and jewelry for photo sessions, and preparing refreshments for guests.
After finishing the preparations for opening, Zhao Zhenzhen immediately called local expert Brook into the "makeup artist's preparation room" for a serious talk.
"What exactly is going on in the city's sewers?"
Brook was taken aback first before he understood. "Sis Zhao, are you talking about those water monsters? They crawl up through the drainage due to being connected to underground rivers. It's perfect for our undead friends to hunt as I mentioned before."
"I mean, other things besides the water monsters." Zhao Zhenzhen gestured, lowering her voice. "Some like ghosts or spirits. Have those things always been around in the past?"
"Yeah." Brook nodded honestly. "Every few years, when it's time to clear out the water monsters, we wait for the church's night watchmen to perform exorcisms before mercenaries can go down.
Our undead friends hunting water monsters down there don't mind the ghosts since they're also undead."
Zhao Zhenzhen rubbed her temples.
Players being undead aren't the same as the absurd undead of this strange world!!!
"The hides of water monsters can be exchanged for coins at the city hall, but what about those ghosts? Is there any benefit to driving them away?" Zhao Zhenzhen perked herself up and asked.
Brook let out a surprised "Ahh" as if he couldn't believe that Zhao Zhenzhen, an undead herself, would say such a thing.
"Young Brook," Zhao Zhenzhen grasped his shoulder and spoke even more solemnly. "Our Taranthan undead are different from those other undead. Any creature that doesn't adhere to the principles of peaceful coexistence and order is our enemy, undead or not."
Brook's eyes sparkled with admiration as he stared at Zhao Zhenzhen. Nodding vigorously, he said, "I'm sorry, Sis Zhao, I misunderstood you all. How could those other undead compare to those of Taranthan?
"Only exorcists can receive rewards for banishing ghosts from the night watchmen. We need to register as exorcists"
Without another word, Zhao Zhenzhen pulled out the Orb of Deception she had requisitioned or rather, borrowed from Orange Cat. "Let's go!"
Having already played the role of a shrewd photo studio boss, taking on another guise as an exorcist wasn't much of a stretch.
Zhao Zhenzhen's "tool character account," upon activating the Orb of Deception, transformed her into a towering, immensely muscular man with huge arms, akin to a Spartan warrior.
Back on Earth, such an intimidating appearance would have surely attracted police attention and warranted an ID check several times. In this world, this was a figure that could stop children's cries on the streets. When initially renting the 063 Prant Street property, the landlord hadn't dared to take advantage of Brook and offered a very reasonable price.
With such a menacing appearance, Zhao Zhenzhen, accompanied by Brook, walked into the night watchmen's office of the Church of Lady Gold Coin on Saint Joseph Street. The official in charge of registration didn't hesitate to process their documentation.
After completing the registration, the official, who barely reached Zhao Zhenzhen's shoulders, even kindly explained to Brook, acting as Zhao Zhenzhen's "assistant," how to record ghosts banished using the exorcist ID. Essentially, when a ghost dissipated, exposing the ID to absorb a wisp of abnormal aura served as proof of the deed.
Typically, eliminating a ghost would earn an exorcist a reward of 5 to 10 gold coins from the night watchmen; ghosts and spirits mainly appearing in densely populated towns posed a significant societal risk. The night watchmen divisions of the various faiths supported and encouraged civilian exorcists to join the cause of evil extermination, with registration and reward distribution being quite straightforward.
After all, the money came from the tithe paid by local residents, with no extra outlay from the church. Furthermore, if an exorcist perished in the process, the church wasn't obliged to provide the same compensation to their families as it would to a fallen night watchman.
Zhao Zhenzhen, having acquired her ID, immediately instructed Brook to deliver it underground to the players Recording a ghost earned a hundred reputation points with the Undead Merchant Association, and the players certainly wouldn't refuse such an opportunity for extra gains.