HPDBC Chapter 194 : Chapter 194
Chapter 194 : Chapter 194
Five player IDs were added to his friends list.Yan Yunqing didn't mind adding a few more people. However, his level was too conspicuous. Currently, there were only four players at level 19 on the leaderboard. His ID was different from the other three, so it was easy to deduce that he was the anonymous player on the leaderboard.
Yan Yunqing received several surprised looks but kept his expression unchanged and remained very modest. "Got lucky, picked up a hidden quest."
"Ah, could it be because you studied the background story..." [Fire's Loneliness] hesitated.
Yan Yunqing nodded. "Correct."
Hiding his ID on the leaderboard was purely because he didn't want his character's appearance to be recognized by most players and be the center of attention wherever he went. It didn't mean he was unwilling to interact with players. Otherwise, he wouldn't log in from time to time to level up and maintain his status in the top ten of the leaderboard.
This identity was beneficial for him to integrate into the player community, especially when dealing with these official personnel.
[Demon Prison Cruiser], who had been lagging behind and silent, spoke up, "What is the hidden quest about?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone's gaze fell on him. [Bin Storm] mouthed a national expletive and quietly gave [Demon Prison Cruiser] a thumbs up.
Yan Yunqing also glanced at him. He originally thought the one who looked very 'innocent' would ask him under the banner of being reckless, but he didn't expect it to be this one...
Hmm, perhaps this person's persona is being straightforward? Or maybe a science guy who dislikes beating around the bush?
Yan Yunqing didn't intend to hide it from them either. "A treasure buried deep beneath the yellow sand."
The five of them: ?
Yan Yunqing spoke slowly, "The previous quest is hard to talk about; it was mainly about a village. But I have another quest on hand, a treasure hunt quest."
Yan Yunqing raised his hand, switched to his quest list, selected [Treasure Buried Deep Beneath the Yellow Sand] to share with friends, checked the five people present, and sent it.
At the same time, a system prompt popped up in front of them: [Your friend has shared a quest with you. View it?]
The five of them: Huh?!
The five people present were stunned by Yan Yunqing's terrifyingly sincere operation without the slightest hesitation.
Didn't he say hidden quests were very important? And he just shared it with them directly?
For a moment, the air fell into silence. They had also walked out of the inner circle of the Norman Forest and stopped outside a small settlement on the forest's periphery.
[Ying Yi] was the first to choose to view it. "Is it really okay to share a hidden quest with us?"
Yan Yunqing shrugged. "I just shared it for you to see. I didn't share the quest progression."
[Ying Yi] choked. [Wangwang Squad] continued, "But for this kind of quest, as long as we know the quest giver, we can go accept it too, right?"
Yan Yunqing's eyes drifted for a moment.
They really wouldn't be able to find this one because the quest came from Doreen.
That Doreen from the Thieves' Guild, who took a mission to steal Morgan's Heart and then put it up for auction, trying to flush out the person behind the mission.
Yan Yunqing gave the [Angel's Tears] he drew from a blind box to Doreen. In return, she gave him her observations from the Church of Light and the treasure map she had promised him earlier.
After getting that treasure map, he automatically received a quest [Treasure Buried Deep Beneath the Yellow Sand], asking him to dig for treasure at the location shown on the map.
But Yan Yunqing searched his memory thoroughly and couldn't recall what treasure was buried at the location marked on the map. The Demon King did collect some good stuff, but he didn't remember the Demon King he controlled placing anything at this location.
So this treasure map was either fake or a trap targeting whoever obtained it.
Of course, there was also a possibility that this treasure was actually hidden by his dependents... but that would be even more unnecessary. Instead of hiding it in that place, it would be better to hide it in the Eternal Empire's treasury or carry it in the Demon King's personal inventory.
Yan Yunqing didn't plan to do this quest, so naturally, he didn't mind sharing it. Even sharing the progression wouldn't matter. He was mainly worried that this was a pit. What if he shared it and accidentally pitted the official personnel?
As for them finding Doreen to accept the quest... sorry, this was the only copy of the treasure map. There was no second copy. Besides, members of the Thieves' Guild weren't that easy to find.
"Well... serendipity quests can't be accepted a second time," Yan Yunqing said. "Are you guys interested? If you are, I can share the quest progression with you too, but this quest might be a trap, and the level requirement is quite high."
[Ying Yi] paused. "A trap?"
"Yeah, the location marked on this treasure map is a no-man's-land," Yan Yunqing explained. "This means the level of demonic beasts there will only be higher than the one you encountered today. But the description of the treasure content is also very ambiguous."
Yan Yunqing rummaged through his backpack and found the treasure map. "It says buried there is a treasure from the era of the War of Gods two thousand years ago, and it's related to gods. I feel there's a pit."
"Huh?" [Fire's Loneliness] didn't understand. "Related to gods? Usually, treasure hunt quests related to gods in games lead to artifacts or something, right? At the very least, it should be a very powerful weapon? Like legendary tier?"
Yan Yunqing said meaningfully, "In this world, things related to gods aren't necessarily good things."
Leaving aside the [Morgan's Heart] he obtained earlier, which was also an item belonging to a god and clearly not something good—staying with that thing for too long could even lead to contamination, and Doreen already had faint traces of contamination on her.
Let's just talk about something most common—demonic beasts.
These things were also born from the bones of gods. In a sense, they could also be considered things related to gods, but demonic beasts were obviously not good things either.
[Fire's Loneliness] didn't understand, but Captain [Ying Yi] and [Wangwang Squad] revealed thoughtful expressions.
[Demon Prison Cruiser] said indifferently, "Because in Return, gods actually represent the villains, right?"
"Eh?"
"I remember a post on the forum digging into Return's background story. In the War of Gods thousands of years ago, human NPCs suffered heavy casualties. Isn't there a saying, 'When gods fight, mortals suffer'? The continent is obviously ruled by humans now, so the gods back then actually represented the villains. Humans overthrew the villains' rule and established a brave new world or something."
Yan Yunqing glanced at him in surprise. That post only pieced together some fragmented background stories. He hadn't seen the latter interpretation in the post, so it must be this kid's own understanding.
"Pretty much," Yan Yunqing nodded. "But it wasn't just the human race that overthrew the gods' rule back then; many other races participated too. In fact, the other races were the main force of the war."
It's just that the Demon King leading the other races happened to be a human.
Yan Yunqing thought.
"So you don't plan to do that quest?" [Ying Yi] asked.
Yan Yunqing was stunned by the question, somewhat surprised. Hearing this, did he plan to...
"Yeah, the rewards for this quest aren't much, plus an unknown treasure. The danger level is too high; the return isn't worth the effort. I don't plan to do it," Yan Yunqing smiled. "Why? Do you want to do it? But your level might not be enough."
"I think it's interesting," [Ying Yi] said. "I can exchange another dungeon resource for this quest with you, a level 20 one."
After players officially came online, Yan Yunqing had also tried looking for dungeons with common game settings. However, after digging for a long time, Yan Yunqing only found a level 5 dungeon through a quest.
Only then did he confirm that Return's dungeons were different from common games. Dungeons needed pre-requisite quests or some special conditions to generate.
Just like the few dungeons he had participated in before.
It hadn't been long since players entered the game—just over a month. For players to discover a few low-level dungeons was already impressive. As long as the dungeon location and entry conditions weren't revealed, this dungeon could become an early-stage boost for the player who discovered it.
Like the number one on the level leaderboard, the one whose level created a gap with the second player, was someone who controlled two dungeons.
Exchanging a dungeon resource for a quest—if Yan Yunqing's real level wasn't seventy-five, he would definitely be tempted.
However, a level 20 dungeon was useless to him.
Yan Yunqing blinked, stopped walking, and looked at [Ying Yi]. Honestly speaking, [Ying Yi]'s face was really plain. And since the characters generated in Return were based on the players' own looks but optimized, for an optimized face to still be this plain, he was probably the type hard to find in a crowd in reality.
Yan Yunqing thought of his father's colleagues who were riddled with old injuries, sighing that the person in front of him was truly good material for executing secret missions.
"Sure," Yan Yunqing agreed readily. "But I don't lack dungeon resources. I want something else."
[Ying Yi]'s eyes flickered. "What do you need?"
"Intelligence," Yan Yunqing said. "If you receive other hidden quests, share them with me. I mean ones related to the main storyline. One treasure hunt quest for one hidden quest. Tell me the general requirements of the quest before sharing. Once I confirm, you can share it."
Simply put, he also wanted the right to choose the quest.
[Ying Yi]: "...We might not necessarily receive hidden quests."
Yan Yunqing was curious. "You can't? Can't the team behind you... um, your guild do it either?"
[Wangwang Squad] was stunned for a moment, but [Ying Yi] remained calm. "What guild?"
The other three clearly sensed something; they all quieted down, the atmosphere becoming somewhat heavy.
The concept of player guilds was common in other games, but in Return, this function didn't exist yet—or rather, the guild function wasn't available yet. Players could currently only form small squads.
And the person in front of them suddenly mentioning a guild—obviously using 'player guild' as a pseudonym for the official organization behind them.
But where did he know about it from? How did he know?
Yan Yunqing pondered, "Hmm... Don't you have a guild? I see your division of labor and coordination are quite practiced, your levels are high, and most importantly, very even... It's hard for ordinary players to achieve this, right? At the very least, you must be veteran players or professional players. I heard many players have privately formed guilds now; don't you have one?"
[Ying Yi]: ...?
"Did I guess wrong?" Yan Yunqing tilted his head. "But you even have dungeon resources; you should have a guild, right? Otherwise, it would be hard for a single player to keep news of a level 20 dungeon resource locked down until now without any information leaking out."
Indeed, players on the forum had already started privately forming guilds. To possess a level 20 dungeon resource, it had to be a large guild; if it were an individual player, it would have been snatched away long ago.
There were few players now, but once there were more, the Ailman Continent would probably witness the intrigues and maneuverings between guilds, each more scheming than the last, even more complex than palace dramas.
[Ying Yi] stared at Yan Yunqing for a moment, unable to read anything from his face. He simply followed Yan Yunqing's words, "We do indeed have a guild. Are you interested in joining?"
Now it was Yan Yunqing's turn to slowly type out a question mark.
No, you guys really plan to set up a player guild?
Yan Yunqing was stunned, then decisively refused, "No thanks, I prefer being a lone wolf player."
[Ying Yi] expressed regret. "Pity. But the exchange condition you mentioned earlier—deal."