Chapter 81.2: Siege Warfare Prerequisite
Next, Rex informed Ji Tang about the background of those three and subtly hinted that the undead shouldn't inquire too much about their past. Bringing them along would be more sufficient.
Rex's intention was to help these unfortunate souls if he could. After all, Yang had never explicitly stated that orcs couldn't be brought back to Taranthan.
However, the players who hadn't received a quest weren't willing to accept things as it was. Moreover, their common sense and general knowledge far exceeded Rex's expectations. Even though Rex had phrased his explanation as subtly as possible, saying that the three rescued individuals had been sold into Weisshem by unscrupulous merchants and that they were lucky enough to escape… the players still caught out.
Of the three rescued individuals, one was a boy, one was a girl, and the last was a man with nice features. All of them bore signs of having been held captive for some time, so it was rather difficult for anyone to not think positively about their circumstances.
"Is Weisshem a hub for human trafficking?" Give Me Medicine chortled in surprise. "Holy, wait a moment. There wouldn't still be red-light districts in this game, would there? A gaming version of Hamburg, Germany?"
Unceasing Entropy had already logged out as she had classes to attend in the morning. Blossoming Strokes was still around and gave a sideways glance at Give Me Medicine. "Hey, hey, how are you so familiar with this? Mention a red-light district, and you immediately think of Hamburg?"
Give Me Medicine hastily retorted, "Don't jump to conclusions, ma'am. I've never stepped out of my own country before, alright? I just watched 'Hostel' a while back and got curious about Europe…"
The two of them viewed this world as a game, so even when knowing that there was human trafficking and red-light districts, they didn't think much of it. Ji Tang, on the other hand, wasn't the same. He became livid upon learning that the human boy and orc girl had been sold to such a place.
"Rex, were these two children and Ossirian sold to Weisshem?" Ji Tang stared at Rex while deliberately enunciating each word clearly.
Rex, with his good senses and awareness, immediately detected the underlying anger in Ji Tang's still calm voice. Slightly discomforted, he answered, "Yes."
Ji Tang's rage burned stronger even though his voice remained calm. "What sort of place is Weisshem exactly?"
This time, Rex was silent for quite a while.
With Rex's personality, he could be discreet to help others conceal things they didn't want known, but deliberately lying was beyond him.
Under Ji Tang's probing gaze, Rex had to awkwardly admit, "As far as I know, guests who travel there… are willing to pay for humans and orcs with impressive aesthetics."
"I knew it! It's definitely a red-light district. Just like Germany's Hamburg and Holland's Amsterdam!" exclaimed Give Me Medicine.
Blossoming Strokes clicked her tongue, sneering in disdain. "This degree of pursuing realism is way overboard. It's really disgusting…"
Give Me Medicine nodded in agreement. "It is disgusting, but since it's part of a quest, such a setting isn't that out of place."
Blossoming Strokes was way too bothered by the distaste of a red-light district; after all, ladies often found it more difficult to be accepting of such places. It was only Give Me Medicine, who rarely didn't usually think deeply, reminded her that she suddenly came to that realization and exclaimed, "Oh, right! Who would be willing to beat down antagonists if they were portrayed as orderly and virtuous! So, does this mean that the location for this boss fight is Weisshem?"
Rex: "??"
Ji Tang: "…"
Here, he had been racking his brains trying to find a cunning way to get players on board in taking down this human trafficking market. And now, the players themselves had spontaneously provided a legitimate reason to act.
Realizing that he still wasn't quite attuned to the players' line of thought, Ji Tang perked up at once and declared confidently, "Exactly. Weisshem is definitely the target location for this major quest!"
"But we didn't receive a quest. How can we proceed?" Give Me Medicine said, his eyes constantly shifting to Rex.
Since a quest hadn't been triggered from the three NPCs that were rescued, this fellow was looking toward the "good-nature" warrior instructor Rex for compensation. After all, a quest issued by whichever NPC would still be legitimate, with rewards given upon completion!
Rex: "…"
He was all too familiar with the undead's characteristic of always seeking quests all the time, no matter what…
Rex gulped and probed cautiously, "Uh… You guys want to attack Weisshem?"
Give Me Medicine triumphantly raised a fist. "See, Blossom? Wasn't I right, Rex just said that Weisshem can really be attacked!"
Rex was stunned. Wait a minute, I didn't say that!
Blossoming Strokes was also pleasantly surprised and rambled away animatedly, "Whoa, that's exciting? We had to build our own base in the wilderness on our previous expedition, and this time we will be having a siege? If we capture Weisshem, would it become part of our territory? Will it have features like spawn and teleportation points?"
"Definitely! Otherwise, we wouldn't have traveled so far on this expedition!" Give me Medicine said gleefully.
Rex's mouth hung open, and he stared blankly at the undead duo who were getting increasingly carried away by the second.
Did I make a mistake somewhere…?
Ji Tang, the only one who truly knew, resisted the urge to look at the clearly skeptical Charlie Rex and instead added fuel to the fire without batting an eyelid. "I think so, too. This expedition quest is different. We have many times more supplies than before, and it's also a combat class quest with the class instructors having joined us. It looks to be something big."
Rex's lips twitched, but he opted to remain silent.
You can say whatever you want, but I certainly won't issue such a ridiculous quest!
Those not in the imprint matrix couldn't assign quests to the undead, while Hal and his former bandit bunch were even less likely to do so. That bunch only wanted to let the undead cause trouble and hand it over to Yang, but had no intention of doing it themselves! The undead couldn't truly die if they were to attack Weisshem, but people like them with flesh and blood couldn't resurrect once dead!
With his mind set, Rex turned and quickly walked away, leaving no chance for Ji Tang to call him back.
"The heck! Where is he running off to? What about the quest?!" Give Me Medicine voiced out.
Ji Tang, who had steeled himself to uphold justice, grabbed Give Me Medicine, who had been about to chase after Rex, and blatantly made up stuff, "It's probably because Rex alone can't issue such a major quest. This quest might be more difficult than anything we have done before, and just seeking out Rex wouldn't trigger it. What do you think, Blossom?"
Blossoming Strokes didn't even need to think and said with certainty, "A major quest like a siege of this extent wouldn't be triggered that easily. There would surely be many prerequisites to fulfill. With Rex, I reckon getting him to interact with the NPCs we rescued fulfills his prerequisites. To continue in the right direction, we'll probably need to activate storylines related to the other instructor NPCs."
Ji Tang wanted to give Blossoming Strokes two thumbs up. Listen, she gives the most perfect reasons!
From a player's perspective, providing logical explanations was really something only an expert could do!
Next, Blossoming Strokes took the initiative to advise Ji Tang and Give Me Medicine to log out and conserve their daily game time. She would get someone to head offline and inform them when their help was needed later.
Ji Tang was, without doubt, a main force and would handle on-site commands in a siege, while Give Me Medicine, with his excellent equipment, was their side's primary damage dealer. The daily game time of these two players had to be optimized.
Once these two were urged to log out, Blossoming Strokes got busy. She, too, went offline and contacted her gaming buddy Qin Guan, reached out to Brother Lahong via Study Obsessed, and added all players that could lead teams into a WeChat group.
In the group chat, Blossoming Strokes explained her hypothesis on the prerequisites for triggering the siege quest and expressed her hope that all players who had successfully completed the first job advancement and had "remains" stored in the expedition team would cooperate and act as one to complete this ultimate class quest…
As morning arrived on Earth, and it became afternoon in-game, Blossoming Strokes led a group of the game's top intellectual players—Guileless Gale, Unceasing Entropy (who spared some time before class to log in), Win By Grinding (who led a group of solo players)—and confidently approached the first NPC that Unceasing Entropy believed should be "raided" first: Assassin Instructor, Hal Maxwell.
The hierarchical relationships between instructor NPCs were something that players had long figured out. Trigger-happy ranger Tuttle and hot-headed elder brother Finley often hung around Hal and displayed particular deference when interacting with the latter. Other NPCs like Manan and Anthony were also very respectful when dealing with Hal. It would take all the players to be blind not to see Hal's slightly different standing.
Hal found today rather bewildering. When he woke up, he noticed Tuttle running around camp like a crazed madman trying to find something. But when Hal asked Tuttle what he was looking for, he didn't get a response.
Finley and Jerome (the knight instructor) seemed to be relatively normal, but they had no clue as to why Tuttle was acting up either.
These former bandits often didn't treat outsiders well, but they showed a certain degree of camaraderie and compassion toward their own, especially the ones they were closest to. Seeing Tuttle in such a state, Hal got Finley to tell Rex that they should temporarily pause their plans for a day of rest as everyone was exhausted.
Rex knew very well why Tuttle was acting out and understood that it was best to keep the matter under wraps. If not, Tuttle might end up in a conflict with the undead, Ji Tang. And with the style of how these former bandits dealt with matters, his anger might even inadvertently be redirected toward Ossirian… Thus, Rex chose to shut his mouth.
As players were busy coordinating themselves for "siege warfare prerequisites," nobody came forward to protest against these NPCs slacking off. This series of remarkable coincidences meant that the expedition enjoyed an unusually peaceful morning.
Hal, who was usually the one most irritated by players' noisy behavior and often wished to eliminate these "nuisances," found himself feeling uncomfortable throughout this serene morning…
He had even begun to ponder about life when the undead came knocking.
The undead with a melodious voice, whose name had something about a flower, casually barged into Hal's tent, much like the previous occasion at the Wanderer Guild. And this time, it wasn't just one; several chattering skeletons followed behind her.
"Hal, we've rescued three people who escaped from Weisshem. Do you want to meet them?" Blossoming Strokes, who had done ample preparation, approached confidently.
"Huh?"
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦