Chapter 787 Los Angeles Instance Dungeon
It was 1 pm at Los Angeles, the Hollywood Walk of Fame…
Every member of Meteor Rock Guild was there.
Qiao Qiao was wearing a bright-red trench coat and there was a solemn look of fortitude on her face.
The muscular Lun Tai and Bei Tai were following her, one on the left and one on the right. The two of them wore a similar-looking beret hat but of a different colour. The muscles bulging out from their bodies made it look like the clothes they wore would rip apart at any moment.
Qimu Xi wore a full jeans outfit, her hair cut short and neat. There was no longer a look of confusion within her eyes. Instead, they would sweep around with a sharp gaze every now and again.
Xia Xiaolei wore a pure-black formal suit. His previous atmosphere of a country bumpkin back when he first met Chen Xiaolian had long since disappeared. Rather, there were even hints of valour there.
Roddy held Soo Soo’s hand, walking in the rear with that same look of indifference and laziness on his face.
As for Soo Soo, she wore a pink one-piece skirt, sporting a pair of ponytails and a lollipop in her mouth. She appeared slightly taller than before.
“The instance dungeon will start in two hours. Are we going to enter the instance dungeon while walking in the street like this?” Bei Tai patted Qiao Qiao’s shoulder. There was a serious look on his face.
“Let’s go back to the hotel. Either that or find a quiet place. Let’s make some preparations first. No matter how you cut it, this is still an instance dungeon. We should treat it with caution.”
“For the current us, do the conditions that we are in before entering an instance dungeon make a difference?” Qiao Qiao did not stop moving forward. She inserted her hands into the pockets of her trench coat and continued without turning her head back, “Enough, Bei Tai. Just admit it, you just don’t want to accompany me while I go shopping.”
“… … …”
As Qiao Qiao had seen through his intentions, Bei Tai revealed a slight look of embarrassment.
“Err… actually, it’s not…”
“Damn it! That’s right! What’s so embarrassing about admitting that?!” Lun Tai rolled his eyes. “We’ve been shopping for over an hour now since we had our meal! Qiao Qiao, are you still not satisfied?”
“It’s only been over an hour. With your strengthened bodies, not even walking for two whole days would make you two tired. At most, you would only feel bored.” Qiao Qiao then stopped. She turned around, a playful look on her face. “Look at Roddy and Xia Xiaolei. Did they complain at all? You two can’t even handle some shopping, no wonder you two brothers are still bachelor dogs.”
“Hey! Qiao Qiao, be more conscientious when talking. The two of us are bachelor dogs? Do Roddy and Xia Xiaolei have girlfriends?” Bei Tai snorted fiercely.
“In Roddy’s case, doesn’t he have that little angel from Zero City? Although he failed to court her in the past… and it’s also been a long time since he heard from her, but there is still some love between them in the past. As for Xia Xiaolei…”
Qiao Qiao cast a look of disappointment at the two brothers before leaning closer to their ears. “Are you two actually stupid or just pretending? Are you really incapable of seeing that those two… there’s something there.”
“What?”
“For real?”
Lun Tai and Bei Tai exclaimed in a hushed tone.
“Guys will always be guys in the end.” Qiao Qiao gave a soft harrumph. “Naughty little chicken!”
“Sup? Why did we stop? Is Big Miss Qiao finally tired of shopping? If so, let’s head back!” Seeing them stop in front, Roddy’s face immediately revealed joy. Letting go of Soo Soo’s hand, he ran forward. “I say, what are you fellows discussing?”
“Roddy, come here. Let me ask you something.” Lun Tai waved at Roddy while looking at Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi, who were still slowly walking behind them. He put his arm around Roddy’s neck, pulling him closer before whispering, “Qiao Qiao said… Qimu Xi and Xia Xiaolei… there’s something between them? Is it true?”
Roddy blinked and his mouth fell open. He stared at Lun Tai and Bei Tai with a dumbfounded expression.
“See that? See that? Look at his dumbfounded face!” Bei Tai pointed at Roddy’s face with a look of indignation before saying in a hushed tone towards Qiao Qiao, “Even Roddy failed to see it. Why are you calling us two stupid?”
“That’s not it…” Roddy finally recollected himself and he quickly shook his head. “You two… did you two really not realize it? Since the last instance… no, since the last last instance dungeon, isn’t it already obvious? You’re asking me now?”
“Huh?”
Lun Tai and Bei Tai grew flabbergasted. Bei Tai counted with his fingers. “The last last instance dungeon… is the Athens one?”
“Yes!” Roddy looked at Lun Tai and Bei Tai the way one would look at an idiot. “Bruh, are you two blind?”
…
Their team continued to walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As always, Qiao Qiao would occasionally push open the door of one of the shops there and enter to have a look. As for Lun Tai and Bei Tai, they would – every once in a while – cast furtive looks at Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi, who were behind them.
But… this didn’t seem right.
The two of them clearly weren’t walking side by side.
They were also not whispering to each other.
They were simply walking normally, one walking in front of the other. How could anyone tell that there was something between them?
“The instance dungeon will be starting in… three minutes.”
Qiao Qiao walked out of the shop and threw the two bags in her hand to Roddy. “Help me keep them. I’m done shopping.”
“You keep getting me to do that! Don’t you have your own storage gear?” Roddy rolled his eyes. However, he kept the items that Big Miss Qiao had just bought into his storage gear anyways, carefully doing so while avoiding the gazes of the surrounding pedestrians.
“Alright, enough messing around.” Lun Tai cleared his throat. “Although clearing an instance dungeon is already very easy for the current us, we cannot completely let our guards down. Since… I’ve been tasked with Guild Leader position, I will have to be responsible for all of you. When he comes back, I don’t want him to see that some of us are missing.”
Considering Qiao Qiao’s feelings, Lun Tai had avoided mentioning Chen Xiaolian’s name.
“Understood.”
“Affirmative.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t worry. These days, we’ve joined so many instance dungeons without Xiaolian. Did we ever mess up when it really counts?”
Everyone nodded simultaneously.
A green curtain of light flashed.
[Prompt: Your guild was not selected for this instance dungeon. Your guild is still within the instance dungeon’s area. Please leave the instance dungeon area before the countdown ends. Timer: 00 minutes 01 seconds.
[Prompt: Instance dungeon number VD-1067 – Los Angeles instance dungeon has started! Your guild failed to leave the instance dungeon area before the specified time. You must now participate in this instance dungeon.
[First phase of the quest: Within 72 hours, intercept an important meteorite that the United States Army is sending from somewhere around Los Angeles to Arizona. The coordinates of the meteorite will be displayed on your personal radars in 10 hours’ time.]
Everyone turned to look at Qiao Qiao.
“Your turn, guidebook.” Roddy grinned at Qiao Qiao.
“This instance dungeon. Hmm… it is quite interesting.”
Qiao Qiao closed her eyes and checked her personal system. She stayed silent for some time. Finally, she opened her eyes and said, “Say… are you fellows interested in becoming a BOSS?”
“Become a BOSS?” Roddy immediately rubbed his fists. “That sounds very interesting! Hurry, share the information about the instance dungeon with us.”
Qiao Qiao nodded and shared detailed information about the instance dungeon through their guild channel.
[Los Angeles instance dungeon, number VD-1067
[Storyline: Three days ago, a meteorite carrying alien genes fell into the Greater Los Angeles Area. The alien genes could fuse with the genes of the existing species on Earth and grow rapidly. After reaching Earth, the meteorite had swiftly transformed its surroundings into an alien environment with its own alien population.
[However, before the gene contamination could further expand, the United States Army from Area 51 had surrounded and destroyed the mutated creatures within and collected the meteorite. The meteorite will be loaded and transported to a secret research base in Arizona. Transport of the meteorite will begin in 10 hours’ time and its location will be displayed in the personal radar of every participant.
[First phase of the quest: Obtain the meteorite before the United States Army could transport it. The team or individual Player that obtains the meteorite will be rewarded with 2,000 points. The moment a team or individual Player successfully obtains the meteorite, the second phase of the quest will begin.
[Hidden quest in the first phase: Obtain the meteorite after the United States Army has transported the meteorite to the Arizona research base. The team or individual Player that obtains the meteorite will receive 5,000 points.
[When the meteorite is obtained, the second phase will begin. Within 72 hours, if the meteorite is snatched away by any other Player, the quest will end in failure.
[Quest for the second phase: After obtaining the meteorite, keep it sealed and do not allow any other team or individual Player to snatch it away. At the same time, the one holding the meteorite will be revealed in the radar of the other Players. They will be revealed to any Player within a radius of 100 kilometres.
[By protecting and maintaining ownership of the meteorite for 48 hours, the quest will be completed and the team or individual Player will obtain 10,000 points. In addition, everyone involved will receive an Alien Genetic Enhancement Serum. It can permanently upgrade a basic attribute up to [B] class. The same Player may use this serum up to two times.
[If the meteorite is snatched away before the 48 hours is over, the ownership of the meteorite will be transferred and the countdown for the 48 hours will begin anew.
[Hidden Quests:
[Hidden Quest 1: Destroy the meteorite.
[By utilizing high-tech equipment or magic, create a temperature of over 8,000 °C to utterly destroy the meteorite and the alien genes inside the meteorite. After the meteorite is destroyed, the quest will be completed. The team or individual Player involved will obtain 1,000 points.
[Hidden Quest 2: Genetic growth.
[Break the shell sealing the meteorite and the meteorite will once again disperse alien genes. Players will not be contaminated. Continue holding the alien meteorite and protect the growing ecosphere. Obtain sufficient genes from the living creatures on Earth and complete the incubation process. The incubation speed depends on the number of genetic samples obtained. As long as the meteorite holder continues to hold the meteorite, the creatures in the ecosphere will not attack the meteorite holder and their team. After the meteorite hatches, the meteorite holder will become the winner of this instance dungeon.
[If the meteorite holder is killed, the meteorite ownership will automatically be transferred to another member of the team. If there is no longer any active member of the team in the instance dungeon, ownership of the meteorite will be transferred to the Player who killed the last meteorite holder. Additionally, the new meteorite holder will be marked +1.
[At all times, the position of the meteorite holder will be displayed on the personal radar of the other Players within a radius of 100 kilometres.
[When the total number of meteorite holder reaches 3, ownership of the meteorite will no longer be transferred. The team or individual Player who kills the meteorite holder will become the winners of this instance dungeon and receive 15,000 points. Additionally, every one will receive a high-grade Alien Genetic Enhancement Serum. It can permanently upgrade a basic attribute up to [B+] class. The same Player may use this serum up to three times.
[Hidden Quest 3: Gene plunder.
[Destroy the shell of the meteorite, devour its core embryo and obtain alien genes. The devourer will take the place of the embryo inside the meteorite, becoming the Species Lord. They will also obtain the ability to spread alien genes. After the devourer has devoured the core embryo, Players’ radars will stop displaying their position for 100 hours. After the 100-hour period is over, the devourer’s location will be displayed once more on the radars of all the remaining Players. Affected area will cover the entire instance dungeon area.
[The Species Lord will automatically integrate the genes acquired from living creatures. The more genes obtained, the more gene abilities the Species Lord will obtain. Win condition for the Species Lord will be changed to killing all the current participants. Time limit: 72 hours.
[If the Species Lord fails to kill all the participants within 72 hours, the instance dungeon will automatically end and the surviving participants will be deemed to have failed the quest. The Species Lord will die.
[The status of Species Lord obtained from this instance dungeon will be retained after this instance dungeon is over.
[Hidden Quest 3.1: Gene plunder (Opposition).
[When a Player enters Hidden quest 3, kill the Species Lord and wipe out all the creatures infested with the alien genes. The team or individual Player that made the kill will receive 50,000 points and the special prop, Cultivable Embryo x 10.
[Cultivable Embryo: An alien embryo duplicate with growth attributes. After binding with a user, it can be planted in an instance dungeon. After 10 minutes, it will grow into a mutant War Beast. The user can collect and inject genes into the Cultivable Embryo. The strength of the genes injected will determine the individual attributes of the mutant War Beast.
[The mutant War Beast cannot be taken out of the instance dungeon after the instance dungeon is over.
[Punishment for quest failure: For all teams and individual Players who cannot complete the quest, every single person will have their points deducted by 1,000 points. Additionally, in the next three instance dungeons, the number of points received as rewards will be halved.]
“This instance dungeon is interesting!” Roddy’s eyes lit up. “To think that it would have such an enticing option of becoming a BOSS! I say, let’s go with Hidden Quest 3!”
He rubbed his fists, his face filled with excitement as he looked at the others.
“Are you so eager to become a villain?” Bei Tai snickered.
“Nonsense! Being the villain is cool!”
“Lun Tai, you are our acting Guild Leader now. What do you think?” Qiao Qiao turned towards Lun Tai.
“It’s very difficult to decide…” Lun Tai gently rubbed his chin, a very troubled look on his face. “We’ll have to carefully consider this.”
“The two routes in the first phase will not affect the route to the second phase. Let’s head back to the hotel first. We’ll conduct a proper discussion.” Qiao Qiao thought about it.
“We still have a lot of time. Only after coming up with a proper plan can we obtain the biggest reward.”
Naughty little chicken. Raw: ‘小辣鸡’, pinyin: ‘xiǎo là jī’. Rough translation: little spicy chicken. Used to say that someone is a piece of trash in a joking manner.
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