Chapter 81: The Reward
"..."
After reading the task description, Joo Joowon found himself at a loss for words.
No wonder the quest had been completed the moment it was accepted.
How could it not be completed already?
If this had happened to someone else, they probably would have been completely helpless.
After all, killing the boss was not necessarily a requirement for reaching this location.
It was entirely possible that another player had already killed the boss but never bothered dealing with the cocoons, while a later player had curiously opened them.
In that situation, the hidden quest would naturally have fallen onto the latter player instead.
For that unfortunate person, the quest would have become something impossible to complete forever.
The only outcome would have been carrying a permanent negative status effect for the rest of their life.
Joo Joowon wondered whether this sort of debuff could be removed through some other method.
Scratching his head, he closed the cocoon once more and wrapped another layer of hunting silk around it to ensure that Blade69’s eternal rest would not be disturbed.
Before leaving, he intended to find an opportunity to bury him properly.
Only after finishing with that cocoon did Joo Joowon move on to inspect the others.
Perhaps Blade69 had truly been the final living person on the upper floors.
Joo Joowon discovered that everyone else had already been completely digested.
There was barely any liquid remaining inside their cocoons, making it impossible for him to determine which had once contained zombies and which had once held living people.
The Spider Chimera truly consumed everything without leaving behind even bones.
These cocoons were likely the final traces these people would ever leave behind in the human world.
Joo Joowon carefully arranged them properly before finally turning his attention toward the cocoons containing the baby spiders.
After that, he did not encounter any more hidden quests.
The horrifying scenes were also absent because the victims had already dissolved into liquid long ago.
Joo Joowon vented his anger by chopping at the baby spider corpses several times until he finally felt somewhat better.
He could easily imagine that if the Spider Chimera had not wanted to accelerate their growth and force them to hatch prematurely, then perhaps some of the people inside these cocoons might actually have survived.
As long as the players had been given a little more time, then even if Joo Joowon had never come upstairs, the survivors on the upper floors might already have leveled up by killing zombies and would not have been completely helpless when facing the Spider Chimera.
Even something as desperate as igniting a gas tank and blowing themselves up together with it might have been possible.
Unfortunately, there were no "what ifs" in this world.
The baby spiders that had failed to be born successfully had incomplete bodies to begin with, so naturally there were no Zombie Cores or similar items inside them.
Joo Joowon originally intended to use spider silk to throw them all out of the window, but he was worried that the rainwater might cause some sort of mutation or unexpected change, so in the end he simply ignored them and returned home carrying the Legacy Treasure Chest.
"Meow?"
The moment Byeol saw Joo Joowon return and open the door, he originally intended to rush over and greet him immediately.
However, after catching the scent on him, the cat stopped in his tracks.
Joo Joowon did not pay much attention to it.
Using the spider silk, he removed his helmet, clothing, and equipment before finally walking over and picking Byeol up.
The warmth of the cat’s body and the soft, fluffy fur gave Joo Joowon a small measure of comfort.
Unable to help himself, he hugged Byeol tightly and curled up on the sofa.
"Meow?"
Byeol licked Joo Joowon’s face in confusion, unable to understand why going outside for a single trip had caused such a drastic change in his mood.
After holding Byeol for quite a while, Joo Joowon finally felt a little better.
The apocalypse was still continuing.
It would not stop simply because he was feeling emotional.
Joo Joowon had no intention of allowing himself to remain trapped in negative feelings for too long, lest it affect his performance when killing zombies later.
He had always been very good at adjusting his mood.
As he placing Byeol aside, Joo Joowon first checked the item rewarded by the hidden quest.
...
[ Blade69’s Blessing ]
[ Effect ]: Spirit +1, Critical Hit Rate +30% (Spider-type monsters only)
[ Requirement ]: Complete Hidden Quest [ The Curse of Blade69 ]
[ Description ]: A buff created by Blade69 through sacrificing his own soul before death. The hardships he endured during life forged his indomitable will and an extraordinary hatred toward spider-type monsters.
(Note: This buff is not permanent. It uses the soul as fuel. Once the soul is exhausted, the effect will disappear.)
...
Joo Joowon froze for a moment.
He could not imagine just what kind of suffering Blade69 had endured before his death for him to willingly offer up his own soul to the system in exchange for this hidden quest.
Thinking about it now, the negative effect from the quest failure penalty had probably also been created using his soul.
Since both the reward for success and the punishment for failure were ultimately paid for by Blade69 himself, it was easy to imagine that if the quest had not been completed within the specified time limit, the final reward would likely have been heavily reduced as well.
That was perfectly normal.
Many hidden quests were already influenced by factors such as completion speed and the favorability of NPCs.
The quest was already over and Joo Joowon did not dwell too much on those details.
He simply felt somewhat depressed.
Even now, he still did not know what his real name had been.
The system only recorded his game ID, and even that ID happened to be one that had already been duplicated.
Joo Joowon let out a sigh and stopped dwelling on it.
If he himself died someday, then he would probably face the exact same ending.
Taking out the Legacy Treasure Chest, Joo Joowon vigorously rubbed Byeol’s head a few times before finally choosing to open it.
Four orbs of light immediately flew out from inside the chest.
Joo Joowon picked them up one by one and checked them.
....
[ Player Qualification Token ]
[ Copper Coin ×1 ]
[ Experience ×5 ]
[ Free Attribute Point ×1 ]
...
Seeing this, Joo Joowon fell into thought.
So Legacy Treasure Chest containing everything a player possessed after becoming a player?
The experience points and free attribute point made him come to this conclusion.
After all, Dead Man Treasure Chest only granted random attribute points, while free attribute points were currently something that players only received upon leveling up.
Did Legacy Treasure Chest have any restrictions?
What would happen if a player wanted to divide their inheritance among several different people?
Without actual experimentation, there was no way to know the answers to those questions.
Joo Joowon stopped thinking about it.
Opening his status panel, he allocated both the free attribute point obtained from the hidden quest and the point obtained from the Legacy Treasure Chest directly into Physique.
After glancing at his experience bar, which had now become (66/160), he could not help but grind his teeth in frustration.
The experience requirement doubled every single time he leveled up.
At this rate, how many years would it take to reach Level 10?
More than anything else, Joo Joowon desperately needed a class advancement.
Even if it was the most common and unremarkable Warrior class imaginable, he would gladly accept it.
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