Chapter 129: Chapter 128: I Beg You, Be Normal! (1st Update)
Lyla was flung into a corner of the starting camp by Jiang Qiao, a place where there were fewer players, but it was only a matter of time before this special NPC was discovered by the players.
Lyla now knelt on the ground, her face etched with despair, as a soldier under her command lay before her, accidentally stabbed in the abdomen by Denghis Xisi’s attack when Jiang Qiao brought her back.
R𝑒ad lat𝒆st chapt𝒆rs at free𝑤ebnovel.com Only.
Jiang Qiao used the healing abilities of a water spirit to stop the bleeding, further recovery would have to depend on him himself… or perhaps Jiang Qiao could find a healer player to come over.
In theory, the HP potions in the game should not work on the people of this world. After all, holy spirits are energy bodies, and Fureya’s absorption abilities far exceed those of the humans from this world.
But what’s crucial is Lyla’s current state.
Lyla felt as though the parents who had raised her had turned out to be her father’s murderers, she nearly blurted out the line “NO!!”
...
Surrounded by despair and sorrow, especially when she saw one of her soldiers lying unconscious before her…
At the same time, there was confusion. Lyla knelt on the ground, her hands deeply embedded into the soil, so forcefully that her fingertips started bleeding.
Jiang Qiao could faintly hear Lyla’s sobbing, but he didn’t disturb her. Hai Lan wanted to comfort this poor girl but was caught by Jiang Qiao and turned into a spiritual body.
Because someone had already discovered this wild NPC!
“There’s an NPC over there I’ve never seen before.”
“A wild hidden quest! Here I come.”
The original stronghold was already full of holy spirits. Even though Jiang Qiao took Lyla to the most secluded corner, he couldn’t hide from the players who naturally hunted for hidden quests.
Seeing Lyla’s current state, Jiang Qiao felt it would be a disservice to these players not to have a hidden quest.
A female soldier, with a ‘corpse’ of her comrade lying in front of her, by the roadside, anyone who had played games would know that Lyla had a big exclamation mark over her head!
But the problem was Lyla really wasn’t in the mood to chat with them…
“How long will you remain dejected?” Jiang Qiao said forcefully, slapping Lyla’s back.
Jiang Qiao was dressed as an NPC, so to the players approaching Lyla, he also looked like an NPC waiting to give them a quest.
“I…” Lyla lifted her head, her eyes already brimming with tears. Surrounded by despair and confusion, she was already contemplating thoughts of suicide.
But when Lyla looked up and saw the two holy spirits approaching her… her throat convulsed, and she instantly covered her nose with her hand, nearly bursting into laughter when she saw the outfits of the two holy spirits.
The attire of the two spirits was of top-tier level— at least in terms of fashion. One of them wore the most popular rainbow unicorn headgear, while the other wore a giraffe headgear.
The distinguishing feature of these two headgears was… they could be used to hit people.
They could really be swung to hit people. Someone had tested it… swinging the giraffe headgear in PK mode could hit someone’s face, causing a forced damage of -1 point.
Jiang Qiao glanced at their IDs, the player wearing the rainbow unicorn headgear had the ID ‘Pop Can’, and the other ‘Tan Suan,’ suggesting they might be players from the Cola Fanatic Guild.
“Oh beautiful lady, what troubles you?” the player wearing the rainbow unicorn headgear walked straight up to Lyla, saucily swinging its head as he spoke.
“…”
“Pop Can, she’s not answering you,” Tan Suan, the one in the giraffe headgear, moved next to his friend and bumped against his friend’s headgear’s neck.
“With 30 points of charm, I thought I should be enough. But her face looks so pained, should we call over a healer from the guild to heal her a bit?” Pop Can was already looking for a healer from his guild in a private chat.
To Jiang Qiao, this scene was akin to watching a giraffe fight, where giraffes used their necks to brawl, a sight filled with humorous effect… Lyla was now displaying a pained expression.
Lyla’s agony stemmed purely from holding back laughter, her brow furrowed, her cheeks tensed, and her facial muscles so stiff that it felt painfully unbearable.
What are these holy spirits playing at?
Lyla’s thoughts were along these lines… couldn’t they see she was in despair, sorrowful, depressed, thinking of suicide? Couldn’t they at least match the mood and wear something normal?
Jiang Qiao couldn’t stand it anymore and once again gently patted Lyla’s back, whispering.
“Cheer up, you’re not alone now,” Jiang Qiao said.
His words seemed to touch something within Lyla’s heart, and she no longer tried to hold back her smile.
But this smile was accompanied by incessant tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, and as she laughed, it gradually turned into sobbing, though after a short while she wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Did we trigger a cutscene?”
Tan Suan and the pop can looked at Lyla as if she were insane, seeing the NPC laugh one moment and cry the next, truly resembling a madman.
“A holy spirit, huh?” Lyla wiped away the tears at the corner of her eye, and spoke to the two players standing before her.
“There really is a quest! But why is there no pop-up window?”
“Stupid! The NPC hasn’t finished speaking yet.”
Tan Suan and the pop can immediately rubbed their hands together in anticipation of Lyla issuing some kind of special quest… with hidden rewards.
“I hope you can help me capture the Magic Thieves hiding on this island!” Lyla spoke these words with a sense of noble responsibility in her voice.
She harbored no hatred, only endless guilt for having sent her soldiers to their deaths, and a sense of responsibility for preventing the Empire of Light from straying off course!
At that moment, Lyla found a higher goal! That was to crush the nobles within the Empire of Light who were in league with the Magic Thieves!
This goal was something Lyla couldn’t achieve on her own; even if she returned to the Empire of Light, she likely wouldn’t receive any support.
But these holy spirits could! Lyla could hire these holy spirits to capture those Magic Thieves.
The reward for hiring… Lyla turned to look at Jiang Qiao standing behind her, who had by then edited a hidden quest.
A quest window also popped up in front of Tan Suan and the pop can.
‘Side Quest: Pursuit of the Magic Thief. Quest description: A desperate pursuit squad commander sees hope in you, holy spirits please drive out the darkness lurking on this island. Quest completion conditions: Capture a Magic Thief. Quest rewards: Forty-three silver coins, random Otherworld food, twenty magic fireworks.’
“The reward seems a bit meager,” Tan Suan glanced at the side quest’s reward, noting that it lacked materials desperately needed at this stage.
“Wait, Otherworld food, isn’t that what our guild leader was offering a bounty for in the group chat? What was the bounty again?” The pop can noticed the familiar item, recalling a message he had seen in the guild’s group chat.
“A thousand bucks, and the guild leader just updated the bounty—fifteen hundred for a piece of dried meat? What’s the guild leader thinking?” As Tan Suan accepted the side quest, he scrolled through the guild chat history.
The Cola Fanatic Guild’s leader’s chat bubble was offering a bounty for a piece of Otherworld food in the guild chat, amounting to one thousand five hundred bucks, along with a screenshot—the content of the screenshot was the contract that Lyla first issued when meeting Jiang Qiao.
The contract included a reward of Otherworld dried meat.
Since Lyla had only given Jiang Qiao two pieces of dried meat, this quest could only be undertaken twice. One player who was quick on the draw had seized the quest and posted a screenshot on the forum.
By now, their chatty guild leader was not only offering bounties in the chat group but had also gone to the forum to put a bounty on the piece of dried meat.
“I remember now! Our guild leader’s profession is Chef; does he want to cook food for the doll girl?” Tan Suan asked.
“Why not use the food in the game for cooking? There’s plenty, right?” The pop can also knew about their guild leader’s profession; the meals they ate in the guild after battles were all cooked by their leader.
“I’ve heard from some minor settings that… food from the real world has no taste.”
“There’s such a setting? Well, let’s help him catch a Magic Thief to serve as a dish, for the guild leader’s pitiful sake.”
That’s how Tan Suan and the pop can left, chatting back and forth.
Lyla watched the backs of the two brothers as they left, feeling as if something was missing.
But she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was missing.
“As you can see, what you need to do now is go to your country and buy as much food as you can. That’s the reward we need right now,” Jiang Qiao told Lyla.
Jiang Qiao himself couldn’t make those flavorful Otherworld foods. Even if he really wanted to cook, it wouldn’t make much sense; it was better to have the locals buy it.
Things like cows, sheep, chickens, and horses were non-existent on this island.
“Is food really all you need?” Lyla still couldn’t believe that food alone would make these holy spirits help her.
“Just food, and if you can get your hands on some magic fireworks, bring those too. Here, take this.” Jiang Qiao handed Lyla a red crystal blessed by the Earth Mother Goddess. “If you run into any danger, try activating this crystal with magic power.”
Jiang Qiao could send Wasp Knights to buy food in the Land of Light, but having been undead for hundreds of years during the Divine War, the Wolf Knights had even forgotten how to eat and needed the Wasp Knights to feed them.
Therefore, Jiang Qiao didn’t think the Wasp Knights would do a better job in commerce than the sincere girl before him.
“I understand.”
This time Lyla didn’t argue with Jiang Qiao; she knew her duty was to go buy groceries! To buy them like crazy! To buy in super multiplied quantities!