Alone and Infinite.

Chapter 214 The treasure chest has appeared!

The campsite, covered by a silencing barrier, was bustling with activity.

Food was being stewed on several stoves in the center, steaming hot, and the aroma of the food wafted through the air.

This caused my already hungry stomach to move even more violently.

It must be said that Guge's logistical support was quite good. As soon as you called out, a sweet-looking female apostle would bring you food and drinks.

Guge also offers alcoholic beverages, although only various red wines, and they taste strange, but they are still alcoholic beverages.

Li Xia looked at the pile of food on the plate, which contained some kind of nutrient solution and was also a product of the workers.

Otherwise, the logistical support required to feed the apostles with ordinary food would be an alarming figure.

Alternatively, you can use energy-rich ingredients, but nutritional supplements are more affordable and convenient in comparison.

"Something doesn't feel right to me. They're providing food and water, and building a campsite—"

A voice drifted over on the wind.

He lowered his voice, but not completely.

Li Xia, who was quietly eating, kept moving, but her attention was focused on the conversation next door.

"If we can actually get the item, that would be great. 100,000 points isn't a guaranteed profit, but at least we'll have some gains. If we can't get it, isn't this just doing charity?"

The speaker seemed to have some intelligence, but only to a certain extent:
“Apostles doing charity? So I think there must be something wrong.”

The sound of bench legs scraping against the ground, a much lower voice said:

"Didn't you see the statistics? The Guge team killed just as many as we did!"

That's true. Although the Gug team was acting as firefighters, running through every passage, they actually managed to take down quite a few people.

"Also—he must have a plan, or he must know what's inside, and its value is definitely much more than 100,000, which is why he'd rather give up other things to get it first."

The apostle who was speaking said, speechless:
"And you've overlooked the most important point."

"What did you overlook?"

"Ourselves!"
The power of these forty ascended apostles themselves.

It's equivalent to hiring forty top-tier apostles by contributing some items, if not for being envious of the attribute points gained from the opportunity to transcend.

Who the hell would participate in this kind of activity?

The conversation eventually ended with indistinct mutterings.

Li Xia withdrew his gaze. In fact, he was also very curious about what was inside that made it worthwhile for Guge to go to such great lengths to organize so many people.

I'm even more curious to know how Guge will face the troublemakers who came after smelling the scent and have been observing him all day, after the peaceful first day.

After finishing the reasonably tasty food, they took the charcoal and headed to the campsite to rest.

The original tents had been cleared away, and two huge totem poles stood in the open space.

Faint ripples spread outwards from the totem pole.

"Your Highness, is this thing disposable or permanent?"

Looking at the two totem poles, which were almost three meters tall, Aowu couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know. If it's a one-time expense, the cost could be quite high."

A buff aura that increases double recovery is useful in situations requiring prolonged battles, such as large-scale wars like those in Lord of the Rings.

I wonder how much profit I can make.

If the equipment were permanent, then these two pieces of equipment would be valuable; a single totem could probably be worth as much as a purple-grade, top-tier weapon.

You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub; this cub is really expensive!
Turning his gaze away from the totem pole, Li Xia found an empty barracks.

To be fair, Guge's logistics were indeed quite good.

The barracks are similar to modular cabins in real life, about ten square meters in size. Some barracks are two or three stories high, clearly designed for larger teams.

However, the furnishings are quite comfortable. A rough calculation shows that the cost of the daily necessities and individual cabins alone is no less than 1000 Palace Points.

What surprised Li Xia even more was that in such a small house, there were oil paintings hanging on the walls, and even the drinking cups were gilded and exquisitely carved.

That's a bit of an exaggeration.
"Blackie, come take a bath!"

Li Xia turned on the hot water, and the cat, who was about to sneak back, stood there frozen in place.

He was dragged over with a wicked grin, but he didn't expect that Li Xia would grab him and shove him under the shower.

"Huh? No, I'm clean!"

Black Charcoal's habits are very similar to those of a cat; it likes to lick its own fur and also likes to sleep on Li Xia's bed.

Sometimes he would simply curl up and sleep on my chest. Luckily, Li Xia had a strong physique; otherwise, it would have been different for an ordinary person.

With fifty or sixty pounds pressing on my chest, I'd probably die.

The showerhead sprayed out sparkling water, washing away the bubbles from Black Charcoal and Awoo, and then rinsing itself as well.

She changed into loose, thin pajamas and then took out the gaming tablet that Bai Xiao had given her.

Although this game is difficult for the sake of being difficult, it's actually quite fun once you get into it.

A soft carpet was laid on the floor, and the clean-washed Black Charcoal and Awoo were sitting on it.

There were some white treasure chests in front of me, all the spoils of the day.

The drop rate for Corrupted Tree Golems is extremely low; Li Xia farmed them all day and only managed to get six chests.

The drop rate of treasure chests has nothing to do with luck. Whether you get anything depends entirely on the value of the items you have and whether they are worth stripping from the Temple of Light.

Corrupted Tree Golems don't have any equipment, so it's already quite good if they drop a few chests.

Black Charcoal laid out all the boxes in front of him, pondering which one to open, while Awoo egged him on to mutter some strange words.

It was all seen on Tieba (a Chinese online forum), which said it could increase one's luck.

"Bah-"

The lid of the treasure chest popped open, and a plume of black smoke billowed out. Black Charcoal looked around blankly.

"Meow?"

"Damn! An empty box! Of course there's nothing inside."

Empty. Empty box?

Black Charcoal's cat-like face fell. He glanced at the notification and, sure enough, had gained 100 Hall of Fame Points.

"Let's try opening two more!" Teacher Ao persisted.

"bang bang"

Two plumes of black smoke continued to rise, and I happily added 2 empty boxes to my inventory!

"Meow meow meow?"

Black Charcoal was almost in tears. This was its first time opening the box, and it was met with unprecedented malice.

"It shouldn't be."

Awoo looked at Black Charcoal's cat-like face, which was covered in black fur except for its whiskers, and pinched its chin with its short paws:

"It must be because you're unlucky! You're obviously unlucky. Let's think of a solution."

The bewildered Black Charcoal followed Awoo out the door, but soon returned.

Li Xia looked up from the tablet and watched the two little ones start fiddling with it, asking in surprise:
"A face mask? Where did you get that?"

Awoo busily peeled off the face mask with its short paws and laboriously stuck it on its charcoal-colored face, saying as it did so:
“I went out to ask someone for it. The person named Violet was really nice. I heard the kitten was a male, and she even said she wanted to take it to sleep with her at night.”

Li Xia paused for a moment, feeling that something was off, but seeing Aowu and Heitan having fun, she let them be.

If a person, a dragon, and a cat can't even accumulate 3 points of luck, they're probably doomed from opening normal loot boxes.

As long as it makes me happy, playing with a few boxes is fine.

A flash is impossible—

A blinding light emanated from below.

"Wow, it flashed!" Awoo flew around excitedly, "I told you, just putting on a face mask made my face whiter!"

Li Xia opened her mouth, but had already put down the tablet.

As the light faded, Black Charcoal happily raised what he was holding.

It looked like a gemstone, sparkling under the light.

Holy crap, something actually came out?

【Tranquility Necklace】

[Grade: Green - Ultimate]

【Origin: Demon Prison Star】

[Mana +20]

[Tranquility: Mana regeneration speed slightly increased]

[Evaluation: A hexagonal crystal system, containing a crystallization of wondrous energy]

After reviewing the attributes, Li Xia was quite surprised.

Although this necklace is an extreme shade of green, it can still be considered a minor gem.

Both attributes are rare, which mages greatly appreciate.

It's worth at least 5,000 points, and if someone is desperately short of mana, it might even be worth a few hundred or a thousand more.

Black Charcoal happily handed over the necklace:
"Meow!"

(Master, here you go!)
Li Xia rubbed his charcoal-black head:

"You can keep it. I don't need it. You can keep it for yourself or sell it back in the hall."

As the strongest player in the second tier, at least in the arena, this bonus is of little use to him.

"Buzz!"

The flash passed through layers of corrupted tree golems, bringing with it a spray of strangely colored liquid.

The running monster stopped in its tracks, its upper body slid down and crashed to the ground. After struggling for a moment, it fell silent.

"Take a break."

He twirled the spear in his hand, it disappeared in a flash of lightning, and Li Xia sat on the ruins, drinking water and gazing at the entire street.

The once wide street was now densely packed with the corpses of monsters, each with a different appearance.

There was a strange harmony under this gray sky, as if this was how the world was meant to be.

This was the third day.

Nearly 40,000 of the 120,000 corrupted tree golems on the square have been cleared, leaving a visibly empty space.

However, unexpected events also occurred frequently. First, a team attracted too many monsters.

Fortunately, Guge's team reacted quickly and provided timely reinforcements, managing to suppress the situation.

However, two people were seriously injured and had to return to the camp to recover.

Following this, teams frequently caused trouble by luring monsters into their groups.

Corrupted Tree Golems are not monsters in the game, so their numbers cannot be precisely controlled like in the game.

Especially with the decrease in the number of monsters, you have to go deep into the plaza to lure them in.

One wrong move and you could attract a whole bunch of monsters.

Finally, in this chaotic situation, Gugge's team could no longer keep up with the workload.

The 'Seismic Wave Squad' was wiped out!
The worst part was that the earthquake wave squad desperately used their survival skills before being wiped out, scattering the monsters that were originally gathered together.

This makes it more difficult to attract monsters.

If this is simply something that is bound to happen internally...

The dangers from the outside are also increasing day by day.

Just as Li Xia had guessed, the commotion here gradually attracted the apostles.

He himself noticed no fewer than 20 people.

It is unknown how many more there are elsewhere; in other words, at least a hundred apostles were piled up in the center of the city square.

After a long period of observation, they roughly guessed the purpose of the temporary team's gathering.

And they are very interested in causing them some trouble.

Even so, they gained nothing from it.

Of course, this logic can also be understood as: if others lose money, it means I gain money.

Apostles raised in this environment seem to be more than willing to stab someone in the back when the opportunity arises.

"Zzzzt—Damn it, the rats outside fired a grenade at the monster horde!"

"Zzz—Zzz—Grenade? Someone fired a rocket launcher over here!"

"Sizzle—sizzle, we can't fight anymore. I suggest we quit while we're ahead. We've already gotten some opportunities to transcend, and there are about ten white treasure chests. They're not worth much, but we should be able to get three or four thousand points from them."

"I—zzzz—agree—zzzz—"

The walkie-talkie was crackling with chatter. I don't know why, even though we weren't far apart, there was always a burst of static.

As expected, this not-so-solid team immediately voiced different opinions when faced with difficulties.

Li Xia listened silently. He had already obtained approximately 48% of the chance for transcendence, which was close to the 50% limit for clearing mobs.
In terms of profit, it is absolutely the highest, without exception.

The other two lone wolves are currently at 31.24% and 34.68% respectively, quite a difference.

"Hiss, no wonder they're not worried about what plans Gug has up his sleeve—"

As Aowu listened to the increasingly heated argument over the walkie-talkie and the majority of people agreeing to disband the team, he couldn't help but take a breath.

These apostles are more cunning than ghosts. It's not that they don't care about Gug's plan; rather, they see it all too clearly. Even the interference of the foreign apostles was within their expectations.

I only plan to work for three days, make a quick profit, and freeload off the logistics of Guge before running away!
Looking back now, those apostles inside the tent seemed aggressive and unyielding.

That's all due to their tacit understanding! They've worked together seamlessly, and even if Guge insists on not taking any coins in the end, these apostles will probably accept it!

Li Xia stood up while pressing the walkie-talkie: "I reckon the team will break up soon. Let's bring in another wave and push the Transcendence opportunity to its limit."

"okay!"

As the argument on the walkie-talkie grew more and more intense, Guge's voice finally came through.

The apostles fell silent and listened to what the nominal leader had to say.

The originally rough voice was now tinged with weariness and helplessness:

"Everyone, please don't rush to call for disbanding. Give me some more time. Our team members are negotiating to see if we can recruit a group of people to join our team."

Please, everyone, have a little more patience.

There was complete silence on the walkie-talkie; it was as if all the apostles had become mute.

Li Xia could even imagine the apostles' disdainful, mocking smiles as they held walkie-talkies.

Guge looked disheveled and pitiful.

But who cares?

Guge put down the walkie-talkie, and two crimson dots had appeared in his eyes, which were always smiling.

It then seemed to have an added chill.

He curled his lips into a smile, waved his hand, and said softly:
"Let's begin, it's time to harvest!"

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

(End of this chapter)