Chapter 921: The Temptation of the Golden Side Mission
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
After Sheyan had collected three Bloody Invitation Letters, his body glowed blood red. The three Bloody Invitation Letters stacked together neatly in his personal space. The light they emitted became stronger and more mysterious, while a sharp smell of blood permeated through the air. The ordinary receptionist next to Sheyan sneezed and dry-coughed a few times before he hastily excused himself. When he came back, his face was so pale that he looked as if he had just recovered from a serious illness.
Sheyan received a series of notifications:
[Contestant No. 1018, congratulations on collecting three Bloody Invitation Letters. You can now choose to go to the designated location to return to the realm, or stay to explore the Bloody World and try to get more Bloody Invitation Letters."]
[Warning: Unknown variables may occur if you obtain more Bloody Invitation Letters.]
[Signal disturbance, signal disturbance....Please wait!]
It was the first time Sheyan encountered this problem. He could only wait patiently. Fortunately, the disturbance did not last long. He soon received further emotionless notifications:
[Contestant No. 1018, the one conversing with you right now is Noah Realm C that you belong to. You can use your nightmare imprint to authenticate my identity. The nightmare imprint of every contestant is split from the soul of the Noah Realm they belong too. The imprint and the realm were originally one, so there is a special bond between them.]
Sheyan immediately did so. He found that his nightmare imprint was pulsating weirdly. More importantly, the power he was conversing with felt very familiar to him. It was the power protecting the alien chamber below the Statue of Liberty when he was having his breakthrough trial, which stopped Hakeem from hurting him.
After Sheyan verified its identity, Noah Realm C issued a notification:
[You and Aziz have achieved an impressive accomplishment in the Bloody World. The two of you have obtained a total of five Bloody Invitation Letters. This is a glorious, unprecedented achievement. Therefore, I broke through the restriction of the rules here with no heed to the energy it cost me to issue a special mission for you two. If you complete the mission, you will receive a generous reward.]
[You will obtain the F-level Golden Side Mission: "Collect"]
[Mission Description: Every Bloody Invitation Letter is extremely valuable to any Noah Realm. The Noah Realm both of you belong to is currently in urgent need of 7 Bloody Invitation Letters.]
[Mission Objective: Get seven Bloody Invitation Letters for Noah Realm C before this world ends.]
[Mission Time Limit: The same as the time limit for the Bloody World mission.]
[Mission Reward: Guaranteed reward (30 achievement points) + random draws]
[Mission Failure Punishment: You will be deprived of the reward you should receive for this world.]
[Do you want to accept the mission?]
This was the first time Sheyan saw something like this so he sneakily turned his head to observe Aziz. He was sure that Aziz had also received this mission, so he was hoping to get some hints from Aziz's reaction. Unfortunately, Sheyan was left disappointed. All Sheyan saw was Aziz's poker face and his cold eyes as he turned around to look back at Sheyan. It was obvious that Aziz had the same idea.
The two people looked at each other coldly. Obviously, this was a mission that required the both of them to cooperate. If either of them decided not to work together, it would spell disaster! The mission notification was also very sly. It merely asked for seven Bloody Invitation Letters for Noah Realm C.
It meant that the mission would be completed regardless of whether Sheyan brought back 4 while Aziz brought back 3, or Sheyan brought back 6 while Aziz brought back 1. The mission would be completed even if Sheyan alone brought back 7!
Sheyan had completed a Golden Side Mission before; it was even a Golden Side Mission that had a C-difficulty, which was higher than this one. Of course, he completely relied on the Blackthorn to complete that mission, otherwise any legendary beast could have killed him.
Sheyan's strength had improved by leaps and bounds since then. With Aziz's help, it wasn't impossible to complete this F-difficulty Golden Side Mission.
The crucial problem was how to ensure Aziz's cooperation, and make sure that Aziz would not give him a shot from the back at the most critical moment.....
Obviously, Aziz was also considering the same problem. What if Sheyan betrayed him at a critical moment?
Rewards are nice, but staying alive was more important!
Aziz finally could no longer hold himself back. He started to communicate with Sheyan with his hoarse voice through the nightmare imprint:
"30 achievement points are very important to me. Although it's the lowest difficulty Golden Side Mission, the unique reward from a Golden Side Mission will definitely fetch a good price."
Sheyan smiled and simply said:
"Yup, I know, because I've already completed a C-level Golden Side Mission - albeit with the lowest degree of completion. But I understand what you're saying."
"...You're insane. Fine. State your terms."
Aziz was intrigued. Think of how insanely difficult it was for Sheyan to trigger the Golden Side Mission back in the Avatar world. Most of the people did not even meet the prerequisite requirement to trigger the Golden Side Mission before they returned to the realm, or died. The difficulty of obtaining such missions was apparent.
This time, the Golden Side Mission was issued to just two people, which lowered its difficulty. More people didn't necessarily mean an easier time. When there were more people participating, there would be a higher chance of something going wrong. Just ask any World of Warcraft player whether a 5-player dungeon or a 40-player dungeon was easier.....
Secondly, Aziz also realised that this is a low-difficulty F-level Golden Side Mission - probably the lowest difficulty among Golden Side Missions. This was a great chance that was akin to winning the lottery, although this lottery could kill.
Therefore, Aziz very reluctantly spoke first even though he understood that the one who spoke first would not hold the advantage in the negotiation.
Sheyan contemplated for a moment before proclaiming very seriously:
"Mr. Aziz, the lowest difficulty Golden Side Mission is still a Golden Side Mission, just like how the weakest tiger is still a tiger! You must understand that realm return items can't be used in this world which greatly increases the risk of death. We must first establish mutual trust if we are to accept this mission. If we keep being suspicious of each other, we will die for sure!"
"I know," Aziz said with a gloomy face. "So what do you suggest?"
Sheyan smiled and said:
"Trust cannot be built with just words, but must be built step by step. If we accept this mission, we must pay attention to this. Fortunately, the punishment for failure is not too severe, so we can afford to spend some time to get familiar with each other. If we really can't do it then we can only give up."
Aziz snorted. Sheyan took that as an affirmative. It is wise to take some time to observe the performance of the other party first. The two finally accepted this mission. Driven by massive interests, two people who would stop at nothing to kill each other 2 worlds ago were now comrade-in-arms. Fate is such a wonderful thing!
At that moment, K walked back to them with a happy expression and said:
"Good news! The Arquillians agreed to our request. They unanimously agreed to give us another 48 hours to resolve the problem and promised to pay full attention to any alien spaceship that flew from Earth. "
"But they also gave us a reminder. Jones the Bug King is a very dangerous creature. If he wants to, he can expand his strength several times over in a short amount of time by creating a large number of Bugmen puppets. Therefore, we must eradicate it as soon as possible before things get worse, regardless of whether he has the Galaxy."
*Ahem* Sheyan coughed to draw attention to himself and slowly said: "Mr. K, our agreement was to find the Galaxy. I'm not obligated to help you kill such a dangerous creature."
Aziz simply said:
"I'm willing to help for Nobo's sake."
The attitudes displayed by the two were in stark contrast of one another.
K's gaze towards Aziz turned friendlier while his gaze towards Sheyan turned even sharper. There's nothing Sheyan could do about it. His Charm value was low so he could only be as stingy as possible to maximise his profit. He could not contend with Aziz who had decent Charm and had laid a good relationship foundation.
After some bargaining, the two sides finally reached an agreement. K said coldly:
"The MIB have obtained the highest level of authorisation to conduct a nationwide search for Jones for the next twenty-four hours. Once he is found, we will be the one handling him. The Galaxy is most probably on him so we must handle this seriously. Your job is to come when you're summoned and fight for glory, money and women. Of course, you may die!"
When the two of them were enjoying their 5th cup of free coffee in the MIB, K rushed in and shouted:
"Boys, we have a situation. I want to see you two in the Cadillac with your seatbelts on in two minutes! We're less than twenty kilometers away from the crime scene, so we must hurry!"