189 – Does This Count as Fraud?
Lu Zheng absentmindedly let his thoughts wander as he continued looking down toward the bottom of the bulletin board.
Just as he had observed earlier from a distance, there were barely any task sheets in the middle section of the board.
anwhile, the very bottom was plastered with tons of them.
After casually skimming through the lowest section, Lu Zheng found that most of the tasks were tedious.
Things like helping search for a lost pet, or assisting a household whose donkey had fallen ill and needed soone to pull the millstone…
In short: ti-consuming and low-paying.
The high-tier missions at the top were out of reach for most adventurers, and nobody wanted to bother with the ones at the bottom.
So it ended up like this: top and bottom jam-packed, with barely anything in the middle.
Lu Zheng leaned in with interest to examine so of the leftover task sheets more closely and noticed that most of them had bizarre requirents.
Like the one closest to him right now.
It requested the clearing of a pack of magic wolves occupying a small path in Hottledo.
Task Requirent: 10–15 C-rank adventurers with strong coordination (preferably from the sa long-term team).
Reward: 50 silver coins.
Why limit it only to C-rank adventurers?
Shouldn’t higher-ranked ones be stronger and able to complete it faster?
Lu Zheng furrowed his brow, puzzled.
“Hey!”
Yi Ning, who was standing next to him, lightly tugged his sleeve and pointed to a task sheet at the very bottom of the board.
“Look at this task—it’s a perfect match for us poor, penniless folks right now.”
Lu Zheng followed her finger and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
The task sheet Yi Ning pointed at, in addition to the usual Adventurer’s Guild insignia, had a logo that absolutely did not belong here.
It was the Blue Star characters for “Not Approved” arranged vertically, enclosed by a circular border.
“…Wait a minute, could this be—”
Yi Ning smirked and pulled a round stamp from her pocket.
“It is exactly what you think it is.”
She flipped the base of the stamp toward Lu Zheng.
The design carved onto it was a perfect match for the “Not Approved” mark on the task sheet.
“I normally use this little thing to mark rejected scrap. Looks like the Kir Church has turned it into their official logo now.”
“But that’s not the important part.”
Yi Ning tore the task sheet from the board and pointed to the task details.
Unlimited purchase of gifts from the Great God Kir.
If verified by the Church to be genuine gifts from the Great God Kir, they will be purchased at a minimum price of 1 Kir gold coin per item.
Fair price, no deception.
Providing related clues will also earn a reward, starting from 1 Kir silver coin, depending on the value of the lead.
It really was the most perfect task for the two of them.
After all, the real Great God Kir was standing right beside Lu Zheng. Anything she had on her could be considered a genuine divine gift, and could easily fetch a high price at the Church.
Not to ntion Yi Ning had her trusty “Not Approved” stamp she used to label defective goods.
At this point, anything she had could beco a gift from the Great God Kir.
Still, this made Lu Zheng hesitate a little.
Trading this random junk for a pile of gold coins from the Church… wasn’t that kind of… fraud?
He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were scamming a bunch of overly trusting alien believers.
“Aiya! You’re overthinking it again.”
Yi Ning waved her hand dismissively at Lu Zheng’s concern.
“The value of an item is ultimately based on human need—how badly they want it, and how much they think they need it. To those believers of mine, anything we sell is overflowing with spiritual value!”
“And hey, they’re the ones who asked for it.”
Yi Ning waved the task sheet.
“They want gifts from the Great God Kir? Then this god shall bestow them!”
“What’s wrong with charging them a few hundred gold coins? This is a once-in-a-lifeti opportunity to be personally served by the Great God Kir. Total win!”
Lu Zheng frowned slightly.
Sothing about what she said felt off, but when he thought about it… she did kind of make sense.
“…Fine.”
In the end, Lu Zheng hesitantly agreed.
He looked over the board one last ti to confirm there were no better options, then headed with Yi Ning and the church task sheet over to the task registration counter.
The receptionist glanced at the sheet Lu Zheng handed over, then at the two adventurer tags they presented.
“You two are together?”
Both nodded.
“New adventurers?”
Again, both nodded.
“Hmm…”
The receptionist looked them over and thought for a mont. Instead of registering their task right away, she began explaining so of the guild’s internal regulations.
“Normally, when new adventurers accept a dangerous task for the first ti, they’re required to be accompanied by an experienced veteran. It’s Guild policy.”
“Technically, your team has an A-rank mber, so this rule doesn’t apply to you. But if you lack field experience, I highly recomnd finding a seasoned adventurer to guide you.”
“There are many missions in the wild that can’t be solved with strength alone.”
“If you don’t have anyone in mind…”
She leaned over and glanced toward another counter, then pointed at Lester and his team, who were busy handling sothing there.
“That group over there is the Friendly Money-Making Squad. Their captain is a really kind guy. If you need help, you can ask them. They usually won’t say no.”
“But they just finished a few quests recently, and they tend to take a few days off afterward. So if you want their help, I’d suggest waiting a bit.”
“For tasks like this one inside the city, though, it’s not really an issue.”
While speaking, the receptionist pulled out a notebook, jotted sothing down, and stamped the page before tearing it out and handing it to Lu Zheng.
“Just bring this to the Church and give it to the priest.”
Then she stood and reattached the task sheet to the bulletin board.
Only Lu Zheng and Yi Ning were left standing at the task counter again.
“So? Should we go ask Lester and his group for help?”
Yi Ning pointed toward Lester and the others, asking for Lu Zheng’s opinion.
“Do we have a choice?”
Lu Zheng followed her finger with his eyes, sighing helplessly.
He did have considerable wilderness experience, but it was all limited to Blue Star. To avoid returning to that kind of survival where even food needed to be poison-tested first, it was essential to find so teachers.
Still, since Lester had just helped pay for their registration, asking for more help right now felt a bit shaless.
“We’ll wait until they’re getting ready to take on another quest before we bring it up.”
“Up to you.”
Yi Ning had no objections.
This planet’s civilization wasn’t as developed as Blue Star’s, so most of their journey was likely to be spent in the wild.
And since she usually stuck to a strict ho-base routine, Yi Ning hadn’t brought many practical supplies.
Her lab coat pockets had limited capacity, after all.
If she wanted to improve the quality of their wilderness survival, learning from Lester’s team would definitely be essential.
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