"Su Ming’an."
Noel stood still and called out.
He made no excuses and seed indifferent to the barrage of comnts flooding in front of him.
"Do you rember where we went after the end of the Sixth World?" Noel said, "Do you think my love for those children was fake?"
"Don’t hide behind the word ’love’ to justify what you’ve done," Lv Shu said.
"...I wasn’t talking to you," Noel retorted.
Looking at the half-burnt Lv Shu, his tone grew sharper.
"There are things I haven’t said, but it doesn’t an you shouldn’t see them—I’ve never acknowledged you as my teammate, Lv Shu," he said. "And that Mo Wen you brought, he’s no different. What is he? How strong is he? Do you have any idea how valuable our team needs to be? Do you understand how much we lose by having one less powerful teammate for our developnt?"
"He’s an exceptional explorer player, you just haven’t seen what he’s capable of," retorted Lv Shu.
"I haven’t seen him precisely because he doesn’t have the ability to co before , right?" Noel said. "—Just like now, all of us are here, and he is nowhere to be seen. Are you saying it’s my fault?"
Lv Shu fell silent.
"—Lv Shu, you can’t deny this. From the beginning until now, you and the person you dragged in have made no contributions to this team," Noel continued. "I worked in the Royal City, uncovered so clues, and smoothed out relations with the NPCs there. And you? Lv Shu, you and Lin Yin were just strolling through Pulaya during the day, and at night you hunted the Soul Clan like any ordinary player. What impact have you had on the bigger picture?—From where I stand, your only contribution in this ti has been to show up for barbecue twice—if I’d given your spot to my friends from the Guild in the New World, they would have perford far better than you, without putting all the burden on Su Ming’an. You claim the na of a teammate while engaging in aningless activities. Ask yourself, have you been any help at all with his plan to control the situation?"
Lin Yin was nearly scared witless listening to Noel’s tirade.
...She had never seen Noel sound so sharp.
It was as if he was pointing directly at Lv Shu, berating him face to face without sparing his feelings.
"Aren’t you just... overly glorifying your own actions? Lv Shu, you claim to want to help, but what have you actually done for anybody?" Noel said with a laugh. "In the Fifth World, you were irrelevant for most of it, only getting involved at the last mont and scramming for a bunch of Points as a benefit.
"In the Seventh World, you were just wandering the streets from start to finish... And now, you’re even presuming to try to split up this squad and replace us all to expel —at a ti when the crucial rules of the Mariti Banquet have just been issued and we need to race against the clock. Your actions are not only aningless, they’re also putting Su Ming’an in a difficult position.
"Lv Shu, do you think too highly of yourself? What has blinded you? Is it the pointless flattery on the World Forum, or is it your own inflated self-esteem?"
...
Lv Shu took a slight step back.
He seed to want to argue back, but no words ca out.
The green-haired woman lying on the ground, seeing this, imdiately began inching backwards, seemingly wanting to sneak away while the two faced off.
At that mont, Noel abruptly turned his head.
"Bang!"
"Ahhhh—"
Lin Yin jumped back as warm blood splashed her face in an instant.
On the snowy ground, the green-haired woman’s head burst apart, a mix of red and white spreading all around as her body was completely severed from the neck. With a sowhat grating "zzzt" sound, even her body was suddenly cut into several pieces by transparent threads.
The thick scent of blood rushed over through the heavy snow. Noel withdrew his hand and kicked away her corpse.
"Storm Science," he said without looking, simply uttering the term.
Facing the live stream cara, his eyes were ice cold: "I’ll rember you."
After saying that, he turned to look at Lv Shu.
Lv Shu stood there, half of his body still bearing horrific burns.
"Lost for words?" Noel asked. "Lv Shu, ask yourself, what have you done for this team? I wasn’t angry with your actions before, but since you pointed the finger at and even wanted to make decisions for the whole squad, I had to bring this up—you’ve beco too arrogant, Lv Shu. The fervent words of those on the World Forum have affected you."
He was about to step forward when he suddenly halted.
On the snowy ground, the green-haired woman’s dismbered body eerily raised a hand and clutched his leg tightly.
Her headless body tilted upward in a grotesque posture, like a fish about to leap ashore.
Noel turned and kicked the chunk of flesh several ters away.
"Combat Continuation again," he said coldly. "These rats always fancy these vile Skills."
Blood was splattered across the stark white ground.
He struck again, and that already mutilated corpse was instantly cut to pieces as if it were mashed fish pulp.
The scene was bloody and disgusting. Lin Yin glanced at it and then turned her head away.
"Noel."
In that mont, Su Ming’an finally spoke up.
His gaze lingered on the terrifyingly mangled corpse on the ground for a mont before turning to Noel, whose expression was very somber.
"Noel, you’ve been influenced by sothing," he said. "Is it an aftereffect of the Sixth World or so monster or Curse from the Seventh World? I rember the Singing of the Sirens can affect one’s mind. During your service in the Royal City, did you enter any suspicious Treasuries? Did you have contact with any legendary Sea Monsters?"
Noel paused.
"...I’ve been influenced by sothing?" he echoed.
"Post your movents over the past few days in the team channel," Su Ming’an said. "Your ntal state is clearly abnormal, including Lv Shu’s. I need to know what you’ve both been in contact with recently."
"..."
Noel stood in place for a while.
After a mont, he closed his eyes.
"I understand," he said. "But before that, we need to deal with the current situation."
"Can I trust you?" Su Ming’an asked.
"Of course, you can trust ," Noel’s voice rose. "—The love I have for those children is real. You ca with to see those children who were not taken away; you should rember what I said, should you not? Moreover, if you don’t believe , I can take you to see the children brought up in the New World after this instance ends. They are all healthy and happy... I swear, all I did was an equal trade and investnt, I never forced a single cent from them."
Su Ming’an glanced at Lv Shu.
Lv Shu was still standing sowhat dazed, blood dripping from his body.
His eyes seed different from before.
"Lin Yin, help him heal," Su Ming’an said.
"Oh." Lin Yin, who had been staring dumbfounded, ran over imdiately, her hands glowing with healing light.
As Lv Shu was being healed, Su Ming’an took out a map.
"Let’s talk about business first," he said. "For now, we will definitely choose the Occupation Group."
A system prompt suddenly sounded:
[Has your team decided to beco the (Occupation Group) in this "Mariti Banquet"? (Team mbers: Su Ming’an, Noel, Lv Shu, Lin Yin, Mo Wen (special instance))]
...
"Occupation Group, and appoint Lin Yin as ’Occupier,’" Su Ming’an said.
"Ah?" Lin Yin, who was busy healing, suddenly looked up and pointed at herself, "? Is that appropriate?"
"Right now, your condition seems the most stable," Su Ming’an said. "All I ask is that the ’Occupier’ stays alive. As long as the Occupier lives, our team will not fail. Noel, Lv Shu, and I, as ’Guardians,’ will receive a 50% combat power boost, which is better for our team overall. Lin Yin, you can be assured, Sevya will protect you throughout this mission."
He had originally wanted Archilev to protect Lin Yin, and Sevya to follow him, but after thinking about Archilev’s recent "gentlemanly" action of saving only Lin Yin, he decided against it.
After all, Archilev was not a person affected by the "Bewildernt" skill, and his absolute loyalty could not be guaranteed; it was safer to entrust the protection role to Sevya.
"After the initial period of occupying points, I will begin to explore. There has to be a reason for this second victory condition. If we push the Exploration Degree to 100%, our team will win outright," Su Ming’an said. "I will have Archilev accompany , so you don’t have to worry about my safety."
He opened the map: "Also, you don’t have to worry about losing the initiative due to these sudden events. Shadow has already led the soul hunters investigated npc to occupy normal strongholds in the Second Zone, Fourth Zone, Sixth Zone, Eighth Zone, and Tenth Zone. With the help of two S-rank NPC soul hunters, he has already surrounded those strongholds. Lin Yin, you just need to verify the ownership. As for the other five normal strongholds, we are currently short on manpower, so I dare not use those soul hunters who seem like players. Therefore, at this mont, the other five strongholds are probably being occupied by other players.
"But none of this is a problem. The victory rule of the Mariti Banquet is that the team with the highest points wins. Therefore, as long as we occupy five normal strongholds and three special strongholds, we don’t have to care about the others—although we have the capability to take all strongholds, we still need to leave so for other players to fight over, to prevent them from becoming desperate. I cannot guarantee that among these players, none possess so special props, or have missions that could potentially lead to effects similar to a total annihilation."
"Additionally, those three special strongholds—the church, the royal castle, and the southern dock—will be handled by first. Those players likely can’t interfere in these areas unless they possess exceptionally unique player roles. After I clear the dangers from these strongholds, I’ll call for Lin Yin to co over. The ordinary strongholds in zones twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty can be left alone, but we must seize these three special ones; the points they produce are three tis higher than ordinary ones," Ming’an said.
After saying this, he rolled up the map and looked at the others, "My arrangents are simple, do you have any questions? If not, we need to hurry to those strongholds."
Lin Yin was the first to shake her head, "Let’s do it this way, no problems."
Lv Shu was silent but also shook his head.
"Then Sevya, you first escort Lin Yin and Lv Shu to the checkpoint in the second zone. Follow the order from the smallest to largest number to seize each checkpoint. Including travel ti, the whole process should take about two hours and ten minutes. After completing that, you can gradually start to dispatch the previously screened mbers of the Soul Clan..." As Su Ming’an continued speaking, Noel suddenly interjected:
"I have a suggestion," Noel said.
"Go ahead," Ming’an stopped speaking and looked at him.
"I think that maybe in these past few days, I was indeed influenced by the sea monsters," Noel said, "...but I don’t rember the specifics. If I revisit those places, I might be able to recall what happened."
"What do you an?"
"I want to accompany you on this Rule 06 victory route," Noel said. "I’ve spent a long ti preparing in the royal castle, and I feel like it’s the key point to completing this ’Exploration Degree.’ With guiding you, we should be able to push the exploration degree to 100% quickly."
Ming’an glanced at a small interface below the rules, "What is your current exploration degree?"
He had already noticed that this so-called "Exploration Degree" was not starting from 0%.
According to Rule 06, it says: [Hidden treasure chests, special status instances, surprise attacks by sea monsters, special NPC quests, etc., hide a shocking secret about Mariti Banquet. Engaging with them can provide players with extra clues towards the exploration degree. When the exploration degree accumulates to 100%, the player’s team will directly achieve victory.]
Therefore, from the rules, this "Exploration Degree" should be closely related to the clues the players have already found.
It might just be the so-called progress towards a perfect pass.
Because the thod to gain this "Exploration Degree" is exactly the sa as the thod to progress towards a perfect completion.
Ming’an glanced and saw that his current exploration degree was 55%, closely matching his perfect completion progress.
"23%," surely enough, Lv Shu reported a different number.
"20%," Lin Yin gave an even lower figure.
"I’m at 50%," Noel said, "Ming’an, if my number is close to yours, I suggest letting be the one responsible for exploration."
Ming’an looked at him.
"I know that if we push this completion to 100%, I might beco the first to achieve a perfect pass. I understand your concern—so, when I push the exploration degree to around 95%, I will not go any further. I will wait for you there," Noel lifted his hand:
"This way, you handle those special strongholds, and I take care of this exploration degree. Once you’re done, I’ll share all the clues with you, and you can continue from where I left off to push the progress to 100%. What do you think?"
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