Chu Yu had a bit of a headache. To say nothing of her teammates, even she wasn't sure whether she wanted to accept the Speedy Express quest.
However, as the team leader, Chu Yu had the final say, so she spoke up, "Everyone, share your thoughts on the Speedy Express quest."
Brother Kai said, "There's one thing about this quest that's still unclear to me. Suppose I accept the quest and you guys don't. If our car gets cornered by the War Police and they search me and find the X pathogen, I'm definitely a goner. But what about you all? Would it drag you down too?"
Ding Shi said, "The system explains that the ones pursuing us will be AI agents, not the War Police. AI agents possess independent consciousness, and whether the entire car will be implicated is determined by the AI agent."
Mumu asked dubiously, "Where did you see that system explanation?"
Ding Shi replied, "On the quest interface. Click the question mark, and more system explanations pop up."
Chu Yu was stunned. "You accepted the quest?" Without discussing it first?
Ding Shi said, "Yeah, I'm definitely taking the quest."
Brother Kai couldn't understand. "Why?"
Ding Shi asked, "What were your clear ratings for Taoyuan Village?"
Mumu said, "I got a C+."
Chu Yu said, "I got a B."
Brother Kai and Ritian said, "B."
Mumu clutched her forehead. It turned out she was the weakest of all.
Ding Shi said, "I got an A. The Taoyuan Village instance gave me a lot of food for thought. If we simply follow the casual route laid out by the system, we can complete the quest very easily and simply. Even for the Returning Home quest, where we're traveling from the far south to the extreme north, we only need to drive a few hundred kilometers each day. Between the five of us, we have at least five hundred yuan. A car costs two hundred yuan, tap water is free, and for food we can eat the cheapest biscuits. In terms of difficulty, you really can't call it high."
Brother Kai said, "Can I take your meaning to be: if players don't court death, they won't get rewards?"
Ding Shi looked at Chu Yu and said, "Though it was by chance that Yuyu spotted the newspaper, she bravely captured the wanted criminal. Honestly speaking, back in the Taoyuan Village instance, everyone was an ordinary person. For an ordinary girl to dare catch a wanted criminal was itself an act of courting death. And because of that, Yuyu received a bonus reward of three hundred Yita coins."
Mumu agreed, "That's how it is. If you don't court death, you won't die."
"That's why I accepted the quest." Ding Shi took out the map bundle, laid more than a dozen maps on the ground, and said, "There's another reason. Along the way, there are quite a lot of non-signal zones. Of course, non-signal zones are very dangerous in their own right."
Chu Yu looked at the maps, then looked up and asked, "Ding Shi, you cleared with an A rank. What kind of reward did you get?"
Ding Shi said, "One hundred and twenty-five dao." The base clear reward was fifty dao, corresponding to the C+ rank. For every half-tier increase, twenty-five dao was added.
Brother Kai, who had cleared with a B rank and received seventy-five dao, said, "You ran into a flying zombie and a malevolent ghost, and you only got an extra fifty dao." The subtext: nothing to write home about.
Everyone nodded in substantial agreement with Brother Kai. Chu Yu agreed as well, saying, "Ratings aren't all that important."
Ding Shi said, "While raising my rating, I obtained some items, including something one-of-a-kind."
Chu Yu asked, "A lot?"
Ding Shi said, "Decent enough. It included a sentence of truth."
"Truth?" everyone asked in unison. "What is it?"
Ding Shi looked at them. "Didn't you get playing cards? When you got the cards, didn't truth appear?"
Mumu clutched her hair speechlessly. "Are we even playing the same game?"
Brother Kai asked, "What is the truth?"
Instead of answering directly, Ding Shi asked, "Does your system interface have a notepad?"
Everyone shook their heads together.
Ding Shi decided not to provoke them further and changed the subject. "The clear rewards also included five random logistics cards and a friend card."
"Random logistics cards?" everyone asked in unison once more.
Chu Yu said, "What I got was two ordinary facility upgrade cards, which can upgrade an item in the thatched cottage. I upgraded the bathroom and the stone bed." The stone bed had turned into a sturdy stone bed—at the time, she had felt like strangling Little Tangtang.
The others said, "Ours were about the same." The one slightly worse off was Mumu; with only a C+ rating, she had received just one ordinary facility upgrade card.
Mumu pressed, "What's a friend card?"
Ding Shi hesitated for a moment and asked, "Are you sure you want to know?" He had assumed that everyone received a friend card and random logistics cards, with the only difference being the quantity. Now it seemed the gap between an A-rank reward and a B-rank reward was far beyond ordinary. Had he known the disparity was this massive, Ding Shi would have simply claimed he cleared with a B rank.
Mumu asked cautiously, "Do you think it'll provoke me?"
Ding Shi replied, "Not sure."
Mumu gestured for him to speak.
Ding Shi said, "If I give you a friend card, you can come to my island. The system explained that if you and I enter an instance using the teleportation array on my island, we'll be assigned to the same instance as long as the instance permits it."
Consumed by jealousy, Mumu changed the subject. "What is there to do on your island?"
Ding Shi said, "For now, just a martial arts hall."
Mumu asked, "Built with a logistics card?"
Ding Shi nodded.
The fire of jealousy raged within Mumu. Staring into Ding Shi's eyes, she said, "Say it: you're a liar. Everything you've said is fake."
Ding Shi said, "I'm a liar."
Mumu punched the ground with her fist. "I'm taking the quest. Either live like a coward, or die in a blaze of glory."
Brother Kai hesitated. "As long as we clear this casual instance, we can get a one-way ticket and secure a place of our own in Southwest Community. If we die, we'll be forcibly sent to North Community—tiny dorms where twenty rooms share a single bathroom, with only four elevators. Southwest Community has private bathrooms and five elevators for five households."
Ding Shi was somewhat surprised. According to his judgment, Brother Kai should have taken the quest without hesitation.
Curious, Ding Shi asked, "Brother Kai, do you have family?"
Brother Kai nodded. "My wife isn't good at playing instances. I think she might be forcibly assigned to North City. If I can get a house in Southwest Community, I'll be able to take care of her."
The core of Ding Shi's question was whether Brother Kai had decided to use the one-way ticket because of family. Since the answer was yes, instance clear ratings held little meaning for Brother Kai. Friend cards, random logistics cards, and the like could only be used at the Sea-Island Villa.
Ding Shi and Mumu had decided to take the quest, while Brother Kai decided not to. Captain Yuyu didn't have many options; she didn't know how to drive, so she couldn't form a two-person group with just one person.
Everyone turned to look at Ritian. Ritian spoke the least in the team, usually offering only an honest, bashful smile, but he executed any assigned work very well. Suddenly finding everyone staring at him, Ritian stammered for a moment, "Ah? Th-that—what?" Evidently, while the others were debating, Ritian hadn't given any thought to his own choice.
To give Ritian time to think, Chu Yu said, "The two wanted criminals will definitely need a car and will be taken by Brother Kai. I've decided to go with Ritian. If Ritian, Brother Kai, and I form a group, we'll leave the remaining few hundred instance coins to Mumu and Ding Shi. After all, we still have the two wanted criminals on our hands."
Chu Yu asked, "Brother Kai, Mumu, Ding Shi, what do you think?"
Ding Shi and Mumu said, "Agreed."
Brother Kai said, "I agree, but I want the farmhouse's off-road vehicle." The off-road vehicle had an automatic transmission and consumed more fuel, and its ride comfort on the highway was far inferior to a low-chassis sedan. There was only one reason Brother Kai wanted it: the off-road vehicle ran on diesel, and there was a forty-liter diesel reserve at the farmhouse.
Chapter 48