After the initial division of labor, Yu Yuan organized an even more detailed breakdown of tasks. He reassigned personnel to weave hampers out of rattan strips, arranged for people to locate groundwater near the camp, dug out a spring basin, and so on. There was still a tremendous amount to be done. For now, everything was going fairly smoothly, and the people in the camp were still willing to follow Yu Yuan's commands.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, a quest appeared in the sky above the camp: Prometheus. Prometheus was a Greek god who, according to legend, stole the divine fire seed for mankind.
Camp Quest: The Prometheus instance will open in ten minutes. Each camp may dispatch three members to participate in the instance. Infiltrate a palace rife with mechanisms and traps, obtain the fire seed, and bring it back to camp.
Quest Reward: Fire seed. The fire seed is effective for twenty-four hours and will not extinguish during that time.
Three members? Yu Yuan's gaze swept over the people in the camp, and he called out, "Raise your hand if you'd like to volunteer for the camp quest."
For a long while, no one responded.
For an individual, this quest was utterly unrewarding. The reward was stated clearly and plainly, which meant there would be no extra system rewards, nor would it affect one's clear rating. And judging by the quest description, the palace they had to go to was definitely no friendly place.
Right during this awkward silence, Ding Shi was the first to raise his hand—or rather, Wang Meng had hoisted Ding Shi's hand into the air. Ding Shi didn't struggle either; he simply looked at Wang Meng, waiting for an explanation.
Wang Meng, however, inspected Ding Shi's arm and said, "Still quite sturdy. That puts my mind at ease, brother."
Yu Yuan was not far from Ding Shi. After glancing left and right, he pointed at Ding Shi. "You two."
Wang Meng asked, surprised, "Me?"
Ding Shi sneered. "Isn't the hand holding mine up also raised? What's the matter? Scared? Isn't Wang Meng usually above playing petty tricks like this?"
Wang Meng cursed inwardly, but said with a chuckle, "Heh, who's afraid of who? But let's lay our cards on the table first: I hope we can work together in good faith to get the fire seed for the camp. You don't want to keep living without fire either, do you?"
"Fine, agreed," Ding Shi replied.
Su Su came dashing out of the cave shoulder-carrying her fowling piece. "Me, me! I want to sign up!"
Apart from Xiao Liang, the other three members of the scouting team were all going to participate in the Prometheus instance.
As for the good-faith cooperation Wang Meng proposed, cooperation was fine, of course, but there was a knack to it. For instance, would rescuing a companion be the top priority, or would bringing back the fire seed be the top priority?
For the sake of the camp, Ding Shi wouldn't mind sabotaging Wang Meng during a retreat so Wang Meng could bring up the rear. While doing so might appear perfidious, it was precisely proof of Ding Shi's greatness. For the camp's sake, he would rather bear the infamy of betrayal—a person of such noble character and integrity was truly rare in this world.
Although Ding Shi had agreed to Wang Meng's proposal, there were two objectives in Wang Meng's suggestion: first, to cooperate in good faith; second, to obtain the fire seed for the camp. If the two ever conflicted, Ding Shi would have every justification to stir up trouble.
Wang Meng knew Ding Shi kept his word, but being rather thick-skinned and careless, he hadn't analyzed his own proposal closely and naively trusted Ding Shi's character. This was also an ideal opportunity for Ding Shi to borrow a knife to kill, eliminating Wang Meng once and for all.
...
Day One of the Human Instance, 2:10 PM.
A celestial staircase descended from the heavens. A palace floated in midair, and a two-hour countdown appeared across the canopy of the sky.
Yu Yuan shouted, "Move out!"
Su Su, Wang Meng, and Ding Shi stepped onto the stairs together and swiftly climbed upward. Before reaching a fifth of the way, Su Su began to lag behind; halfway up, Ding Shi fell behind. Wang Meng, on the other hand, was like a perpetual motion machine, bounding up a hundred steps in a single breath before turning around to shout with booming vitality, "Hurry up! Can you guys do it or not?"
Ding Shi cursed inwardly: *How old are you, yet you're still so competitive?*
Watching the three mount the steps and teleport into the palace, Yu Yuan let out a deep sigh, hoping everything would go smoothly on this journey.
Right at that moment, a voice rang out: "Ninjutsu: Fireball Jutsu!"
A fireball struck dry leaves, igniting them into flame, and the crowd burst into cheers.
Yu Yuan froze in place, utterly stunned. Could it really be that coincidental? Can we cancel the quest?
...
Entering the palace, what met the eye was a grand hall lined with two rows of pillars, beside each of which stood a suit of full-plate armor and a greatsword. The hall stretched deep into the distance, visually estimated to be over a kilometer long. Down the center of the walkway ran a row of candelabras, each holding multiple candles that provided ample light throughout the hall.
While the three were observing, another trio teleported into the palace. The two groups exchanged glances, and Su Su waved her hand. "Let's go."
Wang Meng extended an arm thicker than Su Su's thigh to block her. Su Su wondered in confusion: Did he want to let the group behind them scout the way?
Ding Shi spoke up. "Follow me."
This was a pattern puzzle: the configuration on each candelabra indicated the safe zone among the floor tiles. For example, Candelabra A had six lit candles arranged in pattern E, indicating that the corresponding E-pattern floor tiles were safe.
Ding Shi led the two past the Area A candelabra zone and arrived at Area B.
By now, many people had appeared at the entrance, and some had begun the challenge. One of them stepped on an unsafe tile. The next second, a wall of light rose, trapping all the players within the Area A candelabra zone. Then came the clanking of metal as the suits of armor on both sides raised their greatswords and advanced with steady, brisk strides to attack every player in the area.
The second pattern consisted of five candles in a straight line. After Ding Shi crossed the third section, the middle candle suddenly went out, indicating that the third tile was no longer safe.
Wang Meng failed to stop his stride in time and stepped right onto it, instantly triggering the wall of light and the animated armor. Ding Shi said, "There are only four safe tiles. Don't step on any other tiles during combat." The tiles measured 1.5 meters by 1.5 meters, leaving room to fight.
The battle in Area A was drawing to a close. At first, the six players had held the upper hand, beating the two suits of armor back step by step. But when a player stepped on a hazard tile, not only did the armor's vigor fully replenish, its combat power also increased by twenty percent. The six players failed to realize where the problem lay and were ultimately hacked to death by the two suits of armor after they had upgraded over a dozen times.
When the battle ended, the floor turned to quicksand, swallowing up the six corpses. The two suits of armor returned to their posts, and the wall of light vanished.
"Arhat Staff Technique!" Su Su thrust her staff forward, jamming the forged-iron muzzle of her fowling piece right into a suit of armor. This strike converted internal energy into concussive shock, sending tremors rattling continuously through the metal plate. Across the once pristine, gleaming armor, over a dozen rust marks appeared.
On the other side, Wang Meng dodged a sweeping horizontal slash of a greatsword, his mountain-like body barreling into the armor and knocking it flat. Fist after fist hammered into the plate, every punch ringing with the clash of iron and steel.
Watching the spectacle from the side, Ding Shi asked, "Where's your Great Summoning Technique?"
Wang Meng shot Ding Shi a glare and instantly began treating the armor as Ding Shi, each punch bashing out trails of decayed rust.
What's that supposed to mean? A show of force?
Wang Meng's specialty was boxing, which had reached the level of a professional boxer. However, in freestyle sparring against Ding Shi, Wang Meng lost far more than he won—and by "few," it meant almost never. The reason was that Ding Shi favored mixed martial arts; when the two fought, Ding Shi would drop to the ground and play jiu-jitsu. Jeet Kune Do's one-inch punch, Muay Thai's knee and elbow strikes, Krav Maga's vital-point targeting, and Taekwondo's high kicks—Ding Shi could execute all these powerful striking skills with effortless ease.
Therefore, even though his physical stats gave him the advantage, Wang Meng was rather reluctant to face Ding Shi head-on. Of course, Ding Shi was equally unwilling to take a heavy blow; he had witnessed with his own eyes Wang Meng cave in a guy's skull with a single punch.
The armor beneath Wang Meng soon stopped moving. Wang Meng turned back to help Su Su, delivering a massive slap that imprinted five rusted finger marks across the armor's full-face helmet.
Su Su was flabbergasted: *Can he really be this ferocious?!*
With a left hand the size of a prayer mat, Wang Meng seized the armor's head, pinned it against the pillar, and flattened the helmet with four savage punches.
Ding Shi broke into a cold sweat as well. Fortunately, this guy was dimmer than him and had chosen ninjutsu. Had he chosen Pure Origin Force to boost his Strength, becoming One-Punch Man wouldn't have been just a dream. Still, it made sense that Wang Meng had picked ninjutsu—his absolute favorite pastime in daily life was watching Fire Ninja.
Chapter 69