Chapter 249 I Pick Up Trash on the Battlefield of National Destiny 5
With the crisis averted, the five-person team, having survived the ordeal, finally relaxed, leaning against walls or vehicles, panting heavily.
"Captain, what's going on here?" The burly man, named Wang Meng, wiped the blood off his face while staring at Zhou Jue with curiosity and apprehension in his eyes. "What... is this thing?"
"I don't know." Lin Feng shook his head, his gaze never leaving Zhou Jue: "But it didn't attack us just now."
"How about... we try spraying it with this spray?" a younger-looking member of the team suggested. "If it's a monster too, we should strike first."
"No!" Lin Feng and the short-haired girl spoke almost simultaneously.
The girl who spoke was named Chen Xue; she was the team's observer and analyst.
She adjusted her glasses and calmly analyzed, "First, we don't know if this spray will work on it. Second, it hasn't shown any hostility from beginning to end; in fact, you could say it saved us, and we can't repay kindness with enmity. Third, and most importantly, its behavior is very strange. What if we act rashly and provoke its hostility?"
She paused, then continued, "And you see, it's like a programmed robot, standing there motionless, not reacting at all to our intrusion and taking its things. This doesn't fit the logic of any monster we know."
After listening to Chen Xue's analysis, the group all agreed that it made sense.
Wang Meng scratched his head: "Then what exactly is it? It can't just be a statue on the roadside offering warmth, can it?"
“Maybe…it really is an NPC?” Chen Xue’s gaze fell on Zhou Jue’s chest, where the writing was somewhat blurry in the dim light. She carefully took a few steps closer and squinted to make out the words.
“NPC-0714…” she read it aloud softly.
"What? It really is an NPC?" Wang Meng also leaned over, saw the small print, and was immediately surprised: "Holy crap, there's such a good thing in the National Fortune Battlefield? An NPC that stands still and waits for players to come and collect items?"
"Didn't the old guides say that NPCs were extremely dangerous and that players who actively contacted them always met with terrible consequences?" the young team member asked, puzzled.
“There are always exceptions,” Lin Feng said in a deep voice. He looked at Zhou Jue thoughtfully and said, “Perhaps this NPC is a special kind of functional NPC that does not have offensive capabilities.”
This explanation sounds reasonable.
Zhou Jue stood still and listened to every word of their conversation.
While she was "dazed," she was thinking to herself that she had used the purifying agent that Lin Feng had taken twice, and Lin Feng had used it again just now. It seemed that this item was effective whether it was in her hands or in the hands of the players. She just didn't know what the National Fortune System would do if this item were lost.
"Brother Tongzi, do you know what the system does when an NPC drops an item?"
[Host, I've heard that if an item is lost, the NPC's points are usually deducted, and a new one is provided.]
Just then, the bracelet on Lin Feng's wrist suddenly lit up.
"Captain, my mission is complete! The system is calculating the reward!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
The team members exclaimed in surprise one after another.
"Great!" Lin Feng smiled, but then frowned and shook the purifier in his hand: "What about this thing? We'll be teleported away after the settlement."
"Take it!" Wang Meng said without hesitation. "This is a divine artifact! It might save my life on the next mission!"
"But won't there be any punishment for taking things from an NPC? What if I get wanted by the system or hunted down by this NPC?" Chen Xue expressed her concerns.
"What's there to be afraid of! If it doesn't resist, it's as if it agrees!" Wang Meng said nonchalantly. "Besides, maybe this is a hidden benefit the system is giving us! Look at it, it's so silly, it doesn't even know we're leaving."
Just as they were arguing, the youngest member's body began to turn transparent. He looked at his hands and shouted to the crowd, "I'm teleporting!"
Before he finished speaking, he transformed into a beam of white light and vanished from the spot.
"Everyone, gather in Player Town!" the captain hurriedly said.
Following that, Wang Meng, Chen Xue, and another female team member...
In the blink of an eye, only Lin Feng and Zhou Jue remained in the parking lot.
Lin Feng glanced at himself, who was about to disappear, then at the purifier in his hand, and finally at the gray figure that had remained unresponsive throughout. He gritted his teeth and gripped the purifier tightly in his hand.
Fortune favors the bold!
A flash of white light, and Lin Feng disappeared.
The entire underground parking lot fell silent once again.
Zhou Jue blinked, "awakening" from "standby" mode.
Almost at the same time Lin Feng disappeared, that cold, mechanical voice rang in her mind.
[The quest item 'Purifying Agent' for NPC-0714 has been detected as missing.]
[7 points will be deducted based on the remaining uses of the item (7 uses).]
The quest items have been reissued.
[Mission Update: Clear Sector B-13.]
[Danger level in this area: Low.]
As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of light appeared on Zhou Jue's empty cart, and a new bottle of purifier appeared out of thin air.
Zhou Jue's eyes lit up instantly. It really was just a matter of deducting points, and not many at all, plus a free bottle!
She picked up the new air purifier and looked at it, then checked her points balance. She had accumulated over 300 points by collecting trash, but now she had lost 7 points, which didn't bother her much.
But the meaning behind it made her heart skip a beat.
This means that she can "lose" this item, which is considered a godsend by players, at an extremely low cost! She can even "sell" it.
This business is viable!
To be fair, this national destiny battlefield system is actually quite friendly to its NPC employees. If they lose a tool, instead of scolding them, they immediately replace it with a new one, only deducting a symbolic "cost".
Zhou Jue was in a great mood. She pushed her little cart, first picking up the broken energy shield that the player had just used, and then walked out of the underground parking lot.
[Detected 'Corrupted Energy Cores' x2, can be decomposed into 2000 spiritual energy. Decompose into pure spiritual energy?]
"Do not decompose."
The 'corrupted energy core' has been stored in the storage space.
She glanced around again and collected all the armor fragments that had broken off during the battle into the recycling bin.
[Recycling successful, points +15.]
[Recycling successful, points +8.]
[Recycling successful, points +3.]
My points have increased again.
As Zhou Jue pushed the cart and looked at the vast ruins, she felt once again that the job of "battlefield cleaner" was tailor-made for her.
Unbeknownst to Zhou Jue, on the other side, a discussion about her was unfolding.
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