When the group arrived at the Bounty Guild, it was only 8:40 a.m., and the electronic screen where the missions were posted was already crowded with people.
The bounty guild's quest system is somewhat like a pre-apocalyptic tax bureau. To accept a quest, you must first register your team through a special window to obtain the qualification to accept quests; otherwise, you are operating illegally.
The giant screen in the guild hall displays available tasks in real time. To accept a task, you need to register at a specific window and pay 10% of the task reward amount as a handling fee in advance.
If you try to conduct private transactions outside of the bounty guild, you will be fined several times the amount if discovered, and you will be blacklisted in the quest system, never to accept quests through official channels again.
It's basically like an idol evading taxes in the pre-apocalyptic world enjoying a moment of pleasure, only to have their career cremated and be completely blacklisted by the base's bounty system.
Bounty guilds typically issue tasks in five tiers.
The five colors—gray, green, blue, purple, and orange—are used to distinguish the quality of items, similar to the color schemes used for item quality in most game systems, making them easy to remember.
The gray area represents the lowest level of errand-running and miscellaneous tasks, which anyone can complete. They are easy to do and the rewards are meager.
The green areas are for ordinary exploration or collection tasks, which are not difficult and the rewards are basically just a token of appreciation for the effort.
The blue and purple zones represent missions that are somewhat dangerous and mostly require a team to complete; the rewards are generally generous.
The orange zone indicates high-risk missions that the base will officially mark with risk warnings. There may be casualties during the mission, and the mission team will be solely responsible for any losses incurred after accepting the mission.
But the rewards are also exceptionally tempting.
Lu Sheng glanced at the orange-colored task bar. There was only one rescue task at the moment, with a reward of 20,000 points and a handling fee of 2,000 points.
All transactions within the base must be converted into points, which are the universal currency within the base.
Converted to crystal cores, the reward for this task is a full two thousand crystal cores.
"We absolutely must take this!"
Zhang Xiaojuan said with certainty.
Including Zhang Xiaojuan, Lu Sheng and his group now have a five-person team.
After registering the team in the bounty system, we got stuck on the name-chasing stage. Finally, since most of us were from northern China, we settled on the team name: "Tofu Pudding Must Be Salty."
After registering his team, Lu Sheng took the identity card with the team information bound to it and went to the quest acceptance window.
The staff member happened to be the same young girl who helped with registration at the entrance yesterday.
"Could you please accept the orange-level rescue mission for me?" Lu Sheng said, handing over the magnetic card.
The little girl's eyes widened, and she stared blankly for several seconds. "What did you say?"
This mission has been posted for three days, and no fewer than five teams have accepted it, but none of them have been able to complete it successfully; all of them have gone and never returned.
"Don't be impulsive..." The young woman was very enthusiastic. When she turned around and saw that the supervisor was not there, she hurriedly whispered to dissuade Lu Sheng, "The handling fee will not be refunded after it is paid. Moreover, this task allows multiple teams to take on it at the same time. If someone else completes the task first, your handling fee will also be deducted."
Zhang Xiaojuan was so angry that she blurted out more than a dozen harmonious phrases, affecting the entire household registration of the base leaders to varying degrees.
Listen to these unfair terms and conditions.
If the task is not completed, the handling fee will also be lost. It's like making the various teams compete fiercely, with high risk and high reward.
The base makes a fortune just by collecting handling fees without doing anything.
"It's okay, answer it for me."
Lu Sheng smiled indifferently.
Fortune favors the bold.
After paying the processing fee, Lu Sheng quickly received all the information about the mission.
The person they are looking for is Han Rui, the only daughter of a senior engineer at the research institute. She went missing a few days ago when she was on a mission with her team and got separated from her and went missing in the dense forest.
The military dispatched several search teams to look for them, but they lost contact with the base before even reaching the location where the person disappeared, and there was no trace of them, neither alive nor dead.
Most of the high-ranking superhumans in the military have been sent on long-range missions, so the old engineer, out of love for his daughter, offered a large reward.
"Besides us, two other teams have also taken on the mission," Xu Yi pointed out the key information.
"Twin Ponytail Lovers Squad, Pure Love Warriors Squad..." Xiao Yu looked disgusted. "What kind of silly names are these?"
"Time is tight, let's set off quickly, we can discuss the rest on the way."
Lu Sheng folded the mission information and put it in his pocket, then called a few people to get in the car.
The car had barely driven a kilometer from the base when Lu Sheng noticed two cars following closely behind in the rearview mirror.
Both vehicles had license plates for base access, so they must be the other two teams that received the mission.
They were all full squads of five, and judging from their age, they were all young people under thirty, similar to Lu Sheng and his group.
According to survivors from Han Rui's team, they strayed into a dense forest while on an exploration mission. They only heard Han Rui's screams and then couldn't find her.
Sun Tiantian, Xiao Yu, and Zhang Xiaojuan huddled together to study the mission information.
"Based on the description, the dense forest should be located to the southwest of the base."
The RV sped southwest, and after driving for more than ten kilometers, Xu Yi suddenly slammed on the brakes.
Lu Sheng stood up and looked out the car window, understanding dawning on her.
On the endless expanse of snow, a field of brilliant golden sunflowers grew wildly and unruly, their enormous flower heads strangely and uniformly facing them.
Lu Sheng had never seen such a large sunflower before; it looked like a giant foot basin atop a green stalk.
"Why aren't we going anymore?" Zhang Xiaojuan, who had slept the whole way in the car, asked groggily as she opened her eyes.
Xu Yi adjusted his glasses. "There's something wrong with these sunflowers."
"What's the problem? It's just a bit big."
Lu Sheng shook his head, rolled down the car window, and pointed to the strange sunflower field. "There are no other plants in this field. This is not scientific."
Although plants and animals have undergone tremendous changes in the apocalypse, they still at least abide by the laws and principles of nature.
Although it is a world of ice and snow, wherever plants can grow, they thrive in a chaotic and untamed manner, with no single plant standing out.
"There must be something strange about how this sunflower can occupy such a large area all to itself."
The two cars behind them also caught up at this moment.
"Women are so dramatic, they get scared by a sunflower." A young boy dressed as a rapper got out of the car and gave Lu Sheng and Sun Tiantian a provocative look.
"What kind of 'Tofu Pudding Squad' are you? I thought they were something special, daring to take on orange-level missions." The other team members in the car joined in with sarcastic laughter. "In the end, they're just putting on a show, all bravado and no substance."
"Hey, you guys are twin ponytail lovers! You're perverts!" Sun Tiantian glared at the rapper.
A gentle breeze swept by, carrying a faint fragrance in the air.
"Damn, I'm allergic to pollen." The rapper who had just gotten off the bus to smoke suddenly covered his nose and sneezed several times.
Zhang Xiaojuan filled a large bottle with water, stuck her head out of the car window, and took a deep sniff. "Sunflowers smell this good?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than a scream came from ahead.
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