As the organizers had predicted, the rules announced for this competition were exactly as the senior brother had said: the points for this competition would come from the backlog of missions from the Special Affairs Bureau.
Although many people had a premonition when they saw the leaders of the Special Affairs Bureau, Mao Xiaoqian and others couldn't help but beam with joy when they actually heard it.
They couldn't say much in front of the other contestants, but the force with which they patted Ruan Bei on the shoulder revealed their good mood.
They were ahead of everyone else. Seeing those contestants who, upon hearing the news, anxiously pulled out their phones to log into the app, only to be terribly stuck due to the large number of users, the team members who had already chosen their targets felt even happier.
Mao Xiaoqian and Lao Bai especially love to stare at people who can't log in and look frustrated. It's a typical case of how they feel happy when they see you guys doing badly.
The organizers then announced some detailed rules, such as that although there is no limit to the number of tasks accepted and tasks can be accepted repeatedly, if a group of tasks is accepted at once and cannot be completed, a certain percentage of points will be deducted.
Therefore, you must think carefully before accepting a task, and don't just grab it on impulse.
Since tasks can be accepted repeatedly, some participants will inevitably encounter the same task. The task score will be calculated based on the task submission status.
The scores are calculated based on the first submission; subsequent submissions are not counted.
Given the time constraints and pace of the competition, tasks that previously required confirmation from local authorities can now be submitted directly.
However, when the results are tallied after the competition, someone will investigate. Those who lie about their results, or who claim to have completed the task and submit it before others when they have not actually completed it, will not only have their task results invalidated, but their total score will also be deducted double.
Most of these rules are designed to ensure fairness and prevent cheating, since the competition format has changed and participants will likely have to travel all over the country.
Mao Xiaoqian and his friends weren't planning to cheat. After listening for a while, they became impatient and felt that these things were useless.
Only Conan and Ruan Bei listened attentively; it's never wrong to understand the rules first.
After announcing all the rules for this competition, the next step is to announce the start and end times of the competition.
The officials acted in a completely inhumane manner, with the spokesperson announcing on the spot that the competition would begin today, and the task submission channel would be temporarily closed at midnight thirty days from now to start calculating the results.
Many contestants who hadn't even logged into the app were furious. They hadn't even seen what the tasks looked like, let alone accepted or completed them.
Mao Xiaoqian was also furious. Their plan was good, but now the app couldn't get through!
Conan grabbed Mao Xiaoqian, who was struggling to jump up, and said, "Come on, we can't accept missions now, let's book tickets first."
Since they can accept the same task repeatedly, they're not worried about others snatching the ones they like. As long as they complete it quickly, they can accept the task even if it's only for a minute before submission.
As for the location, the map was already fully marked when we made the plan.
Yin Kai, relying on his strong physique as a body cultivator, led the way, and the group squeezed out of the venue, each rushing to their own room to pack their luggage.
Now is the time to race against time. Ruan Bei and his team reacted quickly enough, and many other clear-headed contestants also ran out of the venue as well.
Ten minutes later, the team gathered in the hotel lobby, hailed a car, and headed to the airport.
None of the team members were short of money. Even the seemingly poorest "rogue disciple" Ruan Bei and Lao Bai, a disciple from a small sect, had considerable savings and didn't need to be stingy with transportation expenses.
They were lucky; there was a flight to their destination province just two hours later. They took a taxi there, waited at the airport for about half an hour, and then boarded the plane.
Meanwhile, inside the hotel, a large number of participants were still packing their luggage or urgently calling for a taxi.
On the way to the airport, the three of them tried to log in to the app, but it was still incredibly slow. Conan was finally able to log in when they arrived at the airport waiting area.
He quickly accepted the two simpler tasks, especially those left over from the city they were about to reach, according to the previously prepared plan.
I didn't rush to accept tasks that were relatively difficult, I wasn't confident about, or were a bit far away and I wasn't sure I could make it in time; otherwise, I would lose points if I couldn't finish them.
More than two hours later, the team arrived in a southwestern province, where the temperature was significantly higher than in Beijing by five to ten degrees.
At this temperature, it's comfortable to take off your thick coat and just wear a sweatshirt, which also makes it easy to move around.
"Let's find a place to eat first." Conan checked the time; it was already past 1 p.m. The plane had provided lunch, but they hadn't really enjoyed it.
Just as Mao Xiaoqian was getting excited, he pulled his suitcase and walked briskly, eager to complete the mission immediately: "What should we eat? We finally got ahead of everyone else, let's try to be the first to submit the mission."
Yin Kai looked miserable. As a body cultivator, his body needed a lot of energy, and he usually ate a lot, so he couldn't stand being hungry.
Ruan Bei had already witnessed his friend's appetite, so he took out some beef jerky and pork jerky from his backpack and gave them to him. His senior brother had packed them for him, having somehow found out that his family had prepared a lot of snacks, and had packed a big bag for him when he left.
"Thanks, bro." Yin Kai grinned, took the packet, and finished it in a few bites.
Conan once again subdued Mao Xiaoqian, and the group headed towards the foreign grandpa's shop outside the airport.
Mao Xiaoqian was still thinking about his first place, but Conan cruelly shattered his beautiful fantasy: "Don't even think about it. Someone must be stuck in the capital and will prioritize missions in or near the capital. They might have already finished by now."
The capital city has a lot of talent, and the headquarters of the Special Affairs Bureau is also there, but that doesn't mean there are no backlogged tasks in that area, just fewer.
Mao Xiaoqian let out a wail and sat in the store biting into his hamburger. He asked someone he knew, and sure enough, just as Conan had said, a small team had already submitted a mission before they even boarded the plane.
It's a super small task; I don't even know who posted it. The task is worth five points and the reward is fifty yuan.
The content is about an old alleyway where there is a ghost. When cats and dogs pass by at night, they bark incessantly, and when people pass by, they always hear footsteps behind them.
The timid ones were so frightened that they scrambled to their feet and didn't dare to look back, while the brave ones turned their heads to look, saw nothing, and continued walking, only to hear footsteps again.
It was truly frightening, as that alley was a necessary route for nearby residents, and this incident caused widespread panic among the locals.
Some people called the police, but when the police arrived, they found nothing. According to them, they walked through this area at night and didn't hear any footsteps.
The residents of the old alley were furious. This night ghost was a bully who preyed on the weak and feared the strong. When he saw the police coming, he didn't even show up.
But they were helpless. Fortunately, although the night ghost was scary, it didn't hurt anyone. So much time had passed, the footsteps kept coming, and no one had gotten into trouble.
Later, the long-time residents in the neighborhood got used to it. It was just footsteps. They would just play a song on their phones, like "The Vast Horizon is My Love" or "You Are My Little Apple," and the upbeat rhythm would make all the footsteps disappear.
The points and bonuses were so small that even the Grand Masters would spend more on a single trip. In addition, the so-called Night Ghosts were not really a threat and did not cause any personal injury, so the mission was left hanging for a year or two without anyone paying attention to it, and it was long since buried at the bottom.
It wasn't until this exchange competition that this seemingly insignificant task was brought to the forefront due to its geographical advantage.
Upholding the spirit of thrift and frugality, even a mosquito's leg is meat, one of the teams that hadn't managed to book tickets went to do this task first.
As for the so-called night ghost, it was a wandering spirit with an incomplete soul. It is estimated that he was a resident of the neighborhood when he was alive, and he is still lingering there after death.
The wandering spirit hadn't harmed anyone, so the team didn't eliminate him directly. Instead, they captured him and handed him over to the monks at Ling'an Temple, considering that their mission accomplished.
They submitted their task and earned points in less than two hours, making them the first team to do so in the competition.
It's worth mentioning that the team had six people, and the last person didn't even get a single point. As for the prize money, fifty yuan wasn't even enough to cover their round-trip taxi fare.
Mao Xiaoqian laughed so hard he almost fell over, dropping the hamburger he was holding in his mouth.
Conan watched coldly, then disdainfully told him not to smile at him: "You don't even have a single point, and you're laughing at others."
"Hiccup~" Mao Xiaoqian's laughter stopped abruptly, and he couldn't help but hiccup.
"Look at this message." Old Bai chuckled and pushed his phone to the center of the table for everyone to see.
Ruan Bei and the others went over to take a look and found that, in addition to the one who had completed the task, there were also people fighting over the task.
Just as Conan predicted, due to reasons such as travel and mission arrangements, many teams failed to reach an agreement and were forced to stay in the capital.
With the competition already underway, they were left with nothing to do in the capital, so they couldn't relax and thus local and nearby missions became highly sought after.
In the few hours that Ruan Bei and his group had been traveling, more than ten teams or individual participants had fought over the missions. Two teams were also too greedy and accepted missions beyond their capabilities. If it weren't for the timely rescue from Ling'an Temple, they would have all perished there.
Having witnessed all this chaos, Mao Xiaoqian no longer envied them. He shamelessly approached Conan and praised him for his foresight.
Conan smiled reservedly: "We should thank Xiao Bei. If it weren't for his information, we'd be running around like headless flies right now."
The group thanked Ruan Bei profusely, but Ruan Bei waved his hands repeatedly, feeling embarrassed.
Having filled their stomachs with hamburgers and fried chicken, Mao Xiaoqian didn't dare to rush Conan this time. Instead, he eagerly helped Conan pull his suitcase, saying, "Shall we find a place to stay first?"
"I won't stay."
Conan took out a map and a map of the mission distribution he had drawn, and spread them out: "We are currently in the provincial capital city. I have found that there are three missions available in this city."
He opened his notebook of copied tasks, passed it around to his teammates, and pointed to the one with the highest score, saying, "This one, 300 points, a standard level 4 task, and one of the more difficult ones. Let's not touch it for now. If we can't solve it and get stuck here, it'll be even more difficult."
"This is a 180-point, level 3 mission. I think we should be able to handle it with our capabilities. However, it's quite far; getting there from the airport is like crossing most of the city."
He pointed to the last level 2 task with the lowest score: "I suggest we do this first. It's still early, so let's go straight there. If we can finish it quickly, we can take a taxi to the vicinity of the level 3 task and see if we can find a place to stay or just go and complete the task."
"Okay, okay."
"Okay, okay."
Conan had thought things through thoroughly, and his teammates had no objections, so they took a taxi directly to their destination as planned.
The task they chose was a relatively traditional haunted house. The fact that it was classified as a level two task indicates that the ghosts had reached a point where they could harm people.
Moreover, the mission description shows that someone was indeed injured in the house. The first verifiable victim was a girl who shared an apartment with her boyfriend. She woke up one night to find her beautiful hair had been cut into a mess.
Her first reaction wasn't to see a ghost, of course; she thought it was her boyfriend who did it, and she immediately broke down and beat him up.
No matter how her boyfriend tried to explain, it was no use. In the end, he almost thought that she had really done it while sleepwalking.
It wasn't until the girl was taking a shower in the bathroom, her hair, which had just grown a little longer and been trimmed, was suddenly pulled and her head was slammed against the sink. In the midst of the excruciating pain, she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye that an almost invisible black hand had just left her head.
The girl bumped her head and was too scared to stay in the house anymore. The two of them had a big argument with the landlord and then moved out.
The landlord, of course, refused to believe that his house was haunted; he still wanted to rent it out.
The location is good, and the house was easy to rent out; it was quickly rented out again.
But things didn't calm down after that. One after another, the tenants had accidents, especially the female tenants. The more beautiful their hair was, the more likely they were to be the first to suffer. Their hair was either cut bald or pulled by the hair.
The most serious case involved someone who was peeling fruit while being pulled by the hair. Before they could let go of the knife, the knife unexpectedly pierced their own thigh.
After reading the mission description, the team members confirmed that this was probably a female ghost who was obsessed with hair.
Because they needed to go into someone's house, they made a phone call to the local office of the Special Affairs Bureau on their way there. There were usually ordinary people there who knew some things and could provide logistical support.
The taxi stopped at the entrance of a residential complex. It was a mid-to-low-end complex, and the security guards weren't very strict. Two people stayed behind to watch the luggage, while the rest of the people went to check the address they had left.
The house is on the third floor, in a great location, but it's probably because the reputation of being haunted has spread, as even the houses next door are empty and unoccupied, and there are rental ads posted on the walls of the stairwell.
Ruan Bei and Lao Bai were left to watch the luggage. After a while, Conan and the other two came down, their expressions not very good.
"Is there a problem?" Old Bai asked.
"I didn't sense any ghosts," Conan said, frowning.
Logically speaking, even though they couldn't get inside, standing outside at such close range, they should have been able to sense the yin energy unique to ghosts inside the house.
There was some yin energy, but not much; it seemed as if the ghost had already run away.
Ghosts that cause trouble in only one house usually have some kind of obsession with that house and won't leave easily.
If they had time, they could stay here and wait, but unfortunately they don't.
And if they stay here, the ghost won't come back. Are they supposed to keep waiting?
Conan looked grim because he felt the mission wasn't difficult and that the few of them could handle it, so he had already accepted it.
If you fail to complete the task, you will lose points.
"It's my fault." He lowered his head, his mood unusually somber.
"We all agreed to this, how can I blame you? It's just a few points, even if you don't complete it, it's only a 20% deduction, it's just..."
Mao Xiaoqian got stuck. What was 20% of 70 again?
Conan was both amused and exasperated by his interruption, and the others offered their comfort.
Ruan Bei looked up at the not-so-tall building, then gently shook the Soul-Capturing Bell on his wrist. The clear, ringing sound immediately attracted everyone's attention.
Ruan Bei bit her lip and said softly, "I feel like that ghost is still around."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
Ruan Bei pulled up his sleeve to show them the bell tied to his wrist: "This is my magical artifact. It can enhance my senses. I just sensed that there is another ghost over there."
Just when everyone thought the mission was doomed, a new path opened up before them. Now, those who thought the mission was hopeless are all happy.
"See how good my eye is? I knew Xiao Bei was no ordinary person." Mao Xiaoqian proudly raised his head.
Just then, people from the Special Affairs Bureau arrived, bringing them some information that wasn't written in the mission instructions.
This task seems easy, and even a Taoist priest came to check it out, but just like the person who went upstairs earlier, after entering the house, they couldn't find the ghost.
They couldn't stay there forever. Although there was still some lingering yin energy in the house, it was caused by a ghost lingering in a certain place for a long time and the lack of human presence. They couldn't use this to track down the ghost that had disappeared.
As soon as they left, the ghost reappeared. After several such visits, no one had the patience to continue dealing with a little ghost that hadn't killed anyone.
With Ruan Bei's guidance, the team's morale was high. They entrusted their luggage to the logistics department, took the keys he gave them, and went upstairs together.
Upon opening the door, a musty smell wafted out, as if no one had lived there for a long time. Mao Xiaoqian, with his experience, rushed over and first pulled open the curtains and opened all the windows to let the sunlight in.
The door wasn't closed anyway, since it wouldn't work on ghosts; if necessary, they'd still have to run out the main door.
"Can you still sense where he is?" Conan asked his teammates to surround Ruan Bei and protect him.
Ruan Bei shook the bell earnestly, then stared wide-eyed in surprise: "It's gone!"
It was broad daylight, so even if the ghost left the house, it couldn't possibly leave the building, but Ruan Bei just couldn't sense it.
"Gone?"
How could that be?
"Where can you run to..."
The group started talking all at once, with those who knew how to read auras using their abilities and others pulling out their ghost-hunting tools.
After searching around for a while, I found nothing.
Mao Xiaoqian kicked the wall angrily and said dejectedly, "You can run so fast. After this competition, Grandpa will definitely stay here and catch you."
"Stop saying hurtful things, she can't hear you anyway."
Conan sighed and checked the time: "Let's search for another half hour. If we can't find it, we'll give up. We can't stay here any longer."
Everyone else had no objections, but Yin Kai had drunk too much cola at noon and now felt the urge to urinate, so he couldn't help but say, "I'm going to the toilet."
As soon as he said that, Lao Bai immediately said, "Go quickly, let me go after you're done, I want to go too."
Mao Xiaoqian joined in the fun and tried to grab it from him. Ruan Bei didn't want to go, but thinking that he would have to take a car to another place later, he decided to go too.
The three of them came out of the restroom one after another, and since nothing was wrong, Ruan Bei didn't think much of it and went straight in.
After he finished relieving himself, he went to the sink and turned on the faucet to wash his hands, but the moment he looked down, he felt something was wrong.
In an instant, his hair stood on end. He subconsciously looked up, and the person in the mirror wasn't himself at all; it was clearly a long-haired female ghost.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
