Chapter 44
Every city has its own lord, and Huangsi is no exception.
This place is not like the royal city, which restricts players from riding horses. Xia Mo rode in on horseback and no one stopped him, so he went all the way to the castle where the city lord Feisali was.
Perhaps it was rare to see outsiders, so Feisali looked at Xia Mo with some surprise: "Adventurer, what are you doing in Huangsi City?"
Xia Mo bowed respectfully, his expression solemn and sincere. "Dear Lord Fesali, I hope to join the city of Huangs and contribute my strength to its development."
The game does not have a fixed script for binding a city. As long as words such as "join", "settle in", and "bind" are mentioned, it can be triggered.
A pop-up window appeared in front of me at the right time.
[The city lord asks you to confirm whether you want to join Huangsi City? (Be careful when binding a city, please make your choice after careful consideration.)]
Although there was a friendly reminder from the system, Xia Mo had made up his mind and chose [Yes] without hesitation.
City Lord Fesali immediately relaxed his brows, revealing a friendly smile. He turned and pulled a red book from the drawer of his mahogany desk, handing it to Xia Mo. "Welcome to Huangsi City. However, before your status as a resident is officially confirmed, please face the direction of the royal city and read the oath in the book."
This is the basic procedure for joining any city. Xia Mo took it with a smile and read out each word clearly according to the text on the red book.
After reading it, sign your ID on it with a feather pen.
The surface of the red book was instantly covered by a thin layer of golden light, which disappeared after a few seconds.
【Congratulations, you have successfully bound to Huangsi City! 】
[Get the city lord reward binding gift pack *1]
[Since you are the first bound player in Huangsi City, you will receive an additional reward of +1000 experience points, +100 silver coins, and 1 Resident Honor Medal]
When Xia Mo saw the medal of honor at the end, his eyes lit up for a moment.
However, out of courtesy, she did not show it, but smiled and waited quietly for Lord Fesali to assign her a task.
Seeing that she didn't leave, as expected, Feisali took the initiative to speak: "I heard that there are monsters in Ximen recently, frequently stealing the food of the residents in the city. Can you take a look for me to see what's going on?"
[City Mission: Go to the west gate to capture the monster stealing food (1/10)]
"Okay, City Lord, I'll go check it out for you right away."
After receiving the task, Xia Mo left the castle.
City tasks are cyclical tasks, with 10 tasks in a group, and 3 groups can be accepted every day.
For each small task completed, players can receive a small reward; for every five tasks completed, they can receive a moderate reward; and for every group completed, they can also receive additional resident honor points.
Xia Mo came here for no other reason than to gain these honor points.
Resident Honor Points directly determine a player's status in the city they are bound to. The higher the score, the more respected and loved they are by the city lord and the city's NPC residents.
There is no need to elaborate on the benefits of gaining the favor of NPCs.
But these are only superficial benefits. What excites Xia Mo the most is that players with high scores will enjoy discounts in the future when buying land, opening shops, doing business, paying taxes, etc. in the city.
To give you an example, Xia Mo once rented a small shop in the city of Luoluo Locke, which was 5 square meters in size.
According to the normal market price, the rent per square meter should be 10 gold coins per month, but because she had been frantically completing city tasks in the early stages, she had raised her resident honor points to 3,000 points, which allowed her to enjoy a 10% reduction.
I don’t know how many players who opened stores were envious at that time.
Now that he has been reborn, it is even less likely that Xia Mo will forget such an important part.
While rushing towards the west gate, Xia Mo put on the Resident Honor Medal he had just received on his left chest.
This medal has a blue background, and according to the color level, it can give her 10 points.
There are 5 levels of medals. The lowest level is green, which adds 5 points; the second level is blue, which adds 10 points; the third level is purple, which adds 15 points; the fourth level is orange, which adds 20 points; and the fifth level is also the highest level, gold, which directly adds 30 points.
Being the first to bind Huangs City allowed her to easily obtain the blue medal, and Xia Mo was quite satisfied with this.
Outside the west gate, Xia Mo squatted in the corner for about 10 minutes, and finally found the thief that the city lord mentioned - it turned out to be two squirrels, one big and one small.
The larger one looks like the mother and the smaller one is its child.
They probably couldn't find anything to eat in the forest, so they set their sights on the residents' food.
This is easy to handle. Xia Mo remained calm and followed quietly behind. After noticing that the smaller one was distracted, he threw the novice knife out with a whoosh!
squeak--!
The little squirrel's tail was stuck in the soil by the knife. It screamed in pain, curled up its body instantly, and rolled around on the ground wildly, trying to get rid of it.
Whenever this happened, Xia Mo couldn't help but sigh, "This novice knife is so useful! It's like a magical tool walking on the continent!" He used it to lift people's weapons, stabbed people in the thigh, and now he still uses it to catch small animals! (Proud)
Xia Mo walked closer to the little squirrel and looked at the wound on its tail. Fortunately, the durability of the novice knife had been used up, and the actual damage caused to the little squirrel was almost negligible.
After confirming that it couldn't escape for the time being, Xia Mo went to the corner of the city gate, picked up an abandoned cage, and stuffed the little one in it.
When the younger one enters, the older one will naturally follow out of concern.
Xia Mo brought the two, one big and one small, to Faisali's office.
"Two squirrels?" Fesali stood up from his desk and took a closer look at the creatures in the cage. "They look really skinny. They must be starving. Coincidentally, I have some bread here."
As he spoke, he tore the bread into pieces and shook them to the edge of the cage.
The little squirrel was already starving, so he grabbed the bread as soon as he saw it. The big one licked his lips at the sight. Feisali smiled and put the bread on the ground: "Here, have some too."
The older one hesitated for a while, but finally succumbed to hunger and started to eat voraciously.
【Successfully complete the city mission (1/10)】
[Experience +200, Silver +2]
The reward is indeed very meager...
Xia Mo sighed silently in his heart.
"Judging from the recent situation of these little animals, I think something happened in the Nakao Forest to the west. Please notify Jeff's family on West Street and ask them to go and see what happened in the forest."
[City Mission: Notify Jeff to check [Nakao Forest] (2/10)]
When he saw the content of the second task, Xia Mo raised his eyebrows imperceptibly.
The task given by Lord Faisali is very interesting, and it seems to have almost nothing to do with urban planning and development.
However, if you think about it carefully, you will find that these tasks are actually closely related to urban development. When there is a problem with the forest, the first to suffer are the animals in the forest. The animals are hungry and have no choice but to disturb the residents, and the stability of the city is threatened.
It can be seen that Fesali is a gentle and responsible city lord NPC, completely different from the one in Lolock City.
Looking back at the city missions he had taken on in Lolock City, they were either to stockpile war supplies, build defense projects, or invite major engineers and military NPCs to meet... In short, they were completely different from what City Lord Fesali was thinking.
A city lord’s attitude towards his city can be seen from his preference for issuing tasks.
It is no wonder that Huangs City came from behind to become the third largest city on the continent. Apart from the contributions made by the players, Lord Fesali definitely played a significant role.
This has gone off topic. Xia Mo collected his thoughts, accepted the task and ran towards West Street.
She went on like this over and over again, and when she finished the fifth city mission, she received double the experience points and coin rewards than before.
To be honest, although completing city missions requires running around and tiring your legs, as long as you can get to the fifth or tenth one, the rewards are still quite fulfilling.
So I ran five more in one breath. When I finished the last task of the first group, I heard a ding sound in my ear.
[Successfully completed the first set of city tasks! ]
[Experience +2000, Silver +200]
[Obtain 10 Honor Points from Huangsi City Residents]
Got points!
Xia Mo breathed a sigh of relief.
Don't underestimate the 10 points. If you do 3 sets a day, you can get 30 points, which means 900 points a month! This doesn't include the medals of honor you may get along the way. Adding up all the points, you can get about 950 points a month.
At this rate, she will be able to enjoy various tax relief measures within three months.
It may sound like a long time, but this is the fastest way to accumulate without missing a day.
You have to know how many players in the previous life gave up halfway because they thought the points were too few and useless. Later, when they saw that her store was doing well and the taxes she paid were less than others, they regretted it one by one.
Back to the present, Xia Mo completed the remaining two sets of city tasks in one go. Today, he obtained a total of 40 resident honor points, which gave him a full sense of achievement!
After completing the task and walking out of the castle, it was already 6 o'clock in the afternoon. The sun was setting in the west. Xia Mo thought about it and decided not to return to the royal city today.
What she hadn't said before was that she had another purpose for coming to Huangs City this time - to go to the [Nakao Forest], where she could find what she needed now.
However, thinking that the weapon in his hand was still being enchanted by Matthew, and he was currently empty-handed and it was inconvenient to act, Xia Mo casually bought a new dagger, a bow and 20 arrows from a weapon shop in Huangs City and ran out of Huangs City.
Relying on her memory, she walked deeper and deeper into the cave in winding ways. Although she unfortunately took the wrong path twice, she finally found the place she remembered.
At the edge of the Kao Forest, a crooked tree was growing alone on the edge of a cliff. With the setting sun that had not yet completely set, Xia Mo saw at a glance a small glowing ball stuck at the end of the branch - the talent ball.
Yes, there are only 100 talent balls in total, and one of them is hidden on this crooked tree.
She discovered it by accident when she was level 30. Perhaps because this place was too remote and other players were unwilling to set foot there, she got this opportunity.
Now that she has been reborn, even though she knows that no one will compete with her for it, Xia Mo still hopes to get this precious talent ball as soon as possible.
However, the gift ball was at the end of the crooked tree's branch, and the very end was hanging high up on the cliff, which meant that she had to risk falling into the abyss and climb up to get the ball.
After thinking about it, Xia Mo decided to do it the old way.
He took out the rope from his backpack, tied one end around his waist, and put the other end around a big tree a few meters away. Then he hugged the crooked tree with his hands and legs and climbed up little by little.
It was extremely cold at high altitudes, not to mention being on the edge of a cliff. The cold air currents from the bottom of the cliff were blowing upwards, making it difficult for Xia Mo to open his eyes.
After crawling carefully for almost 10 minutes, she finally approached the gift ball at the end.
Freeing up his right hand, he slowly reached out...
Suddenly, there was a whoosh sound behind her! An arrow flew towards her!
Xia Mo's pupils widened and she tried to dodge, but the attacker shot two arrows in succession, as if he would not stop until he killed her. Xia Mo was forced to relax her body and rolled down from the branch.
But fortunately, she held on to the branch tightly with both hands, so she temporarily did not fall off the cliff.
[You are attacked by the player "[Anonymous]", you can launch a counterattack]
Unlike the previous times when I was ambushed, the reminder I received this time did not show the other party's ID.
Looking closely, he saw that the person who attacked him had nothing above his head.
This is the result of using hidden props.
At the same time, the visitor also wore a mask to hide his face.
Xia Mo narrowed his eyes, grabbed the branches above his head with both hands, and prepared to swing himself back.
However, another arrow shot towards her, the arrow pointing directly at her vital point.
Xia Mo's face turned grim, and her hands were forced to loosen. Like a person falling from a building, she fell into the abyss without any preparation.
The attacker snorted softly, retracted his bow and arrow, and noticed a rope on the ground. His brows suddenly tightened, and out of vigilance, he quickly drew out his dagger and cut it.
The rope whizzed towards the depths of the cliff, and in a few seconds, it fell to the bottom of the cliff along with the person tied to the rope.
Looking at this scene, the attacker finally smiled with satisfaction.
He took off his mask, put it into his backpack, and revealed his ID, which had been deliberately hidden. Then he imitated the man's actions, hugged the tree trunk, and slowly climbed towards the talent ball on the branch.
Seeing the talent ball within reach, he was caught off guard and an arrow pierced his thigh.
"ah--!"
More than 200 drops of blood spurted out of his head. Although it was not a lot, the attacker was caught off guard because the attack was sudden. He slipped and rolled sideways off the branch.
What's worse is that he couldn't hold on to the branch with his right hand, and could only barely hold on with his left hand. Now his whole body was hanging in the air, swaying precariously.
“You’re not dead?!!”
After seeing clearly that the person who attacked him was Xia Mo, the attacker's pupils widened and his whole face was filled with surprise and fear.
Xia Mo leaned on the rock climbing equipment and stuck steadily to the cliff wall. His eyes were like an eagle, taking in the ID and face of the person in front of him.
"Of course I'm not dead."
The curve of his lips didn't sound like a smile, but rather a mockery. As Xia Mo spoke, he pulled out his newly bought dagger and aimed at the other person's fingers, which had turned white from grasping.
"Because the one who will die will be you."
Whoosh——
The dagger struck the attacker's hand.
The attacker screamed, and his only left hand loosened due to the attack.
With an unwilling scream, he fell into the cliff in despair, and then a dull sound of falling to the ground came from the bottom of the cliff.
Xia Mo chuckled and withdrew his gaze from the bottom of the cliff.
She climbed back up in no time, and a few minutes later, she took off the gift ball.
[Gain Talent Ball +1]
Now everything is complete. I can learn the talent scroll [Physical Fitness] that was dropped from the demon army before.
Just like the previous Inspiration Cooldown Compression, Xia Mo dragged the two into the bottom circle of the talent panel. Clicking [Inspiration Talent], the scroll and talent point merged into one.
In the tree view, a cartoon man icon is lit up.
[Physical Fitness: Increases your physical defense (current level: Level 1) (Level 1: Permanently increases physical defense by 2%)]
Xia Mo was happy from the bottom of his heart after learning a new talent. However, when he saw the words "Level 1" written behind the details, he couldn't help but feel a little sad.
As mentioned before, talent skills can be upgraded up to level 5, and a breakthrough can be achieved after level 5.
There is only one way to upgrade - to gain upgrade experience.
Recalling that it took him two months to upgrade a talent skill from level 1 to level 2, Xia Mo looked at the two skills that were now lit up and felt neither amused nor helpless.
After turning off the panel, the sun had already completely set, but the sky was still covered with rosy clouds, making the edge of the Kao Forest still glow with afterglow.
After tidying up his backpack on the spot, Xia Mo did not leave, but leaned against a tree and waited quietly.
Less than half a minute later, a person appeared in front of her as she had expected.
The person who was resurrected on the spot didn't see her at first, and breathed a sigh of relief, until he turned around and suddenly met her eyes!
The person froze instantly!
"...Why are you still here?!"
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