Chapter 70 (Update 1)
Soul Song has been released for 23 years and now has over 10 million players.
This number may seem insignificant, but due to the game's elimination mechanism, the number of people who have played the game has already reached billions. It can be said that among adults, except for the elderly who simply cannot understand holographic equipment, almost everyone has played Soul Calling Song.
In the holographic era, it is a way for countless people to get rich quickly.
On the official game forum, in the afternoon, the data in the upper right corner indicated that the number of online users had exceeded 5 million. A newly posted post was quickly pushed to the front row, and the number of replies increased exponentially.
It broke through 100,000 in a short while.
The poster, nicknamed "Waiting for the Rabbit by the Tree," captioned the post with a catchy title: [What kind of magical shop is this? Two days in a row of clues? Today's an A-level ghoul wave!!!]
[1L: What the hell, a ghoul wave? Where is it? Is it over yet?!]
[4L to 1L: You're overthinking it! The OP is here to rant and rave about it before the mission is even finished. He's just trying to suffocate himself! OP, are you just trying to show off?]
[10L: Can you guys please focus on the key point? The key point is that one store has revealed clues for two consecutive days, okay?!]
[31L to 10L: The focus is, of course, the Ghoul Tide. Regardless of whether this shop actually exists, even if it does, what does that even mean? Two quests appearing in the same place—isn't that weird?]
[42L: Brother 31 is right. 99% of consecutive missions in the same location over a short period of time are related. This is common sense for everyone! Mission A doesn't kill everyone, so Mission B will occur.]
…
After posting, the poster disappeared for two minutes and the post became only marginally popular.
Two minutes later, amidst the envy and curses of the followers, the original poster appeared.
[Waiting for the Rabbit by the Tree (OP): Oh, is there anyone who still doesn't believe it? Just wait and see.]
The OP posted two task details.
[Task Name: Temporary Worker at a Hair Salon]
Mission Location: Hongjie Hair Salon, Wuyan Lane, Zhongsu Town
[Ghoul Level: C]
[Number of Ghouls: 0/2]
【Time limit: None】
Difficulty Rating: C
[Mission Name: Ghost of the Abandoned Flour Mill]
Mission Location: Lin's Flour Mill in the Southern Suburbs of Zhongsu Town
[Ghoul Level: A (Highest)]
[Number of Ghouls: 0/23]
【Time limit: 1/1 (Sun)】
Difficulty Rating: A
[112L: Holy shit, this is an A-level ghoul wave!]
[115L: I don't believe it. It's just typing, anyone can do it! You changed 1 to 23, C to A, and you did it with just a few clicks. Is that that hard?!]
【121L: Don’t believe it +1111111】
Waiting for the Rabbit (OP): Believe it or not, I'm full this time and plan to take a break. Playing games is fucking exhausting. I just don't have time to keep an eye on that store anymore, which is a shame. Otherwise, who would be happy to share the secret to wealth with you?
[145L: Which store is it? In Zhongsu Town?]
[157L: Where's the guy? He took off his pants but didn't poop, and then he ran away again? ? ?]
[Waiting for the Rabbit by the Tree (OP): Okay, since you're so sincere, I'll give you a clue. It's the family you scolded yesterday.]
[161L: Scolded? Pickled fish?]
[164L: That damn expensive pickled fish?! !]
[172L: Case solved, case solved. Don't some guilds also open shops to do business? That black shop is run by the OP, right? They're trying to trick people into getting ripped off! Disband, disband!]
Waiting for the Rabbit (OP): Tsk, I just have to say, that restaurant has nothing to do with me. If you really want to make a connection, I just ate there a few times. You guys don't even need to think about it, what does "when something is out of the ordinary, there must be something wrong" mean? Are there any restaurants in Soul-Guiding Song with such outrageous prices? And they're even offering discounts specifically for players. It's obviously a game arrangement!
[Waiting for the Rabbit (OP): Have you ever heard of special addresses, special NPCs? Never mind, you won't understand even if I tell you, believe it or not.]
[216L: Keep making it up!]
[231L: The editor couldn't continue and ran away. How funny.]
[233L: Wait a minute, the mission details look familiar to me, I'll go check them out!]
[247L: I'm back! Holy crap, the quest details seem real, the hair salon in Zhongsu Town! Yesterday, a down-on-his-luck buddy posted on Lost One asking for help. Someone called Ghoul admitted to stealing corpses and mentioned the hair salon!]
[263L: What do you mean? The hair salon quest only involved two ghouls. What does that have to do with the OP… Shit, the OP is a corpse stealer?!]
[289L: Where's the OP? Why haven't you come out and explain yourself yet? ? ?]
[291L: What's the point of explaining? If a corpse thief dares to admit he stole a corpse, everyone on this forum will spit on him and drown him!]
[308L to 247L: Even if the hair salon mission is real, that doesn't mean what the OP said is true, right? Unless that ghoul wave is also real!]
[311L: The ghoul wave is real. I just got back from a mission at the Zhongsu Town Flour Mill. Both our Yeke and Ouliyinlai guilds have lost quite a few people. The Governor is also here. I wonder if he's been checking out the forums.]
[326L to 311L:?]
【330L to 311L：? ? ? 】
[338L to 311L: !!! The Golden Wilderness Governor? !!!]
From then on, the popularity of the post suddenly increased and the number of replies soared.
[1039L: Brothers, the OP probably doesn't dare come back. Anyway, I'll go scout the way for you guys before we have a teleport ticket.]
[1276L: I'm going too! I've always said Zhongsu Town is no ordinary place. Have you forgotten what happened to Chiqian Yiming when he lost Lan Wu a while ago? It's said that he completely went offline in Zhongsu Town!]
[1298L: And there's a T21 mission, isn't it just outside the walls of Zhongsu Town? It's because Zhongsu Town doesn't have a city gate that I almost missed it!]
[2376L: I still don't believe it. A restaurant that frequently drops quest clues? I've been playing Soul Calling Song for five years and I've never heard of it. I'm gold! Unless the Governor comes forward to testify.]
At the flour mill, the guild players had already evacuated, leaving only a dozen or so wanderers searching through the ruins, fearing they might have missed a single gold coin.
A guest walked up to the Governor and shared the light screen: "Governor, look..."
A flame suddenly ignited in the depths of the Governor's eyes.
Special address, special NPC?
The contrast between the attitudes of Ou Li, Yinlai Guild, and Captain Li before and after... Because of this post, he suddenly figured it out.
So that's it, special address, special NPC.
If he really controlled a guild, he certainly wouldn't want anyone to know about such a crucial existence.
If it is true, the guild will be able to continuously obtain mission clues and obtain mission rewards from it, which will undoubtedly be a powerful tool for the guild's development and growth!
If it's fake, so what? It's just a waste of time and energy to verify it.
However, after a while, the flame dimmed.
The prerequisite was that he had to establish a guild. In a fiercely competitive game, how easy was it to establish a guild? Even if his Wild Riders weren't a disorganized group, how could a mere few dozen people compete with the Ouli Guild?
Even the Yinlai Guild has more than a thousand members!
The identity of a yuke is like a solidified class. Once you are a yuke, you will always be a yuke until you are completely offline.
"Governor?" The wild guest had known the governor for a long time and knew his ambitions. "If you can make good use of this information, your reputation among the wild guests will definitely rise to a higher level. Then call on..."
"Forget it." The governor shook his head slightly, called up his own light screen, and actually dismissed the temporary team that he had painstakingly assembled.
When Ye Ke saw the notice of the team's disbandment, he exclaimed in surprise, "Governor, you..."
Before he could finish his words, another notification popped up on the screen: [The player governor invites you to join a long-term team.]
The Governor smiled and said, "It's time to wake up from this dream. If you don't mind, let's team up and complete the mission, and become a Super God as soon as possible."
Ye Ke: “Just the two of us?”
Governor: "Just the two of us."
Ye Ke's expression was agitated. "How could I possibly dislike it?! I've been wanting to say this for a long time. The Governor is running around everywhere just to collect quest clues and send them to others. He's simply delaying his own leveling! And in the end, when those people actually get high-level quests, aren't they just focused on making money themselves?"
The governor's eyes dimmed again. He opened the forum interface and clicked on the post.
[4095L: I'm the Governor. I can't guarantee the truth of what you said, but I can guarantee that the A-level ghoul wave at the Zhongxu Town Flour Mill is real. The initial quest clue did come from the Yong'an Hotel. Brothers, there will be no more Governors in Soul Realm. See you in the Jianghu.]
After posting this reply, he turned off the screen, looked inward at the prop bar, looked up and asked, "Do you have a name change card?"
Ye Ke was still staring at the reply in a daze. After hearing the words, he took a few seconds to react and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, yes."
After a moment, [Governor] disappeared, and his game ID became [Starry].
It's time to return to the essence of the game and become a legend.
-
The Governor's reply was like nuclear material, thrown into the forum's reactor, instantly setting the entire forum on fire.
The forum enforces anonymity, and the Governor has not proven his identity, so naturally many people don't believe it, and even more people are skeptical. Only a few who have experienced this mission believe it.
For example, Captain Li.
He and Herring stood at the intersection near the town, their brows furrowed in knots.
After the successful auction, Captain Li subconsciously planned to spread the news of the Yong'an Hotel's discovery. This would certainly intensify competition among players, but it would also attract them to Zhongsu Town. Players carry their own luck, and denser places are more likely to yield quests—this is common knowledge.
Conversely, Zhongsu Town, previously considered a low-frequency quest zone, has entered a vicious cycle. The lower the player popularity, the fewer quests are created, and the fewer quests, the lower the player popularity. Even members of the branch are forced to leave Zhongsu and search for quests elsewhere.
He hopes to use the Yong'an Hotel to guide Zhongsu Town into a positive cycle. But the prerequisite is that the tasks dropped by the Yong'an Hotel are all small tasks!
If every time it was an A-level mission like today, he would never give it up, so he withdrew his invitation to the Governor and even thought of kicking out the Yinlai Guild.
Yet, someone posted on a forum, directly pointing out that the Wing On Hotel was a special address! The Governor even replied to the post to testify!
What on earth is he thinking?!
Herring rarely saw the minister with such a gloomy expression, and he didn't dare to speak for a moment until he received a summons.
Herring cried out, "Minister! The Lost! There are several Lost Ones among our missing people!"
Captain Li: "What do you mean?!"
"This is from headquarters!" Herring shared the screen. "Five people from our branch have gone offline to headquarters for help. After dying at the flour mill, they've tried to use their revive cards several times but haven't been able to get back online! No, they died again right after being revived!"
"You mean, among the 34 of us who are missing, 5 of them either lost their qualifications or had their bodies stolen?" Captain Li was puzzled.
Surrounded by a wave of A-level ghouls, why would anyone bother stealing corpses? The rewards for strangling ghouls, which also earn experience and level up, aren't they more important than stealing corpses?
"Let's go back and take a look. It must be those wild visitors!"
The two used their mobility skills to quickly return to the flour mill. Amidst the smoke-filled ruins, there was no trace of the Governor. Only a wanderer remained, desperately searching for the missing gold coins.
Captain Li flashed and grabbed the wild guest by the collar with one hand, lifting him up easily.
"Tell me, are there any corpse thieves in your team?"
Ye Ke glared at him, but after recognizing him as the head of the Ouli branch, he quickly put on a smile: "Corpse thief? No, the Governor-General strictly forbids us from doing such dirty work!"
But Captain Li didn't believe him. With a thought, he picked up the weapon - it was a dark, reflective iron claw that covered the entire back of his hand and five fingers.
The tip of the iron claw was extremely sharp, and it immediately poked five holes in the wild guest's neck.
"to be honest!"
He did not miss the guilty look that flashed across Ye Ke's eyes.
Under the threat of death, Ye Ke gritted his teeth and said, "Dawn is dark, I advise you to think clearly, I am the governor's man!"
Governor? At this point, the Governor will no longer meddle in Ye Ke's affairs.
Captain Li sneered, then pulled with all his might, his iron claws tearing the wild guest's throat clean off. The other person's eyes widened in anger, his face etched with rage, his eyes etched in his death. He must have known the huge level gap and didn't dare to resurrect easily.
"Take him back and hang him up. If he doesn't confess within a day, I'll kill him until he's completely offline!"
"...Yes." Herring had never seen his minister so angry before, and said tremblingly, "Minister, I, I have a new discovery. The corpse stealer probably isn't him."
Herring shared the light screen, stopped at a certain floor of the hot posts, and then switched to the Lost Ones section.
"The poster of this trending thread, 'Waiting for the Rabbit', and the respondent of this help thread, 'Ghoul', are likely the same person, the corpse thief. He must have completed the hair salon quest yesterday, and he also stole other players' bodies. Looking at the trending posts, he also participated in the flour mill quest, and more bodies were stolen... I think it must be him."
Herring wasn't very high-ranking, but his mind was very active. He continued his analysis, "Bullmaster, look at the mission details he sent. The highest ghoul level is also A, which means he was among the first to arrive. It's very likely that he killed the A-level ghoul as well."
"After receiving the reward for being an A-rank ghoul, he couldn't stand the reward for being a C-rank ghoul, so he just stole corpses!"
Herring's words were patient, but his tone was growing increasingly angry.
In the same mission, no matter which faction you are in, you are all teammates to some extent. But this kind of heinous corpse thief, who kills the ghouls and then starts killing teammates, is simply outrageous!
-
"Boss, I see a lot of people want to come to the restaurant, so it looks like we won't have to worry about business tonight!"
Paopao exited the post and changed his nickname from "守树待兔" to "发发发".
Retire after success and achieve perfect invisibility.
An Rou asked with a smile, "Which business are you referring to? Selling pickled fish, or one fish in three ways?"
"One fish, three ways to cook it? What's that?"
An Rou: "The first is to kill players and pick up their money. The second is to drain the family's wealth and feed their souls to the employees. The third is to..."
"Turn players into ghouls and make them work for us!" Paopao said, his eyes sparkling. "Actually, there's a fourth way. After you're done working, you can transform like crazy, earning gold coins, experience points, and system rewards!"
An Rou smiled but said nothing.
Experience levels and such are your business as players. I, a small NPC, have no right to enjoy them.
Paopao was full of admiration: "Boss, you've really figured out this ingredient called players. The utilization rate is 100%!"
He seemed to have forgotten that he was also a player. Of course, in Paopao's eyes, the boss was also a player, and a top-notch player at that!
Princess Ban Yue, no wonder she's ranked second on the Destiny List. While others are still earning their keep with their swords and spears, the boss has already outmaneuvered everyone with his intelligence.
The more Paopao pondered, the more he nodded. "Boss, you're really good at naming. It just so happens that our business model doesn't have a name yet, so let's call it 'One Fish, Three Ways to Eat'! Do you want to eat fish tonight?"
Having tasted the sweetness, I am eager to try it.
An Rou shook her head: "Before you decide, you have to answer me a question. How did you know the special address where the mission clues appear frequently?"
Looking at the forum replies, it seems no one knows about the existence of special addresses and special NPCs. Given how popular the post is, there must be a lot of high-level players among the replies. If even high-level players don't know about it, how did a low-level bronze player know about it?
Paopao was hiding something. His smile faded, and he scratched his head with one hand, a typical guilty gesture.
"Boss, how can I not tell you? Don't worry, I guarantee with my life that this incident will not cause any harm to you or your restaurant or farm. It will only have a positive impact! Boss, just look at the restaurant's business tonight and you'll know!"
An Rou didn't believe the adults' personal guarantee. However, Paopao, who had just turned 18, was no different from a teenager after getting to know him.
Have a sincere heart.
He always answered every question without holding back, and although he concealed something this time, he admitted it frankly.
An Rou thought for a moment and smiled, "I believe you. However, we can't eat fish too frequently, or it will attract attention. We'll tentatively order one order every... one to two days."
Not to mention the players from the 11 towns in District 8 alone, they were enough to support the business of the Yong'an Restaurant. The hundreds of thousands of players would also be enough to keep An Rou afloat for a long time. Now that the entire forum knew about it, the popularity had far exceeded An Rou's expectations.
She was afraid of attracting too many high-level players that even Captain Li couldn't deal with.
But there was no other way. Forums were the fastest way to boost a restaurant's reputation. Ordinary players' bodies wouldn't last more than a few days, and she couldn't afford to wait.
Doing a fish-eating business once or twice a day can not only suppress the heat but also replenish the player's corpses in time. The frequency is just right.
"Oh..." Paopao was a little disappointed, but still followed the boss's instructions. "Then boss, if there's nothing else, I'll log off first."
"Wait." An Rou called him and lowered her head, "Bao Bao."
The giant mouth of wealth opened, and a pile of gold coins spit out from the black hole. These were all the money leaked out by the players who died in its belly, and there were also some props mixed in.
An Rou didn't care about the props and put all the gold coins into the account.
"This is the spoils from the flour mill mission, plus what I got from Xixihahaha, the total is less than 130,000 gold, so let's just count it as 130,000. 5% is 6,500 gold, and then there's the corpse. If you find any money or goods later, I'll give you a share of the profits."
An Rou held Paopao's hand and transferred the money to him.
"The restaurant is a downstream industry of the farm. Daily settlement is too troublesome. Let's settle it monthly. If business is good, it will be no less than the amount. Don't worry."
"It's so much money in less than two days. Why should I worry?" Paopao said happily.
The remaining 11 corpses still have a chance of resurrection, and the money and goods leaked out will not be small. Add to that the restaurant business attracted by this fish business, and the actual money that Paopao can get is 2 times the 6500 gold.
He looked at the remaining props on the ground and said, "Boss, we've already accumulated a lot of props. Should we sell them at the pawn shop?"
An Rou shook her head. "There are so many people in the pawnshop, and there's no guarantee that a player might recognize a certain item. It's too dangerous. I haven't figured out how to deal with it yet, so I'll figure it out later. Besides, I can fish three ways in the future, so maybe there's something in there that I can use."
"Yeah, the boss has a point!"
The little chicken was running and pecking at the rice, and suddenly stopped.
A light screen notification popped up in front of him, a rare world announcement.
[Oli Official: (Wanted Order No. 4789) Players (IDs: Lujiao, Balpi, Linci) are suspected of hiding the bodies of our guild members. A reward of 50,000 gold is offered to anyone who provides valid clues, and 100,000 gold is offered to anyone who captures them. Validity Period: Permanent.]
Paopao stared at it blankly, not reacting for a moment.
An Rou was a little surprised: "Didn't you say these three were corpse retrievers? How did they become corpse thieves?"
Besides, all three of them were completely offline. After Paopao and Wang Da's sneak attack, they deliberately distracted many players, giving the three of them enough time to transform. By then, they had already been strangled as mutant ghouls.
"I don't know either..." Paopao said.
It's a bit pitiful that a good corpse retriever is labeled a corpse thief. Fortunately, they have all been disqualified from the game, and no matter how high the wanted reward is, it has nothing to do with real life.
Thinking of this, Paopao suddenly asked, "Boss, why are you so nice to Haha? You can make a lot of money from an auction."
The boss has never been so generous to other players.
An Rou chuckled: "He's the first one to come here specially to eat pickled fish, so of course he deserves special treatment."
-
At the Ouli Hall in Zhongsu Town, when Captain Li returned, the mayor had already left.
After waiting for a long time, no one came. As the Lord of Zhongsu Town, he couldn't stand this kind of humiliation.
Captain Li didn't bother to look for her and paced around his room until he finally saw the herring.
"Minister, the wanted order has been issued. But..." Herring hesitated.
He contacted the bidder through headquarters, who in turn contacted him through the auction website. The bidder's identity remained confidential. Captain Li and Herring analyzed the situation and concluded that he was either a corpse thief or a Lost Person seeking help on the forum. It turned out to be the latter.
The other party truthfully informed the three game IDs who helped retrieve the body, but made it clear that they were body retrievers, not body thieves.
But coincidentally, among the members of Ouli who participated in the flour mill mission, someone happened to hear a wild guest calling his companion "Brother Lu".
Deer horns, Deer Brother...
The three people who participated in the flour mill mission and were migrant workers made them the most suspicious. Moreover, many people knew that those who frequented the river were the most likely to be stolen by corpse retrievers.
Admittedly, after a whole set of reasoning, there are insufficient clues and many contradictions, but Captain Li has no other choice.
A long-shot bounty was a way of comforting the five disqualified members, and it was also a warning to the other active members: no matter what happened, the guild stood behind them.
As a member of the guild management, I can't concentrate on completing tasks and leveling up like Ye Ke. There are always a lot of troublesome chores.
Captain Li looked at Herring and said, "You understand, right?"
Although Herring's rank is not high, he is the most intelligent and has the best overall view among his subordinates, making him the most suitable person to be promoted to a member of the management team.
Herring hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "I understand. Minister, what about the mayor?"
Before Captain Li could answer, another member rushed in.
"Oh no, Minister! The security guards have surrounded the Wing On Hotel!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
