Killing after entering the Bloody City and before entering the Bloody City, had a fundamental difference.
The former was a forced act, to a large extent that it was an involuntary action. From this, many people had psychological resentment and fear of death.
The latter was an active, ignoring the law and the consequences of their behavior; they were prepared to face death. Whether they were doing it in the name of justice or evil, after having arrived at the Bloody City, having this kind of ideology was a great advantage.
So when Hong Lang said that Shen Yi was a killer before he entered the Bloody City, it meant that this was a man who had experience in killing people. Not like those who were forced to enter the city to experience a life and death test; many people have not adjusted to that psychological state of mind yet.
Of course, in higher Difficulty Levels, the situation would change. However, in this Difficulty Level, even after hearing about Shen Yi's experience, very few people were shaken.
The group of adventurers walked along the small forest toward the bridge of Arnhem. Sometimes they encountered German soldiers, but all of them were easily taken cared of.
After experiencing two battles at the town of Arnhem and at the small river, the Main Quest had been basically completed. Shen Yi's method minimized the risk of weakening their forces. Which also made them encounter less difficulty than normal.
Not far from the Arnhem Bridge, fire filled the sky. It was the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion airborne soldiers – they were desperately trying to snatch the bridge. In history, they successfully occupied the northern section of the bridge. But, Shen Yi didn't know their progress so far.
Wen Rou was the first to stop. With her telescope, she observed the battlefield and affirmed: "The road ahead of us is basically emptied. The Germans are mainly concentrated on the southern section of the bridge, and the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion who are surrounded. The German soldiers have occupied the town. With our detour, those adventurers who broke through the South encountered bad luck, they are under the German's full attack. However, the good news is, because of those adventurers, those Germans forces will not go back to the Arnhem Bridge. Instead, they will go directly to the jungle, to deal with the main force of the 1st Airborne Division."
Hong Lang asked, "In other words, after reaching this step, just a few more steps forward on the road and we can successfully complete the Main Quest?"
Wen Rou nodded affirmatively: "That 's what I mean."
Hong Lang punched his palm, excitedly he said, "This is so damn cool! This is the first time that it's so easy to complete a task."
Jin Gang also laughed, "If not because Shen Yi had gathered everyone and found the path to detour around to, I'm afraid the quest would not be so easy to complete."
Hong Lang rolled his eyes, "I will not give him BP to thank him, 'this guy later simply won't fire even a shot, only uses his mouth'."
(ED: He's saying that Shen Yi only ordered them around, and didn't do anything)
Wen Rou also laughed, "All leaders are such." Then she looked at Shen Yi, "Including a murderer's leader."
Shen Yi pretended to not hear the double meaning behind their sentences, "Yes, ask how many people are willing to stay to complete the Optional Quests."
Beyond all expectations, this time a lot of adventurers were willing to stay for the Optional Quest.
This was mainly due to the lack of heavy casualties when landing – the 22 adventurers didn't die, not even one. Moreover, they were easily able to complete the Main Quests. Perhaps, because they felt the strength of cooperation, many people began to have more confidence; resulting in their courage also increasing.
In addition to this, the Optional Quest rewarded 4000 BP plus a Skill Point, which was very attractive. It was an important factor for everyone to take the risk.
Skill Points were used to improve one's skill proficiency rate. With active skills, every time one activated the skill, proficiency rate would be increased by 1 point. Passive skills, however, could only rely on skill points to level up. Variability skills could only be leveled up by increasing proficiency rates.
Leveling up a skill relied on the proficiency rate, as higher level skills required more proficiency rates. From level 1 to level 2, one only needed 400 points of proficiency, level 2 to level 3 needed 800 points, level 3 to level 4 needed 1400 points. The proficiency requirement was always getting higher and higher. With a skill point, you could directly increase the proficiency rate by 1000 points. This was indeed a very valuable reward, especially for skills which consumed a large amount of MP.
Shen Yi's Despicable Healing Arts and Appraisal had reached level 2, this was the result of a month of continuous training. Appraisal's cost was 3 MP, Despicable Healing Art's cost was 2 MP; to improve the proficiency rate of each skill by 1 point, it was necessary to consume 5 MP. With Shen Yi's current MP and Will, he could only use his skills 6 times, and it took him 5 hours to recover. Not counting sleep time, he could only improve the proficiency rate by 20 points a day. After a month, he only improved the two skills to level 2, plus a leftover of 200 proficiency rate points. If he wanted to level his skills up once more, he could only wait another month. During that time, in order to practice these two skills, he even got into the habit of getting up in the middle of the night to use his skills.
If he had a skill point, Shen Yi's skills could be greatly enhanced.
Like Shen Yi's, many adventurers had a pressing need for skill points. So after some deliberations, among the 22 adventurers, 21 decided to stay. Only one person decided to return.
Surprisingly, the timid Fatty asked to stay.
Shen Yi asked him why he did not choose to return. Fatty answered, "If I went along with you, I might have a chance to gain some BP." So he could fail missions in the future. He really was determined to collect some BP to prepare for future missions' failure.
Wen Rou said disdainfully, "I really don't understand how you were able to pass the beginner's mission."
Hong Lang laughed, "The beginner's mission is also about having a good number of newcomers come together to finish it. Maybe this Fatty had good luck and ran into a few good quality newcomers, who fortunately passed and went into the city. Look at his figure, if he were alone, he would be finished off in the first mission."
Fatty nodded again and again. He might not have other abilities, but he was very thick skinned (1), and didn't mind Hong Lang's argument.
Shen Yi, however, felt a little confused.
Was that true?
People who had the capacity usually had a common psychological thought: you might be incompetent, but you couldn't be this effortless.
If you don't have the capacity, that didn't matter. But you must put the effort.
Such as Fatty, not only was he incompetent, he was also lazy. Shen Yi couldn't figure out what kind of newcomer would be willing to accept such a burden.
However, this was related to another's personal secret, so he didn't want to think about it too much. He just smiled and said, "It was not easy for him to live until now."
"That is his good luck." Hong Lang wasn't convinced.
"Luck is also an ability." Shen Yi immediately replied, then shrugged, "But it's unreliable. One can enjoy a surprise fallen pie from the sky, but one cannot rely on it to fall when in despair."
Everyone laughed, this was too justified.
In any case, if Fatty was clearly willing to join, they would not push him to leave. This was Team Cooperation mode, "even if ants were small it still had flesh" (2), an additional gun was also a good help.
Since 21 adventurers chose to stay to complete the quest, they once again re-arranged a few responsibilities. This time, Shen Yi had implicitly become everyone's leader.
After walking a few meters, the Bloody Crest prompted: "Main Quest 3 is completed, you can now choose to return or complete the Optional Quest."
"Optional Quest 2, Step 1: Unite with the 2nd Airborne Camp and Lieutenant Colonel Frost."
****
Arnhem had two bridges, the Optional Quest required seizing and keeping at least one. But in the process of capturing the bridge, the Germans had to blow up one first.
This forced the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion to immediately capture another highway bridge, but the result was that they lost to the element of surprise and were forced into a face-to-face hard battle.
Lieutenant Colonel Frost of the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion was fighting the enemy in the northern section of the bridge.
On his opposite side, a large number of German soldiers were fiercely firing as they completely suppressed the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion. Although the Paratroopers Battalion were composed of the most elite soldiers, because they could not carry heavy weapons, the lack of strong firepower gave them an inherent disadvantage.
In general, the paratroopers were more suitable for raids behind the enemy lines, rather than a large-scale face-to-face combat – especially when the enemy surrounded them. Montgomery wanted to create a miracle; the result was that he pushed the Allies' best soldiers into a suicide task. It could be said that this was the biggest failure in this legendary commander's life.
"Emergency call, emergency call, this is the 2nd Airborne Battalion! I'm Battalion Commander Frost! We have control of the northern section of the Arnhem bridge, but the Germans laid many of their forces here. Their firepower is too fierce. I need support, I need support!" Lieutenant Colonel Frost yelled at the microphone.
Above his head, German shells poured like rain, hitting the ground roaring. The ground was filled with potholes. A large number of German soldiers crazily shot toward his side like they were dumping a hail of bullets. The sky was filled with fire, bullets flew like streams of a colorful rainbow, from time to time taking away a life.
"Ah!" A paratrooper shouted, a shell exploded not too far away from him and blew away one of his legs.
But he still didn't die as he clutched his leg and cried for help.
The situation was rapidly changing. In the beginning, the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion was in an offensive state, but now they were in a confrontational stalemate with the Germans. It was estimated that not long after, the Germans' counterattack would come in a large scale. By then, the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion would be completely obliterated on this bridge.
"I need bomber support!" Frost was still shouting. His soldiers, after a few hours of fighting, had encountered casualties that added up to almost a third of their whole battalion. The German soldiers, to capture the bridge, had spared no effort in attacking the paratroopers. They did not regret the money for the bombardment effort; tanks came out one after another.
In order to help the Paratrooper Battalion complete their task of capturing the bridge, the Allied Air Force was sent out once again. Unfortunately, the Germans' air defense was too violent, many air force aircrafts either couldn't reach the Arnhem area or they were shot down. A small number of aircrafts reached Arnhem Bridge and only threw a few bombs as they then returned in a hurry. They were of no help in the situation.
Right now, there were still several aircrafts flying in the sky, but they all belonged to Germans. Their shells surrounded the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion's positions, combined with the 150mm caliber guns to massacre the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion's soldiers.
From the microphone came the other side's answer: "Lieutenant Colonel Frost! Unfortunately, we cannot give you any more help. We need your heroic will to win the bridge, hold the bridge, and wait for the arrival of the ground troops."
"I need firepower support, I need tanks, I need cannons, I don't need an order! You bastard quickly notify your boss! A day more and we will all die here!"
"I will transfer your request, but I remind you Colonel Frost, do not expect much from this. From the moment you received this mission, you should have been ready to fight through the tough environment."
"Yes, fight in a tough environment. Not suicide in a tough environment."
The microphone was silent for a moment, then a phrase was sent: "May God bless you."
Call interrupted.
"Bastard!" Frost jumped and cursed.
"Frost, our main force?" Deputy Commander Major Ralph shouted at his boss.
Frost said helplessly, "They didn't land in this area, but are trapped in a forest to the south of Arnhem. I think we cannot wait for reinforcements, and the Allies cannot give us any more air support."
"Shit!" Ralph cursed angrily, "So we can only fight alone?"
"I'm afraid that is the case."
"Oh, God!"
As the words fell, a soldier quickly came and cried, "Lieutenant Colonel, there is a small unit in our rear, we observed, they are our comrades."
"Reinforcements!" The two battalion commanders were overjoyed at the same time.
However, after seeing that the "reinforcements" were only a handful of people, the two battalion commanders fell silent at the same time.
It seemed that only a group of scattered soldiers came here to reinforce.
"Who is Lieutenant Colonel Frost? We are the combat team directly under the 1st Airborne Division and was ordered to come here to support the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion."
"It's me." Frost went out, "How many people came?"
"Twenty-one."
"He only sent twenty-one people over, that's not even enough for the enemy to practice shooting with," Frost said with a wry smile.
Ralph directly said in a cold tone, "What we need is at least 2,100 soldiers instead of 21 soldiers. The government's commitment can never be counted on… I hate those bureaucrats!"
Shen Yi lightly laughed and said to Wen Rou, "It seems that we are not being appreciated."
Wen Rou said, "Even the most basic level of enhancements will open their eyes. We will let them know that we are more valuable than 2,100 soldiers."
When the adventurers arrived at Arnhem Bridge, the Optional Quest was officially opened.
"Optional Quest 2, Step 2: Capture Arnhem Bridge, hold the bridge for ten days and eight hours."
"Additional Team Reward Quest opened: Protect the lives of Lieutenant Colonel Frost and Major Ralph. For each one that survives, Reward: 500BP.
"For each surviving soldier of the 2nd Paratroopers Battalion, Reward: 20BP.
"This reward belongs to the team and will be allocated according to the contribution ratio.
"During the Optional Quest's implementation, killing an adventurer on the same side will cause the killer to lose the right to take part in the reward distribution.
"The adventurer who has the highest contribution ratio will be rewarded a unique item as a special bonus.
"The special bonus value depends on the following additional conditions:
"Basic special bonus reward is an Unranked item. For every 10% increase in the survival rate of adventurers along with the contributions of each, the bonus reward will be raised by one Rank."