Strictly speaking, only Zhang Dongsheng and Tang Xuan were in charge of the Radiant Tower branch office where Gu Nan was located. The others were all ordinary members, with no superior or subordinate rank distinction; there was only a distinction between old and new members.
This could also be seen from their strength levels—both Zhang Dongsheng and Tang Xuan were Prodigious Realm martial artists, while all the others were only at the Innate Realm.
"What?" Zhang Dongsheng slightly raised an eyebrow, giving Tang Xuan a confused look.
His philosophy was slightly different from Tang Xuan's. He didn't shy away from using any method to complete the mission, so he was more optimistic about Gu Nan's previous performance. If it wasn't for his curiosity towards bloodline users, he wouldn't have left Gu Nan to the other party.
Tang Xuan informed him of Gu Nan's evaluation results with a dark expression.
"Body cultivator, agility and regeneration double talent? It is a bit strange..." Zhang Dongsheng's expression somewhat dimmed, and he seemed to have some regret. "I'll check the higher level database to see if there's any suitable technique for him."
Tang Xuan's face grew even gloomier upon seeing that he still held expectations for Gu Nan. "Forget his cultivation path, didn't you see his performance? He's a complete thorn!"
Zhang Dongsheng became amused. He pointed to her and said, "To think you're calling other people thorns. You weren't much better when you first joined the organization back then."
Tang Xuan showed a rare blush and coughed softly. "It's not the same. People were deliberately making my life difficult, whereas he obviously picked a fight by himself..."
"Alright, alright. In any case, it's fine as long as he can complete missions as a member of the organization. Why worry about personality problems?"
"That's true... the organization doesn't allow infighting among members, but of course they don't merely use 'love and friendship' to enforce this. If they really dared to break the rules, the karma secret technique will make them feel the consequences."
...
Gu Nan sat alone in the room without a glimmer of light. Just like this, he stayed quietly in the dark.
"Indeed, it's easier to receive missions if I deliberately stir up trouble."
"The next time I reincarnate to another plane, if I can still receive missions from the game system, then it proves that the Evil God Temple can really accept such external missions."
"Then, as long as I keep looking for simple missions in mid-sized planes, won't I be able to easily grind Evil Value?"
Every high-level player was keen on finding game bugs and using them to benefit themselves as long as their accounts didn't get banned… which was probably the least of Gu Nan's worries right now.
Knock, knock.
There was a slight knock on the door. Gu Nan didn't lock the door, so it slightly opened.
"Gu Nan?" Qin Xuanji's voice came from the door.
"What's the matter?"
Gu Nan casually threw a book over, which hit the light switch right in the center. The hanging lamp on the ceiling lit up, and the room suddenly brightened.
Qin Xuanji's expression was still cold and calm, but there was a rare trace of reserved stiffness. She hesitated, then spoke, "It's by your contribution alone that I was able to pass the assessment mission. I want to thank you."
"Oh, you're welcome. Just repay me when you get the chance... Anything else?"
The situation immediately became awkward. Qin Xuanji felt that the other party had already finished everything she wanted to say.
Qin Xuanji was a very serious person. After failing in the assessment, she constantly reflected on herself and felt that her success in becoming a bloodline user might have made her lose her vigilance.
Otherwise, with her strength, she wouldn't necessarily lose, even if she confronted Han Yueren head-on.
Because of this, she was particularly curious about Gu Nan, who could beat Han Yueren despite only being at Innate Realm Third Stage. She was so curious that she tried to understand his every move.
She thought about it and asked, "I've always wanted to ask you something. Why did you kill Han Yueren's entire family in the assessment mission? Is this also related to the mission?"
"It has nothing to do with the mission." Gu Nan smiled. "It's just that I promised Han Yueren I'd kill his entire family. Humans naturally have to keep their promises."
'And also get some more Evil Value in passing, but unfortunately, the mission difficulty was so low that not even killing the entire family had any effect.'
Qin Xuanji thought about it for a long time and actually nodded seriously. "You're right. Since you promised him, it's only natural to do your best to keep your word."
"I look forward to working with you on the next mission." The corners of Qin Xuanji's mouth raised slightly. It seemed that she wanted to show a smile, but failed.
"Me too." Gu Nan, on the other hand, gave a clear and bright smile.
...
Seven days passed quickly. Gu Nan adjusted his condition in a simple manner, but he still didn't know much about Star Realm.
Radiant Tower was a very strange organization. On one hand, it expressly forbade members from killing each other, but on the other hand, it seemed very inhumane, as though it only wanted to train its members into machines that could complete missions.
Besides mission and combat related information, they weren't allowed to touch any other information.
"Just what kind of organization would disregard members' origin and background, and only require its members to complete missions?"
Gu Nan couldn't understand Radiant Tower's purpose as an organization, but this did not stop him from completing missions— 'As long as you can provide me with points and Evil Value, who cares if you're Radiant Tower or Dark Tower?'
"The 'Azure City' we're going to this time is a fairly difficult and old mission. Three waves of people from the organization have already suffered defeat, so we must not take it lightly." In the tavern hall, Ye Chong distributed the mission information, and his tone sounded grave.
"This time, it's our branch's turn to send people, and there are even two newcomers here, so just do your best. If worst comes to worst, we'll just withdraw in advance. I think that's also Old Zhang's intent." Lin Ruo didn't take the information. She already knew the mission like the back of her hand and spoke casually.
The organization allowed them to withdraw if they couldn't complete the mission. In principle, fights to the death were not encouraged in order to preserve the effective fighting force.
Everyone knew how difficult this "Azure City" mission was.
"Even those larger branch offices on administrative stars were powerless against this mission. Do they actually expect anything from us, a small branch office on an asteroid belt?"
Ye Chong remained silent at Lin Ruo's words but did not refute them. Clearly, he also had similar thoughts in his heart.
This was Gu Nan and Qin Xuanji's first time seeing the mission. They both read over the information carefully. Qin Xuanji's frown deepened the more she read, while Gu Nan remained expressionless.
The Azure City mission was both a simple and a difficult mission.
The mission objective was very clear: they just had to protect an item and prevent the enemy from snatching it for three days.
The difficult part was that they would have practically no time to prepare after reincarnating and had to be ready to fight as soon as they woke up, while the enemy was well prepared in all aspects.
This was a contest of hard power, and there was almost no place to take a shortcut.
Lin Ruo's gaze was fixed on Gu Nan's face. This was not only because of the previous conflict, but also because of what Tang Xuan said to her privately afterwards:
"This newcomer, Gu Nan, likes to take shortcuts inside missions. You can go teach him a lesson in this mission."
Thinking of Tang Xuan's words, Lin Ruo's face couldn't help but show a cold smile.
Gu Nan naturally couldn't read Lin Ruo's smile. He threw the information aside and asked, "When will we leave?"
"After 17 minutes and 35 seconds. The time flow of the small plane is different from the time flow here, so we must reincarnate at the right time." Ye Chong answered, then looked at him in disbelief. "Did you finish reading already?"
There was a lot of information for the Azure City mission. Gu Nan had merely flipped through it twice and put it aside. 'Could he actually understand everything with just that?'
"En, it's just a small mission. It's not hard." Gu Nan waved his hand.
'This arrogant newcomer!'
The sneer on Lin Ruo's face became heavier, and even Ye Chong couldn't help but want to shake his head.
In fact, they didn't know that Gu Nan was just telling the truth. With his many years of experience of roaming about major dungeons, this really could only be regarded as child's play.
After all, this was experience gained between life and death, which was a right exclusive to players. NPCs didn't have the unlimited resurrection treatment.
Devotee's Game System Inspired Note
» This section of the chapter is a Fan based created system to mock-up or simulate the 'Status Information' of our MC - Gu Nan. This implies that you are free to skip reading this and continue your journey onto the next chapter.
» All catalog data below is a summary of various information achieved by Gu Nan that corresponds till the end of the related chapter and is compiled into a singular 'Status Screen.' Additionally, the invented system below would continue to evolve as we progress and learn more about the novel itself.
MC's Status Information
Name: Gu Nan
Current Location: Radiant Tower's branch office on Ruby Fish Star's sixth asteroid belt
Status: ⟪ Evil God ⟫
Advancement Direction: Agility Type
Current Evil God Rank: Tier 2
Equivalent Martial Art: External Kung Fu Master - Innate Realm Third Stage
Current Evil God Temple Quest:
→ Main Mission Objective/s:
-— None. - N/A
◈ Status: N/A
Current Evil Points: 336
Overall Evil Points: 816, Overall Evil Value: 26
Exclusive Skills Acquired:
— Deceitful Steps. ｢Movement Speed increased by 30%. Attack Speed increased by 50%｣
Item/s owned:
→ Four Element Crossbow. ｢A Tier 2 crossbow weapon that can generate four types of elemental arrows—earth, water, wind, and fire—based on the user's needs and does not need to load arrows.｣