Early next morning, Gu Nan walked outside the town as usual and started to lay out the defenses for a new day.
His three companions also seemed to be normal. Lu Zhanyu acted as though she had never been to his tent last night, and Danny's expression gave no indication of her intentions.
The second day's battle would be much more difficult than the first, so players must use the support items inside the town.
"One high-grade Weakening Scroll, four Curse Crossbows, and a Holy Light Potion," Gu Nan skillfully selected from the items. "Those will be enough."
His companions watched him choose and listened to words they'd never heard of before jump out of his mouth one after another.
"Okay, I'll explain today's strategy." Gu Nan gathered the three in front of him, as if he was clearing a dungeon in his previous life.
Noticing the increasingly odd gazes from his team members, he could only begin with, "Last night, a beggar passed by my tent…"
"Why don't you just say what the beggar told you?" Lu Zhanyu interrupted with exasperation.
Gu Nan gave her a look that said: "Child, you learn fast," and began to explain today's strategy.
The second day's lineup of demon invaders wasn't much different from the first day's. The only main difference was that the monster types changed to larger, slower demons with rough skin and thick flesh and sort of resembled moving mountains.
The Holy Light Potion should be provided to the NPC townspeople. After mixing the potion with water and having them soak their weapons into it, the townspeople would be able to deal greater damage to the demons.
However, this type of potion had no effect on the players' weapons, so they would need to operate the Curse Crossbows and shoot those demons to death with giant arrows.
After listening to Gu Nan's explanation, Luo Sheng couldn't help sighing and said, "To think the second day would already be this difficult… Truly, as expected of a five-star mission!"
"Five stars?" Gu Nan stared blankly.
"Didn't you know?" Danny added with a frown, "When you receive a mission from the Astral Gate, there will be an indicator of mission difficulty right beside the mission title. The more stars it has, the more difficult the mission."
Gu Nan carefully recalled the scene back then. 'It seems that there really was such a thing…'
But when he chose a mission, all his attention was focused on the words: "Protect White Dew." He didn't have time to care about the number of stars.
"It doesn't matter. The difficulty level isn't very important," Gu Nan said as he waved his hand.
Black lines simultaneously appeared on his three companions' faces.
...
...
All the battles happened exactly as Gu Nan anticipated, from the types of demons to when they appeared. He even predicted the demon leaders' strength level.
Whenever someone casted a suspicious look his way, Gu Nan would say, "There was a beggar last night…"
"Alright, alright! Who knows why there are so many beggars in this town!"
In response, Gu Nan shrugged and spread his hands.
Everyone has their own secrets. Since Gu Nan didn't want to explain, of course nobody was stupid enough to ask.
Spells similar to prophecy or divination could also achieve this effect. The three of them were naturally glad to have such a teammate, so who would stand up and question him?
The four of them used the Curse Crossbows to kill the normal demons and personally dealt with the leaders and elites.
The final boss was a Demon King that resembled a mountain of flesh. Originally, its skin was so thick that no one could hurt it, but after taking a Weakening Scroll to the face, there was no room for it to make a comeback anymore.
All of Gu Nan's arrangements came in handy, and each item was used for just the right purpose—nothing was wasted. This made his three companions incessantly surprised.
Normally, they could still make it in time even if they started to consider countermeasures only after seeing the demons, but that would inevitably waste resources to sound out the enemy and cause a lot of unnecessary loss.
Gu Nan's existence practically minimized the damage they suffered.
On the third day, Gu Nan was still the one in charge of strategy.
"That beggar visited again yesterday," Gu Nan started with the same story, "Today's demons will mainly be composed of air units and can be dealt with by the mobile arrow tower. But the leaders and the boss will be land units and won't really have any weaknesses, so we can only rely on ourselves for that."
"I remember there's one last Weakening Scroll in the warehouse. Can't we use that?" Lu Zhanyu raised a question.
Gu Nan raised an eyebrow and said with a slight smile, "There will be a use for that later—that's what the beggar said."
...
...
Under Gu Nan's precise arrangements, the third day still wasn't too difficult, but the four of them spent more energy than the second day.
The third day's leaders and elites, as well as the final boss, were already terrifyingly strong. They practically reached the very peak of Tier 2. Not even Gu Nan could solo them, so he could only besiege them with the other three.
Of course, Gu Nan was still the main force. He was the only one who could withstand the boss's attacks.
When the battle finished, the four reincarnators were all exhausted. A long gash sat on Luo Sheng's right hand, which had hurt his tendon. It was bound to affect tomorrow's battle.
Gu Nan frowned at this, but he also couldn't do anything about it.
Although these three were relatively experienced, they still couldn't compare with the game's veteran players—at least in the area of surviving on the battlefield.
During the fourth day, an accident finally occurred.
In a fight entirely similar to that of the previous day, a demon brutally bit Danny's neck when she became absent-minded. It seriously injured her on the spot!
Fortunately, Luo Sheng risked his life to rescue her from the battlefield, but unfortunately, he also suffered heavy injuries.
So that night, Lu Zhanyu visited Gu Nan's tent again.
"Do you believe me now?" Lu Zhanyu slowly asked with a solemn face as she stared at the completely expressionless Gu Nan.
"You mean Danny?" Gu Nan shook his head lightly. "I can't think of any reason why she'd do this on purpose."
If a reincarnator backstabs her companions, all it will lead to is a mission failure. Moreover, it'd be impossible for her to gain any benefits after failing the mission.
Additionally, on the battlefield, countless changes can develop in a single instant. They also reincarnated with their entire souls this time, so doesn't she also fear suffering a huge loss after backstabbing her teammates?
If Luo Sheng hadn't fought to the death to save her today, she would've died on the spot.
Lu Zhanyu's expression looked a little strange. "They're already sleeping in the same room tonight… That was Danny's goal."
Gu Nan was drinking water when he heard that and almost sprayed it on her face. "You mean, she came here to hook up?"
"Of course not!" Lu Zhanyu glared at him fiercely. "It's very likely that she'll kill Luo Sheng tonight, because she's not on the same side as us!"
"She's a hostile agent," Lu Zhanyu concluded in a low voice.
Gu Nan raised a brow and finally realized what he had overlooked.
Not all participants in world missions would come from the same camp. Participants may even form two sides that are hostile to each other. But not even Gu Nan could have expected that hostile agents would actually disguise themselves as companions!
"There's a spiritual secret art passed down in my family. From the start, I already sensed that her intentions were very mixed, and she even radiated a subtle hostility towards me," Luo Zhanyu stated, and Gu Nan also nodded slightly.
'If so, then this would make sense.' But Gu Nan never knew that the dungeon for "Protect the White Dew Goddess" would actually have players fighting each other. If this was the case, then the difficulty level would also be ridiculously high.
'If I think about it that way, then it also doesn't quite make sense. That person… Back then, why did that person say that?'
"Let's try to see if we can still save Luo Sheng. At the very least, we have to kill Danny, that scourge," Lu Zhanyu urged.
Gu Nan suddenly raised his head and stared at her until her hair began to stand on end. Only then did he reveal a smile. "Okay, let's go!"
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: In a hidden cabin, Ruby Fish Star
Current Soul Location: Foreign Country, White Mist Plane
Status: ⟪ Evil God ⟫
Advancement Direction: Agility Type
Current Evil God Rank: Tier 2
Equivalent/Current Martial Art: External Kung Fu - Innate Realm Sixth Stage
Current Evil God Temple Quest:
→ Main Mission Objective/s:
-— Eliminate the six demonic factions. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
-— Evil Event: Bai Luoluo's Blackening. - Evil God Temple Issued
◈ Status: On Going
-— Help the White Dew Goddess survive for five days. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
→ Side Quest Objective:
-— Kill the six demonic factions Innate Realm and above cultivators. - External Source
◈ Status: On Going
Current Evil Points: 910
Overall Evil Points: 2185, Overall Evil Value: 48
Exclusive Skills Acquired:
— Deceitful Steps. [ Passive Ability ] ｢Movement Speed increased by 30%. Attack Speed increased by 50%｣
— Power of Shadows. [ LVL 1 ] ｢Allows the players to activate the skill "Hidden Shadows".｣
▸Hidden Shadows. ｢The power to manipulate shadows to a fine degree.｣
Equipment being worn
→ Armor
-— Dawn Sage's Robe. ｢Basic level defense. If you are not attacked within 3 seconds, you will receive the "Praise of Dawn" effect.｣
→ Weapon
-— 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.｣
→ Accessories - Facial Accessories, Necklace, Earrings
-— Observer Eyepiece. ｢An eyepiece that have a fixed Tier 2 magic 'Insight' inscribe in it.｣
-— Dragon Heart Pendant. ｢Allows players to activate the skill "Dragon Power". This skill cannot be upgraded｣
-— Shadow Earrings. ｢Skill 'Power of Shadows' LVL +1｣
Equipment Skills Acquired:
-— Insight. ｢Ability to obtain high-precision data analysis when looking at people or objects.｣
-— Dragon Power. ｢Greatly enhances the player's strength and physique. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes｣
-— Praise of Dawn. [Passive Ability ] ｢Increases self-healing ability by 300%｣
Item/s owned:
→ None.