After explaining the situation to everyone present and alive, silence descended on the group.
Sho looked around, counting the people left. There were only nine left. Thinking that they were three hundred and forty-seven in Alpha's group before, he felt sick. Some of those died, while less than a hundred went out of the Zone already. But a third of their group either died from the attack, killed themselves, or wandered alone because they lost their sanity. Only the nine stayed and waited for a concrete plan, holding into hope.
"What are our plans now?" Duke, who was their computer expert, asked quietly.
"Everyone here is extraordinary. And I've gotten permission from my contractor. The reason I'm trying to scout the area is to find and complete the Special Mission we have."
"Soil of eternity?" Ross asked in surprise.
Sho and Miya on the other hand remained silent. They had already realized that the Quest that gives more reward was the Special Quest that came along with their escape of the Zone. They were at the age of which they knew about game mechanics. Even Miya, who doesn't really play games, knew about it.
"Do you know what the Seed of Life is?" Duke asked curiously. Being a computer addict, he was also into games. He even created his own game before when he was bored and had time. But for him, nothing could beat the System in regards to programming.
"It's a Special Item that can spawn something rare or it can be a medicine that can heal anything."
The eight were shocked by the value of the reward. They didn't care about the first option, but the second option was something even their World of Science couldn't fix yet.
"Curing anything? Would cancer or having your legs amputated could also fix that?" Zhuang asked excitedly. From what Sho could remember, he had a disabled son.
"Yes. But there's a catch, you only have one chance to get it. Seed of Life is an extremely rare item. No one knows when or where it would appear. After we got it, the Special Reward here would be replaced by something else. Well, even if no one gets it, the Special Reward would be either replaced or be gone altogether. We are lucky that we have been given a chance to obtain the special reward."
Hearing the word lucky, Sho can't help but put on a mocking smile. *It seems my luck has a great AoE.* He couldn't help but jest. From what Alpha said, he was the bringer of good luck because his luck was too high he triggered the system's winning RNG. The most hated and loved system of the gaming community, Random Number Generator or jested as Rigged Number Generator–because most Gacha games felt like it was rigged to give the worst result.
*Having high luck seems like a cheat somehow. But even so, I still need to work my way to be stronger. I can't rely solely on my luck. Maybe now, I can still cheat death. But not for long.* He trusted his instinct. He also trusted his earlier experience. Fighting Es'Ever and Ros'Lous opened his eyes on his views toward his future enemies. Even though his luck helped a lot, it felt like it wasn't over. That when he encountered the two again, he would die if he only relied on his luck.
He knew it was a weird feeling considering how Ros'Lous died in front of them.
"Can each of us get a Seed of Life? Or only one could have it?" Kali asked. From what Sho could remember, the guy was also tasked by Alpha to do something special. As for the details, he had no idea. As soon as Kali received his mission, he went out, and just came back after the disaster fell in their camp.
"Everyone can get it. But the task would need to be completed individually. I have no idea how hard it is to get the Soil of Eternity. But from the information I received, all of the special tasks with the reward of Seed of Life were extremely hard. The chance of success is at 1%. With that probability, you could say that only one of us would succeed. But the task is individual, so even if you want to steal from the one who succeeded, you won't be permitted by the system. It just doesn't work that way."
"In short, it just depends on our own self to get it." Ross nodded.
"So, my task to follow Elger was related to this, I presume." Kali was enlightened.
"Elger?"
"The one who said a lot before Alpha stepped up. He was too cocky for his own good…"
"Yes. Elger is a Pathfinder. He sees a path that no one usually sees. He's someone who would never get lost in a maze."
"Ah! That's why he wanted us to scatter and go our own way! He can see the exit!"
"That means he's our lead on finding the Soil of Eternity." Miya concluded.
"You know this but you let him go?" Evan asked in disbelief.
"Chill, dude," Kali interjected. "He knew that's why I was assigned to follow him."
"What do you mean?" Rahmath was confused.
Kali sighed. "I've got tracking ability." he explained simply but that was enough for everyone to understand. They didn't press on the topic because they knew how to respect Kali's privacy with his skills.
Sumaya was then excited. "Should we go now?" He felt he found new hope. Seed of Life would give him extra life for the hell that would come once they went outside the zone.
He wasn't the only one who felt like that.
"We all need to be prepared. Physically and mentally. Aside from our gears, I want to remind everyone that we don't have any more healers in our group," all became silent with the slap of harsh reality. "We also don't have any more pots," Alpha takes a look at everyone. It was like he was judging everyone, but when Alpha's eyes met Sho's, he knew he was warning him not to bring up his extra pots. He immediately knew why. It could cause a greed of people. With just one pot remaining, it won't be enough for the nine of them. He could only bring the pot out in case of extreme emergency.
"We must be prepared to die if we venture through this. As I said earlier, the task we would face is harder than before. It would be harder than facing the wolves, monsters or even humans."
"I've been traveling alone following Elger. I'm ready for this." Kali was the first who confidently answered.
"I'm in." Miya said simply. Her eyes shone in determination.
"I'll come." After some hesitation Zhuang finally said. He wanted to save his son.
Sho nodded. "Of course, I won't miss out on a rare item." he said trying to make light of everything. It was a simple statement but has deeper meaning.
*I don't want to miss out this luck that was given to me. It might be a once in a lifetime chance or it might not be. But either way, I need to grab it. I need to grab anything to increase my survival. I'm too weak at the moment. I don't even have any attack skills aside from what I've learned from Alpha. It can't be considered a skill at all. Also, I don't know how dangerous it would be outside. Having extra assurance would be really good. I also don't want to be Caelus right now. It feels like if I did, I will… perish.*
Ross just silently nodded while the rest was thinking about the danger they would face. It took a while, but slowly, one by one, they agreed to go. Rahmath was the last to agree. She was still hesitant when she agreed. But everyone could see that she agreed because she didn't want to be left alone. She would prefer to be with the group than travel alone.
They could only understand. It was better to be with people you knew than to be by yourself when they don't know how dangerous the outside world would be.
*Peer pressure.* Sho suddenly realized what Rahmath experienced. He could only feel pity for her, but he didn't have any solution so he remained silent.
"Okay, now that we are all on the same page. Pack up. Try to get anything valuable in the camp. Food, water, first aid kit, weapon. Get your things. Go back here after an hour. We would go after Elger." Alpha commanded as he dismissed everyone.
They all felt how heavy the task they would be facing. But they all decided to face it anyway.
For a better future for each and everyone of them.