Two Quests

After leaving the dungeon, Li Yuan estimated the Experience Points she had gained over the past few days and decided to head back and level up.

The player group she had formed at the beginning was still quite useful.

At the very least, it allowed her, someone completely immersed in dungeon grinding, to receive intelligence shared in real time by other players.

Setting aside the other information, what concerned Li Yuan most was the news provided by two professional players not long ago—they had confirmed that NPCs in this game would not respawn or revive after dying.

That naturally included that lively, reckless, somewhat timid girl.

What was the difference between an NPC and a living being?

Li Yuan did not want to ponder such philosophical questions.

She only knew that the girl should not have been involved in dangerous battles where lives were at stake.

That was why she had broken from her usual behavior and become strict with Red Falcon.

The Dream Space, which only Magical Girls could enter, was a daily dungeon. The Dream Monsters within were born from people's negative emotions.

If it was cleared every day, then barring accidents, it would only spawn low-level monsters from Lv1 to Lv20. But if left alone, the dream world would level up and become a higher-rank dungeon.

The teddy bear plushie, "Kaqiu," had told Li Yuan this information, but she did not know whether the little thing had lied.

After all, this dungeon had not existed in the First Playthrough. Humanity had been wiped out back then, so there had naturally been no conditions for the Dream Space to emerge.

But assuming the Alliance did not fall in the Second Playthrough, thirteen major cities with populations exceeding one million meant there would be thirteen daily dungeons available to grind.

Once the game entered open beta, there would not be nearly enough dungeons for the players to fight over.

Naturally, she no longer had to worry about the Dream Space expanding after Red Falcon stopped being a Magical Girl.

Well, Li Yuan was actually still a little worried.

Because the top experts in the Magical Girl class were mostly male players using female characters.

Especially those guys from the guild Magical Girl Water Margin.

Since gender could not be changed in the Second Playthrough, top experts on the level of Magical Girl Li Kui could only find another class to play.

"Forget it. If there aren't enough Magical Girls in the future, I'll just come clear it once a day. I'll treat it as a daily quest."

Getting off at the station by the city walls, Li Yuan stuffed the metro ticket she had paid for into the gate and strode out of the subway station with her head held high.

Whenever she cleared the Dream Space, she received a gemstone matching its color scheme. Those gemstones were not easy to sell, but with the help of a certain young lady NPC, she had still traded them for quite a few Alliance Coins.

The one guarding the warehouse today was not that Lv1 Creator God, but the high-level Saintess she had seen in screenshots from the group before, whose information displayed as nothing but question marks.

Li Yuan walked up to the Saintess and stated that she wanted to level up.

"Level up? All right, please touch me."

"Tail, please do not touch."

"Panel, updated for you. Experience Points, quests, Broken Sword Valley."

After releasing the Saintess, who seemed to have a speech impediment, Li Yuan glanced again at her thick, fluffy tail and suppressed the sudden urge to sneak a touch.

High-level NPCs would not have poor reactions. She knew she could not touch it for now, so there was no need to lose favorability over it.

So she looked at her status panel.

Name: Li Yuan

Race: Human

Level: 21

Class: Magical Girl · Burst Form

Rank: Bronze

HP: 1600/1600, Stamina: 1123/1600, Mana: 9600/9600

Experience Points: 4400

Sin Value: +2

Traits: Hero Template, Jack of All Trades, Gifted Talent (Slaughter), Magical☆Girl, Transformation Trait, Dream Messenger.

Attributes: Strength 60, Agility 100, Endurance 80, Intelligence 60, Perception 100, Charisma 240

Skills: Magic☆Power☆Ray Lv30, Basic Mana Gathering Lv10, Mana Mastery Lv10, Wings of Wind Lv20, Star☆Light☆Flash Lv10, Elemental Fusion Lv10

Unlike those who invested their points cautiously, Li Yuan strongly agreed with Magical Girl Li Kui's line from a tutorial video: "If you're already playing a Magical Girl, why the hell are you worrying about survival?" So she had chosen a full-damage build, putting all her attribute points into Charisma.

This kind of build made it extremely easy to die suddenly.

But damage capable of emptying a health bar in one shot was enough to make up for any weakness.

As the first player in the game to change classes into a Magical Girl, Li Yuan believed that with her abilities, she could soon become a leading figure of the full-damage build.

The only flaw was that she had not yet had the time to grind items that increased attributes. She had only obtained the bonus attributes from advancing her class and from skills, so her panel looked a little lacking.

Of course, Li Yuan was judging by the standards of a new player starting Despair Expedition OL.

Unlike the newly released Glory Expedition OL, Despair Expedition OL was an old game that had been operating for ten years. In the old version, even beginner players could reach the Gold Rank at Lv60 in a single day.

From Li Yuan's perspective, after spending several days in dungeons and receiving the help of Red Falcon, a Lv25 NPC, she had only accumulated 330,000 Experience Points. That perfectly matched the complaints from others in the group that leveling was slow.

As the only player with dungeons to grind, she had not personally experienced how difficult leveling was for everyone else.

After closing her character panel, Li Yuan looked at the newly updated quest feature.

The quest UI was nothing remarkable, no different from those in other games.

At present, there were only two quests available.

Countdown

Quest Time Limit: 178 days

Quest Progress: 2%

Quest Objective: Prevent the destruction of the Thirteen City Alliance before the world ends.

Quest Hint:

The Thirteen City Alliance's God Banning Barrier could block the power of all "gods."

It originated from nonbelievers' rejection of faith. Only when nonbelievers made up 80% of the Thirteen City Alliance's population could the God Banning Barrier display its power.

Thirteen City Alliance Population: 35.11 million.

Nonbelievers: 87%

Quest Reward: Massive Experience Points for participating in the quest, exclusive Embers, "Baptism," and an exclusive title.

This was probably the core main quest for the current version. She just did not know where to begin, and the rewards were rather vague.

Experience Points needed no explanation—both leveling and skills required them. Embers were also good things, but no matter how good they were, they were still consumable items. As for the remaining "Baptism," it was probably something useful that increased attributes.

The second quest, on the other hand, was worth doing.

Outpost, Part One

Quest Time Limit: Before 7:00 a.m. on January 19, Alliance Year 1104.

Quest Objective: Assemble at Endemic Plague Village in Broken Sword Valley.

Quest Hint:

As heroes tasked with saving the world, you are far too weak. Her Saintess has decided to lead you to the plague village and eliminate the monster threat there.

Quest Reward: 72 hours of party access to the Legendary Rank NPC Saintess of Creation.

"The main quest and newbie benefits. Looks like the devs saw the issue I reported." A man's voice sounded from behind her.

Li Yuan turned her head and saw Amulet Owl, who had been playing dead just moments ago, already speaking to the air as though providing commentary.

She did not want to get involved with this guy, nor did she like appearing on camera in a livestream with hundreds of thousands of viewers and being judged by strangers, so she turned her head away.

That absentminded action allowed her to spot, from the corner of her eye, a girl outside the warehouse's rolling shutter door, poking out half her head and furtively peering inside.