Two Quests

After leaving the instance, Li Yuan estimated the experience points she had gained over the past few days and decided to level up.

The player group she had initially formed was still quite useful.

At the very least, it allowed her, someone who had plunged headfirst into "grinding instances," to share real-time information from other players.

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

This naturally included that lively, clumsy, and somewhat timid girl.

What's the difference between an NPC and a life?

Li Yuan didn't want to ponder such philosophical questions.

She only knew that the girl shouldn't be participating in dangerous battles that risked her life.

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

The Dream Space, which only Magical Girls could enter, was a daily respawning instance. The Dream Monsters within originated from people's negative emotions.

If it was cleared out daily, under normal circumstances, only low-level monsters from Lv1 to Lv20 would spawn there. However, if left unattended, the Dream World would level up and become a higher-tier instance.

This information was told to Li Yuan by the teddy bear "Kachoo," but she didn't know if this little thing was lying.

After all, there was no such instance in the first playthrough. Everyone had died by then, so there was no fertile ground for the Dream Space to emerge.

And in the second playthrough, with the Alliance not having fallen, thirteen large cities with populations exceeding a million meant there were thirteen daily instances that could be farmed.

Once this game went into open beta, these few instances wouldn't be enough for players to compete for.

She naturally wouldn't have to worry about the Dream Space expanding if Red Falcon stopped being a Magical Girl.

Alright, Li Yuan admitted to herself that she was still a little worried.

This was because the top players in the Magical Girl class were basically male players playing "trap accounts."

This was especially true for the group from the guild "Magical Girl Water Margin."

With the inability to change gender in the second playthrough, top players like "Magical Girl Li Kui" could only find ways to switch to another profession.

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

Stepping off the train by the city wall, Li Yuan inserted her paid subway ticket into the turnstile and walked out of the subway station with her head held high.

Every time she cleared the Dream Space, she would receive a gem of a corresponding color. Although these gems were difficult to sell, with the help of an NPC lady, she had managed to exchange them for quite a bit of Alliance currency.

Today, the one guarding the warehouse wasn't the Lv1 Creator God, but the high-level Saintess she had seen in a screenshot in the group, who could only scan as a series of question marks.

Li Yuan walked up to the Saintess and stated her request to level up.

"Level up? Alright, please touch me."

"Tail, please don't touch it."

"Panel updated, experience points, quests, Broken Sword Valley."

After letting go of the Saintess, who seemed to have a speech impediment, Li Yuan glanced at her fluffy, thick tail and resisted the urge to suddenly sneak a pat.

High-level NPCs wouldn't have slow reaction times; she knew she couldn't touch it for now and there was no need to lose favor over it.

So, she looked at her own status panel.

[Name: Li Yuan]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 21]

[Class: Magical Girl · Burst Form]

[Rank: Brass]

[HP: 1600/1600, Stamina: 1123/1600, MP: 9600/9600]

[Experience: 4400]

[Sin Value: +2]

[Traits: Hero Template, All-Rounder, Innate Talent (Slaughter), Magical ☆ Girl, Transformation Trait, Dream Messenger.]

[Attributes: Strength 60, Agility 100, Stamina 80, Intelligence 60, Perception 100, Charm 240]

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

Unlike those who played it safe with their stat distribution, Li Yuan strongly agreed with Magical Girl Li Kui's statement in the tutorial video, "You're playing a Magical Girl, why the hell would you care about survival?" Thus, she chose to put all her stat points into Charm for maximum damage.

This build was very prone to sudden death.

But the damage to clear out HP bars with one shot was enough to compensate for any shortcomings.

As the first player to transfer into the Magical Girl class in this game, Li Yuan felt confident that with her strength, she would soon become a leading figure in the "all-damage build."

The only drawback was that she hadn't had time to farm for stat-boosting items yet, only obtaining the bonus stats from advancement and those provided by skills, so her panel felt a bit "underwhelming."

Of course, Li Yuan's standard for this judgment was based on new players entering "Despair Expedition OL."

Unlike the newly released "Glory Expedition OL," as an old game that had been operating for ten years, new players in the old version could reach the Lv60 Gold Rank in just one day.

In Li Yuan's senses, she had spent several days in the dungeon, and with the help of the Lv25 NPC Red Falcon, she had only accumulated 330,000 experience points. This matched the complaints about "slow leveling" from others in the group.

As the only player with access to dungeons, she couldn't personally experience the hardships other players faced when leveling up.

Closing her character panel, Li Yuan looked at the updated "Quests" function.

The quest UI wasn't particularly eye-catching, being similar to most other games.

Currently, 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 can block the power of all "Gods."

It originates from the rejection of Faith by non-believers. The barrier can only exert its power when the number of non-believers in the Thirteen City Alliance reaches 80% of its population.

Thirteen City Alliance Population: 35.11 million.

Non-believers: 87%]

[Quest Reward: Participating in the quest will grant massive experience points, exclusive Embers, a "Baptism," and an exclusive title.]

This was likely the core main quest of the version, but she didn't know where to start, and the rewards were rather vague.

Experience points went without saying, as they were needed for leveling up and skills. Embers were also good, but they were one-time use items. As for the remaining "Baptism," it was probably something good for boosting stats.

As for the second quest, that was something she could do.

[Outpost, Part One]

[Quest Time Limit: Before 7 AM on January 19th, Alliance Year 1104.]

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

[Quest Hint:

As heroes destined to save the world, your strength is too weak. Her Excellency the Saintess has decided to lead you to the plague village to eliminate the monster threat there.]

[Quest Reward: 72-hour team-up permission with the Legendary rank NPC Saintess of Creation.]

"The main quest and a newbie bonus. It seems the developers saw my feedback," a man's voice sounded from behind her.

Li Yuan turned her head and saw Amulet Owl, who had been lying dead just moments ago, already commentating to the air.

She didn't want to get involved with this guy, nor did she like appearing on a livestream with hundreds of thousands of viewers, being judged by strangers. So, she turned her head away.

It was this unintentional action that caused her peripheral vision to catch sight of a girl peeking out from behind the warehouse's rolling shutter door, suspiciously eyeing the interior.