Auntie Custer is Awesome

"...Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

Greenie, who had rushed over after hearing the news, stared at Cheng Tian, who was squatting on his heels, with a scrutinizing look.

"Who are you?"

Cheng Tian, who was busy fiddling with the Crystal Option, glanced at him and replied directly.

Never mind that he was wearing a hood now, even if he wasn't, his expression and tone wouldn't have changed in the slightest—

Because Cheng Tian didn't even remember what Greenie looked like!

So what if he had green skin? Cheng Tian had only been in Space Island for a short time, and he had already seen all kinds of alien races, both real and fake, and even a few human-sized Avatars. To him, someone like Greenie, with a normal human face, just wasn't special enough.

Greenie, on the other hand, was actually testing the waters. He didn't really know who Cheng Tian was.

The fact that Greenie could take out five whiteboard equipment pieces from different instances at once suggested two main possibilities about his background.

One was that he was a veteran who had completed several fixed Chosen Trials, and the other was that he was backed by a community/guild/team.

Greenie was the latter, and one of the tasks assigned to him by his team was to wait in the mission hall for several special instances, including Demon Village. This newbie guide mission, which in theory each player could only accept once, was the one Greenie had snatched.

Yes, Greenie had only selectively told Cheng Tian and the others part of the truth back then. He had prepared the five whiteboard melee weapons knowing the blueprint of Demon Village.

The reward for being a newbie guide wasn't important at all; what mattered was connections, that is, the newbie players who could survive Demon Village. As long as one more person survived, it meant one more potential channel for acquiring Demon Village-related items in the future.

Cast a wide net and catch more fish.

Greenie's team could afford this investment.

Of course, Greenie was mostly acting on orders. Knowing what a cesspool Demon Village was for newbies, he didn't have high hopes at all. As for the five whiteboards, they were covered by the team, so he felt at ease losing them.

However, just a few hours ago, he unexpectedly received a Space Island feedback fulfilling a contract.

The other party to the contract was One-Ear, the college student whose ear he had shot through as a show of force. According to the contract, after the other party completed the newbie trial, the borrowed equipment would automatically return to the first party, Greenie himself.

Greenie couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the weapons returning, because it meant that One-Ear had actually passed the Demon Village trial, that ultimate newbie cesspool!

As for the whiteboard weapons like the two-handed hammer and baseball bat, the players who were the other parties to the contract had died in the instance. The moment they died, these borrowed whiteboard weapons became unowned, so there was no need to fulfill the original contract.

Greenie could also use the result of this contract to indirectly confirm the deaths of those other parties.

One-Ear survived. Greenie's surprise was imaginable, so he used the player ID he had recorded during the contract to directly send a Space Island communication, wanting to meet in the square and buy all of One-Ear's experiences in Demon Village.

However, unexpectedly but predictably, One-Ear ignored him completely, and even blacklisted Greenie after seeing the communication.

One-Ear was indeed quite adaptable among his peers. He could endure his anger and borrow weapons from Greenie even after his ear was shot through, but that didn't mean he didn't hold grudges.

After seeing Greenie's message, One-Ear not only blacklisted him, but also set himself a future "must-eat" list with extremely strong subjective initiative—

If he had the chance, he would definitely tear off Greenie's ears too!

One-Ear's blacklisting surprised Greenie, but it also made him even more curious about what had happened in Demon Village and how many people had survived.

So, as soon as he heard a tip that someone was selling Knight Armor, a Demon Village specialty, in the market district, he rushed to the scene as quickly as possible.

Greenie's appearance was his fixed appearance setting in Chosen Evolution Space, equivalent to creating a fixed face in an online game, but most players actually spent a little money each time they entered Space Island to change their appearance. Height, race, gender, appearance—these could all be changed at any time, so without knowing the exact player ID, Greenie couldn't figure out Cheng Tian's true face at all.

He obviously suspected that Cheng Tian was One-Ear, but he had no evidence.

Of course, all the secondhand dealers present weren't just interested in the armor; they, too, were more interested in Cheng Tian, the newbie who could crawl out of the cesspool alive.

Unfortunately, Cheng Tian, seemingly aware of something, packed up his stall after playing with the four-piece set he had just acquired and slipped away, ignoring the wails of the crowd.

Because Cheng Tian felt that the market value currently displayed by the Knight Armor was higher than its actual value. Instead of directly exchanging it for money, it would be better to keep it as a trump card, first confirm his next mission, and then submit an exchange request to the next sucker according to his needs.

This was also what he had judged from Old Fan's reaction, who insisted on exchanging even though he was losing big time.

East District, Mission Area.

If he hadn't known in advance that this was the mission hall where players gathered, Cheng Tian would have thought it was a train station in some major city in China.

In addition to players, there were also many NPCs who were obviously staff members busy at work. Cheng Tian directly picked one who looked pleasing to the eye, a staff member who looked like Auntie Custer (don't search), and asked her a question. She very enthusiastically gave Cheng Tian a series of answers.

Every Chosen Player must complete a fixed monthly instance mission called the Chosen Trial during the last 10 days or so of each month.

In principle, the Chosen Trial is a random blueprint mission. However, as the number of Chosen Trials completed and the player's own rank increases, more useful information will be obtained before future Chosen Trials. The blueprint of the instance may even be announced in advance, giving players more opportunities to prepare fully.

The Chosen Trial usually does not have a very strict elimination mechanism. Take Cheng Tian's newbie trial as an example. If they stubbornly refused to push the main quest and just survived for eight hours until the main quest time limit expired and the mission failed, then an evacuation mission would appear next.

The evacuation mission mode can basically be compared to the last level of each chapter of Left 4 Dead. In most cases, you have to reach a fixed evacuation point within the time limit and defend against an unknown number of enemies at that evacuation point until the time limit expires, and then you can be teleported away by Space Island.

Of course, you shouldn't even think about the original rewards. Pure newbies may still get a few hundred coins as a consolation prize, encouraging them that being able to survive as a newbie is already great, but veterans can expect to have their salaries and benefits deducted~

So, what happens if the evacuation mission still fails?

Faced with Cheng Tian's question, Auntie Custer, as a staff member, just smiled and said.

"I don't know. No one has ever seen them again."