Cannon Fodder NPC Won't Issue S-Rank Quests (Part 2)

Here it comes!

Just as Liao Zixuan had guessed, in the world of Fall of the Gods, when an indigenous NPC like Vivian came into contact with a player, any request would automatically be presented by the system in the form of a "quest."

But that wasn't all.

What truly caught Liao Zixuan off guard was still to come.

Just as he was about to edit the quest, another dialog box popped up.

[Evaluating reward limit]

[Vivian]

[Occupation rating: D, Level rating: E, Attribute rating: E, Potential rating: A]

[Calculating... Current maximum publishable reward limit: C-rank]

(C-rank limit includes: 1500 Experience Points, 5 Silver Coins, one random item or equipment below "Rare" quality)

[Spiritual Contract detected. Automatically incorporating affiliated "Summoned Beast" into evaluation system. Recalculating limit.]

[Little Black (Summoned Beast)]

[Race rating: SSS, Level rating: C, Attribute rating: C, Potential rating: SSS]

[Calculating...]

[Limit updated. Current maximum publishable reward limit: S-rank]

(S-rank limit includes: 100,000 Experience Points, 500 Gold Coins, one random item or equipment below "Epic" quality, three random related occupation "Master" skill books, 0-10 related regional reputation points.)

Holy shit!

An S-rank quest reward limit?

100,000 Experience Points!?

Liao Zixuan rubbed his wolf cub eyes with his little claws, making sure he wasn't misreading the information above. A one followed by five zeros—a full 100,000 Experience Points!

Just... just fucking ridiculous!

Because what did 100,000 Experience Points mean?

It could instantly level a player from level 1 all the way to level 20, pushing their occupation right to the threshold of "Second Tier."

Although looking at this strength alone, it might still be at the bottom of the supernatural power scale in the world of Fall of the Gods, that didn't account for the sheer number of players! Enough ants could gnaw an elephant to death, and this was still the early game—no, not even the early game yet, since this was just the closed beta, with a considerable time still left before the open beta.

If he and Vivian used this time well, raising their strength further and pushing the quest reward evaluation score even higher, to SS or SSS rank...

Then when the open beta launched and the real millions of players flooded in...

Just thinking about it was terrifying!

Sure enough, getting rich and building a fortune all came down to exploiting the system's loopholes!

After all, none of these quest rewards had to be paid by Vivian or Liao Zixuan as "NPCs"—the system footed the entire bill. What was even more noteworthy was that the ridiculous Experience Points were only a small part of it; a whole pile of goodies followed behind.

All he could say was...

No wonder it was an "S-rank" quest. The rewards were way too generous!

Quest ratings were usually determined by the NPC's status, ability, and reputation. On her own, the young girl Vivian could only issue "C-rank" quests. But once Liao Zixuan was factored in—a Dark Flame Wolf with noble bloodline and limitless potential, no joke—it forcibly dragged the rating all the way up to S-rank.

What now.

He suddenly started feeling sour.

He and Vivian, as NPCs, were like gatekeepers sitting on a massive mountain of gold. They could freely take out gold from the mountain to give to others, but they themselves could only stare at the mountain with wide eyes.

Liao Zixuan had already tested this point as soon as possible—whether he could issue quests to himself, nesting quest rewards—and naturally, it failed.

But.

Heh!

Liao Zixuan sneered inwardly. Sure, the system could monitor them, the NPCs, handing out rewards to players and forbid them from hogging it all. But the system couldn't stop players from voluntarily turning around and spitting those system rewards back out to them, could it?

He'd been worrying before. Vivian had a thin foundation—no, to be precise, the young girl had no foundation at all—and was pitifully counting on him to subsidize her.

And Liao Zixuan, as a Dark Flame Wolf, was powerful and noble, but as seen before, the accompanying problem was that he was too! hard! to raise!

His development cycle was too long!

The Experience Points a magical beast needed to level up were already several times that of a human at the same level. And as a Dark Flame Wolf, famous among magical beasts for needing heavy investment, just the Experience Points alone would become astronomical numbers the further he went.

Liao Zixuan's original plan was to focus on raising the young girl first, then wait for her to get strong quickly so she could help him level up and evolve.

But now, it seemed there might be another, much more shortcut path?

Big Watermelon suddenly shivered. He always felt that the little wolf cub lying at Vivian's feet, this Witch's pet, was looking at him with a very unsettling gaze.

But never mind that for now.

Vivian had just explained to them what they were about to do next. Big Watermelon's heart was now filled with nothing but regret.

Because the two closed beta testers had only just figured out that the young girl was going deep into the forest to gather a special medicinal herb. And that place was the lair of the entire forest's king, the source of the name "Claw Forest"—a Magic Tyrannosaurus called "Claw"!

They didn't know whether the Magic Tyrannosaurus or the Witch was stronger, but they knew very well that the two of them, as players, were absolute trash at this level of power—not even enough to fill the Magic Tyrannosaurus's teeth.

So what exactly was this Vivian after by "requesting" their help? A little thought made it obvious—probably just two words.

Bait!

They were meant to draw Terror Claw's attention while the girl slipped deep into the BOSS's lair to steal something!

Damn it!

Every last one of those Witches really was no good!

Damn, so infuriating!

Big Watermelon and Melee God of Magic could only swallow their anger in silence. They etched Vivian's "deliberately disguised" innocent little face into their memories, silently vowing that once they leveled up enough to bully NPCs, they'd come back and settle the score with this drama queen Witch named "Vivian"!

Before they'd even finished swearing their oaths, a crisp "ding" suddenly rang in their minds.

[Vivian has issued you the quest "Assist Herb Gathering." Accept?]

Big Watermelon and Melee God of Magic were taken aback at first—this quest prompt seemed a bit late. They'd thought Vivian planned to completely freeload off them without even bothering to hand out a quest.

But soon, both of them curled their lips. Why? Did they even need to ask! With such a half-hearted quest name, they didn't even need to look to know it couldn't be higher than E-rank.

That only deepened their resentment toward Vivian. Doing the most dangerous, life-risking work, and she still pinched pennies, trying to brush them off with the pretense of a garbage daily quest!

Truly a Witch!

A bunch of heartless, wicked women.

"Huh?"

Cursing inwardly, but with the principle that even a mosquito's leg is still meat, the two players' hands were honest enough—they accepted the quest without a second thought.

But the moment they accepted, the follow-up prompt made them freeze again.

[You have successfully accepted the S-rank chain quest "Assist Herb Gathering"]

Wait...

Assist Herb Gathering...

Chain quest...

S-rank!?