Emergency Mission

Sitting on a boulder to rest, Yang Yu used a fruit knife to peel the Fruit Sugarcane he had drawn as a junk prize yesterday. He found it rather strange. They had spent the entire day circling the outskirts of the forest, yet they had not seen a single Goblin.

It would have been understandable if someone had already cleared them out, but they had barely found any signs of battle, either.

Everything was too strange, as though someone had learned of the extermination plan in advance and gathered the Goblins deeper within the forest.

Yang Yu divided the peeled sugarcane into three portions, giving one each to He Meng and Bai Jin before picking up the root end and chewing on it.

That group of Goblins yesterday had been highly organized, like a pack of wolves deliberately waiting for prey to fall into their trap. They were true hunters.

Had it been any other squad, the Goblins would likely have succeeded long ago. Unfortunately for them, they had run into him. Even if Seka Mens had not stepped in, Yang Yu was completely confident he could have wiped them all out.

Chewing large mouthfuls of sugarcane, Yang Yu formulated a new strategy.

"Let's call it here for today and head back to prepare. Tomorrow, we'll try going deeper into the forest."

Without experience packs, he could not level up. Venturing deeper into the forest and encountering groups of high-level Goblins would be dangerous. For now, they could only return and see if there were other teams looking to hunt Goblins, then form a larger group and act together.

He Meng swallowed her sugarcane. Though it was not as delicious as Four-leaf Clover, it had a distinct flavor of its own. Bai Jin, meanwhile, held the sugarcane without knowing how to take a bite.

"You've never eaten sugarcane before?" Yang Yu asked.

Bai Jin nodded.

"I've traveled through many cities, but I've never seen this kind of food."

"Then where does the sugar you eat come from?"

"It is refined from the brown fruit of a tree called Sugarfruit. Its growing conditions are extremely harsh, so sugar is very expensive—not something ordinary people can afford."

Damn it. Rounded off, that was more than a hundred million lost.

There was actually no crop like sugarcane in this game. If he could rely on Farming, promote large-scale sugarcane cultivation, and open sugar factories, wouldn't he make a fortune?

Looking at the leftover sugarcane peel, Yang Yu's face darkened as he was consumed by regret. It was too late for anything now. He could not exactly grow sugarcane from sugarcane peel. He had never learned that kind of divine maneuver.

The next time he drew junk, he had to inspect it carefully. He also needed to look around the market more and see what existed and what did not. Otherwise, if he missed out on another hundred million, he would cry.

"Take your time tasting it. It's very sweet. If it's too big, I'll cut it into smaller pieces for you."

With that, Yang Yu took back the sugarcane, cut it into chopstick-sized sticks, and handed them back to Bai Jin.

Bai Jin picked one up and took a light bite. Sweetness filled her heart.

"It's so sweet, hehe. It's like boiling Bone-Grinding Frog, Hallucinogenic Mushroom, and Kara Lizard together. Cool, cool, cool! It's an excellent curse potion. With this exquisite sweetness, it'll definitely make lots of girls fall for it."

"..."

"No, that's not what I meant—"

Bai Jin tried to explain in a panic, but broke into a violent coughing fit. Yang Yu patted her back to ease her symptoms and said, "Your feelings came through. If you're not good at describing things, don't force yourself. Your health comes first."

As he spoke, Yang Yu glanced at Bai Jin's experience bar. It had shrunk slightly. That was not an illusion.

Yang Yu had originally thought Bai Jin's Frailty trait only affected combat, but he had not expected it to directly affect her growth as well.

Yesterday, Yang Yu had helped Bai Jin gain two levels, yet when she woke up today, she had actually lost one. Worse still, the attributes she gained from leveling were pitiful. Out of seven attributes, only Intelligence had increased by 2; all the others had increased by 0. Losing a level, however, reduced every attribute by five points at once. Doing the math, Bai Jin was actually weaker than yesterday despite having gained a level.

He had to find a way to remove this Frailty. Otherwise, no matter how hard she leveled up, it would be as if she had never trained at all.

Faced with a character who was not particularly attractive and only grew weaker in the game, most players would have avoided her like the plague. At most, they would have treated her as a tool for early-game leveling.

But Yang Yu was different. His first thought was, Her level and attributes drop every day? Doesn't that mean she used to be insanely strong? There must be some special plot buried deep behind a character like this. She's worth digging into!

Besides, characters with Frailty in the early stages might not even appear later on. If he could help her solve the problem, then with the bond of being her savior, as long as he did not go too far, she would never suddenly betray him. She would be the most reliable teammate.

How could Yang Yu possibly let a teammate like that slip away?

After leaving Goblin Forest and returning to the Adventurers' Guild, Yang Yu found the tavern—normally noisy and full of cheerful energy even during the day—terrifyingly quiet. Everyone drank with their heads down, and the atmosphere was completely different from usual.

It had not been like this when they left that morning. Why had it become so lifeless after only one morning?

Puzzled, Yang Yu had barely stepped into the tavern when task notifications spread across his panel.

[Emergency Mission: Rescue the missing adventurers of Skas Squad.

Emergency Mission: Rescue the missing adventurers of Teren Squad.

Emergency Mission: Rescue the missing adventurers of Akai Squad.

Emergency Mission: Rescue the missing adventurers of Silverwind Squad.

Investigation Mission: Proceed to the depths of Goblin Forest and investigate.]

So many notifications appearing at once gave Yang Yu only one reaction: something had happened.

Just as he was about to ask around and find out what was going on, the young woman at the front desk hurried over to him.

"Mr. Yang Yu, may I trouble you for a moment? We would like to learn about your hunt for Goblins yesterday. It may take up quite a bit of your time, but we will compensate you accordingly."

The mission for What I Saw and Heard had been triggered. Without hesitation, Yang Yu told her everything that had happened in the forest yesterday.

To avoid making himself sound like he was taking all the credit, Yang Yu slightly altered the part where Seka Mens had stolen his kill at the end, saying instead that Seka Mens had come to their rescue.

After answering the front desk attendant's questions one by one, she lowered her head in thanks, returned to the desk, and began writing furiously. She then left the front desk and disappeared, while a guard temporarily took over her position.

After speaking with that guard, Yang Yu learned the full story. Of all the adventurers who had gone to Goblin Forest yesterday, only his group had returned.

It was common for adventurers to sleep rough in the forest to make a living, and the Adventurers' Guild had no right to interfere. But that morning, an adventurer covered in blood had stumbled in and described everything he had encountered in the forest. His team had been attacked by a large group of Goblins and forced deeper into the woods, where they encountered even more Goblins. His team had gone to extraordinary lengths to let him escape and return.

The nature of the incident changed instantly. The Adventurers' Guild suspected that the adventurers who had not returned had likewise been attacked by Goblins and fallen within Goblin Forest.

Adventurers were one of the foundations keeping this society functioning and stable. Though they worked for money, there was no denying that they solved many problems troubling ordinary people.

So many adventurers disappearing at once could easily cause panic. What was more, Silverwind Squad, led by Seka Mens—the younger generation's representative of the Adventurers' Guild—had also gone missing.