Inside the village chief's courtyard!
The village chief (played by the Jade Emperor ) looked at the "mysterious letter" in his hand with an extremely solemn expression.
"Alas!" the village chief sighed, and said, "Do you know the origin of this Demon-Sealing Village?"
The village chief had already prepared himself emotionally, ready to tell the players the story according to the pre-set plot, and then issue the main storyline quests.
But before he could even begin, Gu Hao interrupted him, "Can you stop with the story and just give me the task?"
The village chief glared at Gu Hao with displeasure. "Damn it," he thought, "I've been building up my emotions for ages, just getting into character, and you want to skip this?"
Normally, it would have been fine to just give him the task without listening to the story, but the village chief was very unhappy at the moment.
At this moment, the village chief was like a leader who had been suddenly interrupted from speaking; interrupting a leader can have serious consequences.
"Don't you want to hear a story?" the village chief asked menacingly.
Gu Hao still didn't realize the seriousness of the problem. After all, in his view, the village chief was just an NPC whose purpose was to issue quests. Now that he had the quest items, he could just give him the quest directly.
Telling stories is such a waste of time.
"Yeah, why can't we just give them the task directly?"
"Of course, you can!" the village chief said, emphasizing each word. He opened the task assignment panel, made a few minor adjustments, and sent the task to Gu Hao and Chen Chao.
Main Story Quest 1 ( Nightmare Grade ): Deep within the Ancient Tomb Withered Forest (coordinates: 352, 981), there is a red, wordless tombstone. Destroy the tombstone to enter the General's Tomb, clear out all the monsters in the tomb, bring back the General's sword and heart, and deliver them to the village chief. Quest reward: Unknown!
"Holy crap, I've struck gold! It's Nightmare Grade quest!" Gu Hao's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected the main quest to have different levels. The higher the level, the higher the reward!
Chen Chao, however, sensed something was amiss, especially the village chief's sinister tone, which gave him a bad feeling.
"Thanks, old man!" Gu Hao laughed heartily, called to Super Saiyan, and walked out of the village chief's courtyard.
"You're welcome!" the village chief said with a sneer.
Afterward, the two visited several NPC shops and finally found that the owner of the weapon shop bought monster essences. They sold all the monster essences and finally had some silver.
The two of them each bought an iron sword (ordinary) and a set of Bronze armor (ordinary), spending most of their silver.
"Damn, this is too expensive!" Gu Hao frowned. An ordinary iron sword cost them two hundred taels of silver, and the Bronze armor was a whopping three hundred and fifty taels of silver.
"The prices in this game are a bit high!" Chen Chao frowned. They had worked themselves to the bone all day and only managed to get five or six hundred taels of silver, and then they used it all up to craft two ordinary pieces of equipment?
Li Jing, playing the weapon shop owner, has a cool and aloof demeanor, squinting at the two idiots.
Having offended the village chief, these two are definitely not going to have an easy time in the game anymore.
Li Jing bought their spirit essences at half price, but Li Jing directly increased the price of the equipment he sold them tenfold.
Don't ask, the answer is that you've offended the village chief.
After buying the equipment, the two had no money left for medicine, but they didn't think much of it. Following the coordinates, they left the starting village and prepared to complete the Nightmare Grade main storyline quest.
They encountered Zhao Zhe and his group who were fighting monsters on the way.
"Hey, Old Zhao, you're doing that!" Gu Hao said smugly, having instantly killed a skeleton monster with a single sword strike, before greeting Zhao Zhe.
Gu Hao was young after all, and now that he was so confident, he naturally wanted to show off.
"See that? The iron sword in the weapon shop, two hundred taels of silver each, Little Qian!" Gu Hao said, tapping the iron sword in his hand.
Upon hearing Gu Hao's words, Zhao Zhe and the others looked at him as if he were an idiot.
However, in Gu Hao's eyes, Zhao Zhe's gaze was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.
"Keep going, let's get to the main quest."
Watching Gu Hao and Chen Chao leave, Zhao Zhe asked Heavenly Guard 6, "Did I hear that right? Two hundred taels of silver for an iron sword? Wasn't it twenty taels? Can prices rise in the game?"
"That can't be right, I'll go back and check!"
After Heavenly Guard 6 finished speaking, he quickly ran towards the village. In less than ten minutes, Heavenly Guard 6 returned with a strange expression.
"What happened? Did the price really go up?" Zhao Zhe asked.
"Pfft, no price increase. The weapon shop owner said that from now on, the shop will buy everything these two sell at half price, and they'll pay ten times the original price when they buy things from the shop," Heavenly Guard 6 laughed.
"Why?"
"These two idiots have offended the village chief, and the worst part is, they don't even realize they've offended him."
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.
Heavenly Guard 7 Imitation Gu Hao's tone, tapping the rusty Sword Dao, "Two hundred taels of silver, Little Qian!"
Everyone burst into laughter again.
Zhao Zhe laughed until tears streamed down his face. Wiping his eyes, he said, "Keep your mouths shut, don't tell those two guys."
"Receive!"
"Clear!"
"Hahaha!"
At this moment, Gu Hao and Chen Chao were both in a good mood.
"In the game, a lead at one step means a lead at every step. Although we're not enemies with Lao Zhao and his Old Zhao, we're still competitors!"
"I, Gu Hao, have never been inferior to anyone in my life!"
Chen Chao curled his lip. This kid's gotten too cocky.
" Gu Hao, Mr. Chen?" At this moment, a voice rang out from the opposite side. The two looked in the direction of the voice and saw Luo Pengyu, who was wearing the same equipment as them, walking towards them.
" Old Luo? What are you doing here?" Chen Chao asked curiously.
"Complete the main quest? Didn't you receive a quest from the village chief?" Luo Pengyu asked, puzzled.
"Oh, by the way, you need to kill a skeleton monster and obtain the mysterious letter before the village chief will give you the main quest."
Gu Hao and Chen Chao exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat incredulous.
" Old Luo, don't tell me you've already completed the main quest."
"It's done! It was very simple!"
"Easy? Are the monsters inside weak?"
"What's strange? What's weak?"
Luo Pengyu was a little confused, while Gu Hao and Chen Chao were even more confused.
The three then shared their respective task panels.
Main Quest 1: Find the blank tombstone of the Red Cesium and bring the Demon Glow Mushroom near the tombstone to the village chief. Reward for completing the quest: 10,000 experience points, 50 taels of silver, the Entry- level Qi Basic Qi Refining Technique, and unlock Main Quest 2.
"Why is your mission Nightmare Grade mission?" Luo Pengyu asked, frowning.
"Moreover, according to the village chief, that red, wordless tombstone is a sealing stone that suppresses the Stone Tomb General. Once broken, it will release the terrifying monster inside, which could potentially trigger a monster Riot. At that time, the strength of the monsters in the wild will increase significantly, and it would be troublesome if they attacked the Demon-Sealing Village."
"..." Gu Hao and Chen Chao frowned.
"Also, bloodshed is forbidden in Demon-Sealing Village. The entire Demon-Sealing Village is a sealing formation. Once blood is drawn, the sealing power of the formation will weaken, potentially releasing the terrifying entity within."
"Why is your mission to break the sealing stone?"
Luo Pengyu was utterly bewildered. According to the village chief, this sealing stone absolutely could not be broken, so why would the village chief give them such a Nightmare Grade main storyline quest?
Gu Hao thought for a moment and said, " The Nightmare Grade mission is to clear out all the monsters in the General's Tomb. If we succeed, the village's troubles will naturally be resolved. In any case, this Nightmare Grade mission must be completed."
Gu Hao was still fantasizing about the rewards for the Nightmare Grade missions. If the rewards for the simple main storyline missions were already so generous, wouldn't the Nightmare Grade ones be incredibly lucrative?
"I always felt that things weren't that simple!" Luo Pengyu said, shaking his head.
"If only Big Shot Ling Yi were here, I wonder what Big Shot's doing right now," Chen Chao said.
"Why think so much? Just give it a try first. There's no set time or number of attempts!"
Gu Hao didn't care about all that. All the monsters in the game were just experience points and equipment for the players, so Gu Hao had no respect for the monsters in the game.
"I'll go back and turn in my mission first, improve my skills, and then come back to join you!" Luo Pengyu said.
Gu Hao opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained silent.
After Luo Pengyu left, Gu Hao said, "Let's go. It's just fighting a boss, no need to make a fuss. Let's just kill it."
" Old Luo is really something, almost level 10 already, and he even bought such expensive equipment," Chen Chao exclaimed.
"Hehe, you don't know, do you? Although Old Luo is my homeroom teacher, he's also a gaming expert, and a very skilled tactical player at that. He's quite famous in the gaming world."
"That's incredible!"
"Haha, what's even more amazing is that Old Luo plays games so that we won't get too addicted to them. He made a bet with all the boys in the class: whoever he beats in the game will uninstall it."
"We didn't take it seriously at the time, but in the end, most of us got a lesson from Old Luo, and in different games at that. It was unbelievable. This even became a trending topic."
"Holy crap, I remember now, Old Luo is that Devil Teacher from the internet?"
"Right!"
As the two were talking, they saw the red, wordless tombstone.
The tombstone is not large, only 60 centimeters high and less than 10 centimeters wide.
The area surrounding the red cesium tombstone is a large expanse of dark red cesium soil, exuding a faint Aura of blood.
On the ground, there were Star Luo red-glowing mushrooms.
Chen Chao Gathering one and put it in his backpack.
Demon Glow Mushroom: Grows in places rich in Demonic Qi; if consumed by demons, it can greatly increase their strength.
" Old Luo's task is to help the village chief Gathering these Demon Glow Mushroom, right? That village chief is suspicious!" Chen Chao frowned.
However, Gu Hao disagreed with Chen Chao's statement.
"The village chief in a beginner's village Central City usually a guide-type NPC in the game, and they can't have a very complicated identity."
"You said it yourself, that's in a normal game. Don't forget, this game was created by the Big Shot Ling Yi; anything is possible."
Gu Hao was only thinking about the rewards of the Nightmare Grade mission and wasn't listening to anything else.
He kicked the red stone tablet, and immediately a health bar appeared above the tablet.
In Gu Hao's gaming experience, anything with a health bar can be attacked.
He brandished his iron sword and began hacking and slashing.
The stone tablet's health bar wasn't long, and it offered almost no defense. Gu Hao slashed at it for several minutes until the health bar was completely depleted, and the blood-red, wordless stone tablet shattered into countless fragments.
The next moment, a hole appeared in front of the two.
"Wow, let's run a dungeon!" Gu Hao shouted excitedly and jumped in.
Chen Chao looked at the dark entrance of the cave, hesitated for a moment, and then gritted his teeth and jumped down.
On the other side, Guan Xiaoxiao, who was originally Bored, suddenly had an exclamation mark appear above her head.
This means that the NPC Guan Xiaoxiao has a quest assigned to her.
Luo Pengyu, Zhao Zhe, and the others, who had just returned to the starting village, immediately noticed this.
They all rushed over, eager to see the mission.
Luo Pengyu and his companions had no idea that the NPC with the title "Saintess" above her head was Guan Xiaoxiao.
Guan Xiaoxiao's task in the beginner village was this; she directly displayed the content on the task posting panel and changed it to be available to everyone.
The Demon-Sealing Village Defense Mission: Demons are resurrected, and the Demon-Sealing Village is about to be invaded by demons. If the defense is successful, all players will be upgraded by 5 levels, and will be rewarded with a basic magic weapon, a random high-level cultivation technique, and a random spell.
If the defense fails, the Demon-Sealing Village will be completely reduced to ruins, all players' levels will be reduced by 10, and they will be randomly Teleport to the nearest village or town.
Countdown: 4 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds...