Chapter 75: Map Hacks (2/2)

“Let’s have a look… Taking down each target will gain us ‘Reward Points’—isn’t that kind of similar to the ‘Revenge Points’ from last time?”

“No, this time you can do more with the points than just exchange them for stuff: The top ten players with the highest scores will get extra rewards as well!”

“Summer Sun, this ‘Black Whip’ dude is worth a ton of points!”

“We’re even getting a full map, so I guess there’s no need for recon this time?”

“That’s not all: It says here that the green dots are players, and the red dots are enemies. They’ve got no hope at all of catching us by surprise!”

“Looking for group! Looking to party! Level-22 Shadow Rogue. Let me take all the last hits, and when I make it into the Top 10, everyone in the team will get a share of the reward!”

“Party with me! Level-18 Soul Blade. I can tank, I can DPS. No Rangers!”

“What do you have against Rangers? Did one of them kill your cat or something?”

With all the data on their enemies that Xi Wei had provided, the players felt practically clairvoyant now, and were scrambling to find a team to work with. Already, they were negotiating claims on bounties with one another.

Seeing this spike in their morale, Xi Wei felt some relief. Hopefully, they would do well in this battle.

All those quest rewards would cost him quite a bit of divine energy, but it was a small price to pay to alleviate the massive headache over player deaths and revivals. With a little bit of luck, the pay-off would balance out the costs.

There was also a chance that he would come out of this at a loss, but this battle was necessary nevertheless. Not because of some noble desire to protect the frogmen—Xi Wei wasn’t some burning-heart animal-rights activist. If he was going to offer shelter to some species or other, it would have to be something that was bouncy and cute, but also handy in a fight—maybe useful as a mount too, if they were in a different kind of era (even if riding something bouncy into a fight could prove deeply regrettable). Basically, nothing like these slimy toads, here.

What he was really after was the remains of the Aquatic Lord, which quite possibly lay beneath this parcel of land. If he could siphon off those divine remnants, it could grant a huge boon to his own powers, and raise him above all the other minor deities.

If he could do that, then even if the Skull God rallied the last of the Rotten Bones survivors and led them against him, Xi Wei should be able to hold his own.

He was not completely indifferent to the legacy of the frogmen and their thousand-year vigil, but there was a time and place for sentimentality. He had to keep moving towards his goals, and faith was the fuel of a god.

“Once those players have driven off the Secret Eye Society, I’ll task Eleena with playing the role of a priestess. She’ll inform the frogmen that their god is about to consecrate their land… This will help persuade them to build a few more structures, which means… yes, a sandy beach hardly makes for a good, solid foundation—so we’ll have to perform some excavations, perfectly reasonable. Even if something weird gets dug up, and then vanishes in a flash of light… I’m sure they’ll just roll with it.” Xi Wei’s mind was buzzing with schemes, and the more he thought about it, the more excited he became.

“More to the point: Whatever those excavations might turn up, as long as I make my move quickly enough, no one will have any clue what really happened!”

Regarding the possibility of finding nothing after all, Xi Wei couldn’t deny that it would make all of this a huge waste of time.