Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 149: Chapter 148 Draw Card Time (4th update! Additional update for the alliance leader who is always tipsy while reading!)

It was 6:10 in the morning.

Zhao Mingwei was at the Dancing Nuclear Guild’s stronghold… Not only was he in the stronghold, but what was worse was that Mo Shigui had handed over the management qualifications of the stronghold to him.

What made Zhao Mingwei feel helpless was… everyone in the Dancing Nuclear Guild unanimously agreed with the decision, even shouting, “Xiao Ye, just join our guild.” “How about switching to our Dancing Nuclear Guild next season?”

Facing the enthusiasm of the people in the Dancing Nuclear Guild, Zhao Mingwei could only give a wry smile without continuing to respond.

If Zhao Mingwei were three or four years younger, perhaps he might impulsively join the Dancing Nuclear Guild for the championship.

After all, the Dancing Nuclear Guild is now the strongest club in China, and he should be confident to aim for the world championship again.

But Zhao Mingwei no longer wanted to treat disputes as his work, just like the fans spat at him, “You already won the championship, just retire already.”

In the game Holy Spirit World, Zhao Mingwei experienced the long-missed fun, where no one urged him to do something, but rather he wanted to do something in the game himself.

Although Zhao Mingwei knew some truths about the game, he still enjoyed playing Holy Spirit World.

And now, Zhao Mingwei was sitting on the temporary watchtower built by the Dancing Nuclear Guild, looking up strategies.

In the game, Zhao Mingwei’s skills could only be considered expert level, but a true expert needed to be well-acquainted with the game.

The version updates in Holy Spirit World were really too fast, especially the updates to the stronghold system, which might turn many players who could have been considered gods of Holy Spirit World into newbies.

However, Zhao Mingwei wasn’t quite concerned about the management of the stronghold, after all, there was Rain Song online as the manager, and he was merely holding a position.

Most of the elite management of the Dancing Nuclear Guild had logged off now. The end of the May Day holiday signaled the arrival of the summer competition; the first match of the summer competition would begin in three days.

The first match was exactly between Dancing Nuclear and the reigning dynasty.

Mo Shigui was the coach of Dancing Nuclear, and he certainly wouldn’t have much time to invest in Holy Spirit World after the match started, in contrast, Zhao Mingwei, who was a backup, had a lot of free time.

Zhao Mingwei was now busy studying the strategies on the forums to understand the stronghold system of Holy Spirit World.

After the launch of the stronghold system in Holy Spirit World, the forums were completely abuzz, Zhao Mingwei could see one or two posts praising Holy Spirit World every time he refreshed, and there were a ton of posts asking how to play with the stronghold system and showcasing their own works.

“I built a stronghold today and feel like I’m playing a different game.” Poster: Swordsman Mo Dao.

“Blueprints of the guild’s pub in my stronghold! Everyone come check out my work.” Poster: Anicent Hills March.

Zhao Mingwei glanced at these posts and closed them, then refreshed again… until Zhao Mingwei came upon a new post.

“The game secretly updated again! A new Talent Market building was added to the default construction sequence of the stronghold!” Poster: Frontier Reporter.

Talent Market? Zhao Mingwei moved his finger, and the game’s main menu appeared at his fingertip, and he directly clicked to enter the construction mode of the stronghold.

A bunch of windows popped up, the most conspicuous being the properties window of the stronghold; below the stronghold were a row of default buildings.

These buildings were prepared by the system for players who were not good at manual operations, such as an initial town wall, initial wooden house, and some functional buildings were also included.

For example, the newly updated building named Talent Market.

This building was akin to the initial market carriages in a stronghold, not very large looking, Zhao Mingwei quickly browsed the properties of the Talent Market.

‘Initial Talent Market

Building·Ordinary

Description: A carriage that can recruit talents from Otherworld or the native world of Holy Spirit.

Effect: Recruit NPCs to assist with stronghold construction.

Construction Requirement: 40 wood.’

This was completely a giveaway initial building.

Zhao Mingwei turned his attention to the inside of the stronghold, where Mo Shigui had roughly divided the stronghold into areas: the mining area, the cultivation area, and the blank area, before he logged off.

The cultivation area was for cultivating various herbs needed for concocting potions, and the pharmacist in charge of the cultivation area, Lazy, hadn’t logged off yet.

Zhao Mingwei flipped down to the ground and walked towards Lazy, who was spraying pesticide on a bunch of vine-like plants in the cultivation area.

“How long have you been spraying pesticides here?” Zhao Mingwei looked at the woman dressed as a pharmacist; she was one of the few real females in the Dancing Nuclear Guild.

“Xiao Ye? This isn’t pesticide; this is an HP potion sold by NPCs in the game,” Lazy shook the watering can in her hand, one of the few people who remained calm after knowing Zhao Mingwei’s real identity.

“Can HP potions be used as fertilizer in the game?”

Zhao Mingwei glanced at the plants growing in the cultivation area, which were called Bloodthorn Grass, essential in concocting HP potions.

Lazy’s other occupation was a cultivator, and the thrill of this life skill was… as their level increased, the herbs they cultivated could mutate, leading to various interesting mutations, enhanced effects, altered effects, and even mutations like turning into a man-eating plant.

“It’s not for use as fertilizer, it’s that TM again! Xiao Ye, do you see that DEBUFF below?” Lazy suddenly became a bit agitated.

Zhao Mingwei looked at the DEBUFF below the Bloodthorn Grass.

Mild Crystallization 1%.

“Damn!” Lazy, somewhat agitated, poured the HP potion over the herb that had sprouted the Crystallization DEBUFF, and the DEBUFF disappeared in a flash.

“It’s more troublesome to farm in the stronghold than in my manor. Every few tens of minutes, the plants could develop this DEBUFF, early on we could clear it with HP potions, but after exceeding ten percent, it would be impossible to clear.”

Lazy was still quite agitated as she spoke, even spitting in frustration, Zhao Mingwei could empathize with her discomfort, as these repetitive processes in the game were always the most boring.

“Perhaps we could hire an NPC to help?” Zhao Mingwei’s gaze shifted toward the distant mining area, where Xia Shan’s various machines were tirelessly smelting steel.

Xia Shan herself had gone to sleep two hours ago, and normally, she would have too, only she couldn’t bear to see her plants crystallize.

“NPCs? Since when could we hire NPCs in this game?” Lazy had no time to keep up with the forums.

“Rain Song has already built the structure needed to recruit NPCs,” Zhao Mingwei pointed toward a nearby open area, where Rain Song had already set up a job market.

He was considering the same thing as Zhao Mingwei.

“We can really recruit NPCs?” Lazy’s curiosity was piqued, and other active players from the Dancing Nuclear Guild also gathered at the job market.

“Who’s coming?” Rain Song pointed to the counter, which was unattended but had five very noticeable white papers attached.

As Zhao Mingwei approached the job market, a new window popped up, presenting a prominent ‘Refresh Candidates’ option, which also had a ‘Free’ sign attached.

“Old Rain, should I give it a try?”

Little Feather hadn’t logged off either; he had been busy all day planning the stronghold and wall construction. As a seasoned builder gamer, he was too excited to think about sleep.

“This seems like a gamble! Little Feather, you always get lucky with gacha games, right?” Mom Has a Dog commented.

Without responding, Little Feather lightly tapped the ‘Refresh Candidates’ button, followed by an exclamation, “Wow, gold… just ordinary.”

The five white papers suddenly displayed text and character photos. Zhao Mingwei glanced over them quickly; the five NPCs’ average level was only five, all hailing from Holy Spirit World, and their introductions did mention some specialized life skills.

The most noticeable thing was the rarity ‘N’ at the bottom.

“My God! I’m dying of laughter, not even a blue card could be drawn!” Mom Has a Dog looked at the row of ‘N’ rarity NPCs and said, “What you’ve drawn here would be fodder in pay-to-win games, maybe not even good enough for fodder.”

“Then you try!” Little Feather was somewhat irritated by Mom Has a Dog’s teasing.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

Mom Has a Dog clicked the ‘Refresh Candidates’ option again, but the second click required three common quality gems, which wasn’t too costly for him.

Then it was… blue skies and white clouds.

Zhao Mingwei looked again, four ‘N’ rarity NPCs, and one ‘R’ rarity NPC.

‘N’ meant a very ordinary character, ‘R’ meant a rare character. This evil grading system was common in most pay-to-win games; logically, you should be able to recruit ‘SR’ super rare and even ‘SSR’ epic rare characters.

“At least there’s a blue card! Should Old Rain recruit him?” Mom Has a Dog asked.

The R-rated character was clearly marked as an Otherworld character, his level was thirty-four, specializing in blacksmithing, but the guild didn’t lack skilled blacksmiths, and his combat level wasn’t up to par with players.

What Zhao Mingwei was concerned about was his crystallized seed identifier.

“Brother Laughter, Lucky Red Hand,” Rain Song said to Zhao Mingwei.

The only designated Lucky Red Hand player of the Dancing Nuclear Guild, Fluffy Rabbit… had logged off, so they had to find another Lucky Red Hand from other guilds. In Rain Song’s memory, Zhao Mingwei was also quite lucky.

“Then I’ll give it a try,” Zhao Mingwei stretched out his hand and lightly tapped the ‘Refresh Candidates’ button again, the second refresh costing six common quality gems.

He happened to have six common quality gems in his backpack, which were thrown into the job market, and the five candidate personnel refreshed again.

This time, a deep purple flash appeared!

“A purple card? And it’s a beautiful short-haired girl! Brother Laughter is awesome,” someone excitedly exclaimed.

Zhao Mingwei looked at the first candidate for recruitment, another Otherworld person, rarity SR, just looking at the array of skills, expertise, and potential below revealed… this character was not simple.

“Should we refresh again? We might get an SSR.” Mom Has a Dog suggested tentatively.

“Just this one,” Rain Song decided immediately. He knew Lazy was almost overwhelmed by taking care of the herb garden, and this NPC was perfect for horticulture.

Zhao Mingwei clicked on this SR-grade NPC, revealing the recruitment conditions below.

‘Temporary Recruitment: 1 Gold Coin/day, with at least -10 goodwill towards the stronghold, current goodwill 0, maximum recruitment time 30 days.’

‘Permanent Recruitment: 500 Gold Coins, goodwill towards the stronghold must be higher than 100.’

“Still just renting?” someone sounded a bit deflated. In the male-dominated Dancing Nuclear Guild, having a few pretty girls around the stronghold was a pleasing prospect, Fluffy Rabbit excluded.

“Are you hiring someone to directly sell themselves? Brother Laughter, this money is coming straight out of our guild funds, so let’s sign for ten days first,” Mom Has a Dog said.

Zhao Mingwei selected the contract to hire for ten days, which in real-world prices meant… a monthly salary of ten thousand yuan was necessary to hire this girl.

“I hope this money is worth it…” Zhao Mingwei watched as a burst of Magic Power formed a glow in the job market, a teleportation array emerged, and a figure also stepped out of the teleportation array slowly.

“Someone found me so quickly? Who is my employer?”

A girl with black short hair and crimson pupils stepped out from the teleportation array; her voice was full of vibrancy and excitement.

The people from the Dancing Nuclear Guild all stepped back, pushing Zhao Mingwei forward.

Zhao Mingwei had no choice but to silently raise his hand.

“Alright! Let’s start with a fight.” She looked at Zhao Mingwei and said.

“Are you sure?” Zhao Mingwei glanced at her level, only thirty-six; that level… Zhao Mingwei could finish her off with a single burst of mental energy wave.