Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 187: Chapter 186 Too Expensive to Raise, Unable to Release, Can’t Sell (2nd Update)

“President! You must not consider hiring her, we simply don’t have the money to support her anymore.”

Recently, Fluffy Bunny has been managing the guild’s affairs, including resources for reconstruction, and the funds for the guild’s construction were all applied for by ‘her’ from the Silver General.

As the temporary head of the family, Fluffy Bunny acutely felt the expensive nature of daily necessities. After Yelena became a Holy Spirit NPC, she could have survived on the food from the Holy Spirit’s own world, eating only a little each day.

But as soon as the behind-the-scenes boss of the Dancing Nuclear Guild heard that their mascot could only gnaw on tasteless ‘plain steamed buns’ every day, he waved his hand and allocated funds for Fluffy Bunny to purchase Otherworld-branded food from 4396, then have players who were chefs prepare meals for Yelena.

Yelena herself had no idea how expensive the flavorful food she ate daily was, but Fluffy Bunny was well aware that Yelena’s monthly food expenses could cover Fluffy Bunny’s salary for two months.

Just supporting another Yelena was putting such a strain on Fluffy Bunny’s finances that it was critical to invest in agricultural and husbandry development for the stronghold. To support another Sheral as well? Unimaginable!

They might as well convert the Dancing Nuclear Guild’s stronghold into a massive pig farm, which probably still wouldn’t be enough to feed a single Sheral.

“I know, the food requirement is a thousand units; at a glance, it’s clear this is a character not meant to be hired.”

Mo Shigui crouched down and began to scrutinize Sheral’s detailed data with his scouting technique. Player scouting is classified as a lifestyle skill rather than a combat one.

In Otherworld, the methods for improving lifestyle skills differ from those of combat skills. Combat skills improve based on allocated skill points, while lifestyle skills level up the more frequently and skillfully they are used.

Mo Shigui’s scouting skill was at master level, which was the case for most players since it was one of the most commonly used skills.

“A lord-level NPC? Level fifty-three, this must be an NPC that can’t be hired; otherwise, it would completely disrupt the game’s balance.”

Upon acquiring Sheral’s detailed data, Mo Shigui’s first reaction was that Sheral was definitely an NPC not meant for hire.

“But whenever we talk to her, the option to request her employment often pops up. I’ve come close to accidentally clicking it several times—it’s truly terrifying,” said Fluffy Bunny, still somewhat shaken.

“A food requirement of a thousand units is likely a deterring option for hiring. Even if someone was stubborn enough to hire her, there’s probably no way to utilize her true potential.”

Playing so many games, Mo Shigui gradually learned to think from the perspective of a game planner regarding the purpose behind designing a character and the kind of main quests the character could provide.

“I’ve never heard of this Crystal Hunter faction before; does anyone know?” Mo Shigui’s gaze shifted to Sheral’s faction prefix. He only remembered significant NPCs like Donna the elder and Miss Cat on this island, aside from the opposing faction NPCs, the Magic Thieves.

Apart from that, the storylines of Biland Island seemed quite thin to Mo Shigui. However, the island’s building gameplay and the hunting of giant monsters brought back the urge to stay up all night playing the game, wanting to continue even further.

So if Mo Shigui were to rate the Biland Island expansion pack, he would give full marks for the added gameplay but could only offer a passing score for the storyline.

“I know, I know, it seems to be a faction that just appeared yesterday. Forum analysis suggests it’s opposed to the Magic Thieves, originating from a world outside of Biland Island. This morning, a Crystal Hunter came to chat with me, said something about taking on the Magic Thieves together,” Fluffy Bunny recalled.

“I’ve sent you the forum post,” Rain Song said, forwarding the discussion about Crystal Hunters from the forum to Mo Shigui.

“President! Three more NPCs have spawned at the entrance to our stronghold, all Crystal Hunters!”

A player responsible for the gate shouted into the stronghold.

“How is the construction of the stronghold’s defenses coming along?”

Mo Shigui didn’t look at the posts Rain Song sent. With actual Crystal Hunter NPCs readily accessible, he could personally check out their various options.

“The three Black Stone Arrow Towers have been completed, and gathering the materials for the towers consumed quite a lot of resources, but the effects are very impressive! A single arrow can deal about ten to twenty thousand damage.”

The fluffy rabbit pointed at the Black Stone Arrow Towers towering beside the high wall of the Dancing Nuclear Guild, the blueprints for these three towers all came from the Black Stone Volcano instance in the Holy Spirit’s native plane.

The design of the arrow towers was originally for dragon hunting… For human-sized units, the two-meter-long arrows of the Black Stone Arrow Towers were just a bit too large.

“Get ready for battle and then go out and talk with the NPCs.”

Mo Shigui had seen neutral NPCs suddenly become hostile during a conversation before. There had been no such precedent in this game of the Holy Spirit, but he did not want his guild’s stronghold to be destroyed a second time.

Today was the third day of the summer competition, and the elite raid group of Dancing Nuclear was just able to rest for a day in the hotel, so even if a battle against three lord-level instances were to start at the gates of the guild stronghold, Mo Shigui had the confidence that he would not… lose too miserably.

Jiang Qiao followed the raid group of Dancing Nuclear to the gates of the stronghold. The three Crystal Hunters standing at the gates were all chosen by the gods, namely the chosen of the Flowing Water God, the chosen of the Shadow Goddess, and the chosen of the War God.

Determined to retrieve Sheela, Jiang Qiao evaluated the situation, contemplating which dialogue options to use to temporarily ensure Sheela remained with the Dancing Nuclear Guild.

“Respected Holy Spirits, we have a companion who got lost on Biland Island, and we can feel that she is now within your camp.”

The first to speak was the chosen of the Flowing Water God, a very handsome male, so good-looking that it was a bit nauseating.

But when it came to the attribute of charm, Jiang Qiao still found the characters depicted by the creators of the Dancing Nuclear Guild to be more charming.

This chosen of the Flowing Water God, on greeting, kept his eyes fixed on the fluffy rabbit.

The chosen of the Flowing Water God had visited the Dancing Nuclear Guild once before, and it was the fluffy rabbit, acting as the temporary president, who had conversed with him.

It was clear… this chosen of the Flowing Water God was deeply attracted by the beautiful appearance of the fluffy rabbit and mistook her for the manager of the Dancing Nuclear Guild.

However, while he was staring at the fluffy rabbit, Mo Shigui, clad in pitch-black heavy armor, stepped out from the crowd.

Mo Shigui stood tall at an entire one meter eighty-five, perfectly epitomizing what ‘real men play as MT’ meant, with the chosen of the Flowing Water God being only about one meter seventy-five.

Thus, when Mo Shigui stepped forward in front of the crowd, he blocked the view of these three chosen ones.

Mo Shigui glanced at the dialogue window that popped up after he got close to these three chosen ones, along with the dialogue options.

There were a total of five options for the exchange, and Mo Shigui briefly browsed through the five dialogue options and chose the most direct one.

The fifth option was ‘Crystal Hunter Sheela is indeed in our stronghold, but it seems she is not here because she got lost.’

Mo Shigui selected this option, but what he verbalized was, “What do you want to do with Sheela after you take her back?”

His own Fureya could sense Sheela’s emotions.

Should these three Crystal Hunters take Sheela back and interrogate her or just slaughter her, wouldn’t his own Fureya have to bear the same emotions and panic?

Mo Shigui knew this was a bit like letting Fureya join the main storyline of Biland Island that was currently unfolding.

But it was that situation again, if Fureya felt bad, Mo Shigui would also feel bad, like a knot in his heart, even if that awful feeling was just a game setting presented in the form of text.