Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 188: Chapter 187: The Final Ultimatum (3rd Update!)

“We’re just very worried about her safety, and as her friends, we hope the Holy Spirits will let me take her back,”

The Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen did not quite understand Mo Shigui’s logic, considering that they are supposed to be friends with Sheral now, while the members of the Dancing Nuclear Guild seemed more like bandits who had kidnapped Sheral.

Yet, he still asked in an extremely friendly tone if Mo Shigui could hand over Sheral.

Mo Shigui fell silent in response to the question posed by the Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen, and four options popped up in front of him again—two of which firmly stated that Sheral must stay.

However, these two options would invariably bring the Crystal Hunters’ reputation to negative figures.

If Mo Shigui were a solo player, he wouldn’t care about the NPC factions’ favorability; even if it led to a hostile relationship, Mo Shigui would fight until they turned friendly.

But now, Mo Shigui was the president of a guild, and this faction reputation affected the entire guild, not just him personally.

Mo Shigui was unclear whether the main storyline after Biland Island would require the involvement of the Crystal Hunters.

“I have an additional option here, let me try?” Zhao Mingwei approached Mo Shigui to show him his dialogue box with the Crystal Hunters.

The dialogue box was still on the last sentence of the Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen, only that Zhao Mingwei had an extra option.

Zhao Mingwei could have ignored the dialogue box and negotiated with these Crystal Hunters on his own, but… Zhao Mingwei is only skilled at interacting with NPCs in the game; in reality, he is somewhat introverted.

Since interacting in the game always involves choosing story developments via these NPC options, Zhao Mingwei has grown accustomed to it and is skilled at it; even knowing this is reality, he chooses to solve problems using the methods from the game.

“You go ahead.”

Mo Shigui is purely an MMORPG player, and online games generally don’t emphasize choices in dialogue with NPCs, except for the Holy Spirit faction, which does create many hidden quests requiring dialogue options.

But this system, a feature of the Holy Spirits… significantly enhances the players’ desire to explore.

In Mo Shigui’s view, Zhao Mingwei is a dominant player in all types of games, playing a bit of everything and excelling, including games involving numerous choices.

“The way you were treating her earlier didn’t look like… friends,”

As Zhao Mingwei chose this option, he stared at the shadow behind the Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen, who subconsciously covered his left forearm.

“You may have some misunderstandings, we do have some disputes with Divine Chosen Sheral, but she is still an indispensable member of our Crystal Hunters, please, Holy Spirits… do not make it difficult for us.”

When the Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen said this, both the War God Divine Chosen, Finn, and the Shadow Divine Chosen slowly placed their hands on their weapons.

Although the tone of the Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen was very polite, it conveyed a clear stance that they wouldn’t go back without rescuing Sheral.

“The divine decree given to us is never to be enemies with you respected Holy Spirits, we will abide by this decree, but entering your stronghold to rescue our friend, I don’t believe, is an act of hostility against you Holy Spirits, I hope you can make the right decision, I earnestly ask you,” said the Flowing Water God’s Divine Chosen, who was quite a brazen type.

This is tricky! Mo Shigui had already informed his guild members in the chat to enter combat readiness.

If the goal was to eliminate these three Divine Chosen, Mo Shigui was fifty percent confident he could pass the instance in one go; but if the goal was to protect Sheral from being taken by these three Divine Chosen… Mo Shigui’s confidence was zero.

Mo Shigui simply had no way to protect an… unconscious NPC from these fifty-level lord-class characters, the difficulty was too high!

“Hasn’t the matter with Shary been settled yet? If that fool Sheral is being held by the Holy Spirits, just ask them what can be done to ransom her back!”

A gruff voice came from the end of the forest, and a figure over two meters tall emerged. Mo Shigui’s brows furrowed as he clearly saw the ID above the newcomer’s head.

Three more Crystal Hunters had come out of the woods, all of whom were lord-level characters above level fifty.

What the heck? Have NPCs learned the skill of the ultimate ultimatum?

Mo Shigui had played games for many years and truly… had been threatened by NPCs countless times, especially when he dabbled in strategy games where the AI seemed to outdo each other in arrogance.

Zhao Mingwei seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Mo Shigui; his face also displayed a somewhat odd, bitter smile, likely recalling those cheating AIs that then came to bully the players.

But now, it was unwise for Mo Shigui and Zhao Mingwei to declare all-out war on these computer AIs.

Thus, both Mo Shigui and Zhao Mingwei’s gaze landed on the dialogue box option that had just popped up.

Jiang Qiao looked at the three newly emerged Divine Chosen level Crystal Hunters and guessed their intention was to pressure the Dancing Nuclear Guild into releasing someone.

If it weren’t for the empathic properties of Sheela and Mo Shigui’s Fureya, maybe they wouldn’t need these six Crystal Hunters to come demanding people; the Fuzzy Rabbit would simply kick Sheela out of the guild.

But now, there was no way Mo Shigui would release anyone!

What about starting a war? If Jiang Qiao issued a one-time instance blocking the home base with six lord-level bosses, he thought he was likely to be verbally murdered by players on the forums.

So, Jiang Qiao offered Mo Shigui and Zhao Mingwei another solution.

Underneath the dialogue box from the Flowing Water God, there were five options, with the last one being “Intimidate,” followed by a large amount of data.

5. Intimidate (Crystal Hunter fear value: 20, success rate 5%, currently available Holy Spirit count: 52, Holy Spirit guilds: 1).

Zhao Mingwei and Mo Shigui, seasoned gamers that they were, were familiar with the intimidate option, but it usually correlated with eloquence and the player’s combat strength, and intimidating six Crystal Hunters now clearly wasn’t something a single player’s attributes could accomplish.

“Is this Sheela-related guild mission a city-destroyer level?” Mo Shigui understood immediately upon seeing the option; the task concerning Sheela was not an individual’s task but one that implicated the whole guild.

Such tasks existed in conflicts, with the most common being monster sieges, where entire cities would be destroyed if failed.

If it were any other more ordinary guild, the leaders might only be able to compromise by handing over Sheela.

“But Lao Song… it shouldn’t be hard for us to complete, should it?” Zhao Mingwei asked.

“Not hard; Xiao Ye, you do the calling. My influence isn’t as strong as yours in that crowd,” Mo Shigui said.

Zhao Mingwei immediately opened the Heavenly Palace chat tool… He was in many chat groups, but lately, the only one he frequented was the “Holy Spirit Guild Drama Group.”

This group was created by Mo Shigui, initially to allocate resources for the Divine War, but after the endeavor of the Divine War ended, the group gradually became a real guild drama group.

“Can Xin: F***! Who unleashed the Awakening in Snow Plain area C?! An avalanche buried my team.”

“Cruel Moonlight: Wasn’t it you who summoned Jack’s Descent that caused the explosion? I keep saying don’t bring Elemental Masters to the Snow Plain map.”

“Happy Gaming: There’s a new legendary character mission, coordinates 2310, 31, 2214… hurry up! @All Members.”