Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 62: Chapter 61 What is the BOSS doing during server maintenance?

Jiang Qiao landed in front of the axe-wielding man in the form of a light orb, and after locking eyes with the axe-wielding man for two seconds, Jiang Qiao pre-emptively raised the small shovel in his hand before the axe-wielding man had a chance to speak.

“Have you ever considered changing jobs?” Jiang Qiao got straight to the point, already digging at Queen Mei’s corner.

NPCs with high levels and self-awareness were precisely what Jiang Qiao urgently needed—reaching level sixty-eight required Hai Lan to continuously devour four Divine Fragments, raising the player’s level cap to this height.

Moreover, NPCs could also improve their levels, though not as quickly as players who could max out in a month. Their progression was more similar to cultivation, complete with breakthroughs of realms and such.

However, Jiang Qiao could transform low-level NPCs into Holy Spirits, but to transform a high-level NPC like this one into a Holy Spirit would be akin to deleting and restarting their account.

Yet an elite lord-level NPC still possessed considerable combat strength and high potential for growth.

Jiang Qiao’s plan in this divine war was to subdue this group of individuals one by one with his small shovel.

The Five Knights were unwaveringly loyal to Queen Mei, certainly, but this axe-wielding man was described as a foreigner; logically, his loyalty to the queen couldn’t be that high.

“This jest you start with is quite unexpected.”

The axe-wielding man maintained a smile on his face, whereas the Wasp Knight beside him, upon seeing Jiang Qiao, her enemy, poaching right before her eyes, nearly waved her chain blade to finish off Jiang Qiao again.

“I’m not joking, big brother, I’m serious. Right now you’re working for Queen Mei, and without any guarantees for food, clothing, or shelter, you’re living quite a poor life. If you come to me, though… I can guarantee you a cure for the Corpse Curse and… how should I put it, a whole new world awaits you. Things like video games, the internet, all sorts of cuisines—I don’t know what interests you, but there’s bound to be something you’ll like.”

Jiang Qiao was genuinely contemplating this matter. The more Divine Realms Hai Lan devoured in the future, the more NPCs Jiang Qiao would come across.

Jiang Qiao did not plan to exterminate all these NPCs in his strategy. They were precious instance bosses! Exterminating them in one go, there would be nothing left for the players to fight against.

Adopting a strategy of sustainable development, Jiang Qiao truly pondered establishing a welfare system for these bosses, like social insurances and a housing fund. There had to be adequate life guarantees and various entertainment facilities, ensuring that these bosses wouldn’t become… withdrawn during the times they were tormented by players.

Confident in Earth’s entertainment offerings, Jiang Qiao believed Earth’s methods of amusement were unparalleled in the entire universe!

Earth’s entertainment was top-notch across the cosmos!

“Is that enough?”

Wasp Knight coldly interjected from the side. The new life and cuisines mentioned by Jiang Qiao did sound rather tempting to a person who had endured the Corpse Curse’s torture for a hundred years.

But Jiang Qiao was a messenger from the Sea Blue Goddess. The Sea Blue Goddess was the cause of their predicament, and the hatred Wasp Knight held for her had seeped into her bones—a hatred that extended to the Goddess’s followers and servants.

Even though Wasp Knight herself had once been a devout follower of the Sea Blue Goddess.

“I can’t believe your words any more than Lady Wasp Knight does,” said the axe-wielding man, raising his hand slightly to prevent the Wasp Knight from attacking while addressing Jiang Qiao, “I once believed in the Sea Blue Goddess, but she abandoned us… This time I’ve decided to follow Queen Mei. As long as we plunder enough Divine Fragments, we can achieve what we desire.”

“So, there’s no deal to be made? Well, that’s within my expectations. Anyway, I didn’t come here to persuade you with mere words, but before I leave, let me give you a gift.”

A glint of light appeared in Jiang Qiao’s hand as he spoke, prompting Wasp Knight to raise her chain blade once more; however, she was again stopped by the axe-wielding man.

Because a minute had not yet passed.

“What is this?” The axe-wielding man thought Jiang Qiao might unleash some attack magic or create a weapon of destruction, such as a bomb, but what appeared in Jiang Qiao’s hand was instead a small stack of paper items.

“Poker cards,” Jiang Qiao named a universally popular entertainment item, “Aren’t you all bored in this world? This thing is for fun, and we still have at least a couple of weeks before the real battle begins.”

As he spoke, Jiang Qiao unwrapped the deck of poker cards in his hands.

“Could you extend the peace negotiations by a minute or two? I’ll teach you how to play Landlord, a game that can help pass some boring time,” Jiang Qiao said.

Although the city was heavily guarded, the deadliest aspect was the complete lack of entertainment within. Those mindless zombies were one thing.

Jiang Qiao had overheard these self-aware heroes spending their time mostly in deep slumber to while away their hours.

“We don’t need your pity!” The Hornet Knight’s chain-blade was already itching to move. @@novelbin@@

“Uh… Actually, I have other things to do, so I won’t explain it in person. I’ll make a Landlord game instruction manual for you instead.”

Jiang Qiao found the most detailed instructions for playing Landlord on a web browser tool, turning the text into a physical manual.

After Jiang Qiao had done all this, a long spear made up of thunderbolt shot from the distance and pierced through his body.

The system notification informed Jiang Qiao that a knight named Lion Heart had killed him with a Thunder Spear, successfully dropping a set of poker cards and a Landlord game instruction manual.

“Why not eliminate the invader!”

A knight clad in dark golden armor arrived at the execution ground, he was Lion Heart, the knight guarding the entrance to the castle palace.

“You already did,” The Hornet Knight glanced at the scorched mark left by the thunder on the ground; the globule that Jiang Qiao had transformed into was gone, leaving only the stack of poker cards and the Landlord instruction manual Jiang Qiao had left behind.

The axe-wielding man picked up the Landlord instruction manual and the poker cards from the ground, he opened the manual and began to look it over.

The text was easily understandable to the axe-wielding man…

“Lama, dispose of that thing! Anything related to the Sea Blue Goddess is a forbidden item,” the Hornet Knight spoke out.

“This wasn’t created by the Sea Blue Goddess, it’s just an interesting strategic game. Do you want to try playing a few rounds?”

The axe-wielding man flicked through all the rules in the Landlord instruction manual and shuffled the poker cards in his hand slightly.

His invitation was not only to the Hornet Knight, but he was also inviting the Lion Heart knight who had come to check things out.

“I’m not in the mood for leisure,” the Hornet Knight retracted his chain-blade, intending to leave the execution ground.

“So what will you go back and do? Continue to sleep? Or patrol? After sleeping for centuries, you should find something to do,” the axe-wielding man called out loudly to the Hornet Knight, who was turning around to leave, “And if you want to keep your sanity intact, you must do something different!”

Both the Hornet Knight and the Lion Heart Knight stopped in their tracks upon hearing this. Those zombies from the past had their own consciousness, but they gradually gave up thinking as time dragged on.

To maintain their consciousness in this apocalyptic world, they needed to find fresh things to do.

“Just one round,” the Hornet Knight finally turned around and said.