Chapter 81: Ears
"You lack intelligence, strength, and strategy, sir. What do you have to fight with?"
Marcus asked calmly, testing their attitudes and deliberately putting pressure on them.
He wouldn't easily give up on the story mission, but if things were hopeless, he'd rather abandon it, since a useless teammate would only make things worse.
"Of course, it's a heart full of courage!"
Old Lamp clenched his fist, making a series of crisp cracking sounds. His aura didn't show any signs of age; instead, he resembled a decisive young man.
But his weathered skin, combined with the white hair on his head, made him look more like a honey badger ready to fight.
"Not enough!"
"How about two?"
Little Sheep suddenly spoke up from the side. At this moment, her expression was no longer playful; instead, she pursed her lips, trying to maintain a serious expression.
"It's not about the number of people."
"Courage plus intelligence, strategy, or strength—any one of these makes you a formidable opponent. Going it alone is a death trap!"
"To win, you need strength and planning. Relying solely on courage won't even leave you with a complete corpse!" Marcus once again mercilessly crushed their confidence. He didn't understand where these two got the courage to try and trigger the storyline. Although he hoped his teammates had that fighting spirit, he didn't want them to act blindly.
"Geez, why are you like this? Always talking pessimistic nonsense."
"Uncle Lamp, let's ignore him. Let's go find the storyline. My brother gave me a lot of advice. Let him hide like a coward. Once we finish the storyline, if he steals the rewards, consider it a waste!"
Little Sheep walked up to Old Lamp with a defiant look and stood next to him.
"Little Sheep, don't expose your appearance in the space anymore. Look, the Doctor and I are both wearing masks!"
Old Lamp didn't respond to Little Sheep's words but instead sighed helplessly.
"Huh? I forgot!"
Little Sheep's defiant expression instantly shattered. She quickly touched her face, belatedly realizing her mistake and panicking.
"Sigh! Doctor, just say it directly. What will it take for you to cooperate in finding the plot?"
Old Lamp walked up to Marcus, extending his hand in a conciliatory gesture, and sighed. He had figured it out.
Although the Doctor's words seemed like he was deliberately picking on them, they were actually for their own good, to make them face reality first!
Little Sheep looked at Old Lamp, somewhat bewildered. The Doctor had clearly said to lie down and accept it, so why was Old Lamp still acting like this?
"Exploring the plot isn't a game, it's not child's play. Mistakes mean death. Are you prepared to die? Little girl, do you know the despair of facing monsters?"
"Reckless bravado without strength is just throwing your life away!"
"How do you know I haven't seen monsters? I've seen them in reality. My father was killed by a monster! If you don't want to cooperate, fine, but stop lecturing me."
Little Sheep's eyes reddened slightly as she spoke defiantly.
Old Lamp simply stood there, remaining silent, seemingly waiting for Marcus to continue.
Marcus didn't answer Little Sheep's question again, but instead said calmly,
"The story world is called 'The Descent of the Reaper.' The first mission is to eliminate the Soul Collector, which should be the name of a demon or ghost. The second mission is to reverse fate. Fate, literally, should mean being predetermined, referring to destinies that are set in stone."
"Often destiny and death are intertwined, so combined, it should be a fate tied to the Grim Reaper himself. The story mission requires changing fate, and since it needs to be changed, the original fate must be either life or death, and in the horror world, death is more common."
"So this mission should involve finding someone who has been marked for death by the Reaper and changing their fate. And according to the general framework of these stories, such a marked person usually sacrifices themselves to eliminate demons and evil spirits, dying in the process. After all, they can't just randomly die from natural causes."
"The plots are all interconnected. Combining this with the first mission, it's highly likely they died trying to eliminate the Soul Collector!"
Marcus finished speaking calmly. Deducing the outline from the mission details was simple for him, but the others didn't have his experience.
Little Sheep stared at Marcus in disbelief, her small hand, which had been wiping away tears, frozen in place.
Old Lamp also suddenly understood, revealing an expression of realization, and he felt a renewed sense of purpose.
"Doctor, you really are brilliant. Just tell us what we should do, I'll listen to you!"
Old Lamp spoke without hesitation. He knew his guess was correct; Marcus's deliberate difficulty wasn't out of genuine resignation, but rather to test their attitude.
He'd seen those slacker teammates before in previous story missions—they'd jump right in, make a fuss, and never contribute anything, acting like they were just waiting for the story to end before they even entered the world.
"I'll listen to you, just tell me what you need, Doctor!" Little Sheep chimed in.
Although she'd picked up a lot of information from her brother and was eager to explore the story, it was all theory; without actual experience, she was completely lost.
But after Marcus's analysis, everything became clear.
"I need two pairs of ears, ears that can listen!"
Marcus had been waiting for them to say that. He wouldn't carry them through the entire story, but because of the other teams, he needed their cooperation in some tasks.
As for the rewards, as long as they contributed, even if they didn't do the heavy lifting, Marcus wasn't too concerned. After all, even without them, he wouldn't easily give up on the story.
"Alright, I'll entrust these ears to you, old man,"
Old Lamp said decisively.
"Me too," Little Sheep replied crisply.
"Since we're already teammates, let's reveal our numbers to confirm our identities and put our minds at ease."
Marcus looked at the two of them; this was his last test.
Old Lamp flipped his wrist, revealing a number:
Crossroads Number: CR-1213 Identity: Keeper.
Little Sheep, however, hadn't yet completed her first story world and hadn't obtained a seal. So, with a thought, characters appeared on her forehead:
[Identity information locked, Crossroads Number: CR-886]
"Hey, my number is earlier than yours, hehe…!"
Little Sheep seemed to have regained her optimism now that Marcus had expressed his willingness to participate in the story and had a direction for the plot.
"Hey, big bro, your number is unlucky, 914!"
Little Sheep slapped her thigh, seemingly dissatisfied with Marcus's number.
This girl's attention was still on this kind of thing. He had learned in the past two days that whenever someone with a lower number died, their number would be reassigned to a new person; it wasn't unusual.
"Yeah, not as good as your number."
Marcus replied casually, then pulled out three small, smartphone-like devices, each about the size of a playing card, and handed two of them to his companions.
"These are communication devices I bought at the Crossroads marketplace for survival points. They allow us to exchange information within a 500-mile radius. Remember your promise—don't cause any trouble."
Marcus had bought these for 4 survival points each; he preferred to buy them himself and distribute them to others rather than use someone else's—who knows what kind of hidden tricks might be involved?
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