As everyone knows, in games, a red dot represents a completed quest or something available to claim.
Zhou Ning was always quick to act when there were benefits to be had.
Clicking into the quest log, sure enough, the literary life quest progress was complete, reaching 1000/1000, showing as claimable. As for the other B-rank quest, Alchemy Ghost, which was to investigate the murder in the small woods, Zhou Ning still had no leads.
[B-rank Quest: Alchemy Ghost]
[Quest Hint: Through the clues, you have determined that this matter is related to the Life Alchemy Society. They are obsessed with using Alchemy to create life, and also obsessed with using life to create life. Three people have already died at their hands. For every second you delay, perhaps more people will be harmed. What will you choose to do?]
[Quest Requirement: Capture or kill the Alchemy Ghost lurking on campus]
[Quest Reward: 50000 experience, Goethe's Alchemy Handbook X1]
Zhou Ning had also done a fair amount of investigation in his free time these past few days, but the only clue he got was that the deceased Sharon had a very handsome boyfriend. Some even thought that Zhou Ning was Sharon's boyfriend and was now seeking revenge for her.
It was ridiculous.
However, the quest progress had also updated, from 25% after the first day's clues to 62% now. He didn't know if it was the result of his own investigation or Sherlock's progress. In any case, he had been seeing Li Tie wearing a deerstalker hat walking around campus investigating all day, rain or shine.
Zhou Ning really wanted to know how much a Sun Keepers like him earned per month to be so dedicated, working himself to Death.
Clicking to claim the literary life quest reward, a prompt popped up on the panel:
[You have completed the [Hidden Quest: (literary life)], you have obtained [Epic Vampire Zhou Ning Character Possession Card] X1, you have obtained 1 skill point, you have obtained 30000 experience points. You have discovered a new series of hidden quests.]
[Epic Vampire Zhou Ning Character Possession Card: You can temporarily possess the combat power of Epic Vampire Zhou Ning for 15 minutes.]
Good stuff, Zhou Ning's face showed joy. The Vampire Zhou Ning in the simulation could defeat the Hulk in hand-to-hand combat, and he could also use it as his trump card.
[Redeemable Hidden Quest: literary life (II) [Yes/No]]
After choosing to redeem, another hidden quest appeared under the quest tab.
Hidden Quest: (Triggerable under special circumstances)
[literary life (II)]: A literary dream has always been hidden in your heart. Please continue this dream in a period of your future life. In the simulated and real worlds, complete a reading volume of 5000 books (1000/5000)
Quest Hint: Read ten thousand books, and write as if inspired. This is the second step of the Long March, keep it up! Future great writer.
Quest Reward: Random Template Reward Card X1, Skill Point X1, 50,000 Experience Points.
Zhou Ning gritted his teeth, was he really locked in a battle with reading?
Looking at the achievement bar again, seeing the collected achievements, Zhou Ning couldn't help but gasp, how terrifying!
Achievements:
[Top Gun] (No attribute bonus)
[Under Siege] (No attribute bonus)
[A Miraculous Victory] (No attribute bonus)
[Rapid Pursuit] (No attribute bonus)
[Iron Man] (No attribute bonus)
[Men in Black] (No attribute bonus)
Achievement [Hero Movie Hexalogy (I)] has been completed, you have gained 30,000 experience points. You have discovered a hidden quest.
Hidden Quest: (Triggerable under special circumstances)
[a better tomorrow]: Only great heroes can be their true selves, and true noblemen are naturally free and uninhibited. Please become a great hero recognized by the world in more than three simulated worlds. Quest progress (1/3)
[Quest Hint]: As long as you follow your heart, this quest is not difficult; the difficulty lies in persistence. Keep it up! Great hero!
Quest Reward: Unknown
Seeing this quest, Zhou Ning breathed a sigh of relief. This quest was undoubtedly the simplest, even free. As long as he continued to simulate along the lawful neutral path, he should be able to complete it smoothly.
If only he could complete it in the real world, he could go to the Daklan streets every day to act chivalrously. If one day wasn't enough, then two days, if two days weren't enough, then a month. If he persisted for a month... then he wouldn't be far from going to prison.
After reviewing the gains, he clicked into the map page, and sure enough, a new map appeared after Endless War.
The name was even cooler: across the four seas. Zhou Ning remembered watching a Hong Kong film with the same name when he was a child, starring Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung, playing two art thieves, it was very good.
The price was even cooler: 25 Crossing Coins.
This was outrageous!
He originally thought that with 30 Crossing Coins, he could already roam the world, but Zhou Ning was now dumbfounded. After all that, it was only enough for one crossing?
Zhou Ning sat blankly on the bed, looking at the still rainy window outside, quietly calming down for a while, forcing himself to suppress the urge to kill the damn game.
That night, Zhou Ning dreamed about how to earn Crossing Coins.
In the middle of the night, Zhou Ning was sound asleep when he was suddenly awakened by a strange sound coming from outside.
Pushing open the door, John, who had been sleeping on the sofa, was gone. The entire room was dyed red by the moonlight streaming in from the window, eerily sinister.
The moon outside the window had turned red at some point!
A whisper quietly came from his ear: "Run, you pathetic little bug. But you will ultimately not escape the shadow of Death. Destruction and Death have always been watching you. Everyone will die, no one can escape, including this world…" Zhou Ning was startled, and looking around, countless tentacles suddenly surged from the walls and from the cracks in the floor, wildly flapping.
Whoosh!
He sat up abruptly, seeing the pouring rain outside the window and the curtains being blown by the wind, seeing the gas lamp still burning next to him and the gas meter with a red light on. "Damn! Another currency burned!" He then realized he had just had a nightmare.
Opening the panel, he was immediately flooded with a series of notifications.
[You sensed the whisper of an unknown entity, Spirit is 15, Will is 9, judgment failed, Willpower -1, current Willpower is 8/9]
[You sensed the temptation of an unknown entity, Spirit is 15, Will is 9, judgment failed, Willpower -1, current Willpower is 7/9]
[You sensed the whisper of an unknown entity, Spirit is 14 (should be 15), Will is 9, judgment failed, Willpower -1, current Willpower is 6/9]
...Damn, it wasn't a nightmare. In the time he was asleep just now, his Willpower had been quietly reduced to 4/9 by a series of whispers and temptations. If it dropped to 0, he might completely fall into madness.
If he were still an ordinary player, he could just commit suicide and restart, but now he might only have one life, and he didn't dare hope to cross over again.
Zhou Ning's face was grim. This should be the situation Keen West mentioned that day. He was indeed targeted by the Curse God Cult and the evil god they worshipped. The reason he hadn't felt it in the previous few days was probably because his Spirit hadn't reached 10 points yet, not even the average level of a normal person. But today, he had just injected the Super Soldier Serum, and his Spirit reached 15 points.
There were some temporary solutions to the problem, such as increasing his Will attribute, or going to find Keen West or the Ascetic Church. They should have methods to temporarily suppress the whispers.
While he was pondering, the quest panel once again sent a notification:
B-rank Quest: Alchemy Ghost progress updated, currently 85.7%.
Zhou Ning:...He picked up the pocket watch by the bed and looked at it. It was 3:38 AM.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but be startled. How much did the Sun Keepers get paid monthly? They were working themselves to this extent.
"Hmm?"
Due to his physical fitness being enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum, Zhou Ning's hearing was now very acute. He could vaguely hear gunshots coming from the rainy night outside, seemingly from the Alchemy Building.
He had to go and see!
Zhou Ning instantly made up his mind. The experience reward for the B-rank quest itself was ordinary, but the other reward greatly interested Zhou Ning. Goethe's Alchemy Handbook could immediately raise his Alchemy skill by one level, which was very useful to him.
He immediately flipped out of bed, picked up the white shirt next to him, put it on, and began to button it from top to bottom.
Dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, he checked the special bullets in his revolver, then put on a suit jacket, grabbed a tall black top hat, and casually picked up an umbrella, tucking it under his arm. He opened the window.
Due to the heavy rain, there was no one outside. All the lights in the apartment were off, so no one should notice him.
He took a deep breath, started to run, and leaped from the sixth floor of the apartment, about ten meters high. In the whistling wind, a golden-red battle suit quickly enveloped him, and his cape spread out like wings, gliding forward.
Seventy meters away, Zhou Ning quietly landed. The Alchemy Building was already not far away. The battle suit on Zhou Ning quietly disappeared again, turning into a formal suit. He pressed his hat onto his head, opened his umbrella, and walked towards the Alchemy Building.