Chapter 959 Rock (Four K)

Latest website: Almost at the moment the village chief finished speaking the last word, the system prompts sounded in the players' ears.

It reminds that the current mission goal has been updated, from [Find a way to enter the Holy Mountain] to [Kill the monster, complete the guardian clan village chief's commission, and obtain the key to the Holy Mountain].

The mission time limit has also been changed to 18 hours.

In other words, the village chief in front of me is indeed a key NPC in the script mission.

The players looked at each other, and Hohenheim coughed lightly, looked at the village chief and asked: "We just wanted to go to the Holy Mountain for pilgrimage, and we didn't expect that something like this would happen again.

Hmm... Mr. Village Chief, what kind of monster is that specifically? How did you destroy the gate of the Holy Mountain? "

"Is this..."

The village chief hesitated for a moment and said slowly: "Actually, I don't know very well, there are no relevant records in the village.

The villagers of my grandfather's generation were very secretive about that incident and never told it to subsequent generations..."

"etc,"

David couldn't help but interject, "You just said that the gate of the Holy Mountain was destroyed by a strange monster fifty years ago, right?

Were you not there at that time? "

The village chief said matter-of-factly: "Of course, I wasn't even born yet."

? ? ?

The players all fell silent for a moment when they looked at the village chief, who had white hair and wrinkled skin and looked to be at least seventy years old.

David opened his mouth and said hesitantly: "I wonder if you, village chief... are you proud of Geng this year?"

"According to the time of year outside, I should be twenty-four years old."

The village chief sighed, touched the white beard on his chin, and said leisurely: "Thanks to my usual attention to health care, going to bed early and getting up late, eating small and frequent meals, a balanced diet, and exercising every day, I can maintain such good health."

You pay attention to health and still look like this... Are you the legendary god-level programmer?

Seemingly noticing the expressions on the faces of other players, the village chief sighed: "Other people of the same age in our village are basically dead, and I am considered the longest-lived group in this age group.

Although this is not a good thing worth celebrating..."

David hesitated and said: "What the hell is going on..."

The village chief sighed again, waved, asked the servant to fill up the tea, and slowly explained.

Their family of guardians has been guarding the Holy Mountain for countless years. According to the incomplete genealogy, it has a history of at least a thousand years.

Their mission is to guard the Holy Mountain, receive brave men from all over the world, and issue preliminary trials to screen out some pilgrims who are weak or have bad character in advance.

This is to prevent too weak warriors from entering the Holy Mountain to challenge, resulting in death and casting an ominous shadow on the Holy Mountain.

It is also to prevent despicable people from mixing into the ranks of pilgrims, abusing the blessings of the Holy Mountain, and causing harm to the outside world.

None of the villagers will step outside the scope of the Holy Mountain. The trials they propose will usually be held at the foot of the Holy Mountain in several freely changing dungeons.

Those dungeons are reset every twenty-four hours. They are filled with all kinds of strange monsters and fatal or non-fatal traps. Foreign braves can step into them or complete the trial and walk out.

Either die in it and be engulfed by the reset effect of the dungeon, and the villagers in the Guardian Village will never actively interfere.

There has always been an endless stream of pilgrims from the outside world. Travelers from other worlds who want to go home and brave men who want to realize their wishes have embarked on the pilgrimage one after another.

Their arrival will inject new vitality into the guardian village, bring outside supplies, improve the lives of the villagers, and also bring knowledge about the outside world, allowing the isolated village to know what is happening in the outside world.

But about a hundred years ago, the number of travelers from other worlds dropped from the outside world gradually decreased. According to the few words left by the pilgrim team,

It seems that several powerful principalities in the outside world, due to some religious reasons, broke out in a long-lasting war. The scale of the war became larger and larger, and other countries that initially tried to stay out of the matter were also involved.

Since the technology trees of the various island kingdoms in the script world are completely different, the form of war has become extremely complex. Assassination and infiltration, sabotage behind enemy lines, large-scale bombing by airships, spreading poison gas in the atmosphere to create toxic acid rain...

The long war destroyed the original social order, and the number of capable pilgrims became smaller and smaller.

It seems that due to this influence, the underground cities at the foot of the Holy Mountain have gradually become deserted.

Since then, something has become wrong in the village. Many villagers have suffered from the disease of premature aging. Before the age of forty, they will look as old as eighty years old.

In the village chief's grandfather's generation, even the oldest person in the village would find it difficult to live beyond the age of thirty.

"For generations, we have also wanted to understand the cause of this aging disorder and fix it once and for all,"

The village chief sighed: "But as the guardians of the Holy Mountain, we are not allowed to step outside the scope of the Holy Mountain, nor can we enter the Holy Mountain as pilgrims, accept trials, and make wishes...

Ahem, having said that, fifty years ago, not long after my father was born, he later heard my grandfather mention that there was a powerful strange monster that took advantage of the night to destroy the gate of our top-secret Holy Mountain.

You should have seen the optical cloaking equipment placed inside our village just now, right? "

The players nodded. On the way to the village chief's house, they saw a boxy, refrigerator-like large optical camouflage device in a square. Its technical level was in sharp contrast to the surrounding medieval villages.

"Including that optical stealth device, our village has preserved quite a lot of equipment and props given or abandoned by brave men of the past generations. Although most of them are now abandoned, there were still many that could be used fifty years ago. "

The village chief said, "Fifty years ago, the aging disease in our village was slightly milder than it is now, and the guards guarding the gate of the holy mountain were at the average level of some brave men."

David and Hohenheim exchanged glances. Naturally, it is impossible for the guardian clan responsible for guarding the Holy Mountain to not even have the ability to defend themselves.

Although they are extremely weak now, they have to be vigilant with pitchforks and swords when encountering outsiders.

But there is still a slight trace of extraordinary power hidden in their bloodline.

"However, that monster easily broke through our defense of the Holy Mountain Gate, brutally killed the guards, violently destroyed and stole a rock on the Holy Mountain Gate,"

The village chief said slowly: "After the rock was stolen, the gate of the Holy Mountain no longer responded to the key.

Several dungeons affected by the Holy Mountain have also become invalid and no longer have a reset effect.

We also don’t know whether the aging effect of our village is related to that rock.

Of course, it would be great if you brave men could retrieve the rock. "

The players looked at each other. The mission goal was to kill the monsters and complete the mission. Naturally, it was impossible not to complete it.

Hohenheim nodded and asked, "So where is that monster now?"

"To the northwest, in the underground cave five kilometers away."

The village chief added: "It should be there."

Hohenheim frowned slightly, "Should?"

"I don't know the specifics,"

The village chief smiled bitterly and said: "In the past, our village could organize patrol teams to inspect and patrol various underground cities.

But now...as you can see, it is really powerless.

The reset effect of those dungeons has long since disappeared, and they have become lairs inhabited by monsters, which are too dangerous for us.

The only thing I know is the words left behind by my grandfather - that "huge monster covered in shadow" stole the rock and fled towards the underground cave in the northwest. "

Li Ang squinted his eyes and tapped the wooden tea cup with warm tea a few times with his palms and fingers.

Several players seemed to be silent and thinking silently, but in fact they were already discussing in the spiritual link of [Group Mind Connecting Technique].

Hohenheim: [The lie detector spell on me shows that he did not lie]

David: [But there must be something to hide. For example, when it came down to the causes of aging, his eyes flickered a little. 】

Li Ang: [This should be normal. After all, judging from the monitoring of the aura, this guardian group is some kind of dark race. Whether it is longevity or short life, it involves the core secrets of their race. Of course, it is impossible to follow just an outsider to tell them. But the world of this script is really malicious. It actually allows a dark race to be the guardian of the holy mountain...]

Embry: [Uh...then what should we do now? The defensive strength of this village is quite empty. Although there are three guards squatting outside the door who think they are very hidden, we can easily sweep away this little guard strength. How about using veritaserum or mind interference spells now to force the village chief to tell additional information? 】

Hohenheim: [I personally hold a conservative opinion. These people are the guardians of the holy mountain, and attacking them may trigger some mechanism, such as directly triggering thunder and lightning in the sky. And based on past strategy experience, we are unlikely to use the "deception and concealment" method to muddle through. 】

Shinji Ding: [Mucked through? 】

Hohenheim: [It means deliberately avoiding the strategy route designed by the system, following the text description of the task, and completing the goal to the minimum. For example, our current mission is to "kill the monster, complete the guardian clan village chief's request, and get the key to the Holy Mountain." We can go to the dungeon to kill a weak monster at will, and coax or violently threaten the village chief. Delegate and get the key. At the literal level, we have completed the task requirements, but at the actual operational level...some cheating behaviors may actually increase the difficulty of the task. 】

Word games are an important part of the killing game, so don’t play if you don’t feel comfortable with it.

Not only can the system set up text games to harm players, but players can also exploit text-level loopholes to cheat (sometimes cheating is also part of the strategy process).

But now everyone is undertaking a difficult script mission for first-tier players, and there is no reason to take risks and sacrifice the near and far.

The players quickly discussed the decision in the spiritual link, and Hohenheim stood up first and said to the village chief: "Okay.

As pilgrims, we have no reason to refuse trials.

But before that, we want to know the shape of the rock at the gate of the Holy Mountain. "

The village chief was stunned, "Huh?"

"What we need to do is to retrieve the rock that repaired the gate, right?"

Hohenheim said calmly: "What if we finally find the 'huge monster covered in shadow' and successfully kill it, but it lives in a ruins full of rocks?

It would be much easier if we knew the specific identifiable features of that sacred mountain rock. "

"Oh, that's right."

The village chief stood up and walked into the side room. After a while, he brought out an old tawny scroll that was at least several decades old, with a rock painted on it.

The rock was long in shape, pure white, with a complex cloud-like pattern in the middle.

The village chief explained: "The rock at the gate of the Holy Mountain is indestructible and emits a faint light in a dark and lightless environment. If it is not abandoned in a corner, you can definitely find it."

Hohenheim observed it carefully and took the scroll from the village chief's hand. "Without further delay, we will set off now."

The village chief paused while rubbing his palms back and forth, "So fast?"

"Complete the trial as soon as possible, and we can go on pilgrimage as soon as possible."

Hohenheim smiled and did not explain that the mission time limit for this phase was 18 hours.

It is very likely that the scope of that dungeon will be very wide, or that the monster is not in the northwest dungeon, but in other areas.

Players need to travel further to track and pinpoint its location.

"Oh, uh, then I wish all the brave men a safe journey."

There were many pauses in the village chief's words, his eyes flickered, and he hesitated to speak.

"What's wrong?"

Li Ang asked: "If you need any help, just ask. We are very happy to help."

"No, it's nothing."

The village chief finally swallowed his words and said nothing. He stood at the door and watched the player walk towards the head of the village.

After the player walks out of the village, the entire village is once again covered in optical camouflage, assimilating into an ordinary rocky scene at the foot of a mountain.

"Let's go. The system has given an eighteen-hour time limit this time. If we can't find the monster and rocks in the northwest dungeon, we will have to search again in a large area."

Hohenheim retracted his gaze towards the village and said calmly.

This time with a clear direction and goal, everyone's speed suddenly accelerated.

Ding Shinji drove the Kuiniu mecha, activated the pulley mode, and dragged the people sitting on the sleigh to the front.

The wind howled along the way, and others continued to discuss the previous topic in the spiritual link. In addition to the group mind connection technique, Li Ang released another spiritual link, connecting to Liu Wuxiao.

Li Ang: [It’s me. I opened a private channel so that no one else could hear the discussion between the two of us. I just noticed that after the village chief took out the picture of the gate rock of the Holy Mountain, your spiritual link fluctuated...]

Liu Wuxiao interrupted: [I have seen the cloud-like pattern in the middle of the rock. 】

Li Ang: [Have you seen it? where? 】

Liu Wushao: [Special Affairs Bureau, Abnormal Society, Database. 】