Chapter 431: Chapter 417: Money Must be Given! (1st Update)

Just how strong was Thorne?

Rosh had no interest in finding out the answer to that question; she was more concerned about what her team members were up to.

“Captain, didn’t you say we should find a place to settle down first?”

“Yeah, the descendants of the Devouring God on this island really don’t seem to harbor any killing intent towards us, and the food they make is tastier than the nutrient paste we brought.”

“The game’s not bad either, very satisfying.”

The five remaining members of Rosh’s team were seated at a table, three of them playing with a deck of cards, while the other two were enjoying a bowl of duck leg rice.

“…You guys…” Rosh was about to say something else when she saw a semi-transparent heart-shaped light orb leap out from one of her team members.

She had seen these orbs before with the other NPCs within the stronghold; they were all absorbed by Holy Spirits as they passed by.

It made Rosh suspect that these descendants of the Devouring God might possess some sort of… special spirit attack?

“Captain, we’re very clear-headed right now, but about your advice…”

“No, I’m asking if you’ve paid?” Rosh asked seriously to the team member who was chowing down on a bowl of duck leg rice, “Holy Spirits can currently be considered as communicable intelligent beings; you can’t just take their stuff without permission!”

There were many rules within the Creator’s Sanctuary, and there were many rules within the Hunter squads as well, one of which was the prohibition of interfering with the evolutionary course of ancient civilizations and forbidding the taking of anything… that belonged to these civilizations.

It was a very strict rule; otherwise, there would be little difference between the Creator’s Sanctuary and dimensional pirates.

Rosh was someone who adhered to rules so strictly that it came across as rigid; her team members eating the Holy Spirits’ food for free was a mistake worthy of a serious note!

“But that beautiful female Holy Spirit said it was… free?”

“Free indeed!”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. They accept Divine Power Crystals. Find out the price and pay them,” Rosh said.

The currency used within the Creator’s Sanctuary was not the common currency of the star chart, but Divine Power Crystals were universally accepted throughout the star chart–even by the Lord of Annihilation and the Void Broodmothers.

After all, no one would refuse a high-purity energy aggregate.

Under Rosh’s cold gaze, the two team members had no choice but to reluctantly put down their duck leg rice and asked the fluffy rabbit who was still busy watching the match.

“Aww, don’t worry about it, it really is free!” the fluffy rabbit responded immediately without thinking, after seeing the two NPCs directly asking the owner how much for the meal.

“The true nature of this island might be a chaotic island, a kinder chaotic island, but the Crystal Plague still exists here,” said Rosh as she walked over to the two team members, looking at the fluffy rabbit, “Cultivating a domestic fowl without crystal grains inside on a chaotic island is not simple, no… perhaps only descendants of the Devouring God like you can achieve that.”

“Even though I wasn’t the one who raised that Tongue-Fire Duck, but… thanks?” The fluffy rabbit was overwhelmed by the barrage of messages that appeared in his dialogue box and didn’t know how to respond immediately.

“Fluffy rabbit, take the money.”

From some distance away, where the live broadcast was being viewed, Manager Yin called out to the fluffy rabbit. With this command from Manager Yin, the fluffy rabbit stopped declining and symbolically accepted two Divine Power Crystals from the team members as payment for the meal.

As Rosh had said, the costs for chicken, duck, and beef inside the camp were extremely high. Building large-scale animal farms was difficult due to the characteristics of Biland Island.

On the contrary, as Biland Island’s influence on the surrounding seas diminished, players could use fishing and catching fish as ways to address the food needs of the Fureyas.

“This is the cost of food and lodging for the next twenty days.” Rosh seemingly pulled out nearly forty Divine Power Crystals from nowhere and under her expectant gaze, her team members, though heartbroken, also reluctantly took out the same amount to pay.

“Thank you so much! Oh, and… your doctor has arrived!” The fluffy rabbit, holding seven large bags of Divine Power Crystals, hadn’t expected that recruiting these wild NPCs could also reward Divine Power Crystals, and it was at this moment she saw a doctor character standing at the entrance of the stronghold, Dr. Lactose-Free.

“Doctor? Your power will damage my living armor, I’ve said I don’t need…”

“*Sigh*… Although I hate to admit it, that healer’s skills surpass mine a bit…” Fluffy Rabbit had also tried to heal Rosh with Holy Light abilities when they retreated back to the base.

But the Holy Light would damage Rosh’s armor, and since Rosh was not willing to take off her clothes, Fluffy Rabbit couldn’t perform such precise healing. After all, who cares about a tiny wound on a player during an instance run?

Fluffy Rabbit just needed to cast the right skills on the right teammates at the right time — Rosh’s healing clearly couldn’t be done this way.

So they had to ask Jiang Qiao to inquire whether Holy Spirit City’s number one healer possessed such capability.

“Even if it’s strong, I don’t need it.”

“If you’ve paid the money, you ought to enjoy the best service. I don’t want Holy Spirit’s reputation ruined on our watch.”

Silver’s joking tone echoed in Rosh’s ears, and at that moment, as if just returning from some covert mission deep in the jungle, the healer who’d add milk without adding the price approached Rosh.

The moment Rosh’s gaze intersected with the healer’s, she instinctively wanted to turn invisible and flee, as she didn’t want to let Holy Light Magic damage her armor again.

But the pain from her injuries made her movements a beat slow, and the healer’s magic had already landed on Rosh’s shoulder.

The wound on the shoulder quickly healed, and a warm sensation spread over Rosh’s shoulder, making her stop her retreat once more.

“Your medical expenses have already been paid for by someone else; I wouldn’t cheat you!” The healer stepped forward and patted Rosh’s shoulder as she spoke.

At this point, Rosh gave in and chose to sit down and accept the healer’s treatment.

She looked around at the scene within the jumping nucleus, almost like a carnival of amusement parks, and the effects of the healer’s magic gave Rosh an illusion of overflowing happiness.

Are these somewhat silly Holy Spirits really the descendants of the fearsome Devouring God?

Rosh had some trouble discerning whether her hunting target this time… was a calamity that must be erased from the star chart.

But her compassion didn’t mean that other Hunters would feel the same.

“Be careful of the Eternals beyond us,” Rosh whispered to the healer.

“Mhm, I know.” The healer had been reading messages in the Holy Spirit quarreling group before coming over. Although the players welcomed these wild NPCs,

the wild NPCs could potentially become hostile game elements, which led to the Bubble frenetically coordinating manpower to track every visiting wild NPC.

Rosh’s squad was one of the key surveillance targets and was arranged to rest at the jumping nucleus’s base for safety reasons.

The healer’s treatment made Rosh sleepy, but she endured it…

For the next five days, Rosh led a three-point routine: wake up early to challenge the Holy Spirits at the Cola Frenzy outpost, return to the jumping nucleus’s outpost at noon for meals and the healer’s treatment, and head deep into Biland Island in the evening to observe the local ecosystem.

And during these five days, more NPCs visited Holy Spirit City, and many left or were forcibly repatriated by players, stabilizing the number of wild NPCs in Holy Spirit City at around eighty-seven.

The registration for the Holy Spirit Challenge and the fierce competition for the top eight in the World Conflict proceeded steadily. According to Jiang Qiao’s statistics… there were already twenty-one NPCs participating in this Holy Spirit Challenge.

Of these twenty-one people, only Lady Calamity was an NPC ally of the Holy Spirits; the rest were wild NPCs from the outside who had registered.

And on this day… Jiang Qiao received yet another registration application, one that made him roll off the couch onto the floor.

The applicant of this registration was… Jiang Qiao’s Fureya.