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Chapter 260: Settlement Task: A Hundred Vying Barges!

“I don’t need to remind you where the term ‘A Hundred Vying Barges’ comes from, do I?

“The more important thing is, what does it mean?”

Elder Meng spoke first. He was holding a teacup that seemed to be made of blue and white porcelain.

“I think it’s similar to the Ten-Species Competition. The number was ten last time, and it’s a hundred now. It means that we’re going to compete against 99 alien settlements.”

Mister Bug spoke, scratching his head. He had styled his hair after Rukawa Kaede.

“‘Hundred’ and ‘thousand’ in such expressions are mostly indefinite denotations. That is to say, we cannot be sure that exactly 100 settlements will participate in this round!”

Elder Jiao shook his head.

“Then, can we agree that there will be 100 settlements at least?

“Moreover, the ‘vying barges’ part also suggests a speed contest. Together with the two requirements, are we expected to complete the task as quickly as possible?” said another player.

Because the Twin Dragon Mount was the first settlement in Southwest Province to finish the task last time, they had been handsomely rewarded.

This time, should they speed up and make it their priority?

“No, I don’t think so. The Ten-Species Competition task had a deadline, which was why there was a hidden reward for those who finished early.

“But time isn’t mentioned this time, so time shouldn’t be a factor. The basis of reward should be similar to that of the first time. It’ll depend on how well we finish the task,” one of the players objected.

“If quality is the key, why would they use ‘vying barges’? Moreover, the requirement says ‘reach the destination’, which also suggests that it’s a competition like a dragon-boat race. Maybe only the first settlement to reach the destination can enter the next stage, just like last time.”

“That can’t be right. If only the first one can enter the next stage, why is there a requirement to level up to Transcendent level? Such a settlement may not be the first to reach the destination.”

Unlike the meeting before, this time, the opinions of the players were divided.

“What’s troublesome about this task is that it’s not as clear-cut as the previous two.

“We’re only given the task goals, but there are no hints about how to raise the settlement to the Transcendent level or to reach the destination,” said one of the players, looking troubled.

“There are some hints.

“For instance, the second message points out that we’re going to face not only the competitions from the alien race but other difficulties as well. As a game designer, I have an inkling that we’re going to see some cities getting attacked by monsters.”

Sipping on An Daoquan’s potion, An Quan spoke in a husky voice.

He spent the day before as a walking loudspeaker. Even his Extraordinary Rank-5 throat couldn’t handle such long hours.

“Monsters attacking cities? That’s great!”

Hao Dahai’s eyes lit up. He was in charge of the kitchen, and because of the Food Replenishment talent he obtained, he was even plumper than Fatty Zhu.

Before, because of the mist, only monsters of Extraordinary Rank-5 and below could enter the sea around the settlement.

But this morning, when the Twin Dragon Mount went to catch Dragon Tooth, the fish they were going to eat, they ran into a Commander mantis shrimp that was over 3m long and of Extraordinary Rank-6.

If Ruan Xiaoer, who was a peak Extraordinary Rank-6, happened to be present and killed the monster with his saber, one of the Snapping Dragon Turtle Warships would have been crushed by the creature.

Since an Extraordinary Rank-6 monster had shown up, monsters of higher levels could be expected to arrive as well.

Although the sea monsters couldn’t climb up and pose direct threats to the settlement, what if they ran into flying monsters like the Golden Condor?

The idea of monsters attacking cities wasn’t impossible!

Of course, Hao Dahai didn’t think too much of that possibility.

After all, with the strength of the Twin Dragon Mount, even Extraordinary Rank-8 monsters would be annihilated, let alone Rank-6 or -7 ones!

Because of that, Hao Dahai was looking forward to such an event.

Not many monsters were left on the island, and those that were left were raised by the settlement like the Steelback Blue Wolves.

The settlement had been feeding on seafood recently.

There was quite a lot of delicious food in the sea in the Land of Inheritance.

Even things like sea cucumbers, shark fins, abalones, scallops were served regularly.

But the problem was, they had been having seafood for every meal for nearly a month.

No matter how excellent a cook Hao Dahai was, the people of the settlement already began to complain.

It’ll be great if the land monsters can attack some city. That way, I’ll be able to cook camel hump, elephant trunk, and leopard placenta for a change. You people will be drooling all over the plate and never criticize my cooking again, thought Hao Dahai.

Although he was sitting in on the meeting, he didn’t actually have any say in the matter.

“Elder Zhou, do you have anything to add?”

The players disagreed on the “priority” of this task.

Ji Ye, who was the only one who could give the final verdict, asked Elder Zhou, who was in the visitor’s seat.

Technically, the third batch of new players was only here in the meeting to observe. However, Ji Ye still wanted to know what “Fishing at Sunset” thought.

Because when he went offline, he had studied the old professor’s posts on the forum and saw that he had a very deep understanding of the Land of Inheritance. The old professor had better judgment in this matter than many players in the Land of Inheritance.

“I think all your analyses are very reasonable.”

Elder Zhou sounded like a kind and refined man, and as a novice, he didn’t seem very nervous.

“Well, I wonder if you have noticed something. The Ten-Species Competition was a ‘race mission’, whereas the ‘A Hundred Vying Barges’ this time is a settlement task...”

“That’s right. I didn’t notice that.” Mister Bug smacked his own head.

Most of the people here had focused on the actual content of the task and looked past the wording itself.

“That is to say, we may not be competing against alien races alone this time. We may need to attack other Human settlements as well?”

Qin Yueyu looked surprised.

“We don’t necessarily have to defeat them!”

Elder Zhou shook his head and explained, “Do you remember the requirements of this task? We only have two goals. One is to rise to the Transcendent level, and the other is to reach the destination. It’s not the same as the task in the previous stage, which specifically told us to destroy alien settlements or subdue alien races.”

“Does that mean that, at this stage, it’s possible for us to live in peace with other alien races?” asked Shang Yan.

“With other Human settlements, maybe. It’s not going to happen with alien races. We can never trust each other. We’re only going to have wars.”

Guo Wei shook his head.

It was true.

Although the task didn’t mention that all aliens had to be defeated, for one, not every settlement would be able to grasp that piece of information, for another, after the Ten-Species Competition task in the first stage, all settlements had fixated on the concept that the alien races were enemies.

They believed that even if they didn’t attack the alien races, they would still attack them.

After all, defeating an alien race could give a settlement the Soul of Civilization, the Stone of Civilization, and a great amount of offerings and resources, not to mention that they could also devour the other side’s settlement core and turn it into their own power of providence.

And the power of providence was definitely related to the goal of upgrading the settlement to the Transcendent level.

“Moreover, I also want to point something out. Why do you think the word ‘barge’ is used?

“If ‘a hundred’ refers to the number, what about ‘barge’?”

Elder Zhou nodded to Guo Wei, agreeing with his opinion. He then went on, asking the question.

“‘Barge’ is a pictophonetic character in Chinese and consists of two radicals, ‘boat’ and ‘carrying a burden on the shoulder’. Together, they indicate that a ‘barge’ is a large boat that transports heavy loads!” said Elder Meng, who was still holding his teacup.

“Wait, does it mean...”

Elder Meng’s hands jolted, and an idea seemed to strike him.

Since “barges” were big boats, and settlements were in the sea, traveling by boats was plausible. The Twin Dragon Mount was even building a Mirage Dragon Warship that had the potential to rise to the Transcendent level.

However, even if the warship was completed, it would still be a battlewagon. They couldn’t possibly load it with heavy things to take part in this new task.

Moreover, the races who had won the Ten-Species Competition came from different universes and dimensions, and their civilizations all had very different development directions. It was unreasonable to ask a race that didn’t even have a lake to build a large boat for this new competition.

So, what could carry heavy loads and could be seen as a “barge” in the vast ocean?

And every race had to have it.

“Wait, it’s not what I think, is it?”

“Holy crap. That’s going to be intense!”

“If that’s really the case, we’ll have to rewrite some of our existing plans.”

Most of the people here were elite members of Earth. After hearing the analyses of the two elders, they were able to draw the conclusion themselves.

Some drew in their breaths, some looked excited, and some were looking forward to what was coming.

Yes, what was the one thing that every race had?

It was the island that had turned into a settlement under their feet!

The island could become mobile!

The meeting lasted for as long as 10 hours.

With the possibility that the island was going to become a very large boat, a lot more things needed to be taken into consideration.

Other things aside, the buildings themselves needed to be carefully designed.

After all, the “barges” could very likely collide with each other and other races might “come aboard” for battles. Residential houses couldn’t be built near the coastline. Rather, the area should be left for military bases. They might even need to consider building gun emplacements there!

“Now, the final topic is the arrangement of the new players!”

The dozen or so new players were getting exhausted, even with the watered-down Stone Milk Sweet Dew tea they received halfway through the meeting.

The longest meeting the Twin Dragon Mount had ever held finally came to its end.

“We’ve made arrangements for the 400 non-combative and technical players in our previous meeting.

“Right now, we still have about 500 more combat-focused players, and we decided to put them in the combat reserve battalion for the time being. We’ll train them based on how the Yue troops are trained in the Book of Wumu.

“First of all, with the help of militarized training methods, they can master certain combat and cooperation skills.

“Secondly, after they are proficient in cooperating with each other, they can form a ‘battle formation’, giving them the power to fight against high-level enemies!” said Su Nongying.

The number of people coming to the Twin Dragon Mount this time was very large, but so was the corresponding pressure.

Some common settlements only needed to supply one or two hundred new players, among which there might be only a few dozen combat players. The consumption of materials and resources wasn’t all that significant at all.

They were even able to raise all the new players to the Extraordinary level.

However, being the highest-ranking village, the Twin Dragon Mount wasn’t able to do that.

Although the settlement had obtained a lot of extra resources from the Battlefield of Providence, they obviously had to spend them on the veteran players and natives, who had contributed to the battle.

Apart from those that had great potential, the new players weren’t very likely to receive any of the resources.

Therefore, the only way to improve their capability was through battle formations and equipment such as sniper rifles. That way, the settlement could make sure that these people wouldn’t hold the settlement back when they ran into alien races later.

Since some new players were present in the conference room, Su Nongying didn’t express everything frankly.

Another reason for putting the combative players in the battalion was to make it easier to control them.

After seeing the vision created by the Mirage Dragon Pearl, the newbies realized the gap in the capability between themselves, who were mere Ordinary Rank-4, and those who had participated in the Battlefield of Providence.

They wouldn’t take advantage of their “immortality” and venture into places such as the Mandrill Cave or the scientific research base, where important resources were.

But it was impossible to take all their curiosity away.

As a matter of fact, some new players that were settled in the Eagle Man section tried something the night before.

During the preparation time before they came to the Land of Inheritance, they had practiced rock climbing. Driven by their curiosity, they climbed up the mountain in the Eagle Man section at night, trying to dig out some Radiant Gold that was twinkling in the moonlight.

Needless to say, they didn’t succeed.

The strong wind in the mountain peak could penetrate one’s soul.

At 700m, even Extraordinary players with common mental power couldn’t withstand the wind.

Luckily, the power of the wind increased gradually as one climbed up the mountain. Otherwise, these people would become the first members of the Twin Dragon Mount that had gotten themselves killed.

However, if an Ordinary new player could climb as high as 700m, Ji Ye would be very generous with the resources allocated to that person.

After all, one’s natural talent was very important in the Land of Inheritance.