Chapter 141 - The Unchanging Date
[Second Quest: Give a ride to the two kids.]
[Quest Description: Raghu and Raghav are honest brothers that wish to upload justice in their own way by stealing from the criminals. Their desire has always been to ride a sports car. Fulfil their desire.]
[Quest Duration: Until the exploration ends.]
[Reward: 1 Prana Stone]
[Punishment: 1 Damage]
Re\'Kha used a spare compact mirror in her purse to look at the information. There didn\'t exist any holograms that depicted the quests or anything game-like on Earth. There only existed the mysterious sound that would resound in one\'s ear to notify them of something, either a Quest completion or the addition of a new Quest.
To see it, one must approach the nearest mirror. Only in a mirror would the Quest details be displayed. And, this was the one constant that every Harmoniser was aware of. Whatever character they become, their starting position would always have a mirror nearby—in one form or another. And it was through this the contents of their Quest, if they obtained one would be given.
Re\'Kha looked at the last row that had appeared now. Unlike before, when she obtained the forced Quest, there was a new tab that dictated punishments. It was one of the sole factors that made the Harmonisers apprehensive from taking drastic actions while on Earth.
After all, if the character they played wasn\'t their body, then the actions they took wouldn\'t be conservative. After all, since they would be leaving it after the duration of a day anyway, they didn\'t have to worry about any repercussions and could abuse their character\'s body to the limit.
This was where the punishments came into play. For every normal Quest, they would come with certain levels of punishment. And, these punishments were usually classified as damage. And, the greater the reward, the greater the accompanying punishment upon failure.
So that was why most Harmonisers didn\'t try to initiate any difficult quests. They would complete the easy ones, obtain 3-4 Prana Stones and wait it out until the end of their exploration or try to search for another easy Quest.
The punishment wasn\'t something dealt to their character, but their real body. And, based on what she had been taught, every unit of damage would wound her permanently. But, thanks to the Mu Clan, such damages could be healed.
Unfortunately, there existed a hidden rule, and that was the damage accumulation. When the total damage a Harmoniser had received from all her explorations reaches 100, she would die. It was another reason the Harmonisers were always cautious of the Quests and didn\'t just bulldoze their way through.
Re\'Kha looked at the compact mirror, thinking about the total damage she had received, watching the image displayed on it change.
[Total Damage Received: 3 Damage]
It was possible to fail even easy Quests. And, during her first exploration, she failed a mildly difficult Quest, obtaining two damage. She obtained another damage in her second exploration. Thankfully, she managed to score enough Prana Stones during both the explorations, so her qualifications to enter Earth wasn\'t revoked by her Clan.
This was also why she didn\'t try to blindly tackle the thugs but rather tried to use others to solve her issues. This way, she was able to complete her Quest safely while also creating a chance for triggering another Quest.
And, she had to be careful about triggering any Quests. After all, once triggered, it wasn\'t possible to refuse it. It was the same with the two children. Once they expressed their wish to ride a car, the Quest was triggered. If Re\'Kha failed to complete it, she would receive one damage.
That was why she had to be careful about her actions and what she spoke to others. There was a chance a Quest would be triggered anytime. It was another conflict the Harmonisers faced. Triggering a Quest was easy as long as they engaged with the people around them.
But, they had to be careful in doing so. Otherwise, they would find themselves in the midst of a difficult Quest. They would fail the Quest, receive damage accordingly, and even waste valuable time that they could have used in farming Prana Stones.
So, they had to be careful and try to predict the type of Quest they could obtain from the people. In an alien world filled to the brim with stuff they didn\'t understand, it was difficult to judge whether the person would give them a worthy Quest or not.
Re\'Kha sighed, watching the image disappear as she saw the reflection of her face. She noticed the lady\'s plain forehead that formed tiny wrinkles when she furrowed her brows. \'The difference between a Kalki and a Human isn\'t much. The only difference is our third eye, Pranic Heart, our meridians, and our hair and eye colour.\'
As the jeep began to move, Re\'Kha looked at the Inspector, "Did you manage to find my phone?"
"Yes," The Inspector returned her phone as he spoke with a tone of caution, "Don\'t use it for the time being. We\'ll send it to Cyber Security and ensure they haven\'t tampered with it."
"Thank you," Re\'Kha nodded as she held her phone, clicking the power button as the lock screen was displayed. She looked at the date displayed on it, frowning, \'1st August 2031; the date hasn\'t changed here either. It\'s the same day.\'
She remembered seeing the date during her first exploration. It was the 1st of August 2031. When she conversed with the people during the different explorations, they always said the same date. It never changed, despite the fact she visited once every year.
Re\'Kha knew for a fact their calendar functioned normally, considering the information she obtained when she gazed and touched them. So, it indeed confused her as to why the date never changed. She had talked about this topic once with her father and was met with the answer that he too was ignorant about the reason why this was the case.
Her expression changed as she saw an image flash on her compact mirror once again, displaying a row of words as the familiar sound resounded in her ears.
<Ding>