Chapter 862 - 372: Synchronized Quests and Roleplay_2
"As long as every step they take is under our control, internal spies can still turn into an asset."
Raventon smirked and said:
"Since you’re so confident, you’re the leader, you decide."
After a brief training session that lasted about ten minutes, during which the players learned about the duties and powers of the Secret Security Department, the first internal meeting of the Secret Magic Knight Order began.
Wu Chang, in his true form, known to everyone as Sir Sean, started assigning tasks to the members of the Knight Order.
The current tasks of the Secret Magic Knight Order consist of three parts, the first of which is to investigate the aberrant individual who nearly self-destructed a moment ago.
The Steam Council has taken the technology of cyborgs to such an extent, if we don’t promptly hit them hard, they might indeed come up with something substantial.
Wu Chang’s reputation is stellar, successfully achieving breakthroughs in so many dungeons with divinity, he absolutely cannot overturn in this gutter with only the Power of Root.
We must quickly find the direct line of the Steam Council, at the very least destroy that Franken-level Extraordinary Machine Tool.
However, in front of other players, Wu Chang did not mention too much information about the Steam Council.
The existence of the Steam Council was, after all, a hidden piece of information he discovered through his findings in the underground secrets of the Pine Tree Coal Mine and the exorcism of grievances.
This heavyweight intelligence could increase the dungeon exploration percentage by at least 2-5% during the settlement, so it couldn’t directly be told to players, but rather given as a reward after the task is completed.
He just told the players to pay more attention to the aberrant individual’s information and try to deduce the situation of the individual during their lifetime from their identity and movement trajectory.
As the leader of the influence, Wu Chang, to a certain extent, holds the authority to issue tasks.
Upon finishing task one, a prompt appeared in front of the players present.
"Obtained side task: Investigate the information related to the failed self-destruct attempt of the mechanical modified person on Saint George Plaza."
"Task reward: Depending on the value of the submitted information, you will receive corresponding Influence Contribution Value, as well as partial rewards. The amount of Influence Contribution Value will determine the side confrontation task reward settlement during the dungeon settlement."
Seeing the side task notification appear, a glint of excitement shone in the players’ eyes.
Even though this group of players is already at the pinnacle of the Pyramid in the Desolate Realm, side tasks with system prompts are still rare for them.
Apart from professionals like Cold Mountain, other players have very limited exploration in the dungeon, completing all the main tasks and unraveling the dungeon world’s lore would already be considered an extra accomplishment.
Side tasks are triggered by chance.
The True Self, who had a Secret Magic Knight slot, also had this side task pop up.
However, his task notification had a suffix, indicating that this task’s rewards couldn’t be stacked with those from the influence leader.
Although he couldn’t double-dip on the rewards, this notification clearly explained the reason why the players were so enthused.
This indicated that the players didn’t mind him issuing tasks; rather, they even enjoyed being workhorses and greatly enjoyed this process.
In this case, he could fully exploit these subordinates.
Don’t forget, this is the Steam Phantom Dungeon; he must learn from those industrialists and push the players to maximize their workload.
The second task, also the players’ main task, is to investigate the assassination of Prime Minister Ron.
Similar to task one, the progress of his and Raventon’s investigation wouldn’t be shared with the other players. To gather enough intelligence, they must show more value.
After all, the Secret Magic Knight Order isn’t a charity; ensuring the players leave alive is already doing their utmost; it’d be outrageous to expect the Knight Order Leader to work for free for them.
He wouldn’t provide too many clues to other players, only providing them with the identities of the Secret Security Department’s members.
How much they could discover based on these identities depended entirely on their own methods.
Wu Chang’s second task, coinciding with the main task, did not trigger a side task pop-up.
This led to a tepid response from the players.
Seeing this, Wu Chang decided to up the stakes, extracting the Lake Light Holy Sword and releasing the light from the blade that could illuminate half a meter around.
"Since the founding of Stilan, the Secret Magic Knight Order has been the Queen’s Sword, safeguarding the Empire’s security."
"Now, Grimland is rife with anomalies, each with shadows of Transcendents behind them. As the Queen’s Sword, we must find the real culprit and clear the shadow that hangs over Grimland’s skies."
While speaking, another task prompt appeared before everyone.
"Obtained hidden side task: Assist Sir Sean in uncovering the mastermind behind the anomalies in Grimland."
"Successful task completion will reward a large amount of Influence Contribution Value, with additional rewards during task settlement. There is no penalty for task failure. Accept the task?"
Hidden side task?!
Upon seeing this task prefix, everyone’s spirits immediately lifted.
Their expressions were even more exaggerated than those who saw hidden side tasks in the Silent Route Dungeon, such as Sword Star and Negotiation Master.
Back then, the hidden task itself carried risks, and failing to stop the New Universe Church could bring dangers.
But the hidden task before them was different. At least from a literal standpoint, failing to capture the mastermind behind the anomalies wouldn’t pose direct risks to them.
In other words, the failure of this task carries no penalty, truly no penalty.
Undoubtedly, this type of hidden side task is purely a reward stage.