Completed B-level mission: Specialties from the Misty Sea!
You helped Captain Hayden's team repel the enemy and received the mission reward: 70,000 experience points, 500 gold pounds and Captain Hayden's favorability.
Captain Hayden's impression of you has increased! Currently it is friendly!
"The mission is over... Well, it only requires repelling the enemy, not saving the goods, so I took their mist pearls and it was not affected."
Chen Lun smiled slightly.
In his opinion, the reward for this mission was not very generous. Seventy thousand experience points were just a drop in the bucket and were dispensable at the moment... Even if the mission clearly required him to help Captain Hayden keep the cargo, he would still take it. After all, compared to the hundreds of "Mist Pearls", experience points were not worth mentioning.
The weather is nice today and the temperature has risen slightly.
The entire sea is of the same color, and the azure blue view is refreshing.
The Pearl Bamogo sailed slowly on the sea, and the comfortable sea breeze blew towards it.
Chen Lun and the circus troupe strolled on the deck and saw that many gentlemen and ladies had recovered from the panic of last night and were chatting and laughing while enjoying the bright sunshine.
The deck had been cleaned by the sailors, and the remains and blood of the monsters had disappeared. If it weren't for some large broken holes and bent and deformed metal guardrails, what happened last night would have seemed like a collective hallucination.
Seeing Chen Lun, many gentlemen and ladies saluted him.
"Good day, Father Jack."
These upper-class people knew very well how noble Chen Lun's status was, not to mention that he had saved everyone's lives last night. This respectful attitude came from the heart.
"Good day."
Chen Lun pulled the brim of his hat and nodded slightly in response.
Not long after, Captain Hayden came to the deck with the first mate, gathered all the gentlemen and ladies, and expressed his apologies for what happened last night with a sad expression.
“This storm and attack unexpectedly led to the death of four men and one woman. Although it was not my wish, it is also our responsibility on the Pearl Bamogo… So after docking, I will contact the Moses Sailing Headquarters as soon as possible to make appropriate compensation to the families of the deceased.”
Captain Hayden said so.
He then described the general damage to the hull and said that it can now barely sail after emergency repairs, but it will need to undergo a week-long repair at the next port. If any passengers do not want to wait, they can get off the ship and transfer to other ships at that time.
Finally, he also emphasized his gratitude to Chen Lun.
"This time, thanks to the help of Lord Governor Jack of the Kangkai Council, we were able to defeat the evil and rampant extraordinary bandits... Here, I, Hayden, on behalf of all the crew members of the Pearl Bamogo, would like to express my sincere gratitude and respect to Lord Jack."
Hayden took off his beret and bowed to Chen Lun with the crew.
The guards of Moses' voyage who were hiding in the crowd also touched their chests and bowed their heads. They were half expressing gratitude and half expressing awe for the powerful.
However, Chen Lun did not like this kind of formalism and just nodded indifferently.
Captain Hayden did not mention the casualties in the lower warehouse area. In fact, the casualties of ordinary passengers were extremely heavy, with more than 50 people killed in the attack last night. However, the Pearl Bamogo obviously did not pay attention to the lower-class civilians. They did not even collect their bodies and threw them directly into the sea.
The gentlemen and ladies living in the upper class cabin would not care about those people, let alone ask them actively. Even if Captain Hayden told them the truth, they would probably just treat it as a topic of conversation after dinner.
The two sides are not from the same world at all, and their indifference is certain.
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Due to the damage to the hull, the sailing speed decreased, and the next port, which could have been reached in half a day, was finally reached in the evening of the next day.
This port belongs to the city of Huabang Rongju and is called Anastasia Port.
The Pearl Bamogo sailed directly into the shipyard at the port dock, where a few gentlemen and ladies got off the ship, intending to transfer to other passenger ships to continue their journey.
Chen Lun thought it was troublesome, so he planned to wait for a few days with his team.
While the ship was in the factory for maintenance, some guests disembarked and went to Rongju City for sightseeing and shopping. Chen Lun did not want to restrict the freedom of the team members too much, so he told them that they could move around freely.
However, the three ladies, Flo Yin, Maggie and Connie, were not interested. One liked quiet and night time, and the other two were study and research geeks. As for the men, Noah and Alex wanted to go out for a walk and get some fresh air, so Chen Lun asked them to go with him.
Antonio didn't like the city environment, so he said he would just stay in the cabin and sleep. Golov and the other two also stayed on the ship. They had recently become fascinated by a kind of card game popular in the upper class, and would rather play cards than go out and hang out.
According to Golov, they could respond to Chen Lun's orders in time and execute them immediately if needed. Chen Lun was very pleased with this and gave each of them 100 gold pounds as "gambling money" so that they could have a good time on the ship.
Afterwards, he got off the boat alone and strolled from the port to the bustling area of the center of Rongju City, just like traveling alone in his previous life, exploring the strange but interesting unknown.
Rongju City is very similar to Kongque City. Because it is a port city, seafood is quite popular. Even in the major restaurants in the downtown area, the signature dishes are almost all some kind of fish, shrimp or shellfish.
Most cities in the Flower Kingdom have their own iconic flowers. This city is just as its name suggests, and velvet chrysanthemums are very popular... Even though it is early February and the weather is still very cold, velvet chrysanthemums bloom all year round, and pots of furry chrysanthemums of various colors are placed in front of many stores.
After Chen Lun strolled around for more than two hours and bought some local specialties, he returned to the Pearl Bamogo, knocked on Flo Yin's cabin door, and gave the three ladies some baked snacks he had bought on the way.
"Thank you, Mr. Jack!"
Connie said happily.
Maggie had grabbed a piece of cupcake with her bare hands and swallowed it in one gulp, smacking her lips and shaking the reagent bottle in her hand.
Chen Lun smiled and shook his head.
"You're welcome. Have a good rest."
After saying that, he turned around and went back to his cabin, lay on the bed and opened the game forum out of boredom.
Because the game has stopped updating, many players can only find comfort in posting on the forum.
Compared with the past, the forum is particularly lively at this moment.
Chen Lun saw a lot of posts discussing the main storyline of the next version, and the most active one was "Ordinary Operator"... This guy was keen on analyzing various things, so of course he was involved in this matter.
But to be honest, his analysis is indeed well-founded and very convincing.
Chen Lun clicked on a post that had been posted for less than an hour but had received over 100,000 likes. The top answer came from an "ordinary operator":
"—According to the official announcement three hours ago, the level cap for the next version will be raised to level 80. Based on the main occupation level of the Sequence Nine Transcendents in version 1.0, most players in version 2.0 will be able to advance to the Middle Sequence..."
"—However, the number of Transcendent players only accounts for less than 1% of all players. Even after the version update, those who can gather Sequence 8 Transcendent knowledge and advance in a short period of time are definitely a minority among the minority... This situation will become more and more serious in the future, and the player pyramid will only become more obvious and solid in the end."
"--In order to allow players to adapt to such a long growth period, the next version will definitely arrange corresponding plots and main events... According to my analysis, version 1.0 is too short and feels a bit rushed. The game officials obviously did not explain it, but I believe they will compensate for it in the next version."
"—So the main storyline of version 2.0 will only be more grandiose than the 'Scarlet Festival' turmoil caused by the Red Apple Church... The clues and intelligence at hand now all indicate that it will either involve a war between the Empire and the United Kingdom of Anlong in the west, or a colonial war across the Misty Sea in the east."
Chen Lun looked at the post and nodded secretly.
Analysis of ordinary operators, except that the main storyline of version 2.0 is wrong, the rest is basically the same.
The level cap of version 2.0 is 80, which is actually the level cap of Sequence 7 Transcendents.
Even in the middle of the version, there will be a non-stop version 2.1 update, and the level cap will be raised again, directly reaching level 120, sequence six... That was also the version Chen Lun lived in in his previous life.
'Version 2.0 is about the spiritual world being disturbed, and it tells the story of the pollution source in the spiritual world affecting the real world, so the Empire summoned the civilian supernaturals to suppress it... The war in the United Kingdom of Anlong is just a side story.'
Chen Lun thought.
"But this is not the fault of the ordinary operator. After all, his current level is too low, so it is normal for him not to know this information."
Then, he read a few more popular posts and learned that the players' mental state was very impatient, very impatient... Three days of update time was too long for these players.
They were so eager to play online that they felt like the days were passing by so slowly.
'Huh? The video ranked first on the hot list has changed... The creator and uploader are both Su Keying?'
Chen Lun returned to the homepage and noticed the rankings.
He looked at the cover of the top-ranked video with interest, which was himself.
To be precise, there should be two selves.
On the left he is in the image of a gentleman with a black hat, and on the right he is wearing the gray robe and armor of the consul.
There is also a string of title text across the two images in the middle -
"Jack's Growth History: Solar Calendar 4419 to 4420!"
Chen Lun saw that the video had been uploaded for more than six hours and the number of views had exceeded 100 million, topping the list. He clicked on the video out of curiosity, wanting to see how Su Keying would praise herself in another way.
Once the video is turned on, the screen is black.
Su Keying's narration came from the voice-over:
"For those of you who clicked on this video, let me first inform you that this is a popular science video about a person... Actually, I hesitated several times before I started making it, because generally no one likes to watch this kind of video, and it would be a thankless task... But in the end, it was the persuasion of my friends and colleagues that made me make up my mind to make it."
Several rows of eye-catching red text gradually appeared on the black screen.
"First of all, I would like to state that all the materials and information in the video are collected and confirmed by me and my team, and are not fictional... In addition, all steel bars are eliminated. If you have any objections, you are the one who decides."
After the text disappeared, a black-haired young man in a white shirt appeared on the screen, sitting in front of a coffee table, thinking.
Su Keying continued:
"NPC Jackspeter has been throughout the storyline from the internal beta to the end of the public beta 1.0 version... Perhaps few people knew about him in the early days, but with the end of the Bloody Campaign, almost all players in Bang City knew about this new high-ranking official of the Orthodox Church... Now I will tell you the story of Jackspeter, the head of the circus and the Archon of the Senate of the Kangkai Parliament..."
The screen returned to the internal test period.
Emerald Town, Baoshibang.
Su Keying and Polaris came to a wall and looked at the wanted poster on it. It was the wanted poster for Chen Lun, a man with slightly curly black hair. The wanted poster was only one hundred gold pounds at the time and was issued by the Red Apple Church.
"Jack's hatred for the Red Apple Church dates back to a long time ago. When he was still an ordinary person, he was captured by the Red Apple Church as a sacrifice..."
The video explains Chen Lun's origin and growth in great detail, from a prisoner to the leader of a supernatural organization, and then joining the Murder Club, until he pushed the club to take a seat in the Orthodox Church, and his own status rose...
The comments were endless, following Jack's growth and Su Keying's calm tone, feeling the joys and sorrows of the protagonist. Jack's experience seemed to resonate with many players, and they also began to take an interest in this NPC.
"So this is Jack's past. Damn it, Red Apple Church!" "No wonder he hates Red Disaster so much. He is either hunting the Red Apple Church or on his way to hunt them." "He is a real flesh-and-blood character. I will join him after the version update!" "It's not that simple! You can just join the circus whenever you want?"
The barrage of comments passed by, but Su Keying's voice continued:
“I, Polaris, Dongyang, Chenxi, Doghead Gold and many other players were among the first to join Jack’s team… We can tell you very frankly that he is different from other NPCs because he has a unique charm that makes it hard not to like him.”
The image of Noah carrying his painting bag appeared on the screen, and he introduced himself shyly.
"Not only does the faction he leads have many benefits, but he also really treats us, the so-called 'immortal strangers', as companions... For example, if we encounter difficulties, Jack will even send cadres to support us, which is something no other faction can do!"
Su Keying said so.
The video scene changed and came to the cottage by the lake in Wonderland.
The sky is blue and white clouds are floating.
By the clear lake, there is a grape vine and a statue of Jack at the door of a simple wooden house, and many players are sitting on the lawn chatting.
“This is the circus’ secret location. No matter where we are, we can send our minds to this area and interact with each other at the right time. We can also accept tasks and exchange items here... Of course, this is also the location of Jack’s exclusive dungeon—Wonderland!”
The screen was full of comments expressing surprise. Obviously, Su Keying's video had shocked many people. However, the video ended here, with a line of words appearing at the end of the screen:
"Preview of the next issue: The secrets of the circus's exclusive dungeon Wonderland will be revealed!"
Chen Lun noticed that the comments were all "焯". He smiled and praised himself, then turned off the video. This popular science video allowed players to have a deeper understanding of themselves and the circus, and it would also help to attract more players to join him in the next version.
'But then again, looking back at the journey I've taken, I feel a little emotional...'
Chen Lun stroked his chin and shook his head.