Newbie Guardians

Chapter 22 Mission

At six o'clock in the morning, in Daohua Village, 150 kilometers west of the Folklore Institute, there was a rapid knocking on the door of village chief Wang Changfa's house.

"Who is it? So early in the morning!"

"Village chief, something terrible has happened! Something's happened in our village!"

Upon hearing this, the village chief was instantly wide awake and hurriedly opened the door.

"What's happened? Stop dawdling and tell me!"

The village chief grabbed the man by the collar, his face full of urgency.

The man who came was named Wang Fugui. He was a strong young man from the village, with a very honest personality, and didn't seem like the type to joke around.

"Village chief! All the cattle in our village have disappeared! They were all here last night. Look, spring planting season is almost here, what are we going to do?"

"Overnight... all the cows are gone? Did the thief leave any trace?"

"Yes, of course! Come and take a look!"

The village had twenty-one households. To improve the cattle pen environment, a large cattle shed had been built, where each family kept their cattle. The village chief rushed to the shed, only to find the two wooden doors wide open, and each feeding trough still containing a considerable amount of uneaten straw. Large pools of blood and clumps of tangled cow hair littered the ground. All twenty-one cows and three newborn calves had vanished overnight. The village chief slumped to the ground, muttering to himself…

"It's a monster! The monster ate all the cows!"

In the conference room of the Folklore Academy, Principal Zhuge Ming recounted the events.

"The government is asking us to resolve this matter as soon as possible. What are your thoughts on this?"

"They only eat cows, without attacking people. It doesn't seem like a monster attack; it's more like a herd of ravenously hungry large wild beasts."

The speaker was a tall and beautiful woman in her early thirties named Yao Qi, a water-element instructor with a calm and wise personality, and one of the three vice principals.

Wind system mentor Guo Changfeng said,

"It certainly doesn't seem like a monster attack. Daohua Village isn't far from the academy, so any disturbance would surely be detected. I agree with Principal Yao's point of view."

Liu Chuanqi, a balding, middle-aged earth-element mentor, raised a different opinion.

"If a large group of monsters really broke into the cowshed, the cows would definitely bellow in fear, and the villagers would definitely go to check it out."

Lei-style mentor Lu Qinghai added.

"Being able to devour more than twenty cows silently likely indicates the possession of some kind of extraordinary power."

Yao Qi continued his analysis,

"Another possibility is that someone with superhuman powers controlled the monsters and ate all the cows."

Sun Youcheng, the school's security captain, raised a question.

"Regardless of the reason, we need to deduce the other party's purpose in doing so."

Lu Qinghai stroked his beard.

"Could it be that he's practicing some kind of evil magic?"

Zhuge Ming spoke slowly,

"There's too little information to make any conclusions yet. Let's send someone to investigate and hand it over to this year's champion team. Consider it a trial run, with Teacher Liu providing covert protection."

The next morning, following the school's instructions, homeroom teacher Wang Simiao assigned Huang Xin and four others to conduct an investigation in Daohua Village. After assigning the task, she told the five to go home and prepare, and to meet at the school gate two hours later.

Huang Xin asked as he walked.

"Brother Jin, what do we need to prepare?"

Jin Jun explained,

"Besides food and water, you also need to prepare combat supplies. For example, since your archery skills are just starting out and your firepower is limited, you need to prepare arrows that can increase your attributes."

"Add attributes?"

"Some arrows are infused with specific magic during the manufacturing process. For example, arrows infused with ice magic have a freezing effect, fire magic has a burning effect, metal magic has an armor-piercing effect, wood magic has a critical hit effect, earth magic has a slowing effect, lightning magic has a stun effect, and wind magic has a knockback effect."

As he spoke, he led Huang Xin to the general store. The owner was a chubby middle-aged man who didn't stand up when he saw a customer. He remained lying in his chair with his eyes slightly closed, speaking lazily.

"Feel free to look around, just let me know which one you like."

Jin Jun pointed to the arrow display case. Huang Xin looked and saw that the arrows imbued with magic emitted a faint glow, with different attributes producing different glows. He pointed to a crimson arrow and asked...

"Boss, how much is this red arrow?"

"Two hundred thousand per bundle!"

"Holy crap! This is way too expensive!"

The boss ignored him and continued rocking his chair.

"What about the light blue one?"

Five?! Holy crap!

"This...one million!"

Huang Xin's mouth was wide open and remained so for a long time.

Jin Jun said calmly,

"Boss, one bundle of each, please!"

"No! Brother Jin, this is too expensive!"

"After the discount, the total is six and a half million!"

Jin Jun took out his black identity card and handed it over. The shopkeeper quickly took it, swiped the card, retrieved the goods, and packed them up in a dozen seconds. He then grabbed them with one hand and tossed them to Jin Jun. The seven bundles of arrows weighed over a hundred pounds, yet he tossed them over so lightly. This shopkeeper was probably a Guardian himself.

Jin Jun put the arrows into his inventory and walked towards the dormitory with Huang Xin.

"Brother Jin, why are these arrows so expensive?"

"To imbue an arrow with magic, you need a rare magical material—elven dust. This material is a specialty of the elves and is usually very difficult to obtain, making it extremely expensive."

"But you bought way too much!"

"We don't know what kind of enemy we will face. We need to use different attributes against different enemies. Only in this way can we make the most of these arrows."

"I understand! How much would it cost to shoot each arrow like that?"

"Each bundle contains a hundred rifles, averaging less than ten thousand per rifle, which isn't expensive. Think about it, what weapon you're comfortable using costs less than ten million?"

"Brother Jin, those two swords you gave me..."

"It's not expensive, two of them cost less than thirty million. Guess how much Mu Lingshan's staff costs?"

"I...I don't know...it won't cost hundreds of millions, will it!"

"Be confident. First, remove the 'can't' part, then change 'above' to 'several'."

"Hundreds of millions! My God!"

"Lin Yuxi's staff isn't cheap either."

"It will cost several hundred million?"

"To be precise, it's at least several hundred million. These kinds of divine weapons are priceless treasures; if they're willing to sell, someone would buy them for over a billion."

"Are Cheng Ziyu and Liu Hanqin's staffs also very expensive?"

"Not expensive, Cheng Ziyu's is around 30 million, Liu Hanqin's is a bit more expensive, around 80 or 90 million."

"They're all so rich!"

"Each completed mission rewards you with mission points, which most guardians use to exchange for suitable weapons. One mission point is equivalent to ten thousand yuan."

"How many points will we earn if we complete this mission?"

"It depends on the difficulty. There are two types of tasks: bounty and assignment. Bounty tasks are accepted through the academy's task system and have relatively low rewards. Assigned tasks are assigned by the academy to specific individuals and have much higher rewards. During the task, the more difficult the event, the richer the reward. Some tasks reach S-level difficulty, and each person's reward is over a thousand points."

"Wow! So, if I complete this task successfully, I can get a lot of points and then have money to buy arrows."

"Yes! Every mission carries a certain degree of danger, and if you die while on a mission, you might not be able to be brought back to life. So before each mission, you need to prepare plenty of supplies to increase your survivability."

"Brother Jin, we haven't bought any food or water yet!"

"You don't need to buy those; the academy provides them for free!"

"That's right, even the cafeteria is completely free."