Chapter 117 - 112: Employee No. 4, Advanced Member

Chapter 117: Chapter 112: Employee No. 4, Advanced Member

Zhuo Ling didn’t scavenge many Treasures from the architectural ruins. A few items, Materials, and Ordinary Curse Objects were all relatively run-of-the-mill.

There was only one item of truly high value:

[Curse Art: Curse Armor (Rare Grade)]

This was a quaint scroll engraved with profound, intricate patterns. Ordinary people who looked at it would feel dizzy, and their eyes and ears might even bleed. Even experts at the Refining Stage couldn’t stare at it for long before having to look away. Zhuo Ling took it to the Value Assessment Machine for appraisal.

The conclusion was soon drawn.

[Description 1: Curse Scrolls are typically crafted by High Tier Transcendents and contain the Mystical Techniques of a Curse Art. By staring at and visualizing the scroll, the user has a chance to learn the Curse Art inscribed upon it. This process continuously consumes the scroll’s power until it is completely depleted.]

[Description 2: This Curse Art is of the Rare Grade. Once learned, the user can consume Curse Power to condense a suit of Curse Armor outside their body to defend against various attacks.]

The members—even the Direct Lineage members of large organizations like Profound Sword and Xi Xue—were seeing this kind of Treasure for the first time. The people from Profound Sword had heard of them, but they didn’t know much.

Just by looking at the description, everyone could imagine the power of the Curse Armor. Was the armor worn by the Black Armor Nightmare anomaly previously covered in a layer of Curse Armor?

Of course, humans couldn’t possess the same tyrannical defense and Life Force as anomalies. However, if they learned this Curse Armor, their margin of error in battle would significantly increase. At the very least, an anomaly’s killing blow wouldn’t instantly injure or kill them upon contact.

They were all eyeing it greedily. But this scroll was Miss Zhuo Ling’s spoil of war; by extension, it belonged to the Safe Zone. Moreover, even if they had the opportunity to study this Spell Scroll, they most likely wouldn’t be able to learn it. When the quaint scroll was first unearthed, some had already stared at it. Let alone comprehending anything, it was a struggle just to maintain their composure.

"This kind of Curse Art is definitely not easy to learn. In fact, it might not even be something small fry like us can grasp."

While Zhuo Ling was appraising it, Fen Huo was touring the lobby alongside Chen Baichuan.

Fen Huo remarked, "Curse Scrolls are engraved with the Mystical Techniques of High Level Curse Arts. In theory, a single Curse Scroll can be studied several times, allowing multiple experts to learn the Curse Art. In reality, however, someone might study it multiple times and exhaust the Mystical Power on it without ever successfully learning the Curse Art.

"It requires a lot of Talent.

"But once learned, the boost to one’s combat power is incredibly significant. Without a doubt, this Curse Scroll is extremely precious."

Even Fen Huo felt a bit envious. The Countermeasures Bureau had these types of Curse Scrolls, mostly ’excavated’ from Deep in the Nightmare. He had once exchanged his contributions for two opportunities to study one, but unfortunately, he failed to learn it.

He looked out the window. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lobby, he could faintly see a corner of the distant ruins.

"Scholars have always speculated that ’ancient civilizations’ exist Deep in the Nightmare. They might be cities that were swallowed up, just like our Baijiang," Fen Huo said. "In these places, it’s much more likely to excavate rare Treasures."

The Countermeasures Bureau had searched these ruins once two months ago, finding two Curse Scrolls at the time. Counting the one unearthed today, that made a total of three. With a quick calculation, the total value of this Nightmare Area was already more than ten times that of other areas.

He thought, "This is just what has been excavated from the ruins. Who knows how many precious treasures have been buried in history."

But at the very least, the Safe Zone camp had reaped a good harvest from this raid. Otherwise, it would have been incredibly awkward if they had paid such a heavy price to defeat the Black Armor Leader, only to end up with a few Curse Objects and Materials.

Shi An didn’t pay much attention to the Curse Scroll Zhuo Ling obtained; he just let her play with it. He hadn’t raided this Nightmare for the meager pickings that could be scavenged from the area anyway.

"The post-clearance reward for this Nightmare is only a ’choose three out of five’ tier, rather than ’choose five out of seven,’" he thought. This indicated that the Level of this ruin Nightmare was still inferior to the Ancient Village Nightmare.

However, Shi An didn’t feel disappointed in the slightest. The options were fewer, but the quality was extremely high! Ultimately, he chose three items.

[1. Special: Black Knight]

[Description: Converts a special lifeform ’Black Knight Anomaly’ and contracts it as a Safe Zone employee. You can manage this anomaly, but you also need to pay it remuneration...]

[Skills: Earth Splitting Slash (Level 3), Martial Arts Master (Level 3), Armor Fusion (Level 3)]

It was also an anomaly employee, but this Black Knight’s Abilities were already maxed out. However, compared to Little Blood, Nether Robe, and Zhuo Ling, this Black Knight looked more like... a human!

His major Abilities all seemed like Curse Arts—and Universal Curse Arts developed by humans at that. They were similar to the likes of Instantaneous Sword and Phantom Step. The only difference was that compared to human Dream Descenders, the Black Knight had stats that were slightly higher by a few billion points. He had immense physical strength in his left hand and powerful Curse Power in his right. If he hadn’t lacked intelligence and fought purely on instinct, Little Blood might not have been able to take him down.

When Shi An was making his selection, he already felt the Black Knight resembled a human. After recruiting him, this proved to be even more true. The manifested Black Knight wasn’t the three or four-meter-tall black-armored giant from before, but rather... a muscular human standing about 1.8 or 1.9 meters tall!

Well, more like a human who had died and come back to life. His skin emanated a grayish-black aura of death, and his eyes were somewhat dim. If his body were sliced open, he might not even bleed red blood. But he simply looked human.

The Black Knight spoke. "Knight Li Feng pledges his loyalty to you. I shall use my sword to slay all anomalies."

At this point, he fell silent. He seemed to realize that he was an anomaly himself now.

However, his three anomaly colleagues stared wide-eyed. Little Blood picked up a signboard, and blood stains surfaced to outline a line of text: "Why do you know how to talk!"

Zhuo Ling also used water currents to write in midair, "Yeah, yeah!"

Black Knight Li Feng remained silent, ignoring them.

Shi An was also surprised. He immediately asked about Li Feng’s situation. This Black Knight anomaly might have truly been human in life. After death, a sliver of his Will remained unextinguished, and through a series of coincidences, he transformed into an anomaly before finally being converted into an employee. However, other than remembering his own name, he had no other memories.

Shi An felt a bit regretful. "But my Safe Zone is still very small in scale," he thought. "I’ve only just started expanding into the deep layers of the Nightmare, so knowing too many secrets wouldn’t be of any use anyway."

He patted Li Feng on the shoulder. "The events of the past are already fading like smoke and clouds. From now on, just live your life well."

"Yes, sir."

Black Knight Li Feng stated that he would serve as a sharp blade and work hard to advance his Cultivation. Afterward, he cast a glance at the Curse Scroll that Zhuo Ling had tossed aside. He immediately entered a mysterious state.

He had learned the Rare Curse Art, ’Curse Armor’.

Zhuo Ling protested via writing, "I clearly started learning it first!"

Under Shi An’s arrangements, Li Feng went to Training Room No. 1 to briefly test his Abilities.

His Skills were indeed straightforward and unadorned. Earth Splitting Slash was originally a short-to-medium range Curse Art that could only be aimed at the ground, but he had already trained it to the Peak Realm. He could use it freely in the air or on the ground, and transition seamlessly between slashes.

Armor Fusion was similar to Little Blood’s ultimate move, Blood Demon Incarnation. It could be used directly, or paired with a Curse Object. The Dusk Armor that dropped when Little Blood killed the ’Black Knight’s predecessor’ was perfectly suited for Li Feng to use.

Black Knight Li Feng’s Skills truly weren’t special; he just possessed pure power. Strong stats. Strong techniques. Strong Talent.

He possessed incredibly profound Martial Arts Techniques, and as he trained and cultivated, his techniques improved at a visible rate. When Shi An cultivated at the Extreme Intent Martial Arts Hall, he also had an old master teaching him hand-in-hand. However, in his eyes, the martial arts of those old masters were far inferior to Li Feng’s.

In the future, he could actually learn some techniques from him here. He could also have Li Feng give special tutoring to newcomers like Hair Ghost and Lina. After all, Li Feng could truly pretend to be human—unlike Zhuo Ling, who could only pretend to be a ’mute’.

Zhuo Ling didn’t want to act aloof and cold; it was purely because she couldn’t speak, damn it!

"Li Feng is strong and can speak human language. In the future, if there are tasks in reality that require taking action, I can hand them over to him," Shi An thought.

Shi An’s second chosen reward was:

[2. Special: Advanced Member Card x 3]

[Description 1: Advanced Member Card holders will receive a premonition half an hour before descending into a dream. At the same time, an Advanced Member Card can form a team of up to ten members, creating a group that descends into a dream and returns simultaneously.]

[Description 2: The Advanced Member Card’s ability to open channels is stronger than the Member Card. When using the ’Cross Dream Realm’ permission, it can traverse longer distances.]

[Note: Advanced Members can only be promoted from regular members.]

Shi An immediately used an Advanced Member Card on himself. He wasn’t afraid of suddenly descending into a dream, because he usually slept, ate, and showered within the Safe Zone. He wasn’t like other Dream Descenders who feared being abruptly dragged into the Nightmare World. However, Shi An still strongly disliked the suddenness and unpredictability of descending into a dream.

Now, he would have a premonition.

"However, the biggest change is the ability to team up with up to ten members," he thought. "This means Advanced Members can form a battle squad.

"Whether it’s raiding a Nightmare or exploring, a single Dream Descender is often not strong enough; teaming up is the mainstream approach.

"For the team-up items on the market, grouping four people is already considered a lot, but my Advanced Members can group ten people."

Shi An nodded slightly.

However, he didn’t plan to release the Advanced Member status too early. Firstly, the Advanced Member Cards were limited. Until the Safe Zone’s first-tier members could raid high-difficulty Nightmares like this, he wouldn’t have many Advanced Member Cards in his hands. Secondly, unlike before, there was no longer a rush to put the Member Cards on display.

The contribution threshold for Advanced Members could be set higher. This would serve as bait for the first-tier members, demonstrating the usefulness of Contribution Points.

Of course...

"Contribution Points can be developed to have more uses," Shi An mused. "Aside from obtaining Basic Level membership, they can also be used to exchange for purchasing rights to high-value Treasures in the Safe Zone and the right to use advanced facilities."

High-end goods would require spending both Dream Crystals and Contribution Points to purchase. But the consumed Contribution Points wouldn’t affect the total accumulated amount, which was the metric for obtaining higher-level memberships.

As for what kind of high-end goods to introduce? Shi An had already figured that out too. The answer lay in the third reward he had just selected.