Chapter 616 - 596: Accepting a Mission

You could say this method was brutally simple, but under the circumstances, it was exceptionally effective.

The strong rise, the weak fall, and ultimately, only the strong are chosen.

And teams led by the strong would undoubtedly have a higher chance of completing missions when facing Mutated Zombies, which was precisely what the Military Department wanted.

"Boss, which mission should we pick?" Little Fatty asked, feeling dazzled as he stared at the missions constantly appearing on the LCD screen.

Sometimes, these missions would appear in clusters, which often meant the Abyssal Creatures had launched another large-scale offensive, with several defensive points sending out calls for help.

At other times, some missions would simply vanish. This could mean they were accepted by a team, or it could mean a defensive fortification on the front lines had been breached and the mission was canceled.

You could get a sense of the ever-changing battlefield just by looking at these posted missions.

At this moment, Lin Xinghai frowned slightly as he watched the constantly refreshing list of missions.

There were many missions on the screen, but not necessarily many that were suitable for them.

According to the rules set by the Military Department, a team like theirs, which had never completed any missions, could only accept First Level Tasks.

Most First Level Tasks awarded few Points and were time-consuming. Many involved assisting in the defense of a location, requiring them to stay for four or five hours, yet the Points awarded were less than 5,000.

For such a small amount of Points, it would be more worthwhile for Lin Xinghai to just kill a couple of Tier Two Mutated Zombies than to complete one of these missions.

His gaze couldn’t help but drift toward the Second Level Tasks. Among them were some emergency rescue missions. This type of mission offered high rewards and took less time, making them undoubtedly much better than First Level Tasks.

It wasn’t impossible to accept a Second Level Task without having completed any previous missions, but the conditions were a bit strict.

Either the team had to have a full roster of 100 members, or it had to be led by an expert at the Body Shaping Realm Middle Stage or higher.

Only by meeting one of these two requirements could a team accept a Second Level Task without any prior combat record.

Lin Xinghai was already starting to consider whether he should first find a team to cooperate with and build up their combat record.

As long as they completed one mission, the Military Department’s intelligent system would conduct a preliminary assessment of their individual combat power based on their battlefield recorder data, and they would naturally be able to accept Second Level Tasks next time.

With this in mind, Lin Xinghai’s gaze wandered as he mulled over which plan would be better.

But suddenly, his ears twitched, and his gaze was involuntarily drawn to a small arena at the edge of the Mission Hall.

That was the place for teams to settle their disputes.

Normally, he wouldn’t have been interested in watching, no matter how fiercely people were fighting there. But now, not only was he drawn in, he even started walking over to join the crowd.

The reason was simple: the two groups locked in a tense standoff had somehow started talking about him.

Of course, under normal circumstances, Lin Xinghai couldn’t be bothered to care, but right now... ’I’m lacking an opportunity to show what I can do!’

...

「Two minutes earlier...」

Fourth-year student Guan An was waiting quietly with his team members.

After arriving in Changshi City in the early hours of the previous night, they had started accepting missions back-to-back, fighting with high intensity right up to the present moment.

The results they achieved were gratifying. He had now risen into the top 500 on the Points leaderboard, and besides him, two other members of his team had also made it onto the board.

Guan An knew that this was far from their limit. They had wasted a lot of time on previous missions due to inexperience and other reasons.

On one rescue mission, they had been delayed by an attack from Abyssal Creatures, causing them to arrive too late. The mission failed, and they even had a large number of Points deducted as a penalty.

Otherwise, the members of his team would definitely have a lot more Points by now, and he himself might have broken into the top 400 on the leaderboard.

After learning a series of lessons, he had undoubtedly become much more level-headed and had a clearer understanding of which missions were best suited for his team.

So even though several missions well within their capabilities had just appeared, he forced himself to hold back and not accept them, choosing to wait instead.

Suddenly, his expression hardened, his eyes glued to a Second Level Task that had just scrolled onto the LCD screen.

It was another rescue mission. The location wasn’t far from where they were, which meant it would take less time to get there, and the probability of being obstructed would be greatly reduced.

Furthermore, according to the mission briefing, a frontline stronghold was under attack by a horde of Abyssal Creatures, led by a Second Level "Giant Arm."

Among the many Second Level Mutated Zombies, the "Giant Arm" was actually one of the more popular types to fight. This was because the only terrifying thing about a "Giant Arm" was its Power; its movement Speed wasn’t particularly high.

This meant that when facing a "Giant Arm" as a team, one could use kiting tactics.

For a team of their strength, dealing with it wouldn’t be too difficult, yet the rewards were extremely high.

In addition to the 30,000 Points from the mission itself, the "Giant Arm" would provide another 4,000 Points. All in all, this was an excellent mission among the Second Level Tasks.

Without any hesitation, Guan An immediately led his members to the mission window.

But just as he expected, they were definitely not the only team to have spotted such a good mission.

In the end, five teams had their eyes on this mission at the same time.

However, after a whole night of fighting, everyone had a certain understanding of each other’s strength. After sizing each other up, the other three teams wisely backed down.

But one team from Capital University remained, quite determined to compete with them for the mission.

"Cui Ming, you’re the only one in your team in the Body Shaping Realm, but my team has two. Our overall strength is definitely greater than yours. Why don’t you do me a favor and let me have this mission?" Guan An said in a low voice.

"Heh, you say ’let you have it’ and I should just let you? You think your ’favor’ is worth that much?" Cui Ming said with a chuckle.

"This isn’t just about favors. Our team is clearly stronger. Entrusting this mission to us is the responsible thing to do for the soldiers on the front lines," Guan An argued, laying out the reasoning.

"We’re all just here for the Points. Don’t be so pretentious; it’s making me a little sick. Besides, the Military Department has already set the rules. As the saying goes, ’you can’t have a society without rules.’ Let’s just follow the Military Department’s rules and settle this in the ring. What’s the point of all this chatter?" Cui Ming said mockingly.

"A fine ’society without rules,’ but you’re just trying to exploit a loophole," Guan An retorted with equal scorn.

He and Cui Ming were both at the Body Shaping Realm Middle Stage. If they really fought, he certainly wasn’t afraid of his opponent. The problem was, both of them specialized in Defense. If they actually went at it, it would probably take at least half an hour to determine a winner.

However, the military’s rescue operations couldn’t wait, so they were only given five minutes to decide a winner.

If a winner couldn’t be decided within five minutes, the system would automatically assign the mission to one of the teams based on their past performance.

And unfortunately for them, because they had failed a rescue mission before, their rating in the system’s scoring was definitely lower than their opponent’s.

That was why Guan An said the other guy was just exploiting a loophole in the rules. Cui Ming didn’t need to win at all; he just needed to stall for five minutes to get the mission.

"Exploiting loopholes is a skill too. Besides, if we really fought, how could a student from East Sea Academy possibly compare to a student from Capital University at the same Realm?" Cui Ming continued to mock him.

"You’re full of shit! If you’ve got the guts, fight me outside!" Guan An roared.

"Hah!" Cui Ming laughed contemptuously. "Don’t be salty. Just look at the Points leaderboard. Even at the Peak of the Body Shaping Realm, your strongest guy, Xiang Tianhua, is only in 5th place. Oh, right, I also heard that the ’Number 1 Genius’ of your East Sea Academy is actually a freshman. How laughable!"