Chapter 412 - 411: Temporary Contract Certificate

Chapter 412: Chapter 411: Temporary Contract Certificate

And this speculation wasn’t baseless.

The fact that Cloudmute was still alive was the best proof!

Back when Artemis went to kill Seaview, she was so fast that even Seraphina Sinclair, the one who’d sent the warning, had been stunned.

Now that it was Cloudmute’s turn, Artemis was just going easy on her?

Seraphina Sinclair would never believe that Cloudmute wasn’t involved in something shady.

’Besides... weren’t they going to pull her into the group chat?’

As long as Cloudmute was in the chat, it would confirm Seraphina’s suspicion. All she had to do then was wait for the truth to be revealed.

Seraphina Sinclair stared at the Sunflower, watching as it spat out its last ball of sunshine. Only then did she satisfyingly hoist it onto her shoulder and return to the mobile cabin.

Even with its Hunger Level depleted, the Sunflower couldn’t bear to part with the rare sun.

It looked down at the little person, then up at the sun. When it realized the little person was really taking it away, its mental voice stopped, replaced by wave after wave of whimpering sobs.

It was as if Seraphina Sinclair had done something to betray it.

Seraphina Sinclair: "..."

’There was no way she was going to waste the entire day babysitting a Sunflower sunbathing.’

Inside the cool cabin, Seraphina Sinclair stretched and glanced at the Gloom Hatchling curled into a ball off to the side.

Just looking at the little guy made her angry now.

It was lazy as hell, sleeping all day and night.

A thought suddenly popped into Seraphina’s head: ’It would be great if there was a way to communicate with the Gloom Hatchling, or if it would just obediently do whatever she said.’

She daydreamed for a moment, but figuring it wasn’t something she could achieve anytime soon, she took out her rune painting set.

After fighting Shatterer and then the Storm Dragon, Seraphina Sinclair was now keenly aware of the importance of runes.

Her old habit was to keep a stock of ten of each type of rune, thinking that would be enough.

But the truth was...

It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough!

Moreover, D-level Talismans weren’t even that powerful anymore. To fight certain monsters now, she had to resort to a "talisman-spamming" tactic, just like with low-level talismans.

The pace of The Black Mist World was fast. Danger constantly forced people to grow, never letting them stay in their comfort zone for long.

Seraphina Sinclair lifted her brush and calmly painted a rune. Just as she was about to start the next one, a panel suddenly popped up before her.

It was the settlement announcement for the current dungeon instance.

At three in the afternoon, this week’s dungeon instance had finally, officially ended.

Seraphina Sinclair quickly scanned past the useless nonsense in the system announcement, looking for the Evaluation she had received for this instance.

When she saw the familiar "S," a brilliant smile spread across her face, and she let out a genuine sigh of relief.

The rewards for this instance weren’t much different from the previous ones.

The incentive reward had indeed been doubled, granting her 20 Black Fog Coins and two tasty little loaves of bread.

After that, just like before, the system announced the rating rules and the number of people who received each Evaluation.

Seraphina Sinclair was enjoying her delicious bread when she saw the numbers, and her eyes went wide.

’This can’t be right.’

’When did the entire Zone shrink to just over two hundred people again?’

Seraphina Sinclair clutched her bread, unable to take a bite for a long moment.

She opened the regional channel and saw that everyone was discussing this very topic.

"I thought the survival rate would get a little higher once everyone got used to this hellhole. But no, we’re all just consistently terrible, I guess. In two weeks, ten thousand people have become two hundred again."

"I don’t dare to do the math. I really don’t. If every Zone only has this many survivors, the number of dead is just too high."

"At least we’re still alive. Why think so much about it? Every day we survive is a win."

"This place might be deadly, but at least you don’t have to slave away 24/7 or worry about office politics. I’m actually kind of enjoying it. Just treat it like a realistic VR game. Who knows, maybe you really do go back after you die."

"The guy above has a great attitude."

"Since there are only two hundred of us left, does that mean we’re getting another Zone merger?"

"If the Zones merge, won’t Artemis be stuck with all those Expansion Crystals she’s hoarding? People from other Zones won’t put up with her crap. The prices will definitely be driven back down."

"That’s the problem. Artemis is really smart. You all saw the elite group chat this morning. Those bugs will literally eat your cabin down to nothing. If you don’t upgrade, you’re dead. Compared to that, what’s spending a few extra resources or Black Fog Coins?"

"Yeah, yeah, I’ve been waiting for Artemis to start selling. Hurry up and sell! I’ll buy them at any price. If I don’t, I’m dead."

"You guys have no backbone! Are you just going to let these hoarding bastards walk all over you?!"

"You’ve got backbone? Then go ahead, try not upgrading your cabin for the rest of your life!"

And they started arguing again.

Seraphina Sinclair took a bite of her bread, letting the scent of wheat and milk spread through her mouth. She chewed for a long time before swallowing.

Mmm.

Nice.

Seraphina Sinclair closed the regional channel, and the dungeon reward page popped up again:

[Random Item Supply Box: 1, Advanced Survival Pack: 3, Advanced Medical Kit: 3.]

The same old stuff.

Seraphina Sinclair rubbed her hands together and took out the Random Item Supply Box.

Besides the one she had just received, she found another one inside her Silver Moon Earrings—it must have been from the last dungeon instance.

The rewards for completing the hidden ending back then had been so generous that Seraphina had completely forgotten she had this loot box to open.

She reached out and opened last week’s first.

The latch clicked open softly.

Seraphina Sinclair looked inside. A card was lying there quietly.

[Temporary Contract Certificate]

[Description: A special item with no rank. Allows you to form a temporary contract with any creature, enabling it to understand and follow your basic commands for thirty minutes. This item cannot alter a creature’s hostile status. The card will have no effect on a hostile target.]

[Note: It won’t like you, but it will listen to you. That is all.]

’This certificate... it has no rank restriction, which is good, but the duration is short, and it requires a non-hostile target.’

’In this godforsaken place, where was she supposed to find a non-hostile target?’

Even a pig would want nothing more than to ram her to death.

As she was thinking, she suddenly sensed something.

Holding the card, Seraphina Sinclair slowly turned her head.

In the corner, the Gloom Hatchling was curled into a ball, the tip of its tail resting on its nose as it slept sprawled out. It seemed to sense something, twitching its nose in its sleep before rolling over, exposing its belly, and continuing to snooze.

Seraphina Sinclair: "..."

She flipped the card over and read the note again.

"It won’t like you, but it will listen to you."

’It’s not like she ever expected this lazy thing to like her anyway. And right now, Seraphina didn’t like it either!’

There was a time when Seraphina had found it cute, but when it abandoned her and fled, any of those fond feelings had vanished right along with its retreating back.

Seraphina Sinclair clutched the card, staring at the fuzzy ball that was completely dead to the world.