Sacred Souls: Genesis
Chapter 586 - 565: Awakening with Milk Added for Free (First Update)

Chapter 586: Chapter 565: Awakening with Milk Added for Free (First Update)

Caramel, with no extra charge for extra support, had returned from the Void Lockdown instance to Biland Island.

She survived the Void Lockdown and retained her title as the top healer among the Spiritualists.

The six and a half hour long Void Lockdown instance had elevated Caramel from level seventy to seventy-one.

Ever since the new version was updated, the Spiritualist level ranking list finally saw some changes.

Currently ranked fifth on the Spiritualist level leaderboard, Caramel was only trailing behind Caramel, the White Emperor, and Juan Canyun by about ten percent of the experience bar.

But Caramel didn’t feel happy. She was never that interested in rankings or PVP... and as for money, Caramel had earned enough of it.

Over the three months she acted as a Spiritualist intermediary, Caramel had earned a substantial amount of Divine Power Crystals from fees alone, enough to pay off the heavy debts left by her parents.

All debts paid... there was no longer a reason to cling to Gold Coins like before, but this feeling of being debt-free plunged Caramel into a strange sense of emptiness.

Her entire life’s motivation used to be about making money, and for Gold Coins she could do all kinds of crazy things, but now making money had lost its meaning for Caramel.

So did she still need to keep trying?

Whenever Caramel asked herself this question, Jiang Qiao’s face would always surface in her mind... She had also tried various ways to deepen her relationship with Jiang Qiao.

But it was in vain... Caramel always felt a subtle distance between her and Jiang Qiao.

This distance was most intense in the game, Jiang Qiao was indeed a player who liked Spiritualists.

Therefore, if she wanted to pursue Jiang Qiao, Caramel knew she needed to improve her strength and reputation within Spiritualists.

No boy under the sky would reject a girl who was a king-ranked ladder player, who could control the whole game and lead her teammates to victory in every match... especially when that girl was also pretty and had a great figure.

This was not Caramel bragging; she was absolutely confident in her appearance.

Yet, Jiang Qiao never gave any feedback to Caramel, and not because he had a competitive personality or disliked being less skilled at gaming than a girl.

It was because... Jiang Qiao took it for granted that Caramel would achieve all these things!

Jiang Qiao never marveled at Caramel’s achievements in Spiritualists, not even when Zhao Mingwei, the top Spiritualist of the Nameless Guild, was around; he remained nonchalant.

This was where Caramel felt the greatest sense of discord.

What do I need to do to get your attention? How can I make you think I’m amazing, outstanding?

These thoughts occupied Caramel’s mind until the release of the new version, when she realized... the reason Jiang Qiao could so calmly accept the presence of so many other Spiritualist players.

Queen Mei was sick.

After Miss Cat from Biland Island disappeared for several days, driving the players almost crazy, the new version came with an update.

A new mini map of the Royal Palace area in Lionheart City was opened, namely Queen Mei’s bedroom.

In this bedroom, players saw Queen Mei, who laid on her bed stricken with a severe illness, like a doll lying still.

There were air walls inside the bedroom, preventing players from getting close to Queen Mei on the bed, but they could still look at her from a distance.

Caramel could hear the wailing of the players around her, yet as she gazed at Queen Mei on the bed... she felt something else.

Firstly, the person on the bed was indeed Queen Mei, not some model replacement; she was the same Queen Mei who played the role of Miss Cat. Secondly, Her Majesty was indeed sick, not merely pretending to be ill in bed for some new version event.

But what really silenced Caramel was... she sensed that Queen Mei and Jiang Qiao suffered from the same illness.

Perhaps other players felt nothing, but being the top healer in Spiritualists, Caramel could sense various curses and erosions to some extent.

The symptoms that had afflicted Jiang Qiao were those of the Void Erosion, and now these symptoms had appeared on Queen Mei.

How could Jiang Qiao, a regular player, possibly contract an illness of a game NPC?

Caramel couldn’t think of any other reasons, and as she stepped out of Queen Mei’s bedroom, she triggered a series of plot-driven quests.

It was the storyline quest involving the Filling Sanctuary heist.

The plot of the quest was that Queen Mei’s knights and Spiritualists couldn’t find an antidote to heal her, so pirate Drake covertly contacted the Spiritualists saying... he knew how to find the queen’s antidote, but it was locked in a dangerous vault.

This was a common plot development, and players simply thought that completing this storyline would cure Queen Mei’s illness.

But Caramel thought differently, and before she could verify her idea, she had to find a team to take on this series of plot quests.

"Hi there! Need a healer?"

Caramel, as usual, approached a very, very rich-looking raid party at the entrance to the instance in Pirate City.

"Holy fuck! Caramel, the great... long time no see," the Swordsman, taken aback, exclaimed upon seeing Caramel emerge from nowhere.

"Missing, of course, we’re missing one! How much do you want for this run?"

The team captain was none other than the Black Wind Village chief, Shen Meng, who almost suffered a heart attack when she found out that Queen Mei was sick.

Fortunately, as Queen Mei’s Chief Knight, she could contact Queen Mei via mail, and only after Queen Mei assured her in the correspondence that she wasn’t in grave danger, did she feel somewhat relieved.

"Free."

Caramel offered a price... causing the colleagues from Shen Meng’s Black Wind Village to collectively take a step back.

"Is Caramel, the great, coming up with some new money-making scheme?"

"I heard this instance has profit-sharing, how much do you want, Caramel?"

"I only want one designated item from the loot that the instance drops," said Add Milk, Not Price, and upon hearing this, the members of Black Wind Village exchanged glances with each other.

The moniker "Never Lose Add Milk Sister" really stuck, even now it was still spreading among the Spirits.

"The medicine for Queen Mei’s illness is off the table," Chen Meng was very decisive on this front.

"This instance can be run as many times as you’d like, anyway; so you can have as much of that medicine as you want," Add Milk, Not Price said, indicating that there was no shortage of the stuff.

That’s right... Anything that can be repeatedly farmed is considered the least valuable thing among the Spirits.

Ultimately, Add Milk, Not Price came to an agreement with the members of Black Wind Village, joining their twenty-person team.

As one of the few guilds formed by ordinary players, Black Wind Village barely made it into the top ten among the Spirits, though their strength wasn’t poor by any means.

This new Filling Sanctuary heist mission was different from the previous ones, where you’d march straight into the instance and take action.

To enhance players’ immersion, Spirit also added a robbery planning phase.

When Chen Meng led her team members into the instance, they weren’t in a simulated map of Filling Sanctuary but in one of Pirate Drake’s underground hideouts.

"You’re here? Newbies," Pirate Drake greeted Chen Meng’s teammates warmly and promptly began planning the heist.

The first phase was reconnaissance; Pirate Drake shared his plan with Chen Meng, who would then further develop the plan and assign roles.

All the Spirits genuinely felt like they were preparing for a major heist, rather than sticking to the predictable process of entering an instance, fighting mobs, and killing the boss that’s typical in MMORPGs.

Chen Meng was new to heists herself. She randomly chose one of the plans Drake provided before leading her team through the portal.

Add Milk, Not Price was the last to enter, stopping directly in front of Pirate Drake.

"Colleague of the King of Plunder, I want to know if this can really cure Queen Mei’s illness," Add Milk, Not Price took out the final reward of the instance, ’Void Virus Antidote,’ and asked.

"If it couldn’t heal her, would you all still be here?" Drake replied.

"..." Add Milk, Not Price hesitated for a moment upon seeing the dialogue box pop up but still directly posed the question, "I know you’re the real Pirate Drake, or rather... a real person. Tell me... does this actually work against Void Erosion?"

Drake’s expression changed slightly when asked this question. He knew the rule for cooperating with Jiang Qiao was to play dumb on such matters as the other player teams would be dealing with clones conjured by Jiang Qiao.

However, Drake was most optimistic about Chen Meng’s team, so he took it upon himself to train them personally.

But what’s the deal with this healer?

"Void Erosion! It can certainly heal it!" Drake replied, somewhat impatiently, in the most standard NPC fashion.

The NPCs of Spirit were all highly anthropomorphized, something Add Milk, Not Price had already experienced. However, she could discern who was an NPC and who was a real ’person’ from the subtle differences in their behavior and expressions.

"Unwilling to answer? No matter, I can find out the answer myself."

Add Milk, Not Price walked straight into the portal.

With the help of Add Milk, Not Price, the entire robbery plan went very smoothly, all the way until the final looting phase began.

When Add Milk, Not Price followed Chen Meng’s team into the simulated vault of Filling Sanctuary... the first thing she did was greet one of the innocent NPCs.

"Hello there."

"I don’t know anything! Please don’t kill me!" The NPC held their head, quivering with fear.

It was fake.

After taking one look at this NPC, as well as the other NPCs around who were caught up in fear, Add Milk, Not Price instantly deduced that all of this was within the native map of Spirit.

All of these were NPCs created by Spirit, which meant that everything looted here belonged to Spirit.

This was a tidy profit for an ordinary player: new equipment and Gold Coins. But for Add Milk, Not Price, it was somewhat lackluster.

The heist mission ended with a B rating this time, and in the end, Chen Meng didn’t manage to get the Void Virus Antidote, as that was a reward only available if the instance received an S rating.

It was all a rehearsal.

Add Milk, Not Price had spent a long time in Sustainable Sanctuary and understood what Filling Sanctuary was, as well as the purpose of these simulated instances.

But the message of the entire story-driven instance was clear.

It wasn’t Queen Mei who wanted the ’Void Virus Antidote.’ It was someone behind Queen Mei, or perhaps the game "Spirit" itself that needed it.

Thus, players were needed to raid the vault of Filling Sanctuary.

In that moment, Add Milk, Not Price understood where the discord she felt when she was with Jiang Qiao came from.

Because in order to become someone important in Jiang Qiao’s eyes, someone indispensable, it was not enough to become a top-tier player in "Spirit," secure a high ranking, amass a fortune, or possess a collection of divine equipment.

The target should be the Star Chart!

What Add Milk, Not Price needed to do was not to help the guild ’Nameless’ grow or contribute to it.

It was to help the game "Spirit"! And all of Spirit!

The treasures on the Star Chart didn’t belong to Spirit.

If "Spirit" wanted the ’Void Virus Antidote,’ then Add Milk, Not Price wouldn’t mind stealing a huge amount from the real Filling Sanctuary.

This was... what Add Milk, Not Price needed to do now!

Her target and enemy were not the Spirit players, but all the creatures within the Star Chart that weren’t part of Spirit’s native map.