This Text Adventure Game is definitely poisonous
Chapter 214 - 184 Harvest and Cost_1

Chapter 214: Chapter 184 Harvest and Cost_1

By now, all the monsters at the bottom of the river had been exterminated. Mu You faced no obstacles and quickly swam out from the icy water onto the shore.

As expected, as his head surfaced from the water, what greeted him was a row of gun muzzles pointed at him.

Mu You was not surprised at all. So much had happened, with an enemy manipulating everything from the shadows. It would’ve been strange if there were no one guarding the area.

These soldiers were just fulfilling their duties. Moreover, with the three-piece set armor equipped, ordinary firearms no longer posed a threat to him.

"Friend, it’s me!"

Zhang Yang had been waiting by the river bank all this time. Upon seeing Mu You emerge from shore, he quickly rushed over and signaled the surrounding soldiers to lower their weapons.

Mu You came ashore, wiped his wet face, and timely showed his ID from his special agency. The soldiers then saluted him and put away their guns.

"Little brother, are you injured?"

Zhang Yang promptly pulled Mu You aside, did a quick inspection to make sure he wasn’t wounded, and finally let out a sigh of relief.

"No, it’s a pity I encountered the dragon swarm no long after getting in and got separated from the main group..."

Mu You briefly explained his encounter within the swamp — up until the point he encountered the black-robed Rode; naturally, he withheld what happened subsequently. He merely mentioned that he had searched for a long time in the swamp without finding the main group, then discovered a disturbance in the spatial coordinates, sensed danger, and decided to retreat.

"Ha ha, it doesn’t matter. You’re safe, that’s what matters."

Zhang Yang laughed heartily, assuming Mu You was feeling guilty about not being able to help.

That didn’t bother him in the slightest. He had been waiting by the river for hours, during which many gamers had retreated and reported one terrifying incident after another. They had initially faced an attack from the dragon swarm with heavy casualties, then received news that the swamp’s space had been disturbed, rendering all transmission marks ineffective.

Clearly, someone had deliberately caused this. The motivation, naturally, was to target gamers venturing into the swamp.

Mu You was the player with the lowest level among those who entered the swamp. The higher-level players had made it back, but Mu You hadn’t returned, which gave Zhang Yang quite a scare.

It was only now upon seeing Mu You return safely he finally set his worries aside.

"What’s with this?"

Only now Zhang Yang noticed Mu You was dragging a person behind him.

Zhang Yang initially thought Mu You had rescued this individual along the way. But on closer inspection, he noticed the person’s pants had been removed and his entire body was bound tightly with ropes — more like a captive than a rescuee.

"This guy belongs to the Illuminati. After I got separated from the main group, he tried to ambush me, but I overpowered him," Mu You explained as he lifted the captive by his clothes like he was shaking out a rug, dislodging the water from his mouth and nose.

The captive had just been dragged into the river in his sleep and swallowed a considerable amount of water. However, even after this ordeal, he remained unconscious, only looking somewhat discomforted, which testified to the potency of the sleeping potion used.

"What? Someone from the Illuminati attacked you?"

Zhang Yang was taken aback.

"Yes, so I think... the Illuminati had a hand in this incident..."

Mu You didn’t divulge more. Once other gamers returned, more evidence would invariably emerge about the incident, revealing the truth naturally and rendering his account superfluous.

Upon hearing Mu You’s words, Zhang Yang was taken aback, immediately frowning.

As the local head of the special agency, he understood only too well what this implied.

Zhang Yang nodded seriously, "Alright, I understand. Leave this person with me. You should rest and have something to eat. I’ll arrange a plane to take you home later."

"Okay."

Mu You handed over the captive as well as a blood-colored gem to Zhang Yang, asking him to return it to the Blood Emperor later.

After that, Mu You went back to the prepared resting room. As he changed his clothes and ate the meal the army prepared, he pulled out his cell phone from his backpack.

Both Little Ya and Lin Xue had left him several messages on WeChat, inquiring about his situation. After briefly checking them, Mu You reassured them and then logged into the "Fool" game.

His game character was still in the Elf Forest, with the Qingnang Tribe, farming trolls for his mission.

Little Ya’s game avatar was nearby.

He had been away for that whole day while the two girls took turns patrolling, not only to complete the mission of farming monsters but also to protect the Tree of Life from being prematurely poached by trolls.

Mu You controlled his character to the location of the Tree of Life. Now, the Tree of Life has grown to a height of 65 meters. Even in the entire Elf Forest, it stands out distinctly.

As per his routine, Mu You used Rapid Growth ten times, completing today’s ’nurturing’. He then took a look at it.

[Almost Mature Tree of Life: The lush branches and leaves of the Tree of Life provide an abundant life essence for surrounding plants. Current height: 88.5 meters. However, rapid catalytic growth has led to the rapid exhaustion of this sapling’s potential. Both its wood quality and ultimate height will be far lower than that of a normal ancient life tree.]

Just as expected, it’s almost mature!

At this rate, in one more day, or after ’fertilizing’ it tomorrow, the Tree of Life should be fully mature. By then, its height will definitely exceed 100 meters.

As for the exhaustion of potential caused by over-accelerated growth, Mu You had no choice. He couldn’t wait hundreds of years for this tree to slowly grow into an ancient tree. He could only use this method to help it grow. A slightly lower wood quality was acceptable as long as it was used as the keel of the ship.

In this way, he should be able to harvest the Tree of Life tomorrow morning and send it to the pirates to start repairing the ship. He just didn’t know if it could be repaired before the next entry.

Speaking of the ’gate’, Mu You remembered Gemini, who had fled.

His own gate opens half a day later than Taurus’s gate. By the time he enters the next time, Taurus’s gate will open earlier. By that time, Gemini would surely have taken his people into the gate, and it would be difficult to capture him.

However, this could be easily solved. Now, in the rewards for this Elf Horn task, Mu You has a blessing that reduces cooldown, lowering the cooldown time by one-tenth.

If this blessing is applied to the gate, it will open once every nine days instead of once every ten days. This way, it could open half a day earlier than Taurus’s gate!

Mu You took out a pen and paper and roughly calculated the time.

His gate had opened at ten o’clock last Friday night. Counting in nine-day cycles, the next opening would be at ten o’clock this Sunday night.

As for the gate of Taurus, the earliest opening time would be ten thirty-five in the morning next Monday.

That is to say, by then, he would have more than twelve hours to deal with Gemini.

That should be enough!

Mu You nodded his head. He took out the Elf Horn in the game, clicked on the text, and chose to ’deliver the task’ in the interaction.

[The fairy lady, Oriya, the Blessed One, appeared in front of you. You took out the ten collected World Tree leaves. After the fairy lady inspected them, she recognized that you had completed the task.]

[The fairy lady is very satisfied with your speed and decides to give you a blessing.]

[Please choose one of the following two blessings to receive.]

[Permanently gain 7 free attribute points.]

[The cooldown time of all your magic and non-relic items is permanently reduced by 10%.]

Between the two options, Mu You took out the Pocket Watch and tried selecting the attribute points first. Seeing that indeed, seven free attribute points appeared on the panel, he immediately rewound time.

Regrettably, after the rewind, the attribute points also disappeared.

"I guess I can’t cheat the blessing after all..."

Mu You shook his head helplessly. He honestly chose the second option.

[You have successfully received the fairy’s blessing, and the cooldown time of all magic and non-relic items has reduced.]

This blessing only works on magic and ordinary items, like rejuvenation, Unceasing Trick, Thunder Wand, etc. For relics like the Time Pocket Watch, Elf Horn, and Thousand Faces, the cooldown time remains fixed and cannot be reduced by the blessing.

Mu You was checking the latest status of each of his spells, when suddenly there was a commotion outside, which quickly turned into cheers.

The cheers spread rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, the entire camp was engulfed.

An idea occurred to Mu You. This should be the return of the main players and they probably brought back news of the mission’s success.

Just as he had expected, this mission was a resounding success. Not only did they break the swamp altar, ending the Merfolk’s offensive, but they also severely weakened the power of the Ten Commandments.

Moreover, with the more than twenty players who received the altar’s curse, the initiative of the gate at the river bottom is now in the hands of the humans. The monsters on the other side can’t invade, and the Earth players can go to the swamp on the other side to grind monsters and experience at any time. In a way, it could be considered a blessing in disguise.

Of course, there was a cost. Not to mention the casualties caused by the early resistance to Merfolk invasion, most importantly, the clash led to a significant loss of power among the Godlike Players.

Six of the Godlike Players were directly downgraded to below level 15, while the other Godlike Players lost some level to varying degrees, losing a lot of experience.

From this point of view, the objective of the Ten Commandments during this time was actually achieved. After all, the fundamental purpose of this event was to deplete the power of Earth’s players. However, due to the intervention of Mu You and the Secret Technique Association, they couldn’t achieve the expected effects.