“We’ll crash here for tonight. As for tomorrow... we’ll talk when dawn drags its pale net over the sky.”
She picked a halfway decent hotel, an island in gray tides, and only after confirming the whole building was empty did Nana Toki return to the room and sink onto the wide bed like a stone vanishing into fog.
As for Luo Shanshan and Misty Tide. The former bolted into the bathroom, steam already coiling like white serpents; the latter just stood at the door like a stunned scarecrow, golden eyes reflecting frost.
Nana Toki didn’t have time to herd these two little fools; her mood was a taut bowstring, and other business smoldered like embers under ash.
What did this Sub-Quest even mean?
She opened her task interface. Letters rose up like ink on water.
[Sub-Quest: Lord of the Fog City]
[Description: None]
[Current Progress: (629/1000) (0/1)]
The System had thrown this at her on day one, the moment the mist dropped like a lid over the world. Almost a week now, and aside from the numbers ticking like fireflies, nothing had changed.
No description, sure, but she already knew the first bracket was Corpse Devourer kills; she’d paid attention while hacking those things apart, her ability thickening like storm clouds the more she culled.
As long as she didn’t feed Misty Tide her ability, her own hunger lay quiet like a dog under the table.
Only... what was that (0/1) supposed to be?
Was there something in this fogbound city besides Corpse Devourers, some other beast hiding like a reef under the tide?
Nana Toki raked the fog in her head and caught nothing but cold air.
The System gave no hint, as if tossing a fan shut. Reason given: the host’s Fortune Value was too low to deserve tips.
Fine. Always ask if I’m “worthy” first.
Nana Toki, Fortune Value deep in the negatives, swallowed the loss like bitter tea. If you won’t tell me, I’ll grind it out myself.
And yet. She still couldn’t make sense of this Sub-Quest, not even with thoughts circling like crows.
Don’t tell me that bastard System threw it out just to disgust me.
She maligned the System in her head, black ink on white snow.
System: “...”
A proverb says: sub-quests refine into hidden quests. Host, it’s best you complete them.
Is there a reward?
That was what she cared about, like a gambler sniffing rain.
Yes.
How much Fortune Value? We starting at ten-thousand?
System: “...”
Item reward only. No Fortune Value.
What good is that.
The moment she heard there was no Fortune Value, her mood crashed like a wave against rock.
No Fortune Value? Then why issue the damn quest.
I’m not doing this dogshit Sub-Quest!
Please don’t be willful, Host.
Willful? This is called protest.
“...”
In short, the more Sub-Quests you complete, the better they boost progress on Hidden and Main Quests.
Wait. I’ve got a question.
Since we’re talking quests anyway, Nana Toki remembered things she’d never asked, thoughts bubbling up like spring water.
Go ahead, Host.
What’s the difference between Main and Hidden?
Main Quests must be completed. If not, the plane fails, and you’ll be erased like chalk in rain. Hidden Quests are optional.
However, the Fortune Value from Main Quests is less than from Hidden Quests.
So if I want more Fortune Value, I still have to do Hidden Quests.
Yes.
What about Sub-Quests?
They speed up Hidden Quest completion.
Nana Toki: “...”
For fuck’s sake, so I still have to do the Sub-Quest.
System: “By the way, Host, the Corpse Devourers in this fog are running low. If we don’t hurry, we won’t finish the Sub-Quest.”
“What do you mean?” A bad premonition flapped its wings in her chest.
The Protagonist Lord’s side is also killing Corpse Devourers to strengthen his ability. If we’re slow and the monsters run out, that’s it.
Something this important and you didn’t say earlier, you trash System? Nana Toki jolted like she’d touched ice.
You didn’t ask, Host.
Nana Toki: “...”
Won’t new Corpse Devourers spawn?
Not unless more people die.
Nana Toki: “...”
Fuck!
“You... what are you doing?”
While Nana Toki was grinding her teeth over the Sub-Quest, Luo Shanshan came out of the shower, drying hair dripping like rain off eaves.
The moment she stepped out, she met Misty Tide’s golden eyes, cold coins in the dark; a shiver ran through her like a gust through bamboo, and she almost plopped on the floor.
If they hadn’t lived together a while, she’d think Misty Tide meant to pounce.
“...”
“Xixi, you going to shower too?”
Skirting around Misty Tide like tiptoeing past a sleeping tiger, Luo Shanshan edged to Nana Toki’s side and asked softly.
“Yeah.”
Nana Toki locked the door and latched the window, iron on iron. Only then did she take the towel from Luo Shanshan and head for the bathroom.
She passed Misty Tide, paused, and stared, disbelief flashing like lightning.
WTF...
“You little brat, how long have you not bathed?”
Misty Tide always looked blank and silly, a second-rate fool with a doll’s face. Nana Toki hadn’t expected that this fool didn’t bathe at all.
The faint reek coming off that small body hit like rusted knives—blood-stink and rot—and it almost killed Nana Toki on the spot.
And it wasn’t the sour sweat of someone skipping showers. It was the extreme of stink—one-note, brutal, a punch to the nose up front with aftershock that clung like wet wool.
Nana Toki nearly got lightheaded, the way fumes rise off a swamp.
How hadn’t she smelled it when they’d been together before?
She squinted at the little thing before her, bemused as if watching smoke take shape.
“Eat... eat...”
Nana Toki: “...”
We’re at this point and you’re still thinking about food?
“Forget eating. Get your ass in here and wash.”
Pinching her nose and wearing a stormy face, Nana Toki grabbed Misty Tide by the back collar and hauled her in like a chick snatched from a coop.
Behind them, watching the two march into the bathroom, Luo Shanshan’s eyes flickered like a cat’s.
Hmm... should I just stop showering too?
...
Next day.
When the sky was still a smear of ash, Nana Toki got up, a shadow peeling from a wall.
You couldn’t see the sun in this fog, like a lantern snuffed in cotton; usually this hour meant eight or nine outside.
After checking the room again—locks and latches quiet as sleeping snakes—she felt the bed’s edge and shook Luo Shanshan awake.
No need to wake Misty Tide; the girl hadn’t slept, a statue in the night.
“Wha... what is it, Xixi...”
Half-asleep, Luo Shanshan blinked through misty lashes, words slurring like warm honey.
“We’re going to kill people.”
“Huh?!”
Sleep evaporated like dew in sun; Luo Shanshan jolted upright.
“Wh-who are we killing?”
Nana Toki: “...” Look at you, so little courage; I say kill and you shiver like a leaf.
“Corpse Devourers.”
Luo Shanshan: “...”
“Honestly, Xixi, don’t scare me. I thought you meant actual people.”
She pouted, cheeks puffing like steamed buns, and tugged the quilt around her shoulders.
“Enough. Since you’re up, wash up. We’re working soon.”
On this, Nana Toki was all edges and urgency, wind before rain.
Last night the System said the Protagonist Lord was also farming Corpse Devourers; she had to speed up or get left in the dust.
According to the System, there were about six hundred Corpse Devourers left in the whole fog city, and she had to personally kill nearly four hundred. That number loomed like a mountain ridge.
The Protagonist Lord had a squad of nearly thirty. Their speed in clearing and finding monsters was a river compared to her stream. This was a race against an hourglass bleeding sand.
Damn it, if she’d known, she wouldn’t have let Luo Shanshan and Misty Tide, those two “tools,” help with kills these days.
Just thinking about yesterday afternoon’s big cluster of Corpse Devourers that Misty Tide mowed down made Nana Toki’s heart ache like a split drum.
“You two will sweep the area and pull monsters over. I’m going to wipe them out in one go.”
“Eh?”
Luo Shanshan froze, as if a bird had flown into a window. What was Xixi suddenly saying?
“We’re pulling aggro?”
She wondered if she’d misheard. Nana Toki pointed at her, then at Misty Tide.
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“At least a hundred and thirty each.”
“At least a hundred and thirty!” Luo Shanshan’s voice cracked like thin ice. “Xixi, are you crazy!”
“I’m not.”
Arms crossed, face blank as a stone tablet, Nana Toki answered.
“A hundred and thirty Corpse Devourers minimum—never mind luring them. Once they’re here, what do you want to do?”
“Kill them all.”
“Can’t we do it like usual, one by one?” Luo Shanshan stared, breath quick as sparrows. “Even if you want to boost your ability, this is way too extreme. We can’t beat over a hundred right now!”
Forget a hundred and thirty. With the fog rolling in more often, the Corpse Devourers were getting stronger, teeth like knives in fresh bone.
Even Misty Tide could only tangle with a dozen or so at once, vines against a boar.
Nana Toki’s first-fog leek-harvest tactic was basically impossible now.
“We can beat them,” Nana Toki said, confidence dropping like an anchor.
Luo Shanshan: “...”
“Will Misty Tide listen?”
“I’ll bribe her with ability.”
“...”
“Rendezvous in twenty minutes.”
Without waiting for an answer, Nana Toki grabbed her Black Great Axe and slipped out, shadow to wind.
She left Luo Shanshan gaping like a fish and Misty Tide crouched on the floor, poking at an ant nest like a child stirring a brook.
Luo Shanshan: “...”
...
“Captain, we spotted other people near the next square. And we saw signs of life at the library in the commercial center.”
With a thunder spear that cracked like a split sky, Bei Yuan finished the last Corpse Devourer in that zone. He paused, casual as drifting clouds. “So?”
“It’s Misty Tide and Luo Shanshan from the wanted notice.”
“Hm?”
The answer knocked a pebble loose in Bei Yuan’s composure. So that group didn’t die after all.
“What are they doing?” He took the water Jiang Xinli handed him and sipped, cool stream over stone.
“They’re luring Corpse Devourers.”
“Oh?”
Interesting. After all this time, they show up by drawing a tide of monsters. Realizing they can’t keep up, and now they’re desperate?
“How many did they pull?” Bei Yuan’s tone stayed level, a lake in wind.
“Close to two hundred...”
“Pfft!”
He sprayed the water he’d just sipped, eyes sharp as knives flicking up. “How many?”
“T-two hundred...”
