Chapter 202 – Hidden Quest (Part 2)
After accepting the mission, the first task prompt appeared:
[Talk to Sherlock and listen to his introduction.]
It was similar to the steps in the giant mission—basically a cutscene to start the quest, with quite a few possible details embedded in it.
Sherlock then rambled on to Zhou Ning, explaining some of the mission's details.
"It started about a month ago. At the time, the Darkland East District Police Department was investigating a string of missing-person cases. After some digging, they narrowed their target to a wealthy businessman named Jeremy Wayne Aiden."
"His neighbor had reported to the police, claiming that the night before, while passing by Aiden's yard, they saw a group of undead—and among them was the figure of one of the missing teenagers."
"Many people didn't take it seriously at first, because on the surface, Aiden was a mega-rich tycoon. He owned a large carriage rental company, with last year's total annual revenue exceeding 200,000 Vecktas."
"On top of that, he was a devout follower of the Ascetic Church, highly active in the local community, and always willing to help others. He was also politically active, a close friend of many nobles, and often offered free labor services. In fact, during last year's Sun Goddess Christmas Parade, he was appointed Parade Director by the church, with a bright future ahead of him."
"But when police raided his mansion on Canary Street, they found it was basically a giant graveyard. Aiden had already transferred most of his assets and fled beforehand. Around his estate, the police dug up a total of 35 corpses—many of them just parts that couldn't be pieced back together. Aiden seemed to have an obsessive fascination with death. He cold-bloodedly killed countless people—burying the remains of 28 victims inside his own fireplace and gas pipes, four in his yard, and dumping the other three known victims into the nearby Seton River."
"Because there were clear signs of supernatural involvement, Ian and Cherry stepped in to investigate. In a hidden room in Aiden's mansion, they found handcuffs, folding knives, ropes, incense, idols, an altar, and other items. They confirmed that Aiden had been diagnosed with a terminal illness earlier this year, so he tried to sacrifice living people to an evil god—reviving it, pleasing it, and seeking its blessing. He had even converted a significant number of his employees into cultists—some willing, some forced. Oh, right—remember the carriage driver who rammed into the schoolyard with alchemical explosives? He was one of Aiden's employees."
"We don't know if his sacrifice succeeded, but personally, I think it did—because afterward, Aiden seemed to be in perfect health."
"That very night, Ian and the others really did see many undead in Aiden's house and yard. Some were zombie-like, highly aggressive, while others were more like resentful spirits, simply wandering in place."
"Then, as you saw, Ian's luck turned terrible for quite a while, and sightings of undead spread across Darkland, growing worse as time went on."
Zhou Ning exhaled—this story was quite grotesque. Just from the description, he could already picture Jeremy Wayne Aiden.
A cold-blooded, ruthless, cunning man.
"Did they ever catch Aiden?"
"No. That's why I wanted your help. We want to capture him and uncover the real cause of the undead outbreak, but we're short-handed." Sherlock shook his head.
He then handed Zhou Ning a thick stack of files. "These are the case files for the incident. They should help you."
"What about you guys?" Zhou Ning asked.
"We've got other operations to handle." Sherlock spread his hands helplessly. "If you need, Kyle Robbins can be temporarily assigned to you."
"Better not." Zhou Ning shook his head and began reading the files.
The first was a portrait of Jeremy Wayne Aiden—a middle-aged man, obese, fair-skinned, with brown eyes. His physical traits were very distinctive.
He flipped through the files page by page. Only after he finished did the mission prompt appear on his panel.
[The Undead's Trail]
[This is a large chained mission. You can advance its progress by completing the objectives below.]
[The Hidden Truth: In the abandoned mansion on Canary Street, find a tattered diary.]
[Mansion Mystery: Near a certain old house in South Westshire (coordinates 749, 1212), find a wandering undead. This undead hides an unknown clue—locate it and uncover its true cause of death.]
[Origin of the Undead: In the Templeport City Library lies a book called Origin of the Undead. Find it and bring it back.]
[Resentful Spirits in the Night: On Lantern Avenue in the Trade District, some resentful spirits are wandering. Eliminate them or uncover their true cause of death.]
[Aiden's Whereabouts: Rumor has it that Aiden was spotted in the Rustu District of the city's west side. Find him, tail him, and uncover his secret.]
[This is the first stage of the mission chain. It may affect the main storyline and faction development. Once completed, it will be irreversible. Proceed with caution.]
[First Stage Reward: 400,000 EXP. You can complete the objectives in any order, and only need to finish one to request mission completion. Additional rewards will be granted based on performance.]
Zhou Ning wasn't surprised—main story-related missions had always offered high freedom and flexibility. Many objectives were optional, and the outcomes were variable.
Even completing just one task would let you turn it in for the base reward, but it would affect the mission's subsequent flow.
For example, if you skipped Aiden's Whereabouts and turned in the first stage, the next stage might still have you search for Aiden, leading to an entirely different quest route and ending.
One thing was certain—the more objectives you completed, the higher the completion rating and the better the rewards.
And the rewards were indeed generous—the first stage alone offered nearly 400,000 EXP. The extra rewards for completing the other objectives could be anything—random items, rare specialties—no one knew.
But the missions were a real pain—spread across multiple districts of Darkland, ridiculously tedious, with two even requiring travel to South Westshire and Templeport.
South Westshire wasn't too bad, but Templeport was in the far southwest of Bryston. Even by steam train, the trip would take over ten hours—a huge time sink. Total scam.
After parting ways with Sherlock, Zhou Ning walked down the main street toward the Trade District, deep in thought.
"Since I've already taken on this scam of a mission, I can't just drop it. Is there a way to finish it without wasting too much time?"
An idea suddenly struck him.
He opened the Starry Sky Guild's panel, created several sub-missions, and posted them. Following the chain mission's structure, he split The Hidden Truth, Mansion Mystery, Origin of the Undead, Resentful Spirits in the Night, and Aiden's Whereabouts into individual guild missions.
Accepting these missions required 3,500 guild contribution points—meaning you'd have to either donate heavily or take on Adventurer's Guild quests to help level up the guild while earning contribution points.
Of course, Zhou Ning didn't forget to mark them as "Main Story Missions." If they were related to the main story, they counted as main story. No problem there.
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