[Beginning Settlement of Mission Rewards…]
┗ Goal 1: Save the Cursed Children
╰ Reward: 491 (1 Point per 100 saved)
┗ Goal 2: Ensure humanity's survival
╰ Reward: 5000 Points
┗ Goal 3: Collect Zodiac Samples
╰ Reward: 9000 (1000 Points per sample)
┗ Goal 4: Hunt Gastrea
╰ Reward: 730,000 (1 Point per 100 Gastrea killed, 1000 Points per Zodiac)
┗ Goal 5: Conquer at least one key character
╰ Reward: 0 (Each conquest grants 1 Special Item Draw, 3000 Points)
[Evaluation: S+]
[Evaluation Reward: Special Item Draw ×5, Breath of Origin ×2]
This mission settled at a total of about 740,000 Points.
There's quite a bit to unpack in this 740,000.
First, the Cursed Children—
"Only this little…"
Zeroy frowned, immediately thinking of the Title issue.
The judgment criteria were most likely aligned with the standards of that Title.
By her reckoning, her slaughter actually saved millions of Cursed Children, but clearly, only a very small portion was recognized by the Main God Space.
For example, Cursed Children imprisoned in jails, basements, or labs; those nearly murdered; those about to die from illness, starvation, or peril. If she intervened and they would have died within a short time otherwise, that counted. However, if they were destined to die someday but not imminently, it didn't count as saving them?
That wasn't unreasonable.
Zeroy accepted this possibility. After all, those children still hadn't truly gained a safe environment to live in. With collapsing order, most pests still alive, and the Gastrea Virus unsolved, in strict terms, even these few hundred Points shouldn't have appeared.
And if not judged by short-term effects only—ignoring long-term changes—then [Goal 2: Ensure humanity's survival] might not even be achievable. Looking at Black Bullet's world, humanity's long-term survival was doubtful. Gastrea might be gone, but the Gastrea Virus remained, pests still survived, and without Gastrea, those pests would inevitably wreak havoc.
Even when Gastrea existed, the Five Wings Society still created Gastrea resistant to Varanium. That was already strange enough.
Thinking about it made Zeroy uneasy.
Before, she simply thought this world was rotten: bizarre crime rates and twisted human thinking. But the more she thought, the more she felt the entire world was incomprehensible.
First, humanity itself created the Gastrea Virus, nearly wiping themselves out. Then they shifted all the hatred and conflict onto the children. That she could not comprehend. Even from a purely utilitarian, heartless angle, decision-makers shouldn't have acted this way. Yes, it shifted domestic conflict, but compared to that, these children with special powers were far more valuable.
As Gastrea evolved, humanity would eventually be unable to resist. Then, these children would truly become the main force of resistance. Though this was a matter for the future, Zeroy didn't criticize them from an omniscient standpoint. Nations had noticed Gastrea's evolution, and their research on Gastrea had never ceased.
But their treatment of these children was bizarre. With the virus in their bodies, their emotions unstable, whenever hurt, their infection rate would rise. Meaning, corner them too much, and they'd transform into Gastrea on the spot and rampage. Yet instead of calming them, nations allowed, even led, the persecution. Worse still, they didn't strictly contain them either. Rather, they threw them into the outer districts to fend for themselves.
And these outer districts weren't outside the Monoliths, but still inside, adjacent to city zones. If the children transformed there, they'd immediately threaten the cities.
In short, it was like knowing there's a bomb at home—yet instead of throwing it out or safely storing it, you provoke it with flames until it explodes indoors. This baffled Zeroy.
"No, I have to ask the Holy Child tomorrow, ask how people of this world truly think."
She couldn't even get angry; she was simply filled with curiosity.
And it wasn't over. Humanity had already been beaten into cowering behind Monoliths, yet they still courted death, like the Five Wings Society engineering Gastrea immune to Varanium. Even the Cursed Children didn't counter Gastrea. Humanity's only hope lay in one thing—Varanium, the sole substance that restrained Gastrea. Even Zeroy needed it to completely purge them. Yet people thought of erasing Gastrea's last weakness. As if saying: hey, we haven't suffered enough, so let's buff them and remove their weak point!
Divine genius… or pure treachery? First, they made Gastrea, then tried to perfect them. So in the long run, Zeroy truly believed that if she didn't return to wipe out the remaining pests, humanity in this world had little chance of survival. They'd surely doom themselves.
Tch… the killing urge surged again.
Anyhow, she still had to finish the settlement, so she forced it down. Get it done quickly—then drag Patchi back out to keep killing!
Next were the Gastrea hunt rewards. A staggering 730,000 Points. An amount so great it felt peculiar. Compared to the hundreds or thousands from other goals, this cleanup alone gave 730,000, and it was easy. Against that backdrop, the other goals' cost-effectiveness looked pitiful.
She couldn't fathom the Main God's logic, but with the Points already in hand, she didn't care.
Finally, there was the [Breath of Origin], the Evaluation Reward.
[Breath of Origin]
‣ Type: Item
‣ Rarity: Red
—Description: A miracle made manifest, a Fragment of Miracle.
That was all the Evaluation Reward gave. Which meant this [Breath of Origin] must be powerful, the red rarity proving it. But Zeroy couldn't make out what it was actually for.
...
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