Chapter 171: A Faction of One's Own

Wu Chang's expression changed, and the look he gave Cui Chengze was entirely different now.

If you'd told me earlier you were carrying a hidden side quest, wouldn't I have been a lot more polite?

The hidden side quest was right in front of him, but Wu Chang didn't agree on the spot, still maintaining the bearing of a superior.

"You can speak, but I may not agree."

A look of struggle appeared on Cui Chengze's face; he worried that revealing his intentions too early would backfire.

But he was also quite satisfied with Wu Chang's reaction. Faced with such an unreasonable request, not agreeing rashly was the normal response—it showed the man had principles and took promises seriously.

Swap in those fellows from the Xinyuzhou Sect, and they'd probably agree to whatever he asked first and worry about it later, going back on their word at most.

"I want to save the people on the ship, but I'm alone and can't fight the Xinyuzhou Sect and the monster that just appeared. I need your help."

After Cui Chengze finished speaking, a line of prompt appeared before Wu Chang's eyes.

"Hidden Side Quest: Help Cui Chengze sabotage the Xinyuzhou Sect's plot, and rescue as many passengers on the ship as possible. No penalty for failure. Accept the quest?"

Wu Chang kept a cold face, pulled out a cigarette and lit it, took a drag, then asked Cui Chengze, "Are you taking me for a Bai Chi?"

Cui Chengze asked in confusion, "Why would you say that?"

Wu Chang frowned and said, somewhat impatiently, "You're asking others for help, yet you use such vague platitudes to brush them off—are you trying to get yourself killed, you xiba?"

"What's the difference between what you said and saying nothing? How do I help you, how do I save the people on the ship, and how many do I need to save?"

Cui Chengze was stumped by Wu Chang's questions for a moment. "I…"

"What 'I' what 'I'—can't you see that seventy percent of the passengers in the cabin have converted to the Xinyuzhou Sect? You want me to help you fight the Xinyuzhou Sect, but also save the passengers—are you messing with me? Or do you expect me to found a sect of my own first and snatch their faith back?"

Looking at Cui Chengze, whose CPU was temporarily overloaded, Wu Chang said coldly, "I'll give you one chance to reorganize your words. Be grateful—I rarely give anyone a second chance."

Wu Chang gave Cui Chengze a thorough dressing-down, and before Cui Chengze could even react, Sword Star and Negotiator were about to blow their tops.

They watched Wu Chang in panic; if they had the strength for it, they would have already rushed over to clamp a hand over Wu Chang's mouth and force his head down to agree to Cui Chengze's request.

The instant Cui Chengze stated his request, prompts popped up not only for Wu Chang but for the two of them as well.

"Hidden Side Quest: Help Li Zaishi fulfill Cui Chengze's request, sabotage the Xinyuzhou Sect's plot, and rescue as many passengers on the ship as possible. No penalty for failure. Accept the quest?"

Any quest that triggered a system prompt was especially important—a quest capable of altering the course of the dungeon.

Such quests were usually harder than main quests, with harsh completion conditions, but the rewards were equally generous.

In the Bureau's records, there had never been a reliable method to trigger a hidden side quest. To trigger one, there were only two possibilities.

One was dogshit luck; the other was digging deep enough into the world's storyline, reaching 85% or higher dungeon completion, and on that basis, further excavating the dungeon's plot.

The two of them had passed through dozens of dungeons along the way, and only Sword Star had encountered a hidden side quest once—it was during that quest that he obtained the class-change item that let him become a sword cultivator ahead of schedule.

Negotiator, on the other hand, had never triggered a single hidden side quest.

Yet what surprised the two of them even more was that the hidden side quest Wu Chang triggered actually had no failure penalty!

Hidden side quests were originally high-risk, high-reward quests; the consequences of failure, even if not death, still demanded a heavy price. No failure penalty—wasn't that just a pure reward?!

Just as the two of them thought a pie was falling from the sky, Wu Chang's tirade against Cui Chengze sent their blood pressure through the roof.

If this blew the hidden side quest away, even though the two of them already regarded Wu Chang's avatar Li Zaishi as a sworn father in their hearts, they wouldn't be able to stop themselves from turning into Lü Bu.

Who would have thought Cui Chengze actually took the bait.

After a moment's thought, Cui Chengze lowered his posture a bit more and said in a solemn voice:

"The method to help me deal with the Xinyuzhou Sect—I'll teach it to you once we're back on the ship. As for the passengers they've tricked into joining the sect, don't worry; they haven't believed for long. Once we wreck the Xinyuzhou Sect's plan, they'll shake off the control."

At this point, Cui Chengze's voice grew hesitant.

"As for the number of passengers to save—at least half of them, especially those high school kids! As for those Xinyuzhou Sect believers who are already terminally ill, if there's truly no way, we can abandon them."

As Cui Chengze supplemented his request, the hidden side quest received by Wu Chang, Sword Star, and the others changed accordingly.

Rescue as many passengers on the ship as possible; rescue at least half of the passengers on the ship. The higher the completion rate, the greater the reward.

Sword Star and Negotiator were dumbfounded—it was the first time they'd seen someone haggle with a dungeon-native and have the system-issued quest change along with it.

The two of them recalled that if they hadn't nailed down the completion requirements with Cui Chengze in advance, whether the quest was completed at the end would have depended entirely on Cui Chengze's mood. If his demands at the time couldn't be met, the quest would be judged a failure.

But now it was different. With hard metrics for completion, there was no need to worry about Cui Chengze raising the bar at the last minute.

The two of them looked at Wu Chang and thought in unison: What a great boss to follow.

Wu Chang, for his part, nodded with a hint of distaste and said, "Those parasites of the Xinyuzhou Sect—I've had it in for them for a long time. For the sake of taking them down, I'll help you."

As he spoke, Wu Chang chose to accept the quest.

Getting Wu Chang's answer, Cui Chengze let out a breath of relief. When he'd been caught between the Ritual Master and the werewolf earlier, he'd felt a crushing sense of helplessness. Now, with the super-wealthy Li Zaishi backing him, he instantly felt his legs had more strength than before and his back stood straighter.

In Gao Mu, apart from Midi, there was nothing a financial magnate couldn't solve.

After Wu Chang chose to accept the hidden side quest, another line of prompt popped up before his eyes.

"Since the player has chosen to help Cui Chengze and oppose the Xinyuzhou Sect, and the player possesses a certain number of followers, the requirement to establish a faction has been met."

"Does the player choose to establish a faction of their own? Once established, the faction cannot be cancelled, and the player cannot join another faction again."

Wu Chang stared at the prompt, a look of surprise on his face. Players can establish factions too?

He quickly figured it out: his ability to establish a faction must have been due to the True Walker's effect.

When the dungeon made its judgment, it classified him as a plane-native. So once his faction and prestige reached a certain level, and he possessed a grand objective capable of altering the dungeon's plot trajectory, he automatically became a faction aboard the Star Leap, taking part in this multi-party contest.

He had been wavering over which faction to join; now it was perfect—forming his own faction meant he didn't have to worry about backing the wrong boss and losing control of the dungeon in the end.

"Confirm faction establishment."

"Player has successfully established a faction, and possesses the authority to recruit other players into their faction."

"Current faction member count: 0. Maximum allowed members: 5."

"Faction objective: Maintain order aboard the Star Leap, reduce the chaos value on the ship, and ensure the survival of as many passengers as possible."

"Current Star Leap chaos value: 75%. Current Star Leap passenger survival rate: 100%. Current Star Leap control rating: 5%."

"Composite score: 43."

"Current faction ranking: 5."

"Note: When the player faction's ranking is 1, the Star Leap will become the player faction's home ground. Within the home ground, all members of the player faction will have their combat power greatly enhanced, their willpower extremely increased, and the health of passengers on the ship will significantly rise."

If Wu Chang were to establish his own faction, the goal of that faction would probably be to kill every member of the Tranquil Order and absorb the energy of all occult rituals. Unfortunately, the trigger for him to establish a faction was because he had agreed to help Choi Sung-taek, so the faction's goal became ensuring the survival of the passengers.

Judging from his faction's current ranking, there were far more factions on the ship than he had imagined — he was actually ranked fifth.

The little Star Leap truly was a place where crouching tigers and hidden dragons lay.

He turned his head and looked at Sword Star and the Negotiation Master, who were grinning foolishly beside him. Though he didn't know what the two of them were grinning about, out of consideration for being in the same faction, he prepared two slots for them.

"You two heard it too — I just promised him that I would protect the members on the ship as much as possible. This matter is dangerous. The wild beasts and mysterious people we just encountered will very likely hinder my actions. I'm giving you one chance now to choose: stay and help me, or leave."

After Wu Chang finished speaking, a prompt popped up before Sword Star and the Negotiation Master.

"Li Zaishi has issued a recruitment to you. Do you wish to join Li Zaishi's faction? Once joined, it cannot be changed. Please choose carefully."

The two did not hesitate and immediately chose to join.

What a joke — who is Li Zaishi?

He is the godfather who, with a wave of his hand, can lead them to complete Main Quest One; who, with a word, can list out a string of suspicious targets for them; and who, by casually taking them on a stroll, can let them pick up a hidden side quest with no failure penalty.

The faction established by godfather — as god-sons, do they have any reason to refuse?

Previously, the two had been lamenting that godfather had not established a faction, worried that if they later joined another faction and ended up opposing godfather, it would not only seem ungrateful, but might also affect their completion of the hidden side quest.

But now it was perfect — they had just been talking about it, and godfather immediately established a faction, and the faction's goal was actually to protect the survival of the passengers on the Star Leap as much as possible.

!

What does this represent? It represents that godfather had long had the strength to establish a faction, yet did not participate in the Star Leap's struggles out of selfishness. Only when he cared about the passengers and wanted to protect others would he establish a faction for that purpose.

What a selfless spirit this is, what a noble sentiment.

For a moment, Wu Chang's image in their eyes grew even taller.

After reaching an agreement with Choi Sung-taek, when the group left the cargo hold, they happened to run into Li Yubin, who was bringing people back.

He casually explained a few things and managed to fool Li Yubin, then led everyone to continue searching the Sea Song for useful intelligence.

The group gathered together and began searching for the communication equipment the captain needed.

As expected, the communication equipment on the Sea Song was not only unusable, but had all been deliberately damaged. Judging from the marks of destruction, it should have been damaged two years ago.

The group then headed to the cargo hold, hoping to find some food or supplies.

They didn't find food, but instead found seven or eight remodeled interrogation rooms, along with a complete set of medieval-style torture instruments.

Judging from the bloodstains on the floor and the instruments, quite a few victims had experienced them.

Not far from the interrogation rooms, the group discovered several dozen skeletons in one of the rooms.

Coming out of the cargo hold, everyone's expression turned strange. They began to suspect what the purpose of the Sea Song's voyage had been, and at the same time began to guess what exactly had happened on the Sea Song back then.

Captain Kang Jun-seok expressed regret over the damage to the Sea Song's communication equipment, and showed concern over the mummies that had appeared on the Sea Song.

He heeded the passengers' opinions and once again set the Star Leap in motion, moving away from the Sea Song and continuing to sail toward the direction where the moonlight rose.

Back on the ship, the crew members who had entered the Sea Song began to quietly circulate the videos they had recorded among the passengers.

The captain and Park Changmin did not stop this, and instead showed a permissive attitude.

Within less than an hour, all the passengers knew that there were mummies capable of moving on the Sea Song, as well as many interrogation rooms that looked horrifying at first glance.

The passengers' worry and fear over the Sea Song successfully pushed the Star Leap's chaos value from 75% up to 80%.

However, Wu Chang did not care about this small-scale loss of points. At this moment, his attention was entirely focused on Choi Sung-taek.

As soon as he returned to the ship, Choi Sung-taek had anxiously called Wu Chang over, wanting to teach him the method to stop the Xinyuzhou Sect.

Arriving at the study and closing the door, Choi Sung-taek fixed his gaze intently on Wu Chang and said in an unusually solemn tone:

"There's something I tell you — you may not believe it, but I can stake everything I have on guaranteeing that it is absolutely true!"

"That is, the entire Star Leap has already fallen into the clutches of the Xinyuzhou Sect. A terrifying occult ritual has already shrouded the whole ship. Once the time is ripe, they will sacrifice every passenger on board."

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "Indeed, I can vaguely sense it."

"Don't rush to deny it — I know you don't… wait, you say you can sense it?" Choi Sung-taek said in disbelief.

"I can see some strange threads. Like a spider web, they wrap around the entire hull of the ship. I can also see that the fourth deck and the captain's cabin are two nodes where the threads in the web intersect."

Choi Sung-taek: "…"

Back then, he had thought Wu Chang was sensitive to energy and could sense the existence of occult energy, using Qi to forcibly break it open. Based on this alone, he had considered Wu Chang a rare piece of uncut jade.

After all, Qi and occult energy were entirely two different systems — being able to sense both Qi and occult energy at the same time was absolutely the mark of a genius.

He hadn't expected that he had still underestimated Wu Chang. Wu Chang wasn't merely able to sense occult energy — he could see it with his own eyes.

That was a bit outrageous.

Although he could not see the spider web Wu Chang described, he could still sense the occult ritual nodes on the fourth deck.

On the very first lesson of teaching a student, you discover that the student's understanding of the textbook runs deeper than your own — what do you do?

A bit of sweat broke out on Choi Sung-taek's forehead, and he began to worry that he, as a master, was a bit unqualified.

He forced himself to say, "Since you can sense it, the rest of the conversation will be much easier. Earlier in the cargo hold, you asked me how to disrupt the Xinyuzhou Sect's plan. I can tell you now — destroying the magic circle they've created with the occult ritual will end all of this."

At this point, Choi Sung-taek opened the suitcase he had just brought out from the room and took out an ancient book written on parchment.

"The first step in destroying the magic circle is to learn how to see. We have thirty days. With your talent, that's enough to learn the basics of occult knowledge."

Choi Sung-taek flipped open the pages. Inside, dense text the size of ants was crammed full of incantations. With just one glance, Wu Chang nearly felt nauseous enough to develop a reading disability.

Too long; didn't read.

He shifted his gaze away from the ancient book, frowned at Choi Sung-taek, and asked, "What did you just say — we have thirty days?"

Choi Sung-taek nodded and said, "Yes. The first time a ship enters the Shipwreck Belt, there is a time limit. The first entry lasts thirty days. Once the thirty days are up, the ship will automatically leave the Shipwreck Belt and arrive at a ritual ground."

As Choi Sung-taek spoke, a shiver ran through his body, as though recalling some terrifying experience.

"There, the Xinyuzhou Sect will activate their evil ritual, turning everyone on the ship into an offering to consecrate to an evil god. After the evil god devours the tribute, it will toss the ship back into the Shipwreck Belt."

"The Shipwreck Belt is the evil god's kitchen, and also the garbage dump where it discards its packaging bags. Only by destroying their ritual can we prevent the evil god's arrival and protect the safety of the passengers on the ship as much as possible!"

Wu Chang tapped the tabletop with his finger and said, "Thirty days is too long. The supplies on the ship can't sustain thirty days. The Star Leap was originally supposed to resupply at Danshan Island, and the supplies prepared on board aren't much. Let alone thirty days — even seven days would be hard to get through without control."

"I need a way to leave this shipwreck zone faster."

Cui Chengze shook his head and said, "This is the rule of the shipwreck zone—you cannot leave until you've stayed thirty days."

Wu Chang narrowed his eyes, "Then tell me how you left the shipwreck zone."

(End of Chapter)