Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 292: Chapter 291: The Second Wave of Annoying Main World Tasks

Chapter 292: Chapter 291: The Second Wave of Annoying Main World Tasks

Undead.

When Fang Zheng saw the newcomers, he quickly confirmed their identities. And why? Simple, what else would you call walking bones if not the undead?

This group of skeletons totaled over ten, and while it was impossible to tell their height and build from their appearance, the clothes they still wore suggested they were likely a group of sailors. These skeletons walked over from the other side, then looked around furtively before turning and moving on.

Are they patrolling?

Watching this scene, Fang Zheng frowned, closed his eyes to sense his surroundings, and then abruptly opened them.

“No presence of necromancy? Are these living people?”

Fang Zheng felt that coming to this haunted place was truly seeing ghosts. He hadn’t felt the presence of necromancy in that cemetery-like place before, and now here, with skeletons running around in front of him, he still couldn’t sense it. Instead, what emanated from those skeletons was the aura of the living!

Are you kidding me?

Could this also be an illusion?

With that thought, Fang Zheng’s brow furrowed slightly. He seemed to understand who was behind Soul Bay and for what reason. From his experiences along the way, the magic item that created the illusion seemed capable of hiding what truly existed. Its principle of operation likely involved projecting a plane’s image from a parallel world, masking the original thing. Fang Zheng was not very familiar with space system spells, but during his time in the Main World, he had learned about some of the common knowledge on the continent, and it now appeared that the reason for such actions was probably for the souls of these tens of thousands of sailors.

Fang Zheng knew that according to the “settings” of the Main World, when people die, they leave this plane and go to the Divine Domain of the deity they worshipped. Of course, if you worship the big shots of Hell, then it’s a different story of descending to battle in blood.

But in any case, the rule of the Main World is that souls must not remain in this world. Whether you go to Heaven or Hell, you are to move on. It’s like having a train ticket to enter the station – if you don’t get on the train, you wait to be forcibly removed. Of course, there are a few that slip through the net, but they are the minority; otherwise, considering the deaths over the millennia in the Main World, would the undead ever account for one percent of the total population?

The entirety of Soul Bay—no, Golden Bay—saw the demise of tens of thousands in one fell swoop, and Fang Zheng didn’t believe that all these souls would willingly stay in the Main World. Following this line of reasoning, one could soon conclude that someone used the sinister magic item to cause a massacre to harvest these sailors’ souls, and to avoid detection by the Goddess of Order or other such powerful beings, they put another layer on top to shield it from the Main World’s senses.

As for why the undead had no presence of necromancy, Fang Zheng guessed that it likely had to do with the same projection technique from the plane, perhaps the magic item also brought over the plane projections of these people, masking the presence of necromancy on them. Otherwise, with tens of thousands of undead and Fang Zheng’s Paladin sensitivity, he would have sensed them the moment he entered the sea region… wait a minute, why do I have this bad premonition…

“Ding!”

Indeed, just as Fang Zheng had this intuition, a familiar system notification sound rang out, followed by a series of quest prompts materializing before him.

[Main World Quest Triggered: Sea of the Undead]

[Countless souls are suffering from the dark erosion, and only death can offer them true liberation. Holy Light, this enemy is worthy of battle (Break the demi-plane space seal, liberate the bound souls, success will change the Dimensional Codex recharge exchange ratio to 1:1, failure will change it to 100:1.)]

“………..”

Looking at the quest prompt before him, Fang Zheng was completely speechless. He looked up at the dark sky above, then down again, glancing at the medal on his chest.

Lady Goddess, should I never have boarded your treacherous ship?

“What’s wrong, Elder Brother?”

Looking at Fang Zheng’s odd expression, Tilia asked curiously. In the face of Tilia’s query, Fang Zheng could only respond with a wry smile of helplessness.

“It’s nothing… just feeling a bit troubled now…”

Truth be told, Fang Zheng really wasn’t keen on missions with such a high level of danger. His original plan was to come here and see what the situation was; if there was an advantage to be taken, he’d take it, if not, he’d retreat. But now… it looks like he had no choice but to get involved!

What a joke, considering that originally, the exchange rate between Spirit Crystals and Dimensional Points was 5:1, which was already quite a rip-off. If the system changed it to 100:1, how was he supposed to keep playing? Of course, with high risk comes high reward, and if the exchange rate were adjusted to 1:1, then Fang Zheng would certainly make a killing!

According to the revenue-sharing agreement with the Northern Trading Company, half of his monthly earnings had to be converted into Spirit Crystals for delivery. And before boarding the ship, Fang Zheng had already withdrawn his first “cut” from the Alchemists’ Association. Those Spirit Crystals, once converted into Dimensional Points, amounted to just 1500 points. And that was the result of the 5:1 exchange rate, but if you switch it to 1:1 for me, heh heh heh…

As a game designer, Fang Zheng certainly wasn’t foolish enough to think that just because his assets doubled, he could do whatever he wanted. Hm? Why do you ask? Ever heard of inflation?

Having dealt with the system for so long, Fang Zheng had come to understand this wretched and childish entity. It might seem like changing the rate from 5:1 to 1:1 was in his favor, but in fact, the truly useful skills all required a large number of Dimensional Points to improve.

For instance, Fang Zheng’s Time Manipulation skill, which he had just upgraded to rank D, was originally set to cost him 1000 points. However, because Fang Zheng conveniently used a mission reward, it was as if he had been upgraded to rank D for free. So, the question arises, how many Dimensional Points does it take to upgrade Time Manipulation from rank D to rank C?

Ten thousand points…

At rank B, it’s a hundred thousand points…

And at rank A… S rank…

Heh, can your salary increase keep up with the soaring prices of housing? Not a chance.

Ah, if only there were more players.

With that thought, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but feel sentimental. The penthouse of 200 square meters in the city center before he crossed over was thanks to the offerings from various players. Without everyone’s money, he wouldn’t have been able to live such a good life.

So at that time, Fang Zheng vowed that he would definitely release more games with microtransactions in the future, to make players willingly top up with peace of mind, spend with comfort, and play with confidence… Well, that’s a story for another time.

But now, as a Paladin, with the contract already signed, what else could Fang Zheng do but prepare to get to work? After all, the Goddess of Order was on his side; the reason he hadn’t been hunted down by the Sanctuary all over town for killing a Knight Captain was something Fang Zheng understood very well. Indeed, this involved Fang Zheng bluffing with an enhanced Malthael, but if the Goddess of Order hadn’t tacitly approved of his charade and even given him a hand, who knows what the situation would be like right now.

It can’t be helped, life is all about helping each other out.

With this in mind, Fang Zheng steeled his resolve and clenched his fists firmly.

For justice, for the world, for peace, for humanity, for freedom, for order. I, Fang Zheng, swear that I will take that terrifying magic item and liberate the bound souls here!

This is the duty of a Paladin!