Book 3: Chapter 27: Mask of Deceiver and Bracelet of Lover
I started with one of the funniest: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ia-book-9-32-14861681
Sometimes, you build authority not because you are right, but because someone else was wrong.
The word “ally” represented a very peculiar interpersonal relationship, which was based on shared interests, linked by friendship, and determined by strength. From a certain point of view, allies were the most unreliable relationships in the world, but they were necessary.
From this relationship the terms “untrustworthy”, “intrigue”, “infighting” and so on, were developed.
Whenever a party made a mistake, it was usually an opportunity for the other side to gain an advantage.
Shen Yi naturally would not miss the opportunity.
Lena was forced to surrender all the chests from the mutants, and from now until the end of the mission, in addition to the killing points, they would not receive anything. In addition, in the next action, they must obey the command of Shen Yi.
As for the other team, they had no opinion on this.
Every alliance had a center, under this situation, a new league team was formed.
After a brief agreement, Shen Yi urged everyone to clean up and immediately leave. Fatty came to Shen Yi and asked, “The little boy cried that he wanted to leave leave, can we release him?”
Shen Yi thought, then replied, “No, keep him first.”
At this point Storm had left and the storm outside had long since stopped. The ice was melting and leaving behind a blood soaked ground.
During today’s battle, twelve adventurers killed hundreds of mutants, and all of a sudden became the top figures on the list. The current ranking is as follows:
Shen Yi, with 112 points, held the first rank, 50 of those points came from Jeken Hagg, the remainder were from the 2nd Paratrooper Battalion soldier’s and his own kill. Hong Lang, Jin Gang and Wen Rou, respectively occupied second, third and fourth place. Each had 70-80 killing points. The original first, a Northern Region adventurer suddenly fell to fifth, even so, he had more than 40 points. His hunting speed was amazingly fast. Fatty did not enter the top ten, but also had a lot of killing points, he was in the top twenty, the East Region ranked first again and held a big score advantage.
Lena, An Wen and others each gained 20-30 killing points due to the battle, An Wen’s group successfully escaped from the dismissed list, and the four in Lena’s group rose into the top ten list of the West. The current ranking of the West was still last, but they were only three points behind the Southern Region.
In addition, the Eastern Region currently had 24 adventurers and only one death. The NorthÎn Region had 23 people and two deaths. The Southern Region had 21 people and four deaths, and the Western Region had 20 people and 5 deaths.
This was the main reason the Western Region had fallen behind the other three, on the first day of the competition, 5 Western adventurers died and their strength was much affected. Coupled with the fact that Lena group had obtained the address information of the mutants, but fallen one step behind Shen Yi group. The first few days had yielded a poor harvest and their progress lagged behind greatly. Otherwise the Western adventurers familiarness with the region, even if their combat effectiveness was limited, the difficulty wouldn’t be so high.
Shen Yi counted this time as paying them back.
This was also why that Lena’s group felt particularly uncomfortable – they had obviously come to help, but in the end they had to listen to Shen Yi scold them, and they lost all the booty. But they also had to admit that Shen Yi did not beg for their help, they rushed over here by their own volition, so they had no choice but to accept the result.
Since the matter had ended, they introduced themselves to each other.
An Wen and her two partners, Li Xu and Yang Ping, were newcomers who had just passed the beginner’s mission. Because they were used to cooperating in the beginner’s mission, they came together into the mission world. Although their ability was below average, Li Xu and Yang Ping were fairly easy-going, so they were welcomed.
As for Wei Na, they fought once, so their understanding ran a little deeper. Shen Yi’s group had held the advantage in the last fight, and as the winners is always not envious with the losers. Shen Yi’s group was particularly generous and accepted them.
They chatted with each other and soon became familiar.
During the talk Wen Rou secretly asked Shen Yi, “Is this alright? If you don’t give them even a little sweetness, I think their hatred to us will be very great.”
She was referring to the fact that he took all the reward.
“Do not think that if you are good for others, others will be good to you. That naive idea doesn’t suit this place. Yes, the friend whom you have shared interests should be treated with sincerity, but these people are not the same. These Europeans and Americans are not in the the way with us, they and we are destined unable to become a permanent alliance. No matter how nice we are, after this they will leave us, the establishment of friendship has nothing to do with this at all. When we confront them again, we are likely to become enemies, so we shouldn’t be bound by friendship. The most important thing was that people have a compliment instinct. If you are good to them, they may not thank you, if you are fierce to them, they will listen to you out of fear. Right now they are willing to listen to me because I can keep them safe, so as long as we continue to do this, they will continue to be obedient, but if we can not … Even if we give them more benefits, they will immediately betray us, so do not worry about those guys.”
Speaking of this topic, Shen Yi sounded profound, “To deal with such people, you have to do act as if you were taming a dog: feed it, but don’t feed it fully!”
Wen Rou was dumbfounded “Is your mind only concerned with how to use people?”
“There are many examples of this kind of thing in history, the Americans themselves do the same to South Korea, right?” Shen Yi laughed: “But when it comes to playing mind games, controlling the other side, we Chinese are professionals.”
Wen Rou burst into laughter “Then how about the three who belong to the Eastern Region?”
“Do not exploit them, do not oppress them, support them when they need help, act according to standard procedures.”
“Discrimination?”
“Discrimination.”
“Understood”, Wen Rou jumped on the Land Rover,” Return the car you stole back to its owner. You’ve damaged it greatly and put all us to shame.”
Shen Yi looked at the car owner.
The owner was looking at him in tears.
Shen Yi could not help but laugh.
————-Three cars ran away from the chaos on 198th street, the drive was calm.
Twenty minutes later, they stopped at a motel.
This was the 28th hour after they entered the mission world.
Everyone rested briefly, Wei Na and Paulo went out to inquire about the news, Feller and an adventurer of the Eastern Region drove the cars to a refueling station. Lake changed the car’s’ license plate and removed the GPS positioning system – otherwise the New York police would knock on their door at any moment.
Even Shen Yi had to admit that working with these Americans was very convenient. They were very clever at using whatever means they could to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Fatty was responsible for the custody of the little boy and Jimmy. As for the four remaining, they had nothing to do, so they simply entered the room to check the booty.
The mutant dropped a total of eight chests, one from the Level 4 mutant Jeken Hagg, one from Level 3 mutants, two from Level 2 mutants, four from Level 1 mutants. Four Level 1 mutant chests yielded explosives that worth 300 BP, this kind of thing can only be used to exchange for BP. But items worth 1200 BP will only fetch 720 BP when exchanged in the store., That amount, split between them was only enough to purchase a single attribute point.
As for the Level 2 mutant chests, one contained three bottles of low-level Health Potions, which can instantly restore 100 points of HP, they were worth 200 BP per bottle. One contained several packages of non-combat HP-recovery food; surprisingly, there was a Psi-Energy Sphere in one of the chest, it could increase the Psychic Energy by 20 points.
Jin Gang laughed, quickly grabbed the sphere, and said, “This is mine.”
Shen Yi laughed, “Don’t be anxious, this is just the opening, maybe there are better things in the next few chests.”
He opened the chest from the Level 3 mutant. There was no Psi-Energy Sphere, only a strange smiling mask.
“Mask of Deceiver: After equipping this mask, the hostility of all creatures (including non-human) in the mission world toward the wearer is decreased, does not affect adventurers. When wearing this mask, if the wearer attacks a mission world creature, it will draw the aggro of all mission world creatures and they will attack the wearer.
After being equipped, this item can only be removed after one hour elapses. Only effective on Difficulty Level I. Can be upgraded.”
“Oh, this thing is very interesting,” Wen Rou called out.
“There is no such thing in the store.” Jin Gang was very sure.
“This thing doesn’t have much use.” Hong Lang grinned. “It only decreases hostility, rather than erase it. In other words, if I wear this Mask of Deceiver I cannot attack, can only watch my companion be attacked. Once I attack, everyone will attack me crazily. If there is no companion … … wearing it is meaningless.”
“Did you expect any good things from a Level 3 mutant?” Shen Yi laughed. “Call Luo Hao, this is for him.”
“Yes, this suits him.” Several people at the same time laughed.
Fatty never dreamed of even getting an item reward.
In accordance with their original agreement, Shen Yi had the right to not give him anything.
Shen Yi patted his shoulder and laughed. “This time you also gave a good performance. Although limited, it can’t be denied, so there should be some reward. This Mask of Deceiver can reduce the chances of you being attacked, so you’ll be more at ease. But I hope you’ll understand one thing: the mask’s purpose is to make you be able to relax, I do not want you always nervous. But in real battle, I still hope that you will not use it, because that means you will always be a coward.”
Fatty stared at the mask in his hand and nodded. “I know, I swear I will never use it to escape the battle.”
Then he slowly put on the mask.
Finished with the chests of Level 3 mutants, the next was Jeken Hagg’s chest.
Just opening the chest, Jin Gang laughed loudly.
There was another Psi-Energy Sphere.
Level 4 Psi-Energy Sphere increased 40 points of Psychic Energy, so, with the previous Level 2 Psi-Energy Sphere, Jin Gang suddenly added 60 points to his own Psychic Energy. He had already had 110 Psychic Energy, which added up to 170 points. His Psychic Energy capacity almost doubled; the control time and energy recovery rate is also greatly increased.
In addition to this Psi-Energy Sphere, there was something in the chest.
An emerald bracelet.
“Bracelet of Lover: Increases Priority of all the skills of the wearer by 10, increases the chance of triggering special effects by 10 percent, reduces cooldown of skills by 20 percent, increases weapon’s damage by 5.
Item Skill: Emerald Wound – Use upon adventurer results in the curse effect: causes 5% reduction in the trigger rate of special effect, 10% reduction in skills effect, and 20% reduction in skills damage. Duration: 1-3 minutes; ineffectual on normal attacks. Use upon non-Boss characters causes damage equal to 50% its own maximum HP, the damage is fatal. Use upon Boss characters causes damage equal to 10% their own maximum HP and produces 3-9 points of poison damage per second. Duration 10-30 seconds; the damage is non-fatal. Use upon summoned creatures results in Madness effect, disabling the summoner’s control of it Duration: 3-5 minutes. Cost: 0MP. Priority 25.
Bracelet of Lover’s special function: Mark of Love.
The wearer can mark up to 3 lovers, each lover will gain an improvement of the skills’ Priority by 5 points, the chances of special effects being triggered increased by 5%, skill cooldowns decreased by 10%, weapon’s damage increased by 3 points.
The wearer of this bracelet will suffer its curse: Vitality decreased by 2, MP decreased by 3, Will decreased by 5, damage sustained increased by 20%. When the marked lovers is attacked, 30% of their received damage will transfer to the wearer, and the transferred damage is not affected by the additional damage bonus. If a marked lover dies, the wearer permanently loses half of her Vitality.
Only after marking the lover, the item skill Emerald Wound can be used. Mark one lover, Emerald Wound’s cooldown is one hour. Mark two lovers, Emerald Wound’s cooldown is 40 minutes. Mark three lovers, Emerald Wound’s cooldown is 20 minutes.
Unless the lover is dead, Mark of Love cannot be canceled.
Note: This cursed Bracelet of Lover was Jeken Hagg’s gift for his loved one’s lover. Because he isn’t a man anymore, Jeken Hagg witnessed his lover’s betrayal and personally killed her. This cursed bracelet inherited the lover’s grievances, cursing everyone who wears and uses it.
Wearer requirements: Female.
After putting it on, Bracelet of Lover could not be taken off.”
After seeing the description, Shen Yi had to admit that this is a very troublesome equipment.
First of all, this was the best increase in equipment he’d ever seen.
An increase of ten points in Priority had lots of meaning. Some originally suppressed skills could finally succeed. Just thinking about Wen Rou’s wound, caused by lack of Priority, it was easy to understand how important Priority was. The low-level hemostatic bandage used by the Northern adventurer had a Priority of 23. In other words, if Bleeding effect had Priority higher than 23, then the hemostatic bandage was useless. Against something such as Shen Yi’s Vampire Touch, which had 30 points of Priority, the opponent must use at least a mid-level hemostatic bandage to interrupt the effect.
So in the Bloody City, equipment which could increase Priority had always been coveted by the adventurers.
In addition, the chances of triggering special effects increased by 10%, reducing the cooldown time: both abilities that were useful for anyone. Coupled with 5 points of damage and the powerful skill Blue Wound, this bracelet was definitely a rare good item. Even in the Difficulty Level 3 it absolutely qualified to use – if there was no such curse.
At this moment everybody looked at Wen Rou with wry smiles.
This equipment was limited to women only. But Wen Rou’s attributes were already low; if she wore this bracelet, her attributes would almost drop to a normal human’s level.
Shen Yi coughed. “This equipment is good, but the side effects are too obvious. The worst is that after wearing it you can’t take it off: that will certainly have an impact on the replacement of equipment. If you use it, all of us benefit, but you have to bear the curse alone. Not only can you not replace the equipment, but you must also bear the injury … My personal opinion is not to use it.”
Wen Rou picked up the bracelet, looked at it, and whispered, “What a beautiful bracelet. I really think this bracelet’s previous owner must have been beautiful too.”
She slowly put it on.
Bloody Crest prompted, “You have been cursed by Bracelet of Lover, you will not be able to take off the bracelet.”
Shen Yi frowned. “Why such a rush to make a decision, shouldn’t you consider better?”
“It’s not necessary.” Wen Rou smiled. “I need the fastest way to make myself strong.”
Everyone was stunned.
Nobody expected that behind Wen Rou’s slight smile, she had such strength of heart.
The truth was that, among the four of them, Wen Rou was the weakest one.
Although she was well behaved as a newcomer, Wen Rou could not accept such a result.
This Bracelet of Lover, although dangerous, brought very obvious benefits. Wen Rou’s fighting style consisted mainly of mid-range attacks, using a single-handed whip whose damage was the lowest among same Rank weapons. A five-point damage increase may not mean much to others, but for Wen Rou, the effect it brought was obvious. In addition, a 5% special effect trigger chance increased to 15%: basically every two to three whips would be able to trigger the Tearing effect, greatly enhancing combat effectiveness. Moreover, Blue Wound was definitely a powerful skill, so Wen Rou’s combat power immediately doubled.
In Wen Rou’s view, it seemed worthwhile to pay some price.
Looking hard at Wen Rou, Shen Yi said, “After this mission, we’ll find some equipments that increase Vitality and Strength for you. We won’t let you be in danger.”
“Won’t that be too good for me? I am afraid other people will have opinions.” Wen Rou’s smile made Shen Yi’s heart throb.
Hong Lang coughed. “Ahem… If you are willing to mark me as your lover, I won’t have any opinion.”
BANG!
An ashtray hit Hong Lang in the face.