Chapter 201 – Hidden Quest
[Your reputation with the Ascetic Church has increased by 1,500 points. Your standing with the Ascetic Church has reached 'Friendly.']
[You can seek out the faction quartermaster, Lucius, to exchange for various supplies.]
[You have learned a new feat: Moving Shot.]
[You have learned a general skill: Purification.]
[Moving Shot: Steadies your hands, greatly reducing the loss of shooting accuracy while moving; Attack Power +5%, with an additional +5% when wielding a revolver.]
[Purification: Allows you to harness the Sun's power to cleanse a single debuff from yourself.]
Following a string of reputation notifications, Zhou Ning saw that not only had a new sub-class—Sunwatcher—been added to his status panel, but he had also gained a new skill and a new feat.
The skill was a rare, general-purpose dispel ability—perfectly filling a gap in his capabilities.
Zhou Ning took a deep breath. From a player's perspective, this was a good haul. The only pity was that he wasn't a player—he had no resurrection ability. Otherwise, he'd always charge ahead fearlessly, so recklessly that the compensation funds would bankrupt them.
Once Zhou Ning had signed his name, Kien West took the contract back, pulled a seal from a desk drawer, and stamped it beneath both their signatures.
With everything done, he slipped the contract into a folder, extended his hand toward Zhou Ning, and said, "Welcome. From now on, you are one of the Sunwatchers."
Zhou Ning rose to shake his hand, smiling. "My honor. So, what should I do now?"
"Learn. Familiarize yourself," Kien said with a smile. "Since you and Sherlock are friends, you'll temporarily follow his Second Squad. He'll introduce you to the details and benefits of the Sunwatchers. Of course, per the contract, you don't have to show up regularly."
Nice and straightforward! Zhou Ning nodded and expressed his thanks.
After a few more words with Kien West, Zhou Ning left with Sherlock.
Sherlock led Zhou Ning onward until they reached a closed iron door. He knocked, and after a moment, a middle-aged man opened it, glanced at Sherlock, and asked, "Brought in another newcomer?"
"That's right. But this one's no ordinary rookie," Sherlock replied with a grin.
The man smiled, looked Zhou Ning over, and extended his hand. "I'm Lucius. Welcome to the Sunwatchers. Come find me if you ever need anything."
He must be the faction quartermaster mentioned in the quest prompt.
Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, shook hands with him, and accessed the faction shop Lucius had unlocked for him. Inside, he found plenty of excellent goods—many unavailable to outsiders. At least, in his past life, he'd never heard of anyone mentioning them.
Beyond the Sunwatcher standard-issue firearms he had already redeemed in bulk before, there were special materials and blueprint diagrams for engineering, tailoring, and alchemy. There was even a dungeon summoning stone—truly a dazzling selection.
The dungeon was called "Shadow Assault," priced at 2,500 reputation points—steep, and for levels 30–45. Zhou Ning wasn't interested for now. He figured he could save up, redeem it later, and sell it to players.
When he flipped to the third page of the shop, he couldn't help curling his lips. Listed there were the Devil Fruits and advanced firearms he himself had supplied. With his current standing—just past halfway to 'Revered'—he could only afford a single Devil Fruit…
He didn't even know where to start with the sarcasm. Shaking his head with a wry smile, he moved on.
The priciest items weren't the Devil Fruits, but a few identical brooches shaped like bamboo leaves—likely rare transcendent items that the Sunwatchers could mass-produce.
A glance at the price showed that even an expert-level alchemy blueprint cost around 2,500 reputation points. Zhou Ning decided to save up and spend later.
After receiving a set of uniform and a Sunwatcher badge from Lucius, Sherlock briefed Zhou Ning on the organization's structure.
The Sunwatchers had three squads in total. Sherlock led the Second Squad, responsible for the Trade District, Old Town, and areas near Vick University. Originally thirteen strong, four had died in the line of duty, leaving just seven members: Ian, Cherry, Polly—whom Zhou Ning had met before—and two new additions, Leandro and Kyle Robbins.
Leandro, much like Zhou Ning, was more of an on-paper member.
Aside from the Sunwatchers, the Earth Temple's transcendent squad, the Earth Ring, was of similar strength, but they mainly handled matters in the city's west.
Sherlock then shared some past cases, such as a recent bust involving demon-worshippers performing a sacrificial ritual. The culprit had been imitating the Curse God Cult's methods—and had actually summoned a Greater Lesser Demon…
Although Zhou Ning already knew a fair bit from the game in his past life, many of these details were new to him.
Following Sherlock back out of the cathedral, Zhou Ning couldn't help asking, "Earlier you said you needed my help with something—what is it?"
"A new case," Sherlock said with a wry smile after a moment's thought. "Remember Ian? He once told you he encountered undead near the docks, and that his luck took a nosedive afterward?"
"I think so." Zhou Ning recalled that during their first Devil Fruit trade, Ian had mentioned repeatedly tripping over nothing. Even Molly had said he must have come into contact with something unclean, leaving him plagued by bad luck.
"And then?"
"Recently, undead have appeared not only in the dock area, but also in Old Town, the West Side, and even the Trade District. And it doesn't coincide with any death-element extreme weather patterns," Sherlock said with a sigh.
Suddenly, a prompt flashed on Zhou Ning's panel. He immediately opened it and, as expected, saw a new quest.
[You have triggered B-rank quest: Undead's Trail]
[Note: This quest may affect the main storyline and faction development. Please choose carefully whether to accept.]
Zhou Ning's eyes widened.
"No way—this quest is actually tied to the main storyline!"
With his Encyclopedic Memory feat, Zhou Ning was well-versed in the quests of Apocalypse. But the main plot had already gone wildly off-script, and he had never seen this quest before!
"Undead's Trail"… This must be the same phenomenon as the vagrant undead he had encountered at his doorstep earlier.
He had a strong hunch this was connected to the Curse God Cult, Count Robbins, and the recent string of bizarre incidents.
Zhou Ning was the adventurous type, eager to unearth hidden storylines. Even if the quest could alter the main storyline and posed unusual danger, he was determined to take it.
"Accept."
He confirmed without hesitation.
[You have accepted B-rank quest: Undead's Trail]
A new prompt appeared on his panel.
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