Chapter 13: Lost
Persuading Azure Longsword was unexpectedly easy.
Of course, the reason Phoebus felt Asker was easy to talk to was because Asker himself had intended to bring his team to participate in this anomaly from the very beginning.
Unlike other mercenary groups who wouldn’t lift a finger without profit, Asker’s primary consideration was always how to quickly improve his team members’ combat abilities.
The undead anomaly was a rare training opportunity.
Since the Night’s Watch extended the invitation, it was a good opportunity to negotiate terms.
After some bargaining, the Azure Longsword mercenary group obtained honorary member status in the Night’s Watch.
With this status, they would have the same trading privileges when encountering other Night’s Watch branches in other parts of the world in the future, without having to go through layers of approval again.
Of course, this status still needed to be applied for and approved by headquarters, but Phoebus had guaranteed that as long as they applied, it would basically be approved.
After all, the headquarters didn’t know who the Azure Longsword mercenary group was or how much they had contributed to this undead anomaly – whatever the Eastern branch said, went.
“By the way,” Phoebus suddenly remembered something and reminded them, “Before going to the center of the anomaly, you need to undergo a physical examination.”
“Physical examination?” Nuo asked, puzzled.
“The three sub-planes and the main plane have different auras.” Phoebus explained. “These auras will pollute your mental body, causing negative effects on your primary consciousness.”
“Take the Netherworld as an example. When we humans are in the Netherworld, we will inevitably experience depression. This phenomenon will become increasingly obvious over time.”
“When the depression reaches a certain level, you will fall into a semi-insane state, losing control of your mind. Therefore, anyone entering the Netherworld must take antidepressants regularly.”
“The purpose of the physical examination is to determine your baseline serotonin levels and to confirm whether you have any allergic reactions to antidepressants.”
“Eh? I remember 5-hydroxytryptamine is the scientific name for serotonin, right?” Nuo suddenly realized.
Medea immediately perked up her ears. Because serotonin happened to be one of the ingredients in her Conspiracy I formula.
“Well, I don’t know much about medicine, but I’ve heard that one of the effects of the Netherworld on the human body is serotonin imbalance.” Phoebus said, “Therefore, corresponding antidepressants are essential.”
So Asker took his team for a physical examination.
If it were any other hospital, he might have worried about the leakage of genetic information. After all, this wasn’t a purely transcendental world. With your blood sample, they could analyze and guess your approximate Sequence after some lab work.
But they could rest assured with the Night’s Watch. As one of the few benevolent and lawful supernatural organizations, the Night’s Watch’s collection of blood samples, from testing to destruction, was open and transparent. They would never retain any of your genetic information.
Of course, most outside mercenaries didn’t care about this anyway.
The examination reports came out quickly, packed in specially sealed document bags, and the girls collected them in the order of the examination. Because it was an anonymous test, only the person who received the sealed bag could see the results.
However, this didn’t prevent the girls from looking at each other’s reports after opening them, just like high school girls who love to take psychological tests together.
“Why are your physical and mental strength relatively balanced, while mine is heavily skewed towards physical strength?” Sidlipha glanced at Eleanor’s physical examination report and asked in confusion.
“I don’t know.” Eleanor, of course, knew it was because of “Will I,” and said jokingly, “Perhaps mental strength is affected by one’s innate intelligence.”
“Doesn’t that mean I’m naturally stupid?” Sidlipha was shocked and hurriedly took the report to the captain, her voice anxious and tearful. “Asker! Asker!! Look, my results must be wrong…”
After listening to her, Asker was speechless: …
Mental strength and intelligence weren’t really related, but Eleanor’s assessment of you was subtly accurate.
He looked through all the girls’ reports.
Overall, thanks to the previous large-scale battles, everyone’s physical attributes were higher than those of normal Transcendents of the same level.
Medea, Nuo, and Theodora were more focused on mental strength because their bloodlines were mainly spellcasting sequences.
Sidlipha’s focus on physical strength was simply because she was only level 1. The subsequent Frost and Thunder sequences in the Titan bloodline would rebalance her attributes.
The remaining members basically had balanced physical and mental strength development, which was also a characteristic of most player builds in his previous life.
In the words of the players, physical strength was suitable for brute force and strong attacks; mental strength was suitable for being cunning and playing dirty.
If you only focused on brute force, you might be easily killed by someone using cunning tricks.
If you only focused on being cunning, you might be too flashy and get punched through.
A balance between brute force and cunning was the truly stable way to fight.
Even his own Weapon Master bloodline, known for its fierce and aggressive style, still needed to absorb the “Tactics” and “Intuition” sequences to improve his resistance to sneak attacks.
As he was pondering silently, Peggy was also quietly staring at his profile.
Her right hand silently pressed down on her physical examination report.
On the last page, which Asker didn’t see, were the special test results.
“Low 5-hydroxytryptamine levels, further specialized testing is recommended.”
Everyone else’s results were normal, only hers was abnormal.
The team was about to set off. If Asker saw the abnormal results of her physical examination, she would probably be left alone in the camp at the rear.
He couldn’t know.
She couldn’t let that happen.
…
A few hours later, the Night’s Watch team had approached the edge of the undead curtain.
The initial team was composed of more than 800 elite knights from the Sun, Moon, and Morningstar branches.
Whenever they encountered undead during their advance, the main force would send out a specialized knight squad to intercept them, ensuring that the rest could continue to advance.
Looking down from the sky, one could see them advancing towards the center of the undead anomaly at full speed with this spearhead tactic.
Just as they were about to reach the edge of the curtain, they encountered a wave of undead banshees.
“We’ll go ahead.” Aerowen, the Silver Moon Knight Commander, raised her rifle and shouted, charging forward.
“Silver Moon Knights of the Watch, charge with me!”
More than a dozen powered armor knights, wielding firearms, flanked Lady Aerowen, who was activating her ability.
An ocean of light, like a tide, swept towards the banshees, the black aura around the undead rapidly evaporating in the air like dry ice.
This Lady Aerowen was already a level 5 “Death-Resisting Crusader,” and her supernatural ability, “Radiance II,” was the nemesis of all undead.
After separating from the Silver Moon knights, only twenty Sun knights remained in the team, all the strongest elites of the Night’s Watch.
Leading them were Commander Bryce of the Night’s Watch Eastern Legion, and the Knight Commanders of Sun and Morningstar, Cormac and Phoebus.
And all the members of the Azure Longsword mercenary group.
“Ahead is the undead curtain. Everyone, take antidepressants according to the standard dosage immediately!” Bryce ordered.
Everyone took out their medicine and water and took them according to the pre-determined amount.
“I suddenly feel energized.” Sidlipha said, moving her arms.
“That’s just the placebo effect, it’s psychological.” Nuo said with a smile. “The medicine doesn’t absorb that quickly.”
Peggy walked at the back of the team, feeling increasingly uneasy.
The medicine had no effect on her. Her limbs became heavy, and a deep sadness took over her consciousness.
Soon, she could barely see what was in front of her, as tears blurred her vision.
She couldn’t control the spread of sadness in her heart, and tears streamed down her cheeks uncontrollably.
Two figures vaguely appeared ahead.
Was it Asker? She strained her eyes and saw that it was her deceased father and mother.
“Peggy, come here.” Her mother beckoned her with a kind expression.
“Why are you crying like this? Girls shouldn’t be so fragile.” Her father said sternly, but his eyes showed obvious affection.
For a moment, Peggy felt a trance-like joy, as if her parents had never died that day and were still with her.
However, as a level 2 Transcendental, her spirituality quickly returned to normal.
No, they weren’t real.
My parents… are already dead.
The surrounding light had dimmed. Peggy, regaining her senses, could only judge the direction based on her memory.
If she remembered correctly, she had just stopped.
Then, Asker and the others should be right ahead.
But the two phantoms disguised as her parents were also waving at her in front, tempting her to go over.
Peggy couldn’t move forward and didn’t dare to run in other directions. She could only stay where she was in fear, crying miserably uncontrollably.
“Asker!” She hugged herself, trembling like an abandoned cub, screaming with all her might, “Asker! Asker!!!”
“What’s wrong?!” Just as she was about to fall into the abyss of despair, Asker’s long-awaited voice finally rang out, like a ray of sunlight piercing through the dark clouds, appearing in her dark world.
“Asker!” Peggy grabbed his arm tightly, as if all her strength was rapidly returning. “Did you hear me calling and come back to find me?”
“Calling?” Asker said strangely. “No, I didn’t hear anything. I just noticed you were falling behind. When I came back, I saw you kneeling on the ground crying. Didn’t you take the antidepressant?”
“I did.” Peggy said, a little guilty. “But it doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Let’s go back quickly.” Asker said calmly.
The phantoms of her parents that had been troubling Peggy had now disappeared, as if they had never appeared.
The two continued to walk forward. Peggy hugged Asker’s arm and asked cautiously:
“Are you really Asker?”
“Yes.” Asker said, “Do you need me to prove it?”
“Then tell me,” Peggy thought for a moment and said, “where did we first meet?”
“The cemetery.” Asker replied.
Peggy hummed, feeling a warmth finally rising in her cold heart.
“That’s not right.” Asker suddenly stopped.
“At our current speed, we should have caught up with them long ago, but there’s not a single sound around.” He fiddled with his radio headset. “No contact signal, and the mental connection is also silent.”
“You’re saying…” Peggy asked anxiously.
“We’ve lost them.” Asker frowned.
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