When Wen Nan's settlement results were out, the dormitory was filled with exclamations.
Apart from the usual astounding quantity of Gold Coins, what left every member dumbfounded was the strategy score displayed on the panel—
All characters smoothly reached the 80% threshold for passing, and except for the ten-star character, the big boss, the remaining characters all surpassed 90% strategy score, with the junior sister and young wife even achieving perfect strategy values!
This is the beginner's map at LV.5. New players just coming from the trial map are lucky to survive by the time they complete the second main mission, while other players, even with only one Strategy Character, probably would have lost a leg and an arm by now.
But their guild leader, in contrast... This time, the mission ended, not only did he not trigger any soul thread, but he also directly obtained 2 perfect strategies and 1 almost perfect strategy!
At this speed, he might easily achieve perfect strategies for all 6 characters before the third main mission ends.
Thinking of this, all the members felt a bit emotional—
Guo Xiaofu: "The guild leader is really amazing."
Huang Yan: "It feels like we're not playing the same game..."
Hu Jiayao: "Xing, according to what you said before, did we... hit the jackpot?"
Gu Jinxing: "Yes, and it's the grand prize."
The few bantered back and forth, looking towards Wen Nan, only to find the topic's protagonist frowning deeply, staring somberly at the light screen above.
Guo Xiaofu sidled up to Huang Yan and quietly asked, "Brother Sanhuo, why does the leader look like he's in a bad mood?"
Huang Yan speculated, "Could it be because the score wasn't good?"
"Huh?" Guo Xiaofu couldn't understand, "Isn't it enough just to pass the score? The mission and strategy are separate this time, and the strategy is nearly perfect; isn't that enough?"
Huang Yan shrugged, "We don't understand the world of straight-A students."
That being said, Huang Yan also felt that their leader's current score was somewhat low.
Although the most crucial passing item was found by Gu Jinxing and Hu Jiayao, the crucial key to that secret laboratory was given to them by the guild leader. He might not score as high as the two of them, but shouldn't he at least score higher than players like Huang Yan who barely did anything?
Thinking of this, Huang Yan walked to Wen Nan's side, lightly patted his shoulder, and tried to comfort him:
"Boss, this system score this time is indeed somewhat unfair. I guess the issue is that the entrance to the G. point was exposed and blocked later, so the system couldn't detect it, leaving out your Contribution Value.
"Stupid system, not treating people right!
"But your capability is right here for all our brothers to see, and we all genuinely respect you!
"Don't let such a trivial score affect your mood; it's not worth it."
Wen Nan, who was deep in thought, was a little taken aback by Huang Yan's comfort—
Who said he was upset because of the score?
The passing line of 60 points indeed felt a bit low, but as far as Wen Nan was concerned, if it didn't reach the lottery line, it was all the same.
This time, Gu Jinxing and Hu Jiayao also didn't break 80 points. Even if Wen Nan's Contribution Value for the key was counted, it definitely wouldn't entitle him to a lottery spin, so 60 points and 79 points seemed no different to him.
Upon hearing this, Huang Yan was dumbfounded, "Uh, wasn't that it? Then boss, why are you unhappy? Tell us so we, your brothers, can help lighten the load? Not, I mean, share the burden?"
What Wen Nan had been contemplating was the verification of the crucial item during the task settlement.
This second main mission had only one crucial item, so it couldn't be distributed to everyone like in the first main mission. So according to the system explanation, there's no need to retrieve it—since Hu Jiayao picked it up, even if the remaining players were to find that secret laboratory, they couldn't perform the retrieval action.
Now at the respawn point, entering the final mission settlement stage, the system actually skipped the crucial item scanning step?
According to the explanation on the light screen above, because the crucial item is unique, it adopts a shared result model among multiple players, so it couldn't complete the scan one by one.
Not needing six verifications is reasonable, but why wasn't there even a single scan verification during the entire settlement process?
According to Wen Nan's logic, in this situation, shouldn't it first require Hu Jiayao to take out the crucial item, complete the scan at the settlement point, pass the verification, then proceed to have each player settle in sequence?
Why completely skip the scanning verification step?
Like what Hu Jiayao was complaining about earlier, if there's a player like Gu Jinxing, who carelessly burned the crucial item to ash with a lighter, wouldn't the system be worried?
Is it because the system is confident that players could never easily destroy this crucial item?
But this still doesn't explain why the system doesn't require a scan verification during settlement.
Like two gangs making a deal, everything's ready, the goods and money exchange is supposed to happen, we hand over the goods, yet the other side doesn't even check them, just hands over the money.
Is this... reasonable?
Is the other side too confident in our goods, or is there... another reason?
Lost in thought, the prompt on the light screen above rapidly shifted—
[Congratulations to all players! Main mission 2 is officially over!]
[Now entering the countdown to the start of Main Mission 3—]
[New player mission has been delivered, please check it out!]
In the dormitory, all players were stunned as they looked up at the screen.
Is each main mission on this map seamlessly connected?
They hadn't even had time to catch their breath, and the third main mission was already here?
Just as they were thinking, the mission theme displayed on the light screen, plunging all players into silence again—
[Main Mission 3: Find the Mr. Jiao (a type of insect)]
Reading this title, Huang Yan couldn't help but add, "Grass, a type of plant."
Hu Jiayao was amused by him and let out a chuckle, for once not arguing with Huang Yan, but instead gave him a thumbs-up.
With the experience from previous tasks, even the youngest member, Guo Xiaofu, was no longer naive, "This Mr. Jiao, could it be the Mr. Jiao I'm thinking of?"
Standing to the side, Gu Jinxing, upon seeing this theme, inadvertently conjured images in his mind. He lowered his head, his eyes darkening, and raised his hand to adjust the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.