Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

But what about the daughter?

Where was the soul of that originally adorable nine-year-old girl?

At this moment, Zhou Baiyu thought of "exchange".

For some reason, he had a premonition that an extremely unethical source of contamination had appeared.

"As it stands, the contamination source's level seems low, otherwise, it wouldn't be classified as a mere C-level task. I need to figure out a way to meet that nine-year-old girl."

[Task Received—False Reincarnation. Task level: C. Completing the task will award 25 experience points.]

[Note: Task rewards are fixed. However, the difficulty of the task may increase over time.]

If the followers of the God of Games and Entertainment all possess this kind of ability, Zhou Baiyu could imagine that the believers of this new god could have a significant informational advantage.

Of course, his attention was now focused elsewhere.

"This task system is really screwing me over," he said.

"To put it simply, when I accepted the task, it was level C, so no matter when I complete the task, however much the difficulty of the task has changed... the reward is based on the C-level standard."

It was easy to understand that the difficulty of a task would increase with time.

If the contamination is left unchecked, it might lead to a super contamination like the last time.

After careful consideration, Zhou Baiyu thought it was acceptable.

"If it's discovered while still at level C, the reward might be less, but relatively speaking, the damage and contamination it causes are also much less, which is a good thing."

After moving this task up his agenda, Zhou Baiyu didn't chat with the driver much anymore but started searching for related videos online.

Soon, Zhou Baiyu arrived at his destination.

"I can only take you this far. I'm telling you, don't go into the old town. There's something evil about it; they say someone saw a very beautiful woman, and a very good-looking young man... Geez, such a haunted place, why would anyone live there? It's scary just thinking about it," the driver said.

Zhou Baiyu nodded, barely holding back a smile.

Zhang Haoyun and Zhen Shi had become urban legends, that was not surprising at all.

The driver stopped six hundred meters from the old town district, so Zhou Baiyu had to walk the rest of the way.

On his way, Zhou Baiyu met an old man practicing martial arts.

Of course, not the kind with lightning-fast whip strikes, but rather Tai Chi. The old man was vigorous with a youthful look despite his white hair, appearing quite robust.

He had a surprisingly high physical strength of 71 points, and even his energy score was 79 points.

This made Zhou Baiyu sigh, the difference between those who give up and those who don't was huge.

The physical and mental state of the elderly was better than that of the young. What hell mode was the younger generation enduring?

Furthermore, the old man could trigger an F-level task.

Out of caution, Zhou Baiyu decided to give it a try and confirm whether F-level tasks also related to contamination.

So he began a conversation with the old man.

Although his trait of making normal people alienate him made it hard to approach, his great orator trait allowed Zhou Baiyu to easily break through others' prejudices with just a few words.

Before long, Zhou Baiyu was chatting with the old man.

After the words [Task trigger conditions met] appeared, Zhou Baiyu glanced at the conspicuous exclamation mark.

[Please initiate the task with a phrase similar to "With such vitality, your children must surely take you as a role model."]

Zhou Baiyu said, "With your good health, your children must be learning the secret to longevity from you, right?"

After listening, the old man sighed deeply:

"They haven't contacted me in a long time."

What followed was likely the old man sharing his wish, how he had conflicts with his children when he was younger, leading to a lasting estrangement...

Zhou Baiyu felt somewhat disappointed inside. It seemed the lowest-level "F-Class Tasks" were just mundane worldly affairs.

He chose not to accept such tasks.

If there were no contaminations or corruptions to worry about, Zhou Baiyu would have happily experienced "Earth Online" from the perspective of a gamer.

But unfortunately, he was playing "Earth Online: Apocalypse Edition," so it was best to avoid occupying his time with ordinary version tasks whenever possible.

After offering the old man a few words of comfort and suggesting he try to contact his children more, Zhou Baiyu entered the old town district.

...

...

For Zhang Haoyun, it was still an ordinary day.

Earlier, she went to the market with Zhen Shi to buy groceries. Dressed conservatively and from interacting with Zhen Shi over time, she became increasingly calm and composed.

As a demon-level corrupt, Zhang Haoyun didn't let anyone detect anything amiss with her.

Zhang Haoyun used to think that Zhen Shi was the kind of gentle youth who didn't fit in with the common folk.

But when Zhen Shi went grocery shopping with Zhang Haoyun and haggled with a fifty-year-old auntie, she discovered that Zhen Shi, who was even closer to her than her own brother, also had another side.

"Actually, there's no need to save money. If I want to make money, it's quite easy for me," Zhang Haoyun said to Zhen Shi.

"We need to save. Only by not relying on special powers, by earning money like before, by living like before, will you understand, sister, that you were never abandoned by the world. You can still live like before. It's just that you are capable of doing what others cannot, but that doesn't mean you can't blend in with everyone," Zhen Shi replied.

Zhen Shi was always serious, so serious that Zhang Haoyun felt... aside from Zhou Baiyu, he was her second redemption.

After they finished buying groceries and returned to the old town district, Zhen Shi rolled up his sleeves and began preparing the daily meals.

As a corrupted being, his craving for food was actually quite different from humans.

But it was under Zhen Shi's insistence that Zhang Haoyun felt everything was worth looking forward to.

Her mood improved more and more, and as Zhou Baiyu knocked on the door, she revealed a smile brighter than the sunshine itself.

"Brother Baiyu, welcome, I was just about to make some food, come join us for a meal," she said.

"Sure," Zhou Baiyu responded with a smile.

Zhang Haoyun said:

"Welcome back, is everything going smoothly?"

"Yes, the recruitment went quite smoothly, and I discovered some interesting things," Zhou Baiyu replied.

During the conversation, Zhou Baiyu's eyes were actually always on Zhang Haoyun.

But to Zhou Baiyu's surprise—

Zhang Haoyun did not display much information. Or rather, it was all unknown information.

[Physical Strength: ??? Energy: ??? Morals: ???.

Professional Level: ??? Overall Level: ???]

[Can trigger D-rank missions.]

Zhou Baiyu quietly wondered why he couldn't view Zhang Haoyun's panel.

The question didn't trouble him for long, and soon, Zhou Baiyu remembered something.

"The previous mission mentioned that completing it could yield 25 experience points. These experience points are clearly not preliminary points," he mused.

"It's a new, independent leveling system... let's call it game level for now," he decided.

"Perhaps Zhang Haoyun, as a demon king-level corrupted, has too high a game level... which is why I can't view hers," he speculated.

"That's troublesome," he muttered.

Many games are like that, with lower levels unable to view higher levels. To reach a higher level, tedious leveling up is necessary.

Zhou Baiyu suddenly felt a bit speechless...

After all, not everyone has access to C-rank mission intel like taxi drivers do.

Does that mean I must continuously complete E-rank and F-rank missions?

It reminded him of the fear of being dominated by JRPGs, as a hero, you need to help NPCs chop wood, fetch water, hunt... nothing like saving the world.

It also meant that he must continuously interact with people, getting involved in their lives...

Just as Zhou Baiyu felt the monotonous leveling up path was long and boring, he looked at Zhen Shi.

[Physical Strength: ??? Energy: ??? Morals: ???.

Professional Level: ??? Overall Level: ???]

Almost identical to Zhang Haoyun's from before.

But the last line took Zhou Baiyu by surprise.

[Can trigger S-rank missions.]

Zhou Baiyu's gaze towards Zhen Shi changed instantly.

"Brother Baiyu, why are you looking at me like that?" Zhen Shi asked with a pleasant smile.

Zhou Baiyu could never have imagined that Zhen Shi, who was always following Zhang Haoyun around, could trigger an S-rank mission?

If C-rank involved a contaminant affecting Linxiang City, what could S-rank entail?

In that moment, Zhou Baiyu's interest in Zhen Shi intensified greatly.

So much so that he didn't even consider what a D-rank mission on Zhang Haoyun might be.

Why was the prompt for Zhang Haoyun's [Can trigger D-rank missions] pink?

He noticed it, but still felt that Zhen Shi's S-rank mission was more important:

"Zhen Shi, is there anything you want to tell me recently, something you find strange?"