# Chapter 5: Helper and Prodigy
After seeing the war mission and promotion mission, Su Xiao basically understood the situation. To trigger the promotion mission, he first needed to complete the war mission.
The ultimate goal of the war mission was simple: seize the World Core and establish a permanent spatial coordinate. At that point, this world would belong to Reincarnation Paradise, and their contractors could enter this world to obtain resources.
The current situation was that this world's core could not be directly extracted. To extract the World Core, one first needed to find nodes within Smoke City and set up temporary coordinates on those nodes. This was why Su Xiao had been teleported to the Western Continent.
Su Xiao checked his storage space. When he first entered this world, six temporary coordinates had already appeared in his storage space. These items were half-meter long, arm-thick metal pillars with extremely precise construction.
He couldn't contact the main force of his contractors for now. They were on the Eastern Continent, waiting for the World Core to appear.
This wasn't good news. His side's contractors were all restless. If there was a clear goal, that was fine—these madmen would unite, after all, they were crazy in their methods, not stupid.
But now, with nothing to do, his side's contractors were waiting on the Eastern Continent. Heaven knows what trouble they might cause. If these people conspired together to raid the Magic Association headquarters, it wasn't impossible.
Su Xiao chose to check the number of contractors from each side. With his highest authority at Seventh Rank, he immediately obtained the information.
Reincarnation Paradise: 219 people.
Death Paradise: 256 people.
Sanctuary Paradise: 270 people.
Apocalypse Paradise: 492 people.
...
Apocalypse Paradise's numbers were still far ahead. It had to be said that in every World War, even if Apocalypse Paradise lost, the surviving contractors' gains weren't low. Before the war started, they were the most active, searching everywhere for resources or mining.
Su Xiao sat up from the small bed in the cell. The situation was simple now: first seize control of the nodes, then find a way to the Eastern Continent, and together with his side's contractors, clear out all other factions. Only when all contractors participating in the World War were expelled from this world could he safely conduct his promotion trial.
The promotion trial only had two chances. If he failed this time, he would be pushed to the brink. If he failed both times, he would have no hope of advancing to Eighth Rank. Subsequent mission world rewards would drastically decrease, causing Su Xiao's strength to grow very slowly.
Su Xiao walked out of the cell. A somewhat dim corridor appeared before him. The walls on both sides of the corridor were covered with stains. The light tubes above flickered on and off, burning gasified Black Crystal inside.
Walking through the corridor, Su Xiao passed iron door after iron door, each marked with rusted doorplates. Below the doorplates were numbers written in quartz.
These numbers had been erased and rewritten many times, leaving pale white traces of quartz powder around them. Clearly, this wasn't a prison for holding criminals, but for protecting them.
Coming here to "serve time" required paying "Gulang," the unique currency of the Western Continent. One standard unit of Black Crystal = 175 Gulang. The cost of a full meal was roughly between 10 to 20 Gulang—enough to fill your stomach, but don't expect it to be delicious.
In a place like Smoke City on the Western Continent, there was no law, so real prisons didn't exist. This prison was more like a shelter. After causing trouble outside, you'd spend a large sum of Gulang to hide here. 329 Gulang per day, clearly priced.
Several burly men were guarding the stairway at the end of the corridor. Half of them had slightly swollen faces, recently beaten.
Seeing Su Xiao approach, these men in dirty uniforms all stepped back. One of them even forced an ugly smile.
"This damn place is way too shady."
Baha's voice came from the stairs leading to the ground. Su Xiao hadn't left earlier because he was waiting for Baha.
"Boss, I didn't find anything. Those people didn't come looking."
Baha landed on Su Xiao's shoulder and handed him a black crystal the size of a fingernail. This was Black Crystal.
[You have obtained Black Crystal ×1 (This is the universal currency of this world. Using this item can increase the favorability of most plot characters).]
The folk customs of Smoke City were very pragmatic. Even if your Charm Attribute was insufficient, giving enough Black Crystal could achieve the negotiation effect of a high Charm Attribute.
Walking up the steps, an open iron gate appeared ahead. Not too harsh sunlight shone in.
Exiting the gate, a small alley filled with debris on both sides appeared. A scrawny stray dog had its head stuck in a trash can. Hearing Su Xiao's footsteps, the stray dog immediately turned its head. Without a threatening growl, it just bared its sharp teeth. A moment later, the stray dog tucked its tail and fled.
The walls on both sides of the alley were covered with metal pipes. Pale yellow steam sprayed from cracks in the pipes, causing a thick layer of rust to form on the surrounding pipes.
A somewhat pungent smell spread. Su Xiao quickened his pace. Smoke City wasn't completely sunless, but the weather wasn't clear either. Black-gray dust particles floating in the sky blocked most of the sunlight, making the entire city's colors dimmer.
"Don't you have any sense of time? You're late... 27 minutes."
A figure wearing old clothes and a hood was sitting on a trash can. Their leg kept shaking, as if suffering from hyperactivity.
"Let's get this straight. After I help you find those things called 'nodes,' I don't owe you anything. This is me repaying Kaisa's favor."
The hooded figure's words contained quite a bit of information. The "Kaisa" they mentioned was likely not a coincidence—it was probably the Kaisa that Su Xiao knew.
Other paradises had teleported two contractors each into Smoke City. Su Xiao's side only had him alone. From the current situation, it seemed Kaisa had entered this world first and found a reliable helper. This helper had Eighth Rank combat power.
[Tip: You have formed a temporary team with Undying Hughsilo. Undying Hughsilo is a member of the Black Tower organization.]
Hughsilo wore a black leather skull mask on the lower half of their face. Their pupils were gray, not sharp, but dangerous.
"I'm not a good person, but I keep my promises."
Hughsilo raised their hand and snapped their fingers. A tall and a short figure emerged from beside the alley, blocking the exit. Both had their arms crossed and smiled slightly while raising their chins.
"These two are the Bo Brothers. Very reliable people. At least... trustworthy."
"Mm!"
Both Bo Brothers nodded. The elder brother was at least two meters tall, thin as a pole. Since his shirt was a bit small, the dirty clothes gave him a crop-top look.
The younger brother beside him was less than one and a half meters tall, somewhat chubby, with a waist like a swim ring wrapped around him.
"These two... have quite the background."
Baha sighed sincerely. Hearing this, Hughsilo's eyes lit up, showing an expression of "you know your stuff." They said:
"Have you heard their story?"
"No, but their faces are full of stories. Such talents, appearing two at once—where did you find them?"
Baha looked at Hughsilo, then at the Bo Brothers. The former was extremely reliable. As for the latter two...
"This is a special fate. Bo Brothers, show Bai Ye what you can do."
Hughsilo spoke seriously. Hearing this, the Bo Brothers moved. The younger brother clenched his fists and tilted his head slightly. The elder brother raised his hand high and delivered a wide, round slap to his own brother's face.
Smack!
The loud slap echoed far. A section of the wall beside them suddenly shattered, leaving a huge handprint. This wall was where the younger Bo Brother had been looking. This was a damage transfer ability.
Su Xiao looked at the Bo Brothers, then at Hughsilo. With just one glance, he judged that there was something wrong with these two.
Hughsilo blinked their right eye, meaning "see through but don't say it." These two brothers might be useful at critical moments.
...
Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a pointed high-rise half a kilometer away, a man and a woman stood. The man was bald, with barcodes covering his head. The woman had a ponytail and wore five rings on her right hand, each connected by thin chains. These represented five attributes: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Stamina, and Charm.
The bald man was holding a bag of cookies, crushing them to feed the stray cats gathered nearby. There were over a dozen.
"Didn't expect you to be so compassionate."
"..."
The bald man didn't speak, not caring what his temporary teammate said. A slight smile appeared on his somewhat stiff face. He gently stroked a stray cat's head. The cat looked up and rubbed against his hand, purring contentedly.
"Stop feeding the cats. We've encountered that guy from Reincarnation Paradise. Want to go deal with him? I don't care about explosives. That kind of thing can't kill me."
"..."
The bald man still didn't speak. He grabbed a stray cat, controlling his strength, and gave it a slap. The cat yelped in pain, its fur standing on end, struggling to run away. The other stray cats also scattered.
"Do you have a problem? Feed them, then hit them?"
The ponytailed woman frowned.
"Just trying to tell them that not all humans are trustworthy. Let's go. We're going to... kill the Beheader of Night. Someone's waiting for him down there. An eye for an eye, a life for a life."
The bald man stood up. With a crack, the space around him shattered like broken mirrors, cracks spreading in all directions.