Chapter 24: Settlement

In the study of the ancient castle, Hao Mei, who had just completed a full-star difficulty faction mission, took a sip of Elemental Brew to calm her nerves. Even with some mental preparation beforehand, receiving over 40,000 reputation from a single mission still dealt a considerable shock to her psyche.

"Are we really farming reputation this way... ahem, gaining reputation like this? Won't there be problems?" Hao Mei spoke with some hesitation, implying whether this might cause her to become a Violator.

"Why would you say that?" Kaiser looked at Hao Mei with utter confusion, as if completely failing to grasp her implication. Before Hao Mei could respond, Kaiser asked, "Tell me, in all these steps, which one did we not follow the rules of the Void Tree?"

"?" Hao Mei stared at Kaiser in surprise, almost blurting out: 'Even Violators aren't this ruthless, you know.'

Seeming to read Hao Mei's thoughts, Kaiser cleared his throat and laid it out: "First, regarding the faction aspect—you were removed from the Beast Clan faction by their high-ranking members, then I recruited you as a quartermaster of the Sea Clan. Is there a problem with that?"

"N-no problem."

"Alright then. As your superior, I couldn't resist my greed and exploited what should have been yours. Then I suddenly felt a pang of conscience, reported myself to the Void Tree, and the Void Tree punished me, compensating you. Is there a problem with that? Look, here's the punishment notification."

Kaiser displayed a punishment notification from the Void Tree, though he conveniently omitted showing the large number of Reincarnation Paradise items used to offset and exempt the punishment.

"These are also... no problem." Hao Mei spoke while gradually furrowing her brows. She felt something was off but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"As the quartermaster of the Sea Clan faction, I issued you a faction mission. Is there a problem with that?"

"No."

"Then you successfully completed the mission. We don't really need to dwell on the details of the process. In short, you completed this mission openly and fairly, and your performance was excellent. You received a large amount of reputation—shouldn't you have?"

Kaiser's words made Hao Mei frown in thought. This reputation farming, at first glance, seemed both exaggerated and absurd, but upon careful examination, every step followed normal procedures. Except for Kaiser being punished for using the "Faction Bully" ability, everything else complied with the Void Tree's rules.

This was Kaiser's brilliance. His operations never involved blatant violations or deceiving the rules; instead, he paid the minimum cost for maximum profit. It was precisely this style that caused him to bounce back and forth between Arbiters and reserve Arbiters.

"Let's stop the reputation missions for today. Tomorrow, we'll capture the Beast Clan Lord alive—that should net us even more reputation."

Hearing this, Hao Mei pressed her hand to her forehead. What the hell, capture the Beast Clan Lord alive? She just felt this scene was familiar, and now she suddenly remembered experiencing something similar on Ser Star, where she captured the "Enemy Supreme Leader: Kukulin Bai Ye" alive. Now it was about capturing the Transcendent Primordial World's "Beast Clan Lord: Kukulin Bai Ye" alive.

This made Hao Mei wonder if repeatedly capturing such prominent figures would unlock some strange "Achievement" or "Title."

"Sigh, I hope I don't unlock any weird achievements," Hao Mei muttered softly.

"Achievements?" Su Xiao looked at Hao Mei across the desk with some confusion, which surprised Hao Mei as well. She asked, "Don't you Hunters have 'Achievement' certification?"

"..." Su Xiao was even more puzzled. Vaguely, he seemed to recall something about "Achievements." Back when he was First Rank, he received an achievement mission: Sky-Plundering Storm. After that, such notifications gradually disappeared.

Su Xiao had always thought that "Achievement" certification, like Paradise Coins, was a benefit for newcomers from the Paradise faction—something that would disappear after the newbie period. Now it seemed that wasn't the case.

"You don't have 'Achievement' certification? How do you get Titles then?"

"..." Su Xiao frowned deeper. How to obtain Titles was a blind spot in his knowledge. In his experience, he usually only got Titles after completing a major event, or by opening a Title Shop in worlds certified by the Void Tree and exchanging for them there.

"'Achievements' are very useful. Some special achievements even grant rewards. Of course, if your Charm attribute reaches 300 points, completing any achievement event would yield some benefits under the Charm attribute's boost..."

Hearing the latter part, Su Xiao picked up the Mysterious Eye to refine it further and realized that this "Achievement" certification was basically irrelevant to him. No wonder he was so unfamiliar with it.

Just then, a notification from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.

[Notification: The Beast Clan army under your jurisdiction has arrived at the main battlefield.]

[Current Territory: Fierce Winter Territory (Twilight City Territory).]

[Army Count: 6 (Deployed Status).]

[Territory Evaluation: C+ Grade (Territory evaluations range from E to S Grade. Different evaluations grant the Territory Lord a corresponding amount of reputation daily, ranging from 100 to 3,000 points. If Void Tree Reputation exceeds a certain threshold, this cap will increase. Territory evaluation is based on a comprehensive assessment of resident happiness, army deployment, territorial finances, etc.).]

[Yes/No to proceed with today's territory settlement based on the current situation. If no choice is made before 6 PM daily, this settlement will proceed automatically (Territory settlement occurs once daily, calculating reputation gains from all aspects of the territory).]

...

Su Xiao didn't immediately proceed with the territory settlement. Instead, he opened the faction list, chose to temporarily crown Molei as Acting Lord, and applied for himself to be listed as injured and recuperating. This way, Molei became the representative of their faction, gaining the Lord permissions of the Fierce Winter Territory. Correspondingly, any judgments involving "Void Tree Reputation" for this territory would be based on Molei's existing Void Tree Reputation.

This seemed to carry high risk, but the returns were equally abundant. With Molei now representing the Fierce Winter Territory, subsequent events here would give her World Evaluation a significant boost.

Since they had agreed beforehand, Molei quickly accepted this certification and transferred the territory's reputation permissions back. Su Xiao reopened the territory list and found considerable changes in its contents.

[Current Territory: Fierce Winter Territory.]

[Army Count: 6 (Deployed Status).]

...

The reward range for territory evaluation had skyrocketed from 100–3,000 points to 100–15,000 points. This was the difference that varying Void Tree Reputation made.

Thinking 3,000 points wasn't low? Not at all. The lower limit of this reward was capped at 3,000 points simply because it couldn't go any lower.

After confirming he had maximized the benefits as much as possible, Su Xiao chose to proceed with today's territory settlement. Notifications appeared immediately.

[Territory settlement has begun.]

[Current territory evaluation is C+ Grade. You receive 3,000 reputation points.]

[Current deployed armies: 6. Each army's deployment yields 300 reputation points. You receive 1,800 reputation points (if your armies achieve additional merits, extra reputation will be awarded).]

[No special events occurring within the current territory. No corresponding reputation rewards.]

[The Dark God Cult is active within the current territory, causing a decrease in supernatural public order and resident happiness. Reputation -1,500 points.]

[Current recruitment status for Transcendents, artisans, etc.: Poor (due to Dark God Cult activity and competition from the neighboring White Dragon Territory, this evaluation is extremely low. If this evaluation were sufficiently high, it would raise your territory evaluation).]

[Total reputation gained today: 3,300 points.]

...

Seeing these notifications, Su Xiao's gaze grew increasingly cold. Earlier, he had been busy developing the territory and deploying armies, so he hadn't dealt with the Dark God Cult. But now it seemed this tumor not only affected the supernatural public order in the territory but also caused Su Xiao to lose 1,500 reputation points daily.

In the Beast Clan's faction shop, one [Soul Crystal] cost only 1,300 reputation points. More critically, there were many powerful Contractors on the Beast Clan's side—too many wolves for too little meat. Even with the exchange prerequisite of "Reputation Rank: Lord Level" as a threshold, only 5 [Soul Crystals] remained in the faction shop.

It was already hard to grab them, and now the Dark God Cult was costing Su Xiao one [Soul Crystal] per day. Selling this to the Goblin Merchant Guild would fetch 120 Soul Crystals. Thinking of this, Su Xiao's face became expressionless. Hao Mei across the desk noticed this, grabbed a bottle of Elemental Brew, said her goodbyes, and slipped away.

"My dear friend, it seems you've run into some trouble."

"The Dark God Cult."

Hearing Su Xiao's words, Kaiser understood. But then he gave a sly smile and said, "I do have a way, though I'm not sure..."

Kaiser didn't continue. He got up, left the room, and his aura vanished into thin air. Suffice it to say, Kaiser's various survival methods had reached an astonishing level.

"Baha, go find Fenris."

Su Xiao decided not to deal with the Dark God Cult through Kaiser for now. The reason was that the Dark God Cult, as one of the three major sects in this world, had undeniable comprehensive strength. And Su Xiao had several other matters to attend to at the moment.