Chapter 1876: S-Rank Rating and B-Rank Player
Everyone was chatting and laughing, and the atmosphere seemed pleasant. However, Liao Xiaoyi still decided to hold a vote on whether they were willing to raise little Melissa. The first vote was anonymous. If the majority was unwilling to bear the cost of raising the child, then little Melissa would be sent by her to another district.
If the majority agreed, then little Melissa would stay. As for which safe zone she would remain in, considering the child's physical condition, a second vote would select a few relatively strong safe zones to vote on. Finally, the district responsible for caring for the child would have to accept regular visits and inspections from the other districts.
Liao Xiaoyi's consideration had already accommodated the majority. The players present had no objections. For the sake of fairness, she also contacted the safe zones that were not present. As long as they voted simultaneously, the specific numbers of votes for and against could be reported from the safe zones.
The voting began. Players cast their ballots one by one into the ballot box placed in the center of the room. During this process, little Melissa, held by Chang Shoujie, watched them curiously.
Occasionally, someone would turn back and secretly smile at her, and she would smile back.
The votes were finally tallied by Liao Xiaoyi and a few leaders from the safe zones. The final result was that over four-fifths of the players agreed to raise little Melissa.
Next came the vote on which safe zone would house Melissa. For this vote, Liao Xiaoyi also added voting rights for Xu Huo and his group, since they were the ones who found the child, and they had that right.
Of course, there were quite a few people dissatisfied with this point. Two votes from Xu Huo's group represented one safe zone, and Zone 010 only had about a dozen safe zones participating in the vote.
All the safe zones participating in the vote were relatively powerful. Ultimately, only one was selected to house little Melissa.
Someone suggested that the districts take turns raising her, but Liao Xiaoyi rejected this. First, rotating care would be difficult to supervise. Since little Melissa was not an experiment, to avoid anyone using her as one, selecting only one district with joint supervision from the other districts was a more appropriate approach.
Everyone accepted this reasoning. The final choice was Liao Xiaoyi's Tomorrow Safe Zone. However, Xu Huo and his group's votes played a crucial role in this decision.
Gan Feng, the competitor, had no objections but pointed out, "The Tomorrow Safe Zone has already been destroyed."
Liao Xiaoyi was also worried about this, especially since the Tomorrow Safe Zone was left with mostly just players.
"Why not merge with the Harvest Safe Zone?" Gan Feng suggested. "The two districts aren't far apart, and both have been attacked. Merging would be safer."
"Why bother merging?" Juan Er said. "Go take back the Sand Sea Safe Zone. Then you'll have a ready-made place."
No one from Zone 010 picked up on that. The purpose of the outer zone players urging them to fight for the Sand Sea Safe Zone was obvious, but because Xu Huo and his group had helped them, they couldn't say anything harsh.
"We'll talk about retaking the Sand Sea Safe Zone later." Liao Xiaoyi stopped the topic, turned to look at little Melissa, and extended her hand, saying, "Melissa, come to Auntie."
Little Melissa understood the meaning of the outstretched hand, but she still preferred Xu Huo and his group.
Xu Huo reached out and picked her up, turning her to face Liao Xiaoyi and the others. "Little Melissa, do you like them? Do you want to live with them?"
Everyone thought little Melissa didn't understand the meaning of these words. Xu Huo didn't explain either. Instead, he took out two candies, kept one in his hand, and tossed the other to Liao Xiaoyi. Then he placed the child in the middle and let her choose.
"Why isn't it me?" Juan Er protested.
Deng Xiahei was quite speechless. "Did you clear the instance, or did Old Xu?"
Juan Er shrugged and fell silent.
Little Melissa had eaten candy before and remembered the taste. So when she saw the new candies, her expression showed a bit of excitement. Hearing the calls from both sides made her even more excited. For a moment, she didn't know whose to take first. She looked left and right, then finally ran to Xu Huo first and took his candy.
Seeing this, Liao Xiaoyi couldn't help but observe Xu Huo's expression. However, Xu Huo's face showed no extra emotion. Instead, little Melissa, after getting the candy, turned around without hesitation.
Liao Xiaoyi caught the child who threw herself into her arms and was somewhat moved as she embraced her small body.
This time, little Melissa didn't run away. Instead, she very naturally found a comfortable position to nestle against her, eating her candy while smiling at Xu Huo.
"This little brat is sharp enough," Xiao Hui teased.
Xu Huo smiled, stood up, and said to Liao Xiaoyi, "I'm returning the child to you."
"Thank you." Liao Xiaoyi bowed deeply to him.
[Congratulations to Player Passerby A for successfully clearing the instance "Wandering Melissa." In this instance, you found Melissa and gained the recognition of the majority of players in Zone 010, allowing her to successfully return home. Therefore, your rating for this instance is S. You will receive two Primary Trait upgrade opportunities, one A-rank item, two B-rank items, 50 doses of gene serum, 7 tickets, and one million White Notes.]
[Previously, you had accumulated one SSS rating, one SS rating, three S ratings, and one A rating at the C-rank stage. Combined with this S rating obtained from clearing a B-rank instance beyond your level, congratulations, you have been promoted from a C-rank player to a B-rank player. Since you have successfully advanced with fewer than ten instance clears, you will also receive a generous promotion gift pack.]
[Congratulations, Player Passerby A. Keep up the good work.]
Clearing with an S rating was somewhat unexpected for Xu Huo, but what surprised him even more was that after clearing this instance, he was promoted to a B-rank player.
The game's clearance rewards always had a focus. For example, if the trait rewards for clearing were good, then the item and other rewards would be poorer. If the items were good, the corresponding traits and other rewards would be fewer. This S-rank clearance came with two Primary Trait upgrades and one A-rank item. Compared to previous instances with the same rating, it was relatively generous.
Of course, he was more curious about the promotion gift pack. Being called "generous" by the game probably meant it wouldn't be bad.
"Cleared!" Xiao Hui suddenly laughed loudly and fiercely hugged Juan Er and Brother Wu beside him. "I cleared it!"
After laughing, he looked at Xu Huo with some regret. "If only we could have formed a team for this instance."
That's right. Because they hadn't agreed to team up, there was no team reward this time. Xu Huo and Xiao Hui both found Melissa at the same time, so they cleared it together.
After speaking, Xiao Hui started complaining about the game being stingy. "Every time we clear, we only get a little bit of reward."
Even Xu Huo's S-rank clearance reward wasn't particularly eye-catching, so A-rank and below were naturally even less impressive. Of course, S-rank ratings generally came with items that exceeded the player's level. Although the quantity wasn't large, they were still quite capable.
"Excuse me," Xu Huo said to the group in a good mood. (Chapter End)