471 Scarlet Sky

Hard mode challenge?

Tang Hao couldn't help but narrowed his eyes. Although Yakumo Purple was somewhat teasing, it was not unreasonable if he thought about it carefully. Since the chat room was upgraded, in the past half month, everyone has been either exercising themselves in the training levels or familiarizing themselves with the new version 2.0. In addition, they are busy with their own affairs, which are most related to the development of the chat room. The recruitment mission has never been carried out once.

Indeed, Tang Hao also felt a little itchy.

This is like playing a gacha game. The official team is busy recreating it all day long. Not to mention the new main line, there is not even a new character that makes people want to shoot. How can there be any thought to save human beings? No wonder Mars The special ones have all gone to the island of mules to raise donkeys...Brother Jie is the best in the world!

Of course, with the current revision of the chat room, the recruitment mission has also undergone huge changes. Not to mention the hero mode, no one knows what the normal mode and the difficult mode are like.

In other words, someone has to clear up the wasteland.

As an administrator, Tang Hao, while enjoying his authority, cannot avoid responsibilities such as land reclamation. At least he still has this awareness, and compared to normal mode, land reclamation in difficult mode is obviously more important.

After all, in the normal mode, there is a chance of recruiting group members, that is, it depends on their appearance. Even if they complete the task, they may not be able to recruit new members if their appearance is not good. Generally speaking, this is more suitable for newcomers or groups with little experience. Members can use it to accumulate experience.

So in fact, if a chat room wants to develop, the safest path is always the difficult mode.

Fortunately, he has now mastered new power, which can be tested through actual combat, and as Yakumo Murasaki said, he is indeed relatively free.

As for Erza and Zoro, reinforcements have been sent out, and the chat room can always keep an eye on them. Even if something unexpected happens, it's still too late to send additional reinforcements, and there is no shortage of him.

Da Ben Dan: So, who is willing to go with me?

Her Royal Highness: Didn’t you just yell that you wanted to show off alone, why do you need someone to accompany you now?

Da Bendan: That’s different. It was a known world before, and I know I was just showing off in the past. Of course one person is enough, but now it’s an unknown adventure, or pioneering wasteland. Of course, the more stable the better.

Her Royal Highness: Anyway, whatever you say makes sense.

Da Bendan: Anyway, now I want to choose one or two lucky people to accompany me to open up wasteland. So, who will be so lucky?

"President, I will accompany you." Tang Hao just said this, and Asuna volunteered before she could return.

"You...I don't think you should be punished." Tang Hao looked at her for a while, then shook his head.

"Why not?" Asuna's eyes suddenly widened, seemingly unconvinced, "Do you doubt that my strength will hold you back?"

"It's not a matter of strength, but your cultivation of the second soul is not going well, right? Although there are opportunities for breakthroughs in actual combat, I think that in your situation, you should empty your mind now, don't think about anything, and relax For a moment, and if you join this wasteland reclamation mission, it will slow down your cultivation progress."

"this……"

"Listen to me, your most important task now is to master the second soul. Let others take over the task of opening up wasteland."

"……All right."

Asuna pursed her lips, still looking a little unwilling, but in the end she listened to Tang Hao's opinion.

At the same time, everyone in the chat room was also discussing.

Saint Hui: Surely ordinary people like us can’t open up wasteland with Da Bendan, right?

Yukinoshita: Don't think about it, you'll probably be killed by his surprise.

Hiyori Ichiki: Actually, Erza and All Might are quite suitable, but it’s a pity.

Miaomori: Where are Yatogami and Kirito?

Yadou Shen: Sorry, I may not be able to spare the time for the time being.

Celia: Mr. Kirito is online, but he hasn’t spoken.

Dr. Roman: He probably hasn’t completed his mission yet.

Phoenix Academy Fierce Person: Huhahahahaha! It seems that at this critical moment, I, the mad scientist, can only take action myself!

Assistant: You'd better forget it, chuunibyou.

Phoenix Academy Fierce Master: Assistant you...I am not a chuunibyou!

Patchouli: Actually, if you look at the list of group members, there are only a few people suitable for this wasteland reclamation mission... Illya Alarm Clock... I'd better forget about the elementary school students, and they experienced such a battle not long ago.

Illya Alarm Clock: I’m really sorry that I’m a primary school student.

Xiaowu Loli: Homu La is not good either, she needs more time to grow.

Homu La: Sorry, I can't help...

Xiaowu Loli: Don’t worry.

Her Royal Highness: Then the only ones left are... I am unhappy and love Gu Tai the most.

Favorite Gutai: It seems like I am the only one who can do it, but I can do it.

I’m not happy: that’s okay with me too.

Da Ben Dan: So have you decided?

Tang Hao flipped through the chat history. Misaka Mikoto and Kuriyama's future strength was completely guaranteed, but this combination always felt like something was missing.

Seventeen-year-old girl: Wait a minute, little sister Gu Tai is fine. If she is unhappy, please let her go first.

I'm not happy: Am I not good enough?

Seventeen-year-old girl: Haven’t you noticed that this lineup is all offensive? Lack of flexibility, since it is opening up wasteland, of course we must pursue stability. In order to be able to adapt to more changes, it is best to change to an all-rounder.

Patchouli: Almighty? Are there such people in our group? Are you planning to play in person?

Seventeen-year-old girl: Of course not me, the fairy tale witch.

Fairytale Witch:?

Tang Hao's eyes suddenly lit up... Are there beads?

Ever since Kuonji Yuju joined the chat room, although she was online most of the time, she never said a word. She gradually became like a ghost group member. Sometimes even Tang Hao would ignore her, but Yakumo didn't expect her. Zi would go out of her way to mention her.

Seventeen-year-old girl: Are you interested in participating in this land reclamation?

Fairytale Witch: Why me?

Seventeen-year-old girl: Misaka Mikoto is on the scientific side, and you are on the mysterious side. As long as there is a combination of the two of you, we can be competent in both the modern world and the magical world. And with your level of magic, no matter it is There is no problem with tasks such as reconnaissance and tracking. At least in my opinion, you are a more suitable candidate than Mirai Kuriyama.

Seventeen-year-old girl: And the most important thing is that you are one of the five starters in hero mode. All Might and Erza are already fighting side by side. You three can also take this opportunity to get along. Regardless of whether this wasteland reclamation is a success or a failure, it can be used as a preliminary exercise for the hero mode.

Seventeen-year-old girl: How are you? Do you have any questions?

Fairy Tale Witch: ...Okay.

Seventeen-year-old girl: Okay, then it’s decided, Da Bendan, it’s your turn.

Da Bendan: What should I do? You’ve finished your words, so let’s join the group.

Tang Hao took advantage of the situation and sent a request to Misaka Mikoto and Kuonji Yuju to join the group. After both of them entered her group, Tang Hao typed four words with great momentum.

Da Bendan: I’m here!

…

This is a hard mode land reclamation, and the people involved are not just the three people who pioneered the land. It can be said to be an important reference for anyone in the group, so of course the video was started as soon as possible.

In the video, the originally dark background gradually showed a glimmer of light after Tang Hao and the others completely entered that world. The first thing they saw was a modern city. On the streets where people were coming and going, Tang Hao and the others stopped among the crowd.

The sunset on the horizon is almost dusk, and the time is evening.

Her Royal Highness: This is a modern world, but are those people not moving?

Seventeen-year-old girl: Well, everyone around them is frozen, but they don’t look like dummies. It’s probably because the mission hasn’t officially started yet, so although they have entered that world, they are still outside the timeline. ...interference in the chat room.

Patchouli: Then I guess there will be some hints next.

Sure enough, after this sentence was sent out, a line of deep red subtitles immediately appeared on the public channel of the chat room.

[Hard Mode Recruitment: When the task is started, the interference effect of the chat room is reduced to zero until the task is completed]

Her Royal Highness: This...

Interference impact reduced to zero?

Tang Hao also frowned when he saw this line of subtitles.

The so-called interference effect of the chat room... Take Kaguya's small dark room as an example. Living there for a year, the outside world is only equal to one hour, because this small dark room is distorted by Kaguya's ability, but the concept of time is distorted. As long as you enter the chat room with you, you can straighten the distorted flow of time. This is the interference effect of the chat room.

It is precisely because of the existence of this kind of interference that Kirito and Asuna, who are almost integrated into the chat room, cannot enter Kaguya's small dark room to practice.

In addition, mobile phones equipped with chat rooms also have strong resistance on the physical level. For example, Tang Hao once used his mobile phone to block Cu Chulainn's Noble Phantasm. This is also an interference effect of the chat room.

Now, the impact of this interference has been reduced to zero. In other words, whether it is a physical level or a conceptual level, the chat room will no longer provide assistance to the group members in the mission. It will only serve as a communication tool. tools, and delivery tools.

Of course, before this, the group members who went to the unknown world to perform recruitment missions rarely used this power. The only time was when Tang Hao blocked Cu Chulainn's Noble Phantasm, so that the existence of this interference effect It seems that the feeling is very low, but in fact it is not the case.

Since the interference of the chat room is all-encompassing from the physical level to the conceptual level, the group members can be immune to many abilities during the execution of tasks. For example, the enemy's ability is time-based, so as long as you bring your mobile phone, you can It can completely neutralize the opponent's abilities and turn Kurumi Tokisaki into a melancholic mistress.

Another example is the mind control department. Shokuhou Misaki suffered this disadvantage. Her mental waves were completely blocked by the chat room, and her level 5 mind control had no effect in front of Tang Hao.

There are many more besides. Even if most of the time the group members don't need this kind of protection at all, as long as its influence is still there, it can at least provide peace of mind.

"Sure enough, the difficulty has increased, but I don't know whether this interference effect is reduced to zero only in this dungeon world, or in all difficulty modes."

Tang Hao lowered his head and murmured. Logically speaking, it makes sense that there would be such a change. After all, there is no free lunch in the world. Since there is a mission system, of course there must be a distinction in difficulty. With the development of chat rooms, the overall quality of group members is also improving, and the protection provided by chat rooms is getting less and less. Relatively speaking, it is better to tap the potential of group members themselves.

In the final analysis, a chat room is just a platform and a channel, not a plug-in that clears the screen with one click.

"There are new hints."

Misaka Mikoto's voice came to his ears, and Tang Hao looked intently.

[Hard mode recruitment mission is enabled. In this mode, fixed missions are removed and replaced with open choices. According to the choices and actions of group members in the mission world, their own camp tendencies will shift. In the process, they will intersect with characters from that camp, and the resulting causal points will determine the invitations of new group members]

[During the mission, the causal points generated by group members and camp characters can be viewed on the mission interface. At most, the five with the highest causal points will be displayed. When the causal points with one of them reaches 100, the recruitment mission will be completed]

[After completing the task, the group members who performed the task will receive prestige and other fixed rewards, and characters with a causal score of 100 points with the group members will have the permission to join the chat room]

【Everything is your own choice】

[Task begins]

When seeing these subtitles, this sentence came to everyone's mind: an open world of complete freedom!

Yes, although it appears as a recruitment mission, there is actually no mission. You are not forced to do anything, nor are you given a fixed goal. Everything depends on how you do it, with complete freedom.

This is like some open-ended games. In the game, you can choose to be the big devil who destroys the world, or you can choose to be a savior who saves all living beings. You can feel the warmth and warmth of NPCs in the game, think about them, and you can also take advantage of them. Starting from Gatlin, he suddenly knocks everyone over. There is no good or bad ending, and there is no so-called correct way to play. It all depends on...how you want to play!

The difficulty mode also provides such a completely blank paper.

How you fill in the answer depends on how you choose.

"How do I put it..." Tang Hao pondered for a moment, and finally said only one sentence, "A world of true freedom."

Yes, this new mission mode in chat rooms is like reality.

Of course, what was before was also reality, but it was not free.

The previous model was like when you were born, your parents helped you define your future and goals, telling you which university you wanted to go to and what kind of industry you wanted to enter. You didn't need to think too much, just work hard to achieve your goals. But today's model is... you can live however you want, as long as you are happy.

The ones who felt the deepest feelings about this were Asuna and Yukino, because they were children whose future had been planned by their parents. Although they had no worries about food and clothing and lived a comfortable life, they did not have the freedom they wanted.

"This is the hard mode..." Xueno held the phone tightly and looked at the subtitles on the screen, her eyes sparkling. Now she was sure that this was what she wanted!

At this moment, she felt that she had found her goal.

The meaning of life may lie in the word freedom.

In the video, when the subtitles gradually disappeared, the world seemed to come to life again. People on the street began to move around, passing by Tang Hao and the others.

The mission begins!

"Huh" Tang Hao breathed out softly and said with a smile, "Although it seems that there is no mission anymore, we still follow the old rules. First, look for any iconic buildings and people to determine which world this is... Youzhu?"

Tang Hao noticed that Youzhu seemed to be in a daze.

Mikoto couldn't help but cast a curious look at her.

Youzhu came back to his senses, immediately put the phone away, shook his head and said, "It's nothing, don't pay attention to me."

Youzhu said calmly, but there were many thoughts in her heart. She can be said to be the freest person and the person furthest away from freedom, because the fate of a witch is unchanging. As a witch, her future has already been determined. But...the witch's fate only stipulates how to die, but not how to live.

She could obviously live more freely than anyone else, but she restricted herself to that small mansion.

Until she walked out of the mansion this time and saw the subtitles just now, she instinctively had mixed feelings.

Tang Hao didn't know what she was thinking. At least on the surface, it looked the same as before, so he stopped asking any more questions, greeted the two of them, and walked forward.

The air is filled with the atmosphere of a modern city. Other than that, there is nothing out of the ordinary. In the evening, it is the peak time for get off work and school. Pedestrians on the street are also coming and going in a hurry, looking for a familiar face. It is as difficult as climbing to heaven.

The only thing that is certain is that this is Japan, Misaki City.

"Misaki City, do you have any impression?" Mikoto asked.

"No. And it's impossible to tell just from the name of a city. It's not an almost unique place like Academy City." Tang Hao shook his head and said. After all, disasters are happening in Japan in the anime world all day long. Tokyo, in particular, has been hit by disasters countless times. Knowing the name of the city is of no help in determining which anime or world it is from.

"Ugh... Then there's nothing I can do." Mikoto sighed. In fact, in order to cope with the current situation, she read a lot of comics that she was not usually interested in some time ago, especially those about fighting super powers, and when it came to Misaki She had some impression of the city, but she couldn't remember the details.

"There is another clue. I just heard that the cherry blossoms in Misaki City will bloom later than in previous years." Youzhu said.

It has to be said that Yakumo Murasaki's recommendation is quite reliable. Not only in terms of strength, but also in terms of carefulness, Yuju far surpasses Tang Hao and Mikoto. When they heard this information, they were both stunned.

but

This is of no use.

"There are basically cherry blossoms in Japanese anime. This kind of information..."

Tang Hao smiled bitterly and shook his head. Before he could finish speaking, his thigh was hit by someone. When he turned around, he saw a naughty kid holding a drink.

"sorry Sorry……"

The child's mother immediately ran forward and apologized to Tang Hao.

"It's okay, just be careful." Tang Hao smiled and waved his hand, not caring. Then when the mother took the child's hand and walked forward, he picked up the phone and opened the task interface.

"It's completely blank."

There were no names related to cause and effect on the mission interface. Obviously, he was not so lucky. He met an important person as soon as he came up. He was just a random kid passing by.

"Instead of paying attention to passers-by, I think this sky is more special. Have you noticed that it seems to be a little redder?" Mikoto raised her head and said thoughtfully.

"Really?" Tang Hao also raised his head, and sure enough he saw a reddish sky reflected by the rays of the sun. "But that's just because of the evening, the red sky... Speaking of this, I thought of a song."

"What song is it?"

"The Scarlet Sky."

Tang Hao smiled, and then a breeze blew, causing the cherry blossoms scattered on the ground to dance in the air, as if to confuse people's eyes.

"Danger!"

At this moment, an anxious voice came from the front.

Tang Hao quickly looked over and saw that the person speaking was a young man with an ordinary appearance. He was the kind of person who would not be found in a crowd, just like him. The difference is that this boy is wearing a black student uniform and should still be a high school student.

In front of the boy, there was a child running regardless of his mother's shouts. His body was leaning forward and he was about to fall to the ground.

Tang Hao almost laughed out loud, it was that naughty kid again!

Obviously, the high school boy was more caring than Tang Hao. Seeing that the child was about to fall, he instinctively rushed forward and the child was already half-bent.

Is such a caring high school student the protagonist?

Tang Hao was thinking about it when suddenly, a strange light seemed to rise from the ground. For a moment, everything stopped.

The child who fell to the ground, the mother chasing behind, the lovers holding arms, colleagues walking and chatting, any passerby around, even the cherry blossoms floating in the air, everything seemed to be frozen. generally.

Tang Hao watched this scene, but he was just watching, because... even he was affected by this strange phenomenon and couldn't even move a finger.

Time paused? !

Tang Hao never expected that this kind of ability would actually appear in this world. Without the protection of the chat room, he could not free himself from this bondage. Fortunately, he could still see that it was not absolute stillness, so ...Where is Youzhu? Where's Mikoto? Can they still move?

Tang Hao didn't know because he couldn't turn back, but the next moment, he saw someone moving.

That high school student!

At this moment when everything was still, he was the only one who was not affected, but the strange situation in front of him seemed to frighten him so much that he dropped his schoolbag and ran in panic.

"Is it fake? This...what is going on?"

In this still space, the sound was not isolated, and the panicked voices of high school students and teenagers reached Tang Hao's ears.

Then at this moment, a huge doll appeared silently, cracking the ground with a bang. Next to it, there was a sphere made of countless doll masks floating.

"Okay, ready."

"Although the number is not large, it is enough, so... let's get started."

The giant doll and the doll were talking. The next moment, the doll opened its mouth, revealing its fangs, "Eat, eat, eat..."

Immediately afterwards, the motionless people turned into blue-white flames one by one, flying towards the mouth of the giant doll.