Chapter 99: Sharing the Spoils

Since the team was developing a little too slowly, it was time for the captain to step in personally.

Who knew when rock-paper-scissors would ever truly catch on as a proper sport...

With that thought in mind, Luo Yong set off alone for the Land of Divine Lamentation.

This time, he did not use a teleport scroll. Instead, he moved forward at a measured pace, while familiarizing himself with the Reaper Dragonfly.

Whoosh!

Light and shadow flashed. The Reaper Dragonfly shot out like a streak of sharp light and slew a beast in the distance, shattering its skull and leaving only a mangled corpse behind.

"That probably won't do."

Luo Yong shook his head and muttered to himself, "The more intact the quest item is, the better the reward should be."

Wendy and the others had also received that piece of equipment that caused them endless squabbling precisely because they had turned in a complete Reaper Dragonfly.

The only reason they had not come to blows over it yet was that no final decision had been made; no one had said exactly who it would go to.

Luo Yong was a little worried that once a decision was made, someone would definitely be unhappy.

In the end, all of it came down to one simple truth: there was never enough to go around.

Many things, Luo Yong already understood long ago. Yet the simpler and clearer a truth was, the harder it sometimes was to resolve.

Still, these problems were not problems at all in the hands of a true high-roller.

In fact, if not for the fact that those pieces of gear could only be handed out as quest rewards, Luo Yong would have simply spent a fortune and been done with it.

It was a benefit for the team, after all. Raising the overall strength of the squad was part of a captain's duty.

Otherwise, if the teammates were too weak and everything had to be worried over by the captain, what was the captain supposed to do with his own time?

Come to think of it, Luo Yong had not seen the elf beauty for some time now, and it was starting to itch at him. He had gone looking for her a few times, but had never managed to find her.

Then again, it made sense. He was only the captain of a single squad, and he was already running himself ragged. For the elf beauty, there were far more things waiting to be handled.

Not only the Mage Guild, but the elven race as well had all sorts of matters for her to deal with.

Buzz!

The Reaper Dragonfly slowly rose into the air and swooped toward a beast in the distance. Just as it was about to close in, a strange light burst from its compound eyes.

The beast... was a massive wild boar, more than a zhang long. Caught in that flash of brilliance, it immediately grew dazed, its already sluggish mind grinding to a halt at once.

Its world had been pressed onto pause.

Everything was over.

Under the control of the Reaper Dragonfly, the boar ran over to Luo Yong, stopped in front of him, then lowered its body.

Luo Yong climbed straight on and sat upon the boar's back, and his speed immediately increased.

Only, whenever he thought of his own teammates riding wolves or bears while he himself was riding a pig...

What in the world!

Fortunately, there was no one nearby to see it.

Ahem.

At this point, Luo Yong was fully geared up. His entire disguise set was complete from head to toe, along with all kinds of special items from several different classes, and then some.

Some of those items even had multiple copies.

Going by his sense of time, a few days had likely passed before the silhouettes of human heroes began to appear before his eyes.

The Land of Divine Lamentation was just ahead.

Riding in on a pig...

Luo Yong's appearance naturally drew the attention of several people, and their looks were far from friendly.

His entrance seemed several ranks below that of a wilderness hunter riding a wolf, or other summoner heroes and their mounts.

It just looked awkward.

Luo Yong did not care. He simply released the little plane on his shoulder.

Swoosh!

The tiny Reaper Dragonfly took to the sky, entered the Land of Divine Lamentation, and vanished from Luo Yong's sight.

Hidden by the enormous Reaper Dragonflies, no one could possibly catch even a glimpse of it.

By now, many squads had already gathered here, all of them drawn by the rewards.

In the past, some stronger teams would not have cared about the tasks and prizes issued by the camp at all.

But this mission was different, and the reward was far too tempting.

Once some teams completed the task and displayed their reward, it immediately drew countless eyes.

More and more squads joined in.

As for the Reaper Dragonflies within the Land of Divine Lamentation, after one round of slaughter, they had suffered enormous losses. At last, after countless deaths, the true leader among them had emerged, and the battlefield had quickly fallen quiet.

The teams outside were all here for the remains left behind on the ground.

Some of them were relatively intact, and with a bit of piecing together, they could become a complete Reaper Dragonfly.

Even if they could not be exchanged for top-tier equipment, they could still be traded for something of value.

Ahem.

Speaking of which, the equipment from the Radiant Series, though only a tier-two set, was already considered top-grade by these squads.

The same went for Luo Yong's own teammates.

Roar!

All of a sudden, the boar Luo Yong was riding, having broken free of the Reaper Dragonfly's control, slowly regained its senses.

And the moment it sensed the human beings around it, it flew into a rage. It suddenly reared up, nearly sending Luo Yong tumbling off its back.

"Hmph!"

Luo Yong forcefully steadied himself, and at the same time activated Gravity Art at ten times strength, instantly slamming the boar flat. Its four hooves sank into the ground, and it could no longer move.

"Heh heh! What a capable brother!"

At that moment, someone darted over from nearby and stood in front of the boar's head.

"Brother, are you here for the mission too? But coming alone seems a little hasty, doesn't it..."

"Do you need something?" Luo Yong asked flatly, without the slightest emotion.

"Ah, nothing much. Aren't we all here because we've heard about the reward? The Radiant set, right!"

"Indeed, it does look pretty good."

Luo Yong nodded. Mostly, his teammates thought it looked pretty good.

He himself did not care all that much.

"Exactly. But the Land of Divine Lamentation isn't easy to enter these days. The larger squads have already staked out their territories, and the fallen Reaper Dragonflies are practically considered their private property. For the likes of us, with only a few people, all we can do is stare longingly from the sidelines..."

With a sigh, the man looked around, then lowered his voice mysteriously.

"I heard that at the beginning, a mysterious powerhouse killed the strongest boss here, and that's why the Reaper Dragonflies started tearing each other apart and turned the place into this mess."

"So that's how it is..."

Luo Yong looked ahead and saw that many of the Reaper Dragonflies within the Land of Divine Lamentation had already fallen and slipped into a state of motionless slumber.

Yet in the sky, many more were still, after a brief rest, attacking their own kind once again, fighting to the death without regard for anything.

From time to time, shattered bodies would fall from above.

And whenever that happened, certain mages would use special spells to collect the remains, or speed-type warriors would risk entering the area to retrieve them, then immediately open a portal to leave.

"Sigh. These days, it's not only low-level heroes who have it rough. Even small squads don't have it easy."

The man lamented for a while on his own, then seemed to think of something and turned to Luo Yong.

"Brother, you dared come here alone, so you must have some confidence that, under these circumstances, you can still get a share from those people, right?"

"Clearly, they're the ones taking one helping after another from my pot..."

Luo Yong replied emotionlessly.

These people were all just taking advantage of him!

"Huh? What did you say?"

The man beside him asked, having failed to catch a single word Luo Yong said.

Of course, Luo Yong had never intended for him to hear it clearly.

"Heh, what are you two talking about? So lively over here."

Another person walked over. He seemed to be waiting idly as well, waiting for those teams that had already staked out their territories to eat their fill and leave, so he could go in and pick up the leftovers.

"Locky, you came too?"

"Obviously. How could we miss out on an opportunity like this?"

The two of them knew each other and exchanged greetings. The man called Locky sized Luo Yong up a few times and said, "Brother, we're the Locky Squad. I'm the captain, Locky. Interested in teaming up?"

As he spoke, he pointed toward the Land of Divine Lamentation ahead.

"Hey, Old Lock, there should at least be some order here, shouldn't there? You're trying to poach people right in front of me!" the other man said, somewhat displeased.

"Raggy, you can't blame me for that. Who told you to ramble on for half a day without getting to the point?" Locky smiled, then reached out to put an arm around Luo Yong's shoulder. "Brother, join us. From now on, we're brothers!"

"Bah, the way you say that, it's a mess," Raggy said, batting the other's hand away for Luo Yong. "You should join our Raggy Squad instead. I'm the captain, and our待遇 is excellent!"

"...Raggy?" Luo Yong looked at the other man with obvious disdain, making it clear he could not accept such a name.

"What about it?" Raggy looked at him in confusion and showed off his captain's badge.

"So it really is Raggy..."

Luo Yong muttered under his breath. Just then, he noticed someone else walking over from not far away, apparently with the same intention.

So he took out his own captain's badge.

"Sorry, I'm from the Storm Squad. Luo Yong. I'm also a captain."

"Uh, this..."

"The Storm Squad?"

"Isn't that the team that completed the mission first?"

Locky and Raggy exchanged a glance, and their expressions turned a little strange.

"Why did you come here alone?"

"The mission's already finished. Why are you still coming here?"

"There was only one Radiant set. It wasn't enough to go around, so I came to think of a solution." Luo Yong sighed, sounding a little helpless.

"This... and what solution could you possibly think of?" Locky rolled his eyes. "Hurry up and call your teammates over. The few of us can combine our squads temporarily. With more people, we'll have the upper hand and can get in there to grab a share!"

"So that's what you were discussing. That's actually a pretty good idea!"

The man who had just walked over flashed his captain's badge to the three of them.

"Origin Squad, Captain Simon."

"Sounds good enough. Do you have a concrete plan?" Luo Yong looked at the three of them and said without the slightest emotion.

"That... I heard the Storm Squad seems to have a lot of tactical scrolls..."

"..."