Chapter 167 - 139: Members Sprinting for Advanced Qualification

Chapter 167: Chapter 139: Members Sprinting for Advanced Qualification

Duckbill Hat said, "Of course I know the Manager doesn’t mind. The Manager has never restricted our freedom... Wait a second, why does it feel like you’re trying to talk us into it, Old Li? Like you can’t wait for us to accept Director Huang’s offer?"

Old Wang rubbed his stubble and said, "This Old Li fellow has ulterior motives. He’s dying for us to take positions at the Countermeasures Bureau. That way, he’ll have a few fewer competitors, won’t he?"

Duckbill Hat and Power King were still a little confused.

Old Wang said, "The Manager doesn’t mind, sure, but have you thought about how busy the Countermeasures Bureau is? It’s one thing for us to act as external support and do some odd jobs for them now and then. But if we really join one of their action teams, we’ll be far less free than we are now."

Old Wang continued, "Actually, that’s not even the worst of it. We’ve all been corporate drones before; we’re not that obsessed with freedom. But if we join the Bureau, we’ll be on duty most of the time. When we enter the Nightmare World, we’ll often have to coordinate with our team, leaving us with very little time to clear Nightmares and increase our contributions in the Safe Zone."

His gaze swept over the group, and he chuckled. "Everyone here is probably pushing to become an Advanced Member, right? And from what I know, the Elder Level member Chen Baichuan and Captain Fen, who’s at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm, don’t have Contribution Points in the top tier right now."

Chen Baichuan was a veteran member, on par with them.

Captain Fen Huo had been a member for a while, too. With his strength at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm and his position as a Countermeasures Bureau captain, his Contribution Points should have been skyrocketing.

But now he was significantly behind?

Xu Qian and Cheng Ping understood as soon as they thought about it.

Xu Qian said, "It seems the Countermeasures Bureau really is swamped with official business. Once we accept Director Huang’s invitation, we can forget about trying to be in the first batch of Advanced Members."

However,

The number of Contribution Points a member had was private unless they chose to share it. There was no Contribution Point leaderboard in the Safe Zone, yet Old Wang still knew the approximate values for Chen Baichuan and Fen Huo.

’His intelligence network is nothing to scoff at.’

...

Director Huang returned to the main hall and glanced at the missions on the task board.

Many of them were from his own Countermeasures Bureau.

Because his attempts to recruit independent powerhouses had repeatedly failed, Captain Fen had made a suggestion: post missions to have some of these independents carry out tasks in the Present Realm, which would alleviate the pressure on their personnel.

This method of commissioning tasks wasn’t invented by Fen Huo.

In fact, the Countermeasures Bureau Headquarter had a long-standing precedent of hiring ’freelance powerhouses.’ There were missions posted internally at the Headquarter, and one could also log in to their official website to view and accept certain commissions.

Unfortunately...

These independent powerhouses wouldn’t even give a second glance to the commissions posted on the Headquarter’s official website.

But as soon as the commissions were posted on the Safe Zone’s mission platform, members would accept them.

After all, the compensation offered by the Countermeasures Bureau was very generous. Even without the reward of Contribution Points, it was still attractive to the independents.

It was just the fact that they *had* to post the missions on the Safe Zone’s platform that left Director Huang feeling a bit helpless.

’Maybe these independents have gotten used to taking missions from the Safe Zone, and they trust its platform more.’

As he sighed, he had to admit, ’The Safe Zone platform is very convenient. After all, Dream Descenders have to pass through here to come and go, so they don’t need to make a special trip to the Headquarter just to collect their rewards.’

’Most importantly, these independent powerhouses from the Safe Zone now spend most of their time in the Nightmare World unless it’s absolutely necessary. They’re either in the Safe Zone for Cultivation or out clearing Nightmares. They only return to the Present Realm for a day or two a week.’

With them not even being in the Present Realm, and with no communication between the Nightmare World and the Present Realm, it was no wonder the commissions on the Countermeasures Bureau’s official website barely got any views.

In a distant corner of the hall.

Luo Susu was wide-eyed, browsing the various sections of the Safe Zone’s platform.

She had joined the Safe Zone some time ago, but she had been busy with the construction of their camp recently. She was responsible for both patrols and heading out to find certain rare Materials... After all, as a local, she was far more familiar with the surrounding area than the other Dream Descenders.

She had been to the Safe Zone before, but only to hurriedly hand over some work.

Only today did she finally have some free time.

Through the Safe Zone platform, she could also catch up on the situation in the Present Realm—even if that "Present Realm" was limited to Baijiang City.

There were quite a few missions on the platform posted by individual members.

Most were mission requests for clearing Nightmares.

Looking for people, forming teams!

"Nightmare Clearing Team for Zone D36, looking for one more member. Need a scout-type powerhouse."

There were even comments from other Dream Descenders under the mission post.

"Need a tank-type at the Refining Stage? I can take a real beating! I can withstand an aberration’s stormy assault for at least a full minute!"

"Any Guidance Squads need a healer-type? This little lady’s healing output is huge~"

"Healers are no good in the current meta. Post-battle recovery is so-so, but in-combat healing? I’d rather just spend the money on a Life Potion."

Luo Susu’s eyes widened. ’How are healers no good?’

She was a semi-healer herself.

Recovery-type Dream Descenders had always been treasures in every camp and faction. Why were they getting the cold shoulder here in the Safe Zone?

’Oh, right. Dream Descenders here can return to the Safe Zone to rest and recover at any time, so getting injured isn’t a big deal. Never mind, then.’

Luo Susu looked at the other sections.

There was a trading section, an information section, and so on.

The information section was particularly lively.

While it was still quite difficult for members to clear deep-level Nightmares, it was becoming easier and easier for Dream Descenders to clear Shallow Nightmares.

This even included some Dream Descenders who had just arrived at the Safe Zone and were still pretty new.

This was because the information section had tons of walkthroughs for clearing Nightmares!

Although Nightmares could change, once the same Nightmare had been cleared a dozen or more times, it held no more secrets from the Dream Descenders.

A ’veteran’ Dream Descender said, "The key to this Nightmare is the dormitory’s lights-out time. You have to use the sound of footsteps to avoid the aberration. As long as you pay attention to the footsteps and the time, you can clear the Nightmare without taking any damage."

A newbie’s jaw dropped. "You can clear Nightmares like that?"

...

Shallow Nightmares were being cleared one after another. Although the rewards for clearing the same Nightmare multiple times diminished sharply, the sheer number of clearances still provided Shi An with a steady and abundant stream of Belief Value and spoils of war.

The number of Member Cards in his possession grew larger and larger.

All sorts of common Materials and Curse Objects were also piling up in his warehouse.

He had no choice but to occasionally stuff some Curse Objects and Materials into mission rewards, just to clear out his inventory.

’A lot of the strategy information is still coming from Jiang Peng. Even though that researcher isn’t good at combat and has barely cleared any Nightmares himself, his contributions to the Safe Zone are truly commendable.’

The Research Institute had a lot of talent.

Director Huang wanted to recruit some independent powerhouses, and Shi An, in turn, wanted to poach some talent from the Research Institute.

He wanted to upgrade the Safe Zone’s equipment.

He wanted to develop a device similar to a cell phone, which would allow Dream Descenders to log into the Safe Zone platform anytime, anywhere. Otherwise, it was still too troublesome for members to browse the mission and forum sections.

’Also, the Safe Zone can establish a new medical department and recruit those healing-type Dream Descenders to work there. Hmm, I could make Luo Susu the person in charge.’

’After all, the number of Life Potions is still limited. Healer-type Dream Descenders are where their value can truly shine in a logistical role.’

Most importantly, Dream Descenders were getting injured far too easily while clearing deep-level Nightmares.

Unlike the shallow ones, they now had to frequently clash and fight to the death with aberrations, making injuries unavoidable.

’During this time, dozens of powerful members have ventured into the deeper levels. They usually form teams of four or five, and sometimes they even gather a dozen powerhouses to clear a Nightmare together.’

Of course, this kind of joint operation required members to use their ’Cross-Domain Authority,’ which could only be used once a week.

This severely limited the members’ clearing efficiency.

But over this period, the members had still managed to clear a total of eleven deep-level Nightmares.

Even though they were the most common type of Nightmare, Shi An’s gains were still immense.

Therefore,

he had announced the specific criteria for becoming an ’Advanced Member’ a while ago.

And he had stated that only six Advanced Member slots would be awarded in the first batch.

The status would be bestowed upon the six members with the highest Contribution Points.

And now,

’It’s time to announce the Advanced Members.’

’And with that, my Safe Zone will gain six ten-person teams. Clearing Nightmares as a team unit will drastically increase efficiency.’

It seemed like an affirmation and reward for the members’ hard work, but in reality, it was his Safe Zone that was winning big.