Chapter 428: Chapter 414: The Love of an NPC

“New Event: Holy Spirit Challenge.”

Description: Esteemed spirits, are you feeling helpless because the points from the arena can only be exchanged for arena-specific equipment? Are you discouraged because you reached the top ten on the ladder by staying up all night but received no substantial honor? Do you believe you have unmatched PvP skills but lack a stage to prove yourself?

The official online Holy Spirit Challenge will be held in twenty days! Prove that you are the strongest in the Holy Spirit World!

Expected rewards: Special Equipment and Legendary Equipment, exclusive champion titles and mounts, exclusive titles and mounts for the top ten, and a small wish to be granted by the Holy Spirit officials.

The right to interpret this event is owned by the Holy Spirit officials.”

When this event announcement appeared on the official website, it didn’t attract much attention from the players, as the competitive world tournament was already underway.

The fifteen-day world tournament would go from group qualifications all the way to the quarterfinals and then to the finals. Jiang Qiao had timed this perfectly, extending the challenge’s registration period to twenty days.

Players didn’t pay much attention to this suddenly emerging new event, but this event… was also open for the NPCs within the Holy Spirit World to sign up for.

Far on the Pirate City on Black Tide Island, the Lady of Calamity received notice of this event.

“Lady, have we found the remnants of the Scaleskin Pirate Gang? What should we do?”

A member of the Lady of Calamity’s pirate crew asked softly by her side. After Denghis Xisi’s power was completely eradicated on Black Tide Island, the Pirate City experienced a major purge.

Drake turned out to be a weathercock of a pirate gang leader, capturing the behind-the-scenes traitor and the leader of the Scaleskin Pirate Gang and throwing them in front of the Lady of Calamity the second before Denghis Xisi met his end.

Since the Lady of Calamity supported the Holy Spirit side from the start, Drake remained absolutely neutral, while the leader of the Scaleskin Pirate Gang sided with the Magic Thief.

Thus, the two major pirate gangs joined forces and started a thorough sweep of the Scaleskin Pirate Gang forces within Pirate City, and now the purge had entered its final stage.

The Lady of Calamity couldn’t bother to respond to her crew member and after making a neck-slitting gesture, a volley of gunfire rang out behind her along with the sounds of blades piercing flesh and scales.

The Lady of Calamity, as if reading the newspaper first thing in the morning, looked at the explanation regarding the Holy Spirit Challenge.

“A competition of spirits? Do you plan to participate? Being wounded by a descendant of the Devouring God feels far worse than being infected by the abyss.”

Derek, the leader of the Rotting Teeth Pirate Gang, discarded his blood-stained leather gloves and stepped up beside the Lady of Calamity at that moment.

“But the rewards are tempting enough,” said the Lady of Calamity, tossing the promotional poster of the event, which resembled a newspaper, to Drake.

“The weapons of the Devouring God are indeed tempting, but without the sustenance of Divine Power, these weapons will eventually deteriorate, and at an exceptionally fast rate.”

As an expert in treasure appraisal, Drake could describe the characteristics of all the treasures marked on the star map, and he had also acquired some of the spirits’ weapons by assigning various tasks to players.

From the most basic unenchanted equipment to the highest-grade legendary equipment, Derek had a collection of all, but there was a major issue with the weapons of spirits… durability.

If a spirit used them, they could go to a system store for repairs, but planar pirates had no such system stores. Derek tested it–using equipment that the spirits called legendary, they would lose their Divine Power and corresponding effects after only three or four days.

So, to others, the weapons of the spirits were essentially disposable items.

If planar pirates truly wanted to master the power of the Devouring God, they had to capture a spirit and bring it aboard their own ship.

“Look below,” said the Lady of Calamity once more.

“A wish granted by the Devouring God? That’s… indeed a very tempting reward.”

Drake looked down on some of the weaker deities on the star map, as these also fell victim to his raids. But gods are ranked, with some born from faith being weak and others being strong.

Besides, there were those who ascended the path to divinity through their Transcendent bodies, with such divine ranks generally ranging from level seventy to one hundred.

The Devouring God, however, transcended the level cap and was a god of law, like the God of Plunder worshipped by the pirates and the Lord of Annihilation of the Annihilation Legion, both capable of creating all things.

Therefore, a wish from the Devouring God, just like one from the God of Plunder, was… enticing.

“Will you participate?”

Lady Calamity began to wipe her flintlock with a handkerchief during the inquiry.

“Participate? No… The wish of the Devouring God is not so easily obtained. Our condition for participating is to offer up the most precious thing, and I know my most valuable thing is this very life,”

Drake flicked his pirate hat with a finger and cracked a smile showing off his fine teeth.

“No one can take away my life, not even the Plundering God.”

“But you owe me a life! Drake!” Lady Calamity stopped wiping her flintlock, and a frosty rage poured out from her tone, “The Holy Spirits won, do you think if I unite with the Holy Spirits again to sweep you out… Can you and your pirate crew still stay in this pirate city?”

Lady Calamity had once contemplated betraying the Holy Spirits, but that didn’t prevent her from standing on the side of the Holy Spirits during the battle at Black Tide Island, resulting in her pirate crew’s strength greatly increasing.

Therefore, Lady Calamity did not mind turning the Pirate City into her sole possession. However, she had not… not out of righteousness, but because she reaped more benefits from collaborating with Drake than from waging war against him.

“Is it necessary, my lady? What can you get from a single wish of the Devouring God… Even if you must confront me and force my participation to increase the odds?”

Drake knew that Lady Calamity wasn’t completely confident she could take first place, which is why she wanted Drake to sign up as well, to improve the odds of the Planar Pirates’ victory.

But Drake, no matter what, was the leader of one of the three great pirate crews of Pirate City. If Lady Calamity severed ties with him, the result would only be mutual destruction.

“This life that you owe, will you pay it back… or will you not?” Lady Calamity’s crimson pupils fixed on Drake’s uncertain expression, “The condition to participate might just require offering up your ship, Freedom of the Seas.”

Lady Calamity had long signed up for the contest, with her beloved ship, the Laughing Goddess, as her entry stake.

“My ship? That ship is equivalent to my lover, but it’s still better than handing over my life to the Devouring God. All right! I’ll participate… but how do I sign up?” Although Drake was reluctant to part with his ship, this was his best way to maintain the alliance with Lady Calamity.

After all, the worst that could happen was to be beaten down from the ring by the Holy Spirits, and losing a ship was something he could recreate.

“Go to Holy Spirit City… I will lead the way,” said Lady Calamity.

“Holy Spirit City? The Holy Spirits have built a city on Biland Island, but I’m still curious about one thing, lady… why are you so eager to obtain that one wish of the Devouring God?” Drake asked.

“It involves a Holy Spirit, that’s all,” she replied.

Leaving those words behind, Lady Calamity led Drake toward the direction of Biland Island. Black Tide Island and Biland Island were officially bordering each other now; there was no need for any kind of spacetime transportation method, just walking could get one there.

“A Holy Spirit?” Drake, receiving a sideways glance from Lady Calamity, was too lazy to ask further. He was more curious about what the city built by the Holy Spirits looked like.

However, in Lady Calamity’s palm appeared a friend window that only players could see, a small convenience given to her by Jiang Qiao after she joined the Holy Spirit faction.

That is, Lady Calamity had some social functions of players, being able to see the ID above a player’s head, and could send messages to specific players.

In Lady Calamity’s friend list window, there was only one friend, but the display for that friend was greyed out.

That sole entry in the friend list read, ‘Juan Canyun [Offline] — Last login: 78 hours ago.’

Juan Canyun had not been online for nearly three days, and Lady Calamity didn’t understand what logging in meant. She only knew that Juan Canyun had been missing from this world for almost three days.

Where was he?

Lady Calamity went around asking in the hub of Jumping Nuclei, and the answer she got was that Juan Canyun went to participate in a world contest called Strife, and he might not be able to log in for a long time.

Lady Calamity didn’t understand this answer, nor did she want to. What she cared about more was…

How can she meet him?

But this question stumped the Holy Spirits in Jumping Nuclei.

“You’re an NPC, the real world isn’t open to Eagle Country yet, and even if it were open to Eagle Country, how would an NPC from a game meet a player in reality?”

The barrier between planes was not difficult for Lady Calamity to cross, but she felt that what lay between her and Juan Canyun was actually a distance between the virtual and the real world.

This seemed strange to Lady Calamity since she was truly real, but all she wanted was to use the prize of this contest to ask Jiang Qiao if she could possibly visit what the Holy Spirits called the real world.