Chapter 373: Fertile Soil Era! The Advancement of White Sand Island’s Owner!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Three days ago.
Su Mo stood inside the glass cabinet. When he tapped on the button that would lead him to the breakthrough level, the second teleportation function was immediately activated.
It was different from the previous teleportation from Hope One to this cabinet, in that it was much more uncomfortable.
Before Su Mo could react, it was as if lightning had struck him all over. Just before his figure vanished from the glass cabinet, he was knocked out!
By the time Su Mo opened his eyes again, he found himself inside a dark cell.
He was lying on a rotten and smelly straw mat with insects rolling around on it.
There was a rotten-smelling food bowl that seemed to have been used by many people, and a yellowed piece of paper with legible handwriting on it.
In addition to those three things, it was difficult to find other objects of value.
The cell’s overall structure was not complicated.
It had a two-way structure, with each prisoner placed in a separate room, with a wall made of green bricks behind them and a fence made of hardwood in front.
If Su Mo could not use his storage space, he would have had to exert some effort to get out of this place. As the use of the storage space was not restricted, he could escape from prison as long as his hands were intact.
“Anyone else from the wasteland? The Promotion Battle’s just started, but I’m locked up!”
“Crap, brother, you’re also from the wasteland and participating in the Promotion Battle? It can’t be! It can’t be that all of us have to start the level in prison, can it?”
“The storage space works! Anyone wanna get out of here? This ancient trash prison is not strong enough to trap us!”
“Look, there’s a piece of paper here with our starting identities on it.”
“Sh*t, how the hell am I a philanderer who touched the Great Commander’s daughter? They’re sending me to the frontlines twelve hours later! This is totally fake, right?”
“Fortunately, I’m only guilty of tax evasion. I’ll receive 50 strikes of the rod before I’m sent to the Advance Troops. My identity isn’t that bad. I’m the big boss of the Seven Seas Chamber of Commerce. Why was someone with such status locked up here?”
Before Su Mo could explore the cell properly, the sound of discussion from outside interrupted his thoughts.
Incidentally, Su Mo also picked up the piece of paper with his identity information from the ground.
Identity: Chief Head Escort of the Tianya Escort Agency
Crime: Killing the boss of the Tianya Escort Agency by cruel means, covering up for the escorts involved, and taking full responsibility for the crime
Penalty: Exiled to the military (sent to to the Advance Troops)
Penalty execution time: 12 hours later
After reading it, the paper naturally turned into ashes and disappeared in Su Mo’s hands.
In the meantime, all of the detainees, including Su Mo, accepted their “settings”.
In terms of crime, all of them were basically guilty of different crimes and had different identities, but all of them had been sentenced to join different armies.
Of course, if Su Mo were to be given the chance to choose again three days later, he would have stayed in this rotten cell and joined the Advance Troops.
After entering the army, Su Mo would have been able to prove himself with just one battle, thanks to his superb physical fitness and combat ability, coupled with his stash of guns and explosive kits.
At this point, though, as he had just entered the level, and given that he did not have sufficient information to analyze the situation, he, like the others, chose to escape from prison.
This, as it so happened, was the point of the first level.
Accept your identity or rebel against your identity.
No one wanted to enter the army as a criminal and slowly climb the ranks by gaining merit.
For the humans who had been through various forms of hardship on the wasteland over the past two months, they followed their hearts when making their choice, as they were able to exit the test at any time.
Following these people, Su Mo also joined the group of people who fought their way out of the prison.
After that, everyone naturally received their reward for clearing the first level: a new identity that seemed like it had come straight out of GTA and sounded rather pleasing…
Deserter and Wanted Criminal: One Star.
At the same time, the mission for Level 2 was sent over as well.
The mission contents were simple.
Flee!
Escape as far away as they could!
As long as they could successfully escape pursuit and complete the task in Level 2, they would be rewarded; they would be detached from their current identity and obtain their own commander’s decree and embark on a new career path.
At this time, everyone was also given another choice.
If they returned and surrendered, they could successfully return to the cell, and they would join the designated army after 12 hours.
During this process, if they caught a few of their jailbreak “accomplices”, they might also receive a series of rewards that were similar to that of a “promotion”.
Unfortunately, after coming out and seeing the peaceful scene outside the prison, and after cornering a few indigenous humans and questioning them, Su Mo was shocked and did not want to go back inside at all.
Humans could become gods by virtue of reading, by virtue of divine favor, by reaching achievements in a certain field, or even by doing something that helped the continent.
When this strange rule emerged from the mouths of the indigenous humans, a million guesses immediately flashed through Su Mo’s mind, and he determined the direction of the choice he would make in Level 2.
This world seemed to be set during the Fertile Soil Era, at a time when the war had not yet fully begun!
If he joined the army, and was inducted into the Advance Troops, he would be sent to the frontlines. If something unexpected happened during this short period, he would miss a good opportunity to discover the truth!
Escape!
He must escape!
Even if his title was not promoted this time, he had to find a way to understand this continent and the enemy all the gods would face in the end!
With this, Su Mo chose to part ways with the majority.
After entering the city in the tributaries of the sea, he fled the scene at an extremely terrifying speed.
After Su Mo successfully escaped to sea, he also received the reward for passing Level 2.
A commander’s decree!
With this pass, he could choose from two different career directions.
The first was the cliche direction, which was to join the army. With the commander’s decree, he could only enter the Advance Troops, which was the same as before. At this stage, it seemed that he still had the opportunity to turn back.
The second was the free lord development route. It was a route that one could not turn back from. Those who chose this route would set up their own army, rebel against the laws of the Ocean Nation, and eventually become a lord that ruled over their own land.
…
“I thought that by choosing the free lord development route, I would have a lot of time to learn the truth about how the Fertile Soil Era disappeared in that era, but now it seems….”
“I was tricked!”
When Su Mo thought about the three hidden choices given to him by the level, and then looked at the shining commander’s decree floating in front of him, a helpless smile flashed across Su Mo’s face.
If one chose to become a free lord, they had to find their territory and bind it to themselves within one day.
If they were still a free lord after one day, they would be ruled a failure and kicked out of the level directly, hence losing their right to participate any further in this competition.
In a hurry, and also without knowledge of the current island geography on the ocean, or even a good sailing vessel, Su Mo could only return to the port. He looted a small ship that was in the business of trading murloc slaves, and incidentally obtained a map of the sea.
There were too many witnesses at the scene. Coupled with how blatantly Su Mo had committed the crime, his wanted rank increased from one star to two stars in the blink of an eye.
After reaching two stars, the Guardians of the Ocean who had disappeared long ago finally reappeared.
Those people pursued Su Mo like mad dogs, completely disrupting Su Mo’s overall plan.
If Su Mo killed those people, his wanted rank might increase from two to three stars. At that point, he was bound to encounter greater resistance and would have to walk on the road of no return as he killed more and more people who came after him. The difficulty of the levels after would also likely become more and more terrifying.
However, if he did not kill those people, they would pursue him like madmen, with eyes full of rage, as they screamed at Su Mo telling him that he could not escape.
In desperation, Su Mo could only open all of the cages imprisoning the murloc slaves and, relying on the noble identity of the merman costume, he temporarily accepted those mermen as his underlings, who then became his sailors.
There were two groups of people on different sides. One chased after the other, while the other fled.
The small wooden ship that held the slaves was a sailing ship that could hold 25 people. It was not like Hope One, which was powered mechanically and possessed extremely high speed.
The Guardians of the Ocean responsible for the pursuit were not sailing on luxurious ships either. In this case, where he could not widen the distance between the two parties, it was not easy for Su Mo to escape.
The guards chased Su Mo from day to night, and the wind blew from the east to the west.
As the distance between the two parties was getting smaller, and the Guardians of the Ocean were looking more and more threatening, Su Mo decided to give it his all. He struck by diving underwater to chisel through the bottom of the Guardians of the Oceans’ ships. He only managed to free himself from their pursuit after that.
Due to the time spent in this process, Su Mo was not left with much time to bind a territory to him.
After scanning the map and confirming his location, Su Mo immediately picked out White Sand Island, which was the island he was standing on, among all of the islands he could choose from.
Although the island was surrounded by sea, there was no natural danger to defend against, and the location of the island was on the trading route, so Su Mo did not need to worry about it being isolated.
Although the island had no sustainable crops, there was ample food for the mermen, as well as a freshwater river which would be their water supply. There was also a decent yield of beet coconut and good-quality honeypot grapes.
This island was given a low rating by the commander’s decree, but in Su Mo’s eyes it was full of development potential.
“These Guardians of the Ocean are just like AIs in a game.”
“They’re still chasing after me even though their ship sank. They’re really f*cking outrageous. If everyone in the Fertile Soil Era had this determination and this level of combat power, there was no way they would’ve lost this war!”
After completing the task of Level 3, Su Mo, who realized that he had no other option but to go all the way on the route he was taking, was not happy at all.
Luckily, although he had completely dealt with the 40 Guardians of the Ocean, his wanted rank did not increase, which made Su Mo feel a little more relaxed.
“Commander’s decree, extract Level 3 in-level rewards!”
After a moment of thought, Su Mo chose to complete the task for Level 3 and claimed the reward. A card with a white shimmer appeared in Su Mo’s hand.
As Su Mo examined the card, a brief description of its properties naturally emerged.
[Elementary Territory Transformation Card (Normal)]
[Description: A card that contains a little bit of divine power. This is a reward for choosing the free lord route and binding the territory, which was the first test. If you can use it properly and in the right place, it will make your path to being a free lord smoother!]
[Function Description: Lords can use the card to make the following four transformation options (Note: you can only choose one transformation option, and the card will disappear immediately after you make your choice)]
[Function 1: Area (After choosing this function, the area of the territory will be expanded by one square kilometer in equal proportions).]
[Function 2: Transformation (After selecting this function, the lord can fine-tune the current terrain of the territory. The adjustment range may vary).]
[Function 3: Resources (After selecting this function, three normal-level resource options will be provided for the lord to choose. After selection, they will be attached to the territory in real time).]
[Function 4: Special Ability (After selecting this function, a special ability will be attached to the territory).]
[Restrictions: Not tradable and cannot be taken out of this world]
“Oh? This card is quite practical. It would be nice if I could take this out and use it in the basin area!”
After staring at the properties of the transformation card for a few moments, Su Mo’s interest rose when he saw the fourth function, which was about a special ability.
Of the four functions, the first two were somewhat similar to the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card, in the manner that he could make certain changes to the terrain of the territory.
The third function was similar to the resource card, in the manner that he could attach a new resource to the territory.
As for the fourth function, this was the first time Su Mo had seen something like that in both the ruins and the wasteland.
“I definitely can’t choose the first option. I only have nine mermen here, and 2 square kilometers is already too much for us.”
“There’s too much uncertainty behind the third option. Even if a resource was added to White Sand Island, it’s also difficult for me to trade any resources for something else now that I’m a wanted criminal.”
“What about choosing the fourth option as a gamble?”
Su Mo thought about it carefully. He did not rush to make a choice. After the card was put into the storage space, Su Mo raised his eyes and looked at the commander’s decree.
There was one hour between the breakthrough levels in this Promotion Battle.
According to the current time shown on the panel, Su Mo would be able to start his mission for Level 4 after 42 minutes and ascend to first place on the leaderboard.
If one calculated things according to the current point rules, the points gained from killing an Guardian of the Ocean should be 10 points, and the extra 3 points were the rewards gained from looting the ship.
He was quite optimistic about the situation right now, as 403 points was enough for him to stay in first place for a while. However, after the great war began, the points of those decurions and centurions would grow rapidly.
At that time, if he could not find a good source of points, he would be eliminated from the game.
Sitting on the ground, the always optimistic Su Mo was not anxious. He waited patiently while thinking about the development of the territory.
After more than 40 minutes passed, the commander’s decree lit up with a white light, and the task for Level 4 finally arrived as promised.
[Level 4: As the lord of White Sand Island, your reputation should be praised by all sailors.]
[Level contents: Rob a passing merchant ship and loot all the supplies of the merchant ship (Incomplete).]
