Absolute Gate

Chapter 69 Searching for Ark
A week later, Wu completed three Black Iron missions without leaving his house.

After completing three missions at a certain rank, a higher-level mission will be unlocked for him.

Otherwise, you won't even be able to see it.

Once unlocked, you can advance to Bronze simply by completing a Bronze mission.

"Finally, I can take on bronze-level quests. They don't seem too difficult."

“Edelweiss is right, it’s incredibly easy for the Mad Blood Clan to reach the Bronze level.”

Wu Zhong sat on the yoga mat in room number four, fiddling with his phone.

This phone has a satellite network with a special protocol, allowing it to log in to the Free Mercenaries platform from anywhere in the world.

Wu Zhong was already familiar with the process of accepting missions and browsing the mall.

Yang Chunsha sat cross-legged on the coffee table: "This is outrageous! You didn't even leave the house, yet you've already completed three Black Iron quests!"

"When I first registered, I was very careful and made all sorts of preparations, worried that something might go wrong. It took me half a year to complete three Iron quests."

Wu Zhong smiled and said, "The Mad Blood Clan effect is indeed convenient."

“I found two requests for help in the nearby area within a week in the World Tree. I never thought I would become a psychologist.”

This week, he limited himself to nearby Black Iron missions and then looked for various missions that suited him.

The largest number of these are for express delivery, collecting special materials, and other odd jobs that involve running errands for people.

It can be said that there is no shortage of missions for Black Iron Mercenaries, with a large number of missions spawning every day, and the risk is extremely low.

In the past, Wu would have been eager to do this kind of task, as one order could bring in hundreds of thousands of yuan.

But Wu Zhong's current goal is gold, and he doesn't want to waste too much time on iron, since it takes ten days to half a month to complete one order.

He specializes in farming missions involving mental illness, and surprisingly, there are quite a few mercenaries with mental problems; he can complete one mission every three days.

However, we didn't encounter any rare illnesses like the one at the beginning; instead, we only had one case of insomnia and one case of depression.

And they're all mild cases; they're just too lazy to see a psychologist or pay for a permanent cure. But it doesn't matter, it's recurring anyway, so they'll just treat mild smoking as a way to maintain health…

Thus, after two orders, another 400,000 yuan was received.

However, Wu Zhong's perspective has changed now, and he is completely unmoved by the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The Black Iron quests don't earn enough; the money is only enough to buy some ordinary items."

"The only abnormal items I can afford are Kun blood and vegetable human seeds, but Kun blood is useless to me, and vegetable human seeds are too harmful to nature."

Yang Chunsha laughed and said, "If we're going to buy, we should definitely buy Danmu and lightning-struck wood."

"These two are the best-selling products, directly and stably increasing resistance to high temperatures and electric current."

Wu Zhong asked, "Why didn't I see it?"

Yang Chunsha explained, "These two unusual items are priceless and unavailable; you have to wait for the monthly auction at the end of each month."

"It's only October now, there's still almost a month before it opens."

"To acquire a piece of wood struck by lightning, you'd need at least ten million, and sometimes, if it's a hot item, it could even cost forty or fifty million."

Wu clicked his tongue twice, thinking that a few hundred thousand was not enough to warrant an auction.

He browsed through the online store and could only say that there were indeed many strange and unusual items, and they changed every day.

For example, some items were sold out as soon as they came out, and Wu Zhong didn't even get a clear look at what they were...

Aside from the already known language café, most of the other things are quite bizarre and can be considered useless.

For example, there's this thing called "Filter Soup," which is clearly brewed by some kind of monstrous creature. After drinking it, everyone looks incredibly good to you...

No matter who it is, no matter how ugly they are, everyone looks incredibly good to me.

Of course, this is just one type of filter soup; there are other effects, such as making everyone look like a gorilla... or everyone look like an alien...

The price wasn't high, but Wu Zhong was speechless. Who would drink this self-deceptive concoction? Was it meant to be used as poison? To make people unable to recognize faces?
There's also the Super Flavor Ramen, which is all about enjoyment. It costs 100,000 yen a bowl and is incredibly delicious.

According to reviews, there is no more delicious food in the world, but the price is that you can no longer accept other ordinary foods, making it a super addictive thing.

Wu Zhong saw several self-distorted derivatives in succession; these things would probably have no effect on him at all.

"Let's see what new weapons they have."

Wu Zhong really wanted a suitable weapon, since the Void Armguard was too easily recognizable, and he wouldn't use it unless it was a matter of life and death.

The store has all kinds of cold and hot weapons, and even some made with techniques from another universe, such as divine weapons, magic wands, and magical artifacts. As long as the creator does not close the multiverse, these weapons will have divine effects.

Of course, it is best used by enlightened beings of the same origin.

However, Wu was not an enlightened being, and when he thought of the knife that Yabai had once claimed to sell for 800,000, which he had broken with a single shot, he immediately rejected all of these weapons.

"Huh?" He suddenly noticed a derivative item called '100% Headlock Dart'.

Wu Zhong almost jumped up. Was he really that awesome?

But upon closer inspection, damn it, he locked his own head!
When thrown, this dart is just like a normal dart, but once its initial kinetic energy is exhausted, it will automatically fly back at its initial velocity and shoot at the thrower's head.

There's no way to dodge it; it's guaranteed to hit unless the thrower is brainless.

This stuff is ridiculously expensive! It costs 200 Bitcoins apiece!
"Huh? That's expensive? And you have to pay with Bitcoin? Well then, it must be pretty useful."

"That's true. Although it might prick you, if you're tough enough to withstand it, then this thing is like a boomerang that can be retrieved."

"Since it's absolutely locked to its own head, if it's about to be trapped in an enclosed space, throwing it out should cause it to smash through the barrier and come back..."

"In this way, it is equivalent to a wall-breaking weapon with delayed activation."

Wu Zhong thought of many uses for it, but they were all ideal scenarios. Others weren't stupid, and it wouldn't actually work that well... Besides, he didn't think he was that stubborn.

Immediately, he looked at the best-selling weapon in the store, Yumu.

This thing was originally Fei Peng's wooden stick, also known as the sword in the anus.

Its effects are twofold: first, it makes one indestructible; second, it shapes language.

Its indestructibility is simple: no natural effects, including multi-dimensional energy, can harm it in the slightest.

This single effect alone is enough to guarantee its phenomenal sales!
As for language shaping, as the name suggests, it changes its image based on what people say to it.

The Yumu sold in the mall are initially all kinds of strange shapes, just like the branches that can be seen everywhere.

But that's okay, as long as you keep talking to it, like saying to it every day: You are a sword, you are a sword...

Through constant exposure and daily immersion, it will gradually take the shape of a sword.

It doesn't change immediately. According to the description, it won't change if you stare at it. Instead, it changes slowly when no one is watching it. For example, you might wake up after a nap and find that it has changed a little.

If the language is described in more detail and fine-tuned, the language tree can grow to a more pleasing shape. Of course, the mass and volume will not change, only the shape will.

This process is called 'training,' and without training, one cannot become a useful tool. Wu Zhong suddenly realized that this explained it all. No wonder Fei Peng's wooden stick looked somewhat like a sword, but it wasn't a sword; it was clearly not properly trained yet.

"Even the shortest piece of twig, which is only ten centimeters long, costs 600 million."

"That twig of the flying tumbleweed was about a meter long. I should have pulled it out."

Wu was a little disappointed, but it didn't matter; he could just save up and buy it himself.

This product can be paid for in cash, which explains its popularity.

"I'm not watching anymore. Everything costs money. I should focus on making money."

"Debiao, of these missing person/item/finding missions that Edelweiss selected for me, which one do you think is the best?"

Yang Chunsha looked at the three task sheets sent to her via private message.

The Bronze quest was already quite dangerous from the start.

"This first one can be ruled out immediately. Edelweiss doesn't know your situation, yet they chose someone to send you to Australia."

Wu nodded. He had already arranged for Jordan to be in Australia, where things were about to get tense, and many mercenaries were probably looking for Wu Dong there. How could he go there himself?

Yang Chunsha continued, "As for the remaining two, one is to retrieve lost items from underwater for the client, and the other is to find the location of an amateur named 'Yak'. I suggest choosing the former."

Wu Zhong tilted his head: "Oh? You suggest I go diving to retrieve the item? We're not very good at swimming, are we?"

"Wouldn't it be easier to find an ordinary person? Especially since I have a tortoise shell."

Yang Chunsha raised her head and said, "This is my experience!"

"A bronze-level quest to find the whereabouts of an amateur? Is it for revenge? Or perhaps for a long-lost son? It could be anything."

"But I think there's a high chance there's a trap. I've been burned by this before. Remember when I said I saw a Silver Mercenary being dragged away by 985 like a dead dog? That was a missing person mission. They said the person they were looking for was an ordinary person, but it turned out to be a mole of 985."

"If someone hadn't stepped on the landmine before me, I might have been arrested too."

Wu Zhong pondered for a moment and said, "You mean this Ark, on the surface, is an ordinary person, but in reality, he might be a hidden figure from some force?"

Yang Chunsha said, "Yes, I don't think he's really an ordinary person. Even if he's not involved in the operations of a large organization, he could be a currently undiscovered possessor of a calamity artifact. Someone noticed something unusual about him, but lost track of him..."

"Or perhaps, the patron actually knows where he is and deliberately sends a small mission to let a few bronze-level players test the waters."

Wu Zhong pondered: "So, according to you, retrieving lost items for the client might actually be a treasure hunt. The client might be looking for a calamity, and we're just acting as cannon fodder."

"Then let's just skip the missions. There are risks in everything we do."

Yang Chunsha shrugged: "Indeed, anything is possible, it depends on your choice."

Wu Zhong squinted and said, "To advance to Silver, you need to complete at least three Bronze missions."

"What's there to hesitate about? I'll do both! We'll deal with whatever comes our way."

"If we have to worry so much about just finding people and things, what will happen to the combat missions involving silver and gold in the future?"

Yang Chunsha scratched his head, thinking to himself that he realized he needed to adjust his thinking quickly.

This isn't the time to lie down and give up. Thinking so much is just scaring yourself. That's what mercenaries do; what's the point of being afraid?

She said, "Then we'll accept both, but we need to be especially vigilant about the second mission."

"After all, the client for the second mission is a Gold-level entity, which is more dangerous. If Ark really has a 'wild monster,' you and I might even be silenced by the client."

"I'll just ask Edelweiss." Wu Zhong thought for a moment, then took out an apple and asked Edelweiss.

As her own agent, and being a gold-level agent herself, she is definitely more experienced than Yang Chunsha.

There must be a reason why I chose this task for myself.

Sure enough, Edelweiss told him, "Haha, you're overthinking it. I've also taken on this Ark mission before, and there's no trap here."

"The person who issued the mission was the head of a minor awakened family. He was looking for Ark, but he himself was not sure if such a person even existed."

Wu Zhong was stunned and said, "We're not even sure if this person exists? If they don't exist, why issue a mission to find them?"

Edelweiss explained, "It's very simple. If an enlightened being always learns the same name of a powerful person in the memories of their different past lives, it means that this powerful person is a genius who can become a powerful person in different environments in multiple universes."

"There are many similar missing person missions, such as finding Thanos, finding Ye Fan, finding Long Aotian, finding Karl-El..."

"And this Ark is such a person with a 'super strong host body,' bursting with multifaceted potential."

"It's probably because the patron kept hearing his name from the host body. After hearing it so many times, he wanted to find him, take him as his godson, and hope that he could communicate with the super-powerful host body."

Wu thought about it and realized, "That's right."

If your host body is yourself in the multiverse, then you can find someone else with the same name.

An enlightened being can perceive past life memories. If the same famous person is found in past life memories in different universes, it means that the person is a common strong person in the multiverse.

Although this person may not exist on Earth, if we find him, we'll be rolling in it. Once he awakens, any host he connects with will be a powerful figure.

Edelweiss continued, "This sugar daddy has already searched for all the ordinary people named Ark. His family now has dozens of people with Ark in their names... but without exception, they are all good-for-nothings."

"So he now suspects that either this person doesn't exist on Earth, or that his real name wasn't registered after birth and that he used a different name instead."

"The scope was too broad, and he got tired of searching, so he posted the task on the platform and asked others to help him find it."

"I took on this task, randomly found an amateur who was called Yak when I was a child, and received two million."

"So this is the simplest missing person task. It doesn't require you to find the Ark he wants; you just need to complete the task."

Wu suddenly realized that the task actually only had two conditions.

He used to be called Yak, a nobody.

Find someone who meets the criteria, and you can get two million. It's that easy.

If he had any worldly influence, he wouldn't even need to do this task personally.

Having an agent makes all the difference; the tasks selected by Edelweiss are indeed extremely cost-effective.

"Got it, I know how to do this task. Okay, accept both tasks. Goodbye."

Wu finally hung up the communication, accepted the mission, and set off directly with Yang Chunsha.

After hearing his story, Yang Chunsha suddenly realized, "So there is such a situation. Multiple potentials... That's right, there aren't that many calamity holders."

"With an agent like this helping you avoid pitfalls, my experience is completely useless..."

Wu Zhong smiled and said, "It's okay. We're partners. Just treat us as newcomers."

"Let's go to the cattle farm. This task is very simple; we can just find any Yak to complete it."

……

(End of this chapter)