Since the system became my girlfriend

"Ding! Mission Update: The Right Choice!"

The Right Choice: The old village chief asks you to take the Shovel of Mercy to find the captured farmer and then make the right choice.

Mission objective: Redeem fifteen farmers.

Quest Level: 11

Risk level: Medium

Task Rewards: 2000 Experience Points, 10 Silver Coins!

Special Rewards: Heart of Mercy (Green Quality Breastplate) or Spirit of Salvation (Blue Quality Breastplate)

"Alright! Let's set off now!" Su Rui accepted the task, put away his shovel, and then set off again with Feng Lixi.

"Xiao Xi, what do you mean by this mission? Why do I need to bring a shovel?" Su Rui asked Feng Lixi as they walked.

"I don't know..." Feng Lixi shrugged. Although she knew what was going on, she couldn't spoil it for Su Rui now, otherwise her ability to predict the future would be inexplicable.

"Forget it, let's go. We'll probably know when we get there!" Su Rui shrugged and then led Feng Lixi forward.

About twenty minutes later, Su Rui faintly heard wailing sounds.

"There really is crying! Which way is it coming from?" Because it was quite far away, Su Rui couldn't pinpoint the exact source of the sound.

"This way!" Feng Lixi pointed, helping Su Rui pinpoint the correct direction.

"Are you sure?" Su Rui asked.

“I’m sure!” Feng Lixi nodded firmly.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Su Rui quickened his pace, with Feng Lixi following closely behind.

About five minutes later, the two arrived at a small hill. Looking ahead, they saw a field that used to belong to Sigma Village, but now there were no crops growing there. Instead, something else was planted there, such as—people?!

"Holy crap! What's going on?!" Su Rui's eyes widened in surprise.

At this moment, in the farmland not far in front of him, there was a human head every few steps, and these human heads were obviously still alive. They were staring with their eyes wide open and howling. It seemed that they were buried in the soil, with only their heads sticking out.

In the farmland, there are also "farmers," but these "planting people" farmers are obviously not human; they are a group of ghouls!

Ghouls are undead creatures that have mutated from corpses. Although they are humanoid, they have lost the ability to stand and walk and can only crawl on all fours. Similarly, their mouths no longer contain human teeth, but sharp fangs.

These ghouls crawled around in the fields, constantly "taking care" of the "crops." Whenever they climbed onto a person's head, they would spit out some bright red liquid onto that person's head. Once this liquid touched the person's skin, it would corrode the person's face like sulfuric acid.

In excruciating pain, these people planted in the ground wailed and screamed incessantly, a truly horrifying sight.

Looking down, Su Rui glanced at the Shovel of Mercy in his hand.

"They're probably the ones we'll dig out of the ground, aren't they?" Su Rui muttered to himself. Just as he was about to rush down the slope to kill the ghouls and rescue the farmers, a strange thing happened in the farmland ahead!

"Awooo!" With a howl, a farmer who was originally planted in the ground suddenly shouted and popped out of the ground, but when he popped out of the ground, he had already turned into a ghoul!

"This is... Could it be that all these farmers have been infected? Were they planted in the soil just to wait for the mutation?" Su Rui muttered to himself.

"It seems so..." Feng Lixi nodded from the side, watching Su Rui, wanting to see what Su Rui would choose.

"So, the second function of this Shovel of Mercy is probably to smash these heads buried in the ground, right?" Su Rui muttered. The effect of using the Shovel of Mercy is to instantly kill special targets. Such an overpowered function can't be used to kill monsters or PK. It can only be used for mission objectives. And the things that look like mission objectives near this farmland are those heads on the ground.

"It seems like this mission can be completed by rescuing people, or it can be completed by killing them," Feng Lixi said from the side.

“Hmm!” Su Rui nodded. Redemption… that word was too ambiguous. These farmers had already been infected. Digging them out of the ground was redemption, and giving them relief was also redemption. It seemed that no matter what Su Rui chose, the mission would be completed normally.

The only difference is the special rewards. Judging from the equipment of the special rewards, you can tell just by the names that if Su Rui digs out these farmers, he can get the green breastplate of the Heart of Mercy, while if he chooses to smash the heads buried in the ground, he will get the blue breastplate of the Spirit of Salvation.

Furthermore, the effect of using the Shovel of Mercy is that smashing someone's head grants ten times the experience gained from killing them, while rescuing someone doesn't give any extra rewards. Clearly, the mission is geared towards smashing the heads of these farmers.

"This development team is really twisted, playing this kind of human torture again!" Su Rui cursed under his breath. From a profit perspective, it was obviously more cost-effective and easier to smash the heads of these farmers, because smashing heads is an instant skill, while digging them out would require a thirty-second channeling.

On one hand, it's a thankless task, and on the other hand, it's an easy way to win prizes. It's actually not a difficult choice to make.

The problem is that these farmers were not infected yet; they were still human beings. To smash the heads of innocent people without any reason is indeed against normal moral principles.

However, since this is a game, players often engage in acts of "murder and robbery," which makes the moral bottom line more blurred and fragile.

For a professional gamer like Su Rui, if he were doing this task himself, he would definitely choose the more efficient and profitable path to complete it.

But today is different. Boss Su brought a girl with him, and Feng Lixi seems quite innocent. If Su Rui kills innocent people for profit, he is worried that it will leave a bad impression on the girl.

The biggest difference between Su Rui and other professional players is that he is willing to give up some benefits in order to carry female players. So after a little hesitation, he decided to give up the blue equipment and the extra experience points, in order to maintain the image of a good man in Feng Lixi's heart.

It was precisely this decision that allowed Su Rui to pass Feng Lixi's test.

“Let’s dig them out. At least they haven’t become undead yet. They’re still human. We can’t just kill them like this!” Su Rui said to Feng Lixi with righteous indignation. However, his reason for making the decision was not out of pity, but because he didn’t want to leave a bad impression on the girl.