Calamity Messenger-Chapter 43 - 33: Milestone: Full Account Achievement Sharing

Chapter 43: Chapter 33: Milestone: Full Account Achievement Sharing

"Ten thousand Spiritual Jades, if only I could meet this dog-faced man..."

"And then you’d be dead. That’s a notorious thief capable of robbing in Chang’an. Do you know what Chang’an is? It’s a city on par with Nocturnal City, a level akin to the Divine Protection City!"

"Only a fool would ask for ten thousand Spiritual Jades. Who would lack Spiritual Jades with a Legendary Token?"

"And what’s so impressive about a thief? Can he possibly defeat our Baibao Guards?"

"Ha, a strong messenger could defeat a thousand men alone. Do you think you’re from Loyalty Camp?"

"I reckon our Night Team Leader will soon be promoted to Loyalty Camp! Night Team Leader, do you think we can defeat this dog-faced man?"

In the morning, at the Ping City Military Camp cafeteria, soldiers from the Northern Border, gathering after waking, chatted over their meals. Their talk always revolved around ’Divine Marquis Mansion’, ’Warrant’, and ’Legendary Token’.

Even though four or five days had passed, the announcement from the Divine Marquis Mansion remained the freshest and most popular topic.

As everyone chatted, some soldiers began to glance towards the Night Team Leader Ye Si, who was recently in the spotlight—three days to a promotion and five days to being a Team Leader. Even with Gai Louxian’s support, Ye Si’s rapid rise astonished many.

However, everyone respected him, for he participated in the Secret Realm teams every day, always charging ahead despite his reticence, wielding incredible strength. His only shortcoming was his lack of a token, preventing him from leading a team into the Secret Realm. Nevertheless, the Baibao’s internal merit system allowed messengers to earn small merits with each venture into the Secret Realm. The most easily obtainable token, the Evil Ghost Mask, required merely a hundred small merits.

For others, it might take a year or two to accumulate a hundred small merits. But for someone like Ye Si, who frequents the Secret Realm akin to visiting a brothel, the consensus was he’d meet the requirements in three months.

Ye Si was slicing lamb with a small knife as he ate. Nowadays, he consumed about one lamb per meal to maintain his state. His appetite was relatively small—in contrast, messengers like Gai Louxian, in their second transformation, consumed entire cattle each meal, taking half an hour at a time.

They had superior options, such as consuming Blood Replenishing Pills, which instantly satisfied daily Qi Blood needs without bowel movement. Yet, even third-turn messengers were reluctant to splurge on such sacred medicine. Additionally, the blood and flesh of powerful mythical beasts in the Secret Realm were second only to Blood Replenishing Pills, but the Three Mountain Secret Realm didn’t have such beasts, and "Ye Si" wasn’t distinguished enough to eat specialty mythical beast meat.

"First, it’s not a dog-faced man, but a messenger wearing a Yellow Dog mask. Second, I don’t need you; I can beat him alone."

Brief calm followed by soldiers bursting into laughter and jeers.

"That’s right!"

"Indeed, our Night Team Leader is destined for greatness!"

"Destined? He already is!"

At that moment, an old general arrived, silencing the clamorous cafeteria—it was Baibao Banner Master Gai Louxian. He scanned the room and called Ye Si out.

When Ye Si returned, he wore what Baibao Knights coveted most—the Evil Ghost Mask. Once inquired, it was revealed that although Ye Si hadn’t accumulated enough small merits, Gai Louxian vouched for him to redeem the Evil Ghost Mask ahead of time.

Of course, the exchange wasn’t without cost. Starting today, Ye Si had to lead teams into the Secret Realm, tackle the Secret Realm Demon King (BOSS), and in the following three months, lead at least sixty outings. While this demand might challenge others, it felt rewarding for Ye Si alone.

The news spread faster than wind. By the time Ye Si finished breakfast, he was the camp’s most sought-after celebrity. Many Team Leaders came to congratulate him, even inviting him to revel at the Money-Spending Cave beside the camp at night.

But naturally, Ye Si refused all invitations and proceeded with today’s Secret Realm adventure. Unlike during the Wuwan Liu period, many Baibao scrambled to enter the Secret Realm, even fighting over quotas.

The Baibao who secured places appeared perfectly relaxed, joking as if on an excursion. Leading them, Ye Si carried no weapons, only instructing Baibao to avoid combat and merely shoot from the perimeter. Baibao complied without resistance.

Thus, the Baibao watched as Ye Si used his leg skills to kick to death all the Secret Realm demons, without any risk—though the risk was all borne by Ye Si. This transformation turned going to the Secret Realm from a former hardship to a cherished opportunity. Mixing to earn bounty money became easy for Baibao, and other Team Leaders and Banner Masters welcomed this change.

Few desired to clash with Secret Realm demons, having numerous channels to earn money beyond bounty. Now, a battle-loving martial fanatic took on these troublesome tasks, making it all the more beneficial.

"Didn’t expect the Night Team Leader’s leg skills to excel too."

"Don’t emulate him; specialization is the path. You can’t dabble in everything..."

"Won’t the Night Team Leader rest his body? Engaging in Secret Realm battles daily can lead to physical collapse, right?"

"You don’t understand. The Night Team Leader has talent and drive for a reason. I heard his family was slaughtered, and the murderer is a third-turn messenger, so he’s avenging..."

"The rumor I heard was that the Night Team Leader was jilted, set a three-year promise—no marriage unless becoming a third-turn messenger?"

Yan Qing, naturally unaware of the camp’s commotion, grinned at his screen data.

"Finally mastered it!"

"Ye Si"

"Level: 18"

"Qi Blood: 31"

"Spirit: 23"

"Agility: 15"

"Insight: 8"

"Mastered Basic Skills: Basic Saber Technique Level 10, Basic Footwork Level 10, Basic Spear Technique Level 10, Basic Fist Technique Level 10, Basic Swordsmanship Level 10, Basic Shield Skill Level 10, Basic Leg Skill Level 10, Basic Archery Level 10"

"Mastered Advanced Skills: Advanced Saber Technique Level 1"

"Activated Milestone Effects: Martial Arts Genius, Demolition Team"

The reason Yan Qing had "Ye Si" constantly switch weapons to hone basic skills was not just for experience, but also for this Martial Arts Genius milestone!

Before introducing the Martial Arts Genius milestone, we need to start from the day Yan Qing returned from Chang’an.

That day, Yan Qing noticed "Demolition Team" in the status bar of "Ye Si".

"Demolition Team"

"Milestone Requirement: Destroy a medium-sized building in any main city"

"Effect: Your token effects make it easier to destroy buildings."

"Remark: Dude, is your urge to destroy too strong?"

"The subsequent milestone ’Destroyer’ has been triggered: Destroy a large landmark in any main city."

"This milestone was completed by a real mode account and can take effect on all real mode accounts."

Yan Qing was momentarily stunned when he saw the last line.

But upon reflection, it made sense—achieving all achievements with a normal account is almost a matter of time and forgiveness, while a real account doesn’t have such conditions.

If milestones couldn’t be shared, a real account’s death would mean starting over, leading real mode players to abandon this aspect of the game entirely. After all, milestone effects are optional, but the effort and time required to complete them are significant, so players would rather level up than bother with milestones.

Conversely, with milestones being shareable across accounts, it can entice real mode players to complete them and even lure normal players into the real mode pit—imagine, if you train several real accounts and complete a bunch of milestones, any new account you start would have tons of milestone bonuses right from the start, which is like cheating in an MMORPG!

The joy of cheating in an online game is at least ten to a hundred times that of using a cheat code like Wind Spirit Moon Shadow in a single-player game!

Moreover, normal players wouldn’t feel it’s unfair—firstly, a real account disappears after one death, so usually, real accounts wouldn’t dare to compete directly with normal players; secondly, if they get beaten by real accounts, they can switch to real mode to grind milestones.

Everyone can cheat, as long as they’re willing to spend the time and take the risk.

The more Yan Qing thought about the "milestone sharing" mechanism, the more brilliant he found it; he found it so intriguing that he wanted to use a normal account to hunt real players and a real account to accumulate milestones for future accounts. It’s no wonder that "Messenger" managed to stand out during the decline of the MMORPG era—experts can dominate the game, but even newbies can have a cheat-like gaming experience through time investment. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

For example, someone like Yan Qing.

For him, the biggest gain from this thief mission was not anything in Bingzi Pepper Forest, but rather the discovery that titles can apply across all accounts.

The milestones of a small account can naturally take effect on a main account!

So Yan Qing spent a few days doing nothing but focusing on grinding the Martial Arts Genius milestone. After finishing Secret Realms in the morning, he would undergo various training exercises in the military camp, all manually operated, as "automatic evolution" would deduct 30% of the experience.

Everyone else could only see "Ye Si" working hard, but the real hard work was actually from Yan Qing!

But it was all worth it.

"Martial Arts Genius"

"Milestone Requirement: Master eight basic cultivation techniques"

"Effect: For each cultivation technique you master, add 1 to perception, effective only when perception

"Remark: What is a Martial Arts Genius? Someone who understands at first sight, learns one thing and knows ten, has a photographic memory, and one proof lasts forever? No, no, even if such people relied on others for a living, they would still be considered geniuses, so they can’t be called Martial Arts Geniuses. A true Martial Arts Genius is very good at hard work but not smart enough—after all, truly smart people wouldn’t practice martial arts?"

"This milestone was completed by a real mode account and can take effect on all real mode accounts."

Completing this milestone requires mastering eight basic cultivation techniques, but its effects are rather disappointing. A normal player’s perception can’t possibly be

Thus, when "Ye Si" triggered this milestone, Yan Qing didn’t pay much attention.

Until discovering the milestone effects could be shared.

To players, this milestone is better than nothing, but in the real world, it’s a different story.

In this world, for an ordinary person to train and master basic skills from scratch takes years, and they generally won’t engage in actual combat until training reaches level three or four; only game characters level up quickly through combat.

As a three-dimensional being who can’t evolve into a game character, Yan Qing naturally relied on training to learn basic skills. And unlike others, he wouldn’t leave the Thief’s House to fight outside, meaning training was his only viable method for leveling up at the moment.

With the Martial Arts Genius milestone, Yan Qing can finally train basic skills alongside playing the game.

After achieving the Martial Arts Genius milestone, a new milestone prompt popped up in the game—

"Martial Arts Prodigy: Master five advanced techniques"

Advanced techniques aren’t as easy to grind as basic ones, even with the number reduced from eight to five—at least months of effort are needed. After a few days of grinding, Yan Qing felt a bit exhausted, and for now, he had no plans for this milestone.

Moreover, he had long decided that once he obtained the Martial Arts Genius title, he would start practicing basic cultivation techniques and stop being lazy!

Today, the Messenger won’t start!

And just then, a new message popped up in the lower left chatbox:

"The Jiangnan area event ’Mansu Forest Land’ has been activated."