Chapter Twenty-One: Mother and Daughter Reunited

Ding! Congratulations to the host for eliminating a hostile faction follower. You have received 3,500 energy points as a gift from the Supreme God, one Night Honor Medal, two free early-stage technologies from the Technology Tree, an initial-level Moon Well construction seed, twenty sets of basic archer equipment for the War Hall, and five sets of female hunter gear!

“Ding, my foot!” Guo Lang flipped a silver coin. “Can you stop acting cute when you’re bored? And it was two followers, not one. Where’s the other one? Did you eat them?”

“The other follower wasn’t killed by the host. You didn’t even assist. The entire elimination process was independently carried out by your subordinate follower, Alice. According to intelligent evaluation, Alice receives fifty percent of the energy points. You, as the principal follower, receive a twenty percent commission, and the remaining thirty percent goes to the intelligence system.”

“What?” Guo Lang’s face darkened as he stood up. “Isn’t there a limit to your greed? The interest on credit was high enough, and now you’re just skimming off my energy points. Do you really think I can’t do anything about it? When I get back, I’ll apply to replace this intelligence!”

“Master, would you really abandon your adorable Little Peach?”

Guo Lang replied, “Heh!”

“Master...” Little Peach grew anxious, seeing Guo Lang’s cold smile. “We need to upgrade too, and we need income. Every intelligence system works like this. Others are even greedier than me. Little Peach is definitely one of the most honest intelligence systems.”

“How will I know if I don’t try switching?”

“It’s true, just look at those rewards. As your collaborator and communicator with the higher-ups, I’ve worked hard to secure benefits for you. If you switched intelligence systems, you wouldn’t get such good rewards. These rewards are of exceptional value!”

That was indeed the truth. Guo Lang’s anger eased a bit. The rewards were generous, especially for a beginner—high-quality rewards. First, the honor medal: when accumulated, it could be exchanged for many useful items. Even the later Hero Altar required enough medals to unlock. Then, the Moon Well, an essential base structure in the early stages.

Night Elves are a branch of elves, renowned for their expertise in land transformation and energy extraction, focusing on cultivating the original vitality of the land—sowing before reaping. Unlike destructive races such as the Undead, Void, and Chaos, their method is gradual and harmonious. This results in high affinity with the Gaia consciousness of any planet; at the very least, they don’t face major resistance.

The early difficulty in developing the elven lineage is precisely because of this: after establishing a base, they share planetary energy with Gaia and must give back in the early stages. For example, the Night’s Moon Well—a precious structure containing life-essence spring water that boosts the land’s vitality. Nearby plants evolve rapidly, photosynthesis strengthens, providing more energy to the world, and surrounding creatures evolve as well. The ecosystem recycles and strengthens, allowing the Night Elves to craft living wood from evolved trees, awaken plants, and artificially enhance the environment. The land flourishes, the original vitality grows stronger, and thus even more energy is generated—the water comes alive.

This is the righteous path! The “kill the chicken to get the egg” approach of destructive races is not to be encouraged, but it has the advantage of rapid resource accumulation and growth, surpassing the gradual development of the elven lineage, giving them the initiative in confrontations.

The main challenge for elves is the restrictions in the early stages: you must give first, and yet the resources are not directly provided to followers. Structures like the Moon Well, which require pure investment, must be built with energy points earned by the followers themselves. Who wouldn’t grumble? And it’s expensive: a level one Moon Well costs four thousand energy points. If not for this recent elimination of followers, Guo Lang would have had to rely on the five free sprites gifted by the base’s Life Tree, collecting for ages before he could afford a Moon Well.

That was why Guo Lang initially hesitated to choose the elven lineage—it seemed like a trap. But now, with these rewards, much of the trouble was avoided!

Guo Lang thought for a moment and asked, “Do the five sets of hunter equipment include Moonblade Panthers?” The Moonblade Panther was a critical strategic resource—mounts were prized among all major races, especially the carnivorous mounts of the Night Elves. Every race had their own transportation, but mounts were often more practical in complex terrain, with greater explosive power. A basic Moon Panther could run as fast as a 2.0-liter sports car, and also assisted in combat. In his previous life, the price of mounts never dropped. As a Bronze-level follower, Guo Lang could only dream of building cavalry—his own mount was always subpar, a tale of hardship and tears!

Little Peach hesitated, then looked at Guo Lang suspiciously. “Master, sometimes I feel you’re not really a newbie—you seem to know so much!”

Guo Lang’s body stiffened, a cold sweat trickling down. In his previous life, he only reached Bronze level, not fully understanding how the intelligence system operated. But to everyone, the intelligence system was your closest ally—fighting for your interests with the priests of the Supreme God, even standing firm against them when they tried to seize your benefits, utterly reliable.

But was it truly selfless? Guo Lang had grown accustomed to working with the intelligence system and trusted it instinctively, but after all, it was created by the organization. Was it there just to assist followers, or did it also monitor them? No one knew. If his odd behavior caught the attention of the priests, he’d be in trouble.

Thinking this, Guo Lang laughed awkwardly, “I read the Night Elf history and race introduction you mentioned. It was very detailed. I’m a skilled gamer—I pay close attention to game mechanics.”

“Oh!” Little Peach seemed convinced, then said, “Moon Panthers are standard gear for female hunters, but they need to be raised from a young age to bond with their master for optimal combat effectiveness. So, they’re stored as frozen juveniles. Once you find suitable candidates for the hunter class, you can retrieve them.”

“Oh, I see...” Guo Lang feigned surprise, then put on a disgruntled expression. “I’ll trust you for now, but you’d better behave and stop trying to exploit me.”

Little Peach grew anxious: “I’m not exploiting you—it’s a normal commission. I’m very honest. If you don’t believe me, ask other followers about their intelligence system fees...”

“All right, all right, I believe you—okay?” Guo Lang spread his hands helplessly, then looked worriedly toward the building where Alice was: “I hope she gets out safely...” Though he’d successfully sniped those two followers and none others appeared from the adjacent building, so it seemed that mage only had two teammates.

Guo Lang wasn’t concerned about the mage. Undead mages were strange and powerful, but only over time. From the current situation, the enemy was likely just a newly promoted novice, far less capable than basic followers of the strength or agility paths, so no further action was expected. The mother corpse worried him even less—it was the mage’s trump card, which he’d hide away rather than risk using now.

But the earlier sniping likely disturbed the lower-level zombies. Who knew how long Alice would need to escape safely? Guo Lang couldn’t help but worry.

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Thump, thump... bang! Meanwhile, Laura stood in her office, surprised by the sound at the door—it was knocking!

Only two servings of food remained on the desk. She ate the bare minimum each day, trying to stretch her supplies, hoping to last until rescue. Yet she was clever enough to know how faint that hope was.

Still, she persisted. Without knowing her daughter’s fate, she had to survive!

Severe hunger and thirst made her suspect she was hallucinating. Laura, haggard and exhausted, crawled with difficulty to the glass door and pressed her ear against it.

Thump, thump... bang! The sound made her freeze. That familiar knocking, so clear in her memory. She’d often changed jobs in the past, sometimes bringing her child to work and letting other employees watch her. But her daughter was always clingy—when she couldn’t stand it anymore, she’d run to Laura’s office and knock. Laura wasn’t always there, so her daughter never opened the door directly, instead knocking gently with a semi-closed fist, the rhythm unique: two soft taps, then a heavier one, as she habitually clenched her fist and knocked with her whole hand, making a dull, weighty sound.

There could be no mistake. Only her daughter had this habit, only that quirky personality would knock this way. Laura trembled all over, barely thinking as she pressed the button to open the glass door, then rolled and crawled toward the wooden office door!

Thump, thump... bang! Outside, Alice nervously knocked. She always did this—never opened the door herself. She’d tried once, but after opening it, found nothing but a desk and empty chairs. That time, she’d lost her mother’s location and felt hollow inside. Her mother had told her she’d be in the office, but she wasn’t; that empty hope, followed by emptiness, was terrifying. She never wanted to feel it again, so afterward, she always knocked and waited quietly outside.

This time was the same. Her father said her mother was most likely on these two floors. Even if the first was empty, there was a backup. She’d pried open the door with her knife without hesitation, but didn’t dare open the office door herself, fearing she’d find strangers, or nothing at all.

For the first time, she believed in the existence of gods, and began to pray.

This time, heaven favored her. As she closed her eyes and prayed, she suddenly heard footsteps—hurried, but she recognized them as her mother’s!

The door opened!

As the door opened, Alice squinted slightly. The light inside wasn’t harsh, but it felt like a miracle. Among four imperial towers and nearly ten thousand employees, only four survivors remained. In this slim hope, she finally saw what she had prayed for.

Laura, dressed in her usual professional attire, looked pale and exhausted, yet still beautiful and alluring. She opened the door wide-eyed at the miraculous scene. Alice’s clothes were torn from fighting, with blood and dust smeared on her face and hands, holding some unknown black liquid, looking utterly disheveled.

At first glance, she resembled a mutated zombie, but Laura didn’t hesitate—she grabbed Alice and pulled her into a tight embrace. She didn’t care if the girl was a zombie; even if she were, this was God’s most precious gift!

“Waaah!” The familiar cry rang out again. After so many days, the once cool-headed Alice, trained to think quickly in the face of danger and to use strangers as bait without hesitation, had grown into a competent warrior. Yet now she reverted to her true nature—once again, she was just a child.