Chapter 160: Traces of Darkness

Combining the rankings from these four leaderboards and the pattern in the numbering, Su You had a vague guess in her heart.

She suspected that the letters at the front represented the identities they had chosen, while the numbers at the end indicated their rankings.

For example: A, B, and C actually stood for Lord, Warrior, and Merchant, respectively.

These three identities were the only ones in the Sunset Continent with main storylines. The game’s identity introduction interface had described them like this—

Builder (Lord): Specializes in infrastructure, develops territory, builds the royal city.

Adventurer (Warrior): Loves adventure, self-improvement, invincible in the world.

Trader (Merchant): Skilled in trade, develops caravans, richest in the world.

The Lord’s main questline was to build and develop the city, leveling up the territory until it became the top territory on the continent. The Warrior’s main questline was to fight monsters and level up, adventure everywhere, grow stronger, and become the most powerful person in the world. The Merchant’s main questline was to establish caravans, trade far and wide, and become the richest person on the continent.

As for D, she guessed it might represent other identities, because it had been said from the start that there were many, many identities in this game. Without further numbering, it could only mean they were grouped together.

Given that three of the top five on the kill leaderboard had codes starting with ‘B’, Su You reasonably suspected that B stood for Warrior. This was easy to deduce, so she didn’t dwell on it.

Since B was Warrior, and she was A, the Lord, then C must correspond to Merchant.

As for the true meaning of the code ‘A1-16’, Su You boldly interpreted it as: “Ranked first in potential value among human Lords, and sixteenth in potential value among all humans.”

After all, the system itself had said she was the human Lord with the highest potential value. The highest is naturally first, A stands for Lord, and the number 1 naturally means first.

…

After thinking so much, Su You felt she had probably guessed correctly, but then she realized that guessing this didn’t really matter much.

Rather than worrying about this, she might as well calculate how many treasure chests she could get at the mission hall tomorrow.

Seventeenth on the first leaderboard, one iron chest; eighth on another, a silver chest; two first places meant she could get two more of every chest… Wait, that’s not right!

“Except for the comprehensive leaderboard…” The reward for this chest was for all but the comprehensive leaderboard, which meant she was missing out on five treasure chests!

So what’s the point of being first on the comprehensive leaderboard?

Su You rolled her eyes speechlessly, then flopped onto her bed, pulled the covers over herself, and went straight to sleep.

…

…

Day eleven of the digitized world.

People from all the territories surrounding Sunset Territory had heard from various sources that a nearby territory had flawlessly repelled an attack by dark creatures without a single injury…

“Hey, didn’t you tell me yesterday that you thought something was off to the south?”

“So, do you know what happened over there?”

“I just found out myself. This morning I heard from some bounty hunters returning from missions that when they passed by yesterday, they saw traces of dark creatures in that area!”

“You mean… the dark creatures targeted that place?”

“What else? Must be another unlucky territory…”

As the two were discussing, another person nearby overheard and came over, looking a bit puzzled.

“If the territory you’re talking about is the same one I know, then it’s anything but unlucky—it’s actually pretty impressive!”

Although none of them knew each other, gossip is human nature, and no one cared about introductions at a time like this. That wasn’t important.

“Brother, breakfast is on me. Why don’t you tell us more?”

The stranger didn’t stand on ceremony, pulled up a chair, and sat at their table. “Getting targeted by those things isn’t exactly good news, but this territory is no pushover. Not only did they force the dark creatures to retreat again and again, but they didn’t suffer a single casualty… You know, those things are tough to deal with, but killing them can drop all sorts of rare materials.”

In other words, for territories without power, a dark creature attack was a disaster; but for strong territories, these dark creatures were basically ‘delivery boys’ bringing free loot to their door.

The two original discussants were a bit skeptical after hearing this, so one of them asked, “How do you know all this? Don’t tell me…”

The stranger saw they didn’t quite believe him, so he explained further: “You know the Haitian Bounty Group? I’ve got a friend in that group. A few days ago, they took a beast-hunting mission and only got back late last night. I ran into him this morning, and he told me they’d noticed traces of darkness there a day earlier. But when they came back last night, all those traces were gone! Not a single mark left!”

So-called traces of darkness were actually a kind of mark left behind after dark creatures attacked a territory—a means of dark pollution and invasion of the continent.

If the attack went well, the traces would be deep, proving the creatures had been there and won. It was also a declaration of war and provocation against humanity.

If the attack failed, there were two types: ordinary failure and total defeat.

Ordinary failure would still leave traces, marking the spot for future attacks.

But if it was a total defeat, not a single trace would be left, because the creatures knew they couldn’t win and feared the power there, so they wouldn’t dare leave any sign of provocation.

In fact, after most territories were attacked by dark creatures, there would always be some traces left in the area. To avoid the trouble of being marked, territory managers would usually pay to hire the church or light-element mages—who were naturally opposed to darkness—to help erase the traces. But this took a lot of time and money.

“In less than a day, there’s no way that territory could have hired someone to erase the traces. So the only explanation is that the territory is strong enough to have completely repelled the dark creatures, so thoroughly that those things didn’t even dare leave a mark!” As he finished speaking, their noodles were served.

The stranger looked at the two still deep in thought and smiled. “Since you’re treating, I won’t be shy… Oh, and I guarantee everything I said is true. If you don’t believe me, just go check for traces yourself!”

After all, traces of darkness were pretty obvious—there was no way to miss them.

(End of chapter)"

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