Chapter 14 Forgot the beginning, forgot the middle, forgot the end

Birds have no teeth, lips, gums, or cheeks in their mouth; they only have a beak and tongue. Between the bird's pharynx and its glandular stomach lies the esophagus, found dorsal to the trachea and running parallel to it—it's a muscular tube that can easily expand. A specialized part of the esophagus forms a sac-like structure called a crop, its structure resembling that of the esophagus, primarily used for the temporary storage and softening of food.

These were all new pieces of information that Jiang Lu had just learned.

But he couldn't bring himself to be happy.

"So, am I really just an exception?" Jiang Lu sighed, "Is there no other way to increase goodwill except by achieving the target?"

Upon hearing this, the Messenger lifted her head, her eyes full of derision and mocking as she said:

"Heh... You should be thankful to have such a privilege; at least you have a chance to meet the target, unlike them."

Jiang Lu's face darkened.

There was an important mechanism in the multiplayer Spirit Realm.

That was, the more Exorcists who survived the ordeal, the richer the rewards, and conversely, the rewards would diminish with the number of failures.

That's why, even though Jiang Lu had initially made a poor impression on the other three, they didn't abandon or isolate him.

In an S-class Spirit Realm, sticking together was the wisest choice. Engaging in infighting within the Spirit Realm was a rudimentary error most loathed by Exorcists.

"Alright, alright, I get it."

Jiang Lu mulled over this, finding himself increasingly annoyed the more he looked at the Messenger.

"Hmm..."

The Messenger whimpered, then returned to focusing on her own matters.

Even without having exchanged information with Ghostface Fox and the others, from the inadvertent hints dropped by the Messenger, Jiang Lu could guess that Ghostface Fox's conjectures were probably correct.

From the very beginning, the Black Tower had never intended to let them complete their redemption smoothly!

If it weren't for his rather special circumstances, starting out with goodwill in the sixties, he would now be facing the same fate as the others.

The bad news was that even if he had a chance to meet the target, if he delayed too long and others died, he might not be able to clear the quest successfully.

Even if he did clear it successfully, if the rewards were reduced due to the deaths of others, then whether he could get the mysterious lucky bag was an unknown.

In order to ensure that the outcome matches the effort, it was imperative to achieve the best rating or some hidden achievement.

And the most basic condition was the survival of the entire team!

So his time was very tight.

Based on Heavy Cannon's goodwill as a benchmark, including today, he only had five days left. At the end of the fifth day, Heavy Cannon's goodwill would reset to zero, which likely meant a bad ending was imminent.

With this in mind, Jiang Lu tentatively asked:

"What can I get if I manage to meet the target?"

The Messenger's pupils grew cold as she gasped, "Get? Supervisor, you really are too greedy. Are you saying that you fooled me just now?"

Isn't having me enough?

Jiang Lu clearly saw such words written on her face.

But no matter, what you think is irrelevant to me, acceptance does not equate to agreement.

"Of course, I'm not deceiving you," Jiang Lu shook his head, "I just think that I, as a supervisor, am not worthy of you. I will work hard, but the prerequisite is that I need to see hope, hope that one day I could stand beside you with dignity, not in this way that needs to consider the eyes of others."

The Messenger was stunned.

Not a moment of impassioned recklessness but a commitment borne of responsibility, huh...

How interesting...

"You might... get permission to enter the upper level."

"What?"

Perhaps it was Jiang Lu's stolid appearance that made the Messenger repeat this blatantly irregular promise, and she couldn't help feeling slightly embarrassed:

"If you truly hope to serve me perpetually, I will grant you the right to ascend to the upper level! Don't make me say it a third time!"

...

An incessant gloom lingered on the faces of Ghostface Fox and the other two.

Through their comparative experiments, under nearly static conditions, today, as expected, no one had succeeded in their redemption.

Ghostface Fox and Willow Blade still fell just short when time ran out.

Heavy Cannon fared even worse.

Not only did the prisoner refuse to cooperate, but they also took advantage of his distraction to break free and attempted to attack him.

The prisoner's strength was terrifyingly great, so much that even Heavy Cannon, who boasted a physical condition of 24 points, couldn't suppress him immediately.

Just to fight and regain control over him took half an hour, and the outcome was predictable.

"Is it so difficult just because it dropped to 49 points..."

Ghostface Fox felt a deep malice and was quite helpless, "If it drops to the thirties or twenties, maybe we don't even need to wait for the goodwill to drop to zero or for the seven days to end, we might get killed by the prisoner."

"But we can't just sit around doing nothing..." Heavy Cannon said with a stern face.

"Of course we won't do nothing, I'm just complaining about this time's obstruction mechanism, it's somewhat too perverse..." Ghostface Fox sighed.

Just then, as the three of them were almost back at the overseer's hall, they suddenly saw something.

"Is that... the messenger?" Willow Blade narrowed her eyes.

Heavy Cannon looked puzzled, "Why would she appear here?"

"Not good." Ghostface Fox's brows were tightly furrowed, and an unpleasant guess emerged in his mind, "Brother Jiang might be in danger!"

The messenger seemed to have seen them as well.

Watching the three approaching quickly, the messenger slightly lowered her head and nervously licked her lips with her tongue.

"Messenger Your Excellency."

Ghostface Fox approached, asking guardedly and cautiously, "What are you doing here?"

"Within the Black Tower, I am free to go anywhere. Do I need to inform you in advance?" the messenger said, looking down on the three of them.

"Uh..." Ghostface Fox suddenly felt tremendous pressure, as if the messenger held deep prejudice against them.

Willow Blade's eyes were downcast, contemplative.

Although it seemed far-fetched, she still had an intuition.

The messenger's current behavior seemed somewhat like the fury of being caught in the act of something.

Impossible... Willow Blade quickly dismissed the guess.

No matter how she thought about it, it must be a misconception.

The two men lacked this level of nuanced empathic ability, they just felt it was because two days had passed and they had made no progress, and the other party was dissatisfied with them due to the decreased goodwill.

"Messenger Your Excellency, please don't misunderstand, we just wanted to inquire if you have seen the overseer who was accompanying us?"

Ghostface Fox asked with an apologetic smile.

"Him?" The messenger actually showed a moment of hesitation, "He should be... in his room, right? I'm not very sure."

"Please do your duties diligently." The messenger's tone changed, disdainfully warning, "The Black Tower... has no need for useless overseers."

No need for useless overseers...

The color drained from their faces.

Even overseers, like prisoners, could be discarded at any time?

"So long as one enters into heaven, anyone will do," that saying, it turns out, also applies to us.

If previously it was speculation about what would happen after the countdown ended without completing the objectives, now, they almost simultaneously had the same answer in their hearts.

Returning to their senses, the messenger had already vanished into thin air.

Without a second word, Ghostface Fox hurriedly took two steps at a time to Jiang Lu's closed door.

"Brother Jiang... Brother Jiang!"

After calling several times, a somewhat unnatural voice came from behind the door, "Hm? Ah... this... why have you come back so early?"

"You all right?" Heavy Cannon asked in his gruff voice.

"No... nothing's wrong..."

"If nothing's wrong, then come out quickly!"

Jiang Lu, who had just been lying in bed, replied while hastily pulling on his clothes, "In a moment, I'll be ready soon."

After a series of collisions and the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, Jiang Lu finally opened the door.

"You sure you're all right?" Willow Blade peered out from behind Heavy Cannon's tall figure and asked doubtfully.

"I'm fine, what could be wrong with me?" Jiang Lu leaned against the door frame, not caring that his nose was still bleeding from rolling off the bed, and he smiled confidently:

"Everything is under control!"