Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 339 Morning Star: Hehe

It's not really good news, it's just a request to upgrade the rope net level.

After all, RopeNet is a clandestine network filled with all sorts of commissions. To prevent rope craftsmen from rashly accepting commissions beyond their capabilities and incurring exorbitant penalties, RopeNet has specifically added a ranking system for rope craftsmen.

Rope craftsmen cannot accept commissions that are at or below their level, or that exceed their level. The level of a commission is determined by the rope net's system backend based on the commissioner's description of the commission.

It is said that this hierarchy was established at great cost by the rope net, and the rope net's current prosperity is also attributed to this hierarchy.

Getting back to the main point, since Zhe and the others had previously abandoned their Phaethon accounts, they had to start from scratch with a new account on the rope net, and naturally, the rope net level of the new account also had to start from scratch.

However, thanks to the connections they had built up, they were able to carry out their missions incredibly quickly, which also attracted the attention of another intelligence dealer, just like the shepherd.

This information broker, who introduced himself as "Morning Star," claimed to specialize in helping new rope crafters advance quickly. His job was to select the most difficult tasks for the current level and assign them to the newcomers. Completing these tasks would earn him a large number of ratings, leading to rapid advancement; failure would follow the normal procedures, and potentially incur a penalty fee.

However, this part was borne by Qimingxing herself. According to Fairy and Ai-chan's investigation, Qimingxing is indeed as she described herself, specializing in providing newcomers with high-difficulty commissions and earning profits through a high share of the profits.

However, she used most of the profits to help pay the penalties for failed commissions. Thanks to the help of the Morning Star, Zhe and his team were able to successfully obtain the rope net upgrade commission from the shepherd in just a few days.

Zhe sincerely thanked this unknown, kind-hearted information broker. Without her help, Zhe and his team would probably have needed to complete several more commissions to qualify for accepting advancement commissions.

Meanwhile, inside an unknown void, Kiana suddenly sneezed, and in a moment of carelessness, she lost control of her strength, firing a terrifying bullet towards the infamous skeleton in front of her.

Then, with that unknown infamous figure at the center, the aftershock of the bullet affected his back, and a bottomless fan-shaped crater appeared in front of him.

"Kiana, what's wrong? You're sneezing. Did you not sleep well last night?" Mei asked with concern.

"Mei, you need to know that Kiana now could go for days and nights without sleep without any problems, let alone yesterday she..."

The captain's voice came through their earpieces, filled with exhaustion. Mei knew without a doubt what kind of battle the captain and Kiana had endured the previous day; Kiana might even have used the power of the End, otherwise, given their current physical condition, the captain shouldn't have felt tired at all after such a short time.

"N-nothing, Mei, it's just that I feel like someone's been talking about me. Judging by the time, they should have passed their test by now. Let's hurry up and get out of here; I still need to find them to post a request. Captain, could you tell me where the nearest exit is?"

The captain remained silent, focusing solely on calculating the next path and relaying the results to the two. Yes, due to the division of labor, the captain once again took on the work behind the scenes. At this moment, the captain was calculating the so-called "carrot data" in the camp outside the cave, acting as Kiana and the others' exclusive "rope maker."

A short while later, Kiana and Mei emerged from the cave. Kiana stretched and then waved goodbye to Mei and the captain.

The two were left behind, feeling helpless, to begin compiling their mission reports. Kiana, on the other hand, went to Sixth Street. In a corner that no one paid attention to, Kiana's body flashed with a faint light, and then a woman with long brown hair appeared in the same spot.

After seeing Tetsuya and Rin come out of the ramen shop, he pretended to bump into them and greeted them.

"What a coincidence that you're here too."

"Oh? It's Qimingxing!" Ling greeted Qimingxing (Kiana) happily. "What brings you to Six Points Street?"

(From now on, it will be referred to as Morning Star in the Morning Star state.)

"Hehehe, I heard you guys passed that test, so I came here especially to congratulate you. I just didn't expect to see you coming out of the ramen shop as soon as I arrived."

“Miss Morning Star, are you really just here to offer your congratulations?” Zhe asked.

"Hehe, I didn't expect you to be so perceptive. That's right! I'm not just here to congratulate you, after all, you're the most outstanding newcomers I've mentored in a while, so..."

"This isn't the place to talk about these things. If you want to discuss that kind of matter, could we go to our video store and talk about it there?"

"Of course, of course! I happen to have a few videotapes to rent, so I'll take your suggestion and talk to you about it at your videotape shop."

Hearing the doorbell ring for business instantly energized him, and he was now hopping back home.

Inside the video store, Qi Mingxing took out a data disk from her bag. This disk contained the rope netting jobs she was going to give to the two of them, all of which were the most lucrative jobs she had selected.

Even Fairy had to admit that Venus had a discerning eye for choosing commissions, but what they didn't know was that these commissions were actually selected by Ai-chan. Venus didn't have that much time to carefully choose these tasks.

To make the identity of Morning Star more believable, he started working as an information broker under that alias several years ago. He even helped some new rope crafters quickly advance their ranks, which is why Fairy couldn't find any suspicious information. Of course, Ai-chan's secret help was also a factor.

"As usual, these are all high-difficulty mission requests. Some of them are related to the military. I believe you guys can definitely complete them. However, if you encounter a mission that is beyond your capabilities, please don't force it. Tell me and I will do my best to help you cancel the mission!"

Yes, as the least dark web in New Elijah, the people posting commissions on the dark web are a mixed bag. One second you might see a rebel commission, and the next second the comments section of that commission will have a military bounty commission posted.

Ropenet has now permeated every aspect of New Elidu. Even though everyone knows that ropenets and rope craftsmen are illegal, the military is facing a severe shortage of manpower due to its main forces being focused on dealing with the rebels and the defense of Void Zero. Therefore, it has to issue a commission on ropenets to clear the Void.

Not to mention ordinary citizens, the Public Security Bureau is often unable to handle matters related to empty promises made by citizens due to various issues. Therefore, instead of queuing up and waiting for the Public Security Bureau to handle their requests, it is more convenient and faster to just pay some money to hang their requests on a rope net.

This is one of the reasons why the Public Security Bureau, no matter how many statements it makes, cannot stop citizens from climbing the rope net to post their requests, which puts the Public Security Bureau in a very difficult position.

On the one hand, the existence of the rope net did alleviate the security bureau's concerns about the hole-related matters, but on the other hand, the rope net was not an official website and belonged to the gray industry, and the rope craftsmen and hole raiders inside were a group of despicable people blinded by profit.

Both morally and logically, an immediate lockdown is necessary, but the police department cannot immediately take over the large number of cases handled by the rope net. The police department leadership has held numerous meetings regarding this situation, but has yet to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

"You can rest assured about our work; these requests will be completed perfectly," Zhe's subordinate said from behind the data panel. "However, since that business is over, I don't know about Miss Morning Star's business here..."

"Of course, of course. Could you please help me find some videotapes related to this documentary?"

"Documentary?" Zhe looked at Qimingxing in confusion. She never expected that Qimingxing would be interested in documentaries.

"It wasn't me, it was another newcomer I was in charge of who needed it," Qi Mingxing explained. "I had previously helped him take on a case that involved the old capital, so I was wondering if I could find some clues in documentaries related to the old capital."

"I understand. Is it a documentary about the old capital? Please wait a moment."

Soon after, Rin arrived at Qimingxing's side with the videotape that met the requirements, while Zhe returned to H·D·D's room to confirm the contents of the request.

Similar to what the Morning Star said, it's full of high-difficulty missions, and some missions even explicitly state the difficulty level as a fierce battle.

It's easy to imagine how difficult these requests are. Looking at these requests, Tetsuya couldn't help but marvel at the power of Venus.

Although this intelligence provider's intentions were good, she didn't seem to realize that her methods were too hardcore, so much so that she could only develop connections within the ranks of new rope craftsmen.

Even among the new rope craftsmen, Qimingxing's infamy outweighs her good reputation, to the point that even today, Qimingxing's income is barely enough to support her daily life.

After paying at the cashier, Qiming left. Shortly after leaving Sixth Street, Qiming transformed back into Kiana in a corner and headed towards Sixth Street.

Of course, she used the portal to throw those videotapes back into her room. Kiana looked at the video store sign she had seen just a few minutes ago and pushed the door open without thinking.

The crisp doorbell startled the two people in the H·D·D room, but they instinctively breathed a sigh of relief when they realized that it was Kiana who had entered.

Even they didn't know why, despite having only met a few times, they felt that Kiana was trustworthy. For some inexplicable reason, Tetsuya put down his phone, which he was about to call the Rabbit House, and instead extended an invitation to Kiana.

"Tetsu, do you mean you want me to complete the rope net commission for you, and then split the commission fee with me?" Kiana blinked after hearing Tetsu's words. "Have you forgotten my identity?"

Kiana's reminder made Zhe realize that Kiana's identity was indeed not suitable for this kind of thing. Just as Zhe was thinking about how to take back what he had said, Kiana agreed to Zhe's invitation first.

"Why?" Ling asked, puzzled.

"If I had to say why, it's probably because it's interesting," Kiana said with a smile.

"interesting?"

"Yeah, usually I'm the one who posts commissions on the rope net and then pays the commission fee. Now that the roles are reversed, it's actually quite fun."

"Does Kiana usually post requests on the rope net?"

"After all, there are some things that I can't handle myself, so that's where Rope Net comes in. By the way, let me tell you something: those combat missions issued by the military that you've taken on were actually issued by Sister Karen."

"Are you talking about Karen, the elder of your clan?"

"Yes, that's her."

"So she's your older sister."

"Actually, it's not really that. Her actual seniority is quite high, but she doesn't like us younger generation to call her that, so we call her 'elder sister'."

"Getting back to the main point, I recall that Miss Karen's strength shouldn't be low, so why would she issue these requests?" Zhe asked. "Could it be..."

"There's no particular reason; these requests are simply combat requests. If I had to pinpoint a common characteristic, it would be that their real purpose is to collect data. As for what kind of data, I think it's best if you don't know too much."

"...I understand. So, in your opinion, are these requests worth accepting?"

"Why not accept them? These commissions were issued through Sister Karen's personal rope net account, and the funds come from our Kaslana family. This is a chance for you to fleece the nobility, and you actually think of refusing?"

"Kiana, what you said is true, but this is your own family. Is it really okay to say that you're taking advantage of them?"

"What's the big deal? It's just taking advantage of our own resources, which is better than embezzling, right?"

"This……"

Zhe was speechless for a moment. Should he say it or not, this truly lived up to the reputation of the Kaslana family. Their frank and helpful nature was indeed well-deserved.

"Alright, let's finish this quickly, I have to go back to HAND headquarters in a bit."

"In that case, why don't you go back first? You can still ask Nicole and the others to help you with the requests here."

"Are you sure you don't need my help? Don't worry, with my abilities, it won't take too long. If we leave now, we can still make it back in time."

Zhe Ling and Kiana exchanged glances and ultimately rejected Kiana's tempting offer. In return, they were curious about Kiana's reasons for coming.

After all, Kiana didn't seem to be there to rent videotapes. Kiana vaguely replied that she had just decided to do it on a whim and left the video store without waiting for the other party to say anything more.