After talking for a while, Li Sushang finally felt a little tired.
Durandal, on the other hand, felt a bit dizzy. The amount of information about [Utopia] was too large, and while she couldn't quite sort it all out, it also sparked a strong sense of longing.
"I really want to see it for myself..." After a moment's pause, Durandal let out a long sigh, a feeling of melancholy like seeing something delicious but being unable to eat it.
But now, after the Great Honkai... how could there be a chance?
"Maybe there really is a chance, Lady Durandal," Rita comforted her. Durandal immediately shot up from her seat.
"Really?!"
Rita nodded. "The MOTH seems to have a good relationship with Future City, and there's even a trend of cooperation. This is a good relationship that no other power has had before the Great Honkai.
"And Future City at least has AI maintaining it now, so the hardware is definitely being maintained. If humanity really returns to civilization under the leadership of the MOTH, Lady Durandal will definitely get an [Ark]."
Another tiny bit of motivation added to my heart!
Durandal took a deep breath, locking away her expectations.
"But Lady Durandal still needs to work hard now." Rita's "but" arrived, pouring a bucket of cold water on Durandal's nascent enthusiasm. "The sooner we defeat the Honkai, the sooner Lady Durandal can become a great hero."
Although by that time, Lady Durandal will already be a "great hero" in reality.
"I will!" Durandal said seriously.
"Then let's start by making the Immortal Blades the strongest city exploration team," Rita said with a smile. "The city exploration team rankings are in the upper right corner of the section, the thing that looks like a medal.
"Lady Durandal can see how many exploration teams there are in the world now, where the Immortal Blades ranks, how many missions we need to complete to become number one, and who our competitors are."
The two in the back seat immediately huddled together. Durandal clicked on the rankings as Rita instructed.
"There are currently... 457 city exploration teams in the world... we are ranked 432nd..." Durandal read out the ranking of the Immortal Blades.
"Rita, it says our exploration team has zero points... what does that mean?" Durandal and Li Sushang looked up at the same time, their faces full of confusion.
"And we have zero stars too. Does that mean if we do well, the teacher will reward us with stars?" Li Sushang said with a pained expression. Doing well had never had anything to do with her...
If it weren't for the fact that stars couldn't be deducted, she didn't know how many stars she would have lost for sleeping in class!
"Those are points you get after completing various commissions. You can think of them as the team's experience and qualifications," Rita explained patiently, as if she had already known the two would ask such a question.
"Completing missions of different levels will give you different points. Points can be used to improve the team's ranking, and stars can even allow a team to directly enter the top rankings.
"Even with zero points, having one star can rank you ahead of teams that have points but no stars.
"Only by solving S-class missions can you get stars, and points are obtained from A-class and below missions based on difficulty."
"So complicated..." Li Sushang's head was already spinning.
"This is Lord Overseer's arrangement. The Great Honkai has made too many people lose everything. The city exploration teams have the ability to help others, but others may not be able to afford to pay for it.
"The points set up by the Lord Overseer can be exchanged for many things within the MOTH: food, water, vehicles, equipment, and if you have enough points, you can even hire a special squad from the MOTH for assistance."
"Isn't that us?" Durandal asked in surprise.
Rita nodded. "Does Lady Durandal find this very familiar? This is the MOTH's internal contribution system, but these points are just more valuable."
"Let me see who's in first place now..." Durandal immediately looked down to check the details of the first-place team, and her eyes instantly widened. She opened her mouth but couldn't say a word for a long time.
"Th-th-th... who is this first-place team?!" Li Sushang also looked over curiously, and a slightly stuttering exclamation escaped her lips.
[Rank 1: Anonymous
Points: 0; Stars: 9]
No points, which meant this exploration team had not completed any commissions below A-class. But nine bright golden stars were displayed there, indicating that this exploration team had already completed nine S-class commissions.
It was as if they specifically chose to do these high-difficulty missions!
Durandal quickly clicked on the details of this team, and a dazzling and shocking list of commissions greeted her.
[S-class Commission: Restart City Transportation (Completed)]
[S-class Commission: Kill the Lava Emperor (Completed)]
[S-class Commission: Eliminate the special Honkai Beast "Winner" (Completed)]
[S-class Commission: Clear the Heliopolis Life Sciences Pharmaceutical Base (Completed)]
[S-class Commission: Kill the special Honkai Beast "Pseudo-Dragon" (Completed)]
...
The string of missions made her want to press her eyes against the screen to see what they were, and the photos below used as proof left her speechless.
But the most shocking was the last one.
[Unrated Commission: Defeat the Herrscher of Evolution (Completed)]
[Due to the unratable nature of this commission, it will be used as the sole reference and not included in the overall ranking statistics.]
"Kill... a Herrscher?" Durandal could finally speak. "That strong..."
"...Lady Durandal? What are you talking about?" But Rita's confused voice suddenly came through. Durandal shot her head up, about to answer, but the words lingered on her lips, unable to come out.
Wait... what's going on?
The stark contrast made Durandal freeze. She stared blankly ahead, not even reacting when Rita turned her head to look at her in confusion.
Something's wrong... something is definitely wrong!
Durandal quickly looked down, wanting to hand the phone to Rita to let her see what she had seen.
But when she looked down, the interface she saw was completely different from before. The team interface that was open was for a completely different team.
[Team Name: Heavenly Fire and White Flower
Points: 7481; Stars: 3]
"This is..." Durandal looked at her phone in disbelief, then turned her head to see Li Sushang's confused and concerned gaze.
"Sister Durandal... what are you talking about? Who defeated a Herrscher?"