Chapter 3: New Legendary Quest

On the Advent Continent, Zong Mi possessed two identities.

When he loaded the game system, he was merely an ordinary adventurer upon the continent.
But when he removed the game system, the truth hidden behind the identity of “Zong Mi” would finally reveal itself.

A single song came to an end.

The cold and distant melody still seemed to linger beneath the cathedral’s golden dome.
Outside, the sky had already sunk completely into darkness, with only pale moonlight stretching faintly into the sanctuary, making the atmosphere strangely indescribable.

“Not bad.
You’ve got courage.”

The crimson bishop stared fixedly at the bard standing only one step below him.
The refined smile that never seemed to leave his face had finally vanished, replaced by an undisguised icy sharpness within his blue eyes.

“Thank you for the compliment.
Bards have always been this way.”

Zong Mi still wore the exact same smile.
In fact, the curve of his lips lifted even higher, making him look absurdly innocent.

Bards possessed many kinds of songs.
Their music was highly versatile, and some melodies had even been preserved and passed down to the present day.

Zong Mi had not actually done anything extraordinary.
He had merely plucked the strings of his lyre and softly sung a hymn dedicated to the Goddess of Dawn.

The issue lay within the hymn itself.

The sacred hymn of the Goddess of Dawn contained seven movements in total.
The first six movements were melodies spread throughout the continent—songs everyone could hum.

Only the final movement was different.

That particular section of sheet music was stored deep within the Temple of Dawn in the Inner Domain.
It was never revealed publicly and would only ever be performed during extremely important ceremonies.

For example—during the coronation of the Pope of Dawn.

At the moment of a pope’s ascension, church musicians would bring out the final movement of the hymn.
It could only be played during the coronation itself.
At all other times, it remained sealed within a cold display cabinet.

This was an unbreakable tradition of the Temple of Dawn.

And just now, when Zong Mi reached the final movement of the sacred hymn, his palm brushed across the strings, allowing the complete hymn to flow freely from his fingertips.

The act was both mocking and symbolic.
It openly declared that he had already seen through Cyril’s ambitions.

Conversations between intelligent people were always simple.
Since Zong Mi had boldly played the forbidden final movement of the hymn, Cyril naturally discarded all pretense as well.

After all, as a crimson bishop, Cyril was a level eighty NPC.
Zong Mi, who was only level fifty-something, genuinely could not do much against him.
Honestly, it was already generous enough that Cyril had not simply attacked him outright.

“Your purpose.”

Without his mask of civility, Cyril became undeniably oppressive.
The arrogance and ambition previously hidden beneath his refined exterior now bared their claws openly.

“I’ve heard your cathedral possesses a treasured artifact that has been stored for many years within the Pope’s secret chamber.”

Zong Mi knew when to stop pushing.

“We merely each take what we need.”

“As for the benefits I can offer you—”

There were always many things an adventurer could handle far more conveniently than a member of the clergy.

[New Quest Added (Legendary): Assist Crimson Bishop Cyril in seizing the core authority of the Temple of Dawn]

[Reward Item: Unknown]

Only after Zong Mi put away his lyre and stepped out through the grand doors of the Dawn Cathedral, hearing the soft notification chime from the quest panel, did he finally turn back with a smile.

“Pleasant cooperation, Bishop.”

Standing in the plaza, he raised a hand lightly in farewell.
Because the lighting was so dim, Cyril could only vaguely make out the golden-haired man’s excessively beautiful face through the floating magic lamps lining the square.

“Hmph.”

The crimson bishop let out a cold snort, but in the end still gave a slight nod.

Very soon, the Temple of Dawn would begin selecting its next Pope.
The church was currently in the most crucial phase of that process.

And undeniably, with the assistance of an adventurer, Cyril’s chances of success would increase by at least another twenty percent.

Twenty percent was already enough for Zong Mi to pry open the door to cooperation.

At the same time, the entire political landscape would now need to be overturned and reevaluated from the beginning.

The bishop closed the cathedral’s heavy wooden doors behind him, allowing himself to sink completely into darkness as an unreadable expression crossed his face.

Meanwhile, Zong Mi narrowed his eyes in satisfaction, clearly in a good mood.

His friends list had successfully gained one new entry.

Advent’s system was remarkably intelligent.
It had even automatically generated an avatar for the person, accompanied by text beside it reading:

[Crimson Bishop of the Dawn Cathedral in Starshine City, Temple of Dawn: Cyril]

The second expansion update had clearly further reduced the divide between humans and the native inhabitants of the Advent world by unlocking a friend system between players and NPCs.

However… it still seemed impossible to use private messages.

Though perhaps sending letters might work.

Zong Mi poked regretfully at the disabled private message icon before suddenly noticing a row of gray avatars beneath his friend list.

Since the update, he had only interacted with Cyril.
That meant the gray avatars could only belong to NPCs he had encountered before the update.

Zong Mi flipped through them.
These gray avatars had no names, no pictures, not even identifying text.
It was impossible to determine who they belonged to.

Still, counting on his fingers, he mentally reviewed all the messes he had caused in the past.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…

The number matched up almost perfectly.

The suddenness of this expansion update had truly caught everyone off guard.

For a player like Zong Mi, ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
But for the people of the Advent Continent, ten years had genuinely elapsed.

“Looks like it’s about time I reclaimed a few things.”

Muttering to himself, Zong Mi turned and stepped directly into the teleportation hall of Starshine City.

At present, he held six active Legendary quests and one completed Legendary quest.

Behind every Legendary quest was an item he absolutely had to obtain.
And each item represented a piece of Legendary-grade equipment.

But… one was still missing.

The continent’s main storyline quest.

Although Zong Mi was an exiled existence, he himself knew almost nothing about the Advent world.
The only thing he possessed was those eyes capable of glimpsing the future.

Aside from that, he had nothing at all.

“Just hold the teleportation coin and drop it onto the ground inside.”

Zong Mi nodded, accepting the silver magic coin from the ticket attendant before stepping into the center of the teleportation array with his long legs.

The moment he inserted the teleportation coin, brilliant golden light erupted across the array’s surface, instantly enveloping him.

[Please select destination]

“Gazi.”

Gazi was the main city of Central Continent within the Inner Domain and the unquestioned center of the entire continent.

People from all five continents gathered there.
Every profession could find its corresponding class instructor within the city—except for Zong Mi’s so-called bard class.

In truth, Zong Mi had never even completed a class advancement at level fifteen.
Even the bard profession itself was something he had fabricated on the spot.

As long as he could fool others, what did it matter whether they believed him?
As long as the NPCs bought it, that was enough.
And if things truly went wrong, he still had hidden class advancement as a convenient excuse.

The scenery before him was quickly replaced by Gazi’s signature violet rooftops.

This central city possessed a unique style.
All its roof tiles were shades of purple, differentiated further by varying tones and depths of color.

Every player dreamed of owning a house in Gazi.
Unfortunately, property prices there were outrageously expensive, rivaling those of the Holy City of Dawn, the Holy City of Knights, and the Holy City of Mages.

At any rate, Zong Mi certainly could not afford one.

He rarely completed standard adventurer quests and seldom ran dungeons.
The little money he earned was almost entirely spent using teleportation arrays.

Teleportation was not cheap.
A single use cost one gold coin.
Only when he was desperately broke would Zong Mi reluctantly clear a nearby dungeon for money.

After stepping out of the teleportation array, Zong Mi slowly walked through the main city.

Advent’s leveling system was extremely strange.
Sometimes levels merely acted as entry tickets for certain gameplay milestones rather than actual representations of strength.

For example, players needed to reach level fifteen for their first class advancement and level forty for the second.
Some maps also imposed level restrictions.

But overall, levels themselves represented very limited value.
It was similar to using a university degree when job hunting—it was merely a threshold.

None of Advent’s weapons possessed level requirements.
And unlike traditional games, leveling up did not grant skill points or talent points.

Talent books only dropped from wild monsters or bosses and were exceedingly precious.
Both players and NPCs could use them.

Skill points were even harder to acquire.
Players needed genuine understanding of how their skills functioned.

Melee classes required painstaking physical practice.
Magic classes needed to learn how to control the mana within their bodies.

Humanity on Earth no longer possessed spare living space.
So even though Advent’s entry barriers were difficult, all of humankind continued exploring tirelessly.

The humans still alive today were the elites of their race.
As long as humanity could continue existing, they were willing to struggle and sacrifice for it.

Within every main city, the place most beloved by players was the library.
The larger the city, the greater the number of ancient tomes preserved there.

And the place Zong Mi intended to visit was Gazi’s central library.

Along the way, he looked travel-worn and dusty from the road.
Yet because he possessed such an exceptionally beautiful appearance, people frequently turned to stare at him.

Mostly because his clothing was too distinctive.
The white cloak draped over him looked absurdly expensive.
If he were a player, it was probably some high-tier equipment.

“Is he an NPC or a player?
Dressed like that… could he have a hidden quest?”

There were more players gathered in Gazi than most places.
Now that the expansion update had just ended, many players had come to the city to replenish necessities.

However, Zong Mi had no intention of interacting with players this early.

He merely swept them with a cold glance, silently raised his collar to conceal most of his face, then turned a corner and approached the librarian at the center of Gazi’s library.

The librarian was an elderly man advanced in years.
He sat in a creaking rocking chair and took a long moment to realize someone had approached.

Only then did he fumble around for his gold-rimmed reading glasses, peering at Zong Mi through the thick lenses before pretending disinterest and withdrawing his gaze once more.

The old man possessed eyes as sharp and profound as a hawk’s.
Without careful observation, they were easy to overlook.

Those were not the eyes of an ordinary librarian.

Without drawing attention to himself, Zong Mi raised his wrist level with his chest and extended his thumb toward the position of his heart, smiling faintly.

“Thirteenth bookshelf.
Third row.
Second book.”

The librarian recited the code phrase.

As he watched Zong Mi’s departing figure, his withered fingers paused atop the page in his hands.

In recent years, his memory had deteriorated considerably.
Yet this young man’s appearance felt strangely familiar.

Golden hair and gray eyes.

Such a hair color and eye color combination was exceptionally rare upon the Advent Continent.

The old man removed his glasses.
Just as he prepared to sink back into his rocking chair for another nap, realization suddenly struck him like lightning.

He hurriedly gripped the armrests and shakily forced his upper body upright again, drawing a dark sigil in the air with magic to transmit a message outward.

That young man just now—

If he had guessed correctly, then he was very likely the very person their Hall Master had spent the last ten years desperately searching for.