Chapter 41: Dungeon Settlement Panel.
Fueled by a massive economy, the subsequent stages were practically cleared without meeting any resistance.
A growing number of zombies made their entrance: balloon zombies, football zombies, zamboni zombies, yeti zombies, and gargantuar zombies. Yet, under their maximum firepower—with an indiscriminate barrage of cherry bombs, cobs cannons, and melon-pult projectiles raining down as if they cost nothing—a survival instance transformed into a lawn-mowing instance.
Total carnage.
By the end of the seventh stage, Dumb Snake had dived into the ocean to reach "Crazy Dave's Twidder-Dweeb Store," spending 780,000 sun points to purchase all eleven items eligible to be brought out of the instance.
Time slowly slipped away.
Chen Jiang and the others gradually grew drowsy; this instance lasted for twenty-four hours, leaving virtually no time to sleep along the way.
Until they welcomed the eleventh stage.
...
Completing ten stages fulfilled the main quest.
The trio had already finished their main quests and could leave the instance at any time while waiting.
For every wave of attacks repelled after the tenth stage, exorbitant rewards were granted.
By this point, not a single sunflower remained on their battle lines. It was a uniform expanse of "Cob Cannons," with three hundred Cob Cannons on each lane—pure, concentrated firepower—and even the two adjacent abandoned lanes were completely packed with cannons.
Sun points were of no use to them anymore.
They still had millions of unspent sun points resting in their pockets.
A grand total of 1,500 Cob Cannons.
The "Cob Cannon" was a special hidden plant within this instance, accessible only after unlocking authorization in "Crazy Dave's Twidder-Dweeb Store." Its production cost was extremely high, but its destructive power was also the greatest.
In other words,
they had now reached the theoretical ceiling of combat power achievable within this instance.
If they still failed to clear the game under these conditions, it could only mean the instance was unreasonably designed.
Therefore—
The supposedly hyper-difficult eleventh wave of attack...
Dark clouds loomed over the horizon, the ocean churned violently, and tens of thousands of gargantuar zombies crawled out from the seabed. Like moving hills, every step whipped up murky waves, roaring as they charged onto the shore with an overwhelming and terrifying momentum!
However, the very next moment!
Fifteen hundred golden beams of light tore through the sky, and the explosive corns grazed the air, leaving behind scorching white fiery tails like a reverse meteor shower!
The explosive impact whipped up waves dozens of meters high.
Looking down from above, the corn projectiles launched by the Cob Cannons enveloped the entire coastline like a golden grid, their flashes of detonation merging into a single sheet of apocalyptic aurora.
Easily obliterated.
The twelfth and thirteenth stages were no exception.
By the conclusion of the thirteenth stage, the familiar waiting countdown did not appear. Instead, the surrounding space began to steadily freeze and shatter.
"Is the instance over?"
Chen Jiang looked around, in quite a pleasant mood. The harvest this time had been exceptionally bountiful; he liked the number 13, and upon completing the thirteenth stage, he had also received the notification sound indicating the hidden quest was finished.
...
When the visual field reassembled, he found himself directly back in his real-world courtyard, instead of appearing in the "Gods' Paradise Novice Plaza" as usual, while several interface panels floated before him.
-
[Ding, you have become an official player of Gods' Paradise.]
[From this moment onward, you may choose a deity and become a devout follower. Each deity can grant different divine powers to their followers.]
[And from this moment onward,]
[except for items produced within Gods' Paradise, all other items are prohibited from being brought into Gods' Paradise.]
[More rules can be acquired upon entering Gods' Paradise.]
[You may officially enter Gods' Paradise after 24 hours.]
-
"Does that include the cardiac stent?"
Chen Jiang asked in a calm, low voice. Of course, no one answered his question. If even the cardiac stent could not be brought in, then those little gadgets implanted inside his body could not be brought in either, which would equate to a nerf to his overall strength.
That was not the most important thing.
The most crucial point was that his deck of cards and other magic props concealed on his person could no longer be brought in.
However—
When he saw the rewards he had reaped this time, he smiled again.
Not bad at all.
The spoils this time could make up for a lot. Among them was a set of card-based props that suited him extremely well, which essentially compensated for this nerf. Besides, the fact that he couldn't bring his things in meant other players couldn't either; everyone was starting from the same baseline, so it was acceptable.
As for the other interface panel, it was the instance settlement panel.
-
[Paradise Name]: Plants vs. Zombies
[Paradise Difficulty]: F-Grade
[Main Quest]: Successfully defend against 10 waves of zombie attacks (Completed).
[Hidden Quest]: Successfully defend against 13 waves of zombie attacks (Completed).
[Quest Evaluation]:
Overflowing economy is destiny's best reward for the brave.
You are the first player in Gods' Paradise to complete the hidden quest of this paradise.
Thus, you receive an extra reward of 500 Paradise Coins.
[Reward Settlement]: Completing the main quest grants 100 Paradise Coins, completing the hidden quest grants 200 Paradise Coins, the extra reward grants 500 Paradise Coins, and completing the side quest grants 400 Paradise Coins.
Stage 11 reward: 1 low-grade free attribute point, 300 Paradise Coins.
Stage 12 reward: 3 low-grade free attribute points, 500 Paradise Coins.
Stage 13 reward: 5 low-grade free attribute points, 1,000 Paradise Coins.
Totaling 3,000 Paradise Coins.
-
"Hoo..."
Chen Jiang looked at the settlement panel before him and took a deep breath, his eyes filled with smiles. The yield from this instance was truly wonderful; those nine low-grade free attribute points could drastically enhance his overall strength.
And 3,100 Paradise Coins were more than enough.
The three of them had completed these quests.
This meant that combined, they had accumulated nearly ten thousand Paradise Coins!
You must know—
Completing the main quest of a normal F-grade instance rewarded a mere 100 Paradise Coins. Nearly ten thousand Paradise Coins was equivalent to completing the main quest of an F-grade instance one hundred times.
Coupled with the eleven items brought out from "Crazy Dave's Twidder-Dweeb Store,"
with such a foundation, stepping formally into Gods' Paradise gave him a sense of confidence.
He gazed at those eleven items, inspecting them one by one to ponder which ones to keep for use and which ones to sell in exchange for Paradise Coins.
Right at that moment,
Dumb Snake suddenly sidled over and said with some excitement, "Brother Jiang, haven't you always been unable to learn how to swim? I see a basic swimming skill book in here. Why don't you give it a try?"
"..."
Chen Jiang looked at the basic swimming skill book. He hesitated for a fleeting second, feeling a slight pang of reluctance, but still nodded earnestly with a trace of expectation. Crushing the skill book in his hand, he stood up and headed to the swimming pool with Dumb Snake to give it a whirl.
...
Zhaoge City.
Inside the swimming pool.
Floundering continuously in the water and choking down several mouthfuls of water, Chen Jiang was dragged ashore by the lifeguard at the very first moment, lying flat on his back at the edge of the pool and gasping for air.
"Still not working?"
Dumb Snake sighed helplessly from the side and said, "Well, it seems there's really no way. Perhaps Brother Jiang, you are truly lacking in water destiny."
When he was young,
his master had specifically taken Brother Jiang away from the land on a boat to the deep sea, hoping to push Brother Jiang to his absolute limits so he could learn to swim, much like an eagle casting its fledgling off a cliff—fly or die. But rumor had it that Brother Jiang nearly drowned in the sea that day.
His belly swollen like a pregnant woman's, having swallowed an unknown amount of seawater, he still couldn't learn to swim.
He hadn't gone that time.
He had stayed by Old Master's side to study close-quarters combat.
If even a swimming skill book couldn't teach Brother Jiang how to swim, then there really was no hope.
"Yeah..."
Lying on the edge of the pool and panting heavily, Chen Jiang stared dazedly at the ceiling of the natatorium. Through his water-drenched eyelashes, in the blur, he seemed to see his master once again, speaking to him with a gaze both kind and solemn:
A deck of cards holds fifty-two possibilities.
But as a magician, you must forever hold the fifty-third.
Master...
I miss you a little.