HC:Pacifist | Ch. 153 - The Event (Patreon)

Roth had been walking around for several hours, waiting for his racial skills to come off cooldown. Had he known that he would be stuck for almost 15 hours because of his change to [Boar Form], he would have taken out the trash in human form. He had to be patient. To increase the chances of his plan against the caterpillar working, he required one of his zoomorph forms.

The long cooldown of his forms was a hassle, but his race would have to be nerfed if it weren't for this. Due to his ever-increasing stats, he was getting some stats up to 400, which was broken for a player at his level. Hopefully, he could get items that provided more cooldown reduction later, mitigating his race’s weakness.

Even though he could think of nothing but the caterpillar, he was forced to continue touring Antioch's workstations instead. He had just left the resiners who hardened leaves and essentially turned them to leather and was on his way down to the mines. The more he explored this place, the more unique professions he found.

As he waited for a turtle ant to step out of the way, he received a system message,

Interregional event triggered: [The Rise of the Hive King].

An ancient evil alien race has made its appearance. They have been gaining strength unsuspected and have now chosen to reveal their might. Pick your side:

Would you like to choose [Betray Humanity] questline and join the parasitoids? To join the Aliens, you must pay one gold and 1% of your XP to the king as tribute.

Would you like to choose [Fight off the Aliens] questline and fight the invasion?

Roth stared at the notifications. “Interregional event? What is this about?”

*

"Here is to Walter. If it weren't for him pawning his fancy watch, we would never have been able to afford the upgrades that got us these babies."

"I told you I didn't pawn it! I sold it to a guy from work." Walter took a sip from a ginger beer happily. Bobby, his new wolf pet, yawned adorably in his lap, signaling that it was about to take a nap. He petted it. He had read in the guides that it was good to continuously show affection to pets to improve their relationship.

"Does your wife know you are spending all your money carrying your bros?"

Hearing Will’s question, Walter almost choked on his drink. "Kind of…"

"Define kind of,” challenged Wesley.

"I told her we boys were making an investment together and that I could get the money back with interest."

Will instantly held on to his prized wolf pup. "Dude?! I ain’t selling Wolfy. I just got him!"

Wes and his wolf pet didn’t say anything but stared at him angrily.

"I know. I know. But hear me out. I can sell my pup for 20 gold. I’ll exchange it for 300 credits, and I get my money back with a little interest. Then, since we already have the equipment needed, we can just do the quest again and get a new pup for me. You guys can carry me through the quest again. Breezy, right?"

Wes and Will exchanged looks. Wes looked annoyed, but Will was controlling himself not to burst out laughing. "What are you talking about, man? You can only do this quest once!"

"Say what now?" Walter flushed.

“He’s right,” added Wes. “It’s a one-time thing. You can’t get another wolf pup from this quest.”

“T-then, that means…” Walter started sweating and became red like a tomato. He looked down at his black and white wolf, who was now cutely taking a nap on his lap. Could he really sell his new pet? He didn’t think he had the heart. Perhaps if he explained to his wife that the investment hadn’t worked out... Or maybe he could just come up with a new way to make the money and, this way, escape his wife’s wrath.

"Will, look! He's thinking of keeping his pet and lying to his wife about it. Look."

"Walt, you rascal!"

Walter blushed but didn't deny it. He just sipped on his apple cider as he petted Bobby.

Something has happened to old man Sean. Your quest [The Scared White Wolf] has been canceled.

“Uh?” Walter looked at Will and Wes and saw they were frowning as well. “Guys? Did anything happen to your chain quest?”

“It says here that something has happened to Sean. What is going on?”

Walt felt all the warmth in his face turn to ice. They had spent countless hours on this chain quest and were almost finished!

Something has happened to Zucchinis’ lieutenant Raj. Your quest, [Avoid Cargo Inspection], has been canceled.

“What? What in the world is going on? All my quests are being canceled!”

Walt looked around and found they weren’t the only ones getting this type of message. All over the inn, murmurs of discontent and complaints were being thrown around. Then, they heard screaming outside. Before they left the inn to check what was happening, they received a system notification.

Interregional event triggered: [The Rise of the Hive King].

An ancient evil alien race has made its appearance. They have been gaining strength unsuspected and have now chosen to reveal their might. Pick your side:

Would you like to choose [Betray Humanity] questline and join the parasitoids? To join the Aliens, you must pay one gold and 1% of your XP to the king as tribute.

Would you like to choose [Fight off the Aliens] questline and fight the invasion?

“Guys, are you reading this? It’s a special event!” Will said as he rubbed his hands.

Happy that the attention was off him, Walt chimed in. “Oh man, this is so cool. I haven’t read anything in the forums about this. It must be a surprise event. I heard about these before. You can get exclusive rewards.”

“We’re so lucky to be online when the event starts. We can get ahead before others get wind of this!”

Walt turned to Wes, the de facto leader of the group. “What should we do? Should we be the good guys? Or the bad guys? What do you think, Wes?”

Wes stared thoughtfully at the notifications. “I think we should join the aliens.”

“But, Wes, joining the good guys is free. You have to pay XP and gold to join the aliens.”

“That means that the rewards are potentially higher. Besides, we have to play around with what we’ve already done in the game. We all have evil alignment. There’s no sense in joining the good guys.”

“Makes sense.”

Walt considered what Wes was saying. Maybe this was just what he needed. If the rewards in this event were plentiful, he might be able to get his money back and keep Bobby as a pet. “Let’s do it!”

“So it’s settled then?”

“Yes. Let’s join the aliens!”

*

After Roth received the invitation to the event, he dismissed the window and went to check what the forums were saying about the event first.

The Rise of the Hive King

#event #hiveking #greencountry #rockcanyon #skyislands

Poster: SirLaughaLot

Post: Don’t forget to check my paid guides and leave a like and subscribe.

Hey, people, this is a place where we can all share what we know about the event. Post it here as you figure out more details on how things work. I’ll update the post as the event progresses.

Here are some questions that people have been asking.

Q: Where is this event? Is it all over AstroTerra?

A: The only regions where this event has been announced are Green Country, Rock Canyon, and Sky Islands.

Q: What are the cities affected by the miasma?

A: Here they are by region.

Green Country: Greensburg, Treeford, Bush Castle, Orchard City.

Rock Canyon: Hadestown, Rubinia, Graniteford, Emeraldeen, Lithburg.

Sky Island: Cloudia.

Q: Does anyone know where the Hive King is?

A: There is no information on this right now.

Q: Are there any other events happening in other regions?

A: City events aren’t all that rare, and there have been some regional events. This is the second inter-regional event in the game’s history. The last one was on the one-year anniversary of the game.

Comments

MushyAvocado: Which side should I choose?

FanPower001: Has anyone joined the good guys yet?

DontKnowIt108: It’s so unfair! Why is there only one city in the Sky Islands and so many in the other regions?

RockyHeart: What do you get for participating?

The post was made roughly five minutes after the announcement. He had to give it to this player who had scrapped a guide together so fast like this. Being able to speak without saying much was an art in itself.  Although the post was presentable, it offered very little information.

Whatever the case, it looked like the areas affected were unrelated to him. Neither Hilsford nor Saphira were on the list. Greensburg was the only affected city somewhat connected to him. He had only been there once to sell [Power Truffles] and the other products of the Green Woods. It was the very first city he'd visited in AstroTerra.

From his experience in previous games, events usually involved massive battles, sieging a city, or fighting a powerful boss. It wasn’t the type of thing that Roth wanted to get himself involved with. Furthermore, unless one had a good team behind them or a guild taking the lead, it was not worth participating. Often, solo players could only get the scraps that fell off the table of the guilds.

He checked the forums, curious to see what the guilds were doing. He only found one post.

Pegasus Supports the Hive King

#event #hiveking #greencountry #rockcanyon #skyislands #pegasus #guild

Poster: PegasusAnak

Post: Pegasus hereby announces that all of our members will be joining the side of the Hive King.

We believe this is the winning side and the one with the most rewards, too.

If any other guilds, groups of players, or solo players want to join Pegasus’ activities, feel free to send us a message. We’ll happily include you in our plans so you can have stronger backing for the event.

We want to make this event as fun as possible for everyone.

Comments

Queenofthunder: Me and my buds want in!

Re: Queenofthunder: What city are you in? Let us know, and we’ll give you the contact information of one of our local captains.

HilianGur: What kind of rewards does the event give?

Re: HilianGur: There’s a set of armor that is super cool. There are also some unique items. We will share a list of rewards with all those who join us.

Re: Re: HilianGur: Sweet. Count me and my friend in. We’re in Bush Castle.

JoaoRatao: Wow! That’s really cool of you, guys! I wish all of the top 10 were as nice to solo players. I’ve got to say. My opinion of Pegasus has improved. Are you recruiting?

Roth wiped his eyes and reread Pegasus’ post with a frown. He wasn’t surprised to see that Pegasus would join the alien side. What threw him off was the warm and inviting tone they had included in the announcement. Why would Pegasus want to take the masses in? The more resources they had to share, the more mouths there were to feed. This couldn’t be good for the guild.

The timing was also unbelievable. They made the announcement practically as soon as the event began. They were the first and only major guild to take a public stand on the matter. Loki sure was decisive. He had to give him that. He wondered what kind of position the other guilds would take.

He shrugged. He would stay tuned and check this out later. Roth looked at his friend’s list and saw that Drake wasn’t online. Since he played using a helmet, he had to leave the game often to go to the bathroom and eat. He would ask what the others planned to do about this event once he logged back on.

As for him, he would keep peacefully exploring Antioch. His racial skills were almost on cooldown. He just had to wait a little more until he was able to expose the caterpillar invader.

Ch. 152 - Future Lens

INDEX

Ch. 154 - Betray Humanity