1031 No-show

Noticing the anxiety of Tang Mingyue and the others, Brian comforted them, "Your Highness, I've sent someone to communicate and coordinate our later preparations. The griffin farm will soon send someone to pick us up. It'll be fast..."

Wei Tao looked at the remaining time of the trial and felt uneasy.

He couldn't help but look up at the end of the road outside the city.

Their trip to Hani City this time had been full of difficulties. They had wasted too much time investigating.

He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he had chosen to let Fang Heng come with them.

Would Fang Heng notice the problem?

Also, why wasn't Fang Heng here yet?

They had agreed to meet in the morning, but why was he a no-show?

Could it be that he was delayed by a side mission?

At first, Wei Tao and the others were planning to wait for Fang Heng to come, then discuss the investigation in the Empire's main city with him.

Wei Tao wanted to bring Fang Heng along to the Empire's capital, Atama.

Just as he was thinking, two crisp chirps came from the sky.

The Empire's griffins circled twice in the air before slowly landing in front of the group.

Tang Mingyue's eyes lit up.

The Empire's griffins had gray and white feathers, with a cluster of white on the top of their heads. Their eyes were bright and they looked quite handsome.

"Gugu!"

The griffins were not afraid of people at all. One looked at Tang Mingyue curiously and even jumped two steps forward to her side, then rubbed her cheek affectionately.

"Gugu!"

The breeder took a few more glances at Tang Mingyue.

That was strange. Other than the caretaker, griffins were rarely this close to humans.

"City Lord," The breeder cupped his fists at the City Lord.

"Yes, this is the secret investigation team sent by the Empire. There is important military information that needs to be reported back to the main city immediately. Take them there right now and ensure their safety, understand?"

"Yes!" The leader of the breeders looked at Tang Mingyue and the others, "Officers, are we leaving now?"

The group took one last look at the end of the small path outside the city.

They still couldn't see Fang Heng's figure.

They could only hear the "gugu" sounds that the Empire's griffins let out when playing with Tang Mingyue at the side.

It was impossible to go offline and contact the outside world during the trial mission, and they couldn't contact others through the survival radio either, so it was likely that they would not be able to contact Fang Heng.

"Ahem," Wei Tao coughed lightly to draw everyone's attention back, "Forget it, we can't wait anymore. Fang Heng might have been delayed by some emergency. Yu Sheng, your talent skill might be useful. This time, you will come with us to the main city."

"Yes!"

Wei Tao then looked at Mikhael, "I'll leave the team to you for this period."

"Don't worry, leave it to me. I'll continue the exploration mission with my men."

Tang Mingyue had already sat on a griffin's back with the help of the breeder.

It was her first time riding such a flying mount, so she was quite excited. She gently stroked the feathers on the back of the griffin.

"Alright, alright. Don't worry about Fang Heng. He's stronger than us. He's definitely living a better life than us."

"I'm not worried about his safety. I'm just afraid that he'll do something..."

As Wei Tao was speaking, he suddenly stopped.

Several lines of game hints appeared on the retinas of all the trial players.

[Hints: The player team has completed the mission, exterminating the dragon mosquito nest. The players have received an extra 10 hours of trial game time.]

[Hint: The players' main mission has been triggered, the barbarian race's ambition.]

[Mission: The barbarian race's ambition.]

[Mission description: The dragon mosquito nest has been destroyed. The barbarians have made a wrong judgment and launched an attack on the cities in the southern part of the Empire in advance (all barbarian units' attributes will be reduced by 10%). The major border cities in the southern part of the Empire and some of the northern parts will be attacked.]

[Mission description: Hani City is one of the barbarians' attack targets. The barbarians' first step will be to attack the surrounding villages and military bases of Hani City. Please assist in guarding the villages near Hani City and stop the barbarians' attack! (The barbarians will launch a full attack on the defensive facilities and villages outside Hani City within 60 minutes.)]

[Mission requirement: Protect the villages and military facilities around Hani City. Delay the barbarians' attack until a new main quest is triggered. (When 90% of the affiliated military buildings, territories, and villages outside Hany City fall, the mission will automatically be deemed as a failure.)]

[Failure penalty: Enter the follow-up side mission, protecting Hani City.]

[Mission hint: The players can choose to give up the mission to protect the villages and trigger the next stage of the mission, protecting Hani City.]

Seeing the lines of mission hints, everyone fell silent.

Wei Tao's expression was indecipherable.

There was too much information in the game hints, and he couldn't digest it for a while.

10 hours of extra trial time?

Barbarian invasion?

Protect Hani City?

What was happening?

Tang Mingyue was also confused.

When she looked up, she saw that everyone's faces were also filled with the same inexplicable shock.

What the hell was Fang Heng doing?

As everyone else remained silent, Wei Tao said in a deep voice, "This is troublesome. It seems that the main mission of this trial is related to the barbarians."

Hearing Wei Tao's words, everyone started to realize the severity of the problem.

So this trial mission was related to the invasion of the barbarians?

Did they need to stop the barbarian invasion?

Anyone who could become a World Lord in the Zombie Apocalypse was no idiot. Just by looking at the game hints, they could immediately make connections and analyze a lot of information.

Everyone quickly communicated with their eyes.

The more they thought about it, the more surprised they were.

How did Fang Heng do it? To think he started with a side mission and greatly advanced the game's progress?

"Umm... What's wrong?"

Everything had been fine just a moment ago, but when he saw the atmosphere in the team suddenly become extremely heavy, City Lord Brian was a little confused.

That's strange, Her Highness Ming Yue had just been urging them to return to the main city in a hurry, so why was she hesitating now?

"Your Highness, we..." Brian asked carefully, "Are we still setting off?"

"No," Tang Mingyue turned to Brian and said, "Brian, the barbarians are attacking the Empire. Their army will soon invade Hani City. Get the operations department into position immediately and send a distress signal to the Empire for help!"

"Huh? How could it be?"

Tang Mingyue's expression turned serious and she said sternly, "Go!"

Brian realized that Tang Mingyue was not joking. His expression changed immediately, "Yes!"

It was difficult to resist a barbarian invasion just by relying on the players' strength, so they had to find a way to borrow some strength.

The game might have given Tang Mingyue the identity of the Empire's Princess due to the consideration of difficulty.

Everyone looked at each other and saw the worry on each other's faces.

They hoped that the Empire would be a reliable ally.

"Everyone," Mikhael said suddenly, "Have you realized that the main mission of finding the spy has not disappeared yet? Now, both main missions are in parallel."

"What?"

Everyone looked at the mission list carefully and found that it was just as he had said.

"Do you think the Ninth Prince is related to the barbarians?" Mikhael asked quietly.

Everyone was shocked.

It was, after all, a main mission, and the probability of the two being completely unrelated was extremely small.

"F*ck, what if he backstabs us?"