#708 - Cooperation (ask for monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

“What should we do next? We need to decide on a course of action quickly, or we’ll easily fall behind. After distributing the equipment, Hermione asked anxiously.

“Let’s just head straight towards the shopping center!” Fred said confidently. “We’ve increased our combat power so much now that ordinary monsters probably can’t stop us.”

Cedric nodded upon hearing this, but still said cautiously, “While that’s true, we don’t know the situation at the shopping center yet, so we can’t be complacent so soon. I have another idea.”

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The others tilted their heads to listen. This battle's success was entirely due to Cedric's decisions, so his words carried significant weight in their minds.

“I think we should go along the left side of the main road and chase after Penelope's escape route!” Cedric suggested after a moment of thought.

“Chase Penelope? Are we going to target other teams before even reaching the hostage location?” George glanced at Cedric with a strange expression. It sounded to him like the other was preparing to deal with competitors.

“No!” Cedric shook his head. “Dealing with a fifth-year wizard isn’t a wise decision for us, even with our increased strength now.”

“Then what do you mean?” Fred looked at him, puzzled.

“I want to bring Penelope over to our side,” Cedric said softly. “Her team is completely scattered now. Ron and Malfoy went in the opposite direction from her, so the chances of them reuniting are too low.”

“And Susan, who was following her, has been killed, which proves that Penelope must be alone now. If we can win her over, it will greatly increase our chances of winning.”

“Your idea is good, but why would Penelope help us? She’s not on our team.” Terence still didn’t understand. In his eyes, different teams were enemies, and there was no such thing as helping the enemy.

“No, it’s actually a good idea,” Hermione retorted. “Penelope might not completely side with us, but she might cooperate. She’s alone now, and it’s impossible for her to complete the mission on her own.”

“That’s right!” George chimed in, finally understanding. “Her only choice now is to temporarily cooperate with us, and figure out the rest after entering the shopping center, otherwise she’ll only fail.”

“I think it’s doable,” Fred added. “If we have a fifth-year student join our team, we’ll definitely become much stronger, maybe even the strongest team in these ruins!”

“Okay, let’s do that then. We’ll search along the left ruins, try to find Penelope, and if we really can’t find her, we’ll head to the shopping center. Besides, no one knows what the situation is there, going too early might not be a good thing.” Cedric made the final decision.

“Understood!” After determining the course of action, the others responded. Although Team 4 entered late, they had seized a great initiative.

While searching along the way, the young wizards also discovered that there were actually many good things hidden in these ruins.

In some corners of houses, cabinets, and boxes, there were items that could be picked up, although most of them were non-magical.

Common items included food, water, bandages, ordinary wound medicine, and even some clothes to change into.

Occasionally, they could also find some magical items, such as healing or recovery potions, and magical charms that could be thrown like grenades.

George was very lucky to get a 'Flash Charm' that could cause temporary blindness.

At the same time, what caught their attention the most was a magical locked treasure chest that they saw in some abandoned houses.

Having discovered such a good thing, everyone naturally wanted to open one on the spot to see what was inside, but they found that the treasure chest could not be opened with an unlocking charm or by force.

On the other hand, they saw that a treasure chest along the way had already been opened. The group estimated that Penelope had done it, so they sped up their pursuit again.

Following some houses that had obviously been searched and the corpses of monsters that had been cleared away, they finally found the lone Penelope.

However, Penelope's condition didn't seem to be good.

When Cedric and his group found her, Penelope was clutching a short bone knife in her left hand and a wand in her right, sitting pale-faced in the corner of a ruined house, looking like she had suffered serious injuries.

When she saw them emerge, Penelope very sensitively pointed her wand at them, and only relaxed slowly when she saw it was them. Clearly, she had been under a lot of pressure along the way.

“You don’t look too good, are you injured?” Hermione asked caringly, rushing forward after seeing Penelope.

Although they hadn’t tracked her down with good intentions, she was still a companion they had been with day and night, so they couldn’t help but worry about her when they saw her in poor condition.

“Just a little exhausted. Be careful, there are two skeleton assassins nearby that are very good at sneaking.” Penelope coughed twice with difficulty. “Susan was knocked down by them right away. I managed to kill one of them and hid here not long ago.”

“So there’s still one skeleton assassin left. How strong is it?” Cedric handed over a bottle of tonic he had found along the way in a friendly manner.

“To describe it, their physical quality is similar to that of a third or fourth-year wizard, but they are very fast and can turn invisible. I only found a chance to kill one of them when they ambushed Susan.” Penelope shuddered inwardly when she saw the large hammer in Cedric's hand, vaguely guessing what these guys had done before.

“Haha, if that guy dares to come, I’ll make sure he’s smashed to pieces.” George patted his chest confidently, then looked curiously at the short knife in her hand. “Could it be that the prop in your hand is the equipment dropped by that assassin?”

“What? You want to take it just because I'm alone?” Penelope took a sip of the tonic in her hand and looked at him teasingly. “You didn’t just happen to appear here, did you? You chased me all the way here?”

“Don’t worry, we don’t mean you any harm.” Cedric smiled slightly. “On the contrary, we went through a lot of trouble to find you because we want to reach a cooperative relationship with you. You’re the only one left in the first team, and you should know that joining forces with us is the best solution.”

“It seems I have no other choice.” Penelope shook her head helplessly. Even if she turned hostile now, she could only take down one of them at most. Failure would probably be the only outcome.

Both Cedric's side and Penelope herself automatically ignored Ron and Malfoy, who had wandered off from the first team. Clearly, they didn't care about these two little kids.

“Okay, I can cooperate with you, but only until we see the mission objective. I can choose to terminate the cooperation at any time after entering the shopping center.” Penelope didn't waste any words and stated her terms directly.

“No problem, as long as you don’t stab us in the back. This is a gentleman's agreement between us. This is just a simulated exercise, there’s no need to make it too complicated.” Cedric smiled slightly.

“It’s a deal.” Penelope didn't think it was necessary to play tricks with them here. “What are your plans? Looking at the hammer in your hand, you must have taken care of that giant skeleton, right?”

“That’s right. After you got separated, the second and third teams entered the instance one after another. One member of the second team has already been eliminated, and the third team's situation is currently unknown. We are the slowest now, so we have to hurry to the target point.” Hermione said as she took care of Penelope and introduced the situation.

“In that case, let’s get moving.” Penelope's complexion was much better than before, and she supported herself to stand up.

“Before that, there’s something we’re curious about.” George interjected at this time. “On the way here, we saw two treasure chests that had been opened. You opened them, right? What good things were inside?”

“You mean that…” Penelope chuckled. “Opening those treasure chests requires a prop called ‘Universal Key.’ They can be found on some monsters, and occasionally when searching rooms.”

“As for what’s inside, they are indeed good things, but this is my secret. If you want to know, you have to exchange other information.” Penelope knew very well that they were competitors, so she was unwilling to give anything away for free.

“We gave you a bottle of tonic for free. Even if you don’t thank us, you should at least let us know something.” Fred said unhappily, feeling that Penelope was too unkind.

“Okay, for the sake of you saving my life.” Penelope shook her head self-deprecatingly, then took out an ancient compass from her lining.

【Tracking Compass】

Mission Auxiliary Prop: This compass can point to the nearest secret location where hostages are hidden.

The description of the prop was simple and clear, but everyone saw the extraordinary nature of this prop. With it, they could grasp the whereabouts of the mission objective faster.

So after seeing this prop, the few people looked at each other in unison. They all saw the hidden joy in each other's eyes. It seemed that their choice to come to Penelope was a wise decision.

“I didn’t expect there to be such a thing as mission props.” Fred grinned in admiration. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go quickly. The victory in this practical exercise must belong to us!”

Seeing how excited the few people were, Penelope curled her lips speechlessly. These bastards completely ignored her.

After packing up, the group immediately set off, heading towards the shopping center in the deepest part.

Although they encountered many patrolling skeleton soldiers along the way, they did not see the skeleton assassin that Penelope had mentioned earlier.

The miscellaneous soldiers they encountered on the road had no power to resist in front of Cedric, who had obtained the 【Bone Giant Hammer】.

At the same time, the others also realized the importance of having equipment. Ordinary skeleton swordsmen and skeleton spearmen were basically taken care of with one hammer.

Many times, the group didn't even need to cast spells, and Cedric alone led them to the front of the shopping center.

Arriving in front of this core building, the group could see the real structure of the shopping center.

The entire shopping center was very large, almost the size of a Quidditch pitch. At the same time, there were several skeleton teams patrolling the outside of the building, and some of the skeleton cavalry were obviously elite monsters. The spears in their hands bloomed with weak magical light, and it was clear at a glance that they were alchemical equipment with attributes.

“After observing, there are three entrances to the entire shopping center, namely the main entrance in the middle and the side doors on both sides. There are 4 elite monster skeleton knights】 guarding them, one at the front and one at each of the two side doors. What should we do next?”

In an abandoned house near the shopping center, George, who had gone out to scout, returned and reported to the group in a concise manner.

“How is it? Which direction are the hostages closer to?” After understanding the general information, Cedric immediately turned to look at Penelope, who had the prop that could detect the mission objective.

“I’ve been constantly detecting on the way here. The compass shows that there are at least two groups of hostages in this shopping center. One group is concentrated upstairs in the front, roughly on the floor, and the other group is concentrated on the right, which seems to be located on the floor.” Penelope spread out the compass in her hand and observed.

“Then needless to say, the princess's location must be in the middle, otherwise there wouldn’t be two elite monsters guarding the main entrance. As for the hostages on the right, they should be another group.” Fred reasonably speculated.

“Logically speaking, it should be like this.” Hermione nodded in agreement, important hostages must be guarded in the most heavily guarded place.

“Then shall we enter from the right?” Terence asked tentatively. “After all, there’s another group of hostages over there. The more we save, the more points we get.”

“Okay.” Cedric nodded, then looked at Penelope in particular. “If there are enough hostages, we can give you a few, so that at least the first team's score won’t be too bad.”

“Hehe, should I thank you then?” Penelope rolled her eyes speechlessly. She was very unhappy with the other's condescending tone.

However, Penelope didn't say anything more at this time, but lowered her head and remained silent, seemingly preparing something silently.

While the few people were discussing, a violent cloud of smoke suddenly erupted on the left side of the shopping center, and 5 wizards rushed out of the housing area towards the side door, aiming for the side door. It was Percy leading the third team.

“Oh no, those guys have also arrived at the shopping center. We have to hurry, otherwise they might get there first!” Fred shouted anxiously. To be continued

First release latest.