Chapter 1498: Chapter 1498: The ‘Standards’ for a Legend Rating?

Why is the side quest always 0.5 higher than the main storyline in plots?

He Ao looked at the ‘Legend’ evaluation, somewhat bewildered.

According to the experience he summarized from completing side quests before.

The evaluation standard for side quests should be based on his final influence on the opposing forces.

In some sense, did he indeed have a slightly greater impact this time than the last?

So is there no requirement for the legend-level evaluation?

Or perhaps he somehow met the requirement for the side quest, but didn’t realize it?

As he pondered, He Ao’s gaze continued downward.

[Calculating Hidden Task Evaluation for you…]

[Hidden Task Evaluation: Perfect (10)]

[Generating comprehensive evaluation interface for you, please wait.]

It seems there was no mistake in his judgment this time, although the process was a bit complicated, he managed to maintain the evaluation.

He Ao exhaled a breath.

As the difficulty of the tasks increases, the difficulty of completing hidden tasks also seemingly increases.

Now it’s time for the specific evaluation. Let’s see if there are additional evaluation rules for the legend.

A faint purple frame appeared in He Ao’s field of view.

[Main Task Evaluation:

The darkness engulfs the road in the night, and thick fog covers the hearts of the bewildered.

The monarch is bound in the palace, the Divine Being hangs in the firmament.

You traverse the flame-ridden land like a fiery meteor lighting up the night sky.

The bewildered follow your footsteps, the wanderers find their direction to advance.

The hope of people’s hearts is a shattered mirror, while you make them shine anew.

The ancient immortals carry out your strategy, even the immortal Divine Being follows your plan.

Conspiracies from history are completely ended under your hands, arrogant usurpers offer their blood to your sword.

You found a way to break the deadlock filled with crises, and under an unbeatable curtain, found the opportunity to tear it apart.

The immortals marvel at your wisdom, and the Divine Being is in awe of you.

The bards compose ancient odes, but they cannot exhaust a lifetime to narrate your legend.

All the heroes of the world try to grasp the reins of history, but only you have written the direction of history.

Destiny is the pen in your hand, drawing the inescapable tracks for history.

As the first ray of Dawn falls, people in the night begin to sing; these are the marks you left across time.

Miracles make heroes revered by humanity, and you are the miracle itself.

The world praises your name as they do the light and dew.

This is the epic poem you left in history.]

[Main Task Evaluation: Epic (8.5)]

[Main Task Settlement Exchange Star: ★★★★★★★☆]

The usual protocol, Miracle, Destiny, Epic, three keywords.

These should be the standard keywords for an epic evaluation.

The system is good at complimenting, but there aren’t too many keywords.

The only thing worth noting is that the ‘usurper’ in the evaluation refers to Di Man?

Is the system’s evaluation of Di Man ‘usurper’?

He Ao chewed over this word, his gaze continued downward.

Exchange stars, rated at seven and a half?

Is it really a score reduced by one? So brutal? Or is it just the epic evaluation that scores one less?

The epic evaluation maintains the basic principles of the past, so what about the legend evaluation? Will there be something new?

He Ao lowered his head, continuing to gaze at the changing text in his field of view.

The ‘Legend’ side quest evaluation gradually revealed itself.

[Side Quest Evaluation:

From chaos and ignorance, to brilliant glory, the Federation has journeyed through more than seven hundred years.

Every era has its heroes, every history has its legends.

Moon rises and sun sets, morning shines and dusk rains, the light in this world is hard to last, and the darkness in this world is not eternal.

The night is the shadow of sunlight, despair is the precursor of hope.

When the world’s history enters obscurity, and the souls in the world step into the night.

All stories seem to face change.

Ains is the center of the Federation, it is the peak of the Federation’s power, and also a microcosm of the Federation.

Beneath the rushing skyrail lie the homeless and lost.

On the streets of Order lurk shadows waiting to act.

Passengers on the skyrail do not neglect the wanderers beneath it.

The monarchs of the old days seeking Order were not unaware of the darkness beneath Order.

The lights shine brightly in the ancient castle, there dances the endless ball’s tune, flowing like water with fine wine and delicacies.

Some take it for granted, some have natural assumptions, some silently gaze.

You came here, unveiled the curtain beneath the highbrow music, exposed the corners beneath the skyrail.

Thus, the era’s storms are stirred at this moment, and the ever-present Order is cracked.

Sounds of chaos emanate from the darkness, curses, applause, murmurs.

But more are silent, those who are voiceless in darkness simply quietly gaze at the light in the darkness.

So you grasped the reins of history.

From the depths of the world comes a sharp screech, it is you taming the era.

The sharp sword is your whip, history is your reins, fate is your boots.

From the light of the East Coast to the turmoil of the West Coast.

From the snow of the Northern Country to the fiery waves of the Southern Country.

Invisible winds rise in the darkness, carrying sparks that scatter far.

Thus, the heavens and earth light up, turning the earth into a brilliant starry sky.

The night is illuminated by the sparks, a silent storm brews within.

The heavens and earth nurture awe, as the Divine Being casts its gaze.

Then, you raise your sword and head toward the darkness.

The earth lights up, and even the immortal Divine Being is driven by you.

Your sword shreds the prelude to the storm, halting the rising weaponry of the earth.

Winds rise, clouds fall, the sun rises, the moon descends.

Your mark is left upon the realm, marking an era that has changed.

No matter where the new world heads, you remain one of the architects of the new era.

The story of civilization shall alternate in history, when seas dry and fields change, when mountains turn to sand, and time takes away every name.

But you, still engraved in civilization, becoming an eternal legend.]

[Side Quest Evaluation: Legend (9)]

[Side Quest Settlement Exchange Star: ★★★★★★★★☆]

He Ao carefully read through the words in the evaluation.

Although they are as beautiful as ever, he faintly sensed that this time the system’s direction of description seems different.

To be precise, the ‘entry point’ is different.

In previous side quest evaluations, the system often started by describing the situation of the city where the dungeon world was located, and then, depending on the situation, occasionally addressed the state of the Federation.

But this time, the system’s entry point was from the start — ‘the Federation’.

Moreover, the evaluation this time, while describing the events of this dungeon world, seems to also somewhat mention things He Ao did before.

Does the ‘Legend’ indeed have some hidden rules?

This event, what is the core difference compared to previous dungeons?

Participating in the Federation’s political struggle?

But in the last dungeon world, he was also involved in the political struggles of the Federation.

If you don’t count the participation of the Gray Stone Palace, he had actually been involved in the Federation’s political struggles from a much earlier time.

However, even then, with Gray Stone Palace’s direct involvement, the rating was only 7.5.

So being involved in the Federation’s political struggles was not the only difference.

So what is the biggest change this time?

He Ao gazed at the text in the evaluation, his eyes settling on the last few lines of words, on those newly appearing ‘terms’.

Era?

This dungeon world did something that changed the era?

Countless thoughts turned in He Ao’s mind, and quickly, he realized what had actually happened.

War!

If Di Man’s plan succeeded, the consortium could start a war against Dawn City in the name of Paxiu assassinating the President, completely obliterating the changes brought by Dawn City and ‘K’s influence.

In that case, was his plan a success?

He Ao vaguely realized.

According to the system’s narrative, the biggest significant ‘change’ he could think of was that he stopped the consortium’s plan for internal war this time.

In other words, the old director ultimately carried out his arrangements and plans against the large consortium centered around the Kewort Group.

It’s even possible that the ‘new president’ was also involved in this.

Of course, Christos surely understood these things too, and there was certainly his role in fanning the flames.

Only when these core consortium forces suffered heavy losses would they temporarily retract their claws and retreat to lick their wounds, abandoning their plans for attack.

Sometimes, attack is the best defense.

Although the consortium is likely not to abandon their original plan, even if the Kewort Group is gone, there will probably be other consortiums stepping out, attempting to exterminate the forces influenced by Christos and ‘K’.

But based on the current development speed of Christos and the Nolanka Group, as long as time drags on, the gap between them and the consortium will become smaller and smaller.

By the time the consortium is ready again, Christos and the Nolanka Group will not be as easy to deal with as now.

He Ao knows that with the few years of development that Christos and the Nolanka Group have had, it’s impossible to contend against the old consortiums with centuries of accumulation banding together.

The extraordinary items stored in the warehouses of these old consortiums may be far more than those in the Federation’s warehouses.

If it weren’t for this incident being exposed this time, who would have known that the Kewort Group was still hiding a powerful extraordinary item capable of granting wishes?

Although He Ao has always been confident in Christos and the Nolanka Group, if a war starts now, even if the newly developed forces are not wiped out, they will still be severely damaged.

And this is the reason why the consortium must attempt to start this war.

According to the timeline of the dungeon world, Christos is about to go through the election cycle.

Eliminating Christos before the election would allow them to immediately support a new pro-consortium Mayor that very year, all through ‘legitimate procedures’.

This would even avoid the situation of Christos’s designated heir continuing to confront them, allowing them to wipe out Christos and his political legacy in one fell swoop.

The timing chosen by the consortium is the most advantageous for them.

And from the system’s evaluation, the system might also think so.

Furthermore, there’s another hidden line in the system evaluation: If He Ao did not participate in this event, stop the consortium from starting a war, Christos and the Nolanka Group would most likely lose.

No matter how much ‘K’ accumulated before, it would all be severely damaged in one blow.

This is the world line without ‘He Ao’, this is the world line the Federation was originally supposed to follow.

After all, without He Ao, the entire Federation, the only one capable of stopping the consortium from starting a war was the old President.

This is also the reason why the old President had to be the first to die.

If the consortium succeeded this time, in the long period afterward, they would definitely guard tightly, forbidding the spread of Christos’s ideas and preventing new Christos and Nolanka Groups from emerging.

They might even prevent someone like the old President from becoming President again.

Then for a long time, the Federation would struggle to change.

The era of the consortium will be maintained for a longer period.

Previously, the things He Ao did could trigger some small changes, but not enough to say that the entire era had changed.

But this time, it was truly whether to do or not do, that determined the Federation’s fate moving towards two completely different world lines.

So, is this the judgment standard for the ‘Legend’ evaluation? Or rather, the judgment standard for the side quest ‘Legend’ evaluation?

Previously, side quests emphasized the influence on opposing forces, the influence on the Federation.

And this extremity of influence, is it changing the ‘era’?

Is it a clear change, with the result of ‘changing history’ immediately visible?

Only by reaching this standard can one be evaluated as ‘Legend’?

Then what is the ‘Legend’ standard for the mainline quests?

No clues.

Gathering his thoughts, He Ao glanced at the Exchange Star for the side quest.

Eight and a half stars.

Goodness, that’s one more than the mainline quest.

It’s worth noting that in the last dungeon world, the side task scored 0.5 more than the main task, with the main task scoring 7 and the side task scoring 7.5, but the side task earned less than half a star than the main task.

This time, the side task actually increased by one whole star; coming and going like this, the gap was now a star and a half.

So, the Exchange Stars given really differ according to the evaluation level?

The exchange level greatly upgrades from Epic to Legend?

He Ao glanced down, continuing to look at the Hidden Task Evaluation.

[Hidden Task Evaluation:

It’s often said that adversity reveals a person’s character and that disaster can forge a person’s tenacious spirit.

But perhaps no one in this world would willingly endure a painful disaster.

To those who survived disaster, they might prefer to be an ordinary person, without a particularly notable character, but living happily without experiencing disaster.

As the next Leader of the tribe, he originally had many grand ambitions.

He once dreamed of uniting the wasteland near Denno City under the leadership of the tribe, establishing a large Wilderness Wanderer organization, making those in the city envious of their lives.

He once dreamed of building towering walls, keeping disasters and dangers outside the tribe, so the tribe’s children wouldn’t be troubled by curses and diseases.

He had also dreamed of traveling around the entire Federation with his wife, seeing if the Northern Borders’ ice and snow were really as bone-chilling as the legends say, seeing if the Storm Sea was as fierce and unpredictable as rumored.

He once had a life filled with happiness, beautiful hopes, and grand dreams.

But all of this completely vanished overnight.

On countless nights, he seemed to return to the past, hearing the gradually fading laughter and cheers.

He often pondered what is the most enduring thing in this world, hatred or time.

He knew he didn’t really want to assassinate the President.

He knew there were still many doubts about this event.

But he had no choice; the greatest original sin in the world was weakness.

Whether it was the Dark Lizard or some other mastermind behind the scenes, he could not even reach out to touch them.

The only opportunity he could grasp for revenge was the assassination of the President.

At first, he thought, even if he was being someone else’s pawn, it actually didn’t matter that much to him.

After all, he was long alone in this world.

But when he really had to pull the trigger, he hesitated.

If all the information he received was false, if all the evidence he thought he had was just a mirage.

Should he still go through with assassinating the President?

He didn’t know; he was just a weak mortal, and he had no choice.

In his moment of hesitation, the President had already been shot, and those protecting the President had already reached him.

He realized that he had had no choice from the very beginning.

Even if he didn’t fire, the President would still die, and he would still become that ‘assassin’.

The great figures had already written the script for him, and he could only follow what was written to perform.

Just as he could only be a dog for the Kewort Group, to exchange for a slim chance of survival for the tribe.

Just as no matter whether he cared or not, the Dark Lizard would still kill all his relatives and friends.

Just as no matter what choice he made, he would ultimately, due to various ‘reasons’, find himself at the assassination site, becoming the ‘assassin’.

He knew he was not content.

But what qualifications does a mortal have to be discontent?]

[Hidden Task Evaluation: Perfect (10)]

[Hidden Task Settlement Exchange Stars: ★★★★★★★★]