Disaster Strikes - Chapter 65:

The next day.

As dawn just began to break, Chen Mo, full of energy, got out of bed.

After washing up, he looked at himself in the mirror.

Wearing the major’s military cap and one eye-dragon’s eye patch, dressed in golden silkworm clothing, deer leather boots on his feet and holding a psychic ball he looked somewhat mismatched.

Fortunately, when on missions, the disaster world would make some adjustments to his appearance to make it less conspicuous.

Even so, Chen Mo still couldn’t stand the look of the eye patch. After some thought, he took it off and wore it as a wrist guard instead.

As expected, the effect of the eye patch accessory did not disappear, confirming that as long as the accessory is worn on the body, it will exert its effects.

That made sense. If one were to acquire a ring accessory, would it specify which finger it should be worn on?

From this, it wasn’t hard to understand the mechanism of wearing equipment—at least, accessories didn’t have specific requirements on where they should be worn.

He then checked his storage space. 14 medical bandages, 7 recovery potions, and 1 small green potion.

Besides what he bought himself, there were also items given to him during his time in the Hive World by Tian Tian.

He now had 60 points left.

Of these, 50 points would be used to pledge for a grey contract to join a temporary squad and the remaining 10 points could be used to purchase an energy stone, just in case.

After all, he had traded away two energy stones just to tease the vendor selling Level 3 golden silkworm clothes.

With this in mind, Chen Mo left the apartment and immediately went to the plaza, where he casually bought an energy stone from a stall.

Prompt: Your Disaster Contribution Points -10.

After placing the energy stone into his storage space, he then headed to the Justice Area.

Under the huge balance scale, hundreds of people gathered, men and women, of various appearances, bustling with activity.

Most of them were holding signs with their conditions for joining a team or looking for teammates and many undeterred by fatigue, shouted their conditions loudly. It was quite lively.

Chen Mo was not in a hurry to find a suitable team but instead squeezed into the crowd and connected with the Justice Area’s light brain system.

“Query the requirements for forming a small team.”

Prompt: There are two types of squads, temporary and fixed. Which one would you like to inquire about?

“Query the requirements for forming a temporary squad.”

Prompt: To establish a temporary squad, members must be of the same level, not exceeding Level 3 and then pledge Disaster Contribution Points in the Justice Area to establish a grey contract. The pledge can be 50 points, 500 points, or 5000 points. All members must return to the disaster world before the points can be retrieved, otherwise, the pledged points will be deducted.

The information from the light brain data chip was exactly the same as the information Chen Mo had collected.

However, in some ways, the disaster world was indeed cunning!

It would exploit the accumulations of natural disasters in various ways. Not only would all items, including those in storage spaces, be reclaimed upon the death of a natural disaster, but these temporarily pledged points must also be a considerable “income” for it.

For natural disasters, the more points pledged in a temporary squad’s grey contract, the more trust exists among the members. In this sense, the disaster world undoubtedly benefits.

But a grey contract is still just a contract. Once the interests faced by the contractors exceed the pledged points, then it’s time to test human nature.

Given Chen Mo’s current situation, he could only choose to pledge 50 points. This was the common amount pledged by Level 1 natural disasters when forming temporary squads.

After a moment of thought, Chen Mo continued, “Query the requirements for establishing a fixed squad.”

Prompt: To establish a fixed squad, members must be of the same level and meet any one of the following conditions:

1, matching titles;

2, common professions;

3, unified features;

4, team contract.

After forming a fixed squad, the team members will receive

1, attribute bonuses;

2, group space;

3, team skills;

4, penalties for leaving the team;

5, joint penalties for member deaths.

Chen Mo looked at the light brain data chip screen, considering each conditions for establishing a fixed squad.

Firstly, the condition of matching titles. This was something Chen Mo understood. It was a way encouraged by the disaster world for natural disasters to form squads, acting as a random benefit, grouping names with certain associations together, like Zhang San and Li Si.

Looking beyond the surface. As most natural disasters’ names are chosen by their elders, and these names usually have connections to the elders’ experiences, ideals, and lives, thus imbued in their descendants, it makes sense that descendants with similar names might also share certain characteristics, making it plausible for them to form a squad.

As for the requirement of common professions, it is similar to an all-assassin lineup of a killer group or an all-gunman lineup of a war group.

Such squads, due to having the same profession, can be extremely powerful in suitable combat areas, but they may also be wiped out in unfavourable conditions. Thus, their potential is very high, capable of creating miracles but also prone to disasters.

Regarding unified features, the situation is more complex and Chen Mo found it harder to determine the standards.

“Query the requirements for establishing a fixed squad with unified features.”

Prompt:

1, possessing a similar talent in a specific attribute.

2, possessing the same attribute skills.

3, all having a certain congenital disability feature.

4, all being members from other gathering places.

5, all having once held a certain public office in a gathering place.

“Uh?”

Chen Mo carefully considered these five conditions, finding them quite unique, although the other conditions were understandable. However, the fourth condition, requiring all members to come from other gathering places, puzzled him.

“Query methods to leave a gathering place.”

Prompt:

1, Promote to a Level 4 Disaster Lord, and you can join any gathering place at will.

2, Protected by a God, you can join any gathering place at any time.

3, Thrice receiving special attention from the light brain data chip system as a natural disaster, you can join any gathering place at will.

4, Pay the corresponding disaster level * number of task worlds * 300 points, you can leave your current gathering place.

Prompt: The points in the natural disasters’ data chip are only valid within their own gathering place and cannot be traded with natural disasters from other gathering places. Also, they are not supported by other gathering place disaster portals to enter task worlds.

With this information from the light brain data chip, Chen Mo finally had a basic understanding.

The conditions to leave a gathering place were quite stringent and regarding the third condition, being thrice noticed by the light brain data chip system meant that the natural disaster had to complete tasks three times with a disaster evalution rating over 100, the difficulty of which goes without saying.

However, Chen Mo was just curious and queried casually. After all, he was just getting to know the River of Sorrow gathering place, he had just started to establish personal relationships here and had no irreconcilable enemies, so there was no need to consider leaving this place.

With that thought, Chen Mo looked at the conditions for establishing a fixed squad through a team contract. This was the method Chen Mo most hoped to use to establish a squad.

He remembered seeing a green-quality Three Musketeers contract at a vendor’s stall in the square before, selling for 500 points.

The contract’s content was simple.

The main attributes of the three members +3, if a member dies, all other members’ attributes -15%, access to a common space and the team skill was Vengeance Oath, which could designate someone as the avenger. After leaving this world, wherever they encountered this person, all members would receive a damage boost of +30.

Since he was preparing to establish a squad through a contract as the team captain, Chen Mo naturally had to prepare the team contract.

As Chen Mo paid attention, he indeed noticed some team contracts.

Similar to the Three Musketeers contract, the contracts sold in the square were mostly of white quality or green quality. Chen Mo had only seen one blue-quality contract, named the Small Mount Meru Five Elements Contract, requiring five people to team up. The team skill was basic damage of elemental spells +5, which was quite powerful and practical, but the price was a hefty 1200 points.

Chen Mo knew that in the justice area, a basic contract known as the White Contract was sold, priced at, team members * 100.

With this in mind, he said, “Query the attributes of the White Contract.”

Prompt: White Contract.

Quality: White.

Usage requirement: Members of the same level.

Item attributes:

1, Team captain all attributes +1.

2, Team captain can specify the number of members joining the contract.

3, After a team member’s death, other members’ main attributes -5%.

4, Access to team common space.

Item description: This is a cheap contract designed by the disaster world’s Abyssal Dark God, highly popular and pursued by the disaster world’s great disaster lords.

“Cheap contract?” Seeing this, Chen Mo couldn’t help but scoff. This White Contract was anything but cheap.

If planning to establish a five-member squad, just buying this contract would cost 500 points, nearly equivalent to other natural disasters’ green-quality contracts, and yet this contract didn’t even include a team skill, true to its white-quality status.

However, it wasn’t to say that the White Contract was completely useless.

At least its penalty severity was quite appropriate, merely reducing 5% of the main attributes, making the penalty just right, difficult to abandon yet within an acceptable range.

Thus, the team captain responsible for purchasing the contract, after establishing the squad, would receive an all attributes +1 reward, making recruitment much simpler. The penalty severity was enough to deter malevolent thoughts, maintaining sufficient trust among the members, without worrying about other members’ deaths causing unbearable costs.

(End of Chapter 65)