Bai Ye pondered for a moment and said, "You intend for me to go in and help you bring the person out?"
Gao Ming nodded, "Yes."
Bai Ye asked, "What benefits do you plan to offer me?"
Gao Ming was taken aback, "Huh?"
Bai Ye stated, "As I said, this matter has nothing to do with me. I provided the intelligence, and the intelligence was correct. It's your problem if you can't handle the forbidden zone, and it's also your problem if you can't defeat the Cang Long Hui. If you want me to work, you need to show sincerity."
Gao Ming scratched his head. This answer... was a bit unexpected.
From Bai Ye's words, it seemed he was willing to act but wanted compensation.
Gao Ming cautiously asked, "Aren't you at odds with the people from Cang Long Hui?"
"Correct," Bai Ye replied, "but that's no reason for me to be your sacrificial lamb."
Gao Ming pondered. He considered the information to be half good and half bad. The good news was that Bai Ye's willingness to act meant he wasn't affiliated with Cang Long Hui, and this was truly an unexpected situation. Furthermore, this was the first time Bai Ye had directly admitted to having enmity with Cang Long Hui. The bad news was that Gao Ming didn't know what benefits to offer; his guild leader hadn't specified.
Gao Ming thought for a moment and said, "I need to report to our guild leader."
Bai Ye smiled, "Alright!"
Having interacted with him more, Bai Ye had a decent understanding of Gao Ming. Gao Ming was capable, pragmatic, and not foolish, but he had a flaw: he truly wouldn't take initiative. Simply put, Gao Ming lacked the ability for self-decisive action. Any hesitation meant he had to find Stenson. People like him could accomplish tasks, but not great deeds.
"By the way," Bai Ye added, "tell your guild leader something for me. If I act, it won't just be about bringing the person back."
Gao Ming looked confused, "What do you mean?"
Bai Ye declared, "I'll break through all three layers."
Gao Ming was surprised, "Are you serious?"
The virtual game forbidden zone that Bai Ye provided was similar to a dungeon-crawling game. The first layer offered blue-quality items, the second layer yielded black-quality items, and the third layer could yield red-quality items. Moreover, defeating the boss of each layer marked the completion of that layer, and each person could bring back three items. The boss of the third layer was already difficult. Bai Ye had previously warned Gao Ming. Now, to break through meant not only defeating the boss but also confronting Cang Long Hui, significantly increasing the difficulty.
Bai Ye stated, " I never enter a forbidden zone empty-handed. Do you think I'm there for sightseeing?"
"This..." Gao Ming hesitated for a moment and said, "Please wait!"
Bai Ye nodded, "Go ahead!"
After hanging up the call, Bai Ye hummed a tune and started heading towards the area he had told Gao Ming about. Bai Ye was absolutely confident that Stenson would agree. If Cang Long Hui was also aiming for the third layer, they would undoubtedly send experts. Therefore, if it was a matter of sacrificing a pawn to save the king, Stenson might not pay too high a price. However, if the goal was to break through, not only would everyone receive three blue, three black, and three red items, directly boosting their strength, but they could also strike a blow against Cang Long Hui. Stenson would definitely go all out. The current issue was what price Stenson could afford and how much courage he possessed.
About fifteen minutes later, the communication device rang again.
"Hello!" Bai Ye answered the call and asked, "Have you thought it through?"
Gao Ming replied, "First, we currently have a total of seven people in the virtual game. Our guild leader's intention is to add four more people to your party, making it twelve, which is the maximum team size for tackling the third layer boss."
"Second, regarding compensation, our guild leader has proposed three options. The first option is that after clearing the third layer, excluding what you obtain yourself, you will receive half of the total items we acquire."
"The second option is that you provide information, and the Evil Spirit Guild will spare no effort to help you find a specific item."
"The third option is that our guild leader is willing to increase the price."
Bai Ye responded, "I'm not interested in the first and second. What does the third option entail?"
A large pile of red-quality items was indeed quite tempting. Bai Ye had to admit that Stenson was truly willing to spend. However, Bai Ye knew that the situation for the Evil Spirit Guild was dire. Seven people? That was a joke! Bai Ye had previously told Gao Ming the team size limit for each layer. If the Evil Spirit Guild was sending people, they would surely send them in groups of twelve. Having only seven people indicated that five had been eliminated by Cang Long Hui. In such a scenario, let alone finding that item, even clearing the third layer with the remaining seven would be a struggle, and they might even encounter Cang Long Hui again. Therefore, it was a case of a desperate measure. If Bai Ye could succeed, he would at least get half the items.
The problem was that Bai Ye no longer found red-quality items particularly appealing. Here, "appealing" didn't mean that red-quality items no longer enhanced Bai Ye's strength. In an environment where acquiring a single black-quality item brought joy, and possessing red-quality items could elevate one to the ranks of experts, red-quality items still offered improvement for Bai Ye. However, this improvement was marginal. Bai Ye's strength was sufficient to overwhelm most people. Contests between top experts depended more on their ultimate combat power. For instance, if Bai Ye were to fight Li Jia Yi, would the deciding factor be who had more red-quality items? Of course not. It would be about whose primary combat items and abilities were stronger. Was Li Jia Yi's Immeasurable Empty Space more terrifying, or was Bai Ye's Thunder-Thunder Fruit more earth-shattering? To put it more directly... a pile of red-quality items could significantly raise Bai Ye's baseline. But Bai Ye's baseline was already not low, so how much of a difference would a significant increase make? Bai Ye wanted to raise his ceiling!
As for the second option, it was also quite tempting but seemed like an empty promise. Regardless of whether the Evil Spirit Guild would renege, with Bai Ye's pragmatic nature, anything not yet obtained was classified as junk, let alone something he couldn't even see.
Gao Ming wasted no words, indicating they had chosen the third option. "Our guild leader has an item called..."
"Holy hell!" Bai Ye's pupils instantly widened, and he exclaimed, "Are you kidding me? You guys managed to get something like that?"
Gao Ming replied, "Wish Task!"
Bai Ye retorted, "Are you fooling me? Current Wish Tasks can't yield that kind of item. If you get a Wish Task that can produce gold-quality items, you wouldn't be able to complete it."
Gao Ming said, "Yes, so we used a Wish Stone."
Bai Ye was momentarily speechless. This was plausible. Wish Stones involved gambling on luck because the wish task content was random. If lucky, one could indeed get a Wish Task with a very high reward ceiling.
Bai Ye continued, "But it's still very difficult. You couldn't have directly wished for this item."
"Correct, so we had to gamble again," Gao Ming explained. "First, we used a Wish Stone to wish for content that allows for Wish Task rewards with no quality limitations. However, you generally can't directly wish for gold-quality or even super-quality items, as there are restrictions on wishing. This is where a little trick comes in."
Bai Ye asked curiously, "What trick?" Bai Ye was genuinely curious. He had spent ten years in his past life and participated in countless Wish Tasks. Were there still tricks he didn't know about?