Chapter 44

Looking at Ma Le's back, the Persian cat muttered, "Arrogant fool!"

The Persian cat was right; Ma Le's confidence in his own strength led him to choose the main quest. Unlike ordinary adventurers, Ma Le, with his ultra-high attributes and four special talents, was not intimidated by the T-800's data. Although the Terminator was powerful, it was ultimately a machine and could not automatically recover health like an adventurer. Ma Le's Iron Fist talent had a standard attack power of 115 points, which, even after accounting for defenses, could still deal around 40 points of damage to the Terminator. Not to mention the critical damage every 15 seconds. In a real fight, Ma Le, with his recovery items, had a good chance of winning even in a direct confrontation. Moreover, robots were not as flexible and adaptable as humans, and Ma Le was confident he could take down the T-800 with minimal cost!

But what if he did take it down? The reward, though generous for a beginner, was not immediately useful to him. The skill points were of no use to him, and the attribute points were all false. Since the Terminator was a machine, it could not be absorbed, so Ma Le was not very optimistic about the reward. He thought that following the ordinary adventurers might yield greater gains.

Ma Le did not believe the ridiculous reasons given by the ordinary adventurers. He would never think that the quest system was so foolish as to give ordinary adventurers an easier task than beginners. Ma Le believed that protecting Sarah Connor would definitely involve facing enemies even more terrifying than the Terminator! However, there were no such monsters in the movie, so it was easy to guess that the threat must come from the adventurers of Hurricane City!

Ma Le preferred to face living adventurers rather than cold machines. Not only would it enrich his combat experience, but if he could absorb a strong one, the improvement would be real and substantial! As for the quest reward, it would definitely be higher for the ordinary adventurer quest. Something like the T-800 could be dealt with as a side quest later; Ma Le didn't believe that Miracle City would give no reward at all.

Thus, Ma Le followed the others and accepted the quest from the ordinary adventurers. In the end, out of the thirteen people, only the Persian cat and the woman who had repeatedly questioned Sun Wenxing did not switch to the main quest. Sun Wenxing politely asked for their reasons. The Persian cat, relying on his small and thin body, put on a childish expression and tone, saying, "I, I'm scared... What if you're bad guys..." Sun Wenxing laughed, taking it as a child's innocent words, and since he didn't think a child could be of any help, he didn't press further. However, Ma Le felt a chill in his heart, thinking that this kid was really devious...

As for the woman, she straightforwardly replied, "I'd rather face the Terminator than complete the quest by trickery!" Everyone knew that she didn't trust Sun Wenxing and his two companions.

After the discussion, eleven people, led by Sun Wenxing, accepted the task of protecting Sarah Connor, while the Persian cat and the woman chose the task of killing the Terminator. By the way, the woman's name was Snow Owl. She was tall, wearing a white shirt and black skirt, with a long braid reaching down to her waist, giving her a cold and beautiful appearance. The sniper rifle on her back suggested she was a skilled long-range killer.

Although the quests were divided into two groups, they were still fellow citizens of the same city, and their positions were against the T-800, so they didn't rush to split up. According to Sun Wenxing, they should find Sarah Connor first. Since the task of protecting Sarah had already started, if anyone from Hurricane City planned to kill her, they should have already taken action.

Walking through 1984 Los Angeles gave a strange sense of time travel, but the adventurers had no time for sightseeing. Sun Wenxing found a phone booth, opened the Yellow Pages, and discovered that there were three women named Sarah Connor in the city. According to the movie's plot, the Terminator killed two women named Sarah Connor, and the third was the female protagonist, the mother of future leader John Connor. Therefore, the adventurers didn't waste time and headed straight to the third address.

Sarah Connor lived in a shared apartment with a female colleague. When the adventurers arrived at her door, they found it already damaged. Sun Wenxing was shocked and entered the room, where he found the place in disarray with broken walls, but many valuable items were still there, indicating it wasn't a burglary. The only possibility was that the adventurers from Hurricane City had been there!

A beginner adventurer despaired, "No way, has Sarah already been killed?" Sun Wenxing shook his head, "Impossible, if she were dead, we would have received a notification!" He picked up a scattered morning newspaper from the floor, which showed the date as Wednesday. Sun Wenxing realized, "Right, it's daytime, Sarah must be at work! Our task is to protect her, and their task is to kill her. If the clues were too obvious, it would just be a race to see who acts faster, which wouldn't be fair to us! Actually, the real challenge is to see who finds Sarah's workplace first!"

The beginners understood. In the movie, Sarah was a waitress at a fast-food restaurant, and she would definitely be there at this time! Shortblade girl Molly asked the group, "Does anyone remember the name of the restaurant where Sarah worked in the movie?" Everyone shook their heads; they were all focused on the plot and didn't pay attention to such details, especially since the sign was in English.

An adventurer knocked on the door of Sarah's neighbor, but no one answered, indicating they were all out at work. Sun Wenxing sighed in disappointment, "Do we have to search each one?"

At this moment, a high school student raised his hand and said, "I remember when Sarah locked her car, there was a person holding a hamburger at the entrance of the store!" This reminded everyone, and Sun Wenxing instructed, "Alright, let's go out and ask about nearby fast-food restaurants to see which one has a person holding a hamburger at the entrance!" He then turned to the high school student and praised, "Good job!" The high school student, flattered, scratched his head and smiled shyly.

They asked a passerby for directions and found that there were two such stores in the area, in different directions. With no choice, they had to split up. The three ordinary adventurers were together, along with the Long San brothers, while the remaining seven formed another group. Before splitting up, Sun Wenxing left his adventurer number with the beginners and warned them that, apart from the Miracle Emblem scan, there was no effective way to distinguish adventurers. They should try to act like ordinary people and not act rashly upon finding Sarah Connor; they should contact him first.

After the split, the Persian cat deliberately lagged behind with Ma Le, his expression serious, and said, "Foodie, this enemy is not simple!"

Ma Le was taken aback, "Why do you say that?" The Persian cat replied, "Normally, we are the protectors, and the task is more difficult, so our spawn point should be closer to Sarah Connor's location, making it easier for us to find and control her, which would be fair. However, the other side found Sarah's residence first, which means only two possibilities!"

"Which two?" It wasn't Ma Le who spoke, but a woman with a magnetic voice. Ma Le and the Persian cat looked in the direction of the voice and saw a beautiful woman turning to smile at them. It was Snow Owl, the one with the braid, but now on the street, her iconic sniper rifle was put away.

Ma Le and the Persian cat had deliberately separated from the group to talk, and Snow Owl was about three to four meters away. In the noisy street, this woman could still hear the Persian cat's deliberately lowered voice, indicating her perception attribute was quite high.

Snow Owl had been paying attention to this seemingly innocent kid. Hearing his logical analysis, she deliberately slowed down and came to their side, interested, saying, "Tell me, tell me!"

The Persian cat snorted, glanced at her, and slowly said, "First, it means the other side is much faster than us, and consequently, their strength is also greater!"

"Not necessarily," Snow Owl questioned, "Those ordinary adventurers first integrated the beginners, wasting some time. What if the other side took advantage of that time to get there first?"

"You really like to doubt others!" Ma Le joked with Snow Owl, "But you'd better not doubt this kid, or he might call you a fool!"

"You're the fool!" The Persian cat turned to scold Ma Le but praised Snow Owl, "You're right, that's the second possibility I'm worried about. If they are also a mixed team of ordinary and beginner adventurers, with different tasks and levels, they would need to integrate. In this inter-city confrontation mode, every bit of strength should be cherished. However, if they ignored the beginners and went straight to the task, it means either they have absolute confidence in their strength, or they don't have any beginners at all!"

"How could that be?" Ma Le and Snow Owl said in unison. The Persian cat frowned, "That's what I'm most afraid of, but it's also the most likely! The T-800 is a big boss for beginners, so it doesn't make sense to assign adventurers to protect it. Therefore, the other side likely doesn't have any beginners. In this beginner's world, ordinary adventurers are unlikely to enter in large numbers, so I speculate that the other side has at most three or four ordinary adventurers. From the rules, the inter-city confrontation mode encourages killing enemy adventurers, so this adventurer ratio suggests that the system believes these few ordinary adventurers can match all of us!"

Ma Le and Snow Owl both drew a sharp breath. They were both confident in their own strength, but now they felt underestimated by the system and became more cautious about the enemy!

Snow Owl was still not convinced, "Not necessarily, what if the other side is very familiar with the movie, or they have someone who has lived in Los Angeles and knows the streets well, so they got there faster..."

The Persian cat shook his head, "Those possibilities can't be ruled out, but they are too small. And don't you find it strange that, at a time when they need to split up, those three ordinary adventurers didn't lead the beginners separately but stayed together, and the other team members they chose were the Long San brothers, concentrating the strongest forces among us. If I'm right, those three ordinary adventurers have likely made the same guess and are deeply wary of the other side's strength!"