Chapter 29 Counting the Spoils

Chapter 29: Counting the Spoils

In the square of Dongyang Lake Park, a group of people gathered around Hua Diao, sitting in a circle.

"Fairy Sister, we've finished counting everything. There are 78 gold coins, 357 silver coins, and no copper coins. Besides that, we have three packs of Super Seeds—*vitex*, *codonopsis*, and *licorice*—with ten seeds in each pack."

"Over here, I found three 'Common' grade single-use scrolls: Ultimate Ice Wall, Sea of Purgatory Flames, and Earthbind. I checked—they're all area-of-effect skills, super useful. The only drawback is they can only be used once."

"My pile has an Ebony Staff and a Spiked Club. The Ebony Staff boosts spell effects by 10% and works with all elemental spells, but only for low-tier ones. High-tier spells require upgrading the staff. The Spiked Club hits harder, with +20 attack power and a 30% critical hit rate, but it's pretty heavy. My arms got sore after just three swings."

"Here, here! Eight hot meals—rice cake hot pot, seafood claypot noodles, braised pork intestines over rice, sausage over rice, shredded pork with green peppers over rice, and two duck leg meal sets. *slurp* Oh, and besides these, there are three 25kg bags of pearl rice, three 5kg bags of glutinous rice flour, ten cream-filled buns, and twelve cans of milk."

"My side has three Health Potions that restore stamina..."

Hua Diao nodded repeatedly as she listened. Once they finished reporting, she began the distribution with a serious expression.

"I'll take two Health Potions, and the last one goes to you. The Ebony Staff is also something I need, so it's mine. As for the three single-use scrolls, I want all of them. If any of you have objections, we can discuss redistribution. For the Super Seeds, I'll take seven of each type, leaving three for you. You can try planting them with the soil from the treasure chests."

"Gold and silver coins will be split as we agreed earlier—90% for me, 10% for you. Finally, the food—I'm not short on supplies, so I'll take the eight hot meals, five cream-filled buns, and six cans of milk. The rest is yours to divide."

Eighth Brother hesitated. "This doesn't seem right. With this split, we're already getting way more than the agreed 10%."

The other youngsters nodded vigorously. "Yeah, yeah, we're getting too much."

Seeing their lack of greed, Hua Diao warmed up to them even more. The corners of her pink lips curled up as she waved a hand. "Let's just go with this. I can't carry everything back alone anyway. If you feel guilty, just share any good items you find later—or sell them to me at a discount. I see real potential in your team."

The youngsters' eyes sparkled instantly. Fairy Sister said they had potential!

Eighth Brother was a bit more level-headed. Though internally ecstatic, he fought to keep his grin under control. "Ahem, if carrying things is the issue, Fairy Sister, we can help deliver them to your place."

Hua Diao firmly declined, insisting she didn't need their help and wouldn't redistribute.

The youngsters grew anxious. They felt undeserving and kept urging her alongside Eighth Brother. Getting anything at all was already thanks to her kindness, but taking more would just make them feel worse...

And so, they began politely pushing the loot back and forth.

Not far away, behind a rockery, the four members of the Special Operations Bureau team gaped in shock.

What the hell?!

This was nothing like the scene they'd imagined—a group of reckless humans being chased by lycanthropes, screaming in terror.

And what was with all the gold, silver, items, and food spread across the ground?!

Did treasure chests really drop this much good stuff?!

What happened to chests being stingy?!

Or did they stumble upon a werewolf nest, leading to an unusually high number of chests?

But even that didn't make sense. Quantity didn't guarantee quality—plenty of people opened dozens of chests without ever getting anything valuable.

Take their team, for example. After a whole morning of hard work, they'd opened dozens of chests combined, yet scraped together less than ten gold coins. So why was there a whole pile of gold and silver gleaming here?!

Holy shit, it was blinding!

And were those Skill Scrolls?! Three of them?! Their entire Special Operations Bureau had deployed multiple squads all morning, yet only the first squad's leader had been lucky enough to find one. The rest had only heard rumors—none had actually seen one in person. Now, here they were, staring at three at once.

As for the bags of rice and claypot meals... Sorry, but their souls had already floated away with the steam rising from the food.

The sheer abundance was downright mind-blowing!

Zhao Xu swallowed hard, looking at his little brother in the distance with newfound admiration mixed with envy.

Envy—because the brat had somehow struck gold.

Admiration—because all those years of drilling the "Eight Honors and Eight Shames" into him hadn't been wasted. Sure, the kid was usually lazy and obsessed with games, but at least he knew shame. Even faced with all these treasures, he'd held onto his principles and refused to take more.

From their polite negotiations, Zhao Xu had pieced together the gist: his brother and his friends were only alive because the green-dressed girl had saved them. Otherwise, he'd have arrived to find corpses.

And those treasure chests? All opened by her. Nearly all of the loot belonged to her too.

Suddenly, Zhao Xu felt a growing desire. His eagle eyes locked onto Hua Diao.

This girl had skill and luck—exactly the kind of recruit their Special Operations Bureau needed. If she joined, their item reserves might just double.

Perhaps his gaze was too intense, because Hua Diao instinctively looked up and met the eyes of the four Bureau members.

Her smile faded as she warned, "We've got company."

The youngsters around her immediately went quiet, standing up warily and turning to look.

Realizing they'd been spotted, the four behind the rockery emerged from hiding and approached.

As they drew near, their faces became visible despite the swarm of mosquitoes. Eighth Brother's wariness instantly turned to joy. "Brother! What are you doing here?"

Zhao Xu grinned and chided lightly, "It's all because of you. Mom said you'd probably come here to fight monsters, acting like you're invincible. I happened to be assigned this mission, so I came to investigate. Luckily, you're still alive and well, or Mom would've been devastated."