novelraw Chapter 239: Leader BUFF
Chapter 239: Leader BUFF
["Family Member Li Yue completed her captain-tier Monthly Main Task this month. She earned 500 Contribution points, bringing her cumulative total to 1,100. She has successfully been promoted to Family Elder."]
["Family Member Liang Yuzhi completed her captain-tier Monthly Main Task this month. She earned 500 Contribution points, bringing her cumulative total to 900."]
["Family Member Leon completed his main task this month, earning 200 Contribution points. Cumulative total: 654."]
["Family Member Thomas completed his main task this month, earning 200 Contribution points. Cumulative total: 750."]
["Official Camp Member Zhang Jinjun completed his main task this month. Cumulative total: 375."]
["Official Camp Member Zhao Xuanxuan completed her main task this month. Cumulative total: 325."]
["Head of Household Li Wei will continue in his position. The lingering effects of the Dictator BUFF have fully dissipated. However, the Head of Household still holds considerable authority and prestige. Because he has never been removed from office, from this point forward, unless he is ousted from the Head of Household position, the current camp will passively receive the Leader BUFF."]
["Friendly reminder: Under the Leader BUFF, any leave of absence claimed due to illness or injury must receive the Head of Household's approval. Additionally, no Family Member may deviate from the current main mission line to pursue unrelated activities without first notifying the Head of Household — doing so will trigger a mandatory Impeachment (emergency situations are exempt). Furthermore, no Family Member may privately collude in an attempt to use popular sentiment to hijack the monthly mission line. If the Head of Household determines that collusion has occurred, he will have one opportunity per month to declare a Camp Emergency State, hold the colluding parties accountable, and initiate an Impeachment at month's end."]
["Friendly reminder: The maximum Contribution cap for the current family has increased to 14,500 points. The family's current total accumulated Contribution is 12,004 points."]
—Well, well.
Ranked third.
That was a fast climb.
Li Wei felt a flash of satisfaction — but didn't let himself get carried away. Because the evidence clearly showed that other pioneering branches must have similar underground bases nearby. Everyone started with roughly the same conditions. He'd just happened to crack open an underground base this month and scored a massive haul of Pioneering Points. Maybe other branches hadn't found theirs yet.
Right.
No room for arrogance.
Just then, a breeze drifted in, carrying with it a somewhat blackened, mold-spotted, heavily damaged A4 sheet of paper. What was going on — this was only the third month, and the paper already looked like this? There were still over two years left. Would it eventually be replaced by parchment?
Li Wei snatched the battered sheet out of the air and found that the Pioneering Points leaderboard on it now listed only fourteen branches.
What?
What happened?
Didn't that mean one department had already been effectively eliminated?
Li Wei was mildly curious. Things were in a stable development phase right now — what had that eliminated team done to fail their mission? Not his problem, of course.
He scanned the rest of the rankings.
First place this month was still Zhao Kewu from the Tactics Department, with a cumulative total of 258 Pioneering Points. His monthly haul was 120 — actually 8 fewer than Li Wei's group.
Socrates from the Resource Department held second place, with a cumulative total of 250 and a monthly score of 116.
Then came Li Wei at third, with 240.
The witch Hathaway sat in fourth, with a cumulative total of 239 and a monthly score of 109 — missing Li Wei's spot by a single point.
Ron the knight from the Logistics Department was fifth, with 238 cumulative and 110 this month — also very strong, breathing down everyone's necks.
Scar Glenn from the Commerce Department had dropped out of the top five, falling to sixth with 228 cumulative and 108 this month.
These five were all genuine heavyweights. You could tell from their scores — none of them were rushing. Each was developing steadily and methodically. And it was safe to assume that all of them had also found a natural person camp this month and brought back a significant number of survivors.
The reason Li Wei's branch had surged ahead was largely thanks to the two powerhouses, Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi.
Seventh was still Little John, with a cumulative total of 175 and a monthly score of 60 — solid but unremarkable. Clearly hadn't found any natural person base.
Not just Little John — everyone below him was the same. Monthly scores all hovering between 40 and 60.
That was effectively a full tier behind. Maybe next month they'd find a nearby natural person camp, fight their way through it, and rescue some survivors — but they'd still be a month late. And with less than two months left before the magical radiation storm arrived…
"Hff."
A gust of wind swept the blackened, moldy A4 sheet away. At this rate, next month's version might just crumble apart entirely.
Strange. What did that mean?
Li Wei didn't dwell on it. His current strength and position weren't enough to justify worrying about things that weren't his concern.
And now came the long-awaited, always-entertaining segment: Plot Kills.
When the Dictator BUFF was active, no one else had the standing to initiate a Plot Kill.
Now things were different. Everyone had been officially recognized. In theory, anyone could initiate a Plot Kill — burning another person's Contribution, dropping their ranking, and clearing up some buffer space in the process.
Your Contribution goes down, and next month I can earn more. Simple math.
As Li Wei had expected, no one was feeling generous.
["Family Elder Li Yue spent 50 Contribution points to initiate a Plot Kill against Family Member Thomas, hoping that he would sleepwalk into an Ability User's lair within the next twenty-four hours and be torn apart!"]
["Family Elder Li Yue used a Three-Star Item Card — Rally the Crowd. Unless another Family Member uses a similar Three-Star Item Card to override it, all members will cast votes in favor."]
What the — that ruthless? It's just a Plot Kill, and you're already pulling out a Three-Star Item Card?
Li Wei was stunned.
He could only look at Thomas with sympathy.
Thomas didn't have a matching Three-Star Item Card either. Give him a break — it hadn't been easy for a down-on-his-luck mercenary to claw his way to this level. He'd never had the spare coin to buy item cards that seemed useless at the time.
["Plot Kill confirmed. Six votes in favor, one against. Thomas spent 300 Contribution points to buy out of the Plot Kill. He cannot be targeted by another Plot Kill for the time being."]
So that's how it was — they were cutting off Li Wei's wings.
Li Wei's brow furrowed. This was bad. The next second, Liang Yuzhi smiled pleasantly and launched her own Plot Kill, using the same item card.
["Family Member Liang Yuzhi spent 50 Contribution points to initiate a Plot Kill against Family Member Leon, hoping that he would slip and fall into a well within the next twenty-four hours and drown!"]
["Family Member Liang Yuzhi used a Three-Star Item Card — Rally the Crowd!"]
["Plot Kill confirmed. Six votes in favor, one against. Leon spent 300 Contribution points to buy out of the Plot Kill. He cannot be targeted by another Plot Kill for the time being."]
Damn.
Wait — next up would be Zhao Xuanxuan. She'd worked herself half to death this month to accumulate 325 Contribution points. She was so close — just a hair away from being voted out entirely.
Sure enough, Li Yue launched another Plot Kill, backed by the same Three-Star Item Card, forcing Zhao Xuanxuan to buy out. Two months of hard work, and she was left with 25 Contribution points. Brutal.
Then Liang Yuzhi struck again — targeting Zhang Jinjun, who thought he'd escaped notice, with the same treatment.
Same result. Zhang Jinjun was left with 75 points.
What a one-sided massacre.
Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi had each spent only 100 Contribution points and two item cards between them — and cleanly cleared out 1,200 points of buffer space.
At this rate, could Li Wei's 8,100 points really hold steady?
In that moment, Li Wei felt a chill run down his spine. This was genuinely thorny. These veteran-tier players — they really were something else.
And this move was nearly impossible to counter. It was like high schoolers coming to a middle school to bully the kids. Wasn't that just cheating?
Well, he had to fight back.
Even if they'd just use a Three-Star Item Card to block it.
You couldn't lose face.
["Head of Household Li Wei spent 50 Contribution points to initiate a Plot Kill against Family Member Liang Yuzhi, hoping that she would succumb to overwhelming grief and longing for her loved ones within twenty-four hours, and pass away from heartbreak."]
The notification floated past. Everyone was united in righteous indignation, itching to vote unanimously.
But predictably, Liang Yuzhi gave a silent, cold smile. Kid, you're still green.
["Family Member Liang Yuzhi used a Three-Star Item Card — Above the Law. She has bought out of this Plot Kill."]
But then —
["Family Elder Li Yue used a Three-Star Item Card — The Net Closes In, overriding the previous item card's effect. The Plot Kill vote may proceed."]
Nice!
But then —
["Family Member Liang Yuzhi used a Four-Star Item Card — Absolution. She has bought out of this Plot Kill."]
And Li Yue didn't seem inclined to let her off.
["Family Elder Li Yue used a Four-Star Item Card — Exoneration Reversed, overriding the previous item card's effect. The Plot Kill vote may proceed."]
Oh, this was exactly the kind of dog-eat-dog drama he loved to watch.
This time, Liang Yuzhi gave Li Yue a long, meaningful look — and stopped fighting. Four-Star Item Cards were a little pricey even for someone at their level.
She conceded.
Votes came in one after another.
["Plot Kill confirmed. Six votes in favor, one against. Liang Yuzhi spent 300 Contribution points to buy out of the Plot Kill. She cannot be targeted by another Plot Kill for the time being."]
Excellent. At this moment, everyone was in a fine mood — with only Li Wei and Li Yue coming out as winners. No obvious transgressions meant no grounds for Impeachment.
With that, the Plot Kill battle came to a close. A total of 1,500 Contribution points had been cleared from the buffer — meaning more earnable Contribution was now available. If Li Yue made any big moves, she could close the gap with Li Wei in just one or two rounds.
Of course, it wouldn't be that easy. The Leader BUFF didn't perfectly block that possibility, but it had significantly raised the difficulty.
Slacking off in a Pioneering branch mission came with a price.
And there was no pulling a Hathaway — sneaking off to the Snow Mountains to assassinate the witch Hathaway in the dead of night. That option simply didn't exist here.