Chapter 9

Stay calm! Stay calm! Stay calm!

Maso slapped his face hard, splashing rainwater everywhere.

Approaching the half-orc's corpse, Maso dragged the body to the edge of the harbor embankment, tied the 'single' handed hammer back to his waist, and then unhooked the bag hanging from the rope, placing it in the large box along with the broken small box. He then tied the large box and the half-orc's corpse together with the rope.

Finally, he pushed the corpse and the box into the water.

The heavy rain would dilute the bloodstains left by the dead; the stone-paved streets of the Sea Lane District would not leave footprints; to prevent hair from being left behind, Maso even tied a cloth strip around the tail... Standing before the dead human, Maso took out a dagger and cut open the right sleeve of the human's fur robe. On the right arm of the corpse, Maso saw a tattoo of two crossed long swords.

It looked ordinary, but Maso knew this was the identity verification mark of the guerrilla knights' dispatched infiltrators—this tattoo was made with special pigments and was extremely difficult to forge. Moreover, the combat records indicated that this human was indeed a genuine dispatched infiltrator of the guerrilla knights.

Of course, Maso's character in the game did not know this, so he only received a prompt—'Respected player, your kill has shifted your alignment 4 points towards chaos.'

In the game, good and evil, law and chaos were opposing forces. There was also a neutral alignment. The player's alignment value fluctuated between 1000 and -1000. Above 500 was the lawful good alignment, 499 to 100 was sympathetic to good/lawful, 99 to -99 was neutral, -100 to -499 was leaning towards evil and chaos, and below -500 indicated a thoroughly evil or chaotic character.

Due to this kill, Maso's alignment was currently neutral (-4) and sympathetic to good (100)—the Thieves' Guild was not just a few pickpockets; their work ranged from burglary to conspiracy and assassination. In short, they did all sorts of evil deeds, so Maso's goodness value was not affected at all.

Reviewing the combat records again, Maso shook his head helplessly. He reached out to close the eyes of the guerrilla knight member, then looked around and walked towards the dark city gate.

After a while, the half-orc with a crossbow bolt still in his abdomen climbed up from the embankment of the sixth dock. He struggled to stand steady, but another crossbow bolt appeared from the darkness, piercing through the rain and nailing into the half-orc's forehead—this time, the Lady of Luck, whom the half-orc believed in, could not help him. The lifeless half-orc rolled into the sea.

...

Under the dripping eaves, standing in front of the stone trash can, Maso threw the cloth strip wrapped around his tail and the waterproof oilcloth into the trash can. He then opened the wooden stopper of the flammable resin and poured it into the trash can.

Watching the flames rise, the kitten ran back to the previous tavern.

"You're finally back. The two little girls just communicated with me, asking if you had returned to the inn," the leader, Half-Life, who was still alive, said with a smile as he drank his beer, seeing Maso enter the door.

"Achoo!" The kitten sneezed—being in the rain for a long time had made him sick. "I'm going to take a hot bath... Achoo!" Maso looked embarrassed at his leader. "Please tell Ming'en... Achoo!"

Seeing the kitten sneezing continuously, Half-Life laughed and took over what Maso wanted to say, "I'll tell them. You go take a hot bath. The bathhouse is in the back."

So Maso ran into the bathhouse—the game's bathhouse was only divided by gender, so Maso quickly jumped into the pool.

Near Paronest, there was a volcano in the sea, so the city was rich in geothermal hot springs. After soaking for a while, Maso found that his cold had disappeared without medication.

After the bath, Maso dried himself and put on his fur robe. Returning to the tavern hall, he did not find Half-Life but saw a note left by him, saying he had logged out and asked Maso to rest after the bath. There was a team activity at 4 PM the next day in game time, and he reminded Maso to remember to attend.

So Maso went upstairs and used the key given by the girls to open the door. Seeing the girls sleeping on the bed and the blanket already laid out on the floor, the kitten comfortably lay down on the latter.

...

Logging out, Maso stretched lazily and then struggled to support himself and crawl onto the floating lounge chair by the bed. While operating the floating lounge chair to take him downstairs, he began to organize his memories. The game had just started, and the average player level was around 3. Players could not leave their birth town area before level 10—moving too far from the town, players would encounter the endless fog sea. No matter how far anyone moved towards the fog sea, they would immediately see the gate of their birth town upon turning back.

It was very simple for players to make the endless fog sea disappear. They just needed to reach level 10 and complete the final task of the beginner area—the first advancement. After that, the endless fog sea would disappear—for players who completed the task, of course. Players who did not complete the task would still be blocked by the endless fog sea.

Coming down the stairs, Maso saw his grandmother—his grandmother's surname was Sulente, and she was a long-eared Xishe person, a member of the Longxi family, just like the mother of the Lin family girls. The Xishe people were a very conservative race, and Maso also felt that his grandmother was a very conservative old lady. His grandfather, Pandakin, worked on the moon and rarely came home, so his grandmother usually stayed at the inn called Xicui Manor, and even the kitten had to call her the innkeeper.

But it was not the elders' fault. When his mother left home, she had a big argument with his grandmother. Bringing the kitten over was another earth-shattering event. Maso felt that the only way his mother and daughter could communicate was perhaps through the bolt-action rifle and the chainsaw sword.

But this had nothing to do with the kitten. Although the elders were conservative, they were still kind. The kitten's food, clothing, and expenses in his childhood were all paid for by the elders. Now, although the kitten slept in the attic, it was only right—during the tourist season when the guest rooms were always full, even the grandmother herself slept in the basement.

"Boss."

"Um, Maso, I heard from Suxia that the Lin family girls let you into the game, right?" The elder was wearing a white bathrobe, flipping through a virtual screen while looking at Maso.

Suxia was the cyborg attendant in the inn, the leader of the cyborg attendants. The kitten had a good relationship with this cyborg girl with pretty flaxen short hair and a somewhat quirky personality: "Yes, it was Suxia who told me about Mingmei's communication message."

"I heard you went to the Eastern Continent."

"Yes, how did you know?" The kitten blinked, curious about the elder's information-gathering ability.

"I asked Suxia to ask Ming'en." The elder smiled and then added a question, "Did you choose the bloodline inheritance?"

The kitten remembered the disappointment and helplessness on the elder's face when he answered 'no' back then, but fortunately, this time he did not have to disappoint the elder: "Yes, bloodline inheritance."

"Um." The kitten's grandmother smiled but then frowned, "But I have to say, if you want to live on the Eastern Continent, it's actually better not to choose bloodline inheritance. I think you should know why."

The elder's words warmed the kitten's heart—this was the elder, although conservative, but also kind: "It's fine. I am my mother's child and your and grandfather's descendant. Choosing bloodline inheritance is nothing, it just makes leveling up a bit harder."

"…Yes." The grandmother raised her eyebrows and sighed, "Well, but don't forget the breakfast hall opening time next time. Go eat now."

"Okay, boss, I'll go eat." The kitten nodded and then operated the floating lounge chair to move towards the dining hall. As the saying goes, eating is the most important thing in the world.

...

At the same time, in the Moon Crater One, Xu's residence.

The warrior Half-Life was his in-game name. In reality, he was called Xu Xiaoshi, with a rather poetic appearance—a beautiful young lady with red lips and white teeth, but such beauty seemed inappropriate for a man.

Of course, Xu Xiaoshi had said countless times that it was not his fault but his father's. When his father was young, he was particularly literary and even adjusted his genes to make his offspring look better, but the female doctor from Tersan overdid it.

However, Xu Xiaoshi was also grateful that his father was only literary and did not fall into the trap of ancient martial arts novels like the father of the Guo family—because Xu Xiaoshi had a childhood friend named Guo Jing, who had an average appearance, a dull expression, and was still single.

This was too tragic. After all, a hero without a girl was not a hero but an extra. Therefore, Xiaoshi and his friends affectionately called the Guo family boy an extra—when the Guo family boy had a girl, they would call him a hero.

"Extra, what do you think about the shaman the Lin family girls brought over?" Xu Xiaoshi was editing his team data while looking at his friend Guo Jing, who had a stiff face on the screen.

"Xiaoshi, you should remember the Lin family girls said they were classmates. So I looked up the list of their childhood classmates, which is public school information. I can responsibly tell you that the little cat person is called Maso," said Guo Jing, who was stiff-faced, taking a sip of coffee, "Maso from the Sufi family, who received gene completion treatment at the public hospital in Crater One half a month ago... The treatment was very expensive, and I find it hard to imagine that Aunt Sufi, who broke out of the family, had such financial means. It might have been the kitten's grandmother who paid for it."

"…Maso from the Sufi family, Maso from the Sufi family…" Xu Xiaoshi suddenly laughed, "So Aunt Sufi's child, no wonder his face looks familiar."

"Yes, his identity is so public, I don't think it will be a secret in the guild for long," Guo Jing put down his coffee cup and said, "Some of those guys have more channels than we do."

"Right, the kitten's grandfather's public identity is scary, but Aunt Sufi broke out of the family early… Extra, do you remember that New Year's banquet?" Xu Xiaoshi calmly shook his finger at his friend on the screen, "I think this kitten's background is very strange."

"Of course, how could I forget? When we were young, before the New Year's banquet started, we sneaked into the backyard and saw Aunt Sufi with a big belly… That scene, I think I will remember it for life." Guo Jing leaned back in his lounge chair, the young man in pajamas recalling. He clearly remembered in the separate living room in the backyard, a group of cat people bowed to her… There was no greeting, the cat people just bowed in silence, and hundreds of high-status and high-identity cat people paid their respects to an Earth woman in silence.

"Aunt Sufi should not have the right to receive such a grand salute from the cat people, so the only possibility is the child in her belly, the now limping child… has such qualifications," said Xu Xiaoshi.

"Yes, but I'm also curious, if this kitten really has such a noble identity, why did he only receive treatment for his legs today, and I think the innkeeper at Xicui Manor, although strict, is still a kind person who likes children. The last time we went to play, my brother received a lot of care from her, a person who really likes children," Guo Longtai frowned and asked.

"I've heard that this kind of genetic defect requires the child to grow and stop changing in size before surgery can be performed… It must have been hard for this child," said Xu Xiaoshi, suddenly feeling a bit sorry for the kitten. A child who could not run around and could only watch, yet remained so optimistic and cheerful, must have had a tough time.

"Yes, if it were my legs that couldn't move, I would have gone crazy long ago," Guo Longtai, who could not figure out the kitten's identity, could only sigh, "Xiaoshi, we can guess all we want, but we probably won't get an answer until the next civilization. So I'm going to log in and check the weather, by the way, Xiaoshi, are the potions for the new dungeon ready?"

"The guild leader said they are on the way. What can we do, we're the sixth elite team, get used to it… Wait, Longtai." Stopping his friend who was about to put on the game helmet, Xu Xiaoshi frowned, "Don't cause trouble for that kitten… You know what I mean, right?"

"Understood." Guo Jing nodded forcefully, "Besides, I'm not going to pursue those two little girls, so why cause trouble for him and myself? Safety first."

"Log in… By the way." Xu Xiaoshi sighed, the young man adjusting his mood and looking at his friend on the screen, "Longtai, find the guild leader and tell him our conditions."

"Got it."

As the screen went black, the young man in his home in Moon Crater One, welcoming the black day, focused his attention on the photo frame in his hand. After staring at the six young men and women in the photo, standing, sitting, or squatting, for a long time, a sigh escaped his lips.

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