Chapter 99

The bald man hesitated for a moment. The person in front of him was dressed in fine attire, and if he were an acquaintance of Lord Viscount, he would be in trouble. "…Are you a friend of Lord Viscount?"

"No, Lord Viscount doesn't know me," Fang Yi turned his head to look at the situation on both sides of the alley and said softly, "But we have information about the murder of Lord Viscount's only son."

Viscount Vallerel, sitting behind the desk, exuded a gloomy aura. His meticulously combed hair was neatly plastered to his scalp, making him appear somewhat rigid. Fang Yi lowered his head and remained silent, waiting for the other party's reaction: would he swallow his anger and bury the seeds of hatred deep in his heart, or would he swear to seek revenge?

"Adventurer, why do you want to help me?" Vallerel's eyes were deep like water, and his gaze on Fang Yi carried a hint of coldness.

"Because we have a common enemy." Fang Yi glanced at the fully armed knight beside Vallerel and the mage who was constantly fiddling with a crystal ball, and replied with a smile, "I don't think you haven't noticed the abnormalities around the blessed land, have you?"

Fang Yi stood up and walked to the desk, ignoring the guard who had his hand on the hilt of his sword. "If they fail to silence me, they will surely guess that I will come to you… You know the style of the Dark Night Mask better than I do. If my guess is correct, things will be decided tonight."

Night fell.

This was the first time Fang Yi had spent the night in a large house in the game, though not in a bed.

Players using the VIP game pod have a certain chance to be born as a hidden race with special bloodlines or as the offspring of nobles, which gives them a clear advantage over ordinary players. For example, the initial leveling costs for noble offspring are not a concern, while ordinary players struggle to scrape together copper coins from monsters, the nobles already have a few silver coins and a bottle of health potion to exchange blood with monsters.

The hidden races are even more dominant. Initially, there may not be much difference, but once the player of a hidden race meets certain conditions, when they reach level 20 and choose a class, their list will suddenly have one or several unique hidden classes.

These hidden classes are not necessarily much stronger than ordinary classes, but when combined with the unique talents of the hidden race, the effect is far greater than the sum of its parts. Fang Yi still remembers the public beta test when a barbarian sword saint with orc blood was a perfect combination of strength and speed.

But the decisive factor is always the player themselves, which is the game company's slogan, and Fang Yi agrees with this view. The hidden race player was ambushed by a legitimate monk class player, who was crouched in a corner, sizing up the elaborately decorated bedroom, thinking to himself, if I could come back from outside the city every day covered in blood and take a hot bath and a good night's sleep here, wouldn't that be great? The imagination is a powerful motivator~

However, without contributing enough profit to the game company, he could only imagine—Fang Yi shook his head, dual blades in hand, the tips of the swords touching the ground, and he leaned into the shadows as the moonlight streaming in from the window grew brighter. He noticed the window seemed to move slightly out of the corner of his eye.

***

Too luxurious~ In comparison, the bed he slept on in the inn couldn't even be called a bed. Black Mountain Demon was completely buried in the spacious bed, tightly gripping the Icebreaker axe, thinking to himself.

The cold moonlight flowed over the windows and the floor. Although he couldn't see, Black Mountain Demon knew the thief was lurking in a corner, using some skills common to peeping toms to watch the window and the wooden door. Although there was another person in the room, Black Mountain Demon felt unusually at ease in the game, and his pride in his keen senses was somewhat diminished.

Just as Black Mountain Demon's body became more relaxed and drowsy, the message manager emitted a "beep" sound. Black Mountain Demon was startled, and his right hand, which had been half-loosened, immediately tightened its grip on the axe handle, and his eyes opened a slit.

***

The window of the luxurious bedroom suddenly trembled slightly and then opened silently. A ghostly black figure "flew" into the room, landing on the polished wooden floor without making a sound.

The intruder cautiously scanned the room and quickly approached the large bed on the south side, the dagger held high reflecting a green glow in the moonlight.

The dagger drew a white arc, about to strike the person lying in bed. At that moment, a sudden change occurred. The figure that had been lying motionless on the bed suddenly leaped up, and a sharp axe hidden under the bed accurately met the dagger, making a "ding" sound.

Black Mountain Demon couldn't help but exclaim "Huh?" because his full-strength attack didn't knock the other person's dagger away. The attacker only tilted his upper body and then sidestepped, parrying a blue-tinged dagger that appeared out of nowhere behind him.

"Ouch!?" Fang Yi, whose ambush failed, didn't hesitate and fired a volley from his hand crossbow at the enemy right in front of him. Three exquisite crossbow bolts hit the target without missing, all embedding themselves in the enemy's buttocks. Fang Yi shouted to Black Mountain Demon, "Block the door!" and then stuck to the intruder like a leech.

With Fang Yi's loud shout, the outside of the window suddenly became brightly lit, and the voices of the viscount's guards were heard. They surrounded Viscount Vallerel's bedroom, and Black Mountain Demon stood at the door with a shield.

Earlier, to avoid crippling the enemy and affecting the subsequent interrogation, Fang Yi hadn't used his full strength, but he hadn't expected the enemy to dodge. The two of them moved like a whirlwind in the small bedroom, but Fang Yi didn't seem in a hurry. He just blocked the enemy's path to the window and door, and compared their speeds.

After a while, the intruder's movements clearly slowed down, and his steps became increasingly light. Fang Yi seized the opportunity and delivered a kick, and the intruder let out a惨叫 and fainted on the ground.

Watching the guards carry the assassin away, Fang Yi, Black Mountain Demon, and the incoming Silkworm Picker high-fived, knowing that this part of the mission was accomplished. He looked down at the effects attached to the elven dagger and crossbow bolts, thinking to himself, if these were effective against players, wouldn't that be overpowered?

Deep Cavern Toxin: Applied to weapons, it has a 40% chance to trigger when it hits, paralyzing the enemy's nerves and causing confusion, resulting in different durations of weakness and unconsciousness based on the enemy's constitution for 1 minute.

Effective on wounds, not on players.

This viscount wasn't a good person either. When Fang Yi casually asked if he had any good tools for sabotage during the day, the viscount immediately pulled out a packet of this stuff from his body, its sinister nature no less than Fang Yi's! Fang Yi looked at his crossbow bolts and dagger with regret, wishing they were in unlimited supply. Even if they couldn't kill, they would be useful for future quests and fights with NPCs.

Lord Viscount, with a gloomy face, walked out of the adjacent room, looked at the assassin being carried down the stairs, said something to the person beside him, and then walked straight toward Fang Yi and the others.

"You were right, adventurer," Lord Viscount said, his face clearly not looking good, whether from anger at the assassination attempt or worry about facing the Dark Night Mask. "I think we need to face this common enemy together."

"My men speak highly of you, to be able to toy with such a powerful assassin, I must say, your strength surprises me, adventurer." Lord Viscount stared at Fang Yi and smiled slightly.

It's just an 18th-level thief, not even an elite. If I can't handle it, wouldn't the Golden Right Hand gang laugh at me? Fang Yi chuckled inwardly but answered seriously, "It's my honor, Lord Viscount. What about the assassin…?"

"Don't worry," Lord Viscount smoothed his meticulously combed hair, his blue eyes gleaming with a cold light in the moonlight, "He will talk."

With the mission completed, Fang Yi politely declined Lord Viscount's offer for them to rest at the viscount's residence and left, planning to return in the morning to hear the results.

However, Fang Yi soon found that someone in the party had objections to this decision.

Black Mountain Demon had already sworn in front of Fang Yi and Silkworm Picker to become the first berserker in "Miracle." He now had a shiny dwarf axe and a longsword at his waist, but his face wore an expression of "you owe me money" as he looked at Fang Yi.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Fang Yi scratched his head, looking puzzled.

Black Mountain Demon looked back at the high walls of the viscount's residence and said irritably, "Why not just sleep at the viscount's residence? I've always dreamed of having a castle from ancient Europe, with many potted plants, a comfortable bed, and waking up to see pegasi and elves leisurely wandering in the grass below the castle..."

Seeing Black Mountain Demon's dreamy and longing expression, Fang Yi and Silkworm Picker were speechless and smiled helplessly, "The viscount's residence isn't a castle, let alone pegasi and elves."

Knight Fang Yi didn't say the rest, but with the level of ordinary pegasi, if they were kicked by their hooves, any of the three of them would be instantly killed.

"Little Demon really likes medieval architecture," Silkworm Picker, seeing Black Mountain Demon's low spirits, said to Fang Yi, "Little Demon has always been particularly fond of ancient things, like medieval castles, fantasy novels, and ancient Chinese pavilions. In junior high, Little Demon even won an award for a miniature stone sculpture of 'West Lake Courtyard' he made himself~"

Although Black Mountain Demon was a bit down, hearing Silkworm Picker praise him, his chin immediately perked up.

It was the middle of the night, and the moonlight poured over the city of West Gate, the bustling streets of the day now unusually quiet, with only a few lights visible from the surrounding residences. Occasionally, some players could be seen hurrying by on quests, and couples strolling along the streets, taking advantage of the rare quiet moments in the city.

Fang Yi, seeing the envious glances from his fellow male players, felt a small sense of satisfaction. Hearing Silkworm Picker's words, he couldn't help but chuckle, "I'll tell you a true story from the game."