strictlysupreme Chapter 134: Players' Underground Activity
Chapter 134: Players' Underground Activity
Chapter 134: Players' Underground Activity
Beneath Indahl's west city gate, a tall, burly, bald man dressed in the uniform of a high-ranking servant, standing by the road, looked over at the noisy crowd gathered in the mule and horse market just outside the city gates.
As the sky gradually darkened, villagers heading out of the city and townspeople coming in formed a queue at the gates. The bustling noise of the crowd did little to drown out the wails emanating from there.
A well-dressed man on horseback with servants in tow, seemingly returning from a hunting expedition on his estate, glanced toward the mule and horse market and asked the guards at the gate, "What's going on there?"
One of the gate guards, recognizing the crest of nobility on the carriage, bowed respectfully. "Those are unruly soldiers being exiled by the city defense force, sir."
"Oh?" The gentleman raised an eyebrow, reining in his horse and gazing in intrigue toward the market.
Several seconds later, the guards heard him mutter, "Never mind, there's no need," before he spurred his horse into the city.
Commoners squeezing to get into the city instinctively made way for the clearly distinguished nobleman and watched as he disappeared into the city.
Ben silently watched this scene before he turned to enter the city. Being a native of the Rhine Kingdom and having worked for his previous employer in Weisshem for several years, he understood why the noble had thought about intervening.
The young soldiers being dismissed by the city defense force could have been easily recruited as personal guards for a small price.
However, the severity of the Bartalis family's "exile" punishment meant that it would be costlier to recruit them. After all, they were merely some commoners with a slightly cleaner background (sons of good families) and some fighting ability. It wasn't worth offending the Bartalis family just for this.
The west gate was a fair distance from Prant Street, and it took Ben a brisk half-hour walk to reach 063.
On hearing Ben's report, Zhao Zhenzhen couldn't help but laugh. "This really When lacking manpower, the enemy provides them."
Young Brook chuckled, and even Ben, with his fierce appearance as a former bouncer, cracked a smile.
The shortage of hands in Weisshem was clearly not just to the "punished" soldiers but also to those "within the system" like Brook and Ben.
"We'll wrap up our tasks here quickly and then head back to assist," Zhao Zhenzhen said, turning to Brook. "Young Brook, any news about your comrades?"
Mentioning this excited Brook, and he nodded vigorously. "Yes! The owner of the Oak Tavern saw them last week. They took a job outside the city. I've asked people from Tavern Street to keep an eye out, and they'll inform me as soon as my friends return."
"Good." Zhao Zhenzhen nodded with a pleased smile, then added, "Vivian, whom you brought in to help, is great. See if you can try her job when you have the time."
"Got it, Sis Zhao, leave it to me!" Brook exclaimed, thumping his chest confidently.
Zhao Zhenzhen always appreciated such enthusiastic youngsters and gave Brook an approving thumbs up.
As the three were talking, the sound of bones clacking came from the adjacent "makeup artist's preparation room."
The nimble body of undead skeletons was incredibly efficient. Within seconds, Zhao Zhenzhen sprinted a hundred meters and smoothly turned into another curved sewer tunnel.
The dull growling continued for about ten seconds before gradually subsiding into silence.
Zhao Zhenzhen emerged from the curved tunnel, walked about another 60 meters or so, and arrived at a platform that resembled a subway station. This platform, probably meant for maintenance workers to place their tools and rest, was cluttered with various items and several piles of bones covered with T-shirts or fish scale armor.
Zhao Zhenzhen glanced at the piles of bones and muttered under her breath, "Have they already started work?"
She then crossed the platform and delved deeper.
In a sewer roughly 50 meters from the platform, Zhao Zhenzhen found her target: the players without makeup skills.
A bunch of players, divided into two groups, were bizarrely confronting a strange, dark black stain on the wall of a pipe.
As Zhao Zhenzhen approached, a player waved at her. "Sis Zhao is here!"
"Mm." Zhao Zhenzhen nodded and strode over. "What are you all doing?"
Phantom, holding a thick wooden staff at the back of the group, excitedly said, "We've found that goddamn thing that's been constantly troubling us, Sis Zhao! The one that comes and goes without a trace and always tries to push us into dirty water!"
"Oh?!" Zhao Zhenzhen looked surprised at the players crowding around the wall, then pointed at the stain. "Wait, it's that thing?"
"It's definitely this. We can't be wrong!" Warrior player Fallen Mulberry Leaves, equipped with Qin Guan's top-tier equipment and standing right at the front, nodded earnestly.
"Several of us have seen this stain. It appears and disappears. At first, we thought it was a glitch in the game. But we noticed that when this stain is on the wall, we don't have any disruptions when farming monsters, but when it's gone, there's always disturbances!"
Zhao Zhenzhen: ""
"We just don't know how to kill this damn thing." Yang Ying, also in the front row, chopped at the wall in frustration. "Sis Zhao, look, cutting it does nothing! It's so annoying!"
As a now semi-professional player, Yang Ying's equipment couldn't compare to Qin Guan's or Orange Cat's, but she had upgraded too. The weapon in her hand was no longer a plain steel blade but a finely crafted broadsword with a sharp enchantment bought from the Undead Merchant Association.
Her strikes left clear white marks on the stain, but in just a moment, these marks darkened again under everyone's watchful eyes.
Zhao Zhenzhen: ""
Zhao Zhenzhen, a materialist at heart, involuntarily gulped.
Sometimes, not knowing whether this world truly existed or just treating everything here as part of a game could actually be a blessing in disguise