The Radiant Imperial City Mercenary Guild covered a huge area. It looked like a fortress. But Radiant Imperial City was the main city among main cities, the district with the most players. Making it more luxurious was only natural.
By contrast, the Eternal Night City Mercenary Guild...
...
Emmmmm...
...it really was pretty miserable.
It gave off the feeling of an abandoned old castle.
Though not so bad that you'd worry a brick might fall from above. And even if one did, it probably wouldn't kill anyone. It was a game, after all...
Compared to Radiant Imperial City, Eternal Night City had far fewer people. So to avoid exposing their location, He Yucheng and the others tried to stick to buildings and alleys that blocked the line of sight. As they walked, they kept looking back every few steps, afraid some suspicious person might notice them... though even if someone did, there wasn't much they could do.
When they stepped into the Eternal Night City Mercenary Guild, which looked like some abandoned castle, He Yucheng didn't feel much. But Recomposed Words and the others all frowned a little... no matter how they looked at it, the facilities here were way too shabby.
The Radiant Imperial City Mercenary Guild at least had tea tables and chairs. Here, even the ceiling had spiderwebs on it!
The four of them walked up to the notice board. Recomposed Words deliberately turned back for another look. There were only a few scattered people around, all around level 20 to 30+. Not a single max-level player. In other words, no one from the Butterfly Shadow Guild. That put him much more at ease.
The four of them followed the row of notice boards and read through them one by one. All mercenary guild commissions were synced, because in this kind of game, max level was only the beginning. And reaching max level required EXP, so player commissions made up the overwhelming majority.
The commissions were mostly for collecting items, killing certain wild monsters, running errands, and killing players...
The kind of players who couldn't even be bothered to kill mobs themselves really were terminally lazy, huh...
Only system-issued commissions gave EXP. But after searching for a long time, He Yucheng and the others still hadn't seen a single system commission...
There wasn't even one commission related to the Eternal Night City region...
The notice boards kept refreshing with new commissions, but almost all of them were player commissions, the kind with no EXP. Recomposed Words couldn't sit still anymore. No matter how sketchy those chairs looked, he still plopped down on one.
Moonshadow walked to the entrance of the mercenary guild and took a look outside, worried someone might come by on patrol.
They finally got a system commission to refresh onto the board, but it vanished again in the blink of an eye...
That grab speed was seriously insane. Just how many people were camping commissions like they were...
Missed it again...
Still didn't get it...
How were these people snatching commissions so ridiculously fast...
...
Who knew how many more hours passed. Lengjiang, like Recomposed Words, sat in a chair off to the side. They'd waited so long flowers were practically about to bloom from their heads. Moonshadow had been standing at the door so long he was starting to nod off...
"Ah, got one."
Even He Yucheng was getting sleepy. Over the past few hours, who knew how many dozens of commissions had refreshed, and he hadn't gotten a single one...
Were those people pressing their hands right against the notice board or what...
Hearing He Yucheng's voice, the other three all stood up, yawning as they gathered around.
"!!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ"
"..."
"!!!"
After seeing the commission slip, all three of them looked shocked in their own way. He Yucheng was baffled. Was there something special about this commission or what?
Commission Slip: Fifty li west of Radiant Imperial City, north of a village outside the west gate, there stands an abandoned manor. Strange supernatural events often occur there at night, causing the village to be frequently haunted. We earnestly hope someone can offer assistance. A generous reward will surely be given. Respectfully.
"This commission does seem a little creepy. What's wrong?" He Yucheng asked after reading it over. Sure, if this description were in real life, it'd be pretty eerie. But in a game, it shouldn't be that big a deal, right?
"This game's realism is scary good. You didn't know that...?" Recomposed Words said, speechless as he looked at the utterly clueless He Yucheng.
He Yucheng rolled his eyes at him and replied, "How would I know? I don't do commissions... Besides, if there were a map this interesting, how could no players have gone there already?"
"o(；>△<)o Hubby, a lot of maps need to be 'discovered' before people know about them. Some commissions are main story quests too, and they're meant to open up new maps!"
"I see... Then isn't this commission pretty interesting? Wanna go?" He Yucheng smiled. A haunted house? Wasn't that fun?
"I'm sleepy. Let's not go for now. We've still got classes all day tomorrow." Moonshadow checked the time. They'd spent ages waiting here for commissions, and now it was already deep into the night.
"Huh? What a coincidence, me too." Recomposed Words looked like he'd found a fellow sufferer, and immediately slung an arm around Moonshadow again.
He Yucheng looked at Lengjiang beside him and asked, "Wifey, what about you?"
If Moonshadow and Recomposed Words were logging off, then only He Yucheng and Lengjiang would be left.
"ヽ(；´Д｀)ﾉ Baby's sleepy too~~~ Big Sis said it'd be best if Baby didn't touch the computer all day tomorrow~~" Lengjiang rubbed her eyes. She really was a little tired, after playing all day.
"I see. Then I'll turn in early too. We'll check it out tomorrow night?" Anyway, none of them had much going on. Going on an adventure together to do this commission sounded pretty great, and the fun factor was high. Moonshadow and Recomposed Words had classes until evening, and he didn't know what Lengjiang would be doing tomorrow, but by nighttime she probably wouldn't be able to resist logging in and playing.
Doing this kind of commission alone wasn't much fun anyway.
"Okay..." the three of them all answered. The commission did look pretty scary, but in a certain sense, that just made it even more fun.
Four flashes of light flickered, and the four of them disappeared at the same time...
...
"After all that messing around you put me through today, I'm seriously done for." Song Qian took out his phone, checked the time, then yawned.
"It was fine. We probably pissed Shen Junyao's boyfriend off so badly he nearly died. Too bad we didn't slap him in the face in person." The price had been pretty high, but Churan still smiled. It had been pretty fun, after all.
Song Qian snorted twice, fingers still fiddling with his phone. "Mock him to his face? Go ahead and try. I guarantee your death date gets moved up."
Churan shut down the computer and set it on the desk, then took out his phone—
The battery was critically low.
Song Qian suddenly saw something, then looked up at Churan with a strange expression. Churan plugged in the charging cable, saw that weird look on Song Qian's face, and asked in confusion, "What?"
"Ahem... your phone wasn't on?" Song Qian looked at Churan like he was looking at a pitiful dead man.
Churan waved the screen showing 1% battery at him.
With a half-smile, Song Qian said, "Looks like it's not just you who's screwed. I'm dead too. I got so caught up gaming with you that I didn't pay attention to my phone..."
"..."
Churan powered the phone on, still wondering what on earth related to him could make someone as fearless as Song Qian panic like this...
"..."
"So? Thought of how you're gonna reply yet?" Song Qian sat down on Churan's bed and smiled.
"..."
Churan stared at the hundreds of call notifications on his phone, speechless.
All of those hundreds of missed calls were from the same person.
"By the way, you didn't have any symptoms today, right?" Song Qian suddenly asked.
Churan shook his head. Resting his chin on one hand, he looked at the phone screen and said, "Nothing much today. I'm just worried it'll suddenly flare up tonight..."
"Enough, enough, here you go again. I'm seriously starting to worry you'll hang yourself in the middle of the night when I'm not around. How am I supposed to explain that to your aunt and the others?" Song Qian rolled his eyes. He really was afraid Churan might do something like that.
"I was just joking. That's not allowed either?" Churan smiled.
"Mm. At this hour, she's probably asleep already. Just remember to call her back tomorrow morning." Song Qian looked at Churan with obvious schadenfreude.
With a fake smile, Churan said, "If I die, I'm dragging you down with me. I'm telling you."
"It's fine. None of us are getting away anyway. I'm definitely done for, and I've accepted that. Compared to me, I think you've got it worse." He said that, but Song Qian still had that whole bring-it-on-let's-hurt-each-other-together expression.
"Alright, alright. Sleep time. See you tomorrow night. Turn off the light for me."
Churan let out a huge yawn and lay down. Song Qian picked up his bag, but before leaving, he deliberately stared at Churan for a moment, worried he'd get back up and pull an all-nighter again...
...
"Mm, mm, Little Sis has been very well-behaved lately, and her grades have improved too."
"Little Sis has been coming to me very actively for tutoring, so please don't worry, you two."
"Alright, I'll keep supervising her studies. You should get some rest too. Work's been hard enough on you already."
"Mm, got it. I'll keep trying to persuade her..."
Shallow Peace hung up the phone and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, her eyes full of worry.
Beside her, the old butler handed over a thick book and said, "You've worked hard, Miss."
Shallow Peace took the book and rubbed her temples with a headache. "It's nothing. This is an older sister's duty."
"Miss, shall I pour you a cup of coffee?" the old butler asked.
Shallow Peace smiled and said, "Yes, thank you."
It was already deep into the night. Shallow Peace had spent a long time going through the materials. In the end, she leaned back in her chair with a headache, sighed, and said, "I can't find anything useful. Looks like we'll have to let Little Sis get the information herself. But He Yucheng is very cautious about online privacy too. Asking directly wouldn't be good, so we'll have to wait for another chance. Besides, we don't even know what he himself thinks yet."
"Miss, is this person really... is his character really trustworthy?" The old butler was deeply worried. This concerned Xin Qian's future, after all.
"Mm, basically trustworthy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have handed even the 'Perfect Fashion Weapon Custom Scroll' to Little Sis. If you really think about the price of that item..." Shallow Peace picked up her phone and glanced at a text message.
Sis An, is Xin Qian not coming to school tomorrow either? Should I go tutor her?
Shallow Peace thought for a moment, then replied: No need. I'll teach her myself. I'm on leave these days, so I'm fairly free.
"Miss, are you really going to go against them?" The old butler was still very uneasy about the two sisters. This matter was no small thing. It would decide the fate of their whole family.
"Mm. As long as I get He Yucheng's contact information, I'll begin!" Shallow Peace handed the book back to the butler and drank the last sip of coffee. Dark circles hung under her eyes, but her gaze was extremely firm.
"Understood. If there's anything you need help with, please call for me." The old butler bowed and said, "Miss, it's late. Please get some rest. You still have to get up early tomorrow."
"I know. This negotiation will definitely fail, but I still have to test the waters. Otherwise, I won't know how far I need to go. If I go too far, I might even ruin him too." Shallow Peace smiled, stood up, and pushed the chair back under the desk.
"Mm. Good night, Miss."
"Good night."
Shallow Peace walked up the stairs. When she reached Xin Qian's bedroom door, she let out a soft sigh, then continued on back to her own room...
