A new task?!

Lin Mo stiffened at once.

Going by what had happened before, his three companions had also thought nothing of it when they got the task to go to Big Goldfish Supermarket.

But it turned out to be a deadly trap. Every one of them died there. Lin Mo was the only one who survived, thanks to his looks and a bit of luck.

“This…”

He quickened his pace.

As he walked down the street, his heart pounded.

(Is it my turn now?)

(But if I simply don’t do this task, can I escape disaster?)

If this was another dead end set up by the Black Rabbit God, then there had to be a way for him to reach that so-called Bluebird Tavern without any trouble.

“This should be the place.” He scanned the town, his expression grave. “That Bluebird Tavern ought to be nearby.”

“If I’m going to run into danger there… does that mean an enemy has already slipped into this town?”

Bai Xiaomei was already dead.

So the thing he most needed to do now was get rid of this murder necklace.

Lin Mo hesitated for a moment.

“A can of beef doesn’t seem like much of a special reward.”

“And even if I complete the task, the reward will probably be at the place where Bai Xiaomei’s body is.”

“But…”

If there was danger hiding in this settlement, ignoring the task would mean leaving his safety entirely up to luck.

It was as ridiculous as basking in the fading glory of a prosperous dynasty while Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had just taken several provincial capitals—then ignoring every report of their armies marching across the land just so you wouldn’t have to think about it.

(I have to check out that Bluebird Tavern.)

Lin Mo pressed his lips together and tried to accept the current task.

Beep—

Accepted.

(You damn Black Rabbit God…)

After cursing under his breath, Lin Mo grew troubled. Diona should be back with people before long. For the sake of his safety, should he wait for her and go to the Bluebird Tavern with her?

“That would be the most sensible choice.”

“But—”

Lin Mo gritted his teeth and thought: I’m an assassin, after all!

And not just any assassin—the best in the entire world!

That bandit chief had given Lin Mo a rough time, and he accepted the loss of their bet. But that didn’t mean he was willing to swallow his anger and let it go.

“I can go by myself.”

“Even if there’s something strange going on there, I’ll be fine as long as I’m extra careful.”

Once he’d made up his mind, Lin Mo changed course. He stopped heading toward Diona’s house and went straight to the narrow street where he’d seen the tavern earlier.

…

This settlement often had to host merchants and scavengers from all over, so its nightlife was far livelier than you’d expect from a town of its size.

Lin Mo had thought he might need to ask someone for directions… but it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.

[Bluebird Tavern]

From the entrance to the narrow alley, Lin Mo peered inside and immediately spotted the tavern sign, glowing with neon lights.

(So… this is it?)

He steeled himself and decided to circle around, looking for a way to sneak into the tavern from another direction.

But then he realized what he was wearing and wisely abandoned that impractical idea.

As for changing out of his robe and trying to sneak in wearing ordinary clothes, that was completely out of the question.

After all, his face, his build, and his gender made him stand out far too much in this woman-dominated world…

“Sigh…”

Lin Mo scratched his chin and paced back and forth nearby, trying to come up with a suitable plan.

In the end, after pacing around for a while, he decided to wait until Diona got back before making another decision. He still didn’t plan to go in with her, but if he barged in now and ran into danger, escaping and fighting his way out in an unfamiliar town would be extremely risky.

(I’ll deal with it tonight. Once Diona gets back, as long as she’s still in town, I can hurry to her for help if I run into trouble.)

Lin Mo didn’t know the limits of Diona’s abilities, but having a way out was better than recklessly walking into danger.

With that in mind, Lin Mo turned to leave.

Bang!

“Ah!”

Suddenly, he accidentally bumped into a girl hurrying toward him.

“Uwah!” The girl staggered from the impact. Already on edge, she lost her footing completely, tipped to one side, and fell to the ground.

………… (Lin Mo)

Lin Mo jumped in alarm, thinking the danger mentioned in the task had come to kill him right then and there.

He immediately backed up two steps and took a fighting stance. But when he looked at the girl across from him, sprawled on the ground with her legs splayed and her butt having taken a hard fall, he realized he’d simply been too tense…

She was a girl with long, light chestnut hair. She was short, probably under five foot three.

She wasn’t wearing glasses, but she still gave off a distinct shut-in otaku vibe. Add to that her light gray tank top and extremely dowdy brown overalls, and Lin Mo immediately decided that a girl like her probably couldn’t pose a threat to him.

“Are you okay?” Without thinking, he reached out to help her up.

“Ah—uwaa, s-sorry!” the girl cried nervously, her head still bowed so low that she didn’t dare look Lin Mo in the eye. “I was in such a hurry, I wasn’t watching where I was going… Um, um—? You…”

She seemed dazed for a moment. Then she raised her face in shock and stared straight into Lin Mo’s eyes.

“You’re… a boy…”

The girl shuddered.

She lowered her head again, even more forcefully. “I’m sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m really sorry!”

As she spoke, the girl scrambled to her feet in a hurry, looking rather flustered, then hastily brushed herself off several times.

“You… ah, um, I mean you…”

She waved her hands around, then stood there in a daze for a while. “N-no, it’s fine! Nothing happened! I…”

Before she could finish, the girl turned and darted into the alley as if she were running away.

Lin Mo watched her from behind, completely unable to make sense of her behavior.

But before long, the girl took off at a quick pace and slipped into one of the taverns. Lin Mo saw it clearly: it was the very one he’d found earlier, with a sign outside that read “Bluebird Tavern.”

(Could she have seen me before?)

Lin Mo thought about it for a moment, then even he found the idea ridiculous.

After all, he was wearing a robe that hid everything but his eyes—a pretty effective outfit.

“Maybe she’s just shy? Huh, you don’t see that every day.”

“So there are girls in this world who are too shy to even talk to boys—not just people like Diona, who likes to pretend she’s some upright gentleman?”

Lin Mo figured that if the girl was always like this, she probably had a pretty hard time of it in life.

“Nothing seems out of the ordinary. In that case, I’ll come back and look into it tonight, after Diona returns.”