GBP

Chapter 164 - Mission Complete?

After catching the man's glance briefly, Liam grinned and waved his hand before reactivating his [Stealth] and disappearing into the southern cave.

Now that some of the Overseers were out and most of the Sentinels were also out, the time was ripe for him to take action.

He could have done this a while back but this turned out for the better as now he was able to move around and explore the place better and with more ease.

Once he was in, Liam's eyes wandered around speedily, taking in everything around him. He was standing in a huge hall almost completely lined with some sort of metal.

The inside of the cave was a stark contrast to the outside which was just a rudimentary rocky cave structure.

In complete contrast to that, there were huge metallic structures and weird machines all around.

Even though Liam had already seen this beforehand, he couldn't help but gape at the expanse of the machinery.

It looked like some sort of high-tech manufacturing unit.

"Is this where they made those things?" Liam tried to see if anything was relevant, but his feet continued moving carefully.

He was not alone in the huge cave.

Apart from the mecha gnomes, overseers and sentinels, it looked like there were also some worker bots that were still continuing to tinker with things on the inside even with the raging battle outside.

Liam carefully tip-toed around these and went to the end of the hall that lead to a narrow tunnel.

If the information that he had was correct, then the item that he coveted despite all the risks and the dangers involved, should be at the end of the tunnel in a treasure chest.

"This better not be a lie." Liam shook his head not wanting to think about that possibility. "Damn it, if for some reason this is all a big lie, those guys better be prepared for a world of torture."

He panted as he beelined to the end of the tunnel and was finally able to see a small room, inside which there was a bunch of treasure chests, all of different odd shapes and sizes.

"Oh? There were more than one?" Liam knitted his brows together and slid into the room.

However, just as he neared it, three sirens started blaring, and blinding flashing lights popped up.

The very next second, the still and lifeless metallic walls suddenly groaned and caved as a dozen new type of mecha gnomes started pouring out of the walls.

These were shooting out lasers, the light boring hole at any point it touched.

Liam stiffened up. As soon as he heard the commotion he had ducked behind the room's door, but now he was unable to take a step forward.

Though individually these probably would not be able to do much damage to him, if the dozen of them targeted him together, then they would definitely instant kill him!

He did not dare take this chance!

But thankfully, not all hope was lost just yet. This was why he had purposefully spent those 2 seconds at the entrance taunting Abraki.

Even though the outside of this cave was a nightmarish battle zone, Liam knew that the guild leader would come for him.

Not letting him down, at this exact same moment, a group of players barged in.

BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEP

All the remaining gnomes inside the cave immediately reacted to their presence and flew after them with vengeance.

"FUCK! I KNEW THIS WAS A FUCKING TRAP!" Abraki roared in anger.

The issue was that even though he had an inkling that Liam was purposefully drawing them in, he couldn't help but go after him and check it out nevertheless.

What else was he supposed to do? Stand and fight outside like an idiot when another person was robbing the inside of the cave from top to bottom?

He did not want to bend over for the guy to screw him but ended up doing it anyway.

The dozen bots with blinding lasers started attacking the Assasin guild members leaving the other person all alone in the room to plunder to his heart's content.

Liam did not waste a single breath and started hurriedly opening up one treasure chest after another.

However, there was one more surprise waiting for him.

Now there were no more new bots, but the room itself started flashing red, giving Liam a bad feeling.

[Unlock]

[Unlock]

[Unlock]

Liam clicked a few of the treasure chests and then hurriedly emptied everything out of the chests into his inventory without even properly looking at what they were.

If he was correct, then he only had a fraction of a second to get the hell out of here.

As he emptied the contents of the fourth treasure chest, Liam saw that he had finally gotten what he wanted, so he did not linger any longer and quickly activated his backup plan.

The cursed ring!

He had given one to Luna beforehand and as soon as he activated the spell, his body disappeared from the inner chamber of the cave and directly appeared right next to the red fox.

And almost at the same time, a huge damage number floated above his head.

-1000

And along with it… BOOM!

A deafening explosion rang in the distance.

Liam froze as his heart was still beating out of his chest. What he had assumed turned out to be really correct.

The last time around, the guild who obtained the items in the cave only boasted about one item and there was no talk about anything else.

But Liam had now seen plenty of treasure chests in that small room. So how could this be possible?

And there were also those flashing red lights…

It did not take him long to connect the dots and guess what might have happened.

Just like the self-destruction program of the gnomes, the cave also maybe had one?

This was why he had not even bothered opening all the treasure chests and stopped his actions as soon as he had gotten the item that he wanted and immediately teleported.

Liam let out a deep breath and stood up to see the smoke in the distance and the explosions still going off like fireworks.

As for the other treasure chests in the room?

He He. Liam chuckled.

The chance that the Assasin guild obtained those was next to nothing.

They were probably destroyed and the impact of the explosion should have been enough to take out the remaining members.

And if they still managed to take away some scraps even after all that, then it was well earned and well deserved.

He had no qualms about it.

Liam let out a huge breath of relief and quickly hopped back onto the bird. This had taken a while but he was finally done.

"Let's go, Talon. Fly back to the royal city."

The wind ripper chirped and instantly soared high up in the sky. As they were leaving, Liam could spot a dozen people spawning in a barren land nearby.

However, just as they did, something galloped towards them and started massacring them left and right.

He could only make out the outlines from his height but he could tell that their state was not that good.

This was a high-level area, after all, so the graveyard wasn't simple.

It was probably in the territory of a high-level beast and getting out of here should be a pain after death.

In his previous life, the guild that discovered this place only did so when they were in their 50s. So they did not face this issue.

However, everyone right now was lower leveled. So they wouldn't be able to handle the mob in this zone and worse, the zones beyond this.

Seeing their pathetic state, Liam clicked his tongue and then collapsed on the bird's back to relax a little.

He was tired as every minute of the last several hours had been extremely mentally taxing, but he did not close his eyes.

Instead, he opened his friend requests and went through the several names. His gaze landed on a name at the bottom and he clicked it.

Immediately, a notification popped out.

[Ding. You have accepted Abraki's friend request]

Chapter 165 - Missing Persons

Liam did not expect an immediate response from the Assasin guild's leader as he knew that they were currently busy dying and reviving.

So he swiped it close and opened the bunch of message notifications that had popped in.

They were a couple of messages from the people whom he had teamed up with a while back, but he directly ignored those and only opened the ones from his sister.

"Oh? There are quite a few?"

Liam yawned and went through them one by one even though he was pretty sure that there was probably nothing urgent among them.

Because the cities were iron-clad safe zones and that was why he had left those two alone in the first place.

"Learning cooking skills from the trainer?"

"Even intermediate skill?"

"Hmmm?"

"What are these two up to?"

"Even I haven't heard of anything like this happening?"

Liam's interest was piqued and he sat up straight to look at everything again.

However, there weren't any more details, except for a couple of messages asking when he was going to return back.

[I am coming back right now. What are you both doing?] Liam replied. He closed his eyes for a bit and relaxed.

A few minutes passed by and then some more. However, there was no reply from the other end.

"Hmm?" Liam frowned. He again messaged both Shen Yue and his sister but there was no reply from either of them.

It was understandable if one of them was busy but both not replying did not feel right.

In fact, the group chat that had been blowing up for several hours straight was suddenly silent and both the girls were not even talking to each other.

"Did they log out?" Liam pondered.

"No, if they logged out, then they would have at least shot me a message about it."

"Something is definitely off…"

As more and more time ticked by without any reply from the other side, an unsettling feeling cropped up in his mind.

Liam patted the wind ripper and absentmindedly muttered. "Talon, can you move a little faster."

Scree! The bird understood his words and reared its head, after which it started flapping its wings more vigorously.

It pushed its body to the limits to zoom forward like an arrow. Both Liam and the fox held on tightly as the wind rippled across their faces.

"Thanks, Talon."

Scree! The bird chirped and pushed itself more, flying as fast as it could.

Aside from its speed, their return journey was also short since the distance between the north and the center where the royal city was located was not as great as the distance between the east and the center.

They quickly arrived in a few hours and reached the outskirts of the city. Liam once again tried calling the two but there was still no response.

"Where did they go?" Liam shook his head and patted the bird.

Talon chirped and swooped down, as usual dropping both Liam and the fox near the entrance of the city, and flying away afterward to hide in the canopy of the trees.

Kyuuu?

The little fox cocked her head to the side, watching her master. He seemed to be troubled. She jumped onto his neck and gave a few licks, but Liam was not paying attention to her.

He walked ahead in deep thought. The fact they were not replying to his messages was worrying.

It didn't matter if they were there in the city or outside, they should be able to talk to him and communicate with him.

As he thought about this, a small idea popped into his head. "Are they doing some sort of special quest?"

"Halt. Pay the entrance fees." Interrupting his thoughts, the royal guard decked in shining armor blocked Liam's path and extended his hand.

Liam silently nodded and took out the silver coins to pay him. He also pulled his cloak further up to hide his face and stepped inside the city.

Just like Abraki had hypothesized, Liam also felt that his identity was probably sold to more than one guild.

While the others might not have had the means to stalk him when he was in a remote place, now that he was in the royal city, it was a completely different scenario.

So he covered his face for now.

"Alright. You may enter." The guard removed his weapon that was blocking Liam's path.

As his gaze wandered from the weapon to the guard who now looked ahead, ignoring him, Liam remembered Shen Yue's necklace and her quest.

"It said the King's chambermaid. Hmmm…" Liam mumbled under his breath and stepped into the city.

He had not forgotten about Shen Yue's necklace that she received from the gift box and the quest that came along with it.

That was a special unique quest, specifically tailored for her. In his previous life, a lot of people had received special quests like this when the update was first launched.

Though these quests were not powerful enough to unlock hidden classes or special inheritances, many players learned special skills, obtained powerful pieces of equipment, and had gotten other miscellaneous unusual rewards.

This was why he had asked both of them to log in immediately to get a better chance of obtaining a good gift box.

So the necklace in Shen Yue's possession was probably not ordinary and the quest it invoked as well might not be.

But still… to not even respond back to him…

Liam decided to first log off and make sure that the two were not offline.

And just as he thought, their apartment was empty and Mei Mei's game capsule was glowing inside her room.

"So she is still playing…"

"If she is not offline and still in the game but can't talk to me, then those two are definitely in a special quest." Liam nodded and decided to wait a while.

He leisurely drank some water and ordered some food. He then took a shower and switched on the news, relaxing his mind and body a bit.

Fighting and running around non-stop had their own toll on the human body especially when it was a sudden change in lifestyle.

If Liam had been practicing martial arts or some other form of sports right from his childhood, it would have been much easier to get accustomed to the new future that awaited them.

A few minutes later, the food arrived and he absentmindedly chewed on his food while continuing to watch the tv.

But he was not able to relax at all as he was still feeling very restless about this whole situation. "Damn it. I should just log back into the game and start talking to the guards in the palace."

He threw the dirty dishes into the sink, not bothering to wash them, and stepped into the game capsule once again.

And as soon as he did, a single unopened message blinked in front of him.

Chapter 166 - Who Revealed My Identity?

Liam's eyes widened and he hurriedly opened the message to see that it was not from his sister, but from the Assasin guild leader, Abraki.

He closed it and did not respond to him immediately.

Instead, he first walked over to the Big Mug tavern that was near the city's center.

This was one of the most crowded eateries in the entire city where the rich and the poor, players and NPCs, everyone alike preferred to drink and eat as both the food and drinks were amazing.

There were even a couple of NPCs here that gave out high experience points rewarding eating contest quests which needed a couple of tricks in order to be completed.

However, Liam's purpose in coming here was something else altogether.

Apart from the delicious food and intoxicating drinks, this tavern was also the number one spot for getting to know the latest gossip.

All sorts of hot news about the city's events or other cities' events or even other kingdoms' events could be found here.

While his sister and Shen Yue were probably just stuck doing some sort of special quest, Liam still decided to come here and wait for the next couple of hours.

If in case, something else was going on with them that he was not aware of then this tavern would be his best bet to find out.

"I am taking this chair here." Liam waved at a big-breasted woman who was busy serving drinks.

"I will be right with you, sir." She flashed him a coy smile, flitting about the various tables.

She was a very alluring good looking woman with a curvaceous full figure.

Several players in the tavern were trying to hit on her and she also freely allowed them to feel her up for a good tip.

However, Liam's eyes were squarely fixed on the table in front of him.

His gaze was on a small dark spot as he intently tried to listen in on the many conversations happening around him.

Most of the buzz was about the top guilds and the dungeon records.

There were also several discussions about rare pets, particularly about the player who managed to capture a dragon as a pet.

The little fox lifted her nose upon hearing this specific remark and snorted in contempt.

She jutted her furry chest forward as if she was saying she was the best pet and how could a stupid dragon compare to her.

If Mei Mei was around, she would have gone crazy at the adorable expression of the fox but Liam only let out a sigh.

"How difficult is it to just stay put in the city?" He shook his head and took a sip of the brown ale that he had gotten.

Continuing to patiently wait for his two troublemakers, he opened his message list again and contacted Abraki.

[Now that we have exchanged our greetings, would you be interested in doing some business?] Liam sent him a message.

As if the other party was eagerly waiting for him to contact like a love-struck teenager, a return message instantly beeped back.

[What did you get from inside the cave?]

Liam scoffed at his reply and completely ignored it.

[I can provide you with 10 fire resistance potions in return for the name of the person who revealed my identity]

This time the reply did not come back immediately.

Liam continued sipping his drink, still listening in on the conversations.

It would be best if they could do some other trades but as for what he obtained from inside the cave, they were already reserved for his two troublemakers.

After a few minutes, Abraki finally replied. [We don't have that information. We can trade gold or dollars for the potions?]

This reply was something that Liam had expected so he shrugged and accepted it.

After all, how could the person who was capable enough to find out his identity be foolish enough to reveal theirs?

When he was about to send out another message, players seated on one of the tables near him started talking about something quite interesting.

For the full version, visit 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡．𝙘𝙤𝙢.

"Did you hear? The royal guards arrested two women from the training hall today."

"Ya. I heard about that too. I also heard that one of those two was a total knockout."

Fuck. I missed the chance. If I was there, I would have done something to save them and become the hero."

"Ya, I am sure a pretty girl like that would instantly become your die-hard fan and start giving you blow jobs in return."

"Stupid stop daydreaming."

"Did you think the royal guards are NPCs that you can mess around with? Those two will probably remain in jail for all of next week."

"Maybe I can bribe the prison guards?"

"Heh. Then you will only find yourself in a prison cell right next to theirs. Did you not read the forums at all?"

"The jail system here is insane. It is not easy to get out once you get in."

"Hmmm… I wonder what those two did to get themselves in this predicament. He He. Were they perhaps offering some special services?"

"Ba ha ha ha! Even if they did, they would have probably rejected you! Have you seen yourself in the mirror?"

The bunch of players loudly laughed and continued chatting boisterously, when the table in front of them suddenly rattled, the wood thudding on the floor.

The person sitting at the table was also no longer there.

"What the heck? Who is in such a hurry to leave?" They glanced over but then returned back to their merry evening.

Meanwhile, outside the shop, Liam's figure disappeared into the crowd, quickly weaving in and out. "Fuck. I should have thought about this before. They are in jail!"

When a player was in jail also, they were unable to log out or communicate, but he hadn't thought about this because it was not an easy feat to land in jail.

Even if it was murder or rape, as long as one did it outside the city, the royal guards would only turn a blind eye.

And he didn't think that his sister or Shen Yue was the type to start a fight.

At most, they would retaliate back if some other player provoked them in which case they wouldn't be the ones to be punished.

Liam was completely dumbfounded. "What the hell happened?"

As far as he knew, the only other sure shot method to land in jail was to assault an NPC with a social status and the royal city was full of them.

But what could these two have possibly done to assault an NPC?

Considering that it was not easy at all to strike a conversation with an NPC, let alone take it long enough for the encounter to end like this… just what did they do?

He was speechless. These two had a special talent to attract trouble!

Chapter 167 - VIP?

After finally getting the information that he wanted, Liam did not linger any longer and hurried over to the royal adventurer's tower.

He did not go to the prison block directly and instead came here for a reason.

This was the place where special missions issued by the Kingdom could be found and these could be completed for earning experience points and reputation with the Kingdom.

Though it was one of few places where one could farm for reputation, it was a slow and torturous grind that took several weeks to months to make any sort of headway.

Nevertheless, players still continued to struggle with this as gaining reputation with the Kingdom was a very hard and tiring process. They were not handed out easily.

And reputation with the Kingdom was extremely essential.

Apart from conquering dungeon records and leveling, this was the thing that most guilds were busy with.

This was because right now there were huge vacant plots twinkling like shining stars in various parts of the royal city and Yleka city.

These were prime acres of land in crowded streets which could potentially be purchased for setting up a guild base and guild trade shops.

Such a thing would bring both tremendous economical profit and growth and development to the guild, at the same time attracting several new incoming capable players.

The number of players entering the mysterious game 'Evolution Online' was only growing with each day.

Big companies and corporations had started investing and several people even started ditching their main jobs to play the game and earn a quick buck.

Especially after the second update, the player base had doubled the first day and then tripled the next.

It was prime time for the various guilds to establish themselves and start pulling huge portions of the incoming crowd.

After all, elite players might be the creme de la creme of the guild but the common members constituted the meat and potatoes.

Without the major chunk of the population flocking to their guild, even a superior guild would slowly die out.

Especially considering that very little information was available about the game, to begin with, no guild wanted to lose out on their numbers.

Of course, there were some who were going for only quality but when so many common people who hadn't played any game before were joining, it would be foolish to think about only quality.

So most guilds were looking at both quality and quantity and were trying their best to get their guild members to dominate the rankings.

Team after team assaulted the dungeons constantly trying to make and break the records.

But among all of these, the surest way to climb to the top was to establish their guild in a prime spot in the two main cities in the Kingdom.

Every single guild leader was aware of this.

However, no one was able to touch these low hanging fruits as no one had enough reputation points just yet.

The first guild to make this happen would no doubt soar high, standing out among everyone.

And everyone wanted to clinch this first place.

So several different guild members were littered around the tower at all times in case a special mission popped up. They didn't want to miss out on it under any circumstance.

Amidst this huge gathered crowd, a single hooded figure silently moved through and started casually walking to the first floor of the tower.

Seeing this, everyone else who was gathered at the ground floor hall erupted into a loud uproar.

"What the heck?"

"How is that person able to go up?"

"Heh. Don't worry. It is just a stupid noob trying to act smart. Now, wait and watch the show."

Just like the player mentioned, as soon as the hooded figure stepped onto the stairs, a guard nearby rushed over and blocked his path.

"Halt. You cannot enter the above floors. Only the hall is currently accessible for your status." He concisely made the rules clear.

The murmuring crowd all glanced at each other giving knowing smiles.

This was exactly why they were suffering so much! But this person wanted to go up so easily? Dream on!

They watched in amusement, waiting for the familiar attempts to flatter the guard and negotiate. Hadn't they all tried to do this themselves?

But no matter what… the final results would only be one!

They would be mercilessly kicked back to the main hall.

As several players sneered inwardly and waited for the hooded figure to be slapped and sent down, the man's hands moved and he took out something shining from his inventory.

"What is happening?"

"What is that in his hands?"

Everyone started discussing in hushed voices. They had seen begging and bawling before but this was new.

Just like them, the guard also showed a shocked expression. He immediately stiffened up and stepped back.

"I am sorry, Sir. Pardon my intrusion. Please go ahead. Please let me know if you need any information."

Not only was the royal guard polite but he even apologized to the hooded player. Everyone was shocked to see such a twist.

And right in front of their eyes, the player with his face covered climbed the stairs and casually walked up.

Unable to believe this, two more players quickly ran up the stairs to try their luck but they were immediately kicked back down by the stern-looking guard.

Guessing that what the person had taken out was a bunch of gold coins, some more players tried to go up and bribe the guard, flashing a sly smile, but they were also mercilessly kicked out.

One particular adamant player was even sent to prison for the attempt to bribe.

After witnessing this, no one dared to imitate the hooded player and silently ground their teeth, waiting for him to come back down.

Only then they might be able to obtain some information about this mysterious occurrence.

Meanwhile, after reaching the first floor, Liam no longer bothered to hide his face.

There were no other players around him, so he removed the cloak covering his face and looked at the woman sitting in front of the counter.

The woman immediately noticed him and flashed a polite smile. "Respected Sir, how may I help you today?" She greeted him with regard.

Liam, however, was not in a mood to exchange pleasantries with the good-looking tower assistant.

He directly dumped the thing that he was holding in his hand onto the counter space and got to the point. "I would like to submit these to the Council."

The woman's eyes immediately widened in surprise and she couldn't help but let out a gasp.

"Ah… This is…"