WTYTIAAN Chapter 50

Yan Yunqing didn’t stay long at Cornelia’s. After agreeing to meet her in five days at the clothing store on Commercial Street, he returned the way he came.

Lillian was already anxiously waiting outside, pacing around on a tree. When she finally saw a lithe black cat leaping out of the enclosure, she couldn’t help but jump onto the small black cat’s back.

“Waa—I thought you were caught inside! Why did you take so long to come out!”

Yan Yunqing staggered from the sudden impact, almost falling face-first. He hurriedly steadied himself, carrying Lillian as he ran a bit further away, only speaking after finding a safe spot. “I met with Cornelia. She really is in the Prince’s mansion.”

Lillian was still on his back, her train of thought interrupted. “Huh? Did she really become the prince’s lover? Just to find her sister?”

“I think it’s more than that.” Yan Yunqing shook his head, shaking Lillian off his back. He deactivated his disguise skill, took a small blue potion from his inventory, opened the cap, and poured it into his mouth, holding the bottle as he began to recall.

“After all, I inquired in many places this afternoon, but I didn’t hear of any prince or noble bringing back a mermaid in the past two years. I’m more inclined to believe that the reason Cornelia told us before was false.”

Or rather, half-true.

If it’s true that mermaids are born with the ability to sense the emotions of others when they speak, then Yan Yunqing has cultivated this ability since he was young. Plus, he often encountered perverts, and seeing them so often made him more sensitive to the emotions of others. At least, he could accurately judge whether a person was lying.

The reason he so easily believed Cornelia before was because she genuinely showed sadness when she mentioned her sister, along with a hint of subtle longing. Therefore, Yan Yunqing never doubted that Cornelia’s reason for wanting to find her sister was fake.

Meeting her tonight, Yan Yunqing instead confirmed that Cornelia might really want to find her sister, but that was definitely not her only goal.

Moreover, Cornelia’s status bar had a [Sealed] debuff, directly sealing her level. Judging from Cornelia’s attitude, it seemed like she did it herself.

It should be to avoid detection by the two guards beside Fei Wu. After all, the levels of those two guards were much higher than Cornelia’s.

A level 60 beautiful woman acting as a maid and becoming a lover, it just doesn’t make sense. So Cornelia needs to make herself look more like an ordinary person.

Yan Yunqing greatly admired Cornelia’s ruthlessness. Just looking at the description of the [Sealed] debuff, you could tell that Cornelia was suffering excruciating pain at all times.

“Then what do you think Cornelia is trying to do?” Lillian asked curiously, “Will she hinder our plan?”

“No, she will only be our help.” Yan Yunqing said, “As for what Cornelia wants to do… I have promised her not to investigate her secrets, so let’s leave it at that.”

Since she clearly said she didn’t want his help, Yan Yunqing didn’t need to shamelessly push himself forward.

There was no mission issued, and the other person didn’t appreciate it, so Yan Yunqing wouldn’t do such a thing.

“Let’s go, we’ll continue to purchase materials and refine some life-saving gadgets.”

*

Cornelia watched the little black cat leap from the balcony, disappearing into the deep darkness in a few seconds.

She lowered her head slightly, letting her loose hair hide the change in expression on her face.

Cornelia picked up the wooden comb she had thrown on the bed again, combing her long sea-blue curly hair bit by bit. A gentle breeze lightly brushed her cheeks, as if a gentle hand was wiping away the crystal tears that accidentally overflowed from the corners of her eyes.

She murmured softly, the syllables drifting into the night sky with the wind, blowing into the distance.

—”Oh, who is there?”

—”Your tail is so beautiful, have you been following me all along?”

—”It’s okay, if they don’t like you, I can like you, come be my younger sister, I’ve wanted a younger sister for a long time!”

—”Cornelia, you will definitely become the most powerful mermaid! Believe me.”

—”Cornelia, sing a song for me? Hmm… you can’t sing? There are mermaids who can’t sing… It’s okay, I’ll teach you!”

—”When Cornelia grows up and can go ashore, we’ll go on adventures together, I haven’t left this sea before, I really want to see the outside world.”

“Sister.”

“…I miss you a little.”

Cornelia braided her long hair little by little. Her long, curly hair mischievously fell from her hands from time to time, but she didn’t care at all, braiding them into a loose braid that draped over her shoulder.

She remembered the words of the little black cat who had just left, and repeated them softly: “…Illuminate the darkness?”

Cornelia looked at the dark sky. The stars in the sky were hidden, and even the moon didn’t show its face. She couldn’t find a trace of light.

But this sky has been dark for too long, can anyone really do this?

Cornelia sighed softly, the sadness on her face faded little by little, and she put on that sweet and lovely smile again, the sharp aura like a unsheathed sword disappeared, and she became a gentle and beautiful maid again.

But this is indeed a beautiful thought, and she doesn’t mind providing some help to this black cat.

Cornelia put the wooden comb back into the drawer, without even looking at the stacked jewelry on the dressing table, she swept them all into the drawer.

Let me see, what step can you take.

…

For the next two days, Yan Yunqing squatted in the hotel making props. When he ran out of materials, he changed his appearance and went out to buy more. After buying them, he continued to make them. He made all the props he could use from the blueprints he had learned, and his inventory was filled with various life-saving gadgets.

Even small red potions and small blue potions were stacked full in five slots each. You must know that the maximum stack limit for the same item in each slot is 999. Yan Yunqing made enough to clear dozens of instances at once.

He directly raised Alchemy and Blacksmithing to level four, Pharmacopoeia to level three, and even his character level to twenty-nine, just a little bit of experience away from breaking through level thirty.

However, the more he leveled up, the more the experience required for each level breakthrough increased exponentially. Yan Yunqing didn’t expect to level up to the point where he could punch level 76 high-level mages and kick level 82 great swordsmen in just a few days.

However, after upgrading his life skills, the system sent him several upgrade gift packs, which contained blueprint gift boxes.

He weighed the boxes in his hands. It was a rectangular flat box, overall dark blue, with a gold polka-dot bow tied on it.

It was light and didn’t feel heavy. He couldn’t hear what was inside from the sound. There was no sound at all.

“This aesthetic, the game art team needs to study hard.” Yan Yunqing tugged at the golden polka-dot bow on it and complained, “Even grandmothers don’t use such ugly ribbons to wrap gift boxes anymore.”

…Oooo.

Yan Yunqing suddenly felt a faint sob coming from the deep space. He slowly typed out a question mark.

What? Did the art team hear his complaints?

After listening carefully for a long time, Yan Yunqing couldn’t hear any strange sounds again. He assumed he had just hallucinated, and refocused his attention on the three blueprint gift boxes.

Yan Yunqing opened his panel and glanced at his luck value. He was lucky today, with a full score of 10, his luck value today was 7.

It was above average.

Yan Yunqing thought for a while and put away the blueprint gift boxes. He planned to wait until his luck value randomly reached 9 points or more before opening this mystery box. Anyway, the props he had now were enough.

“Lillian.” Yan Yunqing called out. Lillian, who was lying by the window, chewing on fruit and admiring the sunset, responded and turned her head.

“Hmm?” Lillian responded vaguely.

“Let’s go, the city gate’s martial law started to ease up a bit this morning. We can prepare to send Ryan out of the city.”

“Oh…” Lillian reluctantly put down the fruit and flew to Yan Yunqing’s side.

“You eat so much every day and don’t exercise. Won’t you gain weight?” Yan Yunqing glanced at the fruit peels Lillian had left over and fell into thought.

Speaking of which, Lillian’s body is so small, but she eats several times larger than her body. Where did all those things go?

Could it be that Lillian’s stomach is connected to a black hole in another dimension?

“Of course not!” Lillian said proudly, “Elves don’t gain weight. We are element lives composed of the purest elements!”

Yan Yunqing nodded perfunctorily, thinking that it was a good thing that he had enough gold coins in his inventory, otherwise, if Lillian continued to eat like this, they would end up sleeping on the streets sooner or later.

Where would they get the money to stay in such a good hotel!

Without some property, you can’t support such a gluttonous little elf.

Yan Yunqing took Lillian out of the main entrance. After skillfully switching disguises, he went to the city gate to observe. As expected, the city gate had eased up a bit, and merchants and nobles were entering and exiting one after another.

There was no way. There were too many people in the city, so they couldn’t keep it sealed off, right? It was easy to deal with ordinary people, just use force to suppress them, but those nobles were not easy to provoke.

And the two groups of people who caused trouble that night had all disappeared into the small capital city, as if they had never appeared.

After watching for a while, Yan Yunqing switched to the mercenary disguise he had used in front of Ryan, took a set of cheap clothes bought from a clothing store, and gave Ryan a makeover in a black inn.

Just a slight modification in the details, and Ryan, who originally looked like a commoner from an ordinary peasant family, was transformed into an honest mercenary.

“Next, I’m going to take you out of the city. If the guards ask you any questions along the way, just answer briefly. Remember that we’re leaving the city because I’ve just accepted an escort mission with you, understand?”

Ryan nodded repeatedly to show that he understood.

Yan Yunqing threw him a backpack filled with ordinary supplies. “This is for you, for dealing with the guards. After you leave the city, just take it back. You can use it on the road or whatever you want.”

He took Ryan out of the black inn, and when he passed the front desk, he put the key on the table, along with two silver coins. The doorman glanced at the two of them, without questioning where Ryan had come from. Without looking at it, he threw the key back into the table, putting the two silver coins into his pocket.

“I’ll buy some good tobacco later, and I can enjoy it for a few days.” The doorman murmured, closed his eyes, and swayed on the rocking chair again.

In the alley at the entrance of the black inn, a new group of small-time gangsters was squatting. Each of them had a smoking pipe in their hands, swallowing clouds and spitting smoke in the corner. If the place wasn’t too dark and humid and the corner wasn’t full of garbage, Yan Yunqing would have thought this was some kind of paradise on earth.

A paradise with immortal air.

Yan Yunqing led Ryan past calmly. This was Ryan’s first time out of the room in so many days. He was very curious about everything around him and couldn’t help but take a second look at the small corner.

“Keep your eyes to yourself.” Yan Yunqing reminded in a low voice, “Those bastards are not easy to mess with. If you look at them twice, they might stick to you like a bloodsucker.”

Ryan was so frightened that he quickly retracted his gaze, a simple and honest big man looking at his nose and his nose looking at his heart, walking with his head buried in his chest.

Yan Yunqing: … Ryan wasn’t like this in Sunset Village. Could it be that he’s been locked in the dungeon for two days, and his courage has been locked up along with him?

Yan Yunqing: “Just walk normally. Don’t act so abnormally.”

Fortunately, Ryan was still very helpful in the end. When he was about to leave the city gate, he followed Yan Yunqing’s instructions and didn’t show any abnormalities.

“What are you doing out of the city?” The guard’s gaze swept over Ryan. Seeing that Ryan’s honest face didn’t have a trace of memory, he refocused his gaze on Yan Yunqing.

Yan Yunqing’s mercenary face was also ordinary, and he and Ryan could be called ordinary mercenary brothers when they walked together.

That’s right, Yan Yunqing’s mercenary disguise looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, and he looked like he was the same generation as Ryan.

“Didn’t I spend almost all the money I earned a while ago?” Yan Yunqing showed a flattering smile, with five silver coins in his hand, slipped into the hands of the guard who questioned him without attracting anyone’s attention.

“So my brother and I took an escort mission. The other party is a big businessman, sending a batch of goods to Romunike. The journey is long and the price is high. After doing this deal, our brothers can be rich for a few more months.”

Having been stuffed with five silver coins, the guard didn’t show any expression on his face, but secretly felt the shape of the silver coins, glanced down and found that they were silver, and the corners of his mouth immediately curved upward a little, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Yan Yunqing also became much kinder.

“That’s really not easy. Romunike isn’t close. It’ll take several months to deliver a shipment back and forth.” The guard quickly scanned the things in Ryan’s backpack and found that they were all very ordinary supplies. He waved his hand to signal them to pass, “Okay, you can go.”

Yan Yunqing immediately nodded and bowed, and pulled Ryan, who was still standing there, and finally stepped out of the city gate after passing several checkpoints.

Their pace quickened, and they didn’t stop by the roadside until they were out of the guard’s sight.

Ryan gasped slightly, “Can I… Can I go back now?”

Yan Yunqing nodded, “Yes, you can go back. But I suggest you don’t be too ostentatious after you go back. Maybe someone is still watching near your house. Ask someone to pass the word to your family that you’re okay. Hide outside for a few more days before going back.”

“Okay, okay!” Ryan was very grateful to the mercenary who brought him out of the capital, and to the bounty hunter who rescued him from the dungeon, “That… What are you going to do next…?”

Yan Yunqing could tell at a glance what Ryan wanted to say, “I won’t be with you next, I have something to do. You can go back directly, and don’t think about thanking me, someone has already paid for your rescue.”

He emphasized the word [someone]. His disguise didn’t lack thanks, and when Ryan returned to Sunset Village and matched his story with the village chief, he would know that the [someone] he was talking about was [Yan Yunqing], and he could also conveniently increase his faction favorability.

His favorability with Sunset Village had already reached the level of Trust. If he increased it further, it would basically be Respect.

Although Sunset Village was just a small faction, even if he raised it higher, there wouldn’t be any hidden missions or hidden shops for him to buy items, but if his favorability increased, he would have a higher item drop rate when he cleared Sunset Village’s instance!

This was a village guarded by Karenna!

Thinking of the instance that entered the cooldown countdown after he cleared it, Yan Yunqing felt a little itchy. He hadn’t been in to see the regenerated instance yet, and he didn’t know if repeating it would still give him a blue blueprint.

Thinking of this, Yan Yunqing couldn’t sit still. After hastily saying goodbye to Ryan, he changed his route and headed towards Sunset Village.

With his current speed of travel, running from the capital to Sunset Village wouldn’t take too much time anymore, but traveling was indeed a boring thing. In theory, games with large maps like this would have teleportation points, but Yan Yunqing hadn’t found anything similar to a teleportation anchor point yet.

He really wanted to TP (game term: instantly teleport) over there.

He finally arrived near the instance. He didn’t see anyone else around. Yan Yunqing directly chose to enter the instance.

[Curse of Sunset Village] This was a beginner instance, and it didn’t limit the number of times you could enter the instance each week. However, the higher the level, the fewer the drops after clearing the instance. Repeatedly clearing beginner instances was not beneficial.

However, Yan Yunqing’s current level had not exceeded the upper limit of this beginner instance, so he could still get experience.

After entering the instance, Yan Yunqing didn’t rush to start fighting, but carefully observed the surrounding environment. This regenerated instance was slightly different from the instance he had previously played.

He was still born on the edge of the pond, and after killing two Grimace Earthworms that drilled out of the ground, an arrow appeared under his feet, guiding him to move in one direction.

Yan Yunqing felt a little quiet around him and looked around, “Lillian?”

He didn’t hear a response. Yan Yunqing opened the mini-map, which had been updated to the map inside the instance. Lillian’s little blue dot was not inside.

Huh?

Yan Yunqing opened the team panel and found a small line of prompt: NPC teammates cannot enter game instances.

After carefully reading the instructions, Yan Yunqing suddenly understood. NPC teammates could follow him into the previous instance because the instance had not yet been included in the game and was part of the plot content. Now that the instance had been included in the game and a new instance had been copied and generated, NPCs were not allowed to enter.

Anyway, this instance didn’t limit the number of times he could enter and exit, Yan Yunqing quit first, and saw Lillian anxiously pacing around again.

Seeing Yan Yunqing suddenly appear again, Lillian quickly rushed over, “Why did you suddenly disappear? And you disappeared for so long!”

Yan Yunqing touched his nose: “I went into the instance. I killed two Grimace Earthworms before I realized you didn’t follow me, so I came out to take a look.”

Lillian pouted, blinked her eyes twice, and suddenly turned into sunny-side-up eyes, looking at Yan Yunqing pitifully.

Yan Yunqing: …

Yan Yunqing tactically leaned back: “Wh-Why the sudden expression? I really just didn’t notice you didn’t come in for a moment.”

Lillian: QAQ

Yan Yunqing was silent, and finally raised his hand in surrender, “Next time, I’ll definitely check if you’re there first, okay? I’ll definitely not accidentally ignore you again.”

Lillian: QAQ…

Seeing that Yan Yunqing was about to freeze, Lillian finally let go of Yan Yunqing. She silently wiped a tear, “It’s okay, as long as you remember to come find me, I’ll keep waiting even if you disappear.”

Yan Yunqing: …

Ugh, her words were tearing his conscience apart.

Lillian peeked at him with her little eyes, Yan Yunqing took a deep breath and promised: “I’ll tell you where I’m going next time, and I won’t suddenly disappear, okay?”

Lillian then smiled through her tears, hugged Yan Yunqing’s cheek and rubbed it, saying softly: “Yes, yes, no matter where you go, I’ll wait for you to come back.”

Yan Yunqing’s heart softened: “I know.”

Because Lillian couldn’t enter the instance, Yan Yunqing told her a few words, let her pay attention to safety outside, and he would be out of the instance soon, and not to run too far.

Back in the instance again, the instance was reset. Yan Yunqing killed the Grimace Earthworms again, and the guiding arrow reappeared under his feet.

Yan Yunqing followed the arrow and found that this was similar to the route he had taken with Henry last time, except that he didn’t trigger the scene where he met Henry along the way.

After killing a few waves of mobs, Yan Yunqing successfully arrived at the side of the giant tree. The giant tree was still towering into the sky, entangled by vines, and had countless vine tumors.

A line of prompts appeared in front of him.

[Use fire to attack those vine tumors to kill the monsters!]

From the moment Yan Yunqing stepped in, the vine tumors that had been quietly waiting on the tree began to stir, as if something was about to break free from the shackles and crawl out of the vine tumors.

Yan Yunqing took out his magic wand calmly, aimed at the vine tumors one by one with fireballs, and smashed them into the vine tumors. The fire spread instantly, and the monsters let out screams that pierced people’s eardrums.

However, this vine tumor was much easier to solve than when he was doing the plot before. When the vine tumors were almost burned, there was another gust of wind.

Two figures appeared in front of Yan Yunqing. Yan Yunqing took a closer look—

Good lord, Henry and Karenna have become instance bosses together???

Yan Yunqing twitched the corner of his mouth, feeling that this instance was very unreasonable. In the plot, Henry clearly killed Karenna with him, but Henry ran to Karenna’s side in the copied instance.

Should he say: You lovebirds really know how to play…

Fortunately, Henry and Karenna in this instance were no longer undead. They were just images that had been copied. Their attack methods were very simple. After one round, he could see that there was a certain order to their attacks, and there was a lot of pre-attack delay, which helped identify their big moves.

The first stage was Henry attacking in the front, and Karenna secretly firing cold arrows… cold magic from the back.

Only Henry’s health bar was lit up in this stage, so Yan Yunqing only needed to concentrate on hitting Henry while avoiding the harassment magic that Karenna occasionally threw over.

When Henry’s health dropped below half, he entered the second stage. In this stage, Karenna finally officially lit up her health bar from secretly releasing skills from the rear, and Henry’s health bar was locked and no longer dropped.

Yan Yunqing needed to switch to attacking Karenna while defending Henry’s close-range attacks, because Karenna was a mage, her health was not as high as Henry’s, and she could break her defense with physical attacks.

When Karenna’s health dropped below half, Henry’s health would be unlocked again, and the two would officially cooperate to attack Yan Yunqing. This was the third stage.

The most speechless thing was that the health bars of the two of them had to be controlled within 15% of each other. Once one of them had their health reduced too quickly, the two of them would stop at the same time, retreat and hug each other affectionately, and their health would return to half in the time it took to kiss.

Yan Yunqing: …

You lovebirds are really annoying!