WTYTIAAN Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Yan Yunqing considered climbing directly into Uncle Lyne’s room through the window, but considering that the doorman of the Black Inn was a level 62 powerhouse, Yan Yunqing feared that his attempt to scale the wall would attract unwanted attention. He opted instead to revert to his appearance from that morning and discreetly entered through the front door.

Sure enough, the doorman heard the sound and merely glanced at him with a lazy eye. Recognizing him, he closed his eyes again, feigning death.

Yan Yunqing followed the route from yesterday, glancing around nervously as he passed through the corridor, but fortunately, he didn’t encounter the terrifying woman with the charm skill from this morning.

He inserted the key into the lock, gently turned it, pressed down the doorknob, and slipped inside sideways.

Uncle Lyne was still lying on the bed, stiff as a board, looking even more like a corpse than the doorman. He didn’t seem to have woken up, but the food and water Yan Yunqing had left on the table showed signs of having been consumed.

Yan Yunqing looked at Uncle Lyne lying on the bed, saying nothing, just staring silently.

Uncle Lyne, whose breathing had been relatively steady, gradually had his breathing frequency disrupted under Yan Yunqing’s gaze, becoming short and rapid. Yan Yunqing could even hear the other’s thumping heartbeat.

“Seems a little fast, won’t scaring him for a while longer make him faint?”

Yan Yunqing thought mischievously.

After appreciating the tense Uncle Lyne for a while, Yan Yunqing finally let him go, “Wake up, stop pretending, your breathing is so messed up, even a fool would know you’re awake.”

Yan Yunqing deliberately used a hoarse, low voice, “If I had malicious intentions towards you, I wouldn’t have taken over this job. Don’t worry.”

Only then did Lyne tremblingly open his eyes, looking at the person dressed as a mercenary, whose face was mostly covered, “You, what do you mean by this?”

“Someone received a commission to rescue you from the dungeon. You should know who saved you, right?” Yan Yunqing deliberately spoke vaguely, probing Lyne’s reaction.

Lyne was blank for a few seconds, as if finally recalling something, his eyes widened, “Yes! It was that person…”

“All in black… Oh! And wearing a mask, I remember he had long hair… Called… Joker?” Lyne said uncertainly, “Was he the one who saved me?”

Yan Yunqing thought Lyne was groggy at the time, looking like he was exhaling more than inhaling, unable to see clearly who saved him, but this was just as well for him to fabricate a lie.

“Yes, it’s Joker, he’s a bounty hunter.” Yan Yunqing nodded, “He received a commission to get you out, but not long after he saved you, the city was under martial law, and there was no way to get you out of the city for the time being. He also had something to do, so he entrusted you to me.”

Lyne was stunned, “Bounty hunter…”

People in this world were no strangers to bounty hunters. Bounty hunters were a profession, or rather, an advanced version of mercenaries.

Some powerful or particularly skilled mercenaries who needed money or wanted to make a name for themselves could register as hunters at the Bounty Hunter Association. By passing skill assessments or accumulating points through tasks and upgrades, they could take on high-reward missions on the bounty board.

Of course, ordinary mercenaries could also become bounty hunters. The Bounty Hunter Association also issued some relatively simple tasks, the rewards of which were not necessarily more than taking on jobs privately, but there was no fear of the employer privately breaching the contract after completing the task. Everyone who came to the Bounty Hunter Association to issue tasks had to submit the reward to the association in advance.

In other words, the Bounty Hunter Association was more like an intermediary, providing convenience for both parties and guaranteeing them by charging a portion of the handling fee.

Therefore, bounty hunters were very common in this world. Several young people from the village next to Sunset Village had gone out to become bounty hunters, but Sunset Village, due to the curse, had never produced a bounty hunter.

But Lyne didn’t know a bounty hunter named Joker at all, nor did he know a rich man who could afford a high bounty to save him, and at this moment he was at a loss.

Even if Lyne had no knowledge, he knew that the commission required for a bounty hunter who dared to break into the royal dungeon to save someone from such a place would definitely not be low, perhaps to an extent that he wouldn’t even dare to imagine.

Who could it be…?

“But I’m also very busy, so I’ve found this place for you to stay for now. You should stay here for the next few days, it’s very safe here, so don’t run around. I’ll send you three days’ worth of food and water first, and I’ll come to send you out of the city when the martial law ends in three days. If it doesn’t end, I’ll send you some more food and water.”

Yan Yunqing saw that Lyne was still in a daze, “Did you understand?”

Lyne nodded quickly when he heard the words, “Understood, understood, but…”

Lyne hesitated, “But I don’t have the money to pay you a reward…”

Yan Yunqing waved his hand, “Someone has already paid the reward for you. I don’t need to say more about the principle of taking money from others to do things, right? Anyway, listen to me, and I can guarantee to send you out safely.”

Lyne repeatedly agreed, and after mentioning that someone had paid, he hesitated again. He carefully opened his mouth, “Can I ask who paid the reward?”

“You’ll know when you get home safely.” Yan Yunqing didn’t plan to reveal his identity now, in case someone found Lyne here, it would expose him too!

As for when Lyne left safely, Yan Yunqing could say that it was his own commission, and Joker took the commission, which happened to match the information on the old village chief’s side, so he wouldn’t be exposed.

In order to be able to get along more conveniently in the future, Yan Yunqing put on layers of disguises for himself, completely able to cosplay an onion spirit.

He took all the food he bought on the street today out of his backpack and placed it all here for Lyne, ensuring that Lyne would not starve to death.

He left amidst Lyne’s repeated thanks, and the sky had completely darkened again.

He always felt that he had become a nocturnal Batman, his parents were both dead and he was doing justice in the night, a rich and powerful playboy… Well, the only thing that didn’t fit was the playboy part.

As for being powerful? Announcing his identity as the Demon King would scare a lot of people to death.

Yan Yunqing switched to the gloomy magician persona and openly walked into some alchemy shops to replenish his material reserves. The flame emblems he made last time were all used up, and he had to make another batch to keep for next time.

However, he kept a close watch and still didn’t buy all the materials from the same store, purchasing them in several batches. He also ran to a store that specialized in selling magic wands for a look around. Even if someone noticed him, they wouldn’t find anything wrong.

Yan Yunqing returned to the hotel with a pile of alchemy materials, and also ordered three food carts’ worth of food. This time, he ordered the kinds that he had eaten yesterday that tasted better.

Instructing the waiter not to disturb him next, Yan Yunqing slammed the door shut.

Touching his nose, which was almost hit, the waiter naturally pushed the food cart away. Working as a waiter in this kind of large hotel, he had seen many strange guests. The magician in this room was already considered friendly.

After all, this magician only ate a little more, didn’t like to go out, and didn’t like to talk to people. It would be hell if he encountered those guests who were strong and unreasonable.

The waiter touched the gold coins in his pocket that hadn’t warmed up yet, and was satisfied: The most important thing was that this magician was too generous, may the Goddess of Light bless this magician.

*

Yan Yunqing was now becoming more and more skilled at switching personas, and could even switch identities in a second, without leaving any loopholes.

He was simply the modern-day Phantom Thief Kid! When he had time, he could practice the techniques of a magician, which were very suitable for completing some things without attracting attention.

Yan Yunqing thought to himself, and followed the minimap to find Fei Wu’s Prince’s mansion.

Quickly choosing a tall tree, Yan Yunqing climbed up and found the thickest branch, squatting on it to observe the patrol guards’ arrangements.

Even if he roughly deduced the guards’ schedules, Yan Yunqing never arrogantly thought that his reasoning was necessarily correct. Everything he did required a cautious attitude and a mind that always remained calm and thoughtful. This was what his father had taught him.

Yan Yunqing stared at the minimap for a long time, and finally confirmed it. He directly activated the role-play and turned into a little black cat again. He jumped high onto the wall, landing lightly, only making a slight sound, without attracting the attention of any guards.

Originally, Yan Yunqing was thinking about whether he could try to play more inconspicuous animals, such as mosquitoes, flies, spiders, ants, etc., but unfortunately, it seemed that cats were already the smallest unit he could choose, and his skills couldn’t select mosquitoes, flies, etc. at all.

He could turn into a squeaking rat… Well, but he himself couldn’t stand that thing. If he didn’t want to be shouted at by maids and guards after breaking into a noble’s courtyard, he’d better not consider the squeaking rat.

Cats, especially the little black cat that Yan Yunqing chose, were the most common breed in this world. No one cared if they walked on the street openly. Maybe a kind-hearted girl would even feed him a little food.

Yan Yunqing took advantage of the guards’ inattentiveness during the shift change, and quickly darted from the corner, avoided the guards’ line of sight, and sneaked into the Prince’s mansion.

The guards in the Prince’s mansion were much stricter than those in the City Lord’s mansion in Beta City, and the guard levels were also very high, all at level 45 or higher. Yan Yunqing couldn’t even find one at level 44. Everyone was an elite. The further he went inside, the higher the guard levels.

Yan Yunqing even saw a level 58 swordsman pass by. He only glanced at the other person, but the swordsman keenly noticed Yan Yunqing’s gaze, and his sharp eyes suddenly swept over.

Yan Yunqing quickly moved his gaze away, pretending to be an ordinary cat, squatting on the tree, licking his paws, combing the hair on his face, his tail drooping, inadvertently shaking.

The swordsman’s gaze fell on the cat’s tail protruding from the gaps in the leaves and stayed for a while. His companion saw him stop and asked, “What’s wrong? Anything abnormal?”

The swordsman pondered for a while and shook his head, “No, it’s nothing, just my illusion.”

The two looked at each other and didn’t stay where they were, and started walking forward again.

Yan Yunqing cautiously squatted in place without moving, continuing to groom his fur. Sure enough, after about three minutes, the two swordsmen returned and found the little black cat still staying on the tree, lying down and seeming to be taking a nap.

After confirming that there was nothing abnormal, the two swordsmen completely left.

After waiting for a few more minutes, Yan Yunqing saw that no one was coming back, and he stood up again and shook his fur. Even ordinary cats might leave after staying for so long. Yan Yunqing wasn’t worried that the two swordsmen would think there was something wrong with him if they came back and didn’t see him.

Opening the minimap, Yan Yunqing confirmed his position. The guards here were too sensitive and powerful. Even the guards on the periphery were already at level 58. He didn’t know how high the levels of the guards inside were.

Yan Yunqing felt that he couldn’t continue to go deeper inside. It was more reliable to go to Cornelia.

Cornelia had temporarily teamed up with Yan Yunqing before, and was assigned to the temporary team by the game system, so her little dot was also blue. In a group of red names and yellow names, Yan Yunqing looked through the minimap for a long time before finding Cornelia’s little blue dot in a corner.

Yan Yunqing walked along the path, all the way inside. Because the guard levels here were very high, basically exceeding Lillian’s, Yan Yunqing didn’t let Lillian follow him in, but stayed outside to wait for support.

There was no way around it, this world had a special game mechanism. Units with high levels could actively detect the levels of low-level units when they came into contact with them, unless they had special props or abilities to hide. If the level difference exceeded 20 levels, stealth magic was very likely to fail.

Therefore, if Lillian followed in, if there was someone above level 65 on the scene, even if Lillian used stealth magic, there was a high probability that she would be discovered.

Turning into a cat, Yan Yunqing had no way to cover for Lillian, and coming in would only restrict Yan Yunqing’s actions.

(Yan Yunqing’s role-playing skill was a special ability, and he could only choose units with lower levels than him to use the role-playing skill. After role-playing, he would infinitely approach the role-playing object, including the magic fluctuations and level. After role-playing as a cat, everyone who saw him would only think that he was a cat.)

Following the guidance of the minimap, Yan Yunqing walked to a small house next to the main building. It had three floors and was hidden in layers of overlapping trees. It looked like the maids’ residence. The guards here were obviously much fewer than those in the main building.

Yan Yunqing compared them and confirmed that Cornelia should be on the third floor. He climbed up little by little along the small platform protruding from the wall. Thanks to the cat’s unique paw pads and claws, he saved a lot of effort when climbing.

The last small sprint jumped to the small balcony on the third floor. Some washed clothes and bedding were drying on the balcony. Yan Yunqing fiddled with the door connecting to the room. The door was not locked, and he slipped in very easily through a crack.

There were not many rooms on the third floor. Yan Yunqing saw that Cornelia’s little blue dot was currently in one of the rooms, but there were several other people in her room at the moment.

He walked over and quietly put his ear to the wooden door, trying to listen to the voices inside.

He didn’t hear anything, probably because the soundproofing was too good. Instead, his neck was a little tired from maintaining one position.

Yan Yunqing turned his neck and heard the sound of the door lock turning. He quickly flashed to the side and hid in a dark corner. Several people walked out of Cornelia’s room. The leading woman’s face was very ugly. Her hair was disheveled. She seemed to have just had an argument with someone. She lifted her skirt and stomped forward, her heels creaking on the wooden floor.

The expressions of the several maids following behind were not very good either. They cursed in low voices and quickly left this place.

Yan Yunqing glanced at the door that these maids left open after they left. He looked at the minimap and confirmed that there was no one else in the room except Cornelia. He poked his head open a little crack in the door and squeezed his head inside to look.

This was not a large room. The furniture in the room was very simple, a bed, a wardrobe, and a dressing table and chair, all of which were the simplest styles of the time. What was out of place with this was that various glittering, expensive jewels were randomly placed on the dressing table, piled together like worthless garbage.

A person in a blue and white dress was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a wooden comb in her hand, combing her seaweed-like sea blue curly hair little by little, humming a little tune that Yan Yunqing couldn’t understand. With the blessing of the mermaid’s singing voice, even a simple little tune was like heavenly music.

Seeming to hear the movement from the door, Cornelia turned her head calmly. She thought that those boring colleagues had come to trouble her again, but unexpectedly, she saw a little black cat walking in with light steps.

“Cat?” Cornelia stopped humming the little tune, put down the comb, jumped off the bed, walked to the door, opened it and looked outside. After confirming that no one was there, she closed the door and looked back at the little black cat strangely, “Where did this cat come from?”

She didn’t remember anyone in this Prince’s mansion raising cats.

And Yan Yunqing had already jumped onto Cornelia’s dressing table like he was familiar with it, surveyed it for a week, and said, “Long time no see, Cornelia.”

Cornelia suddenly heard her name and her face changed. She looked vigilantly at this little cat that could speak human words. She frowned, but when she saw the little black cat’s dark red eyes, she hesitated for a moment and asked uncertainly, “Yan… A-Yan?”

Yan Yunqing blinked: Cornelia had definitely forgotten his name, right?

Yan Yunqing nodded, “It’s me.”

Fearing that someone would suddenly break into Cornelia’s room and his appearance would be inexplicable, Yan Yunqing simply maintained his cat form and talked to Cornelia.

“Since we parted in the city last time, I thought you would be more cautious in searching for your sister’s news.” Yan Yunqing used his paw to fiddle with the jewel necklace on the dressing table, “But how could you run into the Prince’s mansion as a maid? You forgot that you had met Fei Wu before, and maybe the people around Fei Wu can recognize you.”

She had only changed her name and mixed in. Cornelia was too reckless, right?

“I spent a lot of effort to save you out, but you sent yourself back.” Yan Yunqing was very helpless, “And didn’t you say that you had contacted the elders of your clan? Didn’t they come over?”

Cornelia was a little wary when she saw that Yan Yunqing had no intention of turning into a human form, but when she heard Yan Yunqing mention the details of their escape from the auction house and the elders of the clan, this information was indeed what she, Yan Yunqing, and Lillian had said.

Confirming that it wasn’t someone with ulterior motives who had come to test her, Cornelia breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t rush to answer Yan Yunqing’s questions one after another, but turned around and locked the door, and pulled the curtains on the window before sitting down on the small chair in front of the dressing table.

“I didn’t expect that you would run here to find me.” Cornelia’s expression couldn’t hide her surprise, “Lillian? Did she come with you?”

Yan Yunqing shook his head, “She didn’t come. The guard levels here are all higher than her. If she came in, it would be easy to expose her. It was just me… Well, a cat that sneaked in.”

“I see.” Cornelia understood, “Indeed, Lillian is an elf. It wouldn’t be good if she sneaked in and got caught.”

“You haven’t answered my question.” Only then did Yan Yunqing discover that Cornelia’s character status bar was hanging a debuff [Sealed], and the duration was very long, a full two days.

[Sealed]: After a special forbidden curse, the level and skills are sealed. The sealed target will suffer the pain of ten thousand insects devouring the heart during the existence of the status.

Yan Yunqing leaned back tactically, and he already felt his scalp tingling when he saw this description.

There was even such a debuff?

Cornelia lowered her eyes, as if thinking, and after a moment she asked back, “Do you feel that I’m not worth it to you, since you saved me but I took the initiative to step into the abyss, so you came to question me?”

Yan Yunqing was full of question marks: “Huh?”

Cornelia: “If that’s the case, I can apologize to you, or compensate you with something, but I have something I must do. Sorry.”

It sounded like she was refusing to communicate.

Yan Yunqing was really a little helpless. He shook his tail, “Why would you think that…”

“We should be considered friends, right?” Yan Yunqing said, “Although we only escaped together for a while, I think we got along quite well? What do you think?”

Without waiting for Cornelia to answer, Yan Yunqing continued, “As a friend, I heard that you haven’t been doing well recently, so it’s okay to come and see you, right?”

“As for those questions, it’s just that I’m a little curious personally.”

The little black cat’s dark red eyes were like dazzling rubies, shining brightly, “I think even if you have some purpose that you have to get close to Fei Wu, it shouldn’t be necessary to make yourself so embarrassed, right?”

His tail hooked the wrist of Cornelia that was resting on the edge of the dressing table. Even wearing long-sleeved clothes couldn’t completely cover the few scars on her wrist.

He said meaningfully: “It shouldn’t require doing it to this extent if you just want to inquire about your sister’s news, right?”

Cornelia pulled her sleeves down a little unnaturally, tidied up the broken hair around her ears. She still exuded a gentle aura, sitting there quietly as a sweet and beautiful girl, extremely attractive.

Yan Yunqing keenly noticed that the other party maintained a perfect posture in every move, as if she had practiced it thousands of times, ensuring that no matter who looked at her from what direction, she was the sweetest image at the moment.

Perhaps this subconscious behavior was not obvious to others, but in Yan Yunqing’s eyes, who had been studying other people’s behavior as a game since he was a child, this behavior was very rigid and mechanical.

“If you’re willing, you can tell me.” Yan Yunqing said sincerely, “I won’t tell anyone else, even if Lillian asks, I will keep it a secret for you.”

Cornelia paused, looked at the little black cat with complicated eyes, the corners of her mouth raised slightly, and smiled lightly, but pointed out very sharply: “You should have something you want to ask me for, right? Tell me, if I can help you, I will consider it.”

Yan Yunqing was stunned for a moment.

Usually it was him who saw through people’s hearts and stated other people’s purposes directly. He didn’t expect that he would be called out first this time.

He was clearly still in the form of a black cat, could Cornelia see the expression on a cat’s face?

Cornelia discovered Yan Yunqing’s astonishment, like a little girl who had grabbed candy, smiling slyly: “You underestimate mermaids too much. Mermaids’ perception of emotions is the most powerful of all races.”

“Although your tone of voice was caring, it should be more about wanting to inquire about my secrets, so as to judge whether this secret is useful to your purpose.”

Yan Yunqing paused and couldn’t help but smile and said seriously: “Okay, I admit it, because I know your strength, so I judged that even if you want to inquire about your sister’s whereabouts, you don’t need to do it in this way.”

“You know my strength…?” Cornelia narrowed her eyes, “When did you know?”

Yan Yunqing blinked, “I already knew when we escaped together.”

Cornelia was surprised: “Then you still…”

“Then I still saved you?” Yan Yunqing tilted his head, “It was just a coincidence that I saved you at the beginning. You also helped me once when you were in the warehouse, so I just saved you out, so no one owes anyone anything.”

Cornelia: “…Hmph, that time in the warehouse was just one of my plans.”

“I understood later.” Yan Yunqing said helplessly, “That was just your pretense of weakness, just to make it easier to get close to Fei Wu, right?”

“On the contrary, my actions caused you some trouble. I should apologize to you for this.”

“But you went to great lengths to get close to Fei Wu, and maybe our goals are the same.”

Cornelia could clearly judge that Yan Yunqing’s words at the moment were very sincere, “So what if our goals are the same?”

“——Then we can cooperate.”