Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-301

Chapter 301 - Act of Burglary

Gu Fei quickly brought the five men near Mr. Adrian’s mansion. When they got close it, they spotted a familiar figure by the backyard.

“Xiaoyu!” Gu Fei shouted.

June’s Rain turned around and saw Gu Fei and company and she started waving at them wildly, “Over here!”

The men came over and surrounded the lady, asking, “What are you doing here?”

Gu Fei spied the cellar doors underneath June’s Rain feet and chuckled, “You haven’t given up yet, huh?”

June’s Rain stomped on the cellar door with both her feet. “It’s very strange. They’re clearly not locked, so why can’t I open them?”

As five men began inspecting the cellar doors, Gu Fei stood by the side and laughed, “It’s a game. If the system wants the cellar doors to remain locked, no one can of course open them. What other reasons could there be?” He could hardly believe his eyes that the five men had sunk to June’s Rain’s level of intelligence.

Unexpectedly, Brother Assist turned to address Gu Fei seriously, “You’re wrong. The detail that went into creating Parallel World is really sophisticated. If there’s a door that cannot be opened, a reason must surely exist behind it.” With that, the five men continued examining the double doors.

“Could it be because they are too heavy?” Royal God Call tugged on the doors as he said this.

“Let me give it a shot.” War Without Wounds stood up, and June’s Rain gazed at him expectantly. Gu Fei was speechless. June’s Rain was an all-Strength build Warrior. Given how War Without Wounds was a veteran Warrior, so he would certainly not adopt such an extreme stat point distribution; therefore, despite his thick-set figure, his Strength might not even be on par with June’s Rain’s. If she could not pull the doors open, why would he be able to?

Just as Gu Fei had expected, War Without Wounds used all his Strength to tug at the cellar doors for the longest time before concluding, “They’re not heavy; they just can’t be opened.”

“Tsk!” Gu Fei scoffed audibly.

Brother Assist closely inspected the gap between the door and its frame, as well as the hinges but found nothing unusual. Finally, he mumbled, “Could magic be in play here, preventing these doors from being opened with force and requiring people to use a special method or item to open them?”

“Mr. Adrian is indeed special!” They all trembled in excitement and looked at the NPC’s mansion with glistening eyes.

“Mr. Adrian is currently not at home,” June’s Rain supplied.

“Oh!” Gu Fei exclaimed, saying, “No wonder you dared rummage through his things in the backyard.”

“He he! It's been quite some time…” June’s Rain boasted.

“This is our chance!” Royal God Call slapped his thigh, saying, “Mr. Adrian is not at home. Let’s search inside his mansion; perhaps, we can find a scroll or something that can open these cellar doors!”

“Let’s!” War Without Wounds was already walking toward Mr. Adrian’s mansion.

“Hey…” Gu Fei reminded them, “Did we come here to look for Mr. Adrian or open these cellar doors?”

This was when the excited pair slapped their foreheads, “Oh, yeah!” They then turned to ask June’s Rain, “Ahem… Do you happen to know where Mr. Adrian is?”

June’s Rain shook her head, albeit it seemed that Royal God Call’s previous words had given her an epiphany. She was here to open these cellar doors! Young Master Han spoke up as she left to break in to the mansion and rummage through it, “I know where Mr. Adrian is.”

“How do you know?” “Where?” Everyone turned to look at him.

Young Master Han tapped one of the cellar doors with his foot.

“What’s that for?”

Just as this question was asked, the cellar doors creaked open. Everyone leaped back in surprise as a man holding a lantern emerged from the cellar; he used his free hand to support his weight by propping it against the ground.

Young Master Han was now looking at the other five men, “If the door can’t be opened when it’s not locked, the most likely explanation is that someone has locked it from within….”

They all lowered their heads in embarrassment, especially Brother Assist. All that explanation about the doors being charmed… It seemed that knowing too much might not necessarily be a good thing at times. “Ahem! So this person is Mr. Adrian?” Brother Assist changed the focus of the conversation by asking Gu Fei about the NPC that had emerged from the cellar.

“Yup. He looks exactly the same as I remembered.”

Mr. Adrian discovered the players around him after coming out of the cellar and reacted like how any NPC would. Craning his neck, he demanded, “Who are you people?! What are you doing inside my property?!”

No one bothered to answer him. He was just a programmed AI, so who would care about the attitude this NPC was treating them with? Only the quest maniac June’s Rain would. It was a pity, though, that she was no longer around, as she had broken inside Mr. Adrian’s mansion from the front door and was currently ransacking his place. Honestly speaking, that was the right way to play a RPG.

“What should we do? Do we take him out here and now?” Brother Assist asked.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Would killing Mr. Adrian and telling the Werewolves about the resolution of their blackmailing issue complete my quest?” Gu Fei asked.

“I don’t think that’s going to work. We have to at least provide some evidence,” Sword Demon opined.

“How are we going to prove that this guy is the one manipulating the strings behind the scene?” Everyone was now examining Mr. Adrian. Although the six of them were pretty much ignoring his existence, Mr. Adrian still continued to shout at them, “Who are you people?! What are you doing inside my property?!”

“What nonsense are you guys spouting? Can we even attack him without proof of his evil deeds?” Young Master Han asked.

“You’re right. Every NPC is protected from getting PKed. This special protection will only be removed when certain conditions of a quest are met,” Brother Assist affirmed.

The six of them pondered on this matter as they surrounded Mr. Adrian. This was when June’s Rain came out of the mansion while shaking her head, “I didn’t find anything that can open the cellar doors.”

These men looked at one another before running inside Mr. Adrian’s mansion together. They could hear Mr. Adrian shouting from behind them, “What are you people doing?! You bunch of burglars!”

The burglars began ransacking through Mr. Adrian’s mansion at top speed. Unfortunately, they did not find anything that would give them a hint about Mr. Adrian’s evil scheme. All of them walked out of the mansion while sorrowfully shaking their heads just like June’s Rain.

“You group of burglars!” Adrian angrily pointed at them. “I’m going to report you! I’m going to report all of you!” With that, Adrian rushed off.

“Uhm… Are we in trouble?” Brother Assist was of course the first to panic.

“Would he call the guards over?” Royal God Call was the next to speak up.

“Has anyone exchanged blows with NPC guards before?” War Without Wounds asked. Everyone turned to look at Gu Fei. He was a PvP addict, after all; guards would be sent to pursue him once his PK value went beyond 20 points.

However, Gu Fei merely shook his head. “I’ve only been chased by NPC guards; I never dared to trade blows with them.”

Everyone sucked in a cold breath when they heard this. If even Gu Fei did not dare to fight the NPC guards, then they were certainly fearsome when it came to fighting.

“Are they that powerful?” Royal God Call asked.

“I don’t know, but many of them are surely on their way now,” Gu Fei replied.

They looked at one another. In the silence that ensued, the act of flipping through a book sounded somewhat loud. Looking at the origin of the flipping sound, they saw Young Master Han step out of the mansion with an old journal in his hand. He was currently rifling through it.

“What’s that?” The men crowded around him.

“A ledger,” Young Master Han replied.

“What did you discover?” everyone asked.

“Nothing, actually. Still, it has Mr. Adrian’s handwriting,” Young Master Han told them.

Everyone put two and two together and turned to address Gu Fei, “Where’s that letter you got?”

“I passed it to Oathless Sword…” Gu Fei was dismayed. He was too much of a goody two-shoes sometimes. “But does any of us even know how to analyze handwriting?” he asked.

“It’s useless even if we could. That sort of skill that a player might possess won’t affect the quest plot like this. If it’s a particular clue, it will surely require a skill in-game, such as the Appraisal skill,” Brother Assist said.

“Appraisal skill? Can the Appraisal skill be used for handwriting analysis?”

“It was just an example,” Brother Assist replied.

“Maybe not the Appraisal skill a player uses, but it might be possible for a NPC who is a Master Appraiser,” Young Master Han said.

“That makes sense. But the problem is that we don’t have the note with us….”

“Let’s get it from Oathless Sword, then. Why won’t he give it to us when we are trying to help him complete the quest?” War Without Wounds asked rhetorically.

“He he…” Young Master Han suddenly chuckled.

The five men got goosebumps on their skin once they saw the smile on his lips. “What have you thought of now?”

“I thought of a method to make Oathless Sword return the letter to us,” Young Master Han answered.

“Needless to say, I’m sure it’s a very despicable method.” They five men shook their heads repeatedly.

Young Master Han did not say a word, merely sending Youthful Reflection a message: “We’ve found a huge lead.”

“F*ck!” Youthful Reflection treated this message as bad news as he turned to Oathless Sword with tears streaming down his cheeks, “Young Master's Elite has gotten a head start.”

“Don’t panic.” Oathless Sword was still rather calm, saying, “This is our quest, so the initiative still lies in our hands. Even if he found a lead, there’s no telling that I would accept it. This quest has just begun; hold in your emotion and briefly negotiate with him.”

Youthful Reflection waited for quite some time before calmly replying, “Oh? What lead is this?”

“We need the letter,” Young Master Han said, instead.

“What for?” Youthful Reflection unhurriedly asked him.

Actually, real, good-to-honest mercenaries were expected to directly inform their employers of any discovery. However, in reality, most mercenaries would not do such a thing; even the employers themselves would not make such a demand from their mercenaries, resulting in the simple exchange becoming a contest of wits.

Young Master Han had often used any opportunity to make a killing off of Traversing Four Seas. This time, however, he immediately told Youthful Reflection that the villager, Mr. Adrian, was acting extremely suspicious and they wanted to use the note to reveal his despicable plot.

Youthful Reflection was hesitant to trust his words, but he figured that it would not hurt to try. Soon, they quickly brought the note to the mansion near the church in Yeguang Village.

“But Mr. Adrian isn’t around right now!’ the others exclaimed in puzzlement when they heard Young Master Han’s words.

“And that’s precisely what we want!” Young Master Han laughed.