Calamity Messenger

Chapter 329 - 266: Assassin’s Creed

The sun sets in the west, the moon rises over the branches.

The city walls are brightly lit, with a fire basin every five steps, and a sentry every thirty steps. The guards carry iron lanterns and patrol in an intersecting manner, as if the night sky itself is being scorched by the town’s flames. The city gate has long been closed, and outside the Tombstone Military Town is a moat. Closing the gate retracts the drawbridge, making stealthy entrance difficult during the day and even more tightly guarded at night.

It’s worthy of being the Qi Kingdom’s number one military town. In Yan Qing’s limited experience, only the Xuanwu Lake Military Town can be compared to it.

The same strict discipline, the same ample resources, pulling out all the stops on configurations whenever possible, sparing no effort in manpower and resources to gain any possible improvement.

’Ye Si’ and ’Yan Shiyi’ emerge from the shadows, crouching behind an abandoned house fifty paces from the city wall.

This is the closest distance they can approach, as there is no cover within fifty paces of the wall, and the lights on the city wall barely illuminate up to fifty paces. This was clearly done intentionally by the Tombstone Military Town, as once strangers step into this ’alert zone,’ according to the Qi Kingdom Baibao’s conduct, they would likely be met with a rain of arrows.

Yan Qing is not afraid to battle Qi Kingdom Baibao, and he is confident he could achieve his goal even if he were to fight the Baibao. Worse come to worst, he could rampage through the town, punching his way through.

But there’s no need to create unnecessary slaughter. If he can exert less effort, he will, just like playing "Assassin’s Creed," where storming into a stronghold and killing everyone openly is an option, but stealthily sneaking in and completing the task quietly is equally enjoyable.

However, before the infiltration, Yan Qing needs to prepare a bit.

[Immortal Tour] activate!

Twenty-five seconds pass, and Yan Qing opens his eyes, finding himself outside, under a sparse starlit sky, surrounded by the rustling sounds of insects, reminiscent of the summer fantasias at his childhood home.

But this place is not as peaceful as his rural home, as the night wind carries a faint, barely discernible stench. Yan Qing turns to see details he hadn’t noticed before: wild dogs scavenging nearby, splattered stains at the house entrances, crows flying overhead. Most houses remain intact, and something resembling fingers lies on the ground... Clearly, this village was only recently abandoned, and some houses likely still harbor bodies that haven’t fully decayed.

This is not a pleasant spot for a countryside excursion. Yan Qing prefers the vibrant and peaceful years in Jiangnan County Town. But since he chose this side tonight, he wouldn’t be able to have a midnight snack in Jiangnan County Town, unless Niu Xianke packs food for him.

Yan Qing takes out a rope and ties up ’Ye Si’ and ’Yan Shiyi.’ This operation is too specific; there are no similar instructions in the game, requiring him to do it manually.

For Yan Qing, the greatest significance of the [Immortal Tour] skill lies in providing a direct interference with reality, usable once a day. It’s so convenient it’s ridiculous, as Yan Qing even uses it to teleport to Niu Xianke’s side to stroll around Jiangnan County Town.

Just walking amidst ordinary people and thinking: ’Hmph, you all surely don’t know you just brushed past me, a great thief of the Thief’s House, holder of Bingzi Pepper Forest, Heir of Calamity, Third-Turn Messenger,’ Yan Qing feels an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.

Once the tying is done, Yan Qing immediately returns to the Thief’s House. In retrospect, his actions are genuine wastefulness. A [Immortal Tour] skill capable of disregarding distance for teleportation, yet he merely uses it for binding ropes, but it is simply absurd as a team skill with no consumption except cooldown. It reflects the game’s conveniences when brought to reality, being one after another violation of energy conservation.

’Ye Si’ carries ’Yan Shiyi’ on his back. In a moment when a guard’s gaze is directed towards the city wall, he kicks off, gliding more than thirty steps in an instant!

「Ranger Rain Boots」!

Remember when Yan Qing once scavenged the Royal Secret Vault in Liang Kingdom? 「Ranger Rain Boots」 was one of the spoils. Previously, Shang Xinlei referred to them as the Water-Stepping Boots, whose core power is rapid gliding. Yan Qing practiced with them for a period but set them aside after acquiring the Third-Transformation Curiosities 「Wave-Riding Boots」; thus, 「Ranger Rain Boots」 gathered dust in a corner.

Until he reunited with the alt account, to hand over the spoils for cleansing and storage, 「Ranger Rain Boots」 finally saw the light of day again.

Although unable to attack while gliding, and rough terrain could lead to stumbling or even being flung out, 「Ranger Rain Boots」 are indeed excellent for trekking. During another moment the guard’s view is directed out of town, ’Ye Si’ silently and stealthily flew over the moat, climbing onto the city wall.

Secret Technique: Spider Walk!

This is one of the few non-combat related juggled Secret Techniques, yet it’s not unpopular. On the contrary, Yan Qing’s understanding of such juggling Secret Techniques even exceeds the proper strategies within "Messenger," because he occasionally finds videos on websites like ’Level 39 unbeaten level 69 Yama Daoist Lord,’ ’Defeating Yama Daoist Lord only with items,’ ’The Second Memory·Not the Messenger,’ ’Dog Feeding Team Yama Daoist Lord joyful strategy,’ most of which employ juggling Secret Techniques with trinkets to exploit loopholes and create unimaginable effects in specific environments.

Take the Spider Walk secret technique, for instance, which at a glance seems to be just for creeping in darkness. Yet Yan Qing once saw a video where the player solely relied on Spider Walk and a poisonous water trinket, painstakingly eliminating a level 60 pure melee boss within cave terrain at level 30.

But as a cost, this type of juggling secret technique significantly pollutes the player’s job class pool. A profession that could have been legendary now simply cannot be spawned; a Dao foundation that could have been legendary can only become precious at best.

If one wishes to pursue the theoretical maximum strength, the player must carefully plan every step, leaving little room for error. Therefore, players jokingly refer to nurturing a perfect character as ’raising a child,’ and when they see their perfect character unwittingly learning a skill outside their class path, they call it ’going astray,’ becoming cyber parents at a young age.

However, considering Yan Qing’s intention to build himself into a ’perfect character,’ ’Ye Si,’ ’Jiang Shi,’ and ’Rabbit Heroine’ seem to be... the parents?

Yan Qing shook his head, dismissing these wild ideas, and equipped Ye Si with the "Golden Fish Goggles" to activate the effect ’Transparent World!’

In a blink, all the colors on the screen disappeared, leaving only a black background and white lines. Yan Qing could clearly see the silhouettes of people behind the city walls and inside the houses; the entire Tombstone Military Town was unveiled before his eyes!

The "Golden Fish Goggles" were responsible for scouting, and the Spider Walk was responsible for movement. With these two items, Yan Qing operated as if he had activated a full-view map hack and wall penetration hack, forcefully finding flaws in the tight security structure of Tombstone Military Town. Almost at the moment the guards turned away, ’Ye Si’ flipped over the city walls, and even if the guards sensed the wind and looked around, they would see nothing.

Compared to the city walls, the patrol inside the military town was undoubtedly much weaker, and it was not under a military control state. However, ’Ye Si’s’ difficulty in stealth was not small, because there were too many people inside and the city was too large!

Just like in Ping City, Tombstone Military Town was also divided between residential areas and military camps. The residential area had a large population, roughly estimated at no less than 500,000 people. Not everyone could live in houses, and many lived at the doors of huts and pigsties, serving as both sleepers and night watchmen. The only good news was that many places in the city were unlit, allowing ’Ye Si’ to hide in the darkness.

After a few steps, Yan Qing stripped most of the clothes and equipment from ’Ye Si’ and ’Yan Shiyi,’ leaving only the basic black cloak and "Ranger Rain Boots," otherwise the sound of footsteps from the encumbrance would be too loud.

When he arrived at an open area, Yan Qing couldn’t help but stop.

In the center of the open area stood a large banyan tree, probably a recreational area for nearby residents. However, at this moment, many corpses hung from the banyan tree, approximately dozens, and they had not completely decayed, indicating they had died only a few days ago. Blood dripped from their ankles to the ground, staining the soil around the banyan tree dark red. The implicit threat was self-evident.

Yan Qing seemed to return to the first two days he traversed, dropping to the Nocturnal Heaven Affiliated Newbie Village with a new character, only to be casually killed by a Baibao Knight within a few steps, the world pervaded with an atmosphere akin to a horror game.

Later, that feeling faded, not because the world became friendlier, but because he became stronger.

As he got closer to the military camp, ’Ye Si’ encountered a patrol guard in an alley. The moonlight was bright at this time, and climbing the wall would definitely be seen, retreating might also attract attention, and there might be other hidden methods, but Yan Qing didn’t bother to think about it.

Yan Qing was in a fairly good mood today, having lunch with a beautiful girl at noon and raiding the Stone Sinking Creek Secret Realm five times in the afternoon, but ever since infiltrating Tombstone Military Town, he felt an inescapable oppressiveness, like being forced to get up and go to school on a stormy day, wishing for a typhoon to destroy the school and looking for a chance to vent his anger.

’Ye Si’ gripped the Bingzi Pepper Forest, hiding in the shadows. The patrol guard came closer and closer, and the glow of the Iron Lantern was like a big tongue, about to lick ’Ye Si’s’ figure.

Passing by a fork in the road, the patrol guard suddenly turned into another path, not encountering ’Ye Si.’

Yan Qing noticed that this guard was just a young man, not wearing an Evil Ghost Mask, yawning as he walked, seemingly just an ordinary person muddling through his days... He didn’t know he had just brushed past a grumpy death god.

Even though the guard had left, Yan Qing did not proceed but quietly waited for his emotions to settle slowly.

What a cruel spiral, Yan Qing thought. He had realized how much he was affected by the atmosphere of Qi Kingdom, wishing to find an opportunity to start a massacre to purge demonic influences. This was, of course, right, and Yan Qing planned to do so, but slaughter was not a means, it was a purpose.

Yan Qing was not a saint to the extent of ’not harming the innocent.’ Apart from the first mission, which had a touch of justice, the second and third cases were not all about taking down guards to forcefully seize treasures? If someone obstructed their path, even harming innocents was unavoidable, and Yan Qing had long been prepared for this.

But this world is not just about ’must kill’ and ’cannot kill,’ wavering between the two is the little conscience he has left.

Though it seems somewhat petty, sounding neither like the principled protagonist nor the complete antagonist, hesitating before killing, Yan Qing still cherished this bit of hesitation. If he lost even this, he would be no different from Evil Ghost Hundred Guards.

Yan Qing suddenly remembered Ying Rushi, the naturally stunning yet weary girl. He heard recent news of her being conferred as the Prince of Lanling.

Someone like her must live a very tiring life in Qi Kingdom, right?