Chapter 20: Seizing the Sacred Relic, the Intelligence Capabilities of the Consortium

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Shenqian Headquarters.

The Young Master was extremely dissatisfied with the Curry Consortium’s handling of the stray dog situation. A large portion of the manpower deployed to monitor Baron Bapeng across the city had been bitten, crippled, or injured.

Just as he was questioning them over the phone, a city-wide announcement appeared: "Black Iron Pioneer City Announcement: Congratulations! Level 1 player Da Chun has solo-killed the special siege event boss, 'Stray Dog King.' Speed-kill record: 5 minutes and 32 seconds..."

The Young Master was shocked: "Nani?"

On the other end of the line, the reaction was even more stunned: "What the f***?"

The Young Master hung up immediately.

A team member reported instantly: "Young Master, a surveillance team recorded the entire process of this Da Chun stealing from the Count's mansion and jumping off the building. Even while suffering from death-weakness and having a red name, he killed the Dog King in the sewer..."

The Young Master couldn't believe it: "A Level 1 player with death-weakness can kill the Dog King?"

"The Dog King was present for a total of 5 minutes and 25 seconds, but the actual time spent killing it was only 7 seconds. It is highly likely related to the stolen items. The recording team and nearby players have already entered the sewer; we can connect to the live stream immediately."

The Young Master snapped back to reality: "Immediately mobilize all city teams into the sewer! Spare no cost to loot that red-named player's holy artifacts and items! Do not let ordinary players get to him first! Access the database and investigate this player!"

The so-called database was not some internal GM administrative access. Since the open beta, the Shenqian team had arranged for thousands of players to be stationed across the city's 300 key leveling, questing, and trading locations, recording footage in three shifts, twenty-four hours a day. These massive video files were stored in the building's security system, which would rapidly compile a player's activity route throughout the entire open beta.

Raising over a thousand players to do this was a significant expense, but the philosophy of the Shenqian Consortium was that intelligence was above all else. The 300 key points were not enough to cover the entire city; for emergencies like Baron Bapeng, additional personnel had to be deployed for tracking and monitoring. If it weren't for the fact that the prison wasn't free-roaming, they would have wanted to arrange 24-hour surveillance there too.

A team member reminded him: "Young Master, it's getting dark soon. There might be anomalies in the sewer! The Curry team might try to snatch it, too."

The Young Master made a swift decision: "All warrior leveling groups outside the city, return to the city at full speed!"

"Zuo Gaowan received!"

...

Meanwhile, the Curry team was in a state of shock!

Tata God of War knew the special nature of the stray dogs. NPCs would not attack them, so the Dog King would either be severely injured by players working together or retreat unscathed once the siege event ended. He had never imagined the Dog King could be insta-killed! That was a collar capable of taming dragons!

Tata God of War was anxious: "Mr. Manager, the Shenqian team will definitely go to loot those red-named holy artifacts. While their warrior groups haven't returned, our mining group should move out immediately!"

Manager Singh, however, calmed down instantly: "Don't panic! If we move immediately, the Shenqian team will think the holy artifact is incredibly precious. We need to act as if we don't care."

Tata God of War was frantic: "What if the Shenqian team loots the holy artifact?"

Singh was very calm: "Given our friendly relationship with the Shenqian team, we can simply buy it from them. After all, they’ll think it’s just a collar with limited utility; there's no reason for them not to sell."

Buy!?

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Well, Tata God of War was left speechless. He knew his manager's tactics too well—he always bought the expensive instead of the right, and if he quoted a million, he wouldn't hesitate to pocket a half-million in kickbacks...

...

At this moment, Da Chun, treading water, was extremely nervous as the crowd of players drew closer and closer. In the darkness, they looked like a legion of zombies as they dragged themselves along the walls.

All Da Chun could do was try his best to buy time for his stamina to recover: "What are you doing? This is sewage! You have wounds, don't just jump in, you'll get infected—"

But these players didn't waste words, jumping into the water like dumplings, just like penguins in the Antarctic...

Damn it! Da Chun had no choice but to use the 6 precious points of stamina he had just gained from leveling up 3 times to forcibly submerge himself to the bottom of the water.

This descent was surprisingly steady and smooth; he didn't waste effort and didn't wobble, easily avoiding the siege of the players.

Da Chun realized it instantly: it was the weight of the six stones! Whether running or climbing, these six stones had always been a drag, but this time they were playing a positive role.

By contrast, the players were wobbling and even flailing in place the moment they hit the water—they didn't know how to swim at all. After all, ordinary players spent their first three days mining to save up for rent and food; who would waste time learning to swim? Now, it was just a matter of holding one's breath. Relying on his background in advanced underwater construction, he could definitely outlast this rabble.

At this moment, a blurry light from the shore penetrated the turbulent, pitch-black water—was it a miner's lamp? Someone on the shore hadn't come down and was following along, pointing the light.

Needless to say, an ordinary player who hadn't even been playing for two days couldn't possibly afford a miner's lamp. It had to be someone from a major team responsible for surveillance. The main forces would be here soon. What should he do?

If it really came to it, he would find a place in the water to bury the holy artifact and the six stones. No matter what, he couldn't let the players loot them! But the bottom of the water was reinforced with floor tiles, so there was really nowhere to bury anything...

Suddenly, Da Chun felt something swimming toward him.

—System Prompt: Warning! Your Purification skill has detected the presence of filth! Pressure Aura activated.

Da Chun’s heart tightened!

He saw them—not just one, but small, palm-sized fish. The legendary piranhas?

Damn it, he was saved! With his Pressure Aura, they wouldn't prioritize attacking him, at least. Even if the consortium sent more people, what could they do to him?

But these small fish ignored the players and headed straight for the rear—that was where the largest source of pollution, as indicated by his Purification skill, lay: the Dog King's corpse!

Could it be that they were going to eat the Dog King's corpse?

Don't panic! The small fish had appeared; could the terrifying legendary bosses be far behind? It was about to get dark, and in a dark sewer, everything was possible... He had to find a chance to surface and catch his breath first.

...

At this moment, the Shenqian Young Master was watching the live stream from his field team with tension and confusion.

He was tense because the red-named player absolutely could not die right now. He was confused because, how could he survive while being besieged by hundreds of people underwater?

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Finally, red light emerged from the bottom of the water in the footage, and the red-named player struggled to the surface—the Young Master stood up abruptly in tension!

Then, the red-named player took a deep breath and sank back down—the Young Master breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down, asking his subordinate: "What was his swimming level when he came up for air just now?"

The team member played back the video frame by frame and quickly concluded: "No obvious skill effects. He doesn't know how to swim. When he surfaced, he grabbed two people for leverage, and his diving speed wasn't a normal technical movement—it's highly likely that he stole so many items from the Count's mansion that the heavy load is actually beneficial for diving."

The Young Master knitted his brows: "Replay the video of him stealing."

The team member pointed to a player jumping at the base of a wall: "This is him, death-weakness, he didn't have Climbing at this time. But the strange thing is here: he was bitten by a dog, and he didn't struggle; this process lasted 2 seconds! Then he stepped on the dog's head and successfully climbed the wall. After that, his climbing movements were coherent and had skill effects—it was there that he comprehended the Climbing skill!"

The Young Master was astonished: "Don't stray dogs run away after one bite?"

The team member couldn't answer that, so he fast-forwarded the video to change the subject: "This is the video of him coming downstairs. He stole a piece of women's clothing, likely a dancer's costume. The key is the reaction of the stray dogs below—he threw out a few items to successfully lure them away and took the opportunity to run into the sewer, but he was still bitten by an elite-level stray dog. Overall, his thinking was very clear and his actions were very coherent, as if he came prepared! But the strange thing is, he was in a state of death-weakness. What kind of operation requires being done while in death-weakness?"

The Young Master slapped him across the face: "Baka! I'm asking you, and you're asking me back?"

Then another team member came forward to report: "Young Master, major discovery! We retrieved the video records from the open beta period; there is no footage of him appearing at any of the 300 surveillance points—he only appeared at the Harbor Bar, meeting with the female lead Vivian every day! The video from yesterday when the official servers opened also shows him going to see the female lead immediately!"

The Young Master was shaken to his core: "Retrieve yesterday's video!"

In the video, Da Chun entered the tavern, spoke with the dancer Vivian, handed an item to the clerk, and then followed the clerk into the back door and disappeared.

The Young Master was shocked: "What is it? Where did he go?"

The team member replied: "Judging by the packaging, it should be a very expensive kind of wine! He hasn't appeared on any streets, docks, or roads outside the city. The most likely possibility... he used the sewer! He had no ranking during the open beta, and yesterday he was ranked 15,000th—a huge improvement. It's certain that he obtained clues for a hidden quest during the beta; otherwise, it would be impossible to trigger a quest the moment he started."

The Young Master’s face darkened: "Is taking the sewer to get out of the city related to smuggling spices?"

"It's entirely possible! Judging by his actions in stealing the dancer's costume, he must have a deep connection with the female lead."

The Young Master said in a low voice: "Pull up his video for today."

In the video, Da Chun appeared at the resurrection point and then headed to the dark alley district to enter the astrology shop.

The team member who had been slapped suddenly realized: "The astrology shop has predictive capabilities, so he came prepared based on a prediction!"

The Young Master gritted his teeth: "Are the teams in position?"

"3 groups of 300 people are already in place!"

The Young Master couldn't wait any longer: "Groups 1 and 2, go underwater to clear the field! Group 3, block the entrance above ground; kill any player who tries to enter the well."

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