Chapter 62: Consortium Experts Intercept the Deal

Inside the Pre-Divinity Command Center, the atmosphere was grim and oppressive.

Faced with the pincer attack from two unidentified enemy vessels, the NPC captain of the Kirishima Maru decisively issued an order to retreat, losing half of their supplies during the teleportation escape.

The captain cursed furiously. Not only had the expedition to Spice Island yielded nothing, but their unauthorized reconnaissance of Plague Island had also resulted in heavy losses. Most crucially, they had discovered absolutely nothing. How were they supposed to report back to the count now...

The Young Master was equally unable to accept this outcome. This meant that the connection with the count, secured at the cost of sacrificing considerable interests, would be severely undermined, making it extremely difficult to ask the count for favors in the future.

"Snap-Shot, tell me, how should we handle this?"

Snap-Shot Immortal replied, "Young Master, if we found nothing, let's just claim there was nothing. We'll let the NPC go back with that explanation—say there is no ghost town at all, and that it was entirely a fugitive colluding with pirates. He lit fires on the island to lure adventurers in like moths to a flame, only for them to be ambushed by pirates."

An uproar instantly swept through the room!

The Young Master was even more shocked. "Snap-Shot, I actually think your explanation is entirely plausible!"

Snap-Shot Immortal said solemnly, "If I were the one exiled on that island, I would have done the exact same thing! I mean, assuming no quests were triggered, there are no quest resources on the island, and it's completely desolate."

The Young Master suddenly realized, "Yet in reality, everyone believes he triggered a quest and caused a ghost town to appear!"

Snap-Shot said, "That is indeed a very suspicious matter. He either runs away or spreads the plague to trigger a world broadcast. Most importantly, he hitched a ride on the massive traffic wave of the broadcast immediately following the high-light moment of the Silver City of Jariel's celebration. All of this focuses the world's attention on Plague Island. What is his goal?"

The Young Master said in a deep voice, "To cover up the real operations of his backing team?"

Snap-Shot said, "That's a possibility, but we still have to assert that he genuinely triggered the ghost town. He's playing a game of shadows and illusions, and what we need to do is seize control of the situation and oppose him head-on—declare that this is a despicable scam. That way, no other adventurers will go to the island. At the same time, we can ruin his reputation so he loses the world's attention, leaving only us to continue investigating Plague Island in secret."

The Young Master felt greatly comforted. "Snap-Shot, you truly live up to your name as a quest expert! Excellent! The Kirishima Maru team will do everything possible to convince the NPC captain to spread the word about this scam."

"Kirishima Maru understands."

Snap-Shot Immortal also felt the need to boost team morale. "Young Master, the experts of the Count's Estate have all gone to the prison, and the guard dogs have grown used to my scent. Plus, it's just getting dark. For the sake of winning the public opinion war, I think it's time for me to qualify as a reporter."

The Young Master looked forward to it. "Then do as you say."

"Understood."

……

To cultivate Amy as an inside informant, Snap-Shot Immortal had hidden in the laundry room of the Count's Estate for two days, washing her clothes and bedsheets. He washed them so quickly and well that Amy won the housekeeper's appreciation, and it eventually reached a point where there was nothing left to wash in the estate. As a result, he was allowed to wash the ornate bedsheets and gauze curtains of the female residents, and even go to the kitchen to do chores and wash dishes to raise Amy's cooking skill.

However, he still wasn't allowed to wash the undergarments of the dancers and mistresses. Perhaps with a bit more wait time it would be possible, or perhaps no matter how lazy the female residents were, they would never let anyone else touch their undergarments...

In short, while there were regrets in his primary objective, his secondary gains were bountiful: Amy had learned a lot of gossip and petty secrets from those chattering maids, which was more than enough to complete the qualification process for a tabloid reporter and a thief.

Yet the most important gain was something whispered in low, mysterious tones by a kitchen maid that morning, deliberately avoiding Amy when she stepped closer to listen. There were only two sentences in total:

"The lid was opened again last night..."

"Sigh, even though she eats well and dresses well, she's so pitiable!"

……

The amount of information in this was simply overwhelming!

Snap-Shot had spent the entire open beta focusing on the noble faction route; even by guessing, he could figure out the rough outline: the lid was likely a sewer manhole cover, and the pitiable person who ate and dressed well could only be a dancer. Amy's sister had been a dancer who died of the plague, which was why the maid avoided talking about it in front of her. Therefore, the logical conclusion was that there was a secret passage in the Count's Estate used for body disposal.

And secret passages were indeed standard escape facilities in noble estates. This meant players could attack the Count's Estate through the secret passage! Furthermore, the city was still under plague quarantine, and the sewer manholes were all welded shut, making it impossible to retrieve the sacred artifact that Dachun had blown up. Finding this secret passage was an urgent priority.

In short, he had to officially qualify as a thief!

Thus, Snap-Shot Immortal said goodbye to Amy, "I have to leave for a while, and I'll be back in three days at the latest. By then, the estate will have accumulated a lot of dirty laundry again, and I'll be right back to help you wash it."

Amy was quite reluctant to part with him. "When you go out, go visit my mother and tell her I'm doing well!"

"Got it. Just stay in your room and don't see me off—remember, there must absolutely never be even the slightest possibility of anyone seeing you with an outsider!"

Amy already understood well. "Understood, just like the kitchen auntie and the head guard dating in the garden in the middle of the night, yet still getting seen..."

Snap-Shot was deeply gratified. This was the kind of intelligence tabloid newspapers loved best, but such information required deep excavation, piecing together, and polishing before it could be published and sold. He had already figured out the next piece of the puzzle: "The count's wife also passed by late at night accompanied by a personal guard..."

In short, after leaving the room and confirming there were no dogs or high-level guards in the courtyard, Snap-Shot sprinted a hundred meters and smashed straight into a wall to commit suicide!

Although climbing over the wall wasn't particularly difficult, the streets were swarming with observant players, which was an unsolvable problem, leaving suicide as the only option.

Then, he resurrected in the plaza and, ignoring the death debuff, headed straight for the secret headquarters of the thieves—not the tavern players usually assumed, but the tabloid newspaper office!

According to the internal development intelligence the Young Master had acquired, the thief class was overwhelmingly powerful during the pioneering era of the game's lore, holding the title of one of the "Thief Emperors," which was why it had been subjected to an "anti-monopoly split," potentially breaking them into treasure hunters and shadow assassins. Therefore, the thief's primary business now was collecting and trading intelligence—but this didn't mean thieves had grown weak. Anyone who truly understood knew that this actually meant controlling media public opinion, which was the most powerful thing of all!

Entering the newspaper office through the back door, he handed over more than 80 pieces of gossip related to the Count's Estate, received a generous newcomer's manuscript fee, skipped the quests he had already completed during the open beta, and directly passed the interview to qualify for the newspaper reporter class. It wasn't a combat class, but it possessed the public opinion privileges of the "uncrowned king," which was the true foundation for taking off.

Then, he entered the hidden door leading to the thieves' headquarters—an underground exotic dance tavern! Yes, another tavern! But knowing which entrance to use was the key. From there, he qualified as a thief, acquiring the three core class skills: Stealth, Pickpocket, and Sprint.

Stealth was on a completely different level from invisibility, but the advantage was that it consumed nothing. Even in the hands of an average high-level player, these few skills were more than enough.

Now Snap-Shot was simultaneously a newspaper reporter and a thief, a level of strength and status that fully justified the effort of washing laundry for two days.

Next, he ate and drank at the tavern to clear the death debuff, then went to the shop with his manuscript fee to buy a set of butler-grade clothing—although more expensive options were available, this was the critical balance: presentable while strictly avoiding any overstepping of boundaries.

With everything prepared, his articles should have been printed and published by now, so he bought a copy and went looking for Dancer Number 1, Vivian. During the two days of washing clothes, other members of the task force had also interacted with this dancer, roughly figuring out her interests and personality. She was deeply enamored with high society, which made things very easy.

Arriving at the harbor tavern, Snap-Shot instinctively exchanged glances with the two stationed surveillance team members to confirm everything was normal, then walked up to Vivian's counter to order a drink, flashing his reporter's press pass. "Miss Vivian, may I interview you?"

Vivian cast an astonished, elevated glance at him, then drawled lazily, "Not interested."

Snap-Shot was very pleased with her astonishment; this was the recognition of his transcendent status.

So he handed over the newspaper. "I am a very talented reporter, and this is my work. I can obtain firsthand information on the nobles' inner circles! You'll definitely be interested."

Vivian's lazy gaze suddenly lit up, instantly showing deep interest. "You write things like this—aren't you afraid the count will butcher you?"

You have to admit, this was the price of being a tabloid reporter. While the newspaper office as a whole was the uncrowned king, individual reporters had to be mentally prepared. Anyway, the count's power was mostly tied down in the underworld, so he had to seize the chance while the count was too distracted to wreak havoc with articles about him.

"Not afraid. This is my professional creed."

Vivian asked again, "Then what could you possibly interview me about?"

"First of all, the matter of the spices."

Vivian said, "It was already announced at the banquet; they were just picked up on the beach. As for their value, that's left to the Spice Guild to evaluate. It's all public knowledge. I have nothing to say about it."

Snap-Shot sighed, "Although we're a tabloid, we're very popular with the common folk. News like that really disappoints the public and fails to spark their interest. I want to obtain much more explosive news, and I want to get more inside information about the baron. It would also make you even more famous, which I'm sure interests you. I hope you can assist me in interviewing the baron."

Vivian didn't answer immediately; instead, she continued flipping through the newspaper with rapt interest.

Snap-Shot waited patiently for her refusal.

For a smart NPC with a simple material-desire personality template like Female Lead Number 1, there were fourteen different counters he could use in response. Every time she refused, it would eliminate half of the remaining response plans, further clarifying her personality. He only needed her to refuse two more times to lock in success!

Finally, Vivian spoke. "You mean you want to write equally exciting news about the baron?"

"Yes!"

Vivian smiled, however, and produced an item that looked like a house tag. "I'm quite looking forward to it. The Baron's Estate is in need of temporary odd-job servants. You can take this tag and go to the Baron's Estate to report for an undercover investigation. But the premise is that whatever you write must be handed over to me first and cannot be published, otherwise—"

—System Prompt: You have triggered the event "Temporary Servant at the Baron's Estate." Do you accept?

Snap-Shot was stunned! An undercover investigation, of all things? Although he was very confident, triggering a quest event with such over-the-counter success on the very first try felt a bit wrong, leaving him no way to lock down her personality traits.

Snap-Shot instantly thought of that guy Dachun. There was only one possibility: Dachun had been interacting with her throughout the entire open beta, pushing forward her quest progression!

The moment he thought of this, Snap-Shot's fighting spirit instantly ignited. Even though Dachun was a step ahead, he could still pull him down and take control of the narrative!

—Accept!

"Thank you, Miss! I will hand it over to you at the first opportunity."

Vivian waved her hand lazily once more. "Go on..."

Snap-Shot didn't leave immediately, however. Instead, he deliberately lingered to listen to the chat of the NPC patrons in the tavern, and immediately heard them discussing the legends of the ghost town on Plague Island.

Snap-Shot smiled and asked, "Miss Vivian, how do you view the rumors about Plague Island?"

Vivian grew slightly impatient. "I don't know."

Snap-Shot said solemnly, "Actually, I also have news regarding the ghost town on Plague Island. I'll write an article right now and hand it over to you at the very first moment—"

Then he immediately sat down at the bar stool, writing and speaking at the same time: "Because this isn't a matter concerning the Baron's Estate, even though I've handed the firsthand intelligence over to you, this part can be published..."

Vivian took the manuscript, incredulous. "Found by the count's treasure ship again?"

Snap-Shot smiled. "That's right, I know the Count's Estate very well. Well then, Miss Vivian, I'm off to work as a servant at the Baron's Estate."

This was not only a blow to suppress Dachun, but also a test of Female Lead Number 1's attitude. The count's treasure ship was still on its return journey and hadn't had time to spread the news yet. If Female Lead Number 1 spread it in advance, it would mean she felt absolute contempt and dissatisfaction toward Dachun. If she didn't spread it, there would be three other possibilities...