Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 110 Leaving After The Deed Is Done

There were several ways to interpret a burglary.

Some would call it “robbing the rich to help the poor,” some might say that it was an act of upholding justice, some even portrayed it as an act of heroism. Since ancient times, burglaries were constantly beautified by art and literature. Not taking The Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature[1] into account, even the TV dramas had frequently portrayed it as such. A lot of the main characters were literally bandits. Uhh… That… Was totally off the wall.

But, without exception, a heist was usually done at night. Even the Elegant Thief Chu Liuxiang [2] had once said, “I’ll be here tonight, riding the moonlight.” Nobody had even heard of a thief stealing in broad daylight. Of course, one could see that no matter how you beautified an act of thievery, it was still a shady business.

Using the same logic, Ye Ci, who was prepared to do the same thing, would of course choose to do it in the middle of the night.

Fate’s weather was every changing. There was wind and rain, thunder and lighting, and even brilliant white snow. There were even nights with a clear moon where the stars were few, or even a clear and boundless sky at times. The weather here was 100% realistic. The changing of the four seasons was the most basic feature.

That night had been perfect.

Night in Fate coincided with the night time in real life. According to the system’s internal calendar, it was an autumn night. The night was dark. Not even a single star illuminated the sky, and chilly winds blew softly. Most of the players had gone to bed. Even those who had not were doing random stuff like fishing or perhaps leveling up. In short, there were not many players around in the guild encampment.

Such weather, such a silent night. It was the perfect timing for a thief to go to work.

It was not the first time Ye Ci had pulled off a heist. She had quite some experience in her last life, but she had never done it alone. This was the first time Ye Ci went in alone, and it was a whole new experience for her.

At that time, she had a group with her. Everybody had their own task. Once they’d confirmed the target, they would carry out their operation methodically. There were players who acted as lookouts, there were those who were tasked with breaking into the guild warehouse, while some others served as distraction. With this, they saved a lot of time and had a high success rate. But, all these heists happened 3 years after Fate was officially launched.

After quite a few years of getting to know the game, the large scale battles between the 2 opposing factions began. It meant that fights between guilds of the same continent became less interesting for players. After all, a war between guilds of the same continent was a waste of resources. That was why players came up with an even more despicable way to deal with their competitors: ransacking their guild warehouse.

When the market for such services arose, parties that were specialised in heists quickly emerged. As long as they were paid, they would rob a target. Such groups hid their identities well, eluding even their employers, not to mention their victims.

“Leaving after the job was done, leaving behind glory and fame.” This saying could best used to describe such individuals.

Such heists caused huge losses to guilds. Although complaints were made by the players, Fate officials showed no intention of changing the feature. According to the game’s developers, “This will add more fun to the game.” People would even rob banks in real life, so why can’t a guild warehouse be robbed? That was the official explanation by Fate’s developers. This answer meant that guilds with encampments that were lower than lvl 5 could only bemoan their bad luck and work their hardest to level up their guild encampment to lower the chance of their guild being robbed.

Of course, that all happened 3 years later. The guilds at this time did not even know that their warehouse could be robbed. They were not the ones to be blamed. Fate officials’ explanation of the game’s features were very brief. They had never warned players about such matters, but instead talked about trivial stuff in their guide. There was never a statement made by the officials stating that a guild’s warehouse could be robbed. It was not even hinted in the description of the guild encampment.

As for the security measures of a lvl 5 guild encampment, Ye Ci had already knew all about it as a reincarnator.

She had never mentioned it to anybody, and naturally nobody would know about it.

Every player in the game thought that the guild warehouse was the safest place in the game. They had even mistook it to be even safer than their personal storage. Humans are creatures of habit, and they were easily blinded by their habit. For example, if a man in tattered clothing sat in a train station with his bag, nobody would ever think of robbing him. Even if the bag was filled with millions of dollar, people would probably think that there was nothing but useless stuff in the bag. But if somebody with expensive-looking clothing walked around with a password protected briefcase, everybody might have the perception that he was rich, even if the briefcase was only filled with toiletries.

Such is human nature.

And human nature can be a very scary thing.

Before the launch of Fate, it was impossible to rob a guild warehouse in any other games. That was why people assumed that Fate’s guild warehouse could not be robbed.

And then…

Although Ye Ci had not done this for a long time, she still made preparations in sequence with the necessary steps. She first headed to the Western District of Red Lake City. There was a mysterious shop hidden in the slums of all the major cities. The shop did not have any signs, and was well hidden. It was very hard to locate.

Walking through the alleys under the cover of darkness, Ye Ci reached the outskirts of the slums. A young beggar laid there. He looked innocuous, and he did not even have a name, but Ye Ci walked up to him and threw a gold coin into his bowl. The gold coin made a sharp noise as it landed, echoing in the silent night.

The sharp noise woke the young beggar up. He opened his eyes and stared at the gold coin excitedly. He picked up the gold coin and smiled at Ye Ci, “Thank you, thank you!”

He then went back to sleep. Ye Ci threw another gold coin into his bowl the moment he shut his eyes. The young beggar once again woke up, and showed the same reaction. And when he slept, Ye Ci threw yet another gold coin into his bowl.

Ye Ci repeated the process over and over again, and the young beggar sat up straight when she threw in the 10th coin. He looked at Ye Ci, “You’re a weird person.”

That’s right, it was a hidden quest. A hidden quest that must be completed before one could perform a heist. There was a beggar just like this one in the slums of every major city. If a player threw precisely 1 gold coin into his bowl continuously for 10 times within 20 minutes, the beggar would tell the player a secret. But, after the beggar had told the player his secret, he would disappear. This meant that the condition to unlock the secret mission in the city would disappear as well.

This was an indirect way designed by the Fate officials to limit the players’ from robbing. If everybody could do this quest, wouldn’t everybody end up a thief?

“I can tell you a secret, do you want to hear it?” said the young beggar. Ye Ci smiled and passed a sack containing 100 gold coins to the beggar, “For you.”

The young beggar accepted the sack and shook it in his hands. The gold coins within rattled with a loud noise. He narrowed his eyes with satisfaction, “You’re a person with good taste.” He stood up and smiled at Ye Ci, “Follow me, don’t get lost.”

With that, the young beggar began sprinting.

It was rare for an NPC to run at such high speed. If Ye Ci was not a Huntress, she would’ve lost him after a few turns. The beggar stopped in front of a row of messy and smelly houses, and walked towards one of them.

Ye Ci followed him into the house, which was decorated by some old furniture covered by grease. An unknown stench filled the air within the house. A table that looked as if it was going to fall apart anytime soon was placed in the deepest corner of the house, and behind the table sat 3 old men with tattered clothing. They were playing poker. The dim light shining onto their faces gave them an eerie look.

“We have business.” said the young beggar as he walked up to the trio. They raised their heads and looked at Ye Ci with ambiguous smiles.

Don’t be afraid. This is not the human-meat bun shop of Sun Erniang. This was only a shop selling special items that only receive customers brought in by the young beggar. Others who walked into the place would only see 3 old beggars playing poker.

“Honorable customer, what do you wish to buy?” Old beggar A showed his yellowish teeth while rubbing his fingers together, “I sell the best clothes, you might find use for one of them.”

One of them was selling clothes, the other various tools, while the last one sold special potions. All of them were necessities for a heist.

They were not cheap. These were the so-called initial investment. Because of that, players who did such things would normally demand a high price from their employers.

A Black Suit that enabled its user to go invisible for half an hour cost 2000 gold coins, a mask that could hide a player’s face and name completely for half an hour cost 500 gold coins, and a grappling hook that could assist in scaling walls cost 1000 gold coins, and a master key that could unlock the door to the guild warehouse of guild encampment of levels 1-5 cost 3000 gold coins, while a potion that could put other players to sleep for 30 minutes cost 300 gold coins each.

Ye Ci had prepared 10,000 gold coins for her operation. She bought the suit, the mask, a grappling hook, the master key and 11 sleeping potions.

Translator’s note:

[1] The Four Classic Novel of Chinese Literature 中国四大名著:

Dream of the Red Chamber(红楼梦), Water Margin(水浒传), Romance of the Three Kingdoms(三国演义), Journey to the West(西游记).

[2] Elegant Thief Chu Liuxiang:

Chu Liuxiang is the fictional protagonist of the wuxia novel series Chu Liuxiang Series by Taiwanese writer Gu Long. His given name “Liuxiang” literally means “lingering fragrance”

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