In the VR game of the other world, Cheng Xiu inspected the last Red Fire holder and still had not found anything.
It was either that there was nothing there or she had not met the right conditions to unlock this part of the dungeon. Maybe she needed to meet some key figures or needed to have some key items in her hand to find out the way.
She walked away from them towards San Zhe. He was still inspecting the fourth Barrel.
The Red Flames behind her flared briefly, extending their tendrils to touch the tip of a few of her hair. The retracted as soon as she turned back to look at them.
Cheng Xiu frowned. Her instincts had just went on high-alert, like there was something behind her.
She stared for a few moments. She was sure that she did not feel wrong, but decided not to give the matter more attention at this time as she had some other things that she needed to attend to.
"How is it?" she asked San Zhe after reaching his end of the room.
San Zhe let out a sigh in distress. "I can't find anything yet."
"Why is it taking you so long to examine them though?"
San Zhe blinked and looked at the various torches in the room. There were 20 of them at most and all of them had most of their features for others to see anyway. His eyes then went to the large containers with alcohol in front of him. There were twenty of those as well but is it the same thing?
Cheng Xiu looked at his expression and guessed his thoughts. "I meant that I was sure that you would have finished at least 10 of these. After all, they are large structures with more exposed area. All you have to do is look under it and lift the lid and check those."
"What if there are some engraved symbols that are not visible to the naked eyes because of some kind of optical illusion?"
"Then just swipe your had over that place. It is optical right?"
San Zhe blushed. He felt like he was not worthy of standing in the room all of a sudden.
"I am not trying to discourage you…I didn't find anything on the Red Torches either," Cheng Xiu said. "In fact, I think I should check it too. Maybe swipe my hands over the surface once more to see if there is something that I missed."
Cheng Xiu quickly escaped from the area.
She had really wanted to help San Zhe but her words might have been too blunt and impolite at that moment and if she said she would help him check after that, he might think that she thought he was unreliable. She did not know him enough to know if his ego was that fragile but she knew she would have felt annoyed at that kind of a behaviour.
She did not want to stay to see if that was the truth.
Just as she reached the torches again, someone called her name.
Cheng Xiu looked to the side and realised that Yaksha was calling them both.
She hurried over.
The Red Fires curled their tendrils like the legs of octopuses.
"What is it?" Cheng Xiu asked Yaksha in excitement. "Did you find something valuable?"
Yaksha pointed towards the sacks in front of him. "There are 21 bags here."
Cheng Xi blinked. She thought back to what she had thought of before. "20 Torches, 20 Wine Barrels but there are 21 bags…we have to find the extra bag."
"What do you think is in the bag?"
"Maybe a trap or maybe a clue. Who knows."
"Do you want me to open it?" Yaksha asked them.
"You did not open it?" Cheng Xiu asked in surprise.
"Isn't this mission yours? What ever I do with the sack has to be because the two of you told me to do it. It is basic etiquette."
"If you say so," Cheng Xiu said. "Open them then. Let us see if there is something that can help us."
Yaksha nodded and took out a dagger from his storage space and tore through the bag.
Cheng Xiu and San Zhe took a step back automatically.
The two looked at each other and reached a tactical understanding. They were low level Qiless players and Yaksha was a high level Expert of the game. There was no way that anything in that bag could hurt the man unlike them. They would be easily dealt with.
"Oh," Yaksha said, and kept staring at the contents inside the sack.
Cheng Xiu and San Zhe looked at each other, ecouraging each other to go and peak into the sack with the expert.
After a few seconds of stalling, Cheng Xiu sighed in defeat and walked forwards. They were wasting time by being cowardly.
She peeked over Yaksha's shoulder.
Inside the sack was a mountain of hair and wigs.
Cheng Xiu tilted her head in ocnfusion.
"They are Witchcraft materials," Yaksha explained to her. "And the wigs and stuff must be something that the rats trade with the other monsters of the Tower, getting resources from each other."
Cheng Xiu looked at the sack in wonder. "So that is how they make profit?"
Yaksha nodded. "And entire Empire can not be built of solely these factors but yes, this must be the main sources of income for the people of this dungeon."
"Should we burn it?" San Zhe asked Yaksha.
"Why would we burn it?" Cheng Xiu asked him.
"No, we will not burn it," Yaksha said to him. "There is no value in doing that."
"But-"
"Besides," Cheng Xiu said in a low voice, "The rats also seem to be like normal people. Good, Bad, greedy, kind. Everything. We should not let our egoes make us forget that we are still people living in a modern, rule-bound society."
San Zhe blinked. "Um…"
Yaksha chuckled. "You seem to have become emotionally attached to the Rat NPCs."
"They are still living beings."
"If you say so."
Cheng Xiu stared at him for a few moments and then went back to look at the sacks. "Check out the rest of the bags as well. I am sure that not all of them are furs and wigs."
Yaksha took out two blades from his storage ring and handed it to the two of them.
The Two Qiless people looked at him, dumbfounded.
"What?..." San Zhe subconsciously asked.
"Happy cooperation, my comrades," Yaksha said to them with a 'Sincere' tone of voice that was full of mockery.
Cheng Xiu was sure this was a retaliation from the man for her trying to order him around.
Cheng Xiu turned to San Zhe and muttered a sorry before taking the weapon and taking out a sack from the back that did not look as heavy as the others. She had a guess that the objects that could help them get to the counter without injury would be something that was light weight in comparison.
Her sorry to San Zhe was because he had to suffer with her because she could not help her bossy attitude form coming to the forefront again. It was a real problem but she was not sure how she should handle herself.
San Zhe stared at Cheng Xiu's back in confusion. Why did that woman say sorry to him just now?
Yaksha was not aware of the shadows that his words created in the hearts of the two people. After all, he was only teasing them.
The second sack was full of masks.
San Zhe opened a sack as well and found that it was filled with different types of pickled eyes.
Yaksha took out a bag of metal meshes.
Cheng Xiu got a bag full of rotten animal feet.
San Zhe got a sack full of jars of intestines.
Yaksha picked out a bag of dress shirts from it.
After two more rounds, San Zhe and Cheng Xiu came to one conclusion.
Yaksha's Luck: At 100 % efficiency.
San Zhe + Cheng Xiu's Luck : Less than 40% efficiency.
Really. This was why the two of them were Qiless and Low-levels.
Damned Qi users always had the luck around them.
In another part of the VR World, a few official looking people sat in a cabinet setting, each reading a collection of papers.
A woman in golden martial robes walked onto the podium, a large phoenix symbol floating above her head. She cleared her throat as she looked around at the people who stared at her.
One seat was empty.
"Where is Yaksha?" the woman asked.
Everyone started to murmur.
***
Author's Theater:
Red Fire: Want to touch the hair of the FL.
Yaksha: let me call her away before you occupy her mind.
***
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