CH 31

In the end, QiLeren decided to follow SuHe’s advice and seek out ChenBaiqi. He’ll definitely have to cough up a pretty penny for her information, but it’d be worth it.

He eventually managed to find her not in her shop but at the coastline of Nightfall Island, gazing into the horizon with a wistful expression. The little girl she was always seen with was searching for seashells on the beach, turning around with a brilliant smile as she showed off a beautiful conch to ChenBaiqi.

In the sunset, her sharp, indifferent features were stained a warm orange-red as she stared beyond the city, softening the edges until QiLeren became painfully aware of the fact that she too was just a young adult.

ChenBaiqi didn’t turn around. “I’m surprised you’re the first to find me.”

QiLeren didn’t understand. He stood beside her and mimicked her relaxed lean into the dam wall. “Why can’t it be me?” he asked at the sunset.

He received silent laughter and an offer for a cigarette in lieu of a response. When he turned it down, ChenBaiqi shrugged and lit up her own. “I thought,” she said around the cigarette, nonchalant, “that your friend Mr Su was going to seek me out for information.”

“Why?” He really needed to work on not seeming like a complete idiot, but he was curious.

She blew out a breath of smoke and gave QiLeren a sardonic look. “Surely you don’t think a player hailing from Aurora would look after a group of complete newbies out of the kindness of his own heart? Back on the airship I thought that he just wanted to hitch a ride to Eventide with you guys at the end of the tutorial since Aurora is quite far, but maybe that’s not quite it.”

QiLeren grappled with words as ChenBaiqi turned around so her back leaned against the wall instead, coming up with none. With the sun behind her, the end of her cigarette flickered with the sea breeze. “Something happened in that tutorial village of yours, didn’t it?”

“…Yes.” This woman was frighteningly perceptive. He should’ve known that anyone who managed to find their footing in this world was bound to be sharp as a razor.

“I’ve heard that players who enter Aurora are granted special privileges and can be assigned special quests by the system, like cleaning up bugs in instance dungeons. Compared to normal players like us, I guess they’d be more like GMs,” ChenBaiqi mused, flicking off some ash before continuing. “The number of people who game out from your tutorial village was too low. Normally a batch of newbies will either all die together or come out with over half still alive. You guys, on the other hand, arrived in Eventide with only three newbies and a player from Aurora – there must’ve been a problem with your tutorial.”

“You’re right,” QiLeren confirmed. “One of the players in our tutorial village was a serial killer who ended up murdering most of the players there. If it weren’t for SuHe, we probably would’ve died together as well.”

ChenBaiqi frowned. “A player? That’s not a bug.”

“Yeah, which is why SuHe initially planned to fake his death and leave after he realised, except then I saved his life…well, I guess it’s more like I interfered with his plan.”

ChenBaiqi made a noise in acknowledgement, pinning QiLeren with an undecipherable look that made his hair stand on end. “Is something wrong?” he asked nervously.

She chuckled and took a long drag from her cigarette. “Mr Su must really like you.”

SuHe’s joke from half an hour ago replayed itself in QiLeren’s mind – wow, he was very uncomfortable with that thought – but he soon realised that ChenBaiqi was referring to the normal meaning of the word.

“There’s only one explanation I can think of for Mr Su’s behaviour, and it’s that one of you have piqued his interest. I suppose that’d be you. I don’t know how exactly you ‘saved’ him, but if I were him I think I would be interested too. As a veteran, the amount of time we spend trying to off each other grossly overshadows time spent helping each other; I haven’t been saved by a stranger in a very long time, and I’d imagine that number only grows larger for Mr Su.” The look ChenBaiqi gave him was stained with the colour of schadenfreude, sending shivers down his spine.

QiLeren could almost hear her unspoken words: Very good, boy, you’ve caught my eye.

No, he didn’t want this kind of onee-san!

Thankfully, ChenBaiqi decided to take pity on him. “Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. So, what did you need me for? Don’t tell me you just wanted to watch the sunset with me. Sunset dates with a cute boy like you has a great aesthetic, but I’m not going to give you any discounts for it.” She stubbed out the cigarette and gave QiLeren an amused look.

No no no no no, he liked beautiful mature women who were elegantly aloof. Not like this. No thanks.

“I do indeed have something I was hoping you could help me with. It’s about a place called Makah Village…” QiLeren carefully omitted the origins and details of the quest, giving only the location and his request for its history.

“Makah Village…I have a vague idea.” She crossed her arms as she considered this, before asking, “How much of your lifespan have you spent already? How much I tell you will depend on it.”

Oh no. “…Not much.”

ChenBaiqi sighed. “Scratch that thought, I’ll offer you a bargain: give me three days and I’ll tell you everything I can.” She immediately produced a blank contract, filled in the details and gave it to QiLeren to sign. With great pain, QiLeren printed his name onto the line.

ChenBaiqi was clearly unsatisfied with the meagre three days as she rolled up the contract, but a deal was a deal. “This Makah Village of yours isn’t too far from Eventide; there’s been players who’ve passed by there before. They have a delightful tradition of sacrificing girls to demons.”

QiLeren nodded slowly. So far, everything was as SuHe predicted; the background of this quest should be the sacrifice of young girls to demons in exchange for power or protection.

“This tradition stems from the first demon invasion of twenty years ago, when Makah Village, along with several others in the vicinity, gave themselves to the demons and obtained protection through continuous sacrifices. Every three years, thirteen girls are chosen as offerings and thrown into a forest until one of them is chosen and becomes a witch to act as a demon servant.”

Here, ChenBaiqi paused to look QiLeren from head to toe, finally settling on the emblem on his left hand. “Some guys from the institution dropped by a few minutes before you to ask me about something. Apparently two NPC girls got killed nearby. The killers were NPCs as well, but here’s the strange thing – the killers also got killed, though theirkiller is nowhere to be found right now. Considering the time, people involved, age, gender, as well as that recently-surfaced emblem on your hand…” A dry chuckle. “Let me guess. Did you see something you shouldn’t have?”

QiLeren’s heart was beating out of his chest as his mind raced for a response. How did she get all that from his simple question?! And now that she knew he was a witness, was she going to report him to the institution?

“Don’t worry, I know you’re nowhere good enough to actually have committed the crime.” She fixed QiLeren with a look of equal parts amusement and curiosity. “Besides, the institution already knows who the culprit is, they just sent some officers to ask if I knew of their whereabouts. You’re a surprise though, walking into a trap like you did. Anyhow, I have no interest in informing the institution of this; I don’t report to them, nor am I unprofessional enough to sell out a client I’ve already charged.”

QiLeren let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding and shot ChenBaiqi a look of gratitude. Letting the institution know that he was a witness probably wouldn’t amount to anything big, but the fewer complications, the better.

“Did you see the person who did it?” ChenBaiqi asked, quirking a long slender brow.

QiLeren shook his head and was met with a laugh.

“Pity. A cold beauty, that one.”

Was the culprit the owner of that talking eagle? The whistle had come from around the crime scene, and then he followed the eagle straight to the bodies…the time matched up, at least.

“Oh, and one more thing,” ChenBaiqi suddenly added. In the distance, the little girl had become tired and was running back with an armful of seashells. “If you do end up in the same quest, don’t oppose them no matter what. You’ll never win.”

“I’ll be careful.” Going by ChenBaiqi’s description, QiLeren created the mental image of the woman, beautiful and aloof, that he’ll meet in the next quest.

“Sis, look what I found!” The little girl nimbly climbed over the concrete wall and held out her spoils with a proud grin.

ChenBaiqi patted her head indulgingly. “You’re so good at picking out the really pretty ones.”

What the little girl held in her hands were just normal shells, QiLeren realised. The only thing that could really be considered to be pretty was a little conch.

“I’ll compile all the information I have on Makah Village and send it to you,” ChenBaiqi said as she dusted the sand off her sister’s dress. “One last thing.”

“Yes?”

“Bring some bird food.” She took her sister’s hand and left with a smile.

QiLeren stood silently, watching their departing figures. Bird food?