Scourge Messenger

Chapter 83 The Rat Monk

Today's thieves' meeting also ended hastily.

It wasn't that they were too long off to get back into work mode immediately, but rather that the operation was scheduled for midnight three days from now, which was the middle of the day. They couldn't possibly determine the details of the night patrols, the flow of people at night, and the areas with light and darkness. More importantly, they needed to find out where Shang Xuanwen would be resting that night. Otherwise, without even a target location, how could they make a plan?
They agreed to meet again at midnight that night, and then everyone went back to their rooms. After Yan Qing closed the door, he did not immediately take off his mask. Instead, he went over and picked up the Bingzi Jiaolin—he deliberately did not wear the Bingzi Jiaolin so as not to make the pharmacists envious—and after waiting for a moment, there was indeed a knock on the door.

He still only opened the door a crack, still rested his right hand on the hilt of the Bingzi Jiaolin sword, and looked at Shang Xinlei outside without saying a word.

"Is she alright?" Shang Xinlei asked.

"it is good."

"Can you tell me where she went?"

"No."

Shang Xinlei had anticipated Yan Qing's rejection and nodded gently. She glanced at the Bingzi Pepper Forest that Yan Qing was leaning against, lost in thought for a long time.

"If there's nothing else, then—"

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" Yan Qing said. "I don't remember doing anything that deserves your thanks."

"Thank you for helping my friend," Shang Xinlei said sincerely. "If you hadn't given her the Bingzi Pepper Forest beforehand..."

Upon seeing Bingzi Jiaolin, Shang Xinlei knew that Huang Quan already knew her true identity.

Since Yan Qing would lend Bingzi Jiaolin to Jiang Shi, she would naturally learn from Jiang Shi that Shang Xinlei had advised her to leave Huangquan, thus recognizing Shang Xinlei as one of the thief women in the thief's family. And since the thief's family only has four members, Chi She from the Jiangnan region is clearly the only correct answer.

Rather, if Yan Qing mistook the tomboy Black Wolf or the hypocritical White Fox for herself, Shang Xinlei would be angry.

Yan Qing's occasional furtive glances during the meeting further corroborated Shang Xinlei's judgment.

"What you think is your business. I'm just protecting what's mine," Yan Qing said calmly. "I don't need your thanks. Just as she will die without a burial place someday, I won't accept your resentment towards me."

Shang Xinlei stammered, staring blankly at Yan Qing, her voice filled with disbelief: "She's so young, so beautiful, so incredibly talented, and so loyal to you... If I'm not mistaken, she gave you all the profits from the Mansu Forest, didn't she? Doesn't that increase her importance in your eyes? You—"

"See you tonight."

Yan Qing didn't bother to talk to her at all, and slammed the door shut, leaving Shang Xinlei feeling utterly rejected. Yan Qing was prepared to hear someone banging on the door, but there was no sound outside for a while before he heard Chi She's footsteps returning to her room.

Finally managed to deal with it.

Yan Qing deliberately responded to Shang Xinlei in such a hostile manner. Although he could use this opportunity to get closer to Shang Xinlei and clear his name as a 'bloodless and heartless mastermind', after careful consideration, he still did not want to be seen as a good person by others.

Kindness requires strength, and being a good person comes at a price. He was just a weakling, a weakling who dared not leave the thieves' den; he couldn't even protect himself, and he couldn't make any promises.

Yan Qing doesn't want others to see his kind side, because if they do, they'll always expect him to be kind.

Moreover, Ye Si and Jiang Shi will one day die for Yan Qing's interests, just as they were born for Yan Qing's interests.

In this respect, Shang Xinlei's impression of him was not wrong at all; he was indeed a heartless and emotionless...game player.

At the same time, the door to the white fox's room in the thief's house quietly closed.

Ying Rushi leaned against the door, biting her nails, and muttered softly, "Red Serpent's friend is Yellow Dog's subordinate? In other words, Yellow Dog may know Red Serpent's true identity, and Red Serpent probably knows Yellow Dog's background as well?"

Although Yan Qing and Shang Xinlei didn't exchange any words during the meeting, Ying Rushi, as a member of the royal family who had survived the clutches of the mad emperor Ying Le, had developed an ingrained survival instinct for reading people's expressions. In the less than fifteen minutes of the meeting, Yan Qing and Shang Xinlei each pretended to glance at each other four or five times, and even made eye contact once, acting like innocent young lovers.

Ying Rushi thought they had gotten together, but it turned out their paths crossed elsewhere. She thought of An Wu and An Liu, who were burning with rage, and Yan San, who sacrificed himself for righteousness… Now, Chi She had discovered Huang Quan’s men in Jiangnan. What exactly was Huang Quan plotting? Just how vast and secretive was his power?
Even after returning to the mansion, Ying Rushi was still pondering the various impacts of the Red Serpent's acquaintance with the Yellow Dog, until a maid knocked on the door and entered her room.

"Master, these are letters from Pingcheng." "Put them on the desk first."

……

...

Since the next mission will take place in Jiangnan City, Yan Qing naturally has to send his alt account to scout ahead first.

Given the relatively good public security environment in the Jiangnan region, Yan Qing felt that this time he could be bolder and invest more resources in the smaller account.

The first thing to determine is appearance. Although looking at the back and buttocks of a beautiful girl is indeed pleasing and can prolong life, the main task this time is investigation. If Yan Qing were to create a stunningly beautiful girl, he would feel like he would go on a killing spree before even entering Jiangnan City.

Yan Qing listed his requirements for this alternate account: it should be someone who wouldn't be disturbed while traveling, wouldn't be noticed while strolling around Jiangnan City, should ideally have reasons to enter and exit various places, shouldn't be someone anyone would dare to cause trouble for, and shouldn't implicate innocent people when he went on a killing spree...

Almost naturally, the only identity that met all the above requirements popped into Yan Qing's mind—

monk!

I just saw many temples in Jiangnan City, and monks are undoubtedly a very common sight in the Jiangnan region. Because monks can beg for alms and perform at weddings and funerals, they can interfere in the lives of both the poor and the powerful, from birth to death. Therefore, no one finds it strange that monks come and go. Even more wonderfully, no one dares to hold other monks accountable even if a monk does something wrong.

You're the one, bald guy!
Since everyone's bald, appearance doesn't matter. Just use the default face to create a burly man, which will give you 2 extra points of health. As for stat allocation, go for the standard 334. The final stat panel will have 6 points of health, 1 point of spirit, 4 points of dexterity, and 4 points of comprehension.

There are more choices in the talent inheritance. In addition to basic skills, you can also choose advanced sword techniques, advanced footwork, advanced dual sword techniques, and even "Secret Art Talent: Split Sword Shadow" and "Secret Art Talent: Left Curve Right Return"!
Yan Qing clicked on it and found that the secret technique talent did not directly allow the alt account to master the secret technique, but rather allowed the alt account to directly comprehend the secret technique as long as the corresponding conditions were met.

For example, the requirement to master the "Shadow of the Blade" technique is reaching the maximum level in either Advanced Blade Technique or Advanced Dual Blade Technique. No secret manuals are needed, no luck is required, and the conditions are not demanding; simply following the steps will fulfill the requirements.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Yan Qing gets Arcane Book rewards from casual dungeons; genuine Arcane Books only drop from third-tier dungeons and a few second-tier dungeon bosses, and even then, they might not be suitable for the player. In contrast, now that you can pre-select your Arcane Arts during character creation, combined with basic and advanced talents, Yan Qing's newly created alt can easily advance to third tier without any bottlenecks!

This is really...

so fun!

The increasing number of selectable talents reminded Yan Qing of his two favorite single-player game genres: RogueLike and CRPG. These two genres are characterized by allowing players to freely build their character's skill system. With proper combinations, a character's strength can skyrocket, and this process of building a character system is what players call "build."

The job change system in "The Messenger" already subtly hinted at build potential, and the talent inheritance feature added in the real mode further reduced the difficulty of building a character. Right now, Yan Qing can already create a new character specializing in swordsmanship and rushing straight to the third job change. He can't even imagine how monstrous his new characters will be when they reach higher levels and have more characters.

Don't forget, milestones are shared across all accounts!
Yan Qing usually dislikes grinding, but at this moment, he really had the urge to grind through "The Messenger" to the max. No wonder "The Messenger" has become a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with millions of players online; it truly is addictive.

But the price to pay for enjoying the game is not low.

Basic Footwork Talent: 12 hours of gameplay

"Basic Swordsmanship Talent: 12 hours of game time"

"Advanced Swordsmanship Talent: 36 hours of game time"

"Arcane Talent: Shadow Blade: 108 hours of gameplay"

Even though Yan Qing was online in the game every day, buying these four talents still made him wince. Unlike other resources, there was no way to increase game time; Yan Qing could only rely on playing hard, slowly increasing it 24 hours a day.

If this alt account dies, Yan Qing probably won't dare to invest in advanced talents for a long time.

As for the name, given that Shang Xinlei could already associate Jiang Shi's name with her, Yan Qing planned to change the encoding method and use one that would not be easily recognized by others at a glance.

You're the one, one of the twelve zodiac animals.

To make it easier to identify the characters, Yan Qing plans to pre-define a background identity for each new account she creates, and the name should also match the identity.

So, monk, your Dharma name is—"Rat Monk"!
"Jiangnan Newbie Village", start the game!
(End of this chapter)