A Comprehensive Network: An Endless Adventure Begins as a Wanderer

[The Choice]

Type: Dungeon Story Quest, Third Stage (Newbie Trial)

Description: You hold evidence powerful enough to send Count Wade Hawke to the gallows. The land deed, the recipe, the commission, the caravan captain's secret letter—everything points to the same truth: Count Hawke is the mastermind behind the Happy Water workshop, the mastermind behind the hiring of the Kram clan to ambush the caravan, and directly responsible for six deaths. But you've discovered a problem.

Earl Hawke possesses more than one formula. Even if you hand over all the evidence to the officials of the earldom, he can continue to produce and sell the "Enjoyment Potion" with new formulas, new workshops, and new puppets. The land deeds can be seized, and the formulas can be destroyed, but Earl Hawke himself will not suffer any substantial harm—he can claim that the land deeds are forged, that the signature is a forgery, or that he has never heard of the name "Kram."

He has a way out. For every way out, someone will die in his place.

Requirement: Make your choice.

P.S.: There are no right or wrong answers to choices, only the consequences you are willing to bear. —The Committee for the Balance of All Realms

P.S.: Bro, you know what to do. ————999+ popular comments online

Cheng Yi stared at the message, "Brother, you know what to do," for a long time.

With over 999 top comments and countless other replies, he could guess what those comments were saying without even having to scroll through them.

It's nothing more than things like "Kill him," "Why keep such scum around?" and "Justice will be served." Keyboard warriors exist across the universe; the players on this internet and the guys in the comments section of D-site are essentially no different—typing a few words is easy, but actually stabbing someone in the body is a completely different matter.

Cheng Yi turned off the panel.

The cave was plunged into darkness. He didn't leave immediately, but sat in the darkness with his eyes closed. His Observation Haki silently spread, and the entire structure of the cave appeared clearly in his mind—twelve tents, the corpses of three wolves, the corpse of a goblin bear, two wrecked carriages, and the corpses of six humans.

There was no sound except the wind blowing in from the cave entrance, which gently stirred up the ashes of the campfire.

He opened his eyes, stood up, and walked toward the fork in the road.

The corpse beside the carriage remained in place. Cheng Yi squatted down and fiddled with the body.

It wasn't about finding evidence—he'd already done that—but about straightening their posture. It wasn't about any sense of ritual; it was simply that people shouldn't lie face down on the ground like a pile of discarded trash.

He placed the arms of the first corpse across his chest, brought the legs of the second corpse together, and turned the face of the third corpse to the side.

The fourth body belonged to the mage's apprentice. Cheng Yi straightened his robe and covered the charred hole with the corner of his robe.

The fifth and sixth corpses were in relatively upright positions; he did not move.

After finishing these tasks, Cheng Yi stood up and dusted off his hands.

He didn't know these people's names, where they came from, or if they had anyone at home waiting for them. When they accepted this task, they probably thought it was just a regular guard job—escorting two carriages along a route, a journey of several days, with good pay, and their employer was an earl, so there shouldn't be any major problems.

No one told them that the cart carried land deeds, the apprentices carried recipes, or that they were protecting a wicked business.

If they knew, would they still accept the call?

Cheng Yi didn't know.

He walked out of the side path, through the hall, past the goblin tents. He didn't touch or straighten the corpses inside the tents. Not because of double standards, but because he felt it was unnecessary.

Those goblins came to kill people; if they die, they die.

Cheng Yi walked out of the cave and stood at the entrance.

Dawn was approaching. A faint, pale white light appeared on the eastern horizon, and the stars disappeared one by one, as if someone had poked tiny holes in the sky, letting light leak out from behind them. The sound of the stream was clearer in the morning light than at night, and the reeds rustled softly as the wind blew them about.

He remembered something from the running club.

It wasn't something that happened during the role-playing game, but something that happened afterward. Once, after finishing a role-playing game at the Starbound Board Game Cafe, Old Li treated them to barbecue. Zhao Meng drank two beers, her face flushed, and she became more talkative. Suddenly, she asked a question: "What do you think justice is?"

The paladin player in the group said, "Justice is protecting the weak." The mage player said, "Justice is procedural correctness." The barbarian player said, "Justice is about might makes right."

When it was Cheng Yi's turn, with a skewer of grilled beef tendon stuffed in his mouth, he mumbled, "Justice means not overthinking things."

Zhao Meng laughed and said, "Your answer is too frivolous."

Cheng Yi didn't know what she meant at the time. Now he does.

As he pondered these things, a word came to mind.

assassin.

In D&D, the Assassin is a subclass of the Wanderer. In Cheng Yi's understanding, Assassins don't kill for money—at least not entirely.

An assassin kills because the person deserves to die. Before taking action, an assassin asks themselves two questions: Who am I going to kill? Why do I want to kill him/her?

The first question determines the goal, and the second question determines the reason.

An assassin without a goal is a madman; an assassin without a reason is a butcher.

Cheng Yi took a deep breath, the cool air filling his lungs, carrying the scent of earth and dew.

You have completed the third stage of the story quest: The Choice.

[Story Quest Part 4: The Earl, now unlocked]

[You have unlocked the story instance: The Earl's Manor at Sunset (Special)]

Story Dungeon: The Earl's Manor at Sunset

Dungeon Difficulty: Special

Dungeon completion requirement: Kill Count Wid Hawke.

Dungeon death penalty: Soul Weakness (lasts 3 calendar day)

Instance Description: The setting sun dyed the manor's stone walls a dark red, as if someone had splashed a basin of aged blood from the sky. A three-story stone villa stood in the center of the manor, its windows tightly shut and curtains drawn low. Guards patrolled between the walls and the building; no one knew that an uninvited guest would arrive tonight.

P.S.: An assassin's creed is to kill those who deserve to die, and then return alive. — Blood Brotherhood

"And then come back alive."

Cheng Yi read it aloud in a low voice, his lips twitching slightly—not exactly a smile, but a kind of confirmation.

Cheng Yi turned off the panel and took one last look at the cave. He couldn't see anything in the depths of darkness, but he knew what was there.

That was the end of his previous mission and the beginning of this one.

He chose to exit the instance.

A feeling of dizziness washed over me, and the light and shadows before my eyes twisted, spun, and then rearranged.

When Cheng Yi opened his eyes again, he was back in his old house.

Standing in the center of the living room, he looked down at his hands.

There was a shallow gash on the web of his right hand, caused by Kram's hammer blow, which had already scabbed over. The purplish-blue finger marks on his wrist hadn't completely faded, and a dark bruise surrounded it, resembling a faded bracelet.

He clenched his fist, feeling the soreness in his knuckles, then walked to the sofa and sat down.

He did not open the panel or check the equipment.

He simply sat there, looking at the Glory Hands lamp on the coffee table that hadn't yet been put away.

The candle had gone out, and the withered hand looked particularly eerie in the dim light, its shriveled knuckles curled up as if grasping at something unseen.