My lord, spare his life!

Quest item obtained!

Zhang Yang didn't hesitate and easily grabbed the roof of the car.

The commotion from the man's beheading, the soft sounds of the two maids' necks being snapped, and the lingering smell of blood aroused the suspicion of the middle-aged man outside the carriage. He called out but received no response. Ignoring everything else, he abruptly lifted the curtain, only to be met with three lifeless corpses. The middle-aged man was so shocked he nearly cried out, "Help! Someone help me—"

Zhang Yang's gaze sharpened.

The opportunity has arrived, now is the time!

They slipped silently through the crack and made a quick getaway.

You can still faintly hear these people screaming in despair.

"Who is it!"

"Who killed our lord?!"

"The culprit must not have gone far, capture him quickly!"

The group immediately thought of the group they had encountered earlier, and gritted their teeth fiercely: "It must be that group—they weren't refugees seeking refuge; they were clearly henchmen sent by other forces... It was our carelessness that led to our lord's downfall..."

Fan You had some understanding of Zhang Yang.

When he saw Zhang Yang climb into the carriage, an alarm bell rang in his mind, and he rushed to Puyang Kui, saying, "Jun Du, we shouldn't stay here any longer!"

Puyang Kui: "Don't we need to wait for your lord to return?"

Without hesitation, Fan You said, "How could she, a living person, just disappear? The problem is that she's about to cause a huge disaster. If she does something bad and doesn't leave any evidence, we'll end up being the scapegoats."

Puyang Kui chose to trust Fan You's judgment.

He ordered everyone to retreat in the opposite direction.

Before long, the last scout to retreat also brought back important intelligence—the group of people had inexplicably become chaotic and were aggressively trying to kill them. In order to obtain accurate information, the scout risked disguising himself to get closer and overheard some fragmented information: an important figure among those people had been assassinated, and because the group couldn't find the killer, they directly suspected them of doing it.

Puyang Kui never expected that he would be blamed even while walking on the official road: "...I have no grudges against them in the past or present."

Why would they assassinate the important figures they're protecting if there's nothing wrong with that?

"Could it be—"

Puyang Kui turned his gaze to Fan You.

Fan You closed his eyes: "It was most likely her who did it."

What a coincidence!

Zhang Yang had barely stepped into someone's carriage when someone died? The probability of Zhang Yang doing it was far greater than the probability of her accidentally stumbling into an assassination scene and becoming a scapegoat for the real killer. Fan You, however, couldn't understand why she would harm that person. Was it an enemy?

"...Whether she's an enemy or not, let's not worry about that for now. Let's send someone to rescue Bo Yuanjun. It would be terrible if she fell into enemy hands." Puyang Kui also thought of this. After all, Zhang Yang was her savior, and she should repay this debt within her power.

Fan You said, "No need, she won't."

Zhang Yang's ability to sneak in unnoticed without alerting the enemy is enough to prove her confidence in escaping unscathed.

"What do you mean by 'don't need it' or 'can't do it'?"

Suddenly, a huge Zhang Yang appeared.

Not only was Fan You startled, but Puyang Kui also broke out in a cold sweat—she hadn't noticed anything amiss until Zhang Yang spoke. This meant that if Zhang Yang were to assassinate her, she would most likely be seriously injured, if not killed: "Impressive skills, Lord Boyuan."

Puyang Kui considered himself neither a prodigy nor an ordinary person. There are many different abilities in this world; stealth and concealment are not uncommon, nor is concealing one's aura. To be able to get this close without being detected by her is no ordinary person.

Zhang Yang was clearly in a good mood at the moment.

Even the corners of his mouth seemed to curve into a smile: "So-so."

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland overrun by zombies and monsters. Making any noise in the wild will attract monsters with keen hearing. From NPCs to players, everyone has the skill of stealth and concealment, and Zhang Yang is naturally the best at it.

"Did you kill him?"

Fan You used a declarative tone.

Zhang Yang nodded: "Yes."

Using "Steal" on items doesn't matter how many times you fail, as the item won't trigger an alarm. However, using "Steal" on a red-named player has a very high chance of alerting them if you fail. Zhang Yang found this troublesome and simply killed the person before looting the corpse.

"Is the other party your enemy?"

"Enemies? What enemies?"

"If you're not an enemy, why did you suddenly kill them?"

Zhang Yang was an honest person. She took out the item that could unlock her title from her game inventory: "He has this. If I ask him for it, he won't give it to me, so I can only take it myself. It's easier to kill him and then take it."

"What is this?"

"Letter of Appointment as Prefect of Tianyue Commandery!"

Fan You and Puyang Kui exchanged a glance.

How did you know he had that item on him?

Zhang Yang frowned: "You're asking a lot of questions."

It wasn't that Zhang Yang was unwilling to tell them, but rather that these NPCs were restricted by the game's settings. Zhang Yang had previously tried to guide ordinary NPCs to notice the strange things about the observation samples, but the ordinary NPCs either didn't hear him or reported an error.

When a bug occurs here, the game developers need to investigate and fix it. During this process, there's a chance they'll discover Zhang Yang, this heretic, by tracing the data stream! Zhang Yang still can't forget that time; she could clearly feel a strange, eerie, and ethereal force searching her vicinity. The closer she got, the more alarms went off in her mind, a strong sense of impending being shredded into useless data...

Therefore, when NPCs engage in conversations involving functions available only to players, she becomes defensively resistant. Fan You sees this as her abusing her privilege as a superior, expressing her displeasure in a direct and sharp manner.

Fan You, being sensible, stopped there.

Noticing the awkward silence, Puyang Kui smoothly continued the conversation: "What is Boyuan Jun doing with this?"

Zhang Yang didn't mention it was for the title.

"Doesn't buying an official position cost money?"

Pu Yangkui felt awkward. She hadn't expected that Zhang Yang, who had left first that day, would have overheard her conversation with Fan You. As long as she wasn't embarrassed, she could pretend nothing had happened: "May I borrow it?"

Zhang Yang generously handed it over: "Take a look."

Puyang Kui made his judgment at a glance.

"This is fake."

"I know it's fake." The item description says it doesn't have the royal seal anymore, how could it be real? "Right now, isn't the Dou Kingdom's court being beaten to a pulp and running away, fleeing to some doghouse or something? Where would they have the time to arrange people for Tianyue?"

"and you?"

Fan You: "The appointment certificates that the others are holding are also fake."

Zhang Yang clapped his hands in agreement: "That's right. Since they're all fake, why can't we use the one we got?"

Whether it's real or fake doesn't matter; what matters most is that it works.

Puyang Kui: "..."

Why is Bo Yuanjun sometimes silly and sometimes clever?

She looked down at the crudely written document, then looked up at Zhang Yang and the other man, feeling as if she had been tricked by the master and his minister.

Fan You's voice continued to reach her ears.

"The various rebel armies are too busy fighting amongst themselves to have the energy to disperse their forces to attack places like Tianyue. If I were their strategist, I would also advise the lord to write a letter of appointment and send someone to Tianyue. Regardless of whether they can actually take over Tianyue, they should first secure the title. Once the Dou Kingdom's royal family is completely defeated and the Dou Kingdom's seal is obtained, we can simply add a seal to this letter of appointment."

"This is what it means to achieve great things with a small investment."