Divine Presence Seat Headquarters.
The Young Master was extremely dissatisfied with the Tata-Curry Consortium's dog deployment operation. Many of the personnel monitoring Sakamaru the Baron throughout the city were bitten and crippled.
While angrily questioning over the phone, a city announcement was made—Black Iron Pioneer City announcement: Congratulations! Level 1 player Chun has single-handedly killed the special siege event Boss "Wandering Dog King," setting a speed kill record of 5 minutes and 32 seconds...
The Young Master was shocked: "Nani?"
The person on the other end of the phone was even more shocked: "What the f*ck?"
The Young Master immediately hung up the phone.
Immediately, a team member reported: "Young Master, a surveillance team member recorded the entire video of Chun stealing and jumping from the Count's Mansion. Even though he was in a state of death weakness and had a red name, he killed the Dog King in the sewer..."
The Young Master found it unbelievable: "A level 1 player in death weakness can still kill the Dog King?"
"The Dog King appeared for a total of 5 minutes and 25 seconds, and the actual time of killing was only 7 seconds. It is highly likely related to stolen items. The recorded team member has already followed nearby players into the sewer at the first opportunity and will be able to connect for a live broadcast soon."
The Young Master immediately snapped back: "Quickly gather all city members to enter the sewer at all costs to burst the red name's Sacred Artifact and items! Ordinary players mustn't get them first! Mobilize the database to check this player!"
The so-called database is not some internal authority like a GM admin, but since the open beta began, the Divine Team has deployed over a thousand players scattered across the city's 300 key leveling tasks and business locations, recording videos in shifts 24 hours a day. These massive video files are stored in the building's security system, which quickly sorts out any given player's activity during the entire open beta.
Maintaining over a thousand players for such tasks is no small expenditure, but the Shenqian Consortium's philosophy is that intelligence is above all else. The 300 key points aren't enough to cover the entire city, and unexpected events like those from Sakamaru the Baron require additional personnel allocation for tracking and surveillance. If not for the lack of freedom in prison, they'd want to arrange 24-hour coverage there too.
A team member reminded: "Young Master, it's getting dark soon, and the sewer may have anomalies! Curry team might snatch as well."
The Young Master made a swift decision: "All outside Warrior leveling teams return to the city at full speed!"
"Sakamaru has received!"
...
At this moment, the Tata-Curry Team was even more shocked!
Tata War God knew the peculiarities of the Wandering Dog; NPCs won't attack stray dogs, so the Dog King would either be heavily damaged by grouped players or retreat unharmed by the end of a siege event. They never imagined the Dog King would be instantly killed! This is a collar capable of taming a dragon!
Tata War God panicked: "Manager, Sir, the Divine Team will definitely burst the red name's Sacred Artifact. Before their Warrior Corps returns, our Miner Team needs to deploy immediately!"
Manager Singer instantaneously calmed down: "Don't panic! If we deploy immediately, the Divine Team will deem the Sacred Artifact invaluable. We should act as if it doesn't matter."
Tata War God was frantic: "What if the Divine Team bursts the Sacred Artifact?"
Singer calmly said: "With our friendly relationship with the Divine Team, of course, we'd buy it from them. They think it's just a collar with limited use; there's no reason not to sell."
Buy!?
Alright, Tata War God was speechless because he knew the manager's modus operandi all too well. He always buys the expensive instead of the right one, daring to pocket a 50% rebate on a million-dollar offer...
...
At this moment, Chun drifting on the water was extremely tense as more and more players closed in around him. Dragging along the wall in the darkness, they seemed like a zombie horde.
All Chun could do was desperately buy time for physical recovery: "What do you want? This is sewage, if you have wounds you can't just jump in, you'll get infected—"
But this group of players didn't waste any words, jumping into the water like dumplings, just like those penguins in Antarctica...
Holy shit! Chun had no choice but to use the 6 precious physical strength points he gained from leveling up 3 times to forcibly submerge to the bottom of the water.
And this dive was so smooth and stable, effortless and without swaying, easily avoiding the players' siege.
Chun suddenly realized, it was the weight of those six stones! These six stones had been dragging him back whether running or climbing, but this time they had a beneficial effect.
In contrast, this group of players flailed around in the water, barely able to swim. After all, in the first three days, ordinary players mainly mined to pay rent and buy food; who would waste time learning to swim? So it's all about holding one's breath. With his advanced underwater construction skills, he could definitely outlast this rabble.
At that moment, a blurry light pierced into the churning dark water from the shore—was it a miner's lamp? Someone on the shore hadn't come down, following and watching with the lamp on.
Needless to say, ordinary players within the first two days couldn't afford a miner's lamp. It must be someone from a big team responsible for surveillance, and they'll soon arrive. What to do?
If worst comes to worst, find a place in the water to bury the Sacred Artifact and the six stones; no matter what, what happens can't be exposed to the players! But the waterbed's tiled reinforcement really left no burial spot...
Suddenly, Chun felt something swimming towards him.
——System Alert: Warning! Your Purification skill has detected filth presence! Suppression Aura activated.
Chun's heart tightened!
He saw them, not just one, but palm-sized fish, legendary Cannibal Fish?
Holy shit, there's a chance! I have the Suppression Aura; they won't prioritize attacking me. Even if the consortium brings in more people, they can't do anything?
However, these small fish ignored the players, heading straight back—headed towards the biggest contamination source indicated by the Purification skill, the Dog King's corpse!
Are they going to eat the Dog King's corpse?
Don't panic! With the small fish appearing, could those terrifying legendary-level Bosses be far behind? It's almost dark, and in the dark sewers, anything could happen... First, find an opportunity to surface and catch a breath.
...
At this time, the Young Master of Shenqian nervously watched the live broadcast from the on-site crew.
The tension was that the red name absolutely couldn't die now. The confusion was, how was he surviving in an underwater assault by hundreds?
Finally, in the footage, a red glimmer appeared underwater, and the red name struggled to the water's surface amid the crowd—The Young Master stood up nervously!
And then the red name took a deep breath and submerged again—The Young Master also exhaled and sat back down, asking his subordinate: "What swimming level was that surface breathing just now?"
Team members immediately replayed the video frame by frame and quickly concluded: "No obvious skill effects, he can't swim. When surfacing, he pulled two others for leverage, and his submergence speed wasn't normal technical action—most likely he stole many items from the Count's Mansion, causing heavy weight that benefits diving."
The Young Master's brow furrowed: "Replay the video of him stealing."
A team member pointed to a player hopping under a wall in the video: "That's him, in death weakness, without climbing skills at this point. But the strange part is here, he got bitten by a dog yet didn't struggle, this process lasted 2 seconds! Then he stepped on the dog's head and climbed the wall successfully, and his subsequent building scaling movements were smooth with skill effects—this is where he learned climbing skills!"
The Young Master was astonished: "Doesn't a stray dog bite and run off?"
The team member couldn't answer this and had to fast forward the video to switch topics: "Here's his descent, he stole a female garment, likely a dancing girl's Dance Dress, crucially see the stray dogs' reactions—he threw several items to successfully lure away the stray dogs and seized the chance to enter the sewer, yet was bitten by an elite stray dog. Overall, his thinking was very clear, actions highly connected, like he was prepared! But the odd part is, what activity requires being in death weakness to perform?"
The Young Master slapped him across the face: "Baka! I asked you, not for you to ask me?"
Then another team member came forward to report: "Young Master, major discovery! We've retrieved open beta video records, and none of the 300 surveillance points captured his appearances, only in the harbor bar meeting female lead Vivian every day! He was the first to meet the female lead when the official service launched yesterday!"
The Young Master was violently shaken: "Retrieve yesterday's video!"
The video showed Chun entering the tavern and talking to the dancing girl Vivian, then exchanging an item with an attendant, after which he followed the attendant through the back door and disappeared.
The Young Master was startled: "What item? Where did he go?"
The team member answered: "Judging by the packaging, it's a very expensive type of wine! He's not seen on any street, dock, or road outside the city, so the most likely possibility... is the sewer! He had no ranking during open beta, but yesterday made a huge leap to rank 15,000, ensuring he obtained hidden quest clues during the open beta, otherwise it's impossible he triggered a quest at the start."
The Young Master's expression darkened: "Traveling through sewers to exit the city? Related to smuggling spices?"
"Fully possible! Judging by his stealing of the Dance Dress, he must have a deep connection with female lead number 1."
The Young Master gravely said: "Display today's video."
In the video, Chun appeared at the respawn point, then headed to the Dark Alley District and entered the Astrology Shop.
The slapped team member suddenly realized: "The Astrology Shop can predict, so he came prepared under prediction!"
The Young Master gritted his teeth: "Are the groups in position?"
"Three groups of 300 people are all assembled!"
The Young Master couldn't wait: "Group 1 and Group 2 enter the sewer and clear the area! Group 3 blockade the shore, any player entering the well is to be surrounded and killed."