"Welcome to the Thief's House."
Yan Qing felt as if he were waking up from a nap that stretched into the evening; even as he opened his eyes, he couldn't fully gather his thoughts, his retinas reflecting a bewilderment akin to having crossed into another world.
The floor was made of stone, the walls of marble, and the ceiling inlaid with Luminous Beads. Despite the absence of windows, a gentle breeze blew through, making the air refreshing rather than stifling—this was unmistakably a transformed cave.
Why am I here?
Instinctively, Yan Qing tried to stand up, but it seemed as though his backside was glued to the chair with super glue; no matter how he moved, he couldn't leave his place!
Sounds arose around him, and only then did Yan Qing realize that besides him, there were three other people in the hall, each occupying a position around the marble square table at the hall's center.
Just like Yan Qing, they were all attempting to stand up but found themselves fixed to their seats by some strange force.
Although each person's attire was different, they all shared a common style—everyone was dressed like an animal.
From Yan Qing's perspective, looking left to right, they were:
The 'Wolf' wearing a black wolf-skin hood,
The 'Fox' with a white fox mask,
The 'Snake' with a red snake skin scarf.
Even the 'Wolf' and 'Snake' without masks were wearing veils, making it impossible to recognize their true faces.
So...
Yan Qing realized something, and it seemed the hall anticipated their first reaction upon waking, for mirrors were hung on the walls in every direction, allowing Yan Qing to easily see his own attire with a slight turn of his head:
A furry animal, its fur the color of yellow firewood... a wolf?
"I never thought the rumor about the Thief's House Secret Realm would turn out to be true."
The 'Fox' chuckled lightly, the magnetic voice conjuring the image of an extraordinary prince: "Only the most skilled thieves are summoned here for the big heist, meaning we're all in the same trade, aren't we?"
"I don't know where you're from, but where I'm from, only the lackeys of the authorities go around prying into people's affairs," the 'Snake' reclined lazily against his chair while talking sharply: "I'm here to see if there's a big job, not to make friends."
"See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil," the voice of the 'Wolf' was steady, sounding like someone who had been seasoned in the Jianghu for years: "Since the Thief's House has disguised us so well, let's refer to each other by code names."
"I am Black Wolf."
"You are White Fox."
"He is Red Snake."
"And the Thief King sitting in the main seat is Yellow Dog."
Yan Qing's eyes opened wide, momentarily forgetting his circumstance as he retorted, "But my mask distinctly looks like a wolf!"
"What wolf? Clearly, it's just a countryside mutt! A mutt that's good for nothing but guarding the door, not even good at hunting." White Fox unexpectedly produced a folding fan, gently unfolding it to conceal the mask, unhesitatingly mocking: "How bizarre, by Thief's House standards, we four should be the most formidable thieves below the fourth transformation, and seated in the main position should be the Thief King below Foundation Establishment. Yet the current Thief King failed to snag the wolf, fox, or snake, and could only grab a dog mask?"
"Perhaps the mask isn't directly related to our strength," Red Snake seemed to defend Yan Qing but then shifted sharply: "But rather, the Thief's House assigned them based on our personalities? Could a Thief King not be a loyal and reliable hound? It could, right?"
Faced with their digression, Yan Qing remained silent, not because he was so angry he couldn't speak, but because something very important was hidden in White Fox and Red Snake's words.
"Enough bickering," Black Wolf suddenly spoke.
At this moment, the stone table suddenly retracted to reveal a large hole, from which a giant sand table slowly rose. Taking advantage of the period when no one was talking, Yan Qing finally organized his thoughts, realizing where he was!
After graduating, he had joined a game company as a level designer. The company's main product was a fantasy-style MMORPG titled "Messenger," but Yan Qing was purely a single-player Brahma who detested logging onto games after work, thus he barely played his own company's game.
After following colleagues through several instances, the company felt Yan Qing's workload wasn't saturated enough and decided to give him more responsibilities—designing a new instance. However, being a new employee, Yan Qing naturally wasn't qualified to design the endgame eight-player raid, and was tasked to design a low-level four-player instance to practice.
While designing, Yan Qing had a sudden whim: would linking the instance with the main world make it more attractive? So he tinkered for a week and ultimately submitted a plan titled "Thief's House." According to his design, the location of the "Thief's House" instance was naturally set in the Thief's House. The Thief's House was a secret safe haven crafted by the legendary Thief Venerable, and its location unknown to anyone, with only the most skilled thieves being invited inside.
"Thief's House" was a four-player instance where players, upon invitation, would appear in the cave hall with appearances automatically disguised as thieves to enhance the atmosphere—a necessity given that many players' appearances were peculiarly odd in a way that made gatherings look like alien congregations.
Yan Qing still remembered completing this plan while working overtime at home, emailing it and then collapsing into bed. When he next opened his eyes, he found himself here.
This very cave, the appearances of the four thieves, didn't it all perfectly match the "Thief's House" he designed?
So not only did I transmigrate into the world of "Messenger," but I started in the instance I designed myself!?
The sand table gradually took shape, even displaying moving figures—vividly lifelike, as though the entire city had been transplanted as a model onto this round table. Above the sand table appeared several lines of text, visible to the four from any direction:
"Current Heist Target: Chang'an, An Guo Temple, Bingzi Pepper Forest"
"Arrival Location: Vermilion Bird Avenue East Archway"
"Arrival Time: Five days later at 1:45 PM"
"Evacuation Location: Stay within the Vermilion Bird Avenue range for half an hour to return to the Thief's House"
"Evacuation Deadline: 1:30 PM"
"Successful Theft: Acquire Token of Bingzi Pepper Forest"
"Failed Theft: Deduct nine thousand Spiritual Jade, permanently lose eligibility to enter Thief's House"
At the same time, golden light emerged from the gold hall of the temple on the sand table, and the hall became transparent so everyone could see a silver-white straight blade hidden deep within the massive gold cabinet!
As designed by Yan Qing, the uniqueness of the Thief's House dungeon lies in being a place for preparation and planning, while the real combat phase takes place in the main world.
However, the main focus of this dungeon is still the planning stage; if plans are meticulously prepared, theft could succeed without combat. But once combat is triggered, one might be besieged and lead to mission failure.
This might be interesting in a game, but in the real world, it's different — stealing national treasures in the city's Central Region is practically gambling with one's life!
"Bingzi Pepper Forest? Isn't this Zhou Taizu's sword? It's not in the Imperial Palace but in An Guo Temple?" White Fox got excited, "Indeed it's a treasure worth stealing."
"This reward is interesting..." Red Snake lightly tapped the table, "It's turning Bingzi Pepper Forest into a token..."
"How do we split it at that time?" Black Wolf asked, "There is only one Bingzi Pepper Forest."
"Not to mention that the safe containing Bingzi Pepper Forest has other treasures. At that time, won't we just sell Bingzi Pepper Forest to Great Qi or Daliang?" White Fox smiled, "Even if Bingzi Pepper Forest as a token is utterly useless, there would definitely be a lot of people willing to buy the sword at a high price to humiliate Great Zhou."
Suddenly, a voice sounded in their ears: "Movement unlocked, personal rooms open, teleportation open, please return to Thief's House before arrival, otherwise considered as theft failure."
Black Wolf tried standing up, indeed he could, and he immediately said, "I have matters to attend to, leaving first. Let's gather tomorrow at this hour to discuss the theft plan."
Saying that, he ignored the others' reactions, turned and walked towards the rear door; a crisp sound of the lock teeth echoed, making it clear that others couldn't enter the personal rooms.
"Such high coldness," White Fox fanned his fan, leisurely said, "Then let's not worry about him, let's talk—"
With a loud bang, Yan Qing directly shut the door, at a speed akin to fleeing. White Fox glanced at Red Snake, Red Snake returned a cold gaze, two stared at each other for a moment, then turned and entered their rooms.
Inside the personal room, Yan Qing finally felt at ease.
Logically speaking, inside Thief's House they should be teammates unable to attack each other, but here isn't a game, Yan Qing doesn't dare to gamble.
He checked his pockets, moved his body slightly, quickly confirming a fact:
Though traversing into the game world, he is merely an ordinary person.
Strictly speaking, an untiered mortal around Level 1!
And the Thief's House dungeon he designed should have an entry threshold of tier one above and tier four below, namely Level 10~39, yet he hasn't reached the minimum level.
Similarly, he doesn't have the currency of this world: Spiritual Jade.
He remembers numerous missions in 'Messenger' with penalties of Spiritual Jade deduction, insufficient Spiritual Jade (players usually aren't that poor) leading to direct death and experience deduction, the more intense the lack of Spiritual Jade, the more exp deducted.
Exp deduction isn't much, but if Yan Qing isn't prepared with nine thousand Spiritual Jade within these five days and theft fails...
Can he abandon the mission?
Of course, he can, forgoing theft is abandonment, just at the cost of Spiritual Jade deduction or death — this punishment trivial to players.
But Yan Qing is a True Man!
Yan Qing forced himself to calm down, finding things not as dire — although he doesn't know why he's traversed into this dungeon as a thief member, the other three appear formidable thieves, perhaps they can complete the theft task with their skills, and Yan Qing could just ride along.
However...
There's a peephole on the door, Yan Qing peeked through it and found the hall deserted, meaning all three teammates have returned to their rooms.
These teammates aren't fellow traversers like him nor gamers, probably natives of this world.
Yan Qing is certain because the language he instinctively spoke while arguing earlier was the world's language, also used by his three teammates. Though he shouldn't comprehend it, he just realized when he spoke, feeling odd.
Yet they deeply understand Thief's House dungeon, even aware of what kind of people Thief's House recruits, fearless of stealing treasures, they're evidently illegal individuals well-versed with the worldview.
If they discover his surprising weakness, who knows if they'll harm him — as in regular online games, there are small number killers like Sanji Dao, not to mention the ruthless reality?
Moreover, this is a world with supernatural powers, just by reaching Level 10 to tier can one become far formidable than mortals!
Thus Yan Qing not only has to sail through the theft but keep team members unaware he's a feeble freeloader!