San Tian Liang Jiao

Chapter 206 Cang Ling Sword Debate (14)

Chapter 16

After exchanging pleasantries with the others, Feng Bujue received the key to Room Number Three in the Heavenly Suite. The four then took their leave.

[Name: Key]
[Type: Story-Related]
[Quality: Common]
[Function: The holder and their team will gain ownership of Room Number Three in the Heavenly Suite of the Cang Ling Inn]
[Can be brought out of the script: Yes]
[Remarks: Even without the key on one's person, as long as someone in the team is holding it, one can freely enter and exit the room.]

"Oh, this thing can apparently be converted into a puzzle card after the script is over." Feng Bujue read aloud from the item description. "Si Yu, you should carry this. You're the strongest, you're less likely to die, and your knapsack probably has more space than mine."

"Hey, I'm the highest level here, and I'm a professional! It's obvious I'm stronger, right?" Atobe interjected.

Feng Bujue immediately changed the subject. "Speaking of 'professional'... I have a plan that needs your help."

"Huh? What plan?" Atobe asked.

"Remember that beautiful woman who commented on my martial arts skills when we were on the first floor of the inn?" Feng Bujue asked.

"I remember, that Meng Jiu mentioned... her surname was... Murong?" Atobe replied.

"I was carefully listening to the discussions of that group of NPCs around us. From their snippets of conversation, I gathered that this Miss Murong is probably like a 'Baixiaosheng' (encyclopedia) kind of character." Feng Bujue stroked his chin. "In other words, she has a wealth of information."

"You want me to go and pry information out of her?" Atobe asked.

"That's right, after all, you're a professional." Feng Bujue replied. "Use your professional skills to strike up a conversation with her or something. After you get to talking, tell her that you're new to the martial world and there are many things you don't understand, and you'd like to ask her some questions."

"The 'professional' I'm talking about is a professional gamer, you're talking about a professional gigolo!" Atobe shouted.

"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to sell your body, just to chat a bit." Feng Bujue ignored the other's complaints and continued, "Interactions between players and humanoid NPCs can also be referenced according to item D of the Player Interaction Regulations--[Regardless of gender, any behavior that the system deems to be sexual harassment, including the intention to carry out any means listed in items B and C, will be restricted by the system. The player's intention will not be converted into the character's actual actions. Repeated attempts will result in a forced disconnection, and the player's Citizen ID will be permanently added to the system's blacklist, making them a high-priority monitoring target.]

I also checked the specific rules regarding this type of interaction between players and humanoid NPCs and monsters and discovered that the restrictions are even stricter than those between players. Players can still perform certain intimate actions with each other if both parties are willing, but there will absolutely be no erotic components in interactions between players and virtual characters. NPCs will also absolutely not take any action in that regard towards you. However, it does not rule out the possibility that NPCs may develop feelings of goodwill toward players.

In short, you can boldly go and chat her up, and you definitely won't be taken advantage of."

"Hey! She's a beautiful woman! Not some burly, muscular guy! Don't make it sound like I'm benefiting! Not being taken advantage of is a loss!" Atobe replied. "Speaking of which... you can recite the regulations word for word... and explain the setting that you can't have relationships in different dimensions so clearly... what's up with that!"

"Oh... well, that's because I hugged a female NPC in a previous script. Of course, it was a very pure, platonic hug." Feng Bujue calmly replied. "Afterward, I thought of a question... where exactly are the boundaries of this setting? So I took some time to read the related game descriptions."

"Hey, then isn't it much easier for us girls to seduce male NPCs?" Bei Ling jokingly said, "Anyway, nothing will happen."

"I say... ladies, you should have some self-respect..." Xiao Tan turned his head and looked at her intently.

"How do you plan to seduce them?" Feng Bujue said, "Intentional behavior will be directly prohibited by the system. As for objective actions, even if you want to show some leg or offer some benefits, you can't change your appearance settings in the script, right?"

"Hmm... that's true." Bei Ling nodded while glancing at Xiao Tan with a playful look. From her tone of response, it wasn't that she didn't know the answer to the question. Perhaps she just wanted to see what the other person's reaction would be after hearing it.

"Alright, Jin Fugui, what do you say? Are you going or not?" Feng Bujue asked.

"I'm warning you, it's one thing to call me a gigolo..." Atobe began to say.

Feng Bujue interrupted him. "Okay, gigolo, what do you think? If I, this Lord Chief, weren't already engaged, I would have gone myself. With my silver tongue and ability to pester people relentlessly, there's no reason I would fail in negotiations. But given the current situation, if I went to chat her up, it would definitely arouse Miss Murong's antipathy. You can't possibly let Xiao Tan go, can you? It's good enough if this kid doesn't leak our own information."

"It's just negotiation, why can't we girls go?" Si Yu asked.

"Hahahaha!" Feng Bujue laughed five times and then said, "Good idea, I've always wanted to know what kind of opening remarks are appropriate when two women who don't know each other, one of whom is very obviously approaching the other with a certain purpose, should use."

Si Yu glared at Feng Bujue, remained silent for a long time, and then finally said, "Okay... let the professional go."

"Alright, you guys don't need to put on an act anymore. I can try it." Atobe replied weakly. "But I'm declaring in advance, if that NPC ignores me, there's nothing I can do."

"How~ could that be~ Brother Gigolo, why belittle yourself?" Feng Bujue said in a drawn-out tone. "With your handsome, fair-skinned, and effeminate appearance, you're definitely popular among older, unmarried women in ancient times. Even if she's not particularly interested in you, when faced with someone who looks relatively weak and doesn't act too outrageously, at most she'll politely say that she doesn't have anything in common with you and ask you not to bother her anymore."

Feng Bujue paused for a moment and then continued, "And if... Miss Murong feels that chatting with you is not inappropriate, then it's easy." He stood up and said, "If my judgment is correct, this NPC should at least be thoroughly familiar with most of the settings in this martial arts world. And what's common sense to her is already valuable information to us. So, you can ask her as much as possible about that kind of well-known information that only we don't know."

"Got it, I'll play it by ear." Atobe replied, "That Miss Murong should still be sitting in the inn lobby right now. You made such a commotion just now, so if this lousy Lord Chief of the Broken Sword Teahouse went downstairs now and walked over to greet her in full view of everyone, she definitely wouldn't know how to respond. I think we should wait for a better opportunity."

"Yeah, that's what I meant too." Feng Bujue said as he moved the key on the table in front of Si Yu. The latter silently took it and put it in her knapsack.

"Let's talk about the second thing." Feng Bujue said, "That's the Six Swords of the Flower Shadow... Now you want someone with 'Innate Pure Yang Inner Force' to help..."

"Although we've temporarily delayed it for a day, tomorrow, when that Lin Chang finishes teaching you the martial arts cultivation method and Su Shang needs you to protect her while she is receiving the power transfer, it's certain that you don't have inner force will be exposed." Bei Ling said. "Solving this problem is far more important than gathering intelligence because once this matter is screwed up, our situation will be quite bad. At that time, even if the Six Swords of the Flower Shadow don't directly become hostile to us, they'll have no reason to continue protecting us, let alone give us any further benefits."

"That's right... this matter is very tricky." Feng Bujue responded. "At this stage, I've thought of two ways. First, I highly recommend..."

"Kill Su Shang?" Si Yu immediately said what Feng Bujue was thinking.

"Yes!" Feng Bujue replied decisively. "And it's best to do it in a way that the body is never found, so there's no way to investigate, and so that others don't even know if she's dead or alive. That way, at least before the duel, no one will mention the matter of protecting her during the power transfer."

"You're too cruel..." Atobe looked at Feng Bujue with a rather surprised expression. "The last time I saw you killing zombies, I vaguely felt that you had the aura of a murderous maniac... Now, to keep a secret, you don't care if the other person is good or bad, you just kill them..."

"When you play Mario, do you consider whether the Goombas are good or bad before you stomp them to death?" Feng Bujue asked.

Atobe was stunned for a moment, then frowned a few seconds later and said, "That's not the same thing, is it?"

"Tch..." Feng Bujue turned his head away with a displeased expression.

"Changing the subject." Si Yu succinctly commented.

"Failed to deceive." Bei Ling added.

"I also object to killing people casually. First of all, not to mention that the other person is likely to have Boss-level strength... Even if we can kill her, we can't guarantee that we won't be discovered during the fight or when disposing of the body." Xiao Tan actually offered a constructive suggestion.

"There's no need to worry about that. If I'm determined to kill her, I have plenty of ways. After killing her, I'll just cut her into six pieces on the spot, wrap them in some rags, stuff them into my knapsack, and no one will be the wiser..." Feng Bujue continued.

"He's already planned it out to this extent..." Atobe broke out in a cold sweat, wondering what kind of person he was dealing with.

"However... what you said also makes some sense." Feng Bujue changed the subject and said, "You've reminded me that I saw a post on the forum saying that the style in which players act in the script may affect their future growth. For example, people who try to do good deeds as much as possible in the script, following certain morals and principles, generally have better endings in the story. On the other hand, people who constantly do evil in the script and act cruelly and ruthlessly may encounter stories that are more depressing. Not only that, but the post also said that the skills and items that players randomly receive are all related to the player's style of acting."

"Heh... Devil Bat Phantom Shadow..." Xiao Tan's first reaction was to say the name of the skill that Feng Bujue had given him.

"Unfathomable Maniac..." Bei Ling also added.

Feng Bujue said, "If this setting really exists, it can indeed explain many of the situations I've encountered when playing solo..."

"Does this count as... a type of non-manifest attribute?" Si Yu asked.

"Perhaps... Based on this speculation, players who are considered lawful good by the system and players who are chaotic evil will definitely be very different in the later stages of the game. Not only the skills, equipment, and titles... but also the game experience they've had along the way will be different." Feng Bujue said thoughtfully. "In that case... we'd better not kill innocent people indiscriminately. Within the scope allowed by the main quest, we should try to stand on the side of justice and do chivalrous things. So you don't end up being regarded as villains by the system like me."

Atobe then asked, "What's your second idea?"

"If we can't kill her, then we'll just injure her." Feng Bujue said, "If Su Shang is injured to a certain extent, making her temporarily unable to break through the Mingyou Jue Qi gate, wouldn't this matter be delayed?" He looked at the others, "Game time is limited, and we can't possibly stay until the fourth day, so... as long as we drag it out until tomorrow evening, this matter will be permanently over."

"That idea is acceptable." Bei Ling pondered, "Hmm... but how to injure that Su Nvxia needs to be discussed carefully."

"That's right... First, we definitely can't openly injure her, we can only do it secretly." Feng Bujue said, "Second, we can't let the other party suspect that we did it afterward." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head. "If Bei Ling hid in the distance and took a potshot at her, it would be easy to achieve the first point. But that would inevitably lead the other party to suspect us. Because only our group of weirdos could possibly use a method they can't explain at all to launch a sneak attack."

"Even if we use a method that other martial artists would also use to launch a sneak attack, we'd still be the most suspicious, right?" Xiao Tan said, "You just agreed to the Six Swords about this matter today, and within a day, Su Shang was secretly injured... To be honest, even if someone else happened to sneak attack her during this time, we'd still be suspected, right?"

"I've thought of a way to launch a sneak attack that won't be suspected." Feng Bujue said, "It's also the most ideal way... mass poisoning."

"Your thinking..." Atobe was almost speechless. Feng Bujue's way of thinking was too erratic, always suddenly jumping to a very outrageous conclusion.

"The reasoning is very simple." Feng Bujue explained, "In order to conceal that we want to secretly injure Su Shang, we'll secretly injure everyone at the same time. That way, on the surface, it will just look like she's encountered a poisoning incident that wasn't specifically targeted at her."

"Heh... heh... 'Try to stand on the side of justice and do chivalrous things'..." Xiao Tan squinted and repeated Feng Bujue's words with a twitching corner of his mouth.

Feng Bujue pretended not to hear and continued, "In order to pursue a realistic effect, we can also collectively poison ourselves during the incident to deceive others."

"You're going crazy..." Atobe said.

"There's no other way. In order to ensure that a lie isn't exposed, you have to fabricate an even bigger lie, or even multiple lies." Feng Bujue said, "At this moment, we've fallen into this situation... You have to understand that our current safety and freedom are all based on lies. As long as one thing is exposed, a series of illusions will immediately collapse.

If we want to gain a foothold in this town, or rather... 'survive', we must do everything we can to keep up the act and hold on to the end. Every minute and every second, we have to try to maintain the mysterious and powerful image of the Broken Sword Teahouse sect. If that group of people outside knew our true strength, it would basically be difficult to continue playing this script. In that situation, the only way I can think of is to hide in the mountains. The premise for going into the mountains is that we can leave this town alive, no... this street."

"That's right." Si Yu also said, "In terms of combat ability, as long as three NPCs with the same strength as that woman from last night come, we'll have to use firearms and weapons, otherwise we'll be wiped out after fighting for a while." She looked at Feng Bujue, "At this stage, if Bujue's actions are exposed, then in the eyes of the people in this world, he's deceiving the world and stealing his name. Then... almost everyone may fight with us."

Feng Bujue continued her words, "In short, if we really start a full-scale battle, once that group of great heroes understands our methods and knows the basic characteristics of firearms, we're doomed."

"Either keep acting, or become public enemies..." Xiao Tan pondered.

"It's like during World War II, a Jew accidentally wandered into a Nazi party. The only way for him to leave alive is to make the people around him think that he's also German." Feng Bujue shrugged.

"Let's talk about the poisoning first..." Atobe said.

"If successful, we can achieve our goal and not be suspected, or rather... even if the Six Swords have a little suspicion of us, it won't be the kind of feeling that they can be very certain of." Feng Bujue replied.

Xiao Tan thought as he said, "Hmm... anyone can use the method of poisoning as long as they have poison. If only a few people or even one person is poisoned, the object of suspicion will soon be locked on to... people who have conflicts of interest or grudges with the poisoned person. However, if it's a large-scale poisoning that seems to have no specific target, it will be difficult to identify the suspect. As long as we don't reveal any clues when we commit the crime, and we also get poisoned afterward..."

"Okay, three questions." Bei Ling couldn't help but interrupt after listening. "One, where can we find a poison that won't kill people, and in a quantity sufficient for dozens of people? Two, how can we evenly poison the people in the inn? Three, how can we ensure that we won't be discovered while successfully implementing one and two, and that there will be no traces left behind afterward?"

Feng Bujue said, "Good questions." He tilted his head and spread his hands, "I have absolutely no clue."

"Then why were you talking so enthusiastically?"

"That's why I said it was the 'most ideal way', as for how to specifically implement it..." Feng Bujue said, "We still have a day and a night to think of a way."