"Three...four...five...six..."
Cole stood somewhat bewildered at the door of the room Mo Tan had rented. Although he didn't know what his master was thinking, he still honestly and silently calculated the time.
"Sixteen...seventeen...eighteen...nineteen..."
Twenty seconds passed in a flash. Cole, following Mo Tan's previous instructions, briefly stayed outside the room for twenty seconds before immediately turning and entering, and then searched the entire room as quickly as possible.
"He's really not here anymore," Cole, having found nothing, returned to the front hall, staring at the purely decorative gilded patterns on the door and murmuring softly, "Although I know Sir is very capable, being able to leave this place in such a short time is truly unimaginable..."
It wasn't strange for him to think this way. The layout of this Liuli Pavilion's Luxury Room 11 was not complex, consisting of five parts: a front hall, a master bedroom, a reception room, a bathroom, and a lounge. Although quite spacious, there were no places to hide. And because several constantly running ventilation arrays replaced windows, there were no other exits besides the main door that Cole had been guarding. Yet, Mo Tan had still vanished into thin air inside, without leaving a single trace...
【Sir has definitely left this room!】
Continuing to study the meaningless patterns on the door, Cole made this judgment without hesitation. Having rested here for a night yesterday, he was very familiar with the layout. Not to mention that this room had no place to hide anyone, even if it did, it would be difficult to escape his eyes.
Following Mo Tan's instructions, the young Thief had carefully searched after returning to the room, but still found no trace...
There is absolutely no one else in this room besides Cole now!
Even top-tier Thieves or Rangers would come to the same conclusion in this situation.
"But why would Sir ask me to study these patterns on the door?" Cole gently pinched his chin, looking at the lavishly decorated door in front of him with some confusion, completely puzzled.
Then, in the very next second, a hand actually rested on his shoulder from behind, patting it gently.
"Ah!" Cole immediately let out a short cry of surprise. As he quickly broke free from the hand, he ducked and dodged, and two daggers hidden on the outside of his long boots were already unsheathed!
But...
"You react quite fast," Mo Tan looked at Cole, whose face was full of disbelief, with a smiling expression, and nodded happily, "It seems you did follow my instructions."
"Sir!?" Cole nearly dropped his jaw this time, looking at Mo Tan in front of him with a look of surprise and uncertainty, "How did you get in?! I was just now..."
Mo Tan raised a hand to interrupt him, "You were staring at the door, right? And there shouldn't be any other way in or out here."
Cole nodded, confused.
He was truly puzzled now. Even if his master could leave this room without anyone knowing, for him to appear directly behind Cole while he was intently staring at the door was simply too terrifying.
It should be noted that the security measures at Liuli Pavilion were quite good. Each room had a matching magic emblem, similar to the key cards in hotels in the real world. When the door was completely closed, only with the emblem could the not-too-complex magic restriction on it be lifted. If one tried to force the door open, it would definitely trigger an alarm...
And this room only had one emblem, which was in Cole's hand.
Even if, for argument's sake, Mo Tan had some item that could ignore magic restrictions, or he himself was a very powerful Thief or Mage, in short, he could easily open the door...
But even so, Cole, who was intently staring at the door, could never have been snuck in on without the slightest detection.
A certain apprentice Thief was beginning to doubt his life...
"I'll explain later~" Mo Tan, however, didn't intend to satisfy Cole's curiosity immediately. He stretched contentedly and then seriously confirmed with Cole, "You stayed at the room door for twenty seconds, then returned, then efficiently searched every corner of the room, and finally focused intently on the door's patterns until I appeared. Is that correct?"
Cole immediately nodded, "Yes, everything was done according to your instructions."
Everything Mo Tan had just confirmed was what he had instructed Cole to do earlier, and the latter had meticulously followed all of it.
"Then, during your search..." Mo Tan looked around and continued to ask, "You were completely certain that I was not in this room, right?"
Cole hesitated for a moment, then nodded again, and said softly, "Yes, at least I didn't find you just now."
He seemed to interpret Mo Tan's actions as some kind of test for himself, for example, that Sir had actually never left the room, but was merely hidden by some means. If he successfully found him, he would pass; if not, he would fail...
"Don't think too much; I said this is just a small experiment that requires your cooperation," Mo Tan immediately saw through the other party's thoughts and shook his head, "There are no other objectives."
Cole immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"And even if there were... it wouldn't be directed at you."
A hint of playfulness flashed in Mo Tan's eyes, and he smiled pleasantly.
The situation just now was not unexpected...
After Cole left the room, he immediately went offline on the spot. Because there were no NPCs around, he undoubtedly completely Disappearance in Innocent World. In this situation, Cole, who returned to the room, naturally couldn't find him.
Because the person 'Tan Mo' had already left this world during that time.
Then, a moment later, he logged in again. At the same time, Cole, who had just finished searching, followed Mo Tan's previous instructions and walked to the door, concentrating on studying the patterns on it...
Of course, there was nothing to study about the patterns, but the action itself had two meanings.
First, it allowed Cole to confirm that the room's sole entrance had no anomalies, and it was also Mo Tan's attempt to test the 'reasonable' in the system's 'relatively reasonable appearance' for players.
Second, it was to make Cole shift all his attention to that door, thereby reducing his sensitivity to the surrounding environment. Although this kid was a talented Thief, intently studying that door in a room he was very familiar with and had just thoroughly checked was enough to reduce his perception of his surroundings to the extreme.
Thus, without any NPCs noticing, Mo Tan, who had logged back in, appeared directly behind Cole...
【So, the system's so-called reasonableness doesn't actually follow absolute logic. My 'online' and 'offline' actions, when not noticed by any NPC, are simply 'Disappearance' and 'appearance.' If no one notices, I won't even move from my spot, and afterward, it doesn't force a correction of the concept in the NPC's mind to make this matter 'normal.' That's why Cole was so surprised. Tsk tsk, this game is really quite perfunctory...】
Mo Tan showed a subtle sneer, then gently shook his index finger at Cole, "Let's do it again..."
"Again?" Cole asked curiously, "The same process as before?"
"Exactly." Mo Tan snapped his fingers and chuckled, "But two steps need to be changed. First, you can skip the search after returning from outside the room. And then..."
He stepped back a bit, stopping in the center of the front hall.
"Remember the spot I'm standing in now," Mo Tan pointed to his feet and said to Cole, "When you come in, you need to pay close attention to this front hall, especially where I'm standing now, understood?"
Cole immediately nodded and replied, "No problem, Sir."
"Very good, go ahead."
"Yes."
...
Two minutes later, Mo Tan, who walked out of the lounge, successfully startled Cole again.
【After going offline, I still successfully 'Disappearance,' but because an NPC was vigilantly watching the surroundings, I didn't appear in my original spot after logging in. Instead, I was spawned in the nearest and relatively safe space to the other party, which is the lounge, very good~】
"So next, I plan to meditate for about five minutes," Mo Tan turned and sat on the sofa, casually fabricating to Cole, "Please observe if there are any colorful auspicious clouds or purple divine light around me."
"Uh..." Cole scratched his hair, "Okay."
...
Five minutes later
Mo Tan slowly opened his eyes and immediately asked Cole in front of him, "How was it? Was it cool?"
"That..." Cole hesitated, shaking his head, "It seems no strange phenomena occurred. I feel like you were just resting your eyes, or rather..."
"Asleep?" Mo Tan chuckled, finishing his sentence.
"Yes." Cole shrugged, "Just like being asleep."
【What an unsurprising result, exactly the same as when I was 'Mo' and 'Black Vatican.' After all, unconsciousness and sleep appear almost identical to outsiders: steady breathing, peaceful demeanor, unconsciousness... So, if I go offline in front of an NPC, I can't disappear on the spot. Even if my consciousness has left the game, the corresponding character's body will remain. Hmm, I seem to have thought of quite a few interesting ideas...】
"Cole."
"Present."
"That's all for now. We'll prepare to go out and do some business in a bit."
"Okay, Sir, what do you need me to do?"
"First, make yourself look ordinary. You're a bit too handsome, kid... And then..."
...
An hour later
Black Tower City North District, Amber Walk, Wanderer's Inn
A gentle The half elf man, holding a harp, jogged to the counter and gave the female attendant who was busily writing a smile with twenty-plus points of affinity, then took out a dusty small box...
"Hello, I'm here to deliver something from Jun Wu, I'd like to see the owner here~"
Chapter 107: The End