Atobe-sama attended an intensive knowledge class at Mu Rong Yin’s side and mastered the general knowledge of this world. Then, he thanked her profusely before returning to the room. The girl was surprisingly approachable, and things went suspiciously well until Atobe himself started to suspect… Do I really have the talent to be a host?
Actually, he had overthought it.
This NPC was arranged by the system to be a character to give the players general information. As long as the players were able to see through that and actively went to approach her, she would welcome them. After all, from the setting of a wuxia world, Mu Rong Yin’s action was entirely rational. First, she was personally interested in Broken Sword Chahitsu and admired Feng Bujue’s daring and no-holds-barred attitude. Secondly, Mu Rong Family was not the kind of school that opened their doors to collect disciples, so she had some natural hostility toward disciples from big schools like Thousand Dawn Spire. Toward members who traversed the martial world alone or small schools like Broken Sword Chahitsu that did not entwine themselves with the issues of the martial world, she had a natural affection. Lastly, as Feng Bujue had said earlier, Atobe was not tasked with asking about any secrets; it was all common knowledge for other members of the martial world. Since Mu Rong Yin was free and did not have an issue with Broken Sword Chahitsu, she had no reason to deny Atobe’s request.
Normally, such common knowledge was something that one could find out by asking a random person on the street, like what day it was, what time it was, who the president of this place was, who ran the place, who the rule maker was… but it was too inappropriate to approach a random stranger while staring and asking all that.
In this case, though, Atobe utilized an inquisitive attitude and had already expressed that he knew nothing about the martial world, so it was not so inappropriate for him to get answers from an expert. Actually, in Chang Lin Inn, there were many NPCs who could provide the information, like the Lu San Monk, the leaders of the three schools, Ji Tong from Octagonal Spire, and even the Six Flowery Blades. As long as the players went to converse with them, they would go away with something.
But Mu Rong Yin was the safest and easiest choice. The information taken from her would be the most complete and rounded. There would not be any problem with asking her. Talking to other NPCs might cause chain events, and it might add more difficulty to the scenario. Other than that, there was a hidden side quest that was extremely hard—that was to find out information about the mysterious owner of Chang Lin Inn. Of course, Atobe-sama did not trigger this quest, and that could be considered lucky.
…
When he returned to the room, the sun had already set, but none of his teammates had returned. Naturally, Atobe had heard the system announcements and seen the change to the main and side quests, so he was mentally prepared to face this kind of ending. But Atobe could not help himself from pacing anxiously inside the room, mumbling to himself, “They said that we would meet at sundown… Liars, all of them are liars!”
Knock, knock.
Someone was knocking lightly on the door. Atobe’s expression shifted. He knew knocking was not something the members from his team would do. As teammates, they did not need to knock before entering the room. Therefore, it had to be a stranger outside the room.
“Who is it?” Atobe asked. His voice was not high, and his tone was even.
“Oh, I’m here to bring the food for our guests,” the person outside answered. Atobe walked to the door, unlocked it, and slowly opened the door. It was indeed the inn’s waiter standing outside the door. He was holding a wooden tray filled with some food and wine.
“Who sent you?” Atobe asked in alert. In any case, he could not remember making this order, so his internal reaction was only natural. Perhaps this is arranged by Lin Chang? He somehow knows that we didn’t carry any gold with us, so he picked up our tab as well?
“It’s a guest who resides on the Di row. His name is Gong Sun Li,” the waiter replied. “Oh, other than this, he also wished for me to carry a message for Master Feng. And you are…”
The waiter let the question linger for Atobe to fill in the blank. The workers at the inn were all honest people; they did not know anything about the martial world. As for what Master Feng and Gong Sun Li represented, they could be the big boss or unknown characters; it did not matter that much for them. After all, their role was merely to relay message.
“Tell me then, and I will relay it to Master Feng.” When Atobe heard that it was from Gong Sun Li, his suspicion rose sharply. He thought to himself, That was the man who destroyed the dead body last night. Why would he do something like this now? To me, it is quite obviously a part of the conspiracy…
The waiter placed the food and wine on the table and explained, “He said… he is very appreciative of Master Feng’s help. He hopes that Master Feng will be able to continue keeping the ’secret’. Thousand Dawn Spire will forever be in his debt if he is able to do so, and this meal is an apology for what happened before.”
“That’s all he said?”
“Yes, he only said that much. I’ve already relayed it fully to you,” the waiter replied obsequiously.
“Er… Okay, you can leave now,” Atobe said.
“Yes.” The waiter nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. Atobe immediately walked to follow him and opened the door again. He poked his head out and looked around to make sure that there were no suspicious characters looking his way. Then he closed the door, locked it, and walked to the table.
There were three plates, one bowl, and one flask of wine on the table. There was not a lot. It could all fit on a tray, which was why the waiter had a free hand to knock on the door. Of the three plates, one was fried vegetables, and the other two were passable meat dishes. The small bowl had peanuts, and there was nothing special about it. The wine, though, appeared to be of a certain class. The flask looked like it was well made from exquisite white jade, and the delicious scent of alcohol drifted out from it.
Atobe-sama’s father was a businessman, so he had naturally been to plenty of meetings. Sometimes, he would take his wife and son with him. Even though Atobe had no interest in wine, he was not dumb enough that he could not tell the difference between a good one and a bad one. He knew that this wine was good wine. If placed in real life, perhaps it would cost half a table of good food. It did not match the remaining plates of commonplace dishes.
“Hmm…” Atobe opened the flask and leaned closer to give it a sniff. “This game’s replication of food item is authentic. This kind of luxury item is probably categorized as ’luxury data’ at the shop, and it will cost quite a bit.
“Humph… such an obvious trap, and it’s such a low blow. To think that people in this world would succumb to a tactic as dirty as poisoning. He dares to use this method to trick me? How embarrassing!” He scoffed. “If this food and drink are not poisoned, I’ll kick myself on the ass!”