All three people present knew that Zhang Yu couldn’t possibly have a child this old. The cat-eared girl was obviously doing this for some other reason, but the situation was undeniably awkward.
Zhang Yu felt the girl’s arms clinging tightly around her waist. She looked down at the teary-eyed girl in her embrace, tried to push her away, but the girl didn’t budge at all. Turning to Qi Wen, Zhang Yu gave him an embarrassed smile.
This time, Qi Wen was quite proactive. Seeing Zhang Yu being clung to, he stepped up and separated the two, then wrapped his own arms tightly around his girlfriend.
His own girlfriend had just been hugged by someone who, in real life, might not even be a girl. If the other party didn’t look so much like a little girl, he probably would’ve gone over and kicked them a couple of times.
Zhang Yu, now in her boyfriend’s arms, blushed furiously. In real life, the two only hugged in private, but now her own little brother was standing right there. Zhang Yu felt so embarrassed she wanted to disappear.
Standing to the side, Zhang Cheng saw his sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law being all lovey-dovey, and awkwardly turned his head away.
After crying, Spicy Rabbit Head calmed down and retreated to a corner, falling silent again. The couple also moved to the other side of the cell to whisper to each other, keeping a good distance from Zhang Cheng.
At this point, Zhang Cheng wasn’t really bothered about the girl pushing him into the cave anymore. His attention had shifted to the fact that she’d set a trap for him.
Seeing his sister being taken advantage of made Zhang Cheng a bit unhappy, but he still cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice gentle. He crouched down to meet the girl’s eyes and asked the question all three of them were concerned about: “Are you a boy or a girl in real life? Why did you set me up like this? Was it just to get me thrown in jail? Do we really have that much of a grudge?”
“Of course I’m a girl…” The girl’s voice still had a hint of tears. “Besides, the system’s protection makes everything feel so stiff, it’s nothing like being with Mom…”
Zhang Cheng coughed again to interrupt the topic.
The faint torchlight outside the cell flickered in the cat-eared girl’s eyes. She hesitated for a moment, struggling inwardly, then finally spoke her mind: “I want the Lucky Ring you have.”
Zhang Cheng’s brows furrowed, and he looked at the girl suspiciously. He was the only one who knew he’d gotten the Lucky Ring, he hadn’t even had time to tell his sister yet. How did this girl know?
With a thought, the ring appeared on the index finger of his left hand. Zhang Cheng wiggled his finger to make sure the girl saw it, then put the ring away again, indicating that the ring really was in his possession.
In Eternal World, players could choose whether or not to display their equipment and accessories. Even if they didn’t show, it still counted as wearing them, perfectly catering to the dress-up crowd’s needs.
Since the girl had already mentioned the ring and even taken action for it, Zhang Cheng knew she must have some inside information, so he admitted it openly and followed up with, “How did you know I have this item? And why do you want it?”
“When you reach level 20 and become a novice thief, you get the Identification Skill. Just by the name, you can guess what it does. I want the ring because it’s a prerequisite for a hidden quest.” The girl answered truthfully, holding nothing back from Zhang Cheng’s questions.
Knowing what Zhang Cheng was going to ask next, she continued, “I originally wanted to complete the quest myself after getting the Lucky Ring.”
The cat-eared girl said wistfully, “I thought I could finish the quest on my own, but now I realize I was too arrogant before. I’ve changed my mind and decided to share this quest with you all.”
Zhang Cheng, having been tricked by her before, was still suspicious of her words. He chuckled dryly and said bluntly, “I don’t trust you. Why did you lure us into the alley, and how did you plan to get the ring from me?”
“I don’t have any other items. I wanted to trade with the hairclip you saw earlier.” The cat-eared girl cupped her hands in front of her, the hairclip resting in her palms, and looked earnestly at Zhang Cheng, choosing to lay everything out in the open.
“What does that have to do with you framing me?” Zhang Cheng was even more confused. If she wanted to trade, shouldn’t she try to get on his good side? Why did she set him up instead, and even get herself involved?
The thief girl put away the hairclip, looking embarrassed, and explained the whole story to Zhang Cheng and the curious couple who had gathered around.
According to her, most of what she’d said to the three of them before was true.
After getting part of the Spider Boss’s loot, she spent all her gold to buy a so-called hidden quest activation item—a mysterious treasure map—from an NPC whose level was ???.
When she asked to confirm the treasure map, the NPC readily agreed, and the system’s item info showed it was indeed a real treasure map, so the two happily struck a deal.
She didn’t think she was being ripped off; on the contrary, after reading the treasure map’s description, she felt it was worth every coin, because it was the Knight Nation Royal Family Treasure Map.
But what she hadn’t expected was that after binding the treasure map, there was still a hard requirement to start the hidden quest—all party members must be above level 20, and at least one person must have a Luck stat greater than 1.
This stumped the girl. Level wasn’t a problem—she’d reach it soon—but she’d never even heard of the Luck stat before. Searching the Forum, she found a post where someone showed off loot from the Spider Cave—a Lucky Ring, complete with detailed info.
The post said the Lucky Ring seemed to be a guaranteed drop from all Spider-type bosses. Their team had cleared several different spider dungeons, and the Lucky Ring’s drop rate was currently 100%.
The girl contacted the team, hoping to trade for the item, but was rejected. These top strategy teams had already realized the benefits of the Luck stat. Luck wasn’t just for triggering quests; it could also work wonders in combat. A hairclip with a special function but useless for boss fights couldn’t interest the strategy group.
After hitting a wall with the strategy group, the girl remembered that Zhang Cheng had gotten a purple item, which was likely the Lucky Ring.
So she ran around a few nearby spider caves, leveling up while looking for Zhang Cheng. On the second night, she entered a new spider dungeon and ran into him there.
Just as she expected, Zhang Cheng chased after her as soon as he saw her. To lure him out of the dungeon, she even let herself get caught on purpose. Since items couldn’t be traded inside instances, she planned to trick him outside to make the deal in Eternal World, but unexpectedly ran into an enemy right outside the door, so the plan failed and she had to log off.
After becoming a low-level thief and acquiring the Identification Skill, she ran into Zhang Cheng in town today and confirmed that the Lucky Ring was on him. But since she’d previously played a trick on him, the conflict between them had deepened, so she had to come up with a new plan.
In a hurry, she tricked a disabled NPC girl who was begging nearby, knocked her out in a dark alley, and then walked back and forth in Zhang Cheng’s line of sight, using this half-baked plan to draw him in.
Once Zhang Cheng followed her and experienced the hairclip’s power for himself, she was confident she could persuade him to trade items.
Listening to her, Zhang Cheng wanted to mock her unfounded confidence, but thinking about the hairclip’s effect, he had to admit it was indeed powerful in certain situations. If he could trade away a ring he didn’t need at the moment, he was actually a bit tempted.
Still, there were some things the girl hadn’t explained clearly, so Zhang Cheng pressed further: “How did you know you wouldn’t get caught attacking someone in the dark? By your account, you started acting as soon as you saw us. Even if you could hear our whispers, you wouldn’t have had time to prepare.”
The girl replied, “Thieves can use skills to hear things from far away, and the positioning is pretty accurate, so I heard your whole conversation loud and clear. That member of the PVP Organization you mentioned is standing right in front of you—I obviously know about this.”
She stood up, puffed out her chest, and looked down at Zhang Cheng, who was still squatting. She seemed proud of her identity. “You’ve definitely heard of Scarlet Dawn, right? Even if you haven’t, it won’t be long after the guild system opens in this game before you know the name by heart!”
As a former veteran player, Zhang Cheng certainly knew about Scarlet Dawn, the famous guild. They had chapters in many games and only recruited top players and elite PVPers.
They were strong, but not exactly well-liked, since many members were arrogant due to their skill, and a few had sadistic tendencies, enjoying bullying newbies and humiliating others for fun, which rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
But because they really were strong, they had their own loyal following, and never seemed to lose ground in public opinion battles. Zhang Cheng himself had clashed with this controversial guild in other games before.
The girl’s explanation convinced Zhang Cheng. She was almost certainly a member of Scarlet Dawn, because a normal person wouldn’t come up with a plan like, “Even though I made you hate me, my item is really strong, so I’ll use it on you. After you experience it, you’ll definitely want to trade.” That kind of plan could only come from someone with an extremely self-centered mindset.
Qi Wen and Zhang Yu didn’t know how this organization operated, so they were left confused by the conversation. Zhang Cheng pressed on, “So how did things end up like this? Why did you go looking for the guards afterward?”
The cat-eared girl got embarrassed, pretending to rub her eyes to hide her expression, and muttered softly, “The whole plan was rushed, and I didn’t think through a lot of parts. It was only supposed to be a trap for you. Even if it failed, I could’ve escaped if it was just you, but who knew you’d bring two professional helpers, and so quickly at that…”
“I also didn’t expect you wouldn’t kill the NPC… In our guild, someone tested it—if the NPC dies, the guards can lock onto the killer directly, no investigation needed. After all, it’s just a game; all player actions are recorded.” Her voice grew smaller and smaller.
After hearing all this, the three finally understood what had happened. Although Zhang Cheng had a rather negative view of Scarlet Dawn and wasn’t particularly fond of the cat-eared girl, he was still quite interested in the shared hidden quest she mentioned.
Zhang Cheng asked one last question: “You’re a member of Scarlet Dawn, and you just said the Lucky Ring has a 100% drop rate. In such a big guild, there must be others with luck-boosting items. Why go out of your way to find me?”
The girl looked embarrassed at this, but finally admitted awkwardly, “Eternal World is a full-immersion game, and I’d never played one before. I was afraid of hurting the guild’s reputation, so I quit on my own…”
“It’s because they found out how bad you were after the test and kicked you out!” Zhang Cheng interjected.
“That was only because it was my first time playing a full-immersion game, and I wasn’t used to the controls! Once I get the hang of it, I’ll go back! And besides, the guild hasn’t even been established yet, I’m still in the Forum…” The girl’s voice rose as she tried to explain herself, but then she realized she’d let slip the truth, and buried her head, refusing to say more.
Seeing the girl retreat into her shell again, Zhang Cheng and the others gathered to discuss their next move.
A moment later, Zhang Cheng called out to the girl in the corner: “We agree to cooperate. Share the quest with us. But now, the real problem is—how do we get out of jail?”[]34trf