Chapter 1448: Return to the Castle
The two brothers, Eli and Eshan, had no room to resist and could only nod in agreement.
Xu Huo kept his promise. After learning all the information they had, he used Excavator 114 to dig three more tunnels for them deeper underground—two leading to nearby residences and one leading to the city wall. If Gem City became untenable, they could find a time to climb over the wall and escape. After all, the players wouldn't know whether they were actually the thieves.
Eli was clever. To avoid drawing attention, he only took a single gem. If not for the King discovering him while he was escaping, no one in the castle might have ever noticed anything missing. That footprint was left intentionally. After returning, he switched to shoes of a different size, evading several rounds of footprint comparisons by the guards.
However, there were still inconsistencies in the theft incident. According to Eli, he had sneaked into the Queen's bedroom while she was taking her maids to the Rose Garden. Following his father's instructions, he found the workshop, took a gem, and was about to leave when he happened to run into the King, who had come alone.
This meant the King had also sneaked into the Queen's workshop.
Earlier, when Xu Huo had led the King past the workshop during his performance, the King's reaction showed he clearly knew the Queen disliked others entering, and he rarely went in himself.
The King had been witnessed by a gem artisan exchanging items with the puppet person. The King was definitely in the know. The subsequent artisans who entered the castle and disappeared might have imitated Eli's father after their companion's death, trying to probe deeper and were discovered one after another. The recovery or disposal of puppets that had outlived their usefulness likely went through the Queen's hands. Whether the Queen knew the inside story remained a question mark for now.
After once again promising not to leak the information, Xu Huo, watched by Wayne and the Old Lady, turned the corner and returned to the previous spot. Yan Jiayu had already come back. Seeing him, she lowered her voice and said, "Guess who I just saw?"
"Duan Cheng and Li Kun?" They didn't know many people in Gem City.
Yan Jiayu nodded. "Those two found quite a few items in the empty houses. They must have known the item locations in advance."
Li Kun and the other didn't press further. The four of them each packed up their own things, had breakfast together, and then came to the castle.
The headscarf wasn't an item, and neither was the book, so Yan Jiayu's situation was similar. However, during her performance, she had exchanged one of her own items for a same-level item. Since it was an exchange—something given and something received—it didn't count as spoils to be split. Not bringing it out was a clear conscience.
Xu Huo glanced at Li Kun with a smile and said nothing.
With that, he took out all the items he had obtained, including the headscarf and book from the previous day.
Yan Jiayu brushed through the items in front of her and chuckled lightly. "Just these few? That's less than what I got alone."
"You two look well-rested," Duan Cheng observed, sizing them up. "You could actually sleep with someone watching you?"
"They prepared small robots to carry things out of the houses one by one for testing. Watching them was exhausting," Yan Jiayu complained.
Duan Cheng, interrupted mid-thought, was a bit displeased, but since Li Kun had already spoken, he couldn't back out on the spot and could only nod in agreement.
The empty houses were mostly the residences of artisans. After discovering the King's transaction with the puppet person, the later artisans had taken advantage of making jewelry for the King and maids to search the castle one after another, bringing out a few items. That wasn't surprising. Duan Cheng might have heard this news from other players and came to try his luck.
…
"What do you think?" Xu Huo looked at the items laid out on the table and turned to ask Yan Jiayu.
Yan Jiayu examined them with a smile and said to Xu Huo, "Only one D-grade item; the rest are E-grade."
Duan Cheng was about to speak when Li Kun interrupted, "Since we chose to cooperate, we should trust each other. What we got are all low-level items. Splitting your B-grade item evenly right now is a bit unfair. How about we wait until we've been to Moon City? Maybe we'll find high-level items there too."
Duan Cheng and Li Kun weren't in the same situation. Although they didn't know what level of items those artisans had stolen from the castle, what was laid out clearly wasn't everything. What they hadn't shown was definitely the good stuff.
Having anticipated this, Xu Huo nodded slightly and said, "The quill is a B-grade item. The four of us can't exactly split it evenly."
Duan Cheng and Li Kun had gone out after Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu left and returned before them, so Duan Cheng thought Xu Huo wouldn't know they had left.
The two returned to the castle area. After dawn, Duan Cheng and Li Kun came looking for them.
It was agreed beforehand that they would split everything equally. If everyone kept secrets, tacit understanding could still allow for peaceful coexistence. But these two clearly wanted to use a few unwanted items to split Xu Huo's quill—or rather, to test whether the quill was actually a good item.
At this point, Duan Cheng used an item to block outside surveillance and took the initiative to have Li Kun bring out several items. "These are our gains from the past two days. Since we're about to leave Gem City, why not tally up our findings? We don't know the situation in Moon City yet. If an emergency forces us to leave, we won't be able to count this haul."
"If we're really unlucky and find nothing, we can calculate the items' value and compensate the others appropriately. It doesn't have to be a split of items."
"We still need to go to the castle," Yan Jiayu said, gathering her things and making up a story. "The temporary public service document doesn't have a seal. A dual signature would be more secure."
"I've made quite a bit of progress too." Xu Huo recounted the full story of the black gem. "After I finish organizing the books I brought out tomorrow, I'll go to the castle again. Once the side quest is clear, we should be able to clear the instance."
Li Kun relaxed his expression and pushed the headscarf back to Yan Jiayu. "There's probably going to be a tough fight leaving the city. Want to go find some food?"
"What do you mean?" Xu Huo leaned back in his chair with a smile, his gaze calm as he looked at the two across from him.
It was a flimsy excuse, but when you thought about it, it almost made sense.
Seeing that he was sincere, Duan Cheng's expression softened a bit. "It's not that I don't trust you, but a B-grade item could be worth anywhere from a few million to tens of millions..."
As a gesture of goodwill, Duan Cheng and Li Kun first set aside the items for Yan Jiayu to inspect.
Yan Jiayu had no objections.
Xu Huo used an item sticker to cover the King's signature on the document and requested to see the King again. The guards on duty recognized the document and knew what had happened the previous night, so they immediately relayed the message.
Soon, six guards came to escort Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu inside.
Once inside the castle, the King didn't meet them personally but had the guards relay messages in the middle. First, they informed Xu Huo that if the temporary public service document was damaged, the King would absolutely not write a second one.
Xu Huo handed over a photo. "Please ask the King if this is the gem he lost."
(End of Chapter)
Hai Yanshan