At this time, it was already night in Innocent World. The slightly damp air carried a hint of chill, and occasionally, unnamed insects that only came out at night would emit a few low chirps, echoing for a long time in the quiet forest.
The moonlight was a bit cold…
Mo Tan's eyes were also a bit cold. The change in his personality and state of mind made him think in a completely different way than before. All the questions he had considered and cared about under his lawful good personality, such as the safety of Cole and Little Ai, were instantly thrown to the back of his mind.
For Mo Tan at this moment, there was only one thing he needed to consider: the instant disconnection when the game first became available for login today, and the subsequent blank period of nearly five hours (in-game time).
“When I was about to log into the game, I was in the ‘lawful good’ state,” Mo Tan irresponsibly used the nine-alignment grid to distinguish his personalities, pondering, “Then I disconnected the moment I logged in. When I came to my senses, there was a blank period of about five hours, which is two and a half hours of real-world time at a normal ratio…”
While thinking, Mo Tan's hands were not idle. He was organizing his inventory and quickly changing his equipment. One must know that there were quite a few spoils of war he had plundered from the cult stronghold in Patto City, and the few pieces he had equipped before logging off last time were not all of them.
There were still many items that needed to be compared with his own situation before a choice could be made…
“Although none of them exceeded three hours, the duration of each disconnection was not equal,” Mo Tan murmured softly while changing into a pair of long boots, then began to poison a dark blue short dagger, “It’s not ruled out that longer blank periods might appear in the future…”
After inserting the dagger into the leather sheath at his waist, he took out the Hundred Aspects mask, which had finished cooling down, and began to customize his face.
“Basically, it’s almost certain. A personality I don’t know about is also in this game, and it’s very likely they’ve already created a character, but there’s no other information at all…”
He put the mask on his face, making himself look like a human man with slightly pale skin. Mo Tan put on the white robe he had bought in the city again.
“What a challenging detective game, indeed~”
With that slightly wicked smile back on his face, Mo Tan strolled from the forest onto the path, his expression very relaxed and content, even humming a tune.
He had adjusted his emotions and completely cast aside his earlier worries. After all, only foolish people would bother with problems that couldn’t be solved in a short time. Such behavior would only add to his troubles and was utterly meaningless.
Perhaps in the other two personality states, he might act somewhat foolishly, but this would absolutely not happen to him now.
Although the current Mo Tan was the most concerned about the ‘blank period,’ he was completely unwilling to do useless work.
Problems that could be handled were not worth worrying about, because all he had to do was act.
Things that couldn't be dealt with were also not worth worrying about, because worrying about them was useless.
This was not an attitude of giving up or letting things take their course; in fact, it was quite the opposite…
“I will definitely dig you out. Although it might not be now, that’s okay… the game has just begun~”
The young man on the path stumbled along, as if drunk…
But he always felt he was the most sober one.
…
【Tan Mo】
HP: 220 / 220
Stamina: 210 / 210
Acuity: 400 / 400
Profession: Deceiver Level 5 (127 / 900); Thief Level 2 (140 / 150)
Faith: None
Alignment: chaotic neutral
Talents: Chaos, Cunning, Sophistry, Incredulous
Basic Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 15, Wisdom 14, Constitution 11
Civilized Attributes: Eloquence 12, Charm 12, Knowledge 11, Leadership 4
Combat Attributes: Cunning School Level 9
Skills: Confusion, Bewitch, Stealth, Theft, Throat Slit, Backhand Spin Stab, Escape, Kidney Shot, Swift Stab
Lockpicking Level: 9
Special Equipment: Hundred Aspects
Weapon: Evil Ice Shard, Ritual Dagger
Shoulder: Gray Gauze
Upper Body: Snake Leather Armor
Lower Body: Dark-woven Leggings
Feet: Comfortable Light Boots
Appearance (No attribute bonus): Belted Robe
PS: To avoid taking up too much space, more important equipment will be introduced separately in the future, or immediately upon initial acquisition like the Hundred Aspects mask.
In short, this is the current attributes and equipment status of the character Tan Mo. From this, it can be seen that his strength has increased significantly in a short period of time. Although he still cannot be considered a top-tier player due to online time and other reasons, similarly, there are very few people who can obtain a unique Epic special equipment like Hundred Aspects at the very beginning. All in all, it’s pretty decent~
By the way, this character has the highest lockpicking level among current players, without exception.
As he walked towards Karan City, Mo Tan browsed his friend messages. As for who the sender was, there was no need to elaborate… his character only had Shuang Ye as a friend so far.
“Complaints, nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, probing, nonsense, probing, complaints…” Mo Tan sighed as he browsed the large amount of information, shaking his head. “Does this guy have nothing nutritious to say?”
Despite this, Mo Tan still pondered how to reply after reading the large amount of ‘nonsense.’ The reason had been mentioned before: he didn’t want Shuang Ye to gradually lose patience with a certain ‘game’ between them, otherwise, he would lose a lot of fun~
‘If you’re really too bored, why don’t you hurry up and think about how to find me, or accumulate some advantages for yourself, instead of talking nonsense all day like a gossip, which might expose your weaknesses~’
Mo Tan sent such a malicious message to Shuang Ye. He had never been very polite to his partner, especially after their previous ‘meeting,’ which made him even more overbearing.
A few seconds later, he received a reply from her.
‘Then how can you judge whether these weaknesses are real or fake? Can’t I be deliberately misleading you?’
Completely different from her previous trash talk, Shuang Ye, knowing she was communicating with him in real-time, was not disturbed at all. Instead, she tried to disrupt Mo Tan.
‘Because I’m smarter than you.’ Mo Tan replied without thinking.
‘Oh? I’d really like to know where this confidence of yours comes from, you foolish test machine? Or foolish self-confidence?’ Shuang Ye, sitting by the bonfire at Fenrir’s outpost, watched the somewhat uneasy Ned in the distance while rapidly exchanging messages with Mo Tan.
When she logged into the game today, she felt somewhat uneasy for some reason, but couldn't pinpoint why. Overall, she just felt uncomfortable, as if something bad was about to happen.
‘Don’t make such obvious and boring probes.’ Mo Tan was a little surprised by her recklessness, then seemed to suddenly think of an interesting idea and added, ‘You know, our current conditions are not equal.’
Shuang Ye paused, then quickly realized that Tan Mo was probably referring to the fact that she didn't know his appearance yet. When they met in the Public Space that day, she hadn't hidden her appearance, but Black Vatican had been blurred, so even though both knew each other's in-game nicknames, the information was still not equal.
At least for the ‘game’ between them, Shuang Ye was at a disadvantage.
But…
‘Whatever, the fun of the game has never been about fairness~’
Mo Tan was slightly stunned looking at Shuang Ye’s reply. After a while, he giggled foolishly, then his expression became a little more serious and he replied, ‘I’ll give you a chance. I’ll make a few random guesses about you. If I’m right, you answer one question for me. If I’m wrong, I answer one question for you. How about it?’
‘Unfair!’ Shuang Ye replied instantly, ‘If you guess things like my gender is female, wouldn’t I be at a great disadvantage?’
‘If you deliberately lie or simply don’t answer, there’s nothing I can do, is there? So, do you want to consider trusting that I won’t be so low-class, and then agree to this proposal?’
Shuang Ye was speechless. Just as she was about to fiercely refuse and state that she absolutely didn't believe a certain guy had any class, another message suddenly popped up…
‘What’s more, the fun of the game has never been about fairness, has it?’
Her own words from before were sent back to her verbatim by the other party.
A minute later, Mo Tan, still strolling unhurriedly, received a short reply.
‘Okay! You guess.’
Mo Tan whistled, then replied without hesitation, ‘I guess you’re a girl.’
“@#￥%&*@!!!!!”
A string of garbled characters instantly appeared, containing the girl’s uncontrollable rage.
‘Then I won’t be polite. May I ask what color your underwear is today?’
Mo Tan asked this question, which could easily be reported as sexual harassment, with a calm mind…
‘Get lost!!!’
Shuang Ye, who never had any pretense of being a lady, replied almost with fire in her eyes, simultaneously cursing out loud.
Ned, not far away, was startled. He didn't know what was wrong with this usually quiet, sweet, and cute teammate. In the blink of an eye, Shuang Ye, who had been sitting obediently by the bonfire, suddenly jumped up and cursed at the air.
However, Ned only glanced back and didn't pay much attention to this somewhat neurotic girl. He was in a bad mood right now and really had no time to deal with such things…
‘Hmm, so it’s blue and white stripes~’
Shuang Ye looked at the latest message from the other party, and stood rooted to the spot as if struck by lightning. After repeatedly confirming several times that what she had just said was definitely ‘Get lost!!!’, she suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
‘Blue and white stripes, yes or no?’
Shuang Ye stood blankly for a while, then barely managed to calm herself down, and then gritted her teeth and replied, “Yes.”
‘Question: Are you less than 1.6 meters tall in real life?’
‘Is it illegal to be under 1.6 meters?!’
This feeling of being led by the nose was terrible. She should have known better than to agree to that shameless, classless, neurotic bastard!!
But if she stopped now, she would lose!
Her delicate brows furrowed slightly, Shuang Ye thought through gritted teeth, not even noticing Yinna, who had just returned to the outpost, greeting her.
Immediately after, Mo Tan's message popped up again: ‘Is your profession Berserker? The kind that’s especially powerful when excited, but whose intelligence is a bit lacking.’
‘No!’ Shuang Ye immediately replied, ‘My turn to ask you, what’s your real name?’
Two seconds later
‘So you’re giving up this question?’
From the text, Shuang Ye could already imagine that guy’s incredibly malicious tone and his gaze as if looking at an idiot.
Exposing one’s true identity was every hacker’s biggest taboo. Shuang Ye herself hadn’t expected the other party to answer her honestly. That last sentence, rather than being a ‘question,’ was more of a counterattack to the previous question about underwear color, but…
‘I’ll give you another chance.’
Mo Tan actually said so.
Shuang Ye immediately calmed down and quickly typed with her mind: ‘Your race and profession.’
It was clear that the guy was intentionally giving her a chance to reduce the disadvantage of unequal information. Although she was a bit angry, her best option at the moment was still to quickly ask some substantial questions.
‘That’s two questions, but it doesn’t matter. Half-elf and Level 2 Thief, Level 5 Deceiver.’
Mo Tan replied seemingly generously, then immediately proceeded with the third round of guessing: ‘You take your mother’s surname.’
After Shuang Ye asked a more constructive question, Mo Tan’s guesses also became more serious, while also conveying a signal.
He was getting serious too~
‘Wrong, I don’t take anyone’s surname.’ Shuang Ye replied just as generously, as if she had already repaid the favor of Mo Tan answering two questions at once, but only she knew that this answer was completely irrelevant. She then immediately asked, ‘Your approximate location?’
‘The path between Patto City and Karan City.’ Mo Tan sped up, ‘I guess you’re like me, and your friends list only has me, your lord.’
Shuang Ye, now fully in the zone, chuckled, ‘Wrong, this young lady isn’t as isolated as you. Besides you, my friends list has other men too~’
Mo Tan stopped, scratched his hair somewhat helplessly, and chuckled softly, “So, only Tan Mo and Black Vatican are friends, huh… What a pity, that ‘other man’ is me too~”
Of course, he wouldn’t reply like that, and at this moment, Shuang Ye’s next question had already arrived.
‘What’s your average daily game time?’
Mo Tan slightly narrowed his eyes and ‘truthfully replied’ very obediently: ‘I’m always online. Not replying is just because I’m too lazy to bother with you, don’t mind it.’
That statement was super annoying, wasn’t it!!!
Shuang Ye pouted angrily, waiting for the other party to continue.
Then, after a full five minutes, she received a new message, the content of which was…
‘Where you are, there’s slave trading.’
Shuang Ye was naturally bewildered, then shrugged and replied, ‘I don’t know, what do you mean?’
‘If you don’t know, go investigate. Reply to me when you have a conclusion~’ Mo Tan replied instantly.
“Hey!” Shuang Ye cried out exasperatedly, “Didn’t we agree that I just had to answer?! What do you mean ‘reply when you have a conclusion’?!”
But this time, no matter how many more messages the girl sent, the other party never replied to her again.
On the path
“Anyway, you’re just idling~” Mo Tan lay casually by the roadside, picked up a red leaf beside him, his eyes smiling, “Why don’t you do me a favor…”
Chapter 52: The End