NOVEL WEB Chapter 28: As Everyone Knows
Chapter 28: As Everyone Knows
Fourth Squad, Rest Room.
Oteluk walked in and handed him a pouch of money.
"The bounty for the fugitives was submitted as a squad effort. Here’s your share. You also have one lower-tier item reward; you can collect it at the front desk later."
The method of submitting the mission was something the three of them had discussed.
Submitting it as a squad effort meant the credit was shared among them.
This aligned with Wu Heng's thinking since explaining how he single-handedly killed three fugitives might have been tricky.
Officially, saying it was a squad effort made it more convincing.
As for the second squad knowing about it, that was beyond his control.
Besides, even if someone investigated, there wouldn’t be anything to find.
"Thanks, Captain. How about I treat you all to dinner tonight?" Wu Heng offered politely.
"No need. The steward has assigned tasks to all squads recently, coordinating with the guards to search for fugitives and criminal mercenaries. It’s not the time to celebrate," Oteluk replied, sitting down and pouring himself a cup of tea.
"Search tasks?"
"Originally, our squad had one too, but since you killed three fugitives, it counts as completing the task directly, so you don't have to participate. Otherwise, you’d be patrolling and searching with the guards," Oteluk explained.
Damn.
Where’s that easy job they talked about? Now I’d have to patrol too.
Killing those three really did solve quite a few problems.
"Then let’s wait a few days," Wu Heng said, then added, "Captain, can I apply for a second skeleton minion? It’s still pretty dangerous out there."
Oteluk sipped his tea, thought for a moment, and said, "I’ll talk to the steward about it. Whether it gets approved depends on the situation."
"Alright."
Oteluk nodded, then asked, "How did you know they were going to target you?"
Leaving a note beforehand indicated that Wu Heng knew they were coming for him last night.
Karvina also looked at him curiously, waiting for an answer.
Wu Heng then explained how he discovered someone had entered his place and the issues he found during his conversation with the landlord.
"I couldn’t be sure, but I guessed there was a good chance they’d make a move."
"How did you kill them by yourself?" Karvina pressed further.
This question didn’t really need an answer; everyone has their secrets.
But Wu Heng had already prepared his response.
"After realizing they might act, I made some preparations in advance. When they entered, I released a dense smoke. As everyone knows, skeletons don’t rely on visual sight, so darkness and smoke don’t hinder them. Skeleton Basen then took them out one by one."
As everyone knows?
Who told you everyone knows that!
We don’t have such a deep understanding of the undead.
This explanation seemed plausible enough—fighting at night, under prepared conditions, killing three fugitives didn’t seem too far-fetched.
But something still felt off.
The three of them chatted for a while. Oteluk went to the training room, and Karvina and Wu Heng left the rest room.
They arrived at the main hall.
Wu Heng used his lower-tier item reward to exchange for a skill book【Dancing Lights】, then left the guild.
……
Commercial Street, Weapon Shop.
"What are you buying today?" The muscular, oily-skinned shopkeeper asked with a smile.
Wu Heng didn’t come here often, but he had left an impression on the shopkeeper.
"I’m here to look at spears."
"They’re all over here. Take your pick."
One side of the wall was lined with various types of spears.
The cheapest was 4 silver 70 copper, and the most expensive was 75 silver coins.
Different types, different lengths.
Wu Heng looked them over and pointed at the cheapest spear. "I’ll take this one."
The spearhead was about 40 centimeters long, and the shaft was made of dark wood.
But the craftsmanship of the spearhead was noticeably better than the ones he had bought from the market.
The shopkeeper glanced at him and said, "The shaft is made of treated ash wood, which is prone to breaking in battle. This kind of spear is more suitable for driving away wild animals or for practice."
"I’m buying it for a village, to drive away wild animals."
The shopkeeper understood, "Then that’s no problem."
"Can you give me a discount if I buy more?" Wu Heng asked as usual.
"That depends on how many you buy."
Wu Heng thought about how many he could take without drawing too much attention.
"I’ll take 10 spears."
"10 spears isn’t much; I can’t give you much of a discount."
"I’ll probably need more in the future, and I can come back here to buy them."
After some simple haggling, the shopkeeper knocked off 50 copper coins.
Wu Heng paid, and he and Basen carried the spears out of the weapon shop, heading back to his place.
……
Back at his place.
Basen cleaned up the room, scrubbing away the bloodstains.
Last night’s fight had been pretty intense.
The few pieces of furniture he had were mostly smashed, and the walls and floor were marked with sword cuts.
If the landlord saw this, he’d probably demand compensation for the furniture.
Wu Heng sat at the desk, flipping through the new skill book he had just acquired.
Page by page, he followed the process for unlocking skills, trying to understand the magic of this world.
If he had been this diligent back in the day, he might have gotten into a prestigious university.
As time passed,
The system notification appeared: 【Unlocked Skill: Dancing Lights.】
【Dancing Lights: You can create floating light sources.】
With a thought, Wu Heng cast Dancing Lights.
Immediately, several beams of light began to revolve around his body, emitting a faint glow.
He tried guiding the lights to touch nearby objects, but they avoided them and continued to orbit around him.
It seemed they couldn’t be used as an offensive measure.
"Well, at least it works as a flashlight."
He dismissed the spell, packed up, and headed to the zombie world with Basen.
……
On the rooftop.
He spread out a local map in front of him.
Fortunately, there was a resident who was a cycling enthusiast. His room was filled with maps from various places, including maps and route charts of this city.
The zombies in the neighborhood were mostly cleared out.
There were still a few wandering in, but they weren’t much of a threat.
The next step was to leave the neighborhood and explore further.
He thought it over and identified three targets.
First, the site where the survivors who tried to escape by bus had died a few days ago.
He circled the spot where the bus had overturned with a pen.
Taking such a huge risk to escape, those people must have had a destination in mind.
It could have been a survivor base or a safer place.
There might be some clues in the bus.
Next, he circled two spots on the southwest and north sides of the map.
There’s a pedestrian street in the southwest, with two gold shops and a bank nearby.
Whether the bank has gold, he wasn’t sure, but the gold shops certainly had a good amount of stock.
Gold and silver brought to Blackstone Town could make him an instant tycoon.
The other spot to the north was the local police station.
He might find some bullets there.
These three locations were his next targets.
The bus area had a giant zombie capable of overturning the bus itself, which wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
The route to the pedestrian street passed by the area with the three mutated dogs, which the skeletons couldn’t outrun or easily fight.
That left the police station.
"If I had bullets last night, it wouldn’t have been such a hassle."
Last night’s encounter with the fugitives was a wake-up call.
If he had bullets last night, he could have gone for a straight-up justice shot, emptying the magazine.
"I’ll head to the police station."