Chapter 71: The Gambler's Skills
They were both new model puppets, but they didn't seem as advanced as Guan Ling's body. After all, Old Nect was the number one craftsman in Puppet City. All the parts he prepared for Little Nect were the best of the best. Even the city lord's parts weren't as good as Guan Ling's.
If Guan Ling hadn't gotten the system's notification, Xing Ye would've had a better impression of these two. However, they were just like Xing Ye thought- people who would vent their temper on other things.
Although Xing Ye always planned for the worst, it was just to be prepared. He really didn't want the worst-case scenerio to happen, but alas, his plans ended up coming in useful.
The two following fate players weren't polite and went right ot the point. "If you guys took away Benedict's little puppet, you should pretty much know the plot. Whoever gets the puppet will win. Right now, the puppet's in your hands, but we won't let you give it to Benedict to complete the mission. Hand over the puppet, or prepare for a beating!"
Cao Qian was worried Guan Ling wouldn't be calm enough and pulled his arm. However, after hearing the two players' words, she became so angry that her grip bent Guan Ling's wrist.
Guan Ling: "..."
Good thing he was a puppet.
Despite her anger, Cao Qian didn't move an inch, standing behind Xing Ye as support.
Xing Ye had already anticipated the two following fate players to be as such and wasn't too upset. "Randy didn't talk to you guys?"
The son of the owner of the mines sneered, "He tried using his status as a high level player to tempt us, but everything he said was suggesting we should be begging him for guidance and listening to everything he says. We would rather lose than cooperate with a person like him."
The two were actually very calm people. This was the first time Xing Ye met following fate players who weren't muddled by the luck value the system gave them.
"It looks like you two rare planning to fight, but we have four people while you only have two. Are you guys really sure you'll win?" Xing Ye asked.
The public security chief's son said, "We've been partners since the novice world and right now, we already have more than 40,000 points. Every world's reward only gives 100 points, so how do you think we collected this many points? We obviously wouldn't take the initative to attack other players. We got all of our points through self defense- who knew there would be so many blind players."
This was the first time Xing Ye met people who dared to be so unbridled facing him. It was a truly novel experience.
However, these two following fate players probably were very strong. Without powerful starting abilities and QR codes, they wouldn't have such confidence.
Xing Ye had no intention of fighting with the two. There wasn't any point in struggling for 2000 points from them. Instead, he just gave them a reminder. "I know you've met Benedict and want to help him find his son's puppet, believing that's how to solve the mission, but that's wrong."
"Of course we know." The son of the owner of the mines said. "We still have to kill the city lord and owner of the mnes, helping Benedict reclaim Puppet City."
"You guys..." Xing Ye stared at their proud faces and couldn't help but knead his forehead. "Randy should've told you there's another way to complete the mission, right?"
The public security chief's son said, "Wow, you actually believed him? He probably tried to trick every player with that, saying he'll trade information about the game for our loyalty. There's also two following fate players in your team, right? If they're willing to let opposing fate players leech onto them, it's their choice, but we're not that stupid."
The son of the owner of the mines added, "We've experienced ten games and watched countless cooperations between following fate and opposing fate players fail. We even defeated many of them ourselves. We're very familiar with cheap tricks you opposing fate players use to stick to us following fate players, we're not interested in hearing another spiel from you. Cooperating is impossible- hand over the puppet!"
Xing Ye: "..."
He also didn't want to waste time arguing with them anymore and directly handed them the little puppet. They could go and do whatever they wanted.
"You're giving it up that easily? This isn't another fake, right?" The mine owner's son was on guard.
Xing Ye shook his head, "Sorry, this is only our third world. We're just novices and we aren't even sure ourselves if this is real or not. You can vertify it yourselves."
"Of course we weren't going to count on you. We've already taken all the puppets, this is the last one. I doubt you could actually find the real puppet, we're just being cautious and making sure we aren't leeting anything go." After taking the puppet, the two glanced at Xing Ye disdainfully before strutting away, acting high and mighty.
Xing Ye, the mirror, Cao Qian, and Guan Ling were all left speechless.
Those two were truly... something.
After the two left, the mirror said, dumbstruck, "Who gave them so much self confidence, that their ego swelled up this much?"
He was a player that reached the final level, but even he wasn't as arrogant as those two!
Guan Ling also pointed at his own face, "I'm stupid? I've acted subordinate to opposing fate players several times, did it seem very stupid? They're clearly the stupid ones! They've played more than ten worlds, yet they don't even know about the the true ending!"
Cao Qian clenched her fist angrily, "They even broke the little puppet! Even with the revival ability, the little puppet still feels pain! It's a good thing he doesn't have a heart yet, or it might've given him trauma."
The three were steaming with anger. Guan Ling complained, "Boss, you should've agreed to fight just now! We could've gotten 2000 points from them!"
Xing Ye was still very calm. There were many people like that in society. "The reason why I didn't wasn't because of kindness, but because this is the residential area. We can't just do whatever we want because we're players. We need to treat the inhabitants of the game world equally."
He had always acted as such. In the last world, the fight also took place in the special mission space.
This time, no matter what the conclusion was, they needed to kill Randy. Xing Ye already planned it so the fight would take place outside the city, staying as far from Puppet City as possible.
Xing Ye said, "Those puppets won't buy us much time. Tomorrow, they'll bring the puppets to find Benedict, further enraging Benedict. He'll lose all faith in them and perhaps attack them. Randy would probably be watching the show by the side, choosing an opportune moment to approach them and trick them into cooperating with him. We have to fight before then."
Xing Ye raised his head, looking at the sky. The quarter moon tonight was very bright; it was a good day to kill someone.
"Alright, I'll approach him as you ordered!" Guan Ling said, "But boss, do you think I'll be able to trick him? I don't have confidence in myself."
"It'll be more effective if you go." Xing Ye said, "He has his guard up against me."
The key point here was Guan Ling's identity as a following fate player. Randy was biased against following fate players. The more disdainful he was of them, the easier it was for him to be fooled. As such was the idiom, failure comes when least expected.
Xing Ye noticed Guan Ling's eagerness to get into action and suddenly asked, "Guan Ling, I told you to lure the enemy. Aren't you afraid of danger? Don't you think I'm being too hard on you?"
"It's not that bad. Before, Di Kuang made me do even worse things." Guan Ling said, "Besides, I'm putting all my bets on you. Just carry me to becoming a high level player faster! I just got 5000 points in one go earlier, and I only need 500,000 points to become a high level player. I have 3 million in debt, so if I keep going with you, won't I be able to pay it back pretty quickly? To be honest, if I can't pay back this debt, I'd be better off dead."
Xing Ye nodded, "Alright, go then. Remember, no matter what, don't agree to any of Randy's requests. You have to remember how the city lord's son died."
After saying that, Xing Ye used Wrongly-Used Projector to find Randy's current location. He was currently wandering outside the door of Cao Qian's house. Since the two following fate players didn't believe him, he could only go back to try and trick Linda.
"Don't worry, I'll use the projector to follow you two." Xing Ye said, "You have to trick him into going to our chosen spot."
"Alright, don't worry, just leave it to me!" Guan Ling patted his chest forcefully before running to Linda's home.
Cao Qian, Xing Ye, and the mirror walked outside the city.
They've already decided to have the battle at the riverbank outside the city as to avoid drawing in the inhabitants of the city.
First, Guan Ling needed to lure Randy here. He would say that he didn't want to work with a useless group of cowards like Xing Ye's. They spent all that effort finding the real little puppet, yet gave it away to the other two players just like that.
"I was the one who found it!" Guan Ling complained to Randy angrily, "How could an opposing fate player pick out the real puppet with their luck and eyesight? Without me, they're nothing! I can't even keep the QR codes I found. They just want to leech off me and use me. If they were strong, I would've just bore with it- after all, this is a world where the strong rule- but they're just too useless! I couldn't take it anymore after they just let those two players snatch away a crucial prop!"
Randy had just been trying to lure Linda into working with him with the monetary rewards she'd get from becoming a high level player when Guan Ling suddenly rushed over and started blabbering all his complaints, Randy couldn't help but ask, "How did you know I was here?"
Guan Ling acted innocent, "I didn't know you were here. I wanted to find you, but with how you appear and disappear everywhere like a ghost, it's impossible to. Fortunately, my luck's good so I just strolled around aimlessly and saw you. The luck stats following fate players get are seriously useful, if only they could apply to the real world too."
With the mention of luck, Randy lowered his suspicions slightly and said, "You made the right choice. I'll carry you to the high level worlds."
This was always how he tricked people into becoming his teammate: he just had to say he was a high level player who knew the game well.
Guan Ling said, "So it's like this: those two following fate players are planning to take all the little puppets to find Benedict. We can't let them get the reward first, so I'm thinking about arranging a trap for them along the road to the mines. That way, we can easily get their points and props. Do you want to cooperate with me?"
Xing Ye told Guan Ling that no matter what, he couldn't agree to any of Randy's words. Guan Ling had to seize the initative and not give Randy the opportunity to scheme.
Even if it was just an agreement to cooperate, he couldn't let Randy bring it up. Guan Ling had to suggest it first.
And no matter what Randy said, Guan Ling had to either refuse or avoid answering.
According to Xing Ye's analysis, Randy will definitely become anxious when he hears the two following fate players will trigger the surface ending. As a reincarnated player, the sole reason for coming back to these chaos worlds was to collect five books. The worst thing for them was to have the ending destroyed by someone else.
As such, he would definitely agree to Guan Ling's suggestion.
Linda was also there, having just been talking to Randy before Guan Ling interrupted. When she heard the little puppet was stolen, she asked awkwardly, "The puppet you wanted to hide here earlier got stolen away?"
Guan Ling acted furious, "That's right! If only you helped hide it for us. We kindly wanted to give you a way to participate in the game and help you get some points, but in the end, you didn't even want the important prop we delivered right to your door. Even if you want to play passively, isn't that too passive?!"
Linda said softly, "I... I don't really trust you guys. What if you guys gave me something dangerous?"
Guan Ling pressed Randy, "Time waits for nobody. Are you going or not? If you're not going, I'll do it myself! At most, I'll just fail. I don't have much points anyways, so losing half of them isn't a big deal. It's a gamble, a gamble where if I win, I'll get 2000 points from eliminating them!"
He revealed his gambling mentality, making a convincing performance.
Randy had also met those two players and knew how difficult they were. Combined with proof from Linda, a neutral party, he was already starting to believe Guan Ling.
"I'll investigate myself first. What if you're saying this to trick me?" Randy said cautiously.
Guan Ling nodded, "Then hurry up. We need time to set up the trap, we need to get there ahead of them!"