Battle Royale of the Sinners

'Where are those guys? Why did they suddenly disappear?'

Sima Xin scanned the entire Zhang courtyard, looking for his comrades.

Though they were not comrades he wanted to be friends with, but they were essential for his career as a scout member.

If he went back and reported that all of them went missing without clues, he and his family would be ridiculed as incompetent.

Therefore, at least he had to find a trace of them even if they were already dead.

Sima Xin climbed down the tree he was on. He planned to enter the village and asked around for clues.

…

…

Hua Shi danced and skipped in the garden, feeling overjoyed. She successfully formed a contract with Tong.

Meanwhile, Tong watched over her in the solemn face. The hostile feeling toward her in the past was nowhere to be seen on his face or his aura anymore.

The contract they formed called "Soulmate Contract". It was the most beneficial pact to both sides, yet the riskiest type of all contracts.

There were three types of contracts that could be signed if there were more than two otherworlders who were willing to form a contract with each other.

The Party Contract was a pact for acquaintances who would temporary trade with a partner or help the other for just a short period of times.

People that formed this contract would be able to reveal their status and missions to the others, but they could not share the rewards from the missions or used their lifespan as a currency to trade with each other.

The second type was the Clan Contract. If anyone played an MMORPG game, they would understand it immediately if they heard the word "Guild".

It was a partnership contract designed for an organization to work together toward the same goal.

Members who signed this contract could share missions and mission rewards with each other. This was beneficial to those who enjoyed banning together in groups.

However, the two types didn't guarantee that the members couldn't backstab each other.

There was no punishment stated in both contracts for killing the fellow partners. If someone no longer wanted to be in the group and killed the others to steal their wealth, the person would not be punished by the system.

This loophole could be considered that these two types of contracts were nothing but a sham. It was designed this way so the smarter ones would betray the others when its time was right.

Then, there was the last contract which eliminated this entire potential threat and the most profitable pact to sign it with a trustworthy partner, the Soulmate Contract.

They could enjoy an extra feature from the system called "Soulmate Missions" which multiplied the rewards by the total members who had signed this contract together.

For Example, if Tong and Hua Shi accepted a new mission together, the contents of the mission would be the same and would be shared for both of them. But the rewards would be multiplied by two, which meant each of them would be guaranteed to receive at least twice the amount of what they usually got after they completed the missions.

If the rewards they usually received was 10,000 lifespan, if they accepted it as a Soulmate Mission, they would get 20,000 years of lifespan instead of 10,000 years for each of them.

The benefits did not end there. The pact members could also impart their skills to the other members who signed the same contract together.

However, this feature only worked if both partners were opposite genders because this imparting processes required both sides to be performing a ritual together.

This ritual detail wasn't revealed by the system. The system kept telling them it was not completely implemented yet and it would take some time to complete.

Both Hua Shi and Tong could only wait until the system noticed them, then they could exchange their skills and lifespans.

And lastly, the pact members could trade or give lifespan to each other. But again, this feature required both sides to perform a ritual together.

Each year, the members could only impart one of their skills or trade lifespan to the other member one time. This was to prevent otherworlders from abusing this feature.

The last contract looked like the most attractive pact to form with a partner, but it didn't only contain the benefits. It had a sinister trap laid inside.

The contractees would be forced to have their life linked together. If one of the contractees died, the other partners who formed the contract with would die too.

If there were multiple contractees in one pact and one of them died, all of them would die alongside with the dead one.

Anyone that formed this contract would be naturally unwilling to harm each other until they died.

Tong and Hua Shi formed the third type of contract. Therefore Hua Shi could not be considered a threat to Tong anymore, but the most trustworthy ally. The only question remained in Tong's heart would be whether if she would she harm his family or would she help him protecting them.

It was like a marriage certificate which they had sworn to share love, happiness, and suffering together, which was the reason why Hua Shi was in a good mood.

Seeing how happy Hua Shi was, Tong sighed. He felt like he cheated on Friday. But at the same time, it was necessary for both of them to work together in the long run and eliminated the trust issues.

"Zombie, go protect my father and my uncles. I'm going back to my camp. I have works to do."

"Yes, darling! Have a good day!"

The corner of Tong's mouth twitched. After the incident last night, she had been calling him 'darling' now. Tong still couldn't get used to this mental girl.

Even though he didn't like her when they had first met and he was wary of her, Tong didn't hate Hua Shi either. Tong just couldn't trust Hua Shi that she could be working with him in the long run.

Tong felt like he had lifted a mountain away from his heart after he decided to form the contract, which was guaranteed that Hua Shi wouldn't betray him in the future. Thus he could trust her a little bit more.

"Keep an eye out. I'll be going now."

…

…

"Excuse me, have you seen a group of rowdy soldiers passing through here?"

"Soldiers? There are militia guards all over the place. Who are you searching for?"

"No, not the militias but a group of 20 men that wore leather armors."

"… No, no idea."

Sima Xin asked around the villagers but he still had no clues.

The only hint he had was that they had gone to Zhang Resident. But those 20 men didn't show up the next morning.

'Where the hell had they gone to!?'

'How did they suddenly disappear?'

Sima Xin was baffled. Those 20 men were arrogant and eye-catching. They should have left a trace behind if they went somewhere.

But they didn't seem to leave the Zhang Resident after they went in. Moreover, Sima Xin hadn't paid attention to them after they entered the village. He was busy trying to figure out how he could complete his quest.

He had to change the direction of the investigation, Sima Xin changed his questions.

"One more question, please. Who is the owner of that Manor?"

Sima Xin pointed at Zhang Manor.

"Oh! That's our great teacher's house. Do you know him?"

"Umm, no. What is his name?"

"Huh? You don't know him? He's famous you know?"

"Famous?"

"Yes, very famous. He's our town's doctor. His name is Zhang Jiao."

Sima Xin frown. He heard of this name somewhere before but he couldn't exactly recall where he had heard it.

Sima Xin was a mercenary and a veteran soldier in his previous life. He didn't pay much attention to the history class of the foreign countries. He couldn't remember the entire history timeline of the Three Kingdom period.

"Thank you very much, uncle. I'm leaving now."

Sima Xin bid farewell to the villager. He wanted to investigate or sneak inside Zhang Manor, but he abandoned the thought.

Sima Xin had to finish his current quest as soon as possible. Therefore, this investigation matter would have to wait.

'Where can I find the ex-bandits system mentioned?'

'Well, if I can't search for it, why don't I bait them?'

Sima Xin walked into a cloth shop and bought a luxurious looking set of clothes for him to wear. Since he was a child from the noble family of Sima, he had carried a sum of pocket money with him.

After he stepped out of the shop, he looked like a wealthy young master from a noble family or a wealthy merchant's child.

Then he strolled around the street and walked past several taverns while flaunting his money bag and intentionally showed what inside was.

Within 10 minutes of strolling aimlessly, seven street thugs stalked Sima Xin in secret.

'Got seven of them to hook the bait. Time to reel in the net.'

Sima Xin strolled into a lone alley and took out a knife from his cloth, getting ready for action.

Within a minute, two thugs rushed at Sima Xin, aiming to knock him out in one punch.

'These two are just ordinary thugs. They didn't use a weapon.'

Although Sima Xin assumed that the two weren't ex-bandits he had been looking for, he still charged at them.

The rich-looking teen ducked down and dodged the punch of the nearest thug. He countered with a stabbed from his knife, piercing the thug's left chest.

Sima Xin twisted the knife and pulled it out in an instant. Using the momentum of the pulled knife, he rotated his body, leaped forward and slashed the neck of the other thug. The entire counter attacks ended in two seconds.

Two thugs dropped on the ground without being able to utter a sound.