VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

Cheng Xiu and the others decided to meet the creatures early as they did not want to create advantages for the Rat Counsellors who were coming their way.

Cheng Xiu stopped at the flight of stairs in front of her. "How low are we going?"

"Lower than this," Yaksha said to her. "Rats live underground."

"Not all of them," San Zhe said and blushed at the curious attention that they gave him. "I…I mean, rats usually exist where there is extra food, is dark, there are less people visiting, and so…the thing about them only being underground is worng."

Cheng Xiu smiled behind her mask. San Zhe actually contradicted the expert he was so scared of! It was a definite improvement to the last time he was in front of Yaksha. Did this mean that killing the NPC gave him a new confidence?

Cheng Xiu was unsure about the morality behind that bravery but decided that it was not her business. So long as the killing stayed in the game she was not going to look into it too much.

The trio walked down the stairs.

Cheng Xiu and San Zhe kept vigilance of the happenings around them. Cheng Xiu, because she did not want to once again be caught in a trap. San Zhe, because he did not want to face a special Rat attack.

Yaksha, contrary to the two of them, strode forwards with a lazy gait. It could seen from the occasional yawns that he released.

They reached the foot of the stairs soon without any attacks.

The place before them was divided into three paths.

"Which way should we go, Sister Xiu?" San Zhe asked. "And why have we not encountered those counsellors yet?"

Cheng Xiu forwned. "I am…not sure on either of your questions."

Suddenly, the walls of the three paths glowed golden and the words inscribed onto them gained a golden glow, like they were coated with gold.

"What is happening!" San Zhe asked Yaksha.

Yaksha just stared ahead.

The lights died out without any fan fair.

Cheng Xiu frowned, not sure what to make of this situation. Why didn't they meet these creatures already? Why was the paths glowing? Why were they not glowing anymore? What could these things mean?

Cheng Xiu closed her eyes and tried to send out her Qi as a way to sense their surroundings, to see if those rats were around them somewhere, just hiding from them in plain sight. But she could not sense anything at all.

"Sister Xiu?" San Zhe called.

Cheng Xiu opened her eyes.

San Zhe hesitated for a moment. "Which way should we go?"

Cheng Xiu shrugged and then threw a coin up. "Make a call, head or tails?"

"There are only two sides to a coin," Yaksha informed her.

Cheng Xiu just stared as the coin almost touched the ground.

"Head!" San Zhe said to her.

Cheng Xiu watched as the coin fell to the ground. It was tail.

Cheng Xiu sighed and picked up the coin again. "You are out. Yaksha, Head or Tail?"

Yaksha laughed. "Head."

The coin was tossed into the air again.

The coin fell.

It was tail again.

"Do you have an affinity to tail?" Yaksha asked her.

Cheng Xiu sent him a glare that he shrugged off and reached for the coin again. "If the coin falls to head, we will take the first route. If it falls to tail, we will not take the first route."

Cheng Xiu tossed the coin into the air again.

The coin finally showed Head.

"First route it is," Yaksha said to her.

The girl nodded.

San Zhe felt like he did not understand the people in front of him. Why were people so weird?

The trio walked onto the first path.

Cheng Xiu's thoughts returned to its previous musings. Why did she not detect the Rat's Qi even though she had tried her best to?

Was she too weak to notice such things? Were the Rats creatures who were so strong that she would not be able to find out their location?

Her skill worked well enough against Level 10 Players when she was just experimenting with it, so why was it that right now, when facing Level 1-5 rat monsters, it failed her?

She felt frustration rise in her heart.

She did not think there would be any advantages if they simply just walked into the monsters. That would be no different from just waiting in that dungeon space upstairs for the counsellors to come and get them. They should at least be able to know where the enemies were positioned.

Just as Cheng Xiu was about to ask for San Zhe's help to see if he had something that could track the rat counsellors, she felt something in her Qi senses.

It was the sensation of having briefly touched some kind of tail. The Qi in the tail reacted to hers.

But the sensation soon disappeared.

Cheng Xiu frowned and then tried to think of a reason as to why this might be the case. She thought back to the rats that she fought before. Was there any clues that they left behind that could help her out at that moment?

Cheng Xiu tried to think hard, and then realised what she had overlooked. Well, not overlooked. She had noticed it, but she had not given it much thought from the angle of it being any hint other than for how to defeat the other Rats.

Cheng Xiu remembered that the last enemies that the system had acknowleged that they had killed was actually the wall climbing rats that they had met upstairs.

Neither the Hammer Rats, nor the Twin Mistresses gave them any other points.

Cheng Xiu remembered the Quest words that were said to her in the hall of the Quest Pillars.

[Kill the Rats climbing the Clock Tower in the Viridian Forest.]

Cheng Xiu pursed her lips.

It couldn't be…did those beings called as the Rat Counsellors climb the walls of the tower too? Were they doing the same thing as the Quest targets from before?

Cheng Xiu had to think for a moment but in the end decided that it might be the case.

Her first mission targets were the tower climbers. When the Mission became S ranked, it just gave her a list of beings to kill. This did not mean that these rats were not climbing the walls.

If they were, why didn't the twin Mistresses climb the walls?

Cheng Xiu thought of something. Could that be the reason why the system thought of them as Sub-plots of the dungeon instead of those who were bringing real harm? Because unlike the others, these ladies did not climb the walls of the Clock Tower.

Maybe they were too busy competing with each other to have noticed the fact that all the important personals of the Rat King were climbing walls.

Cheng Xiu and the others finally reached a door.

It was an iron door coloured in black.

San Zhe tried to push the door open, but it did not budge. "Now what?"

Yaksha stared at the door for a moment. "Do you have a Unlocking Talisman? That would work."

"No," San Zhe said with a shake of his head.

"No. Do you? I will buy them from you," Cheng Xiu said to him.

Yaksha laughed. "So Formal! Little Sela is too serious. You should relax more."

Cheng Xiu just stared at him.

Yaksha sighed. "I wish I could help, but Diana keeps my talismans most of the time, especially the ones that can unlock stuff."

Cheng Xiu sighed. "So there is no way to open this door the normal way."

"Should we go back and look at the other passages?" San Zhe asked.

Cheng Xiu gave it some thought and agreed.

The three walked back to the forked pathway, and selected the second one.

The end result was the same immovable Iron Door.

They tried the third path.

The iron door greeted them again.

"I guess there is no other choice," Cheng Xiu said.

San Zhe, who was trying hard to open the door, looked up at her in surprise. "What is it? Sister Xiu! Tell me! You can never have a bad idea."

"It will defeat the purpose of trying to do a surprise attack on the Rats though."

"That is fine by me," Yaksha said to her, eyes curious.

San Zhe echoed his response.

Cheng Xiu gestured for him to step aside.

San Zhe was confused but in the end obeyed her.

As he did, Cheng Xiu used the Red Carp Sword in her hand to cut a dent into it.

San Zhe realised what the girl had meant. When in doubt, use brute strength.

"It needs just a little more power," Yaksha commented.

Cheng Xiu nodded. She understood what he was implying that she should do.

"Ghost Flame!"

Following her shout, black flame erupted around the sword.

Cheng Xiu pulled in all the way back and used great strength to break the door.