Chương 17: Get Me a Good Bow

The system interface flared for less than a breath, then returned to normal. Gu Zhiwei waited. Quest progress still read 0%, and her answer, The Yong Emperor is the true baleful star, drew no response at all, as though the flicker she'd seen had been nothing more than candlelight shifting in the wind. She tried two more.

"Princess Yihua is the baleful star." The interface brightened faintly, then dimmed again.

"The outlanders in the palace are the baleful star." Same reaction. Gu Zhiwei stared at the translucent panel and felt, absurdly, like she was brute-forcing the answer one guess at a time.

The next morning, crisp birdsong drifted in through the window. Beneath the gallery eaves, a maid quietly swept up the blossoms that had fallen overnight. Gu Zhiwei had barely finished washing when Oliver's messages arrived. Oliver: More than ten players have been taken now. Oliver: The Vice Minister of Personnel's third daughter, the one from the Winding Stream Banquet yesterday, is one of them. She gave herself away in a post after she left. The outlanders in the palace identified her this morning.

Execution is set for three days from now. Gu Zhiwei didn't know what identity Oliver had been using yesterday, but she remembered the round-faced girl. After leaving the banquet, the girl had posted on the forum complaining that the system had handed her a noblewoman's identity without giving her a single noblewoman skill. The whole thread had been nothing but lmaos. Oliver sent over a link of another post, timestamped the night before last.

"This was the first player arrested." 【HELP HELP HELP! 】 The OP said he was locked in the Metropolitan Prefecture prison. His assigned identity was an apprentice at the biggest medicine shop in the capital, and he had no idea who had exposed him or turned him in. 【I didn't do anything. I don't even know what the baleful star looks like. If I knew, we'd all have finished the quest and gone home. 】 【Does anyone have connections in the capital? Please, please get me out. I'll join your party.

My skill is healing-type, I'm useful! 】 The post stopped there. Below it, some players were still asking for details about the hours before his arrest. A few offered money to bribe the jailers and see if they could get him out. But most were frantically deleting every identifying detail they'd ever posted, probably wishing they could reach backward through the forum, drag out their past selves from a few days ago, and slap them twice.

Not long after, someone made a post exposing the handful of outlander players inside the palace who were hunting down other players. Three names were listed. Fang Yan. Amanda. Lee Jae-young. The poster deleted the thread soon afterward. But everyone who'd seen it had already copied the contents and reposted them everywhere. For a while, the forum boiled over with curses. Plenty of people said they couldn't understand what kind of sick, human-hating mindset it took to play the game this way.

Even more were discussing what to do about those three. Meanwhile, some players under interrogation were saving themselves by naming others. Others were turning in anyone they suspected before they themselves could be accused, hoping only that the bailiffs would never come knocking on their own doors. Three hundred people had been dropped into Great Yong less than half a month ago. At first, with the forum connecting them, they could still exchange information and huddle together for warmth.

Now the hunt for the baleful star had become a knife. And the Yong Emperor had placed the handle in everyone's hands. More and more people were choosing to grip it. Gu Zhiwei forwarded Oliver's messages and the post of that medicine shop apprentice to the group chat. Chen Li: Don't expose your identities, and definitely don't go charging into the prison for a rescue. That group in the palace is watching. Anything unusual will get noticed. Aglaya: But they'll be dead in three days.

That girl was sitting across from us yesterday. Matt: There's a heavy rotation of Insignia Guard outside the Metropolitan Prefecture prison, and the imperial guard camp nearby has another thirty thousand men who can reinforce within ten minutes. We could try to force our way in, but the odds are very bad. Wang Pu: Fuck. These people actually turned the dungeon into a battle royale. The channel went quiet for a moment. Gu Zhiwei looked at the help post, frozen with no new updates.

Gu Zhiwei: I'll keep working on the rescue from my end. The other option is finding the real baleful star. The moment the quest completes, every player still alive goes home, and this whole mess stops. Chen Li: Right. Solving the main quest saves the most people. I'm also gathering old disaster records and local strange tales from the southern regions. Matt: Yang Jingchu basically trusts my judgment now. When we make arrests, he lets me lead my own team.

If someone we pick up doesn't trigger anything on my panel, I let them go whenever I can. Wang Pu: Brother Matt, watch yourself. Somebody could report you. Matt: I know. Keeping myself alive isn't the problem. Gu Zhiwei: For the players already in prison, I'm going to check with my brother and see what I can do. Aglaya: We need to save some players and some locals too, otherwise it'll look too suspicious. Also, I have to say, Zhiwei was truly amazing yesterday.

I can testify that she studied for exactly one night and was writing poetry on the spot the next day. Wang Pu: I saw that post!

"100% NPC" hahahahahaha, and Sis Gu actually went and liked it. That's not just a kill. That's emotional damage. Matt: It really was impressive. I thought you were only exceptional in a fight. Chen Li: Walking through a room full of great-clan sons and daughters without letting a single crack show isn't easy. You were a software engineer before, if I remember correctly? Gu Zhiwei: The skill did most of the work. Wang Pu: Speaking of which, Sis Gu, how many skills do you actually have?

Just from what I've seen: monstrous archery, summoning living creatures, and now instant poetry after one night of cramming. Did you buy the SVIP package or something? The kind where your skill list scrolls for ten pages? Gu Zhiwei had never explained her skill to them in full. When they'd first met in that white room, she'd even lied about her Spirit stat and reported it as 10. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Then came the death trap on the Sacred Mountain. Then the training they'd all done together back in reality. And now they were scattered across Great Yong, still working toward the same goal. There was no point hiding it anymore. Gu Zhiwei: I actually only have one skill. It's called Retrocognition. She paused, weighing her words. Gu Zhiwei: It lets me access the memories of one person from the distant past. In the first world, it was a Grand Sacred Spirit Shaman from a few thousand years ago.

In this world, I got a Commoner Scholar of the Realm. As the memories unlock, I gain parts of what that person knew or could do. Wang Pu: Wait. So the archery, reading the stars, calling cloud beasts, all of that was one person's skill set? Gu Zhiwei: Also reading the wind, reading sea currents, communion with living things, and a Sacred Spirit Vine Staff that massively amplifies Spirit power. Three uses only. The channel went dead for five full breaths. Wang Pu: …… Wang Pu: Sweet Jade Emperor and Virgin Mary.

There's been a straight-up cheat hacker standing next to me this whole time. Aglaya: So however many skills that person had, that's how many you might be able to learn? Gu Zhiwei: Depends on how much unlocks. I can't trigger it deliberately. It seems to happen through random events, and I can't control the pace. Last world, a few unlocks happened while I was meditating at the Sacred Spring. Another hit after I completely burned through my Spirit power fighting in the beast cave.

Matt: I remember you had a fever for a long time afterward. That skill has a high ceiling, even if it's unreliable. You've handled it well so far. Chen Li: If the triggers have something to do with what you're experiencing in the moment, or with some kind of emotional resonance, then in every world you should pay attention to situations that mirror that person's life. Don't focus only on the main quest. Uncle Chen, self-made billionaire to the bone.

Give the man a handful of clues and he was already drafting the user manual for her skill. Wang Pu: So from now on, the first thing we do in every new world is bet on what Sis Gu rolled this time? Aglaya: That's the whole thrill of a blind box, isn't it? Matt: No offense, but do you collect Labubu in real life? How else do you roll a skill like this? Gu Zhiwei: ……

Before the morning was over, the Yong Emperor's bounty had gone up across the capital.

"Whosoever can determine the quarter in which the baleful star resides shall be granted gold and office. Should the baleful star manifest in human form, whosoever presents its head shall receive further reward." Within half a day of the notices going up, the gates of the Metropolitan Prefecture were jammed with informers. Some turned in their neighbors. Some dragged in people who owed them money.

Even the blind fortune-teller from the mouth of the alley was hauled over, swearing that he'd dreamed of red light rising from the head of the wine-shop owner next door. When Gu Zhao saw the bounty, his expression darkened. He turned back into his office and ordered every case file the Metropolitan Prefecture had sent over for review brought to him. For days now, Gu Zhao had been running a dozen or so officials of the Bureau of Astronomy around the clock, checking the so-called baleful-star match lists.

Some of the palace adepts had calculated birth dates using the previous dynasty's calendar and ended up two days off. Some had somehow managed to conflate the station of the Year Star with the Purple Tenuity Enclosure. The most ridiculous case involved a household of six. Four of the six birth dates had simply been copied down wrong. When Gu Zhiwei walked in, a husband and wife were still kneeling outside the Bureau of Astronomy.

The wife was crying too hard to speak, clutching a small, mud-stained shoe against her chest. Their only son had been listed as a suspect by one of the adepts for no reason beyond the red rain that had fallen on the night of his birth. The child was five years old. The bailiffs had thrown him into the Metropolitan Prefecture prison. Gu Zhao personally went through the rain registers from the tenth year of Chongjing, along with the local gazetteers. The rain had fallen only over the southwestern outskirts.

Inside the city, not a single drop had come down. And the so-called blood-red color had been nothing more than local red earth swept into the clouds by strong winds, tinting the rain as it fell. It had absolutely nothing to do with any baleful star. Gu Zhao set his vermilion brush to the file.

"Release." The clerk hesitated.

"This one came from the outlanders. If the palace asks..."

"Then let them come ask me." Outside, the couple took the written order and stared at it for a moment as though they couldn't quite believe what they were holding. Then the meaning finally sank in. They dropped to the ground and kowtowed again and again, their foreheads striking hard enough to make a sound. It took them a long time to stand. The mother's shoulders shook uncontrollably. The little shoe slipped from her arms and rolled to Gu Zhiwei's feet. Gu Zhiwei bent down, picked it up, and handed it back.

Rabid, conscienceless bastards. Hunting players wasn't enough for them. They had to drag ordinary people into it too. In the short time since she'd entered the room, Gu Zhiwei watched Gu Zhao strike more than thirty names from the lists. She brought up the medicine shop apprentice immediately. But after everyone searched through the files for quite some time, they found no record of him anywhere.

"Some of the people singled out by the outlanders are handled directly," one official explained.

"Those files never come to the Bureau for review."

"If you're in a hurry, go to Princess Changning," Gu Zhao said.

"All you need is to have the file officially transferred here for me to review. She'll help you."

Gu Zhiwei spent the whole morning rushing from one office to another. Just after noon, she finally used Princess Changning's connections to get the medicine shop apprentice's cases transferred to the Bureau of Astronomy for another review. Before she left, the princess called her back.

"Zhiwei, I know your heart is soft, but you need to understand where you stand." Changning's voice remained gentle.

"You and those lowborn wretches are not on the same side. Easing Father Emperor's burdens is what properly falls to you and your brother." Gu Zhiwei paused. She could hear the warning beneath those words with perfect clarity. But right now, she had no time to think about it. Before she could even reach the Metropolitan Prefecture, an order from the palace had already removed the player from his cell. By the time Gu Zhiwei saw the forum posts, the prison cart had already reached the execution ground.

Messages from players at the scene were still refreshing one after another. 【Is that the medicine shop apprentice from the post? 】 【It's him. He said before they worked on his left leg. He can't stand. 】 【The executioner just went up. 】 【Can somebody save him? Are there any high-combat players in the capital? 】 【Don't go. The place is wall-to-wall Insignia Guard. You'd just be donating a second head. 】 Gu Zhiwei drove the horse flat out.

The wind slammed against her face, dragging her back to that first morning she'd arrived in Great Yong. Back to another death she hadn't been able to stop. A sudden stir went through the front of the crowd. Someone covered a child's eyes. The sweet-water vendor was still calling out his wares, his bronze ladle striking the rim of the bucket again and again. She was close now. Close enough to make out the man kneeling on the execution platform.

They had never met, and still she could see the dead despair in his eyes. And the wild, blazing hunger to live that flared up the instant he spotted her riding hard toward him. The next moment, a dull thud came from the platform. For one beat, everything went silent, then the square exploded into noise. Some people cheered. Others rose onto their toes for a better look. The Insignia Guard lowered their spears and forced the surging crowd back.

Outside the crush, Gu Zhiwei swung down from the saddle, rage flooding her chest. Oliver had added the man as a forum friend earlier. Even so, all they had was a system ID. They didn't know what country he came from. How old he was in reality. Whether someone was waiting for him to come home. 【This is horrifying! These animals! 】 【Can we put a bounty on these things with nothing human left in them? I'll pay for it myself!

】 The players inside the palace, those outlanders, had done this because they'd seen the forum thread. They moved immediately, leaving no one a chance to save him. The back of Gu Zhiwei's tongue tasted faintly of rust.

"Go back for now. We'll move together later. Don't do anything rash." Matt had come up behind her without her noticing. Gu Zhiwei didn't turn around.

"Get me a good bow."

"Understood." He said it quietly, then walked off with the other Insignia Guard to keep the crowd under control. As this world slid further and further into madness, Gu Zhiwei finally understood one thing. The rules of the civilized world no longer applied here.