Treasure Chest

If the upper beam was crooked, the lower beams would be crooked too. With the director acting like this, how could the people under him be any better?

Norman's case had also taken down quite a few people from the General Bureau. Those who had acted as Norman's lackeys were either arrested or demoted. The Deputy Director and several captains were gone, leaving Ryan to discover that his position was somehow the highest in the entire General Bureau?

Hey, you. Pour me some tea!

"Captain Ryan, this is your office."

A female security officer led Ryan into the office.

The Criminal Investigation Captain's private office was a room of over ten square meters, furnished with everything it needed. Ryan spent two hours getting himself basically acclimated to the situation here.

The leaders had been arrested, but cases still had to be solved. On top of public security management, with both the first- and second-in-command gone, Ryan had to issue orders personally.

Fortunately, he had learned a bit about management work while following Jonathan these past days.

Ryan sat in his office, directing affairs.

By the time work was nearly over, everything had finally been arranged. Although the leadership had been badly shaken, the team was still there. As long as the people doing the work could keep doing it, that was enough.

"Let's play a game first."

He still needed to visit the bookstore later. Ryan was in no hurry to leave, so he simply opened the game.

Empress Online, activate!

Switching to Shari's Character Interface.

[You have dug through the prison.]

"Mm... huh?"

In the game, Shari poked her head out through the tunnel she had dug. She saw nothing else, only a glittering golden chest entering her sight.

A treasure chest!... Ryan's eyes immediately lit up.

Treasure Chest

The dark-gold chest was covered in dust from the passage of time, but that could not conceal the radiance the chest itself gave off in Ryan's eyes.

"A treasure chest. This is my first time seeing one. Come to think of it, was there a treasure chest in this place in the game?"

He did not remember at all.

But as a player, if he saw a treasure chest, he definitely had to open it.

If you did not open treasure chests, what was the point of playing games?

The problem was...

"How do I get down there?"

The opening was only barely large enough for her to stick her head out. That definitely was not enough, and she also had to consider how she would climb back up after going down.

"I need a rope."

Ryan thought for a moment, had Shari continue digging, then found a long rope in the bureau and tossed it into the Backpack.

About half an hour later, the opening had expanded again, becoming barely large enough for her to climb down through it.

Shari tied the rope to the prison bars and tossed the other end into the hole. Just as she was about to descend, she suddenly looked up and saw Edward staring at her with a completely dumbfounded expression.

His expression seemed to say, How did you dig such a huge hole? Where did you get the rope?

The person in the cell opposite had been taken away yesterday, leaving only the neighboring cell. The area near Shari's cell was basically occupied by Edward, so Shari had plenty of time to dig without worrying much about being discovered.

But she had still been discovered—by Edward.

Shari raised a finger to signal for him to stay quiet.

Then she moved closer and whispered, "I dug a passage. I'm planning to go down and take a look."

"You're trying to escape?" Edward's expression was strange. "But the prison is underground. Aren't you just digging deeper?"

This was not the right escape route.

"I can't dig upward either."

"That's true... Then I'll keep watch for you. If someone comes down, I'll cough to warn you."

Edward had placed all his hopes on Shari. Even if he could not escape himself, if she could get out, she could at least pass a message to his daughter.

Shari made an OK gesture, then returned to the hole.

There was not really much need to keep watch. As long as she did not make too much noise, no one would care. After all, the people locked up here had already lost all hope and did not care what anyone else was doing.

"Treasure chest, here I come~"

Ryan rubbed his hands together and gave Shari the command.

What came out of it was not actually important. What mattered was opening the treasure chest itself. It was strange, but he simply loved opening treasure chests. If he did not find every chest on a game map, he felt uncomfortable all over.

At that moment.

Shari grabbed the rope with both hands and slowly lowered herself down.

The moment she emerged from the opening, the character was inexplicably hit. Her health instantly dropped by more than half!

She hurriedly climbed back into the cell.

Edward, watching from next door, looked completely confused.

"What happened?"

Ryan was puzzled as well, until Shari poked her head back down through the opening and saw a pitch-black creature.

[Harrier Guard lv10]

"..."

The good news was that it was an ordinary monster.

The bad news was that it was level 10.

There was no way a level 1 Alt Account could beat this thing. Ryan quickly discovered that there was more than one Harrier Guard.

Those things wandered through the room below, guarding the treasure chest. It gave Ryan quite a headache.

Fortunately, they did not seem inclined to come up from below. Otherwise, with Shari locked in a cell—prison, Wild Monsters, female assassin? She'd be finished.

"I need to find a way to kill them."

Ryan frowned.

He was not afraid of dying. Even if Shari died in the prison, he could rebuild the character. She was only level 1, and Karut's Blade would not disappear from here. At worst, he could lead an army here later.

But charging in now would accomplish nothing.

After thinking it over, Ryan did not act rashly. He covered the opening and decided to explore it later once he found a solution.

"Ah~ My hands are itching."

In the office.

Ryan regretfully closed the Game Interface.

The treasure chest was right in front of him, yet there was nothing he could do.

The phone rang the next moment.

"Hello, this is Ryan."

"It's me, Jonathan," said the voice on the other end. "How does it feel to be a leader at the General Bureau?"

"What leader? I'm just a little captain."

"That's not little at all. Work hard. Maybe one day you'll be transferred up and become director. Then your position will be higher than mine, haha."

Jonathan was hoping for that outcome. His identity was somewhat out in the open, and this was already the limit of how far he could climb unless the Imperial Regime intervened. But what were the odds of that?

So it was better to hope Ryan rose through the ranks. He was part of the League of Fire too. Then, with the League of Fire joining forces with the Bureau of Investigation, public security across Berman City could be stabilized by more than half.

Adler: Yes, yes, yes. That was exactly what I was thinking too.

"Oh, right. Let me remind you of something. If Princess Cassidy tries to recruit you, don't agree."

"Why would she recruit me out of nowhere? I have neither strength nor authority."

"Who knows? That Princess has a long-term vision. Maybe she likes nurturing and discovering promising newcomers. But the League of Fire protects the Empire, not any particular Prince or Princess. Helping Princess Cassidy this time does not mean we belong to her, understand?"

"Understood."

"The Succession Struggle—when in history has one not ended in bloodshed and upheaval throughout the Empire? In the end, it is still the Empire's people who suffer. Behind all that splendor, who knows how many heroic souls have died?"

Jonathan's tone was full of emotion.

Aside from the League of Fire's rules, he did not want to see someone as promising as Ryan die in such a struggle.

A genius?

If he did not grow up, he was nothing.

Jonathan had not even planned to send Ryan to the League of Fire headquarters. The center of the Imperial Regime was too great a vortex, not a place ordinary people could stay.

At the very least, they could wait until Ryan had the ability to protect himself.

"Anyway, just remember what I said. I have something to do, so I won't chat with you anymore."

Jonathan was about to hang up when Ryan hurriedly said, "Director, is there anything that can let an ordinary person kill a supernatural?"

"What do you want that kind of thing for?"

"Didn't I just become an official Investigator? I'll have to deal with supernaturals in the future, so I don't feel very safe."

"Why do I feel like you're perfectly safe... Forget it. If you really want one, get a Magic Scroll inscribed with a spell."

"Do we have those?"

"We used to."

"What about now?"

"They were used up long ago."

"Damn."

"Don't curse. It's the same everywhere," Jonathan said leisurely. "Not only supernatural items—even the Soul Jade allocations have been getting smaller and smaller over the past two years. The root cause is that the Empire's situation is unstable, and resources need to be sent to more urgent places."

"The Imperial Capital?"

"You know not to say what you see, right?"

Of course Ryan knew Magic Scrolls were useful, but he could not get them. He had only gotten one after fighting a battle before, and their drop rate was terrifyingly low.

"Can I buy them?"

"That depends on your luck. If you want to try, you can ask Jack. There's a supernatural Trading Market in Berman City. He knows where it is."

"Oh?"

"But I don't recommend buying them. Even if you do, don't buy too many. One is enough. Supernaturals ultimately have to rely on their own strength. Your talent is high, so saving Soul Jade to improve your strength is more worthwhile."

A master could lead you to the door, but cultivation depended on yourself. Jonathan was only offering some advice. How Ryan chose to proceed was still up to him.

Everyone in the League of Fire had come this way.

"I'm not lacking Soul Jade, though."

After ending the call, Ryan glanced at the nearly nine thousand units of Soul Jade in his Backpack. Two thousand of it had been given by Jonathan. Ryan had originally only received one thousand each month, but Jonathan had personally sponsored another thousand, saying newly awakened supernaturals needed a large amount.

The rest had come from Lin Qi farming monsters.

The drop rate for the stuff was quite high, so Ryan was not worried about running out.

He took one out of his Backpack and tried absorbing it according to the method Jonathan had taught him. As magic power flowed into his body, one Soul Jade was gone before long.

His magic power intensity had increased, but only slightly. Ryan could not see an experience bar, but it was definitely less than 1%.

Leveling up truly was a process of gradual accumulation.

At this moment, Ryan was somewhat envious of Alt Accounts. With the system helping them level up, they advanced far too quickly.

Right. How could his own efforts compare to the system's efforts?

He definitely had enough Soul Jade. Ryan decided to visit the Trading Market Jonathan had mentioned. Even if it was not for the treasure chest, Shari still needed to find a way out of the prison. Otherwise, how could she search for clues about the Hidden Profession?