Night had fallen over Third Street in District Seven of Inyama.
Standing in a roadside alley, out of the streetlights' reach, Lin Ruoyu studied the narrow alley across the road, as calm and bloodthirsty as a vicious wolf.
Lin Ruoyu had been lying in wait here since nightfall. He had waited patiently for over an hour, and only when the night grew quiet and the pedestrians gradually disappeared did he decide the time had come.
"Get up, quick..."
He turned back and walked to an old wooden door at the end of the alley. He banged on it twice, and sounds of the other players immediately came from inside.
"Oh, time to move? Quick, put the cards away."
"That guy logged off. Give him a call..."
"He's AFK. Said he had to fulfill his marital duties and wouldn't be back for at least five hours of game time. He handed control of his character over to me."
Amid rustling and chatter, nine players appeared before Lin Ruoyu. He sighed helplessly.
"Since we already have the game's built-in party chat running outside the game, why don't we talk there? Making all this noise in-game will wake NPCs who aren't part of the mission."
The players exchanged looks. Oh, right.
After reminding his companions, Lin Ruoyu turned and headed out of the alley, and the others immediately followed.
The street they were on was in a working-class residential neighborhood. It wasn't remote, but it wasn't particularly lively either. It was nowhere near the commercial district, and light snow was falling tonight.
As a result, once it grew late, the street was virtually deserted.
No bystanders saw the ten players hurry across the street.
Their destination was the end of the alley opposite, where a brick-and-stone house stood with its own small courtyard. This was both the human trafficking gang's hideout and the entrance to the secret passage.
The ten of them reached the gate. Lin Ruoyu waved for those behind him to stop and stay quiet, then stepped forward and gently pushed the courtyard's sheet-metal gate.
It wouldn't budge. Clearly, it was locked from inside.
Not only that, when Lin Ruoyu held his breath and listened carefully, he heard steady breathing behind the gate. Some animal was evidently sleeping there.
He looked up at the courtyard wall. It wasn't tall, only about three meters. With a two-person assisted climb, they could quickly get over it without any equipment.
Lin Ruoyu instinctively glanced back at the other nine and pointed at Little Ghost.
He remembered Little Ghost mentioning during a chat that he had only started university this year. That meant he must have undergone military training before classes began. Hopefully, he still remembered what he had learned.
After a brief exchange over the out-of-game voice chat, Lin Ruoyu stood with his back to the wall, bent his knees, and cupped his hands below his crotch. Facing him, Little Ghost rushed forward two steps and planted a foot in his palms.
As Lin Ruoyu thrust his hands upward, Little Ghost used both his momentum and the force beneath his foot to leap up and grab the top of the wall.
But Little Ghost didn't rush to climb over. Instead, he hooked his left foot over the wall along with his hands and let his right leg hang down.
Lin Ruoyu turned and jumped, grabbed Little Ghost's right foot, and hauled himself onto the wall. Without waiting for Little Ghost to climb up, he drew his blackened dagger and dropped into the courtyard.
Lin Ruoyu landed almost silently. Only then did the guard dog, which slept behind the gate even in the depths of winter, buried beneath the snow, notice anything. It groggily lifted its head out of the loose snow.
Before the guard dog could bark, Lin Ruoyu strode over and bent down with lightning speed. One hand clamped its muzzle shut while the other drove his dagger into its chest.
With its heart pierced, the guard dog immediately stopped struggling.
After disposing of the guard dog, Lin Ruoyu went over and unlocked the gate. The nine players outside surged in.
Perhaps the guard dog had made too much noise while struggling, or perhaps the other nine players' footsteps were too heavy. Whatever the reason, as soon as the gate closed, unusual sounds came from inside the brick-and-stone house.
The players, already on high alert, immediately realized someone inside had woken up. Three of them rushed past the others and raised their hand crossbows, aiming the coldly gleaming bolts at the door and glass windows a few meters away.
Connie had supplied the hand crossbows, and a skilled crafter among the ten players had modified them. Their power remained unchanged, but their accuracy had improved dramatically. Every bolt had also been coated with poison-the kind that killed as soon as it drew blood.
The first unlucky bastard appeared. Amid irritated, filthy curses and the sound of the door opening, a man emerged behind it. Before he could make out the scene in the courtyard, a crossbow bolt sprouted from his neck.
With agonized, rasping gasps, the man staggered backward into the house.
One down.
Lin Ruoyu relaxed a little. According to the captured trafficker's confession, when there was no "merchandise" in this hideout, usually only one person stayed behind to guard it.
The rest of the gang would scatter around Inyama, enjoying themselves.
They were human traffickers, after all. They did this vile work for money, not because they were devoted enough to maintain strict discipline. Remembering to leave someone guarding the hideout was already remarkably disciplined of them.
But just as Lin Ruoyu breathed a sigh of relief and waved the others into the house, he suddenly heard more hurried footsteps inside, followed by an urgent shout.
"We're under attack!"
Damn, something's wrong. There are more people inside!
Lin Ruoyu and the other players who heard the shout were startled, but he reacted quickly. Making an immediate decision, he swept his left hand forward and growled over the built-in voice chat.
"Charge! Clear the house!"
With that shout, Lin Ruoyu took the lead and was the first to rush inside.
The other players were barely slower. Little Ghost, carrying a shortsword and a fighting shield, followed Lin Ruoyu in alongside another player wielding a hatchet.
The three players with hand crossbows sprinted toward the windows. As they smashed through the glass, they immediately fired at figures inside who clearly weren't players.
The instant Lin Ruoyu rushed into the house, he came face-to-face with a man much bigger than himself. His dagger, held in a reverse grip, slashed swiftly toward the man's neck.
Yet the swift attack Lin Ruoyu had been certain would land was blocked by the man's raised arm. His heart lurched.
Damn, that felt wrong. It didn't feel like cutting flesh!
Lin Ruoyu immediately pulled his dagger back and raised his left hand, knocking aside the enemy's arm as it thrust toward him. His right hand slashed rapidly, forcing the enemy back two steps.
Using the breathing room those two steps gave him, Lin Ruoyu glanced aside, just in time to see Little Ghost pitching forward and the enemy in front of him falling backward.
In the space of two blinks, Little Ghost had been taken out.
"Fuck, these guys are experts! Shoot them, quick!"