We Really Are Fated to Meet

Zhao Xun avoided the Public Security Office's patrols all the way and headed straight for Fountain Square.

Judging by his experience when he first entered the game, the Bulletin Board in Fountain Square was probably the main way the town's residents got their information.

So he planned to post his handwritten copy on the Bulletin Board.

Around five in the morning, some residents would start coming out.

Whenever they passed Fountain Square, they would glance at the Bulletin Board.

It did not matter if they could not read. He could pretend to be the first person to discover something new on the Bulletin Board and read it aloud to those who came later.

Once a few people gathered around the Bulletin Board, everyone else who saw them would come over too.

That was why he had hurried to finish copying the evidence before dawn, then rushed straight to Fountain Square without stopping.

He had barely entered Fountain Square when he ran into Tiantian.

Clearly, Tiantian had arrived at the same idea.

Unlike him, however, she had not made a single copy to put on the Bulletin Board. She had made a whole stack and was posting them all over the streets.

When Zhao Xun spotted her, Tiantian was covering the rim of the fountain pool with papers.

He immediately remembered seeing papers pasted on many walls along the way. It had been too dark to make out what they were, and he had been so focused on getting there that he had not paid much attention.

Thinking back, Tiantian must have put them all up.

Hearing footsteps, Tiantian turned around and saw Zhao Xun. She immediately broke into a delighted smile. "We really are fated to meet, aren't we? Twice in one night."

Zhao Xun paid no attention to her remark. His gaze rested on the thick stack of papers in her hand. "How did you make the copies?"

Now that he was closer, he could just make out by the moonlight that they were copies, not handwritten pages.

Did Tiantian have a copier and enough paper to go with it?

With this many copies, she'd have worked that copier until it spat sparks.

"Oh, this?" Tiantian answered casually as she continued putting up papers. "I have a special item that can copy any document, book, or something like that. It's just like copying and pasting on a computer. Very convenient."

At that, she glanced back at the clearly handwritten pages in Zhao Xun's hands and smiled sweetly. "Much easier than copying everything by hand."

Zhao Xun pressed his lips together and said nothing.

It was not Tiantian's provocation that had displeased him.

He was skeptical about the special item's function as she had described it.

No matter how close Tiantian acted toward him, he would never forget that they had only just met.

Tiantian had no reason to answer every question truthfully.

Especially when it came to special abilities and special items, revealing them to someone else meant revealing her trump cards.

Tiantian did not seem that foolish.

So this special item's ability was probably not as simple as she claimed. Copying text was merely the function it had displayed in this particular situation.

He had no way of knowing what it actually did, nor was it easy to deduce.

But at least he could now be certain that Tiantian had at least two special items.

Judging by her casual attitude, she very likely had more than two.

This girl did not look very old, but her strength was not to be underestimated.

Still, Tiantian's decision to come out in the middle of the night to post this evidence was enough to confirm that her task was to expose the Duke's crimes.

He could rest easy on that point, at least.

It was truly fortunate that his tasks in this game did not conflict with Tiantian's. Otherwise, with his current strength, Zhao Xun probably would not stand a chance against her.

Everything went smoothly.

As the town's residents gradually came out, they saw the documents Tiantian had posted everywhere. Their contents completely overturned their established impression of the Duke.

The Duke of Nairui Town had been conducting dirty dealings in secret with the dukes, counts, and viscounts of other regions.

They abducted young women everywhere they went and traded girls they had grown tired of. Those girls were reduced to playthings until they were abused to death and discarded like garbage.

Much of the piles of documents contained information about girls who had gone missing in various regions.

The documents also detailed every sale those girls had undergone, along with their tragic ends.

The Duke of Nairui Town had kept this evidence to hold it over the dukes, counts, and viscounts of other regions and force them to support him.

He wanted to become king.

With this series of irrefutable evidence, more of the town's residents also came to believe that Ruby had been falsely accused.

Word spread from one person to ten, then from ten to a hundred, completely destroying the good reputation the Duke had painstakingly built over the years.

Once the truth had reached every resident in town, at noon on the fourth, Zhao Xun finally saw a new pop-up.

[Congratulations to player Zhao Xun for completing hidden task stage two: discover the truth behind the girl being branded a witch and clear her name.]

[Hidden task stage three: help Ruby and Sculpture Girl escape to a distant place and gain their freedom.]

Zhao Xun rubbed his chin.

The third stage was not difficult, but he had to obtain the Sculpture's Heart before he could let them leave.

With that thought, Zhao Xun headed toward the Duke's Manor.

It was time to tell Sculpture Girl that it was safe outside.

He insisted on keeping Sculpture informed of every development promptly so that she would gradually come to feel grateful toward him.

As for how much gratitude would count as completing his main task, he had no way to judge. He could only do everything he could think of, then quietly wait for a system notification.

When Zhao Xun reached the gates of the Duke's Manor, he glanced over and happened to see Short-Haired Woman coming out.

Short-Haired Woman was injured. Her dark stealth outfit was torn in many places, with traces of blood faintly visible.

She walked with a limp and looked exhausted, but overall, she did not seem to be in serious trouble.

The instant he saw Short-Haired Woman emerge, Zhao Xun knew the burly man must be dead.

According to Tiantian, the burly man was a guard, and his main task was to keep the Duke safe.

When the Duke's life was threatened, the burly man would have fought Short-Haired Woman with everything he had.

As long as the burly man was alive, he could not possibly allow Short-Haired Woman to harm the Duke.

Short-Haired Woman being alive meant the Duke must have been killed, which meant the burly man must be dead too.

It seemed the burly man was not all that formidable despite being a veteran player. He might not even have obtained any special items.

Perhaps he was simply one of the lucky survivors among last month's thousand players.

He believed that surviving a month of fierce competition made him stronger than the new batch of players, so he looked down on them.

Reality had proven that underestimating others too much could lead to one's death.

The moment Short-Haired Woman saw Zhao Xun, her body immediately tensed.

The exhaustion on her face gave way to wariness, and she instantly readied herself for battle.

Wow, there really were quite a few more votes today than yesterday. So happy~