Chapter 14: Bai Hecheng's Mischief

Words : 874 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

chapter 14: bai hecheng's mischief the castle was perched on a small hillside. except for the front where the main entrance was situated, the other three sides of the castle abutted sheer cliffs. in front of the main entrance lay a moat, now parched and dry, with a stone bridge spanning across it leading to the grand doors of the castle. as expected, upon arriving at the entrance, liu xing and his companions noticed a massive elder sign emblazoned upon the castle's main gate. even with liu xing's decent eyesight, he could make out that the not-so-towering walls were densely packed with elder signs. he speculated that perhaps every brick and stone of this castle bore an elder sign. to the eyes of mythical creatures, this castle might as well be a cesspool... what on earth had the lord of this castle been through? liu xing couldn't help but fall into deep contemplation. the main gate of the castle was a tall, sturdy wooden door that seemed almost impossible to open by mere human strength. thus, liu xing figured that this door might be the first significant obstacle to leaving the town of eins. after all, the walls appeared to be about seven or eight meters high, and the cliffs on the other three sides were even taller, at about twenty meters. the likelihood of descending from these walls was slim to none without a rope, and even then, one would have to be prepared for a deadly fall. therefore, liu xing felt that if they wanted to leave the einscastle within twelve hours, they had to find a way through this main entrance. at the lower left of the castle's great door was a small iron door, with a little red button on it—presumably the doorbell. wang siyi, who was leading the group, had just made the first roll of the dice for this session—a navigation check, scoring 49 out of 70, a success. wang siyi had opted for an open roll, so the result was communicated to every player by the game master, kp004. liu xing looked at wang siyi in surprise. as a journalist, she had invested an unexpected number of skill points into the navigation skill, a revelation indeed. "this path we've taken is the shortest and safest from the castle to the town," said wang siyi, speaking for the first time in this session. liu xing nodded and prepared to press the doorbell. after all, the main quest required them to stay in the castle for at least twelve hours straight; the sooner they entered, the sooner they could leave. wang siyi, on the other hand, continued to watch from the sidelines. liu xing looked on at the chaos unfolding before him and could not help but shake his head in dismay, fearing that their group could not continue. at that moment, the small iron door of the castle swung open, and an elderly man who seemed to be the butler emerged. "i am the butler of this castle. you may call me old wayne," he said, turning off the alarm and furrowing his brow. "may i ask who you all are?" since liu xing was standing in front of wayne, it fell upon him to step forward and, albeit reluctantly, he spoke up, "my apologies, mr. wayne. we are foreign tourists referred by the innkeeper. my friend here was overly curious. having seen in movies and tv shows how castle doors could be effortlessly picked with a wire, he wanted to try it out, inadvertently triggering the alarm. we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience." as he spoke, liu xing pulled out the castle pass given to them by the innkeeper, with wang qi and the others doing the same. old wayne took the passes from everyone and briefly examined them, his expression finally easing. "i see. since you all come recommended by the old drunkard, we at einscastle are indeed happy to welcome you. however, please refrain from engaging in any more nonsensical actions." with that, old wayne threw a pointed glare at bai hecheng, who responded with an unrepentant smile towards the butler. anthropology, 22/50, success. a notification from kp004 suddenly resounded in liu xing's ears, and he hadn't expected that among them was someone who had actually invested in such an underwhelming skill like anthropology. the primary use of anthropology was to discern whether npcs or a certain corpse were human, or to study the customs and traditions of a particular area—which required a substantial amount of time. however, opportunities to employ anthropology were exceedingly rare, rendering it somewhat of a superfluous skill. apart from a few players with professions as university professors who might choose it, other players generally did not. in all the playthrough videos liu xing had seen, less than one percent of players opted for anthropology, making it a surprise for liu xing to encounter a teammate who had chosen this skill in their current team. "please follow me; we shall proceed to the main building of the castle," said old wayne, bowing genteelly to liu xing and the others, who then followed him to the principal edifice of the castle.

Chapter 14: Bai Hecheng's Mischief

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