Chapter 319:

Words : 3209 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

Onboard Joy Stick’s treasure hunting plan had been in the works for a long time. Ever since he dug up the first gang vault from the sewers of Crimson Citadel and obtained intelligence about the Blood Vulture armory, he had been trying to activate this hidden quest from Lord Murphy. However, this quest had a prerequisite requirement of reaching the “Clan Knight” reputation rank in Blood Vulture Clan’s internal reputation, and this reputation level wasn’t unlocked until after the recent Wolfsbane invasion, so it wasn’t Joy Stick’s fault for acting slowly, the game progress was stuck here leaving him helpless despite his intentions. This time, following the Winged Cavalry instructor to train in the Countess of Seicob’s territory was a good opportunity. Plus, he and Little Rich Brother spent several tens of thousands of gold coins to obtain blueprints and intelligence about Seicob City’s underground vault from Little Countess Sharon, so he was eagerly waiting to complete this excavation and achieve overnight wealth. Speaking of which, Joy Stick had been funded by Little Rich Brother to establish a company, but so far there had been almost no output. Although Little Rich Brother didn’t press him, Joy Stick himself felt a lot of pressure. He was someone who had high standards for himself and always felt he needed to achieve some results to fulfill his duty. However, Joy Stick didn’t know the “inside story” of Seicob City. Murphy and Sharon hadn’t informed the players about the undead army hidden beneath the ruins – for now, this was still part of the “background story” that hadn’t been unlocked yet. The lack of intelligence cast a shadow over Joy Stick’s treasure hunting operation from the very beginning. The scariest part was that Joy Stick himself didn’t know this! He was still happily waiting to strike it rich. Therefore, when they arrived outside Seicob City the next afternoon, Joy Stick and his subordinates were immersed in the joy of imminent “wealth” while being almost completely unaware of the real threats that lay ahead. Meanwhile, the “Big Bird Spin Spin Spin team” who had agreed to dig this hidden treasure together was already camping nearby waiting. Meow King’s team traveled in style. Although they weren’t vampires and couldn’t fly, they had their dedicated “Gargoyle Civil Aviation Aircraft” which was big enough to carry the entire team for rapid travel. As a result, Meow King only departed from Crimson Citadel this morning but arrived at the destination earlier than Joy Stick. After instructor Valand announced dismissal for free activities, Joy Stick immediately took his people to meet up with Meow King. When they arrived at the campsite in proper cavalry formation, Meow King’s dedicated “Heavenly Eye” Tobacco Mulberry had just completed a spirit energy reconnaissance of the city ruins ahead. The expression of this man with scruffy stubble wasn’t looking too good. “That side is very quiet, very much fitting the environment of an abandoned city untouched for 2 years. It even reminds me of some post-apocalyptic wasteland scenery.” As Joy Stick walked over hugging his cavalry helmet after dismounting, Tobacco Mulberry stroked his chin and said to Meow King and Joy Stick: “Most of the buildings in Seicob City are still intact, except the city defenses were completely damaged, with the city gates shattered all over the ground. Using detection magic I can see many areas of the city are filled with gray-green smoke. That should be residue from the spirit plague. I’ve marked them on the map. Those areas are absolutely off limits for you. I consulted my mentor who used to work at Circle Tower, and he warned that even Silver rank warriors cannot resist the terrible effects of the spirit plague, we would die within 5 minutes of stepping in. The good news is, the road to Seicob City Bank isn’t blocked by the plague. I just planned a safe route that will let you rush in at maximum speed. But I can’t scout what’s inside the bank, as I haven’t learned the advanced technique of using spirit resonance echoes to detect conditions inside buildings, so you’ll have to improvise after entering. Plus the place you’re going is underground, so my advice is to be careful, if something goes wrong it will be very hard to escape.” “What about enemies in the city?” Joy Stick asked very seriously: “Did you discover anything that needs special attention?” “Yes! Around the plague zones in the city there are ghoul-like things wandering about, huge numbers of them but they’re wandering blindly so there shouldn’t be problems if you don’t provoke them. In the city skies there are strange flying creatures like rotting birds flying in flocks, that’s air defense that even vampire wings can barely break through. But the good news is the spirit energy environment here is still very stable for now, so you don’t need to worry about monsters appearing that don’t match this area’s strength level.” Tobacco Mulberry explained very professionally: “According to my mentor Helu’s explanation, generally in places with stable spirit energy environments, monsters with ridiculous stat values won’t spawn, unless this is actually a super large-scale disguise barrier, but the probability of that is too small, Seicob City is already destroyed and this isn’t any strategic location. However, that said, my understanding of spirit energy is still at apprentice level, so I might miss some details. So my advice is, don’t all go in! Leave some people outside for support, in case something goes wrong inside at least it won’t be total annihilation.” “That’s natural, I’ll leave some people behind.” Joy Stick nodded and took the city map with planned safe routes and danger zones that Tobacco Mulberry handed over. He opened it for a look and was very satisfied with Tobacco Mulberry’s work. He thought to himself that perhaps he should also train dedicated detection spirit mages for his team, these guys could observe conditions within several kilometers from the sky, basically walking “human radar”. “Tobacco Mulberry and Old Tune, you two stay outside the city.” Meow King also made arrangements. He handed the green gargoyle heart to Old Tune and instructed: “After we go in, Tobacco Mulberry maintain constant observation of conditions inside the city. Once you discover any problems, immediately ride this thing to rescue us.” “No problem!” Old Tune made an OK gesture. This guy was increasingly taking on the style of a gunslinger. He had even found himself a flashy cowboy hat to cover half his face, and like Grandma Marianne’s classic outfit used a face cloth to cover his mouth. A leather ammo belt was strapped across his body with a large caliber revolver on each side. His main weapon was a precision-calibrated witch hunter rifle, plus a trench gun custom made by “Iron Warden” based on Grandma Marianne’s design. He was armed to the teeth. As one of the current top teams in the game, Meow King deeply understood the principle that sharpening your knife won’t delay wood cutting, he never hesitated to spare any expense when it came to arming his brothers. This could be seen from the “Unbreakable” heavy shield and “Invincible” war hammer that Led More Than Three to Five Pecks was carrying, these were currently the most top-tier equipment players could get in the game, divine weapons that didn’t need replacing even at Gold rank. Of course, this was also the biggest reason Joy Stick sought cooperation with Meow King for treasure hunting, he needed to find players who could turn the tide at critical moments, and without doubt, Meow King’s Big Bird team were such players. These guys were very expensive, but naturally there were reasons for the high price. “Let’s go, enter the city!” Joy Stick gave the order. His 30 carefully selected subordinates and Meow King’s team of 5 mounted their horses and galloped towards the Seicob City ruins ahead, which gave off an uneasy gloom in the pale afternoon sunlight. “Honestly, I feel a bit uneasy.” Old Tune watched this large group of “hidden treasure hunters” racing towards the land of wealth and death, and rubbed his brow while saying to Tobacco Mulberry: “The closer we get to Seicob City, the more uneasy I feel, as if there’s a voice warning me not to step inside. You know, we’re all Avalon believers now, and Father Eugene has repeatedly warned us that the Avalon God will give warnings when their believers face danger.” “Then what else can you do?” Tobacco Mulberry rolled his eyes and took out his beloved magic tool to hold in his hand, saying: “These guys are all blinded by gold, they won’t listen to any advice now. Besides, we all have three days per life anyway, if something really goes wrong it’s just enduring for three days. Don’t talk about this anymore, how about that flight attendant I introduced you to before? Didn’t you say your family was pressuring you to go on blind dates?” Hearing this question, Old Tune rolled his eyes helplessly. He complained in a low voice: “The flight attendant is good, good in all aspects, even a bit too good, but by blind date standards it’s not so good.” “Why?” Tobacco Mulberry asked curiously, and Old Tune shrugged, saying quietly: “Didn’t I say the reason? Too good at it. So good that I’m a bit afraid to continue. Look, I’m a normal man, right? I don’t have the habit of wearing green hats or being a backup plan.” “Tch, so old-fashioned! This is called spice, don’t you understand? But what you say makes sense, which proper man would spend money to buy an eight-hand public bus?” Seicob City was once the provincial capital of the Transia region, and also the capital city of the entire Portia Federation. Being able to hold such a title fully proves how wealthy and prosperous this place once was. Not to mention other aspects, even though it’s now ruins, its currently well-preserved city area is still three times that of Crimson Citadel. Of course, from another perspective, when both places are ruins, it’s obviously very boring to compare which pile of ruins is more perfect. The treasure hunters swiftly moved through the dead city, riding horses galloping along the empty streets devoid of people, following the safe route planned by Tobacco Mulberry all the way. Along the way they could see houses collapsed during the war and strange holes left on stones corroded by the plague. The streets still retained traces of chaos before the city fell as well as some bloodstains that couldn’t be washed away. But what was unsettling was that they didn’t see a single complete corpse in the entire abandoned city. It seemed as if someone had specifically “cleaned up” this place after the disaster. “I’m getting the creeps.” Meow King vigilantly gripped the witch’s staff in his hand and the replica sacred blade at his waist. As an Oak Knight who would become a Red Knight in the future, after his class change he passively gained the 【Basic Weapon Master】talent, allowing him to skillfully use various weapons in combat. Of course, this was just a talent, not the same concept as the “Weapon Master” profession that Master Mao was currently pursuing. After Meow King stepped into the Seicob City ruins, the nature spirit energy presence that always accompanied him was severely weakened, making it very difficult for him to confirm hidden dangers around through perception. This made the Oak Knight’s unease grow heavier and heavier. His four brothers were also somewhat neurotically looking left and right like him. Not just them, but members of Joy Stick’s team with higher perception attributes would also suspiciously look towards those abandoned buildings that had long been uninhabited, as if there was always a pair of eyes watching them from behind those windows sealed with wooden boards. “Damn! This ghostly place!” Joy Stick cursed. This irritation came not only from the action of knowingly stepping into danger, but also from the danger perception that supernatural beings like vampires naturally possessed. He knew he had to act faster, then withdraw at maximum speed. They couldn’t stay here long. The good news was that after galloping all the way through, they encountered no obstacles before reaching the street where Seicob City Bank was located. This was also the most severely damaged area in the entire city apart from the industrial zone. When Little Countess Sharon sold the intelligence about Seicob City Bank’s underground vault to Joy Stick earlier, she had warned him that after the Pioneer Army broke into the city using the plague, all visible wealth in the entire bank district was looted clean by those bastards, only the vault in the deepest underground remained undamaged. That was a spirit lock that could only be opened with the Seicob family key, and that key was now in Joy Stick’s pocket close to his body. “Lin! Lead the newcomers to guard here! We’ll be back in half an hour at most!” Joy Stick jumped off his horse in front of the bank ruins that looked like they had been bombarded, and shouted to his vice commander. He dared not delay any more time, leading the other 8 brothers of Tiger Leopard Cavalry and Meow King’s team of 5 to charge into the bank ruins. After they left, the 20 newcomers very conscientiously started patrolling around on horseback. This scene was all observed by Tobacco Mulberry outside the city using detection magic, while Old Tune had already activated the gargoyle heart to gather stone materials to construct the creature’s body, ready to take off for support at any moment. The Pioneer Army’s looting of Seicob City 2 years ago was very thorough, but the good news was that after such looting, Joy Stick didn’t need to spend time searching for the path leading down to the vault. That passage was laid out there clear as day, like a black beast’s mouth blown open by gunpowder, waiting to swallow greedy adventurers into its belly in one bite. “Everyone keep these teleportation scrolls handy. If something goes wrong later and we can’t escape, just tear the scroll to return to Crimson Citadel.” Before going down to the vault, Joy Stick took out scrolls he bought from Lady Tris before departure and distributed them to everyone. Everyone held them with disgusted expressions. Obviously because the 1% malfunction chance that came with these things made everyone very uneasy. Cheche’s previous tragic experience was enough to give a memorable lesson to anyone preparing to use teleportation scrolls. It’s said that poor Cheche was left with terrible psychological trauma from that “astral journey” and refused to try NPC-provided teleportation services no matter what. “Don’t scare yourselves, maybe there’s nothing down there?” Meow King forced himself to make a joke but was severely despised by others. Everyone filed into the passage one after another, following the marble spiral staircase all the way down, not stopping at the first underground floor but heading straight for the grand vault on the second floor. This process went quite smoothly. Apart from several black rats over a meter long running in the darkness, almost nothing else made any sound. The vault Joy Stick was looking for was also very obvious, while other vaults had been violently blown open, only the vault in the deepest underground remained intact. The surroundings were full of traces left by explosions and several bundles of unexploded explosives, but there were no traces of damage on the iron door weighing several tons. “Its spirit lock is still fully charged!” Meow King went forward to sense it, then immediately turned back to Joy Stick with an expression of wild joy: “This proves it hasn’t been opened in these two years, the gold inside is intact! Quick, open it, let’s see what’s inside!” “Don’t rush.” Joy Stick also let out a sigh of relief. What he feared most was having nothing to show after investing so much, but he still had to maintain a steady-as-a-mountain posture as he stepped forward to insert the key Little Sharon gave him into the keyhole. Along with the 17 runes on the spirit key lighting up one by one, the heavy steel door slowly opened. Under everyone’s expectant gaze, unmissable golden light burst forth in this dim place. Of course, gold itself doesn’t emit light! No matter how much gold is piled together it cannot emit light. The reason for the floating golden light was because there was a circle of spirit guardian light flickering in the vault, making the gold bars neatly stacked together reflect dazzling seven-colored light. This sight made all the players present forget to cheer or even breathe. They stood there dumbfounded, looking at this amazing wealth they had uncovered with their own hands. Actually the gold bars stored in this vault weren’t that many, after all it was just one of the Seicob financial vaults, not even one-tenth compared to the family wealth in Blood Vulture Halls, but for players this was already a super treasure that couldn’t be described in words! Little Countess Sharon didn’t lie to them! There really was treasure here! Although they didn’t understand the exchange rate between gold bars and gold coins yet, roughly estimated the value of these gold bars wouldn’t be less than 500,000 gold coins. At a 1:10 exchange rate, that would be 5 million yuan? Uh, calculated this way it doesn’t seem like much anymore. At least for someone of Little Rich Brother’s level this wasn’t a large sum, but Joy Stick at least had results he could show to soothe his recently heavy work pressure. “Load up!” At his command! The other fellows charged into the vault like unleashed wild dogs, throwing those gold bricks into specially prepared spirit bags. But just as everyone was happily loading gold bars, Little Hand who had the highest perception suddenly twitched his ears, while decisively hiding in the shadows and pulling Meow King, saying: “Did you hear any sound? Seems like someone came in... from behind!” “Bang” As soon as the words fell, there was a heavy object smashing on the ground behind them. Making Joy Stick suddenly turn his head, only to see the mangled corpse of his brother who was guarding the second floor vault entrance being violently smashed to the ground, as a figure in golden clothes and golden armor, wielding a skull hammer, slowly walked out from the darkness. “This land will not allow anything more to be taken away! Anything! Bandits, weep!” That guy shouted, his giant hammer smashing out to send Joy Stick’s brother beside him flying away. Then large patches of cold mist rose from all around, with dense swarms of vengeful spirits pouncing out from within. This sight made Joy Stick’s hair stand on end. He and the brothers around immediately drew their weapons preparing to make a final stand. “Damn! I knew it wouldn’t be this smooth, every treasure pile must have a guardian right? This mechanism design is too crappy!”

Chapter 319:

Comments (0)