"What is this badge? Why does it burn so quickly?"
"What! It's definitely something to do with you!" When the Su Mei waited for the Badge to cool down before picking it up again and taking a closer look. "It is an ordinary badge, there isn't anything wrong with it!"
"Forget it, we can't learn anything about it now anyway. You wanted the badge, you keep it!" I did not even want to touch the thing at all.
Su Mei kept the badge and pulled my hand and headed towards the City. Truth be told, I started to turn slightly afraid as we got closer to the City Gates! I was at the side watching when the 3 Main Cities had joined forces to attack Lost City the last time, and I was unsure if any NPC would have noticed me standing on Lost City's walls. If any single NPC remembered and took it to heart, what could I do if they sought me out!
I walked past the guards trembling, luckily, the guards did not seem to have any hostility towards me. It seemed to me that the Main Cities were only against the NPC powers belonging to the Dark Faction, and would not engage Players belonging to it. After entering the City, I realized that there were many more stalls compared to the outside, both sides of the streets were filled with players stuck close to each other with only gaps for the shop entrances.
The Player-owned stalls inside the city were clearly at a higher level, the items sold inside them were far better than those outside. Majority of the items sold were Superior Grade Equipment with many Gold Grade Equipment here and there, and there were some even shouting that they sold Elite equip. Su Mei and I walked along the streets, but no one actually came up and attempted at hard selling their products to us, which was understandable. I was dressed in newbie clothes and obviously looked like a newbie that had just left the newbie village, but the majority of the items sold in the stalls were Superior Grade equipment which newbies would never be able to afford. Since there was no business, they naturally never stopped to hard sell me.
"Where do you want to go?" I lowered my head and asked Su Mei.
"I heard that there is a tavern here is famous for many things, I want to try it out."
"Alright, let's find it!" Luckily for us, game currency and equipment were separated, if the money were in the Bracelet, that would have been terrible for us!
As it was the first time that one of us was here in Sky City while the other rarely came, neither of us had done much touring, so we did not even know what tavern was famous! The map provided by the system was extremely vague and only pinpointed the general direction and own location which was good to figure out location outside of Cities, but to rely on it to find buildings was futile. Sky City's map was merely an empty circle and aside from the Light Shrine or the City Lord's residence landmarks, there was nothing.
I stopped a Player that was passing by. "Sorry brother, do you know where is the tavern?"
"Don't disturb me, I need to go and train!" The other party shrugged my hands and ran away.
The little devil Su Mei looked at me with disdain. "Hmph! In the end, this young miss has to be the one doing the work!" She suddenly walked to the middle of the road, took off her mask and hood then started to act as though she was crying, to the point that she was actually able to produce fake tears. She did not attempt to pull anyone, but a female Player voluntarily stopped. "Oh my, where did such an adorable sister come from! You're so cute! What happened to you? Why are you here alone and crying?"
Su Mei sobbed and replied: "I'm…..I'm lost!"
"Ah! That's terrible!" A few other young girls immediately became a sympathetic group. Su Mei herself pretty and would definitely grow to be a beauty, additionally, she was extremely adorable. Once she cried, people all around would feel their hearts clench.
At that moment, the little devil was fully utilizing her charm. "Sisters, my big brother said that he is at some tavern, can you tell me how to go there?"
"Why not we bring you there?" A few of the ladies were obviously overly enthusiastic.
"No need, I am a strong little Angel, I can go there by myself!" The tear-stained face of the beautiful Su Mei revealed a determined look, causing all the ladies to become emotional. The result of all that - the location of the tavern was easily sourced, to the point that they even drew a map for her! At long last, the enthusiastic young ladies finally gave in to allow Su Mei to walk there herself. Su Mei watched as the young ladies who were reluctant to leave her and waved her arms and shouted: "Thank you sisters, take care!" Only after they disappeared into the crowd did Su Mei turn to me and did a twist gesture in the shape of a 'V' with her index and middle fingers.
I gave her a thumbs up. "Powerful!"
"Of course! With my ultimate Little Angel's charms, I've always succeeded in whatever I want to do! Alright, let's go!"
Sigh! She held a natural advantage and if her request were not fulfilled, it would never be right! I hugged her and carried her on my shoulder, then with her guidance, we headed towards the tavern. Along the way, this little devil acted as though she was a princess while I was her Imperial Bodyguard!
"Hello? Is there a need for you to act as though you're some sort of high noble?"
"What do you know? I'm doing it for your sake! Did you realize that only with me portraying myself as nobility and give off a disdain feeling towards others will they not dare to talk to us? Otherwise, you and I would have been surrounded and stuck with all the crowd already!"
"Seriously?" I did not know how to refute that!
According to Su Mei's guidance, we quickly arrived at the said location. "Woah! There is really a tavern here!!"
The five story structure was interesting and appealing. It looked like an ancient Chinese pagoda, not only was it elegant, it was a magnificent sight. Upon entering the tavern, it felt as though we had entered a wet market, but it might have been because of the speaker system at the entrance that was slightly too loud and filled with static that scared us. A few waiters were even screaming at the top of their lungs to call for orders! This scene was far from what I had imagined the place to be! How could it be so chaotic?
Upon entering, one of the waiters immediately ran over. His voice was loud, although it was extremely noisy inside, we were still able to hear his voice. "Are the two of you here to eat or employing hitmen?"
"Hitmen? Your tavern does assassination services?"
"The two of you must be new here to not know of our business. When Players accept assassination missions, the system will deduct 20% fees, so the majority of the assassins or hitmen will deal privately. We only accept a 1% intermediary fee here."
"Oh! We are here to eat, I wonder if you have any…." I pointed to one of the rooms.
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The waiter immediately got my hint. "This is the lower tier consumption area, the dishes are more ordinary and are cheaper, thus the chaos. It is much cleaner upstairs, but I am afraid that you two might not be able to pay for it!"
Before I could say anything, Su Mei spoke up. "We are not newbies, his equipment is being repaired by the blacksmith, we just came over to wait for the equipment to be repaired."
"Oh! Then that's great!" The waiter's smile immediately became even more brilliant. "Please follow me!"
We followed the waiter through the large hall, which was obviously created using a spatial concealing system. From the outside, the tavern looked at most two to three basketball courts large, but upon entering, the tavern was as large as a soccer field! In any case, everything inside the game was all virtual, the space to size ratio of houses could all be altered with data!
"Are you a Player or NPC?" I could not resist asking the waiter.
"I'm a Player! After getting tired of training, I come over here to earn some few bucks!"
"Oh!"
We quickly arrived on the second floor via a flight of stairs, and upon passing through the floorboards of the second floor, the noise disappeared. There was obviously some sound isolation system at play to separate the two floors. The second floor had smaller tables with a few Players seated at every table, but the atmosphere was rather bizarre.
The waiter looked at our skeptical faces and explained: "These are all the hitmen awaiting their missions, they are waiting for Players to come up to talk business."
"No wonder the atmosphere is so cold here!"
We were brought to the third floor before stopping. "Where would the two of you want your meal to be held at? Our tavern has a total of 5 floors and you have seen the first 2 floors. This floor is mostly used to eat." I was already looking around, there were plenty of people around but it was much quieter and everyone was dining with proper etiquette. The atmosphere was much more graceful and calmer than downstairs, without the tense atmosphere. The waiter continued: "The fourth floor has private rooms and the majority of Players who like to discuss matters will head there. The fifth floor is the couple dining hall, the atmosphere is much better but it is extremely expensive."
"We want the fifth floor!" Upon the opening of the little devil's mouth, nothing good ever comes out.
"Then follow me!" The waiter gave me a weird look, as though I was some pedophile pervert! Honestly, being kind never pays!
Although I was wronged, I did not explain myself. To explain oneself in such a situation would simply place me as a fool, aside from making it worse, explaining would never help.
We followed the waiter to the fifth floor which was designed with private rooms, exempting me from awkwardness. We were brought to a room which was extremely narrow with only a cushion chair and a table. The chair was strange, to call it a bench was wrong because it was shorter than one, but it was too large for one person to sit on! Two people could squeeze on the chair, it was truly suited for couples! But fortunately, it was extremely convenient for us, Su Mei was small and I saw her as my younger sister, thus I could place her on my lap.
What would the two of you like to order?" After being seated, the waiter handed us a menu and waited for us to order.
I did not even have a look at the menu, Su Mei alone ordered a few dishes. The waiter quickly ran down to prepare the dishes for us. Su Mei took out her badge once again and started to study it, while I opened up my Companions box and took a look, they were all full which meant they were safe, most probably still looking for my swords!
The dishes were quickly served, piling up on our table into a small mountain. I was indifferent to the food, but upon the waiter's departure, Su Mei immediately transformed into a demon, without even using the chopsticks on the table, she used her hands to grab the food. Seeing that she was enjoying herself, I joined in, and honestly, the food was true to its standard, and the strange delicacies almost made me swallow my own tongue!
After finishing and paying for the meal, we left the tavern and arrived on the street. Xiao Su Mei's class was the Angel Race's Holy Missionary Mage, which was a top end class in the Priest and White Mage tree of the profession, according to her, it was a class that she had obtained from a hidden mission, and it was powerful. But she never focused on leveling and was only slightly higher than Level 400, which was lower than me. This Holy Missionary Mage class could directly utilize God Power, so ordinary Light Shrines could not offer any advanced spells. But she had never interacted with one of the Three Main Cities before, thus she never really learned any spells. Since we were here, I decided to bring her to gain a few spells for herself.
The Light Shrine was easily found since it was huge with a mark on the map. The two of us sprinted all the way to the so-called Light Shrine Main Headquarters. It was different from the Dark Shrine General Headquarters, there were three of them, each located in one of the Main Cities. As for whether or not there were ones in charge stayed in them, no one knew.
Standing beneath the Shrine, I only had one thought - the Light Shrine truly knew how to put up a front. The gigantic Light Shrine was built entirely out of white marble, in between the two tall terraces was most likely a thousand steps flight of stairs, although the flight of steps was long, due to its long width, it was not as intimidating.
With a breath, I carried Su Mei up the flight of stairs, and it almost made me stop breathing! On the sides of the stairs were countless of Players moving up and down. Compared to this bustling Light Shrine, the Dark Shrine was much cooler and calm. At the summit was an equally pure white structure that looked like the American Lincoln Memorial, its squarish form gave off a rather magnificent vibe.
At the entrance of the Shrine stood a few Angel Guards who looked to be powerful NPCs above level 900. I led Mei Su into the shrine, fortunately, the guards and the city guards never made a move on me.
"STOP!" Right at the moment when I had entered the Shrine, I was actually stopped! Just as I was just celebrating the fact that the NPCs did not care about me, it came! But I realized that the one who stopped me was not the NPC guards, but an NPC Priest. The reason why I knew he was not a Player was due to the gigantic words 'NPC Official' floating above his head. Majority of the NPCs had them, just that the rest were either High-level NPC Priests or White Mages.
"What's wrong?" I knew that if something were to happen, for the sake of not interfering with Su Mei's gaining of spells, I seamlessly pushed her out. Luckily she was intelligent, she immediately skirted around the NPC and looked for the other NPC Manager to learn whatever spells she could.