Sword Among Us

“Shopkeeper.”

A tavern that was provided for traveling merchants to rest their feet was built on a wide and remote government-made road. It received a batch of rich customers on that day. Thirteen martial artists in neat clothing got down from their horses and handed the reins to a waiter with nimble hands. Once they requested that the waiter fed their horses high-grade hay, they entered a simple room one after another and sat down.

“Three pounds of stuffed buns, two pounds of beef, and two pots of Huadiao wine, do be quick.”

“Alright!”

Having customers meant earning money. The shopkeeper beamed with joy. He personally brought out a pot of tea and poured a cup for each of the guests before he repeated the customers’ order. He told the waiter to get the orders ready in haste.

The food and wine were quickly brought to the table.

The people did not hold themselves back. They ate with gusto and finished up the white and steaming stuffed buns along with the fragrant and tender beef. Once they were done, they did not forget to burp.

“The taste of the food in the game is really good.” Once they finished eating, the people were not in a hurry to leave. They picked their teeth in great comfort while chatting around the table. “It’s a pity that the food here won’t fill our stomachs in the real world, or else I’d be willing to spend my entire day here and go nowhere else.”

“True, with this level of consumption, no matter where we go, we can eat and drink to our hearts’ fill just by going out and robbing someone. By the way…”

One person suddenly turned his head to another table to look at a man with a bold and outstanding presence. He seemed to be someone who was the leader of a region.

This speaker had a grin on his face when he asked, “Boss, what should we do with the loot we stole just now? Will it be enough for several tens of thousands of taels of silver crumbs to each person?”

The leader had tanned skin, and he looked like an iron tower. When he heard the other speak, his eyebrows twitched, and he stopped tearing at a piece of beef. He cast the person who spoke a cold glance.

“Tens of thousands of taels of silver crumbs? You actually think that the stuff from Far Might Bodyguard Agency would be worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver crumbs? Bah! It’ll be good if we can get ten thousand taels of silver crumbs each.”As he spoke, clinking sounds were heard. It was the sound of a money bag being thrown on the table.

“Each of you gets five thousand taels of silver crumbs. Even if there’s extra, it’s not yours.”

Once he finished saying those words coldly, the group pulled open the money bag in a flurry of motion and divided the money like savage tigers and wolves.

While they held the gold and silver ingots, they were not quite satisfied just yet.

“Boss, we’ve been waiting for two days and one night for this loot, but we only earned this much?”

“When you add all of this together, it’s only around 300 RMB. It’s a little low.”

“Cut the bull crap.” The tanned man was already in a foul mood. When he heard those words, he became even more impatient. He snorted loudly. “I never forced all of you to steal from them. If so many of you had not come here, I would have been able to split up the profit better. If you’re going to complain that there’s little money, then get lost.”

The previous speaker was rendered speechless.

“Hehe, boss, I was just joking. It’s just a joke,” they said, mediating the situation.

The others also laughed, not saying anything anymore. In fact, they even took the initiative to order more beef and Huadiao wine, saying that they wanted to celebrate the occasion.

The tanned man’s expression was no longer as angry as before.

Once they drank three pots of wine, the group surrounded the tanned man. “Hey, boss, who’s our next target?”

“I haven’t settled on one.” The tanned man paused for a while before he waved his hand in annoyance and let out a drunken belch. “Did you actually think those bodyguard agencies will have loot every single day? Those things won’t appear just because we want them to. Once they have something to protect, I’ll naturally notify you.”

They instantly fell into a gloomy mood.

The tanned man was their leader. In truth, he was a friend of an internal member of Far Might Bodyguard Agency, and the two of them were a rather smart pair. Every single time there was business for the bodyguard agency, the internal member would send a messenger pigeon for his friend who was a robber. He would tell him the roads they would take and the situation of the guards so that they could get the loot.

However, there was a risk in this “business”.

Every single time they stole from a bodyguard agency, they would have a bounty placed on their heads for an entire week, and they could not enter any cities. Also, all the martial artists could attack them. If they died, they would lose all their money.

Hence, the robbers would always choose remote government-made roads that players did not take to practice martial arts or maintain their survival by conducting “business that cost them no money” with other players.

Even though it was rather troublesome, there were still some people who were willing to do such a thing, because they thought that it was extremely exciting. It also filled them with the feeling of the wild and untamed nature of the world of martial artists.

When they learned that there was temporarily no business for them from the tanned man, the group began planning where they should train or where they should lay in wait so that they could conduct some “businesses” between players that would cost them no money.

While they chattered in the tavern, the tanned man’s ears suddenly twitched, and he swiftly stood up from his seat. He raised his hand and interrupted his group of lackeys who were making a ruckus.

“Quiet.”

The group fell silent.

The shopkeeper and waiter did not have any work to do. They just dozed off in their spots, so the noisy tavern instantly became silent.

Thud, thud, thud, thud…

The sound of horse hooves came from the distance. With every moment, they became clearer.

“Take out your weapons.”

When the people in the tavern heard the noise, they said nothing else and went to grab their weapons at their waists or on their backs. For a period of time, the sound of sabers and swords being drawn could be heard nonstop.

“Put them away.” The tanned man’s reaction was the fastest. He scowled and gave his order. “There aren’t many people coming here, so don’t alert them. There isn’t any other tavern thirty one miles before or after this shop. They will definitely stop to rest and have some refreshments while they’re here. We’ll just wait for them here.”

“But what if they run? Don’t forget, we’re currently wanted people.” One of the people did not want the prey that had already entered their mouths to escape.

“Don’t worry, as long as they don’t look at the map, they won’t know. For now, there aren’t many people who have such a habit.”

The tanned man’s eyes were full of amusement. When he reminded his people shrewdly of the reality they lived in, they instantly became at ease and put away their weapons before returning to their seats and sitting down.

“Drink.”

“Cheers!”

Once the tavern returned to peace, the sound of horse hooves took a turn from the government-made road and got off the road. One of the horses was black, and the other red; they were both very handsome. With dust behind them, they came charging toward the tavern where the robbers stayed.

“Two people!”

The group looked at each other in the tavern with expressions that said they knew their next targets. The corners of their lips quirked up slightly.

“Their steeds are pretty good. If we sell them, they should get us tens of thousands of taels of silver.” The tanned man did not even look up. He could tell based on the sound alone that the steeds were not normal horses.

But right when he looked up with the others, they all sucked in sharp breaths.

There were two other people behind the riders on the two horses that were charging forward!

No!

It should not be said that they were people. The two things behind the two riders were also on horses, but they had thick, black aura surrounding them, and their faces were rotten. They looked ferocious and terrifying. They could not be known as humans.

When the group saw them, chill crawled down their spine!

While they were stunned, the two steeds arrived in front of the tavern. Just as expected, the two riders tugged their horses’ reins and stopped them from galloping forward. One of the young men jumped down and walked into the tavern while shouting loudly, “Shopkeeper, give us some food. Beef or stuffed buns or whatever. Just give us whatever tastes good. Darn it, I’m SO HUNGRY…”

As he spoke, the ferocious, terrifying things with rotten faces jumped down from the backs of the two horses. Their movements were stiff, and they looked like zombies. They landed on the ground with straight legs, but their landing was stable. They followed behind the young man.

Fortunately for the shopkeeper, he had set up his shop for many years, and he no longer found anything strange, or else, when he saw the two terrifying zombies follow a guest into his tavern, he would most likely have fainted from fear.

“Alright, please sit over here and wait a little while.”

“Hehe.”

Little North did not bother himself with the group of players in the tavern. He exercised his neck and stretched his numb and sore body. When he walked into the tavern, he suddenly stopped and turned around to happily jog outside.

“Boss, let’s rest outside a little while. After all, we’ll need to ride for at most another half a day before we can reach Wuhu[1]. Let’s rest and fill up our stomachs.”

‘Boss?’

The bandits in the tavern had been shocked and intimidated by the two zombies and had begun to guess the young man’s origins and his abilities. When they suddenly heard him use the title “boss”, they remembered that there was a young man in blue robes who did not seem outstanding alongside him. That young man was sitting quietly outside on his horse.

At the moment the tanned man met the clear gaze of the blue-robed young man who was looking down from his horse, for some unknown reason, he suddenly felt ashamed of his own inferiority, as if he had instantly been seen through and could not hide his thoughts anymore.