25 The Vampire’s Castle (1/2)

To be honest, creating a character's name in the game had exhausted Qin Ruo's brain. When he first entered the character creation page of H&G, he did not know why he went nuts and misspelled his own name1. When combined with his surname, Qin, people may have misunderstood and thought that he despised the powerful, ancient Qin Dynasty. But the truth was he overlooked the two ”Ruo” characters. Plus, the fact that in order for him to recreate the character, it would require another twenty four hours. Hence, he decided to just leave it be and he went forward with the misspelling.

After resting for more than an hour, Qin Ruo entered the game as his noisy ringtone sounded. The agreed meeting point was the same old place. He rushed to the location and managed to reach at 2 pm sharp. However, Scrooge Lady in her full set of Bowmaster equipment along with a Bandit, who looked like a high school girl appeared to have reached for quite some time.

The baby-faced Bandit seemed especially odd. She had been inspecting Qin Ruo from head to toe with a scrutinizing as well as a suspicious look from the moment she noticed his arrival. Her odd glare made Qin Ruo felt extremely uneasy.

This is the friend that Scrooge Lady mentioned? That Bandit who excels in Thievery? But why does she look like a student?

Although he felt bewildered, he remained polite.

”I'm sorry. You two must have waited for quite some time.”

”Not really. You arrived just in time. Allow me to introduce you, this is the Level 41 Bandit that I mentioned before. She possesses the Advanced Thievery Skill, so there shouldn't be a problem for her to help you accomplish this mission.” Little Kitten did not mind Qin Ruo's late arrival.

This introduction surprised Qin Ruo a bit—a Tier 4 Bandit who excelled in Advanced Thievery. However, the surprise did not stop there. What Little Kitten said next made Qin Ruo even more speechless.

”Don't you think we look alike? This is my sister, Li Xinqin. She's my biological sister, who's currently in the first year of her degree…”

”She's still studying?”

”Any problem with that?”

With dissatisfaction, the little girl talked back at the spur of the moment. Her attitude did not seem very friendly. She was displeased with Qin Ruo due to unknown reasons. Qin Ruo smiled and thought that she did have her sister's gene.

Little Kitten scoffed and raised her eyebrows as she smacked her sister on the head.

”Are you asking for trouble? Qin Ruo, please don't be bothered by her. This sister and her friends have been crazy about the game at school. They always behave like gangsters. She constantly yells 'fight' or 'kill' at home, every single day. If it wasn't to assist you on this mission, I wouldn't even be talking to her.”

Qin Ruo remained speechless.

It was better if she did not mention the details. With this explanation, Qin Ruo now held a second opinion of her sister. Watching Xinqin's delicate appearance and carefree expression, it was hard to imagine that deep down, there was a certain beast in her.

Luckily she's not my sister.

Qin Ruo wiped cold sweat off his forehead. He began to doubt if they could complete the mission smoothly. He was unsure if the decision to bet this valuable opportunity on the ”little gangster” was wise. After all, not everyone had the opportunity to accept this mission.

”Alright Sis, cut the crap since the both of you are from the same company. Hurry up with the mission. We still have something else to attend to later.”

She stared at Qin Ruo after she completed her sentence. The inexplicable hostility caused the latter to shiver. Qin Ruo was once again bewildered. What had he done wrong to offend the little girl?

However, once he thought about the sincere help Little Kitten offered him, he was too embarrassed to continue arguing with Xinqin. He just assumed that she was acting up like a normal little girl.

”Alright, we won't delay any longer. Let's form a party and go to the nearest Rocke Town.”

Once he partied up with the two of them, only then did Qin Ruo find out that the little girl's in-game name was Gold Digger Babe. Such a name… Ahem, genius.

Then, he turned to Little Kitten. She was at Level 39, which was unexpectedly higher than him. It appeared that she would soon upgrade to Tier 4 as well.

That's quite fast.

He believed that Scrooge Lady, like himself, spent a considerable amount of time after work to play the game. He wondered if she trained her level all by herself or did it together with her sister.

Besides, it was really difficult to overlap the Little Kitten before his eyes with her Scrooge Lady image in real life. This weird thought swirled around in Qin Ruo's mind.

***

Exiting Rocke Town, the three of them headed north and entered a desolate area near Vampire's Castle.

Low-tier Vampires lurked along the route. These were humans who had been infected by an Advanced Vampire after having their blood sucked. They transformed into Tier 2 or Tier 3 Vampires after that and hunted passersby mercilessly.

Sometimes, a Vampire would even look exactly like a player. Numerous negligent players were frequently caught off guard by such Vampires. After being bitten, they would eventually die without realizing...

In the instant they died, due to the Vampire's bite, their corpses would immediately turn into other Vampires, and Radiant Priests would not be able to revive them.

Therefore, certain players were forced to fight their own ”corpse”. It was an unspeakable, creepy scene for bystanders, especially when they had to witness a player facing his or her own bloody doppelganger.