64 Chapter 64 - Werewolf or Wolfman? (1/2)

Gu Fei drank liquor all by himself. The sight of Xiaoyu sleeping deeply closeby induced drowsiness in him. Eating and drinking in Parallel World was truly just a sensory experience; the players' real bodies would not be affected by consuming anything in-game at all. Although sleeping in-game slightly eased the tiredness of a player's body, sleeping in reality was the only way for a person to recover fully from fatigue. Therefore, sleeping in-game when players were feeling tired was ill-advised, as going offline and simply getting into a real bed would be much better.

Looking around, Gu Fei discovered that the Inn was empty. Yeguang Village not only was far from Yueye City but also lacked any ideal grinding maps nearby. These factors explained why hardly any players could be seen resting in the Inn. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu had made several rounds in the Inn and all they saw coming and going were NPCs and more NPCs.

Sleeping in the game was not a solution, but staying awake was not good either. Out of boredom, Gu Fei stood up and began practicing his bladework in a corner of the Inn. He got out his magic staff and practiced his techniques for it. He ended his practice session with a set of hand-to-hand combat moves upon seeing that the sky had finally brightened.

”Wake up! Wake up!” Gu Fei nudged Xiaoyu.

”Is it already morning?” Xiaoyu still looked somewhat sleepy.

”Yup,” Gu Fei answered.

”Lemme just lay down for five more minutes…” Xiaoyu collapsed back onto the table again.

”Quest,” Gu Fei reminded.

”Let's go, let's go! Time waits for no man!” Xiaoyu immediately perked up. She got up from the table and said to Gu Fei, ”Look lively!”

The two left the Inn and headed to the hillside where they had ended their tailing last night. Since they had noted the coordinates before, the two managed to locate the shaft easily despite everywhere around them looking identical. Seeing that there was no one around, Gu Fei pushed off the large mound of vegetation that hid the shaft's entrance.

The shaft's pathway was not as large or as complex as Oolong Cave. In just a few steps, they found themselves in the deepest part of it in what looked like a big room. Gu Fei picked up the bits of loose rocks on the ground and touched the walls.

This medium-sized shaft was actually a gold mine. The gold ore that Mr. Adrian had given Xiaoyu and the sack of gold ore that they had found behind Murphy's house seemed to have originated from this place…

This mine shaft and the sack of gold ore at Murphy's place… Were they all related to Mr. Adrian?

Gu Fei had not forgotten that Xiaoyu's gold ore quest involving Mr. Adrian was unrelated to his chain quest. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu being together, as well as Xiaoyu obtaining the quest that had led to Gu Fei's discovery of Mr. Adrian's secret gold mine, was purely coincidental. If all these serendipitous events had not occurred, Gu Fei would never have connected Mr. Adrian to the gold mine here.

”What's this?” As Gu Fei was pondering about those events, Xiaoyu found an urn in a corner of the shaft.

By the time Gu Fei walked over, Xiaoyu had already unsealed the urn. She grabbed a handful of the grayish powder within and showed it up to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei narrowed his eyes, ”These are bone ashes.”

”Bone ashes?” Xiaoyu felt shocked.

”The cremated remains of a person or animal,” Gu Fei said as he mentally prepared himself for Xiaoyu's inevitable scream as she threw the urn away.

But Xiaoyu remained unaffected, merely asking, ”Whose is it?”

”Only one person is dead in this village,” Gu Fei hinted.

”So this is Murphy's?” Xiaoyu asked.

Gu Fei nodded his head, ”Someone dug out Murphy's corpse and burned it into ashes.”

”Why would anyone do that?” Xiaoyu asked.

”Maybe… Murphy is a Werewolf,” Gu Fei surmised.

”Ah? So Murphy did not get murdered; he actually committed suicide!” Xiaoyu concluded.

Gu Fei laughed as he shook his head, ”Various questions could be answered if Murphy was truly a Werewolf. This would explain how he was able to trade blows with another Werewolf, and why the villagers do not know about his fighting capabilities. This would also explain why his buried remains were dug out to be cremated.”

”What does that mean?”

”According to western folklores, a lycanthrope corpse can transform into a zombie vampire. Someone must have cremated his remains to prevent that from happening,” Gu Fei explained.

”So who cremated him?” Xiaoyu asked.

”His kin. Only a lycanthrope kin would know of Murphy's real identity and would worry about his corpse transforming,” Gu Fei answered.

”Could that kin be the same Werewolf that had killed Murphy?” Xiaoyu wondered.

”Perhaps. But finding his cremated remains here proves something,” Gu Fei stated.

”What?”

”All those who come to this mine to extract gold ore are Werewolves. I suspect that the villagers that have been avoiding me are actually Werewolves,” Gu Fei deduced.

”Ha! See, I told you!” Xiaoyu said smugly.

Gu Fei showed her a forced smile, ”You're really smart.”

Xiaoyu felt overjoyed, ”Told you I'm a quest expert!”

”No kidding!”

”So what's our next move?” Xiaoyu asked.

”This bunch of Werewolves is living among humans and seems to have no intentions of hurting them. Their goal here seems to be this gold mine. This shaft isn't large, so it can probably fit in four people at once when they're mining. I assume that four of them come here to mine gold ore every night. Murphy must have harbored ill-intention that prompted him to secretly stash away some gold ore for himself. The others probably killed him upon discovering what he had been doing. I think that's the gist of things,” Gu Fei explained.

”Werewolves are truly greedy creatures…” Xiaoyu commented.

”With so many Werewolves, I don't think this quest wants me to kill all of them off. There must be another way to resolve this,” Gu Fei said as he pondered about it.

”Like what?” Xiaoyu queried.