578 Chapter 578 - Instigating the Crowd (1/2)
The three men involuntarily turned to look at Flame Singed Clothes and Glue. While they might be larcenists, the two men were very loyal to their comrades and dedicated to accomplishing their given tasks. They were truly model workers when compared to War Without Wounds.
Even now, retrieving the goods took up 70% of the two's attention, while the remaining 30% was on the three men from Young Master's Elite – their control was perfect in every sense. The way their bodies exuded an effortless ease made it seem as if this were second nature to them. Only when they realized that the three men were looking at them did a sliver of panic fleet across the duo's expression.
”Look at them and look at yourselves!” Young Master Han would of course not let an opportunity for an on-site lecture go. They were all members of their respective small teams, yet Young Master's Elite was nowhere near as united as Southern Lone Blade's seven-man team. Their members would put the team before themselves, with none nitpicking over their individual losses. Meanwhile, Young Master's Elite comprised experts that would never back down from a fight, yet the moment they came across something tedious, each would prefer to shirk all sorts of responsibility, and they were all more than willing not to do anything about it.
”Enough with all that useless chatter. Just tell us what we must do now!” War Without Wounds said.
”I doubt any of you would be willing to stake out this place like them,” Young Master Han said, instead.
”Would you be willing yourself?” War Without Wounds cleverly flipped the script on him.
Young Master Han dodged the question, but it was clear what everyone's stance regarding this was. None of the three was willing; Royal God Call and Sword Demon were not the type to waste so much time on such an endeavor, either. There was no need to even mention Gu Fei as there was no way to guarantee that he would be online for long.
”How about we take turns?” Brother Assist suggested.
”What's the point of us keeping an eye on them?” Young Master Han asked.
”Kill them, of course!” Brother Assist answered.
”If neither of them leaves, will you be able to do anything to them?”
Brother Assist was stumped for words, knowing what Young Master Han meant. What they needed was more than just keeping an eye on the magic staff's appearance; they must ensure that they would be able to kill the other party as well. There would be no point in keeping an eye on them otherwise, for Southern Lone Blade's team might even turn the knife toward them the moment they stepped out of the Auction House. At the end of the day, this was the crux as to why they were in such a bind. Both parties were stuck waiting here, but while Southern Lone Blade's gang was camping out the Auction House for the buyer with the clear goal of making a profit and getting a reward, could the same be said for the members of Young Master's Elite? They were here to play a game. For them to while their time away, and possibly for seven days at that, here at the Auction House with the seven larcenists… Forget about the boredom; just the experience points and gold coins they would stand to miss out on was tremendous already. It was simply not worth the loss.
”What about your original plan? With the Utopian Magic Staff truly getting sold off, how will we deal with such a situation?” Brother Assist asked.
”If this happened as per normal, Blue Ease and his lot would be very aggrieved, and given their personality, they'd most likely, and extremely diligently, keep watch over here in hopes of snatching back the magic staff, probably even going as far as to loot it off the buyer's corpse if they had to. They would likely gladly volunteer to do this menial work, but alas, their attention right now is invested in that spineless fool. Vast Lushness is sure to be lenient on the man and will definitely not mind that this happened. With that being the case, this matter will be laid to rest right then and there. Actually, who would be willing to spend so much time pursuing such b*llsh*t, anyway? No one would be willing to impair their personal relations. As long as she says the word, they'll all be happy to call it quits and go about their businesses without much of a fuss,” reasoned Young Master Han.
Brother Assist and War Without Wounds thought about how Blue Ease's lot had acted before and concurred with Young Master Han's assessment. If an outsider had been obtained the magic staff right from the very start, those men would surely have tried all sorts of methods to get it back. In such an instance, Southern Lone Blade's gang would have been seen as competitors for the magic staff, and both parties would have butted heads until the bitter end. There was even a chance that Young Master Han and the others would not have to step in. Unfortunately, the current situation was as how Young Master Han had described it; that foolish bidding master had become the focus of Vast Lushness's comrades' collective resentment. All it took was Vast Lushness expressing her stance on the matter, and everything would be as good as settled.
”Hey. Why don't we just leave it be?” Brother Assist hesitated for a moment before asking. Considering the situation that they were in, they would not really incur any sort of loss in every sense of the word if they took the initiative to wash their hands off this, and they could even save time doing so. They did not really have any deep-seated grudge against Southern Lone Blade and company, to the point where Young Master Han's gang needed to wipe them off the face of the Earth. It was Gu Fei who was the one who had dragged them here to lend Vast Lushness a hand in the first place, and now that even the woman at the helm had decided to withdraw from this matter, there was simply no rhyme or reason for them to continue wasting their time and effort on this.
”Hmm. That's not an unwise decision, either.” Young Master Han nodded.
”So, shall we take our leave?” Brother Assist asked.
”Having wasted so much of our effort and time, it is too disgusting if we don't make them bleed at least a little.” As Young Master Han said this, he made his way over to Flame Singed Clothes and Glue; War Without Wounds and Brother Assist hurried right behind him.
”Where's your boss?” Young Master Han asked right away when he came over.
The two ignored him. They were under Southern Lone Blade's orders to pay no heed to these men and concentrate on the task at hand.
”Make way!” Flame Singed Clothes barked at Young Master Han. Someone was retrieving goods off the distribution NPC at this time, and Young Master Han happened to be blocking his view.
Young Master Han turned around, extending a hand to the line of players preparing to retrieve their equipment. ”Everyone, stop.”
The crowd swept their gazes over to him suspiciously even as they continued to line up and retrieve their goods. They were all ignoring him.
Young Master Han's actual purpose was to call attention to himself, and he did not really care if they listened to him or not. Seeing everyone's glancing over, he quickly waved his hand and gestured at Flame Singed Clothes and Glue. ”You all have seen these two bros loitering here for a long time, yeah? D'you guys know who they are? To be bold enough to retrieve your equipment at such a time like this, do you guys not want your equipment at all?”
The crowd froze, while Glue and Flame Singed Clothes became all the more nervous as they heard Young Master Han continue. ”Don't blame me for not warning everyone. These two here are professional larcenists that 'relieve' players of their dropped equipment upon death. They're currently searching for a target and will be keeping their eye on said player the moment he or she steps outside. You guys should think over this yourself!”
”F*ck! Don't you venomously slander us!” Glue came running out shouting.
”That's right, everyone! Ignore this man. We're not here to rob anyone. Please collect the equipment you've bought in peace!” Flame Singed Clothes came over to lend his voice as well.
Neither party produced any sort of evidence, but such a matter had always been an issue of belief. Even if no one believed it, Young Master Han's words had already caused quite a few players to hesitate, and it no longer mattered what Glue or Flame Singed Clothes said.
These two men could immediately tell that they needed something even more convincing, and Glue reacted far quicker as he immediately called out to Young Master Han. ”There's no need to go overboard by making a tasteless joke like that!” Coming up with an excuse at this time would not salvage the situation. After all, there was no evidence that they were here to rob people, so Glue intentionally acted more relaxed, making it seem as if they were all no strangers to one another, hoping to lead the crowd into believing that this was no more than a prank between friends.