433 Books Turned to Ashes (1/2)

But the strategy at the national level, he, a private citizen, couldn't influence, nor could he see the whole picture, so he could only try to take from it what he wanted, or what was good for him.

For example, knowledge and skills.

Hearing Betta's words, Li Lin shrugged his shoulders and then sat down. ”I'll leave this philosophical stuff to you intellectuals. After a conclusion is made, tell us in simple, understandable language.”

The three then went off to the side to play poker and fight the landlord.

Players were able to make wares and instruments in this world, and those who were dexterous could naturally make poker cards.

Roland looked at the three of them not wanting to care so much and shook his head helplessly.

Betta asked, ”Brother Roland, what do you think are the chances of this idea of yours?”

”Sixty percent.” Roland pondered a little more, gathered some wine on his finger, drew a tree diagram on the table casually, and said, ”When we go into the dungeon, if we don't choose to rob the Water of Light by force, we'll trigger another plot, and maybe with my actions, Mippels's personality and identity could change. However, now that things have been computed to this point, Mippels's identity and personality should be set. But I just don't know which branching plot we'll walk down next.”

Betta's eyes narrowed, something he subconsciously did when he contemplated.

After a short while, Betta asked, ”You mean, we can do whatever we want in this dungeon?”

”That's not the case.” Roland shook his head. ”Have you seen the Warriors protecting the Water of Light? They are all Masters and there are many of them, but looking at their armor and equipment, they are just elite soldiers. Normally, a Master Warrior is always an officer! So, that must be the equipment made by the system to prevent us from robbing the Water of Light. If our levels were higher, we might see that these Warriors are all Legends.”

It suddenly struck Betta. ”No wonder I always felt something was wrong.”

”The system is forcing us to follow the predetermined plot,” Roland said after some thought. ”So, we have to go out and look for information. Li Lin, you guys come over here and we'll assign tasks.”

Li Lin muttered, ”We're just about to start fighting the landlord.”

Roland said with a smile, ”Husseret and Li Lin, go see if there is a Guild of Rogues or Guild of Mercenaries and the like in this era. If there are, go buy some information from them. If not, go to the tavern and collect it.”

Li Lin nodded vigorously. He liked to go to nightclubs in the real world, so naturally, he liked to drink.

”Betta and Brazil, you two stroll around town and try to see if you can trigger a secondary quest.”

”I'll fly up later to see how wide the 'actionable' range of this dungeon world is.” Roland thought for a moment and continued, ”I'll set you guys up for another Unhindered Communication later—effective for about fourteen hours—and before the time is up, come back here to the hotel and I'll add it again.”

As Roland spoke, he applied Unhindered Communication to all four of them.

”Okay, no problem,” the four said in unison.

”If there are no questions, let's get started now.” Roland stood up.

At this moment, Betta suddenly shouted, ”Brother Roland, we can't seem to connect to the game forums.”

Huh?

Roland was startled for a moment. He opened the browser that came with the game and found that it was indeed showing a 404 error.

This was true for the others as well.

”Maybe it's a peculiarity of the dungeon,” Roland said after some thought. ”Anyway, let's finish the quest first.”

With that said, all five left the hotel.

Roland found an open place with few people and sensed for magic marks.

But he found that he could not perceive the magic marks he had previously recorded.

In other words, there was no way for him to teleport anywhere else in this dungeon space.

In that case… activate Human Cannonball.

Roland whooshed and soared into the sky, then rose straight up, but just as he was in the process of ascending, he suddenly felt a little uneasy and immediately stopped, becoming suspended in midair.

And then he stared at the blue clouds overhead and felt something off. He condensed an Inferior Fireball and launched it upward.

The Inferior Fireball flew less than a hundred meters and seemed to hit something, exploding with a boom.

Grey debris was shaken off from the air which seemed empty.

Roland casually took some and crushed it in his fingers… It was dirt.

Ascending at a slower speed, Roland arrived at the spot where the Inferior Fireball had just exploded and reached out to touch a thick layer of mud.

Heh… as expected.

It was still underground—what they had seen, was it really an illusion?

An illusion created by the dungeon quest?

Landing on the ground, Roland smiled, then looked for a random pedestrian on the side of the road and asked, ”Excuse me, where is the city's library?”

The pedestrian pointed to the east. ”There, the tall building with the red dome.”

Roland thanked the pedestrian and walked for a few minutes to the foot of the red dome.

The building had a large facade, and its two doors almost looked like small city gates.

There were a lot of people in white robes coming in and out of the door, seeming rather tense.

Roland stepped forward, blocking a person white robe who seemed to be in a hurry, and asked, ”Is this the library?”