58. Seduction

"Who is in the warehouse?"

"Else and Kant."

"What the hell, who made this schedule? Didn't they know those two swing both ways?"

—Two bucks, two bucks, everything is two bucks!

A strange, rhythmic, and emotionless voice drifted out from the warehouse.

The leading guards leaned against the warehouse door frame and drew their weapons. They were members of the Eternal Fire Church, men who frequently murdered and plundered, yet this time, the situation felt rather bizarre.

"Listen, whatever you are, come out first!"

"You can't lose, you can't go wrong!"

"Can this bastard not understand human speech?" A guard pointed at a lower-ranking subordinate standing beside him and said, "Go in and take a look!"

"I won't live anymore, I won't live anymore, clearance blowout sale!"

"Who's coming in with me...?"

Sweat dripped from the guards' temples. This eerie voice, coupled with the faint, choking smell of blood, was telling them that whatever was inside was likely a monster.

"I said long ago we should have blocked the tunnel door. Looks like trouble's here now..." Cress, the prison district captain, walked over and shouted, "What are you dazing for? Go in!"

"But Captain, our job is to watch the prisoners. There might be a monster in there."

"Catch the monster, and it becomes a prisoner."

"Move aside!" Two church members in armored uniforms rushed over, shoving the guards aside and forcefully slamming open the warehouse door.

Thud, clatter.

That was the sound of a loudspeaker in the storeroom being knocked out by the door and wedged beneath a shelf.

"What the hell is this shit?" Cress walked over to look at the loudspeaker and heard someone shouting for him: "Captain! Else and Kant have been killed! Their clothes were stolen!"

"Damn it... Get all those dog-eat-dog prisoners out and gather them on the first floor! Everyone prepare for a screening! By the way, bring me the Rose Hounds; the killer must have the stench of blood on them."

"White, take a few men to the underground laboratory and have them go on high alert immediately!"

While the guards were in a state of chaos, the two people who had just broken into the warehouse had already walked out.

"A loudspeaker... players like us have wandered in." The speaker was named Tom Page, a player, white, and walking right beside him—unquestionably also a player—was a guy named Son of a Bitch Kumano... a Japanese.

"Tom, you said a player sneaked in, so what is he doing here?" Son of a Bitch Kumano asked uneasily.

Tom quickened his pace: "Need you ask... Damn it, he's also targeted the [Witcher Decoction]!"

The two hurried toward the corridor leading to the second underground floor, followed by several guards who were also heading down to inspect the underground laboratory.

When they reached the heavy door, the guard on duty stretched out a hand and said in a hoarse voice, "Badge."

"Move aside! Official business!"

A guard shoved the gatekeeper aside, pulled a key from his waist, and unlocked the door. Before going in, he looked at the gatekeeper and asked, "Has anyone gone in today?"

"Aside from the batch during the shift change three hours ago, no one."

Upon hearing this, the guards quickly filed through the door.

Not long after they went down, Li Nuo, who had just left his hiding spot by the prisoners' temporary storeroom, walked over and quickly stepped forward to catch the door before it closed completely.

"Came with them. Official business," Li Nuo muttered, slipping sideways through the gap.

As the door shut, the gatekeeper spat onto the ground: "Damn it, never give me an access badge. A gatekeeper like me is just fucking window dressing."

...

After entering, Li Nuo did not immediately follow the main group. Instead, he slipped into a recess between two pillars, put on [Emile's Mask], felt his pulse, and began to time.

His original plan hadn't actually been this...

He had originally intended to kill the gatekeeper, hide the body, pick the lock himself to go straight down, and quickly explore the second underground floor—where the good stuff was hidden—while the guards were distracted by the loudspeaker.

According to Charlie, one of the three escaped prisoners, there were people among the Kerack Prison guards with very strange movements and speech patterns, which Li Nuo had deduced at the time must be players.

The players would definitely be lured by the loudspeaker he left in the warehouse.

If the second underground floor harbored a finished [Witcher Decoction] and the players had already discovered its trace, they would certainly come over.

At that point, according to Li Nuo's design, he needed to do two things:

1. Use [Emile's Mask] to probe the players' stats, gaining a preliminary understanding of potential competitors in this scenario.
2. If the players came over, it meant they knew what was hidden here; following closely behind them would save him from any unnecessary detours.

But as the saying goes, plans never keep up with changes.

When he got close to the gatekeeper and prepared to puncture the man's eyes, he discovered that this wooden door leading to the lower level didn't have just any ordinary lock. Ordinary lockpicking tools couldn't open it at all; only the few guards permitted to access the lower level were given the keys.

Therefore, he had no choice but to find a spot with a decent view and a slight risk of exposure, hide there, and follow the main group down.

However, by this point, things had also become simpler.

Through posture and bearing, Li Nuo had identified the two players hidden among the guards.

[Son of a Bitch Kumano: Lv18]
[Strength: 22]
[Reaction: 20]
[Spirit: 11]
[Constitution: 22]
[Insight: 12]
[Medical: 18]
...
[Tom Page: Lv19]
[Strength: 20]
[Reaction: 20]
[Spirit: 19]
[Constitution: 19]
[Insight: 19]
[Medical: 19]
...

Li Nuo had to admit two things to himself.

First, these two bastards' stats weren't impressive. When players leveled up, the stat bonuses for each attribute were determined by their "contribution" during the leveling process, with a maximum of 3, a theoretical minimum of 1, but actually a probability of 0.

From their stat profiles, it was clear these two belonged to the category of players who followed behind a high-level carrier step-by-step to get carried.

Second, upon seeing the name "Son of a Bitch Kumano," Li Nuo had almost laughed out loud and blown his cover.

Right now, what Li Nuo needed to do was avoid exposing himself directly to those players. He had [Emile's Mask] to scan others' stats, and there was no guarantee others didn't possess similar abilities.

The second underground level was dim and damp, permeated with the rotting stench of corpses all around.

He didn't rush to follow the guards, because the place where the good stuff was hidden wasn't hard to find. It wasn't large; there was a cage in the center of a loop-shaped corridor, and the end of the road featured an iron door that required a special key to open.

"Ha, seems like learning lockpicking didn't end up being all that useful."

Li Nuo chuckled self-deprecatingly, not in a hurry to go in, but heading instead toward the cage holding the prisoners.

Now the guards were busy verifying personnel, and this area was unmanned.

He noticed a ledger-like journal sitting on a table.

He picked it up and flipped it open:

—
Weekly "Trial of the Grasses" Experimental Records:

Bartle of Hengholt, 19 years old—Died after consuming witchweed; heart failure.
Diederik of Gliber, 8 years old—Survived the trial, but died shortly after; multiple organ failure.
Ben Green, 11 years old—Survived the trial, but suffered severe brain damage and became mentally disabled.
Aled, 20 years old—Died after consuming wolf's-bane; cerebral hemorrhage.
Conrad, 7 years old—Internal bleeding, died of massive hemorrhage a day later.

Summary: Compared to the previous batch of test subjects, younger subjects struggle for a longer time. Consideration can be given to eliminating a portion of prisoners over the age of 30 to send to the dreamscape, saving on feeding expenses.
—

The records explicitly indicated that the "Eternal Fire Church" was manufacturing Witchers.

"What is the objective? And that 'dreamscape'..."

[Currently coming into contact with hidden world lore]

Here it comes again?

Hearing the system prompt, Li Nuo frowned slightly.

With lingering questions, he stuffed the ledger into his coat.

At that moment, the door at the end of the corridor opened, and several guards walked out, cursing and complaining to one another that the intruders hadn't run down here at all, thus wasting their break time.

"Take the experts away, and everyone else out," the leading guard said, pulling along two white-bearded old men.

"I think we should still guard this place."

"Just in case that guy is hiding, or... what if he can turn invisible?"

The speakers were the two players, while Li Nuo silently crept past along the darkest corner of the corridor.

"Doesn't matter, who would steal that kind of poison?" a guard said.

"But the [Witcher Decoction] must be worth a lot, right?" player Tom Page said. "The two of us will stay behind and wait until the alert is lifted before leaving."

The lead guard replied, "He's right... Don't forget someone broke out of prison today, those fellows might have dug a tunnel leading right here. Hey! You two and you three, stay behind! Go inside and keep watch."

Hiding in an inconspicuous corner and listening to the dialogue over there, Li Nuo roughly grasped the situation.

The reaction of those two players indicated they had never entered this place before, or rather, they lacked the clearance to enter here.

He originally had two infiltration plans: the upper plan was definitely to hide here until everyone left and then sneak in quietly; the lower plan was to enter the cage, disguise himself as a test subject, and get delivered inside fair and square.

Both of those methods required time to wait, but since the other two players had found an excuse to stay inside, time waited for no one. In case there was only a single portion of the [Witcher Decoction]...

"There's another way. A bit risky, but worth a try..."

He decided to use the backup option of the first plan.

Opening his skill panel, he spent 500 gold coins to learn [Very Amateur Peeping].

As the guard holding the key walked past him, he activated the skill.

In an instant, an inventory slot popped up over the guard, and time seemed to slow down slightly. He saw a key in one of the slots, with a listed success rate of 68%.

He reached out and tapped the key.

Time returned to normal speed.

The guard whose key had been stolen turned his head and glanced back, seeing only another guard dressed just like him patrolling toward the iron door.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, just felt like someone rubbed oil all over me..."

"You fucking just want a woman, don't you!"

Amidst the jeering voices, Li Nuo waited for them to walk away, then gently pushed open the iron door and slipped inside.

The moment he stepped through, he saw three guards lying in pools of blood, with the two players each holding a crossbow.