Chapter 1 Silver Moon's Regret

Yinyue was slapping himself in regret, while Jian Nan You frowned as he listened to Jiao Shui relay the news. Since their debut, Jian Nan You and his team had only imagined such a situation, never actually experienced it. They had always been cautious in concealing their true intentions to avoid such a scenario. But this time, Gu Fei, who knew them well, was on the opposing side, leading to the complete exposure of their plans. Mangmang de Mangmang had obviously realized that the only thing worth stealing from her was the staff.

What to do in such a situation? Jian Nan You and his team had seriously discussed it before, concluding that it would be troublesome, so prevention was key. Besides, thinking about the best equipment, most people wouldn't be willing to give it up directly, so they hadn't worried much about it. Now, they didn't expect Mangmang de Mangmang to be so decisive, abandoning the top-tier weapon without hesitation.

"What do we do?" Everyone looked at Jian Nan You. Clearly, Jian Nan You's small team had much more cohesion than Lan Yi's group; they looked to their leader whenever there was a problem.

"I've already accepted the deposit. Even though it was from that trash Yinyue, it makes me even less willing to compensate him for the failed mission," Jian Nan You said.

"Yeah!" Everyone supported him. Jian Nan You had told them about Yinyue, and they all felt indignant. He had repeatedly doubted their team's professionalism, which was insulting.

"Let's check the situation at the auction house first!" Huo Ran Yi suggested.

"Wait!" Jian Nan You suddenly paused, and everyone once again looked at him with great cohesion.

Jian Nan You nodded.

The seven of them headed back from the leveling area. As they passed through some areas, they noticed that there seemed to be fewer people leveling than usual. They were puzzled and muttering to themselves when they finally reached the gates of White Stone City. It was already midnight, but the city gates were unusually lively, indicating that something unusual was happening. However, upon closer inspection, they realized that it was just random teams trying to find more people to level up with.

This was extremely rare. Since everyone was in random teams and didn't know each other, if they didn't have enough people, they would combine two teams into one, or three teams into two, which usually solved the problem quickly. There was no need to wait a long time to find enough people for a team, but at the moment, there were so many teams waiting. Jian Nan You and the others took a closer look and finally realized that all the teams were short of priests.

"Hey, buddy, what's going on?" Jiao Shui went up to a player to ask.

"Damn it, I heard that a top-tier priest staff was put up for auction, and all the priests ran over there. If you want to buy it, bid. If not, just look. What's the point of everyone just hanging around?" the person grumbled.

"Really? How long have you been waiting?" Jiao Shui asked.

"Almost half an hour. Damn it, there are still several teams ahead of me!"

After hearing this, Jiao Shui paid more attention and realized that the teams were still lined up in order. Apparently, the arrival of priests had caused a scramble, so everyone was now harmoniously queuing up. One priest came, one team left. One priest came, one team left. Wanting two priests? That was an unrealistic fantasy today.

He wanted to turn around and report the situation to Jian Nan You and the others, but he found that they were already in a commotion. The players under the city gate were desperate for priests. When Daoxiang Mu and Lin Musen Sen, two great priests, appeared, they were immediately surrounded and courted. Before the two could say anything, the others started arguing.

"Damn, what are you fighting for? We agreed to go in order," one person shouted.

"Damn it, two priests, one for each team. You want to take them all away!"

"It's our team's turn! Our team!"

"Our team! Our team!"

It was okay when priests came one by one, and everyone still had some discipline, but when two suddenly appeared, it immediately caused a commotion. Daoxiang Mu and Lin Musen Sen had seen many things, but this was their first time experiencing this. Being treated like emperors by so many people felt great, and for a moment, they didn't say anything. In the end, Jian Nan You stepped forward: "Everyone, everyone, calm down. We're a fixed team."

"Big brother, your team only has six people, and you have two priests. That's too luxurious. Let us have one, okay?" One person saw that Jian Nan You seemed to be the leader and immediately tried to curry favor.

"Let you? Are you kidding? Big brother, we'll hire your priest for fifty gold per hour!"

Jian Nan You was speechless: "We have something to do right now!"

"What could be more important than leveling up?" These people were relentless, having gone crazy from waiting for a priest. Some even went directly to try and poach Daoxiang Mu and Lin Musen Sen: "Brothers, I don't think your team is very high-leveled. Some of them aren't even level 40. What's the point of following them? Come with us. We're a ten-person team, all level 41. You'll get experience like crazy."

The two remained silent, continuing to enjoy their emperor-like treatment, while glancing at Hei Shui and Huo Yan Yi, the two "noobs who weren't even level 40," with mischievous smiles.

"You two bastards, say something!!" Jian Nan You saw that these two weren't being helpful at this crucial moment, and he was furious. He roared at them in the team channel.

The two didn't dare to cause any more trouble and quickly explained to the people surrounding them, "We have something to do, we really do."

Since the leader had spoken, the players who had surrounded them persuaded them a few more times, but after seeing that there was no chance, they had no choice but to withdraw. Jian Nan You and the others didn't dare to linger and quickly left this area where priests were treated like treasures.

"Damn it, it's just a top-tier staff being auctioned. How can it cause all the priests in the city to become so tense?" Huo Ran Yi said with lingering fear. Just now, a bunch of people came up to fawn over Daoxiang Mu and Lin Musen Sen, and no one treated him, a small mage who wasn't even level 40, like a person. He was pushed around by everyone, and some of the strength-based classes were heavy-handed. Huo Ran Yi almost got killed by being jostled by so many hands.

"The value of top-tier equipment is truly immeasurable!" Hei Shui exclaimed.

Even Jian Nan You nodded: "And this is just Mangmang de Mangmang's staff! If it were Qian Li Yi Zui's sword, which at least has unknown attributes, or Yinyue's trash King's Sword, how chaotic would it be?"

"Tsk, tsk, we chose to engage in this profession. It's really promising!" Jiao Shui said.

"Right, right, right..." The group of seven shed tears of happiness, proud of their choice to make a living by robbing...

"The auction house is just ahead." The seven finally arrived near the auction house. Earlier, while Jian Nan You and the others were busy extricating themselves, Jiao Shui had inquired about the staff auction and confirmed that it was indeed the Ideal Staff. He had also found out the auction time and that there was no buy-it-now option.

The priests who came to the auction house were naturally there to see the staff's attributes and price, which Jian Nan You and the others didn't care much about. After arriving near the auction house, the seven of them focused more on observing the surrounding terrain.

"This might be a trap!" On the way over, Jian Nan You suddenly proposed this hypothesis.

"A trap?" The six frowned.

"I can't help but feel that the commotion caused by the staff is a bit too much. It's a 24-hour auction, and only about 7 hours have passed, but it's already all over the city. Even random teams can't find priests. Don't you think it's a bit exaggerated?" Jian Nan You said.

"Well... such top-tier equipment is rarely auctioned. No one knows what kind of situation it might cause," Huo Ran Yi said.

"I know that. But think about it, according to human nature, when such a top-tier piece of equipment appears in the auction house, everyone who wants to get it would try to block the news as much as possible, so that fewer people know about it. So the source of the spread should only be some guys who like to gossip. With their power, it's already known all over the city in seven hours? Don't you think it's a bit abnormal?" Jian Nan You said.

"It's not just seven hours. Seven hours is just now. I found out that the priests started getting tense around ten o'clock last night," Jiao Shui interjected.

"That explains it even more. The news traveled so fast in just two hours. I think someone must be deliberately creating it, right?" Jian Nan You said.

"Well... it's not hard to understand, right? For example, the seller. Spreading the news as much as possible to let more people know," Huo Ran Yi said.

"Yeah, I heard that there are even posts on the forum," Jiao Shui said.

"I know that's possible, but considering the relationship between the seller and us, we have to be more careful and vigilant," Jian Nan You said.

"What do you mean?"

"Two possibilities." Jian Nan You held up a finger. "First, the whole city knows, so there's no reason for us not to know. Mangmang de Mangmang is using this to send us a signal that the staff is no longer in her hands and that we should stop looking for her."

Everyone nodded.

"If that's the case, then it's not too bad. What's more troublesome is a plan within a plan! If we interpret it as this possibility, then we must figure out who the staff will end up with. So we have to monitor the auction house's delivery NPC from the moment the auction ends. This inevitability gives the other side a chance to ambush us! That's the second possibility we need to worry about," Jian Nan You said.

"Who would scheme so deeply..."

"I don't know. The most terrifying thing about this scheme is that even if we suspect a trick now, we still have to act according to their wishes. They've calculated that we're unwilling to bear the risk of a failed mission," Jian Nan You said.

"Hey, we're just suspecting, right! Don't make it sound so serious," Jiao Shui said.

Jian Nan You smiled wryly: "What they need is exactly this kind of suspicion. It would be better if it were a hundred percent serious."

"Then what should we do? Wouldn't it be dangerous for us to go over there now?" Jiao Shui said.

"We won't go in. We'll observe the area first," Jian Nan You decided.

At this moment, the seven of them arrived near the auction house and walked through the surrounding streets and alleys.

"We didn't find anything unusual." The few of them were veterans at ambushing and setting traps. Laying traps was also their strength. Now that they had walked around the area, all they saw were priests running around, and nothing else out of the ordinary.

"The center of the main city has an open terrain and many streets. If they want to ambush here, the most important thing is manpower. I don't think it's possible for a guild below level four to completely block off this area. With so many streets, can they guard them all?" Jiao Shui came to this conclusion after observing the area.