Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 74 - 73 Olive Manor (Part 2)

Chapter 74: Chapter 73 Olive Manor (Part 2)

Without system enhancements, and being tied by an amateur, the knot was secure but took no account of balance. The loop quickly slid from Lin Wu’s waist to under his arms, forcing him to spread his arms so that, were Little Knife to pull, the loop would not pass over his shoulders and hang him by his neck in the well.

Little Knife cranked the windlass, slowly lowering it down, shouting as he did, "Do you see it?"

Lin Wu coordinated his limbs against the well’s wall and descended, "No."

"Do you see it?"

"No."

"Do you see it?"

"No."

"What?"

"No."

"Oh," Little Knife yelled to the well’s opening, "Your echo is a bit loud."

"So is yours."

Little Knife: "The rope’s end is reached."

Lin Wu: "I see it now." Under the illumination of the hydroelectric light, the bucket was only four meters away from him.

Little Knife: "The rope’s end is reached."

"..." Dawn, that’s enough!

What to do now? Lin Wu rummaged through his backpack, and the longest item was the Silencer hanging on the outside, measuring barely a meter long even with the suppressor attached. Lin Wu shouted, "I’m going to let go of the rope."

"Okay, be careful."

Lin Wu braced his legs against the well wall, removed the loop from around his arms, and then slowly descended to the bottom of the well. Just as Lin Wu bent down to grab the bucket, a large eel leaped out, smacking him in the face. The sudden attack startled him, causing him to release his hold on his legs and plop into the well.

Dawn, damn it!

Little Knife asked anxiously, "What happened? Lin Wu?"

"It’s nothing." Lin Wu emerged, walked up the well wall with his feet, and put the bucket on his head. At this moment, Lin Wu thought about how one person could complete this task. Climbing up with hands and feet would consume stamina, and resting against the well wall would not recover it. The only way was to carry a large amount of chewing gum, stick to the well wall when stamina was depleted, and rely on the gum for a slow recovery. But the task hadn’t mentioned any details from start to finish. This led players to re-navigate the landmine array to retrieve chewing gum after learning the task’s details. After all, no one would carry a pound of gum on them.

In summary, this was a tricky task.

However, Lin Wu noticed a detail. The first time he met Amanda, the key he obtained after killing her was cross-shaped. The key Amanda used to open the secret passage was flat. One possibility was task reset, rendering the cross-shaped key obsolete. Another was that there was a treasure hidden within the manor or passageway that could be opened with the cross-shaped key. Another possibility was that Amanda would give Little Knife a cross-shaped key to open a treasure after the task was completed.

After putting on the loop, Lin Wu called out, "Pull now, Little Knife."

"It’s ’turn,’" corrected Little Knife as he operated the windlass, not requiring much effort and, therefore, not consuming stamina. It didn’t take long to pull Lin Wu out of the well.

NPCs still followed rules, and after confirming the task was complete, they gave Little Knife a key, "Hero, your reward is in the third-floor bedroom."

The two of them left via the straight staircase. Amanda closed the secret door and locked herself inside the passageway. Little Knife asked, "Why isn’t she coming with us?"

Lin Wu queried, "Are you keeping her?"

Little Knife said, "She could draw water."

Lin Wu was taken aback; the idea was interesting. Provide Amanda with food every day, and she would be responsible for drawing water for the base. Lin Wu turned back to pull on the secret door, but it wouldn’t budge. Regretfully, he hadn’t stopped to consider whether Amanda was willing or not.

Following the stairs to the third floor, there was only one door. Pushing the door open, they were greeted by a large hall, well over a hundred square meters. The two spotted an in-wall safe near the fireplace at first glance. The safe had but one keyhole; Little Knife inserted the key given by Amanda, but could not turn it. Instead, a system message appeared: Anti-theft system activated, two attempts remaining.

"Pull it out first," Lin Wu, with his extensive combat experience, said, "Dawn doesn’t lie, Dawn respects the rules. That means the safe is incorrect. What did Amanda say?"

Little Knife asked, "Who’s Amanda?"

"An NPC."

"Oh, so her name is Amanda." Little Knife pondered for a moment, "She said the reward is in the third-floor bedroom."

Lin Wu clapped his hands and said, "This is not a bedroom, this is a living room." There was only one room on the third floor, but no one said it had to be a bedroom.

Little Knife exclaimed in surprise, "Are NPCs that bad?"

"Worse than you think." Lin Wu pushed open a few doors and pointed to one, "This is the bedroom."

There was a safe identical to the one in the hall at the head of the bed in the bedroom. Little Knife prepared to insert the key, but Lin Wu said, "Wait, is there anything we are missing?"

Little Knife said, "The third floor?"

"Right, this is the third floor."

"A bedroom?"

"Right, this is a bedroom."

"A key?"

"A safe." Lin Wu nodded, "Go ahead... wait, find the safes." He had almost messed up.

They searched throughout the bedroom and found a safe behind a portrait and another behind a vanity. Little Knife exclaimed, "So Dawn really is that bad."

Lin Wu had a headache, "We’ve been duped." According to the correct clues, players could find three safes in the bedroom and the system would give players three opportunities to open a safe, allowing players to open one without any risk and take their reward.

But damn Dawn placed one of the safes in the living room, forcing players to choose two out of three.

Lin Wu said, "Given that it’s a task designed to trick players, the safe at the head of the bed is a fake."

Little Knife agreed, "Otherwise, one could open the safe on the second try, with no surprises for the player."

Lin Wu watched Little Knife head towards the portrait safe and called out again, "No, a normal player, after finding a trap in the safe in the living room, wouldn’t completely trust the first safe they see in the bedroom. They would do as we did and find all the hidden safes. Dawn counted on this. Because the safe at the head of the bed is the real safe."

Without doubt, Little Knife went to the safe at the head of the bed and asked, "Should I open it?"

"Wait a moment. I’m not certain." Lin Wu realized he had fallen into a trap and so he asked, "Little Knife, which safe does your intuition tell you to open?"

"The one at the head of the bed."

"Why?"

Little Knife explained, "One out of three, two safes are hidden, one is in plain view."

Though Lin Wu had a hundred reasons to argue, he didn’t voice a single one and simply gestured for her to proceed. Little Knife inserted the key and turned it decisively, the safe clicked open, and she reached in to pull out a Skill Book, "Brawler, your hands are your weapons. Beginner Brawler, Bare-Handed Strength Effect increases by 50%. Unlock Heavy Punch Stun: When you hit a zombie’s head with a heavy punch, there’s a high chance it will be stunned for two seconds."

Only single-celled organisms could defeat AI.

"Learned." As expected, it was an exclusive task skill. Since learning Trample Execution, Little Knife never carried melee weapons and always set out with her sleeves rolled up, ready for a bare-handed fight.

Lin Wu glanced at the other two safes and took out a key that looked exactly like the one Little Knife had just used. Little Knife asked in surprise, "Two books?"

Lin Wu shook his head, "No, I got this from Amanda’s body last time."

Little Knife asked, "Wasn’t Amanda a task NPC? How did she die?"

Lin Wu replied, "Well... she fell, hitting her head on a rock."

Little Knife commented, "That’s really unlucky."

"Isn’t it just?" There was no need to expose his bad side to Little Knife, as they both had different understandings of NPCs. Lin Wu asked, "Tell me your intuition, which safe do you think it is?"

Little Knife instantly answered, "The living room."

"Ah?" What kind of logic was that?

"One out of three, two are in the bedroom, one is in the living room."

Faced with such an unreasonable choice, Lin Wu calmly accepted it. He walked to the outer hall, inserted the key into the safe, and turned it. The safe clicked open and Lin Wu and Little Knife whooped and high-fived each other in celebration.