Chapter 269
Chapter 269
Jian Fan and the other two began searching the entire ballroom for Lu Jing and the others.
This time, things went much more smoothly.
Jian Fan found Lu Jing first, then Yang Zhen.
Lu Jing and Yang Zhen were indispensable to Jian Fan’s plan. In fact, the entire plan depended on the two of them.
After hearing Jian Fan’s explanation, Lu Jing and Yang Zhen were both somewhat surprised, but they quickly nodded in agreement.
The two then left and split up to carry out the plan.
As for Jian Fan’s group, they returned to the corner where Shi Chen was waiting and quietly waited for the results.
Lu Jing and Yang Zhen approached from different directions and quickly melted into the crowd. Even though Jian Fan and the others had been tracking their movements, they soon lost sight of both of them.
The ball seemed to be proceeding as usual.
Then, all of a sudden–
Crash!
A large overhead light suddenly came plummeting down, smashing into pieces across the floor. The guests erupted into screams. Before the Steward could step forward to deal with it, another light fell. This one landed directly on a food table, shattering a large number of drinking glasses and spraying shards and spilled drinks everywhere.
“Ah!”
Screams rose and fell throughout the ballroom, as though some catastrophic accident had occurred.
The Steward had already led the ball’s bodyguards into the ballroom.
He tried to restore order and did his best to calm the guests, but every time the situation began to settle, another light would fall and smash against the floor. As more and more lights came crashing down, the guests went from being able to dodge them completely to eventually suffering actual injuries.
The NPCs finally seemed unable to take it anymore and began fleeing the ball one after another.
Some guests remained, however.
So Yang Zhen and Lu Jing continued with their task.
Once most of the lights had been smashed, the two began targeting other parts of the ballroom.
The glassware on the food tables, for example, suddenly began shattering. Lu Jing also found something to smash the fish tank from earlier. Water burst from the tank, leaving the entire ballroom in a complete mess.
More and more guests began to leave.
But it still wasn’t over.
Yang Zhen had already slipped into the music area.
She knew nothing about music, so she simply fiddled with the equipment at random. The once-beautiful music turned into a harsh, crackling screech that assaulted everyone’s eardrums.
Even Qin Nan and the others couldn’t help covering their ears.
It was far too devastating.
The remaining guests couldn’t stand it either. Despite the Steward’s desperate attempts to persuade them to stay, they still chose to leave.
Yang Zhen and Lu Jing continued racing around and wrecking the ballroom.
At first, with so many people around, it had naturally been difficult to spot the two of them causing trouble amid the crowd. Once the number of guests dwindled, however, the Steward noticed them. But not only were the bodyguards no match for them, they couldn’t even catch Lu Jing or Yang Zhen when the two focused on escaping.
In the end, the supposedly perfect ball looked more like someone taking a pack of dogs for a run.
Lu Jing and Yang Zhen ran ahead, leading the bodyguards on a chase all around the ballroom.
As for the guests–
Nearly ninety percent of them had already left.
Why hadn’t all of them gone?
Because some of these NPCs couldn’t leave. They were key figures required to trigger the players’ missions or complete their objectives.
Jian Fan had warned Lu Jing and Yang Zhen about this beforehand.
The task Jian Fan had given them was simple: cause chaos everywhere without getting caught. Once ten or fewer guests remained in the ballroom, they could stop wreaking havoc and turn their attention to dealing with the bodyguards.
Although neither of them understood why Jian Fan wanted them to do this, or what the key to it all was, they chose to follow his instructions since he had given the order.
Now that the situation matched what Jian Fan had described, the two immediately doubled back. Within minutes, they had taken down all the bodyguards. Following Jian Fan’s instructions, they threw them all out of the ballroom, including the Steward.
Once that was done, they shut the ballroom doors.
Mission accomplished.
Yellow Hair surveyed the ballroom and silently swallowed.
That had been far too brutal. Still, the result seemed pretty good.
Aside from their group, Xia Zeqin was also standing alone in a corner. He watched everything unfold with an amused smile. Once the dust had settled, he walked over to Jian Fan.
“Interesting. I didn’t expect your methods to have changed so much,” Xia Zeqin said.
Jian Fan had no intention of acknowledging him.
He led Qin Nan and the others straight toward the remaining guests.
Other than Xia Zeqin in the corner, there was also Fang Kang, who was still hopping frantically around the ballroom. When he saw the sudden turn of events, he tried his hardest to make for the edge of the room. By now, he seemed to have realized something and was desperately hopping toward Jian Fan and the others.
But even after hopping for ages, he still hadn’t reached them.
Apart from the twelve Players, only a handful of NPCs remained.
Jian Fan stopped in front of the group and said, “Go complete your quests.”
Everyone: “???”
Before they could respond, the remaining NPCs seemed to snap out of a trance.
“Little Red Riding Hood, have you come to deliver food to your grandmother?” A very young woman walked over to Yang Zhen.
Yang Zhen: “???”
Someone this young was Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother?
Yang Zhen was stunned. No wonder she hadn’t been able to find her earlier.
The grandmother came up to Yang Zhen and took the basket from her. She looked at the food inside and smiled happily. “These are all my favorites. Thank you, Little Red Riding Hood.”
Yang Zhen: “???”
At that moment, several System notifications sounded in Yang Zhen’s mind one after another.
“Ding! Character quest triggered. Successfully deliver the food to Grandmother and have her eat it. Completing the quest will reward you with one piece of information needed to clear the instance. Failure will result in erasure.”
“Ding! Congratulations, Player, you have completed your quest. You are no longer bound to your character identity and may now play freely.”
“Ding! Quest complete. Player has received one quest gift and one Fragmented Story Page.”
Yang Zhen: “???”
How exactly had this quest been triggered?
Thanks to Jian Fan’s outrageous maneuver, had she skipped the quest-triggering stage and gone straight to completing it? And because she had completed the quest, that somehow counted as triggering it too?
Yang Zhen’s mind went numb.
Was this the difference between a Big Shot and ordinary people like them?
The same thing soon began happening to the others.
An elderly woman approached Qin Weiyi.
She reached out and stroked his head, then asked kindly, “Child, do you understand now?”
Understand what? Qin Weiyi was equally baffled.
At that moment, his quest was triggered as well.
“Ding! Character quest triggered. Pass the Sea Witch’s trial and reclaim your fish tail.”
Qin Weiyi: “???”
What kind of story was this supposed to be?