Chapter 2 : Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Assassination
A Forbidden Object!
In the game Epoch of the End, Forbidden Objects were like the magical treasures and artifacts found in cultivation worlds, except that using these Forbidden Objects required a price.
The origins of Forbidden Objects varied greatly. They could be catalyzed by faith in deities, influenced by the convictions of the strong, or even born from the lingering obsessions of the dead.
Their forms were completely unpredictable. A pen, a lamp, a dish of food, a basket—absolutely any object or living being in this world could potentially transform into a Forbidden Object.
Furthermore, Forbidden Objects were incredibly rare and could only be stumbled upon by chance. It was as if they possessed their own sentience and would actively seek out their masters.
An A-Rank Forbidden Object was even more invaluable, impossible to buy regardless of the price offered.
This raised a question in Lin Qi's mind. The original owner's father was merely an old cowboy.
Yet his belongings contained not only transcendent knowledge but also an A-Rank Forbidden Object?
This was beyond suspicious; something was incredibly wrong.
Did the original owner's father truly die in an accident?
Before Lin Qi could think too deeply about it, he suddenly realized a problem.
The interface could display the basic information of a Forbidden Object. What about the transcendent knowledge?
Moving with blinding speed, Lin Qi lunged toward the transcendent knowledge on the desk, silently chanting in his mind. "Interface! Interface!"[Transcendent Knowledge: ** Pathway: Romance Pathway: Sequence 9 The Matchmaker][Unlock Conditions: Achieve the required emotional fluctuation, obtain the hair of three different young women, and possess an item imbued with rich emotions.]
It really was the Romance Pathway!
This was one of the three hidden sequences that rarely ever appeared in the game!
In the game Epoch of the End, there were a total of fifteen sequences.
They were divided into twelve standard sequences and three hidden sequences.
The twelve standard sequences were also known as the sequences of the Twelve Orthodox Deities.
They were strictly controlled by the churches of the Twelve Orthodox Deities to prevent them from leaking to the public. The Romance Pathway in Lin Qi's hands was one of the three hidden sequences!
Hidden sequences were incredibly mysterious in the game. Before Lin Qi transmigrated, even up to version 5.0 of the game, only a handful of characters had mastered them.
Most players could only obtain transcendent power by joining a church, but the three hidden sequences did not even have associated churches.
Only their names were known: the Romance Pathway, the Night Pathway, and the Void Pathway.
Lin Qi's understanding of the Romance Pathway was that it was powerful and mysterious... but wasn't this unlock method a bit too abstract?
However, before Lin Qi could think further, he heard a DING sound by his ear.
He watched the interface begin to change: An item imbued with rich emotions ✓
???
I have not even done anything yet?
Lin Qi suddenly thought of an item. Judgement!
A Forbidden Object capable of amplifying its user's emotions naturally contained rich emotions itself.
The remaining two requirements were manageable. Getting the hair of three different young women would be easy enough. With a face boasting nine points in Charm, very few girls would be able to refuse him.
As for the emotional fluctuation, Lin Qi planned to test tomorrow whether the amplified emotions from using Judgement would do the trick.
Having figured all this out, Lin Qi finally let out a sigh of relief. As if drained of all his strength, he collapsed onto the single bed.
This body had likely gone without sleep for several days in an attempt to decipher the transcendent knowledge. The moment he relaxed, Lin Qi felt a tidal wave of exhaustion wash over him.
Tomorrow, he would get the hair from three girls, then find a place to use Judgement and see if he could unlock Sequence 9: The Matchmaker of the Romance Pathway.
After that, he just had to wait for Elaine to arrive in Kissmark Town, and he could start stealing screen time... With these thoughts in mind, Lin Qi completely lost consciousness.
...
Three o'clock in the morning.
DING! A massive sound echoed beside Lin Qi's ear. He quickly sat up to locate the source of the noise.
[Side Quest Initiated!]
Please defeat the two assassins who have infiltrated your home.
Quest Rewards: 2000 Experience Points, 900 Copper Coins, a portion of Isaris's memories.
Assassins? Inside the house?
Lin Qi looked at the text on the system interface and instantly became wide awake.
He did not make a sound. Instead, he hid Judgement beneath his pillow, shifted his posture to sleep on his side, and slipped his hand under the pillow to grip the revolver tightly.
As the illegitimate son of a noble, Isaris lived in one of the Roland family's external properties, a two-bedroom detached house.
In the eyes of those nobles, even an illegitimate child was still a noble, inherently a rank higher than the commoners.
Therefore, even though the members of the Roland family despised Isaris, they could not be too harsh on his living conditions. After all, if he lived in a dog kennel on the streets, it would be the Roland family losing face.
Feigning sleep, Lin Qi pricked up his ears to listen for any movement outside the door. To be honest, he heard absolutely nothing.
These assassins were likely professionals. But that did not matter. Even if their footsteps were silent, opening the door had to make a sound, right?
The pretending Lin Qi planned to give them a massive surprise the moment they entered his bedroom. Anyway, with the Desired Accuracy effect, he was not afraid of missing his shots.
However, Lin Qi waited for two minutes and noticed nothing.
What is going on? The system cannot be wrong. These are assassins, not thieves. Why have they not made a move yet?
Just as Lin Qi was pondering this, he suddenly smelled a strange fragrance.
Lin Qi reacted instantly and quickly covered his mouth and nose.
These two insidious bastards were planning to poison him to death!
Anyone who frequently worked as an assassin knew that face-to-face combat was incredibly stupid. After all, in a state of sheer desperation, an adult could potentially slide-tackle and kill a tiger, let alone an assassin who was ultimately just an ordinary person.
It was a joke to think otherwise. They were in the business of assassination, not sparring in a fighting ring. They would undoubtedly choose the method that eliminated the target with the least possible cost.
If it were not for the poor visibility at night, they would have simply chosen to blow his head off from a distance with a sniper rifle.
"They really are professionals, but what do I do now? This is far too professional!
These two assassins are not giving me a chance for a face-to-face confrontation at all. If I open the door now, I will probably be shot full of holes instantly. If I do not open the door, I will either suffocate or be poisoned to death."
Lin Qi had fallen into a crisis. Holding Judgement, he carefully approached the bedroom door, leaned against it, and scanned the room for any useful items.
Damn it, this room did not even have a window. If this continued, he truly was going to suffocate himself to death.
The blood rushing to his head due to a lack of oxygen made it impossible for Lin Qi to continue formulating a countermeasure.
I have to risk it!
CLICK. The bedroom door opened. With a loud BANG, the jacket Lin Qi had thrown out as a decoy was blasted with a hole.
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Qi executed a roll and reached the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom.
He leaned against the bathroom doorframe and peered cautiously toward the living room.
BANG!
"Damn it, thank goodness it is so dark that they can only see my general position. Otherwise, that shot just now would have literally blown my mind.
Wait a minute. They might not be able to shoot accurately, but I definitely will."
Thinking of this, Lin Qi raised Judgement, aimed it toward the living room, imagined the bullet striking the assassin's head, and fired a shot.
There was a loud BANG, but absolutely nothing happened.
"What is going on? Is this A-Rank Forbidden Object a fake? How could it miss? Wait. Imagining hitting the enemy... does that require actually seeing the enemy first?"
Lin Qi felt that the lack of oxygen had turned him into an idiot.
He had not even seen a shadow of the assassins; he could only imagine a dark silhouette. If he could hit a target like that, this gun would not be called a Forbidden Object, it would be a Divine Artifact.
"Judging from the gunfire just now, both sides roughly know each other's positions. They should be hiding behind the sofa. In this pitch-black darkness, we can only confirm general locations. Time to risk it!"
The crouching Lin Qi suddenly half-stood and hurled a glowing sphere toward the sofa!
It was the oil lamp!
BANG!
The oil lamp was blasted apart by an assassin's gunshot while still in midair.
"That is enough!"
Although it was only for a split second, Lin Qi caught sight of the two assassins!
Without a shred of hesitation, he fired twice. BANG! BANG! The gunshots were immediately followed by the sound of bodies collapsing to the floor.
Lin Qi did not bother checking the corpses of the two assassins. Instead, he rapidly threw open all the doors and windows, sprinting outside to breathe in deeply.
"Pant... pant... damn it, I almost suffocated to death! Good thing Judgement has a guaranteed hit effect, or I really would have died here today."
Having calmed down, Lin Qi found the situation incredibly strange. Even after Isaris was adjusted to be an Easter egg character, he was supposed to die during the middle stages of the game's main storyline. The main storyline had not even started yet, so why was there such a massive crisis?
For someone of Isaris's skill level to defeat these two assassins was simply a fairy tale.
These two assassins were not street thugs; they were professionally trained killers.
Those who frequently killed knew that using a knife would cause a lot of blood to spray. Moreover, failing to kill the target with the first strike might trigger their desperate desire to live, causing them to scream and unleash their hidden potential.
Therefore, compared to street thugs who would draw their blades over a single disagreement, professional assassins were far more difficult to deal with. They would pump poison into your room. If you did not wake up, you would simply die in your sleep, sparing them the trouble of cleaning up any bloodstains.
Even if you woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, you would step out of your door to face two armed assassins.
This was an organized, premeditated murder. The mastermind behind the scenes understood Isaris extremely well and had likely even been to his house!
Those two assassins did not open the door to confirm which room Lin Qi was in; they had pumped poison directly into Isaris's bedroom the moment they entered.
But who exactly wanted to kill Isaris?
The game in his previous life had never mentioned any of this.
Shaking his head, Lin Qi decided to stop thinking about what he could not understand. After such a commotion, sleep was completely out of the question. Although his head still throbbed and he felt exhausted, he was much better off than before he went to sleep.
[Quest Completed!][Rewards Distributed: 2000 Experience Points, 900 Copper Coins, a portion of Isaris's memories.]
The system's voice arrived late but predictably. However, before Lin Qi could even step back into the house, a sudden, splitting pain erupted in his brain.
Son of a bitch, could you at least let me lie down in bed first?
That was Lin Qi's final thought before he fell unconscious.