Scourge Messenger

Chapter 11 Main City
"According to my research, Anguo Temple is not only a temple, but also the largest bank in Chang'an."

As soon as Yaoshi Yuan finished speaking, Yan Qing couldn't help but ask, "Is the temple a bank?"

"What's so strange about this? The temple itself has a loan treasury. It's normal for wealthy families to deposit their money in the temple and entrust those bald donkeys to lend it out. Otherwise, why do you think the temple is so prosperous? Why do people, rich and poor, like to worship Buddha?"

Shang Xinlei blew on the teacup and rubbed her fingers together to make a cheesy gesture.

“Because it makes money.”

Boom!
Pharmacist Yuan slammed his hammer on the stone table and said calmly, "If you have any questions or anything you want to say, you can wait until I finish speaking before raising them. Or maybe you can take charge?"

Everyone shook their heads. Ying Ru took out a notebook and a graphite pen and pretended to take notes, but in reality, she was writing down something only she could understand. "Black Wolf values ​​rules and sticks to his word. Even if he's not a general, he's certainly a powerful figure commanding a violent organization."

Medicine Master Yuan said, "Because of its dual nature as a temple and a bank, Anguo Temple is often visited by many people for worship. The mission requires us to arrive at 15:30. Although there won't be many people burning incense at that time, Anguo Temple is surrounded by restaurants and commercial areas, so there must be many people nearby, just like this sand table shows."

Everyone looked down at the real-time sand table and saw that there was indeed a lot of traffic around Anguo Temple, with vendors setting up stalls and restaurants opening shops.

"It's basically impossible to steal without anyone noticing. I suggest going in head-on and robbing them. What do you think?"

Yan Qing and the other two looked at each other and passed it unanimously.

Yao Shiyuan continued, "If we rob, we need to solve three problems—closing the palace door, opening the treasure chest, and escaping the pursuit."

"Escape and pursuit is the easiest, because Chang'an is the main city. Both the palace guards and the Shen Ce Army outside have extremely low regard for Chang'an's internal security. The only force in Chang'an that can be quickly dispatched is the Wu Hou Pu, responsible for extinguishing fires."

"Besides, we don't even need to flee the city. We only need to stay on Suzaku Street for half a minute to get back to the Thieves' House."

"There's no need to worry about the defenses of Anguo Temple. Chang'an is the main city, so no one has ever dared to rob the temple. The temple only has warrior monks who are used to extort debts from civilians."

"As long as the Thieves' House unlocks the main city for us, we can enter Anguo Temple and control the situation. Those fat, big-eared bald donkeys will open the door to the vault for us with just a few beatings."

Yan Qing felt strange.

Why is it that "Chang'an City is the main city", so "the army will despise the city's security" and "temples are never afraid of being robbed"?
Is Chang'an the legendary best place, where everyone is a good person?

But if so, tell the truth immediately.

"You can rest assured, Black Wolf," Ying Ru said. "The last time the thieves committed a crime, it was in Nevernight fifty years ago. Back then, Nevernight was still the capital of Wei. The thieves' target was the palace, and they actually broke in directly through the main gate. The palace guards were already accustomed to the rule that no one could be harmed in the main city. They didn't even flinch when someone chopped them on the head, and only learned to fight back after dozens of people were killed."

"Whenever a crime is committed by a thief's house, the thieves must be allowed to kill in the main city - of course, this restriction will be lifted if someone encounters the thieves."

Yan Qing suddenly understood.

He thought of the three main cities in the game, 'Jiangnan', 'Chang'an', and 'Buyetian', and finally understood that the main cities they were talking about were indeed the main cities in the game terminology!
An absolutely safe zone where players cannot harm NPCs, let alone other players!

Yan Qing remembered that the "Thieves' House" dungeon he designed did indeed involve stealing in the main city of the Overworld. More precisely, stealing in the safe zone was one of the dungeon's selling points.

However, he ignored the concept of the safe zone at the beginning. After all, this is reality, not a game. But he didn't expect that this world would be so thoroughly "gamified". Not only did it have dungeons, but it also had safe zones!

"Then the second question is, opening the safe."

Yaoshiyuan pointed to the enormous golden cabinet inside Anguo Temple and said, "There are four large golden cabinets in Anguo Temple. Each one is ten feet high, ten feet wide, and ten feet deep. They are called 'ten feet cabinets.' The cabinet doors and walls are two feet thick. Back then, the Third-Ranked Fire Guardian used several tons of fine gold to cast them."

"The mission only lasts for 25 minutes, which includes the round-trip time from Suzaku Street to Anguo Temple and the half-minute wait for evacuation. This means we only have 15 minutes at most to deal with this gold cabinet."

"There are only three ways to deal with a safe: take it all away, break it open, or unlock it. The least feasible option is unlocking it."

"Why isn't unlocking possible?"

Shang Xinlei opened the small bag she had brought with her and took out some pastries. She ate a bite and drank a sip of tea, as if she were enjoying dessert. Yan Qing thought to himself, this person is quite generous. She is the only one eating and drinking here, and she can eat so comfortably - without even sharing any with me.

But Shang Xinlei obviously didn't hear Yan Qing's complaints. She said seriously, "I have the 'Invisible Hand'. So far, I have never seen a lock that can stop me."

As if she was afraid that they wouldn't believe her, she took out a pair of thin satin gloves from her bag. The cuffs of the gloves should have been a little big, but when she put them on, they immediately fit her hands perfectly without any wrinkles.

If Yan Qing had opened a secondary account, he would have been able to see the detailed information of this token. Unfortunately, he was just a three-dimensional creature without a game system. Although Shang Xinlei did not introduce the detailed information of the invisible hand, he still demonstrated to them a little bit the magical features of this token.

Her fingertips lightly brushed over the water chestnut cake on the table. The water chestnut cake was similar to jelly, and the water chestnuts inside were clearly visible under the light. As her fingers stirred it, the water chestnuts were stirred into a mess, and the square water chestnuts were crushed by her fingertips.

However, when Shang Xinlei withdrew her fingers, everyone could see that although the inside of the water chestnut cake was riddled with holes, the outside was intact!

"It's truly worthy of being called the Invisible Hand," Ying Ru exclaimed in admiration. "With this token, you, Chi Snake, will no longer need a key to unlock any lock. In other words, your hand is the master key that can crack any lock."

"I don't doubt your ability," said the pharmacist, "but the lock on the cabinet is more troublesome than you might think. Come closer and take a look..."

Seeing them all standing and bending over to observe the small section of Anguo Temple on the sand table, Yan Qing was reluctant to move closer. Although he carried the talismanic sliver sword, he himself was still a mortal who hadn't yet advanced. The closer he got to them, the easier it would be for them to spot his flaws. And that was too unintelligent. He should have been able to zoom in when observing a specific area...

Almost like muscle memory, Yan Qing subconsciously stretched out three fingers and moved the sand table.

Then the sand table quickly deformed, and other areas disappeared. Only the transparent area of ​​Anguo Temple expanded to its maximum, and even the number of bricks inside and the number of tiles on the roof could be clearly seen.

The Thieves' House fell silent for a moment. Everyone stared at the sand table and Yan Qing. After a moment, Shang Xinlei asked, "Can you change it back?"

Using the same muscle memory, Yan Qing retracted his three fingers inward and the sandbox returned to its original shape.

It's a bit strange, how can the operation logic of mobile phones and tablets also work? Did "The Messenger" develop a mobile version after he traveled through time?

"How did you make Anguo Temple bigger?" Shang Xinlei paused, as if realizing she was asking for help, and asked in a delicate voice, "Can you tell me?"

The red snake is indeed a female!
Yan Qing, Ying Rushi and Yao Shiyuan all had the same thought in their minds.

In fact, Chi Snake has never disguised herself. Although her clothes are designed to facilitate movement and her figure cannot be seen, the utensils she uses and the cakes she eats are all very exquisite, and her exposed hands are so slender and white. Everyone can clearly judge that she is actually an aristocratic woman who is very particular about the quality of life.

Of course, Yan Qing would not be blinded by the beauty of Chishe's voice. On the contrary, he realized that this was an opportunity to strengthen his own personality.

"You don't know how to do it?" He seemed a little surprised, then the corners of his mouth curled up and he chuckled, "Then watch carefully. If you don't know how to do it, I can demonstrate it a few more times."

The zooming gestures were simple enough that Shang Xinlei and the others mastered them in one sitting, though they were all rather unhappy. Everyone could hear the sense of superiority in Yan Qing's words, like a city dweller imparting trivial common sense to a country bumpkin.

But no matter how unhappy they were, they all secretly improved their evaluation of "Yellow Dog" in their hearts - he actually knew this unknown knowledge, and Huang Dog was not as simple as he seemed.

They zoomed in and out of the Anguo Temple, quickly learning to zoom in on specific areas for closer inspection. However, it should be noted that when they zoomed in on confidential areas like the imperial palace, military camps, and the six ministries, Yaoshi Yuan would immediately shrink the sand table and zoom in on other areas, seemingly blocking their view of the Zhou Kingdom's secrets.

"Heilang must be from the Zhou Kingdom, and he is very loyal to the Zhou Kingdom." Ying recorded it silently.

After playing for a while, Yaoshiyuan signaled them to continue the meeting. She zoomed in on Anguo Temple, showing everyone the four large gold cabinets inside the vault: "Although the cabinets have locks, there are no keys."

"The cabinet door has eighteen steel locks, locking the door and the gold cabinet securely. To unlock these eighteen locks, you have to turn the dial on the cabinet door."

There was a turntable in the middle of the cabinet door, with a single handle. According to the proportions, the handle was just large enough for an average person to hold in one hand.

"As you can see, this turntable only has one handle, and it's quite short," Yao Shiyuan said. "But even if the handle were extended, it wouldn't save much effort."

Ying Rushi looked at this door with only a turntable and no keyhole and realized a possibility.

"The way to open the cabinet door is to turn this dial?"

"Yes, there is a very complicated gear mechanism inside the cabinet door. It takes eighty-one turns to unlock a lock."

"So it's going to turn one thousand four hundred and fifty-eight times."

Shang Xinlei immediately calculated the result.

"By the way, the monk responsible for opening the cabinet door at Anguo Temple is a martial monk who has spent his entire life honing his Qi and blood. This monk's strength is roughly three times that of an ordinary martial arts messenger. Even he needs one breath to turn the turntable once, so opening the cabinet door takes at least half an hour each time."

Yaoshiyuan paused. "This is all information that Anguo Temple has proactively spread, so that the nobles in Chang'an know how safe their safes are—so safe that even if the nobles' belongings are seized by the government, Anguo Temple can at least delay them for half an hour."

Yan Qing and the others now understood why Heilang said that unlocking the lock was impossible, because opening the lock did not require any skill at all, only strength and time.

Even if they had enough power, they didn't have enough time.

The Thieves' House only gave them two quarters of an hour, about half an hour.

They were left with only two options: take the safe away or storm it.

Shang Xinlei said, "I can borrow the Qiankun Sleeve, but even if it's a third-level Qiankun Sleeve, it can't hold such a large gold cabinet."

"The Midas Touch token can absorb gold for storage during normal times, increasing its effectiveness against enemies." Ying Ru said, "I don't have a Midas Touch, but I can follow this idea and find some tokens that can absorb molten gold."

Everyone proposed various ideas, but they either required extremely precious tokens or were ineffective. An inch thick was enough to offset the destructive power of most tokens.

Ying Rushi was also paying attention during the discussion. She noticed Yan Qing was staring at the four gold cabinets in the vault, so she asked calmly, "Huang Quan, do you have any ideas? Tell us so we can discuss it together."

"I have a way to destroy these four safes."

Yan Qing shocked them as soon as he spoke: "And I don't need a token, I just need a simple prop."

(End of this chapter)