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...
Tian Zhu Mountain, Seventh Outer Mountain Warehouse No. 4
Mo Tan covered his face, which was ashen, and sighed, “Stealing is a bad thing to do!!”
Yes, that's right. This was Mo Tan's first reaction after his conscience and moral compass came online.
He knew very well what good deeds he had done before, and he also knew what he planned to do as Tan Mo. Although he felt very bad about it, he was completely powerless to stop it...
If Mo Tan could still salvage the situation in various ways when his lawful good personality dominated in reality, such as pulling the young and ignorant Yi Dong out of various traps countless times back then...
Then in Wu Zui Zhi Jie, it was basically impossible.
Even if there was a direction to work towards, the process would be extremely difficult, and the success rate would be extremely low!
After all, they were the same person. Mo Tan 'himself' would always understand 'himself' best. Simply put, we might be able to stop others from committing arson and murder, but if we ourselves have a habit of committing arson and murder after drinking too much, then... we can only leave it to fate...
So, what exactly did Mo Tan do before?
He first completed the task with a 'very proper' attitude.
Then, based on the situation at the time, he gave Cordova a hint to use the fourth plan, which was to 'immediately stun and abduct the person who came out with him,' because that was the best option at the time.
Next, he would immediately meet up with Cordova, change into Lanz's clothes, and then use the Hundred Aspects he had been 'shaping' since leaving Breen's room to disguise himself as Lanz and immediately return to the Wanderer's Inn.
However, Mo Tan's original intention at the time was not to directly take the item, as he had not expected Breen to trust Lanz so much.
As for whether his acting skills could deceive the other party, he had no doubts about that. When in a 'chaotic neutral' state, Mo Tan never felt that he was any worse than Frank William Abagnale...
In fact, in terms of talent alone, he really didn't seem to be any worse than that top-tier Deceiver in history.
In short, according to Mo Tan's previous plan, after impersonating Lanz and returning to the inn, he would inquire about where the broken box was placed. If possible, he would also try to extract its origin and purpose from Breen, and then, within a few days, retrieve that item from the Wanderer's Inn or from someone the Thieves' Guild had planted in the Wanderer's Inn. But the result...
The result was that Breen directly gave him the item.
This was far beyond Mo Tan's expectations, but it was also reasonable...
The guy named Tan Mo in Innocent World would always leave room for his plans to develop in a positive direction. He liked such 'surprises'~
I knew it...
Mo Tan rubbed his face hard, smiling wryly, “The consequence of 'me' seeing something like that would definitely be like this.”
And just at this moment, a friend message appeared in the corner of his vision.
It was from Cordova...
“Hmm, by the way, shouldn't he be on a mission right now?” Mo Tan muttered as he consciously brought up the message panel. “I wonder if he can come back before I leave... Uh...”
He froze for a moment, then suddenly began to worry that his expression wasn't enough.
'Brother! Are you there? I'm f***ing dead again! I'm currently being yelled at by that old man Lu Wei at the General Workshop in Seventh Outer Mountain. If you're online, can you come keep me company!'
Mo Tan politely paused for a moment, then symbolically made the sign of the cross over his chest, murmuring, “Although I don't believe in gods, I always feel like I should say a prayer or two for you...”
You have gained the talent: Incredulous.
Huh?
You have gained the talent: High-Rank.
What?
Mo Tan was utterly bewildered...
He had only jokingly muttered a sentence! How did he become an Incredulous?
And what does High-Rank mean?
Does it refer to praying for Cordova? That shouldn't be right. Logically speaking, any thinking, emotional creature should sympathize with him!
Or was it because of his previous self-reflection? Then why didn't Tan Mo's character have something like 'Despicable'...
Leaving the warehouse where he last logged off, Mo Tan walked towards the distant General Workshop while checking his two newly acquired talents.
Incredulous has been introduced before, so to avoid giving everyone the baseless idea that 'oh, this scoundrel is just blatantly padding his word count,' I won't elaborate further here. If any dear reader has forgotten, you can go back and check the previous chapters~
So...
High-Rank
Passive Talent
Effect: Nullifies any talents, passive skills, equipment traits, or items that could cause others to dislike you. This talent has the highest priority.
Note: You are a disciplined, noble, and rare good... Forget it, we would feel uneasy giving a good person card to a player who can obtain this talent.
Mo Tan: “...”
Although he didn't mind being given a good person card, if they truly didn't want to give it, why did they write half of it out!?
They probably said they couldn't bear to, but deep down they really wanted to, right!
Are you crazy!
Mo Tan couldn't help but roll his eyes.
But honestly, this talent is indeed good. At least he doesn't have to worry about being shunned by all divine spellcasters like he was when he was Tan Mo. Although it doesn't help much in combat, it can make his gaming career smoother...
The only drawback is that it only refers to talents, skills, equipment, and item effects. It would be great if it could forcefully prevent others from feeling dislike.
Although Mo Tan isn't the type to cause trouble, he hasn't met any normal people since he started playing this game!
Ya Ya, who messed up her first mission; Jia Deka, who was blacklisted by the Adventurers' Guild; Cordova, who seems normal but apparently has a vendetta against the Goddess of Luck...
I feel like spending too much time with them will make me very strange...
Mo Tan subconsciously thought this, and before he knew it, he had arrived in front of the General Workshop on Seventh Outer Mountain. When he logged on earlier, Lu Wei had called him here, so he finally didn't get lost.
“Uh, no, it should have been the time before last.” Mo Tan rubbed his chin, muttering resentfully to himself, “Last time I seemed to have been kicked offline by the system as soon as I logged in. The feeling of losing memory for several hours every day is really bad...”
Silently drafting a speech titled “Don't Give Up, the World is Full of Love” in his mind, Mo Tan passed through the identity verification of several runes (Lu Wei had authorized him last time) and walked into an invisible barrier.
Then he heard a torrent of curses coming from across the air!
If it weren't for Lu Wei's somewhat sharp and recognizable voice, Mo Tan, who was suddenly jolted, would have thought he had called Feimigeer to help him curse!
“You useless! Trash! Defective! Scum! Unlucky!” Lu Wei's short figure in the distance was jumping up and down in front of a machine, yelling!
“I'm not unlucky!” A powerful roar also came from inside the machine.
“You're a Slime! Bird droppings! Boogers! Poop! Unlucky!”
“I'm not unlucky!”
“You're disgraceful, brainless, idiotic, retarded, unlucky!”
“I'm not unlucky!”
“You're not even as good as the Self-Destructing Sheep I made! You don't even deserve to be a Dog-Headed Kobold! You're the biggest failure in the entire plan! The value of your life doesn't even exceed a wrench!”
“I'm not unlucky!”
“I didn't say that just now...”
“Oh, alright then, you can continue cursing.”
“Unlucky!”
“You old man!”
Mo Tan: “.”
He suddenly felt a headache.
Then, Lu Wei, his face ashen, suddenly turned around, threw the wrench in his hand to the ground with a clang (it made a pit), and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth as if he wanted to breathe fire: “You're here?”
“Uh, I'm not here.” Mo Tan chuckled and retreated several steps. He was afraid that a certain emotionally unstable Engineer would kill him out of anger...
Lu Wei glared at him and snorted, “Come over here and see what kind of mess this guy, who was just bragging to you, has become.”
Seeing that the other party was still relatively clear-headed, at least maintaining a level where they could communicate verbally, Mo Tan, slightly relieved, carefully walked over and then saw next to Lu Wei...
A machine that resembled a black and white small television, constantly emitting black smoke, full of patches, square-shaped, and with a dog's head (a Dog-Headed Kobold's head) attached to it.
On the screen in the middle was Cordova's 'truly lifeless' big face...
“What happened?” Mo Tan, utterly stunned, finally managed to squeeze out this sentence after a long while. All the comforting words he had prepared had died in his stomach.
Cordova on the screen had a long face and dejectedly said, “To put it simply, the mission failed. I was instantly killed by a pervert and sent back, and I've been scolded by a certain Undead old man for most of the day—and I mean 'day.' He didn't even drink a sip of water...”
At the same time, Mo Tan's message bar received a supplement.
'I logged off to cook a bowl of noodles, watched some TV, and browsed the forums for a while. When I logged back on, that old bastard still hadn't stopped talking.'
Mo Tan: “...”
“Heh, you make it sound so simple.” Lu Wei, who was beside him, sneered after hearing this. “First, you activated one less set of runes during the teleportation, which caused the Mage Tower's portal on the other side to collapse, wasting a lot of time. Secondly, when you discovered Fara's death and the apocalypse crystal reacting, you didn't escape immediately. And then, you not only fought him, but you also lost! Most importantly...”
Lu Wei took a deep breath...
“You prodigal son actually lost the Rune Body! Do you know how precious that thing is! Do you know how important the things on it are! Do you know how much crucial data you failed to collect! You unlucky bastard!!!”
“I'm not unlucky!”
“Cough, cough...” To prevent the two from falling into another strange loop, Mo Tan quickly intervened, “At least Cordova is fine, isn't he? Master Lu Wei, please calm down. Uh... the soul is more important than the body, right?”
Perhaps his words made some sense, or perhaps Lu Wei simply ran out of things to say, but the latter finally quieted down.
And Cordova's mood was also relatively calm; it seemed that as long as the words 'unlucky bastard' weren't mentioned, he wouldn't go berserk.
“I'm not unlucky!!”
Mo Tan: “...”
Lu Wei: “...”
Cordova froze for a moment: “Huh, was that just my imagination?”
“This thing is already delirious.” Lu Wei gave Cordova an exasperated look, then spread his hands and said, “But you're right, at least the soul was preserved. It's a blessing in disguise...”
Mo Tan shrugged at Cordova, “At least you don't have to start over.”
The implication was clear: at least a certain someone wouldn't have to reset their character and start from scratch.
“I really did my best at the time.” Cordova sighed after a long silence. “If there's any regret, it's that I couldn't save the Deputy named Fara...”
But this time, Lu Wei shook his head: “It's not your fault. If what you said is true, that guy could instantly kill you, and there were also a large number of High-Rank combatants obeying his command nearby. Then even if you had arrived, you wouldn't have been able to change anything. You would have just died and come back sooner.”
Cordova stopped talking.
And Mo Tan couldn't say anything either, after all, he didn't even know what these two were talking about...
“Don't blame yourself because of the ruckus Aige caused earlier.” Lu Wei picked at his wrinkled green ear and spread his hands, saying, “He himself knows that Fara Ossis's death isn't your fault. He was just a little agitated because something happened to half of his apprentice, and he had already collapsed half of my mountain. Now that old man should have calmed down, and besides, Long also went to counsel him.”
Cordova on the screen smiled bitterly, “Actually, that old man was right, I was too weak.”
“He's cursing me.” Lu Wei pouted, “You were created by me, and yet you were killed by someone in one encounter. This is no longer a matter of skill or ability.”
“Ah! So annoying!” Cordova howled and waved his hand, “Let's not talk about this. By the way, how are the things you prepared for my brother here coming along?”
Mo Tan: “Huh?”
“Almost ready.” Lu Wei casually pulled out something that looked like an oversized cannonball from a spatial rune. “I'll get it done right now. It can be done along with your new body's preparation work.”
With that, he conjured another 'Cordova' on the spot, or more accurately, Cordova's body, and then picked up the multi-functional wrench of unknown principle from the ground.
“This...” Mo Tan pointed at the 'cannonball' in front of him, which was taller than a person, and somewhat hesitantly confirmed with Lu Wei, “Is this for me?”
The latter nodded vigorously: “Yes, didn't I say I'd send you to Dragon Soul Town? This is the transportation tool I specially built...”
Transportation tool?!
Mo Tan stared blankly at the 'cannonball' in front of him, feeling a bit dazed.
“That's right! The name's already decided—absolute safety express!”
...
Chapter 109: End
