Chapter 85.2: Injured Civilians
Sibyl licked her parched lips and glanced at the kettle on the coffee table, feeling even thirstier.
"P-Phobe… Can you give me some water? Please…" Holding a tiny glimmer of hope, Sibyl gathered the courage to plead with the young headliner.
Phoebe turned to look at her, then poured a glass of water and went over.
Just as Sibyl lifted her head to drink, Phoebe splashed the water on her face.
"Here, drink." Phoebe lifted her chin in disdain and waved the empty glass.
Sibyl stared at her in disbelief, the fire in her eyes gradually fading, and she returned to her previous half-conscious state.
Ben glanced at the trembling Sibyl, then shifted his gaze to Phoebe, the headliner who now returned to the sofa, leaning back arrogantly with her feet propped up.
"You shouldn't have done that," Ben couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up. "I've served Mr. Greene for nine years, and in those nine years, I've seen headliners after headliners. Do you know what happened to them in the end?"
Phoebe, her face twisted in disgust, spared a disdainful glance at the disheveled Ben. She had no interest in engaging with this foolish man who had angered Garcia. Rolling her eyes, she turned away.
"You—"
Ben was about to say more when a strange rattling echoed from the direction of the iron door.
Before the three in the basement could discern what this strange noise was, the iron door was kicked open with a resounding crash.
"Who… Aaahhhhh!!!"
Phoebe, who was about to be enraged, leaped up as if her butt had caught fire and ran to the other end of the basement, screaming her head off.
Bursting into the basement were several skeletons armed with sharp knives and clad in bizarre scale armor.
"O Lady Gold Coin!" Despite hurting badly from the lashes, Ben shouted in panic and struggled when he saw the skeletons.
Sibyl, on the other hand, had the most immediate reaction. As soon as the skeletons burst into the room, she fainted without so much as making a sound.
These reaper-like skeletons seemingly full of murderous intent… acted strangely on the contrary.
Instead of attacking the trio as Phoebe and Ben had feared, the skeletons stopped in their tracks and, to the astonishment of the former two, started communicating with each other in a bizarre, grating language.
"KABAKBAKABA!"
"KEUKEUEKUE!"
———
"What the heck! Why are there only civilians? Where's the boss? Where are the elite monsters??"
"Are you kidding me?! Such a basement hidden deep underground and no boss! F*cking devs must be retarded!"
"I can't believe this. We might as well have continued looting the rooms!"
The few players complained in frustration and, clinging to a glimmer of hope, cast "Identify" on the three NPCs in the basement.
"Ah! That female NPC's necklace is worth 80 copper coins according to Identify!" one of them pointed at Phoebe and exclaimed with delight.
"Wait, wait, she's just a civilian. Is it okay to loot civilians?" another player quickly interjected.
"If the system doesn't warn us against it, then it should be fine." The player who had Identified Phoebe's necklace wasn't too bothered and strode toward Phoebe, who had retreated to a corner in panic.
Phoebe was scared witless and let out a piercing scream as she ran toward Ben.
But she barely took a step before the player caught up.
The player grabbed Phoebe by the arm, snatched the necklace off her neck, and took possession of the solid gold pendant.
"Eh? It's lootable! The system didn't issue any warning!" said the player in pleasant surprise.
Satisfied with the loot, the player abandoned the squealing Phoebe and gleefully returned to his group.
Phoebe, who had narrowly escaped death, remained in a daze.
"How much reward does healing an 'injured civilian' like this grant?" the player who had Identified Ben asked a fellow compatriot.
"I think it depends on the severity. It ranges from a minimum of 20 to a max of 100," replied the other player.
"At least 20 points of territory prestige, huh? That's not bad," muttered the former as he took out a few small vials from his waist pouch.
A player advancing to the apothecary lifestyle class would receive a basic apothecary kit from the NPC instructor, which was essentially basic potion-making tools.
These metal vials were also obtained from the Apothecary Instructor. These were modern industrially produced items that were inexpensive and were originally designed for storing medicine, though some unscrupulous traders would repurpose them for other uses, which wouldn't be further elaborated on…
Ben, who couldn't break free from his restraints, felt absolute despair as he was approached by the player.
The deathly skeleton walked up to him and raised a steel knife.
With a cold flash, the knife swung swiftly and cleanly severed the ropes binding Ben.
The skeleton re-sheathed its knife, then unscrewed a small steel bottle, pouring out a pungent, thick fluid, on which it then dabbed its bony fingers before applying it to Ben's wounds.
Ben: "?!"
Ben was so dumbfounded he forgot to call out to Lady Gold Coin or even thought about escaping. He simply stared at the skeleton who was earnestly tending to his wounds.
Visitors that came to Weisshem weren't all law-abiding people. Occasionally, enforcers like Ben would tussle with men brought by such guests, and he was rather familiar with the smell of hemostatic ointment.
Ordinary hemostatic ointment, being applied on his body by an absolutely extraordinary skeleton, left Ben utterly baffled.
Ben's external injuries were relatively easy to deal with, but the unconscious Sibyl posed a challenge for the other two players.
"A weakened civilian… How do we handle this? Applying medicine?"
"I don't know!"
"Can't you check her pulse and symptoms, like a diagnosis or something?"
"Brother, I'm a computer science guy!"
The player earning territory prestige while tending to Ben turned back and suggested, "How about giving something to eat or drink? Didn't those few NPCs Blossoming Strokes and the others save get better after a few meals?"
"Don't have any! Who would bring along food when sieging a town?"
The player that had snatched Phoebe's pendant said, "How about we just leave her here for now and come back later? Didn't the big shots say that we lack the numbers and should take down all who can resist before rescuing civilians? Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to handle both at once."
"That works." The other two nodded in agreement as they lifted Sibyl and placed her on the sofa.
Once the player applying ointment received his territory prestige reward, the four of them left the dumbfounded Ben and Phoebe and went their own way…
A while after the four skeletons had left, Ben and Phoebe were finally able to move their frozen limbs, and they crawled to the door and peered out.
The stairwell was empty; the skeletons had indeed left.
Without a second thought, Phoebe lifted her skirt and dashed off. She wanted to find Garcia. Only in the presence of Garcia, who represented absolute authority and strength in her eyes, could she feel safe.
Ben didn't care where Phoebe was going. He returned to the basement, found his shirt, and put it on before hoisting the unconscious Sibyl onto his back and hurrying away.
This was probably the aspect most overlooked by players—they never considered that the civilian NPCs awaiting their rescue would run away. Even the two strategists, Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy, believed that the civilian NPCs would patiently wait in place for their return.
Of course, these civilian NPCs who were deemed harmless couldn't actually escape. Ben ran out of the basement and hadn't even made it out of Elegant Dream's courtyard when he saw a bunch of skeletons running past on the street outside.
The rattling sounds as the skeletons ran were accompanied by a seemingly excited chattering in a strange language.
"KABAKABA."
"KUEKUEUEU."
Ben was terrified and retreated back to the main building…
He didn't know where Garcia Greene had gone, nor did he know where his fellow enforcer comrades were. The entire Elegant Dream club was eerily quiet. With Sibyl on his back, Ben wandered through the corridors on the ground floor like a headless fly but didn't see a single person.
Even more bizarre, the lobby and corridors were a mess, but it didn't look like the aftermath of a battle; instead, it appeared as if burglars had ransacked the place…
"What on earth happened?" Ben was completely bewildered. After hesitating for a moment, he pushed open the door to a room near the lobby.
There were people in this room. A dozen or so male and female attendants were huddled inside and looking anxiously toward the door.
Seeing that it was just Ben, these people visibly sighed in relief.
Ben quickly scrutinized the group and recognized a female attendant about Sibyl's age whom he had helped out in secret before. "Kaylie, what's going on?"
"Shut the door first," said Kaylie anxiously.
Ben hurriedly used his foot to shut the door and gestured for the attendants to vacate the sofa so he could lay Sibyl down.
Next, the male and female attendants each recounted what they experienced, piecing together the horrifying events of that night…
"Undead broke in through the windows? Guests and men were all tied up and robbed clean by the undead?" Ben was dumbfounded.
The attendants nodded, still visibly shaken. "It's true. I was terrified at the time… Those undead didn't pay any attention to us, but we didn't dare stay in our rooms."
Kaylie added, "We wanted to go outside, but there were even more undead. Everyone had no choice but to hide in this empty private room."
"What about Greene?" Ben asked the question he was most concerned about.
"Mr. Greene…" Kaylie gulped and muttered fearfully, "He resisted those undead and was cut down by them. That was the first time I saw the undead act so ruthlessly. Their previous methods had been relatively gentle… Please, don't ever confront those undead, Ben. You can't imagine how terrifying they are when they attack the living!"
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