Chapter 301: As Long as You Don’t Get Caught, Isn’t Everything Fine?
As a transcendent, Sidney was jolted awake by the sound of the horn. He leaped out of bed in one bound and assumed a fighting stance.
Although he couldn’t see, his hearing and sense of smell had been honed to an exceptional degree.
But after taking a moment to feel his surroundings, there didn’t seem to be any hint of danger, which left him a bit puzzled.
While the other Chosen Ones were still trying to figure out what was happening, Zhang Yangqing had a clear advantage.
After all, he had two natives by his side whom he could ask directly.
The madam didn’t even need to answer—the young loli girl already knew. She let out a yawn and lazily replied, “Generally, whenever a lord-level guest arrives, horns are sounded to welcome them and to proclaim their distinguished achievements.”
This was quite a revealing detail, because the rules had specifically mentioned “lords.”
One horn blast meant one lord had arrived.
Zhang Yangqing had even asked for clarification: if two lords came together, would they blow one horn or two? The answer was always two—one for each lord in attendance, and each person only gets one blast.
Zhang Yangqing wasn’t the only one paying close attention. The other Chosen Ones, seemingly awake now, had all begun frantically gathering intel and jotting down information.
As an identity mentioned in the rules, the Chosen Ones were all very diligent about memorizing and engaging with it.
This was their survival experience in the world of urban legends.
That’s how intel worked—when there was no immediate danger, who could say if it would be useful later? You just gathered as much as possible and sorted out the details relevant to the main quest.
Ramirez, the Chosen One from Argentina, had barely woken up when he turned on his radio and played the rules that only Chosen Ones could hear.
If it weren’t for the replay function, many Chosen Ones would have been doomed right from the start of this round. Everyone had fallen asleep in a daze, and after waking up, they might have forgotten the rules entirely.
After hearing the rules, all the Chosen Ones realized that the objective of this stage was to obtain the coin required to clear the level before the King died.
After all, Rule 13 stated that they had to receive a royal coin personally given by the king.
“So that means I need to find a way to figure out who the king is through the rules—and I can’t let anyone else know.”
Once Ramirez’s mind cleared, his judgment proved quite sharp. He figured this round was probably all about speed and high stakes, because from the rules, it seemed like someone was out to kill the king.
And the people who wanted the king dead were most likely among these five identities: [Lord], [Magician], [Skeleton Knight], [Noble], and [Merchant].
That was easy to infer because if these identities weren’t relevant, the rules wouldn’t have mentioned them. Since they were mentioned, it meant there were problems within that group.
This round placed a huge emphasis on interpersonal relationships because the connections among all these people were incredibly complicated.
In Ramirez’s view, the ones with the greatest motive to assassinate the king were probably the [Lord] and the [Noble]. If the king died, those two identities would be the ones to rise to power.
Of course, this was just Ramirez’s own biased judgment—things were never that simple in the urban legend world. Without solid intel, everything was just speculation.
After all, there were still two rules that baffled him: Rule 4 and Rule 10.
[Rule 4: The lord’s status is second only to the king. When a lord appears, do not act overly respectful toward him.]
[Rule 10: Not everyone likes the king, and you are no exception.]
Ramirez lay in bed mulling over these two rules for a long time, unable to fully interpret them.
Taken at face value: don’t show respect toward a lord because some people at the banquet might harbor deep resentment against them—those could be nobles, magicians, or even the king himself. After all, the king was definitely hiding among these identities, and it’s only natural for a king not to like a lord.
But also, not everyone likes the king—and Chosen Ones are no exception. This might be hinting that if you reveal yourself as a supporter of the king, those who want to kill him would eliminate you.
This round didn’t seem to have any overt supernatural rules, but the “death rules” were actually everywhere. Offend a noble and you might die; offend the king goes without saying; say the wrong thing and you might die; go to the wrong place and you might die; even eat the wrong thing and you might die.
There were at least five or more so-called “death rules” hidden within the text. These hidden “death” rules—concealed in the wording and left for you to analyze yourself—were the real headache.
Chosen Ones like Ramirez belonged to the vulnerable group and naturally had to obey the rules. Breaking even a single one could cost them their lives.
A quest line gradually formed in Ramirez’s mind: first, find a way to acquire something valuable, then locate a merchant to trade for intel or self-defense items. Meanwhile, he should also find the guard in the red cloak—that person would help him, at least by bailing him out if he said something wrong.
As for why not find the guard first and then explore—wouldn’t that be safer?
Actually, that was where Ramirez’s experience kicked in. He felt that the red-cloaked guard absolutely would not be that easy to find. If he wasted time searching for the guard and delayed the actual main quest, he’d be in serious trouble.
After all, the core of this round was finding the king.
As for how to find him, Ramirez felt the rules had already given a hint: through mirrors. Mirrors were the tool that could expose disguises—he knew that from the villa urban legend.
But Rule 6 stated: Please do not look into mirrors casually within the palace, or danger will follow.
Why was that? Ramirez pondered for a long time.
Suddenly, he sat bolt upright.
“Oh, right—it’s not just the king who might be disguised. Other roles could be disguised too, and their purpose is most likely to assassinate the king.”
That realization gave him a headache. It seemed like every good idea he came up with just dragged up even bigger problems. If he looked into a mirror and exposed those impostors, they would surely eliminate him, triggering a death scenario.
And if some clueless Chosen One mistook an impostor for the king, that would be a huge joke. Sometimes you could offend a whole bunch of people at once and accelerate your own demise. No wonder the rules warned Chosen Ones not to look into mirrors casually—you might just look your way straight into death.
With Ramirez’s current level of insight, that was about as far as he could go. He only had a partial understanding of many rules, and without intel to analyze, he couldn’t make solid judgments.
Rather than rack his brains here, it was better to go out and gather information.
But before that, Ramirez decided to try poisoning some of the other guests to summon demons and boost his combat power. Rule 1 mentioned that fighting was forbidden in the palace, but it also said you’d only be executed if you got caught.
And according to how Chosen Ones interpreted the rules: as long as you weren’t caught, wasn’t everything fine?
Most Chosen Ones didn’t actually want to summon demons—it cost their own lifespan, after all. Otherwise, right now they only had a dog and a C-rank demon, which meant death the moment danger struck. Although the odds of summoning an A-rank or above were slim, having a few more demons would greatly increase their survival rate.
Ramirez was just showcasing one of the common strategies—and one that many Chosen Ones were eager to adopt. They were overly dependent on demons; even knowing the odds were against them, everyone secretly longed to summon an A-rank or higher.
After all, this was like a gacha pull—until you actually pulled, everyone had a chance. Even if it was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, some would still cling to that sliver of hope.
Ramirez’s performance in this urban legend round was so-so, probably because his blindness was holding back his usual slick moves.
But Sidney, as a transcendent, was ready to start pulling off some slick moves of his own.
“Since this urban legend has so many identities, why not change mine? Maybe a different identity would yield different intel.”
But the problem was—he was blind. How could he convincingly play any of these roles, and which one would be the best choice? That was what Sidney needed to figure out.
The lord and magician roles were too difficult; the skeleton knight wasn’t easy to fake either. He could only try his luck with noble or merchant.
He’d gotten this idea from recalling the gameplay footage of the Dragon Kingdom celestial master—changing identities was indeed an overpowered strategy that often brought unexpected rewards.
And at this stage, the true bug-abusers among the Chosen Ones began to emerge.
Topping that list was, of course, Zhang Yangqing. Changing identities wasn’t a “bug” for him—it was just standard procedure.
There was actually room to exploit a loophole here.
Rule 12 was indeed a death rule:
[Rule 12: The food and water here may be consumed, provided they have not been poisoned.]
Eating the wrong thing would naturally lead to a swift death. Chosen Ones could also use poisoned food to eliminate other identities. Of course, if they accidentally killed the king, that would essentially be a dead end.
So how were they supposed to tell which food was poisoned?
That was the headache for other Chosen Ones—they needed to find help.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t need to bother with any of that. He simply had the loli girl ask the maids for dozens of extra portions of food and water to stock in his room, then had some demons stand guard.
He had not only eight demons under his command but also two human allies—plenty of manpower for now, no need to replenish. If the loli girl was crazy enough to go gather more, Zhang Yangqing wouldn’t mind either.
That way, he could ensure that when he got hungry later, he’d have safe, unpoisoned food to eat.
After all, anyone trying to poison the king wouldn’t do it at this stage anyway—if someone actually died from poisoning now, the palace would surely halt the banquet.
Zhang Yangqing had practically just exploited a huge loophole right at the start.
Watching Celestial Master Zhang break a death rule right out of the gate, many viewers gasped in awe—this was the reaction speed of a seasoned veteran.
After securing his food supply, the next step was how to explore.
The main quest was, of course, finding the king disguised as another identity.
Zhang Yangqing felt that this round wasn’t just about finding the king—he also had to locate that royal coin. Otherwise, why would Rule 9 give such a cryptic hint?
[Rule 9: Do not enter rooms with open doors without permission from the king.]
Why would Chosen Ones even want to enter open-door rooms? Was the rule simply telling them not to? Zhang Yangqing didn’t think so. Maybe some of those open-door rooms contained special items—perhaps even the royal coin itself. The rules never said the coin would definitely be on the king’s person.
Many Chosen Ones were fixated on using mirrors to find the king, but Zhang Yangqing felt there were plenty of other methods. After all, he was a man with a unique understanding of the rules.
[Rule 3: Magicians are unreliable, but you must never trust the words of a skeleton knight.]
[Rule 5: Do not provoke nobles; they have bad tempers. If you have something valuable, you may seek out a merchant.]
The literal meanings were clear enough, but Zhang Yangqing had his own interpretation.
Since magicians were unreliable, wouldn’t a magician who was reliable be a strong candidate for being the king in disguise?
By the same logic, since skeleton knights could not be trusted and would lie, a skeleton knight who told the truth might also be the king in disguise.
And what about a noble with a good temper, or a merchant who would buy worthless items? Weren’t those also clues?
Other Chosen Ones had few options, but Zhang Yangqing had many. The craziest part was that he also had more manpower.
“So that’s how I’ll handle the hidden quest.”
After analyzing all the current rules and intel, Zhang Yangqing knew exactly how to complete the hidden objective.
From the villa’s old steward, he’d learned that to become a lord, one had to be personally appointed by the king—provided they had distinguished achievements.
So, if he helped the king identify who was plotting against him and eliminated those people, that would count as a significant contribution and naturally earn the king’s reward.
If he chose to go that route, the difficulty would be several times greater than just clearing the round normally.
Simply to clear the game, all he needed to do was find the king and the coin, then slip away before the crisis erupted.
The difference in difficulty was obvious.
Especially with the blind identity throwing a wrench in the plans of many Chosen Ones who’d originally aimed for an SSSS rating—now they just wanted out as soon as possible.
Still, among these 71 Chosen Ones, there were plenty still gunning for that SSSS score. Their earlier performances might have been slightly lacking, but they’d kept up the pace.
And let’s not forget—Zhang Yangqing was an SSSSS-ranked Chosen One. That meant the urban legend world allowed for one S-rank screw-up. Even if they couldn’t achieve a perfect score, completing the hidden quest still gave them a shot at earning rewards.
As for whether they could figure out what the hidden quest was, that depended on whether they could gather useful intel along the way.
After catching up on sleep, the Chosen Ones began stepping out of their rooms one by one.
The castle was enormous, but the number of guests this time wasn’t that large. According to the maids, there would be about fifty guests and their attendants tonight.
They didn’t need to worry about the rest—the Chosen Ones only needed to pay attention to the identities mentioned in the rules.
This much intel the maids could freely share. According to them, the guest list included four lords, two magicians, three skeleton knights, two merchants, and five nobles.
That made a total of 16 individuals with special identities. The Chosen Ones and other invitation holders would be something else—just extra guests invited to join the banquet, essentially serving as the atmosphere group.
After all, a king’s banquet wouldn’t be lively without a crowd.
The theme of this banquet was the king’s birthday celebration.
Incidentally, the lady accompanying Zhang Yangqing was not a noble. Around here, “noble” referred to those with high-ranking titles. The lady was merely from a wealthy family—well-off, but without a title. That’s why she qualified to attend.
Here, Sidney seemed to have caught a particular bit of intel.
“Since it’s the king’s birthday, that means he probably isn’t young—that could be one way to identify him.”
Sidney even tried asking the maid how old the king was, but her answer left his head spinning.
[The king’s voice is sometimes old and sometimes childish.]
During the time the Chosen Ones had been asleep, the other guests had been arriving steadily.
The birthday banquet wouldn’t officially start until 8 p.m., but being invited was an honor—no one dared to show up late.
Just as a maid was giving the Chosen Ones a tour of the palace, another earth-shaking horn blast echoed across the sky!
