Mental Torture

As Ye Wei'an walked, he recalled the image from Grumman's memory: he adjusted the angle of his greatsword, deliberately took outward-pointing steps, and looked arrogant after his victory.

As the group entered the stone-paved streets of Firefall Town, the once noisy street fell into an eerie silence for half a second.

"Look, it's 'Butcher' Grumman..."

"That vicious wolf is back again, and looks like it's made quite a bit this time."

"Shh, keep your voice down! Don't mess with him!"

Upon seeing this towering, menacing figure, the street vendors, women washing clothes, and children chasing each other scattered like startled sparrows. However, they did not run far but hid behind half-open wooden doors or in dark alleyways, whispering and pointing amongst themselves, as if it were commonplace.

This is not surprising.

Grumman was indeed a habitual thief, but he also understood the principle of "a rabbit doesn't eat the grass near its burrow".

He would usually "do business" far from town, then squander his gold coins in Firefall, selling stolen goods and buying supplies.

To the ordinary people in the town, Grumman was a menace, but not a real threat.

To the merchants, Grumman may be a wolf, but a wolf that spits out gold coins.

Without intelligence from the locals of Firefall, the robbed people and caravans had no way of catching Grumman's trail.

"Haha! Don't worry, I'm in a good mood today, I won't kill anyone!" Ye Wei'an laughed wildly, and as he walked, he pulled out a handful of bloody copper coins and threw them at the beggars on the roadside.

Kane, Ryan, and Harold were also in perfect sync; they put their arms around each other's shoulders and deliberately boasted loudly about their "achievements" of slaughtering everyone the previous day.

After all the copper coins had been scattered, Ye Wei'an looked at the female slave beside him.

Eileen hung her head, her disheveled hair obscuring her face. She dragged herself with each step, like a tattered rag doll after being ravaged.

I'm sorry.

Ye Wei'an suddenly swung his large hand and slapped Ai Lian's pert buttocks hard in front of everyone.

"Snapped!"

"Get the hell out of here! If you don't serve me well tonight, I'll give you away to the brothers below!"

Eileen let out a perfectly timed scream, curling up in shame and anger, her expression of utter humiliation and desperate struggle was completely natural.

At the same time, Ye Wei'an noticed that a red dot on the minimap suddenly moved.

Based on the comparison between the minimap and reality, Ye Wei'an quickly recognized him from the crowd.

It was a young man who had been hiding in front of the bakery diagonally across the street.

After confirming Grumman's identity, he quickly turned around, passed through several narrow back alleys, and headed straight for their destination—the "Wild Dragon" tavern.

In just a few minutes, the red dot merged with the three existing red dots inside the tavern.

"Heh, are they in such a hurry to deliver the message?" Ye Wei'an sneered inwardly.

There were three red dots in the tavern, which meant that the "Grey Raven" was not alone while waiting for Grumman.

This makes perfect sense; the Grey Raven is merely a black glove used by the Baroness to handle dirty work and has no fighting ability of its own.

When facing a bloodthirsty barbarian like Grumman, one might not even have the courage to trade face-to-face without two professional bodyguards—no matter how long they've been working together.

"arrive."

Five minutes later, Ye Wei'an stopped and looked up at the creaking signboard—a drunken dragon holding a barrel of wine.

He kicked open the tavern's dilapidated door and went inside.

It was dusk, and the tavern was at its liveliest.

The tavern was filled with various smells: tobacco, sweat, the aroma of roasted venison fat, and the scent of locally produced "Mist Fruit Wine".

The moment "Grumman" entered, the previously noisy hall fell silent.

Some people were about to hurl insults, but when they saw it was "Grumman," the patrons all avoided their gazes, and a few who were playing drinking games shrank back and hid their money bags in their pockets.

Ye Wei'an didn't rush upstairs to find "Grey Crow." He stepped onto a bench, pulled a handful of silver coins from his pocket—spoils of loot from the bandits—and slammed them heavily onto the bar, like a nouveau riche eager to squander his newly acquired wealth.

"What are you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a victorious hero before?" Ye Wei'an said gruffly. "Boss! Give me a few barrels of Susar rye ale and three roast suckling pigs! I'm celebrating today."

Seeing the other patrons cowering in his direction, he added, "I'm in a good mood today! Tonight it's my treat, everyone gets a glass of oatmeal, it's all on me!"

The tavern fell silent for a moment, then erupted into a roar of cheers that seemed to lift the roof off.

As long as there was wine to drink, the patrons didn't care that the guy in front of them was a notorious bandit. They cheered for him, and many even came to toast him.

Ye Wei'an naturally accepted all offers, since he had a system backpack. After drinking, he could simply put the alcohol into the backpack slots, so he could drink as much as he wanted without getting drunk.

Ryan, Harold, and Kane also got into character perfectly, tearing open their collars and biting into the roast pig, getting cheap ale all over their faces.

Raine flirted with a passing Tiffilin waitress, while Harold told dirty jokes.

While Ye Wei'an was eating heartily, he didn't forget to glance at the mini-map. He could see three red dots representing "Grey Ravens" pacing anxiously on the second floor.

What's even more interesting is that not long after he entered the tavern, five or six red dots surrounded it from all directions. Ye Wei'an guessed that those were backup plans that Gray Raven had brought in, set up as a precaution.

However, seeing that Ye Wei'an was busy drinking and eating meat and didn't come upstairs, the group of ambushers were at a loss.

Ye Weian and his group arrived suddenly, right at dinner time, and many of the thugs were called over halfway through their dinner.

There were no other taverns near the "Wandering Dragon" tavern, so the thugs could only wait for orders to retreat in the cold night wind.

They waited and waited, only to hear the bandits' deafening hiccups.

Ye Wei'an's meal lasted for a full two hours, but the thugs didn't have that much patience and left one after another after only half an hour.

Based on their understanding of "Grumman," this barbarian would drink endlessly once he picked up a glass, and would definitely end up drunk and a complete mess, so nothing unexpected would happen tonight.

"It's done." Ye Wei'an sneered inwardly.

He and his three drunken henchmen booked two rooms diagonally opposite the one labeled "Grey Raven".

With the door closed, the plan entered its second phase.

Kane and his two companions entered the room, ignoring everything else, and immediately lay down on the bed. Soon, the room was filled with the sound of snoring.

It's not that they're being lazy.

According to Ye Weian's plan, they intended to make the charade real.

After all, they had traveled all day and no one could keep up. Trying to catch the rested "Grey Crows" while exhausted was a recipe for disaster.

It would be better to just eat and drink, rest, and recharge before going to find the "Grey Crows" late at night. In this way, they would be the ones who would be at ease and waiting for the enemy to attack.

As for the room where Ye Wei'an and Ai Lian were staying, there was a different story.

"Ah! Chief...no...please!" Ellen's piercing scream, choked with sobs, pierced through the thin wooden walls, interspersed with the man's hoarse, lewd laughter and the rhythmic creaking of the wooden bed, sounding particularly jarring in the corridor.

In reality, Ye Wei'an was leisurely sitting by the window, observing the street below, planning his departure route, and eating melon to cleanse his palate.

To prepare for his role as "Butcher" Grumman, he followed the character's habits and ate a large amount of suckling pig and Hurek hunter meat patties in one go.

Although you can put the meat you can't finish into your system inventory, it's still too greasy to eat a meal consisting solely of food made purely of meat, oil, and pastry.

Ellen screamed and shook the oak bed frame.

To the Grey Crow and his bodyguards next door, this sound was nothing short of a mental torture.

A short while later, Ye Wei'an saw a red dot leave the room and head downstairs.

A little while later, the red dot went upstairs, accompanied by a yellow dot.

The two points of light entered a room a little further away and eagerly merged together.

Ye Wei'an never expected that waiting for the rabbit to run into the tree stump would bring an unexpected surprise.

Since someone is so eager to deliver the goods to his door, he would be too disrespectful to the other party's kindness if he didn't accept them.