Chương 373: Chapter 359

As he walked toward his next destination, Sam couldn't help but notice that the crowd had swollen considerably, nearly choking the street as people hurried toward their own destinations with growing urgency. It wasn't like there was no room to move yet, but he knew it would only take a little more before the streets of Roserun ground to a halt under sheer foot traffic alone.

Already, he could see – but mostly hear – the people driving carriages or dragging overloaded carts through the dusty city streets, shouting in frustration, cursing pedestrians for getting in their way while wheels creaked and curses filled the air. And beneath all of it ran a tension that hadn't been there when he entered the warehouse. Thankfully, he didn't have to wonder long about the reason behind the sudden shift in mood and population density.

All he had to do was listen to the snippets of conversation drifting through the crowd as he grumpily shoved his way forward, trying not to lose either his ladder or the decoy purse hanging at his side.

"…do you think they can do it?"

"…. why wouldn't…"

"…it's the biggest army…"

"Why would they attack here, when…."

"…that's right. I heard that… yeah, a counterattack."

"We are so gonna…"

"Hell yeah!" Apparently, Adam had finally decided it was time to move. The army Chrysalis had assembled would march toward Roserun before veering off toward Madspire and attempting to seize it. If they succeeded, great. If not, the attack would still serve as a valuable distraction. Especially since the Blood Army almost certainly already knew that Roserun wasn't the real target. Still, to avoid raising suspicion, they had to maintain the appearance of mobilizing their grand forces to defend the port.

And judging by the conversations around him, that mobilization had already begun. There was no fear in the streets, only confidence – an almost arrogant certainty that their superior army could withstand anything thrown at it. The people living – both NPCs and players – were confident and proud. The NPCs believed it because of the way the system worked, helped along by the Blood Army's steady stream of propaganda designed to keep the populace content and obedient.

The players believed it because, to them, this was still a game, and they knew the true extent of Roserun's defenses. Or, at the very least, they had escape routes prepared in case everything went catastrophically wrong. Most players in Roserun weren't exactly known for their loyalty. Sam suspected there was already a sizeable portion of the player base quietly preparing to abandon the city altogether, if they hadn't already started leaving. Lucky for them…

Sam suppressed a grin and shoved through a cluster of people gathered in the middle of the street, discussing the mobilization. At first, they looked ready to snap at him for his blatant aggression, but the moment they noticed the ladder resting on his shoulder, they immediately stepped aside with annoyed huffs.

'All hail the mighty ladder…' Sam thought dryly. If the ladder survived this operation, he was going to enshrine it. His third destination was a small district bordering the outer warehouse quarter. The buildings there rose high above the narrow streets, their lower sections carved directly into the rock and reinforced with weathered timber scavenged from old ships.

Above that came several floors of rough stone brickwork, but higher still, the architecture shifted again, almost like an archaeological timeline of Roserun's growth. The bricks became more uniform, less stone and more of the orangish-red clay so abundant in the region, clearly marking the point when players had begun reshaping parts of the city. This was worker housing – mostly NPCs, though a fair number of down-on-their-luck players rented rooms there as well.

The property market in Magic Unbound hadn't yet reached the absurd heights it eventually would, so most players didn't particularly care where they lived as long as they had somewhere relatively safe to log in and out. Sam stopped in front of one of the taller buildings, at least seven floors high. The flow of people around him parted momentarily, a few passersby grumbling at the obstruction as he pulled out his trusty piece of paper and studied it as though confirming he was in the right place.

Then he nodded to himself for the benefit of any potential watchers, tucked the paper away, and headed toward the stairs carved directly into the building's outer wall. Naturally, there were no railings. He descended toward the ground floor, which was by far the cheapest and least maintained section of the structure. The surrounding buildings blocked most of the sunlight, leaving the lower levels perpetually drowned in shadow and damp chill.

The higher one lived – and the closer one got to actual sunlight – the more expensive the rent became. Not to mention the cost of buying a room outright. Most of the residents were NPC laborers who spent the majority of the day working, so his trip deeper into the building remained relatively peaceful. Unfortunately, he didn't have a blueprint for the place, meaning he would have to improvise once inside, but a slightly crooked sign pointing toward the basement stairwell was all the guidance he really needed.

After making sure nobody was watching, both with his eyes and his mana sense, Sam grinned faintly beneath his fake beard, opened the door, and began descending. Fifteen minutes later, he found himself in a cramped storage room behind a stack of crates filled with tools caked in dried dirt and suspiciously dark stains. They did not look like tools that improved people's lives.

'Once again, the city of Roserun proving that even the loveliest-looking low-level NPC can secretly be a degenerate criminal…' he mused while beginning the familiar process of installing the SUNBURST device. In the inherited memories he possessed, Roserun had been infamous on the forums for the increasingly horrifying quest chains players uncovered there. Finding escaped convicts had been among the milder ones. Hunting down a butcher who sacrificed customers to demons.

Tracking raiders who delighted in sacking coastal villages. And worse… The game never crossed certain lines outright, never explicitly showing the most heinous acts, but the implications had always been obvious from the environments, dialogue, and aftermath left behind. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Thankfully, the silence and isolation of the basement allowed him to work uninterrupted.

Within another fifteen minutes, he had finished engraving the runic circle and anchoring the device in place. The circle flashed with a soft golden light as mana poured into it, and the cool basement air warmed by several degrees. Through his mana sense, he could already feel the connection forming between this circle and the previous two. Thin currents of energy drifted invisibly through the air like faint threads tying the network together.

It wasn't fully anchored yet, but the structure was beginning to take shape. The system agreed. [Place the seven SUNBURST devices in the correct positions: 3/7] [Engrave the necessary runic circles at the correct positions: 3/7] Afterward, he dragged several crates and boxes over the circle to conceal it, then used wind magic to scatter dust back across the floor until the area looked untouched.

Suppressing a jaunty tune before it could escape him, Sam hoisted his lucky ladder back onto his shoulder and headed for the stairs. He still had work to do. The fourth location was in the commercial district. The area was packed with shops, sprawling marketplaces, auction houses built both by the game itself and by ambitious players, along with the headquarters of several NPC-led organizations. Tellingly, the Healing Guild didn't maintain a branch anywhere in Roserun.

What the city did have, however, was no fewer than seven mercenary guild headquarters. That he could see… As Sam moved through the crowded streets, he noticed the atmosphere had grown even more strained than before. Conversations were quieter now, harsher, with people clustering into tight groups to discuss the looming conflict. Still, not even the possibility of war could distract the average player from what they actually cared about. Playing the game.

"We are looking for a mage for a fracture run! Water preferred!"

"Looking for a tank for a speedrun!"

"Our group's recruiting mages! Absolutely no fire mages!" The streets rang with constant shouting as players searched for parties, recruits, healers, tanks, or anyone remotely competent. Large message boards covered in advertisements and sign-up sheets had been erected throughout the district, but in the grand tradition of humanity, most people ignored them entirely in favor of yelling at strangers. Now that the area contained far more players than NPCs, Sam's presence became even easier to overlook.

Unfortunately, that also meant most people didn't bother moving out of his way. He had to weave and duck around groups of players blocking entire sections of the street, muttering under his breath the entire time while carefully maintaining the appearance of an irritated NPC worker. At the same time, he suppressed his mana signature down to the absolute minimum. He was powerful. But if the hundreds of players surrounding him decided to focus their attacks on him all at once, he doubted he would survive for long.

Even with sweat slicking his back from the constant fear of discovery, he still managed to slip toward the rear entrance of one of the shops lining the street. He waited patiently until both the clerk and the customers inside became distracted by an increasingly animated conversation about some expensive potion. Then he activated a small rune-carved metal plate. His body vanished from sight. Moving quickly, he wedged the back door open just enough to slip through before silently entering the building.

Inside, he immediately headed for the stairs leading down into the basement. Above him, he could still hear the clerk enthusiastically trying to upsell some supposedly miraculous potion to an unimpressed customer as Sam descended deeper underground. Once again, he found a secluded corner behind several shelves stacked with crates and supplies. Dropping to one knee, he used earth magic to carve out a shallow cavity in the stone floor before carefully placing the SUNBURST device inside.

After sealing it beneath stone once more, he meticulously engraved the necessary runic circle across the flattened surface. A moment later, the completed circle pulsed with the now-familiar golden light. Working quickly, Sam rearranged several nearby boxes and shifted a few items on the shelves until the circle disappeared completely from sight. The system notification appeared almost immediately.

[Place the seven SUNBURST devices in the correct positions: 4/7] [Engrave the necessary runic circles at the correct positions: 4/7] Without wasting any time admiring his work, Sam rose to his feet and headed back toward the stairs in complete silence. Things were becoming increasingly dangerous. And he wanted this finished as quickly as possible. The next three targets would be far more difficult. By circling around the city the way he had, Sam had already dealt with the easier locations.

Now came the unpleasant part. First, he had to infiltrate the district where the so-called nobles lived – meaning wealthy mercenaries, robber barons, self-proclaimed pirate kings, and, most importantly, the powerful player guilds. After that came the crafting district, where the streets never truly slept, and guards were everywhere, constantly patrolling workshops, foundries, and warehouses that operated day and night.

And finally, once those were done, he would still have to infiltrate the harbor warehouse district itself. That area would be the worst of them all. The traffic there was constant, but unlike the market district, a new face wouldn't simply vanish into the crowd. The guards stationed around the harbor were used to scrutinizing newcomers because every arriving ship brought unfamiliar people into the city. And most of those people tended to be criminals.

Meaning every stranger, no matter how convincingly grumpy or how confidently they carried a ladder, would attract attention sooner or later.

'But first… let's visit the rich people and leave them something they'll remember forever…' Sam thought while continuing through the streets, the crowd around him pulsing with renewed tension. Simply walking into one of those mansions carrying a ladder wasn't going to work. The wealthy had their own maintenance crews. The neighboring buildings, however, did not. Climbing the narrow stairs of a nearby apartment building, Sam finally put away the ladder before retrieving one of the speed potions he had been given.

This part would require speed. A lot of it. He activated another rune-carved metal plate, vanishing from sight, then uncorked the potion. The swirling silver liquid looked disturbingly similar to quicksilver and tasted sharply of mint and pepper as he swallowed it in a single gulp. [Speed Enhancement: You drank a speed-enhancing potion. Your movement speed is tripled for the duration of the effect. Once the effect ends, extreme fatigue will set in, reducing your movement speed to one-fourth of normal for ten minutes.] A timer appeared on his HUD. 1: 00 0: 59 0: 58 Sam rolled his shoulders once, shook out his limbs, and then layered enhancement after enhancement over his body, channeling nearly all of his abilities toward speed. Then he exploded into motion. He tore up the remaining stairs, burst through the rooftop door, and launched himself into the air, clearing the mansion's tall walls in a single leap.

0: 36 The estate he had chosen – belonging to some 'noble' pirate – below was heavily guarded, patrols constantly moving through the grounds, but under the effects of the potion and the invisibility, he was fast enough to blur between groups even in broad daylight before anyone could properly register his presence. His boots barely brushed the grass before he accelerated again, the world around him smearing into streaks of color and motion as he raced toward the rear of the estate.

There, relying almost entirely on mana sense because his eyes could no longer properly process movement at that speed, he located a smaller detached building sitting behind the main mansion. More importantly, it was empty. 0: 23 0: 22 His body moved almost faster than thought itself, reduced to little more than a blurry shadow streaking through the air. 0: 12 0: 11 0: 10 He practically crashed through the side door, slamming it shut behind him with slightly more force than intended.

The building appeared to be either auxiliary guard housing or perhaps guest quarters that the mansion owner barely cared about anymore. Either way, it was deserted. Sam moved deeper inside, following his mana sense toward the center of the structure, where he found a small windowless room. 0: 03 0: 02 0: 01 0: 00 The moment the timer expired, his body immediately betrayed him. The impossible speed vanished.

The world slowed violently back to normal, and suddenly every muscle in his body felt unbearably heavy, as though he had been filled with molten lead. Even with all his enhancements, moving normally became difficult. [Extreme Fatigue: Your body is overwhelmed by exhaustion. Movement speed is reduced to one-quarter of normal, and your reaction time is significantly slowed. Stamina and health regeneration are reduced by 50%. Remaining Duration: 09: 58] Ignoring the debuff, Sam shuffled toward a small kitchen before opening the door to an abandoned walk-in storage room. Only a few insect-ridden sacks of flour and mouse-chewed supplies sat forgotten on the shelves. Closing the door behind him, he finally sank to his knees with relief and began carefully prying up old floor tiles with earth magic. One by one, he shifted the stone aside until he had enough room to place the fifth SUNBURST device beneath the floor.

He activated it, covered it again as quickly as possible, then painstakingly carved the necessary runic circle into the stone underneath. By the time he finished, the fatigue debuff finally expired, allowing his body to feel almost normal again. Carefully, he restored the tiles to their original positions before brushing dust and debris into the seams to disguise any signs of tampering. It wouldn't survive serious inspection. But nobody seemed to use this place much anyway. Hopefully.

Shaking his head, Sam stood, stretched a few aching muscles, and headed back outside. One more speed potion later, along with another carefully engraved invisibility plate, and he was once again walking the streets of Roserun as though nothing had happened at all. [Place the seven SUNBURST devices in the correct positions: 5/7] [Engrave the necessary runic circles at the correct positions: 5/7]