MMORPG: Crowd Control

After crumbling the note and showing a ferocious expression, the kid was nearly traumatized and was about to start crying in fear.

The nearby NPCs that saw the scene were ready to capture Lei Zhen as well, thinking that he was bullying a kid.

'Oh great, now the NPC's decided to be so busybody?' Lei Zhen twitched his mouth as he tucked his tail and ran as fast as possible. Creating a scene right now would be the last thing he wanted to do.

A few minutes later, Lei Zhen finally halted his footstep when he realized the NPC didn't chase after him.

"Phew, what a tragedy." Lei Zhen breathed deeply and wondered where Smither Gary could be hiding. He refused to believe Smither Gary was omnipotent enough to know exactly where he would search and prepared so many notes in advance.

Someone was definitely helping him in the background.

"..."

When Lei Zhen thought about this point, he truly wanted to smack himself because there was indeed a place he had not searched thoroughly.

"The goddamn church I teleported to in the first place." Lei Zhen twitched his mouth and cursed. When he first teleported to Sinos City's church, the thought of Smither Gary hiding in the church itself was out of the question.

The reason?

Priest Solis had come forward to inform him that Smither Gary was waiting for him, and thus created a misconception for Lei Zhen, thinking that Smither Gary had left the church already.

Stretching his neck and arms, Lei Zhen grudgingly walked his way toward the church again. If his prediction was correct, then he had essentially wasted a lot of time for no reason, getting toyed with by Smither Gary.

Sometime later, Lei Zhen arrived at the church and saw Priest Solis standing near the center of the church, preaching to a group of religious people.

Seeing that Priest Solis was busy preaching, Lei Zhen calmly walked around the surroundings, searching for any clues of Smither Gary's trace.

Of course, the guards realized Lei Zhen was looking for something, but since Priest Solis had vouched for him previously, they decided to ignore his action.

'Hmm, the only place that Smither Gary could hide is in the back site, but it's heavily guarded.' Lei Zhen thought to himself, wondering what he should do.

And almost as if a god or goddess had heard his prayer, a frantic person burst into the church and started bawling in tears.

"Priest Solis, please save my wife. Her face had turned purple and even the medicine provided by the doctor failed to cure her. Please save my wife." The person banged their head on the floor, pleading for help.

The commotion was quite big as everyone had their attention on him, and Lei Zhen was slick enough to utilize this commotion to sneak into the back site. Priest Solis should be a capable man to assist the person, so Lei Zhen wasn't worried nor did he lack empathy.

After intruding in the back site, Lei Zhen was cautious to make sure no one could catch his presence, lest he might truly be thrown into prison for entering a restricted area.

In the back site, there were multiple doors and Lei Zhen attempted to eavesdrop from outside, only to realize it was a futile effort. There was a sound concealment formation within the room, preventing anyone from eavesdropping.

Without a choice, Lei Zhen knew what he must do to achieve the result- pretending to be working for the priest and opening each door.

Each door Lei Zhen opened, some were empty, some were occupied and he would give an excuse that Priest Solis wanted them to do something.

Just like that, Lei Zhen scouted through each door before finally spotting Smither Gary enjoying a cup of wine, with his eyes admiring the scenery outside the window.

"Took you long enough, brat. I would have thought that it'll take another 3 hours or so before you could find me here." Smither Gary chuckled softly, not even needing to turn around to know it was Lei Zhen.

Lei Zhen squinted his eyes and made sure to calm his emotion, unwilling to let him enjoy any taunting moment.

"Hmph, what would a secluded man like you do here? Why did you suddenly leave without announcing anything?" Lei Zhen asked, seemingly confused as to why he decided to play hide and seek with him.

Was it simply because he wanted to toy with him?

The answer was clearly not.

Grabbing a nearby chair, Lei Zhen sat patiently there, awaiting his response.

Smither Gary continued to drink some wine before exhaling and smiled bitterly.

"I grew up here in Sinos City since I was little. It was also this church where I met Mistress Doreah and decided on my path as a blacksmith. My fame alone in Sinos City was enough to have every citizen here cooperate with me if I asked them to." Smither Gary revealed.

"So you are here to linger in the past…" Lei Zhen commented, finally comprehending the meaning of his note.

Lingering in the past was basically Smither Gary reminiscing about his old days in Sinos City. And this particular church held a deep memory for him because of his unknown relationship with Mistress Doreah.

"Indeed, and knowing how conceited you are, I purposely instructed Priest Solis to be extremely vague with you and misdirect you to travel all over Sinos City." Smither Gary placed his winecup down on the table and turned to Lei Zhen.

"You might think I'm playing a prank on you, but shouldn't you tour a place for someone you wanted to hire- in which many other nobles wanted my expertise as well?" He then asked calmly.

Lei Zhen remained silent but nodded his head in agreement.

Sure enough, he was extremely blessed to obtain a talent like Smither Gary in his place.

After all, Smither Gary's skills alone were enough to place him on the top of the social ladder, with many willing to shower him with gold coins.

"Anyway, have you done lingering in the past? Candice and the rest are still waiting for us back at the wasteland field." Lei Zhen then enquired, not rushing him to hurry back.

"There's one more place that I wish to go, and it's probably a location that you have neglected as well." Smither Gary smiled slightly.

"I searched every location though…"

"You didn't because if you did, then you wouldn't be here."

Lei Zhen raised an eyebrow in confusion. He was positive that he had searched all of Sinos City and didn't miss any location.

And seeing his confusion, Smither Gary put on a cloak and exited the room.

"Follow me, brat."

Although confused, Lei Zhen didn't say anything and followed Smither Gary.

As the two exited the back site, some of the guards were astonished by Lei Zhen's appearance but refrained from doing anything as they noticed Smither Gary.

Lei Zhen also noticed their stare but snickered coldly. It was as if he was taunting them about what they could do to him?

The commotion earlier also subsided since it wasn't uncommon to see helpless people coming into the church and begging the priest for help.

Quite a long time had passed, and the two of them had left Sinos City entirely, allowing Lei Zhen to realize why Smither Gary was so sure that he didn't search everywhere.

After all, the location they are heading toward was outside the perimeter of Sinos City.

"Tsk, no wonder why you are that confident." Lei Zhen clicked his tongue.

"It's not my fault that you didn't think outside the box. Though you shouldn't be that displeased with yourself since you managed to come to the correct city. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered to work for you anymore." Smither Gary explained.

To him, an employer should be one that could understand and know the basics of their employees. Only then would the employees know their worth is important to the employer, and not just some workers that could be disposed of?

Meanwhile, Lei Zhen suddenly paused his footsteps as he crossed his arms, glaring angrily at Smither Gary.

"You were furious when you realized that I had spied on you without permission. But aren't you the same when you eavesdropped on my conversation with Candice?" Lei Zhen twitched his brows and said, accusing him of doing the exact same thing as he had done previously.

"That's different from what you did, brat." Smither Gary shrugged his shoulders.

"How could one be blamed for listening in their own place? It's like saying it's a crime to sleep in your own bed." He added.

"..."

Nodding his head repeatedly, Lei Zhen gave him a thumbs up for being so shameless. Only capable people can be that shameless and hold zero remorse for their actions while accusing others.

"I'm sure Candice would be glad to know that you are this capable as well." Lei Zhen smiled brightly, seemingly praising him but was in fact threatening him.