Roland had always believed that this world was real and that the authorities and the state were cooperating to conceal a lot of things.But the strategy at the national level, he, a private citizen, couldn’t influence, nor could he see the whole picture, so he could only try to take from it what he wanted, or what was good for him.

For example, knowledge and skills.

Hearing Betta’s words, Li Lin shrugged his shoulders and then sat down. “I’ll leave this philosophical stuff to you intellectuals. After a conclusion is made, tell us in simple, understandable language.”

The three then went off to the side to play poker and fight the landlord.

Players were able to make wares and instruments in this world, and those who were dexterous could naturally make poker cards.

Roland looked at the three of them not wanting to care so much and shook his head helplessly.

Betta asked, “Brother Roland, what do you think are the chances of this idea of yours?”

“Sixty percent.” Roland pondered a little more, gathered some wine on his finger, drew a tree diagram on the table casually, and said, “When we go into the dungeon, if we don’t choose to rob the Water of Light by force, we’ll trigger another plot, and maybe with my actions, Mippels’s personality and identity could change. However, now that things have been computed to this point, Mippels’s identity and personality should be set. But I just don’t know which branching plot we’ll walk down next.”

Betta’s eyes narrowed, something he subconsciously did when he contemplated.

After a short while, Betta asked, “You mean, we can do whatever we want in this dungeon?”

“That’s not the case.” Roland shook his head. “Have you seen the Warriors protecting the Water of Light? They are all Masters and there are many of them, but looking at their armor and equipment, they are just elite soldiers. Normally, a Master Warrior is always an officer! So, that must be the equipment made by the system to prevent us from robbing the Water of Light. If our levels were higher, we might see that these Warriors are all Legends.”

It suddenly struck Betta. “No wonder I always felt something was wrong.”

“The system is forcing us to follow the predetermined plot,” Roland said after some thought. “So, we have to go out and look for information. Li Lin, you guys come over here and we’ll assign tasks.”

Li Lin muttered, “We’re just about to start fighting the landlord.”

Roland said with a smile, “Husseret and Li Lin, go see if there is a Guild of Rogues or Guild of Mercenaries and the like in this era. If there are, go buy some information from them. If not, go to the tavern and collect it.”

Li Lin nodded vigorously. He liked to go to nightclubs in the real world, so naturally, he liked to drink.

“Betta and Brazil, you two stroll around town and try to see if you can trigger a secondary quest.”

The two of them nodded.

“I’ll fly up later to see how wide the ‘actionable’ range of this dungeon world is.” Roland thought for a moment and continued, “I’ll set you guys up for another Unhindered Communication later—effective for about fourteen hours—and before the time is up, come back here to the hotel and I’ll add it again.”

As Roland spoke, he applied Unhindered Communication to all four of them.

“Okay, no problem,” the four said in unison.

“If there are no questions, let’s get started now.” Roland stood up.

At this moment, Betta suddenly shouted, “Brother Roland, we can’t seem to connect to the game forums.”

Huh?

Roland was startled for a moment. He opened the browser that came with the game and found that it was indeed showing a 404 error.

This was true for the others as well.

“Maybe it’s a peculiarity of the dungeon,” Roland said after some thought. “Anyway, let’s finish the quest first.”

With that said, all five left the hotel.

Roland found an open place with few people and sensed for magic marks.

But he found that he could not perceive the magic marks he had previously recorded.

In other words, there was no way for him to teleport anywhere else in this dungeon space.

In that case… activate Human Cannonball.

Roland whooshed and soared into the sky, then rose straight up, but just as he was in the process of ascending, he suddenly felt a little uneasy and immediately stopped, becoming suspended in midair.

And then he stared at the blue clouds overhead and felt something off. He condensed an Inferior Fireball and launched it upward.

The Inferior Fireball flew less than a hundred meters and seemed to hit something, exploding with a boom.

Grey debris was shaken off from the air which seemed empty.

Roland casually took some and crushed it in his fingers… It was dirt.

Ascending at a slower speed, Roland arrived at the spot where the Inferior Fireball had just exploded and reached out to touch a thick layer of mud.

Heh… as expected.

It was still underground—what they had seen, was it really an illusion?

An illusion created by the dungeon quest?

Landing on the ground, Roland smiled, then looked for a random pedestrian on the side of the road and asked, “Excuse me, where is the city’s library?”

The pedestrian pointed to the east. “There, the tall building with the red dome.”

Roland thanked the pedestrian and walked for a few minutes to the foot of the red dome.

The building had a large facade, and its two doors almost looked like small city gates.

There were a lot of people in white robes coming in and out of the door, seeming rather tense.

Roland stepped forward, blocking a person white robe who seemed to be in a hurry, and asked, “Is this the library?”

It was a young man in a white robe. He nodded. “Yes, but please don’t stop me, something big has happened here and I have to report it to the mayor.”

Then the young man hurried away.

Roland was stunned for a moment. He saw that the building didn’t seem to have any guards, so he walked straight in.

When he entered, he saw the main hall which was at least ten meters tall and covered a large area.

There were piles of dust everywhere on the floor.

Many of the people in white robes stood in despair before all this dust and even wept.

What happened?

Roland thought of the youngster in the white robe he had just met at the door—were these piles of dust the big event he was talking about?

While Roland was thinking, he heard a clear voice sounding high up in front of him. “Why are you all crying? The stuff is gone, we’ll just re-record it—it’s not manly at all to cry endlessly!”

Roland looked up and noticed a pretty black-haired girl coming down the stairway.

The young girl had burgundy eyes and wore a loose white robe.

At her waist hung a sword with a red tassel hanging from its hilt, which swayed as she moved.

At the sound of the young girl’s voice, the weeping men stopped their crying.

The young girl walked down the stairs and looked at the piles of dust. She also appeared distressed, but soon her expression hardened. “Everyone, go back to your rooms and rest for two hours, and gather afterward. We’ll find out what exactly happened. From now on, the library is temporarily closed, no one is allowed to come in or out, including the people of the city. If anyone pesters you, let them come to me.”

“Yes!”

The group of people in white robes responded at the same time and then scattered in twos and threes.

The young girl then set her sights on Roland. She looked at him for a few seconds, and her expression looked a little surprised and curious. Then she walked over.

Roland looked at her and was also quite surprised.

Black hair was not unheard of in the game world, but people with black hair had a mix of brown and black hair and had hair that was naturally curly and black.

However, this young girl was different. Her black hair was pure black, very straight, and shiny. She had no tresses, and her long hair hung down like silk and fell to the bottom of her waist.

The young girls’ face was on the small side. Although her eyes were burgundy, her eyebrows looked Asian in any case.

In this game world, after seeing blond hair, deep-set blue eyes, and aquiline noses, suddenly seeing such an Asian face, Roland felt quite a sense of cordiality.

This young girl walked up to Roland, sized him up, and asked, “A foreigner?”

Roland smiled and nodded.

“What are you doing here? A traveling merchant?”

“I’m a Mage, and my biggest hobby is interacting with my peers, as well as going to the libraries of various countries, cities, and absorbing new knowledge.” Roland looked around the area. “I heard this is a library… but why can’t I see any books?”

The young girl’s fair, pretty face revealed a depressed look. “You’re a bit too late. For some reason, all the books here, along with the shelves, turned to dust not too long ago.”

Roland froze for a moment, then smiled bitterly.

The system’s actions were truly airtight.

To enhance the sense of immersion, the system had to have the entire city’s institutions and background, including things like knowledge and customs, in place.

However, to keep him from gaining extra magical knowledge or learning extra spells, it actually destroyed all the books here.

How harsh.

Looking at Roland’s helpless eyes, this young girl showed an apologetic expression. “I’m really sorry, you came a long way to our city, but things ended like this…”

The young girl fell silent, and she returned to looking at the dust on the floor and sighed.

Roland, however, said, “It doesn’t matter if the books are gone. There should be many powerful Mages here. I also know some unique spells, let’s see if we can have a mutual exchange!”

“A powerful Mage, that there is.” The young girl smiled, a pair of shallow dimples in her cheeks. “My grandfather is, but his health lately…”

At this moment, from the second-floor steps, came a frail elderly male voice: “Lamia, bring this handsome young foreign boy over here.”

Roland looked up and saw an old man standing on the second flight of stairs, his right hand holding the railings, looking down at the two of them from high above.

The young girl turned her head and rebuked, “Grandpa, you’re not well, why did you get out of bed!”

“Invite that youngster over, I have something I want to talk to him about.”

“Okay.”

Lamia sighed and said to Roland, “I’m sorry, but Grandpa wants to see you. May I trouble you to chat with him?”

“Sure.”

Roland agreed with a smile.

Did he trigger some kind of plot?