Chapter 309: Escape the Desert 13

After the two Oasis Guards left, Perry Yates quietly approached the man.

The person lying on the ground had their eyes shut tight, but their chest was still rising and falling faintly. They weren’t dead.

Perry Yates gently touched the man’s body, injecting a sliver of Wood Attribute Energy into him.

Soon, the man’s eyes fluttered open. He looked startled when he saw Perry Yates, then a bitter smile crossed his face. "You shouldn’t have saved me. If you’d let me die, I might have been able to go home."

"Go home? You attacked that Oasis Guard just to go home?"

The man coughed twice. Perry Yates’s sliver of Wood Attribute Energy had woken him up, but it hadn’t completely healed him.

After resting for a moment, the man slowly continued, "If you want to leave the Oasis, you have to get a Pass Token. And only the Oasis Guards have those tokens."

Perry Yates had already figured as much.

"But what does that have to do with you attacking an Oasis Guard?"

Hearing Perry Yates ask this, the man gave a wretched smile. "An Oasis Guard only has one Pass Token. If they give it to someone else, they can’t leave themselves."

Hearing this, Perry Yates understood. People like them, who wanted to leave the desert, were actually competing with the Oasis Guards for a chance to escape.

"Before, people left the desert by seeking the protection of the Oasis Guards. But that method isn’t actually safe, because during the journey, the Desert Guard is very likely to abandon you. At that point, if you’re lucky, you might survive. If you’re unlucky, you’ll just die out there in the desert.

This happened to me once. I used all my savings to buy a chance for protection from an Oasis Guard. But halfway through, that Oasis Guard just abandoned me. I barely made it out alive.

Later I found out that a Pass Token can only be used by one person. What the Oasis Guards are doing is basically smuggling people out. If caught, the Oasis Guard will be severely punished."

After getting the information she wanted, Perry Yates gave the man some medicine for internal injuries, then got up and left.

’It seems the only way to get a Pass Token is to steal one.’

’But not right now. There’s still plenty of time before I need to leave, after all.’

’That should be enough time for me to plot a way to get one.’

「The twelfth day of the game.」

Early in the morning, just as Perry Yates was about to head out, the innkeeper suddenly called out to her.

"Things have been a little unsettled outside lately. Be careful when you go out."

Hearing this, Perry Yates nodded, then asked curiously, "Innkeeper, did something happen?"

Based on her experience the day before, Perry Yates knew this innkeeper loved to gossip. She feigned interest, and just as she expected, he was eager to spill the details.

"Oh, you know, just yesterday, a group of strange people showed up. I heard one of them could even spit fire! They injured several Oasis Guards, too.

Plenty of people saw it."

’Spit fire? Injured Oasis Guards?’

’Those have to be players, no doubt about it.’

"That’s incredible. Did those people get in?" Perry Yates asked.

"Of course they got in! Not only did they get in, but they’re also staying at the biggest and best hotel."

"I see. Thanks for the warning, innkeeper. I’ll be careful."

As she spoke, Perry Yates placed a golden bean on the table.

The innkeeper saw it and swiftly pocketed the golden bean, his smile instantly becoming much more genuine.

"Oh, right. If you run into those people, don’t get involved with them. They’ve offended the Oasis Guards, and they’ll face retaliation soon."

As a native who had lived here his whole life, the innkeeper knew that the Oasis Guards were the most vengeful people around.

Those people dared to injure Oasis Guards today, so they’d better be prepared for revenge.

And that retaliation would come very quickly.

Perry Yates nodded.

Even if the innkeeper hadn’t said anything, she had no intention of approaching them anyway.

Walking down the street, Perry Yates bought a lot more fruit.

The fruit here was big and sweet, and she absolutely loved it.

She had already decided that after she got back and could make this game instance Concrete, she would set aside a plot of land just for growing fruit to eat.

As she walked, a commotion suddenly erupted ahead.

Looking up, she saw a group of people whose clothes clashed starkly with their surroundings, walking right toward her.

The way they were dressed further confirmed their identity as players.

Perry Yates retreated to the back of the crowd, having no intention of interacting with them.

After the group had passed, before Perry Yates could even breathe a sigh of relief, something tapped her from behind.

She turned her head and saw a person completely wrapped up, with only their eyes showing.

But those eyes looked a little familiar.

Looking at those vaguely familiar eyes, Perry Yates called out tentatively, "Candice Sawyer?"

Hearing this, the person raised an eyebrow. "Not bad. You can still recognize me."

Perry Yates blinked. "When did you get here?"

"Two days before you," Candice Sawyer said.

"So you’ve known I was here for a while."

Candice Sawyer nodded. "I wasn’t sure at first. I only confirmed it was you after observing you for a while. Speaking of which, you’re wrapped up way too tightly. I even tried to kick up a gust of wind to blow away the veil covering your face, but the thing didn’t even move."

If not for that, she would have recognized her sooner.

"Let’s not talk about that for now. Let’s exchange information."

The two of them found a shop that specialized in tea, sat down in a corner, and began to exchange the information they had gathered.

Candice Sawyer had been luckier; she was teleported very close to the Oasis right from the start. The reason she only officially entered the Oasis two days ago was that she had been abducted by a band of Desert Robbers on the way.

After Candice Sawyer wiped out the robbers, it still took her a lot of time to get here.

But she didn’t come away empty-handed. From those Desert Robbers, Candice Sawyer learned a very important piece of information: those robbers had once been Oasis Guards.

As for why former Oasis Guards had become today’s Desert Robbers, according to the information Candice Sawyer got from them, it was because of a problem with their Pass Tokens.

"The Pass Tokens again."

Perry Yates said it subconsciously when she heard Candice Sawyer mention the Pass Tokens.

Meeting Candice Sawyer’s questioning gaze, Perry Yates continued, "According to the information I’ve gathered, if we want to leave, we have to get a Pass Token."