Chapter 311: Escape the Desert 15

Perry Yates, along with her three Clones, made for a group of four darting between the various shops.

Although word of the impending price hikes hadn’t spread yet, there were plenty of clever people in the Oasis. Like her, many had already started buying supplies in bulk.

Seeing this, the merchants knew their plans had been exposed. They dropped the pretense and simply raised their prices.

Many people saw this and immediately began to curse them out.

But these merchants weren’t to be trifled with. Anyone who could open a shop in this Oasis had to have some power.

The powerless would have been eaten alive by the other inhabitants of this land long ago.

Fortunately, Perry Yates had already bought everything she wanted before this happened.

Even though the Safe House had significantly more space than a spatial item, it was still finite.

Perry Yates had been on a constant shopping spree, and by now, her Safe House was piled high with all sorts of supplies.

Once she was done shopping, Perry Yates began wandering around. In truth, she was observing the patrol routes of the Oasis Guards, trying to see if they carried Pass Tokens on them.

Unfortunately, to her disappointment, while the Oasis Guards’ patrol routes were easy enough to track, she didn’t see anything on their persons that resembled a Pass Token.

’Maybe they don’t carry them on their person.’

Then again, that made sense. Something as important as a Pass Token wouldn’t be carried around casually. ’What if it got lost?’

’Since they don’t have them on their person, there’s only one other likely place.’

Perry Yates’s gaze shifted in a specific direction, toward a cluster of buildings that stood in stark contrast to the rest of the Oasis’s architecture. It was the Oasis Guards’ headquarters.

The Oasis Guards’ headquarters was patrolled twenty-four hours a day. Any ordinary person who got too close would be arrested on the spot.

「Day fourteen of the game.」

Perry Yates left early in the morning and, as usual, had her Spiritual Body circle the Oasis.

As it flew over the lake, Perry Yates’s Spiritual Body suddenly noticed something amiss. The water level seemed to have dropped once more.

Not only that, but the fish she had seen swimming in the water yesterday had also disappeared.

After circling above the lake, her Spiritual Body finally spotted a fish in a place concealed by overgrown weeds.

However, the fish was floating belly-up, completely lifeless.

The fish’s body hadn’t started to smell yet, so it must have died recently.

Seeing this, Perry Yates was baffled.

’The dropping water level and the dead fish... is there a connection between them?’

’Oh well. It doesn’t really concern me anyway.’

Perry Yates couldn’t figure it out, so she quickly decided to stop thinking about it.

’No point wasting time on it. After all, I have more important things to do.’

Candice Sawyer had found her yesterday to say she was leaving for a while. She had then departed the Oasis and still hadn’t returned.

Perry Yates spent the day sprinkling Space Grass seeds around the perimeter of the Oasis. When night fell, she left her room and headed for the Oasis Guards’ headquarters.

Activating her Invisibility and the Silver Cross, Perry Yates was just about to enter when a gruff voice suddenly boomed from nearby.

"Who’s there!"

Hearing the voice, Perry Yates froze. She was shocked. ’No way, no way! Have my items and my Skill failed? Did they actually spot me?’

But Perry Yates quickly realized it was just a false alarm.

She hadn’t been exposed. The one who had been discovered was another player who was also trying to sneak into the headquarters.

The moment he was discovered, the person turned and bolted.

Seeing this, Perry Yates continued on her way inside.

Once inside the Oasis Guards’ headquarters, Perry Yates immediately began her search. Her target was the Pass Token, so she started by checking the dorm rooms of each Oasis Guard.

So as not to be detected, Perry Yates was extremely careful as she searched.

Unfortunately, she searched every possible location and came up with nothing.

’Did I guess wrong? Are the Pass Tokens actually on their person?’

As she thought this, Perry Yates couldn’t help but frown. Just then, she spotted someone.

The man’s uniform was very similar to that of the Oasis Guards, but with slight differences. Judging by his overall demeanor, he seemed to be an officer.

The man was dragging a heavy-looking chest, walking briskly ahead.

From his strained expression, it was clear the chest was very heavy.

Seeing this, Perry Yates immediately followed him.

The man entered a room, shut the door tightly, and drew the curtains completely, as if terrified of leaving even the smallest gap.

What the man didn’t know, however, was that as he was doing all this, there was already another person in the room.

After confirming that his surroundings were secure, the man finally opened the chest slowly.

Inside the chest were neatly stacked bars of Gold—a full chest, containing what looked like a hundred bars.

Even Perry Yates couldn’t help but be shocked by the sheer amount of Gold.

However, the real shock was yet to come.

The man lifted his mattress, revealing a hollowed-out space beneath it—which was also filled to the brim with neatly stacked Gold.

The amount of Gold under the mattress was several times what had been in the chest.

The man picked up two bars of Gold and kissed them deeply before stacking all the Gold from the chest into the space under the mattress.

After finishing, he put everything back as it was.

Then, as Perry Yates watched, the man went to his desk and retrieved a token made of solid Gold from a hidden compartment beneath a drawer.

The word "Pass" was engraved on the front of the golden token.

The man admired the token for a moment before setting it aside.

Then, he took out a piece of Wood and a carving knife from the drawer.

As Perry Yates watched, the man painstakingly carved the block of Wood, cut by cut, into the shape of the token.

After confirming it was an exact replica, the man took out some gold lacquer. He coated the surface of the carved wooden token with it, and once it dried, the two tokens looked completely identical.

Perry Yates watched as the man put the real golden token back in its hiding spot, then left with the fake one.

Only after the man was long gone did Perry Yates cancel her Invisibility.

"Phew, he’s finally gone."

Perry Yates mimicked the man’s actions, taking the token from the hidden compartment beneath the drawer. Then, she used vines to craft a fake replacement and put it back.

Just as she was about to leave, her eyes fell on the unremarkable mattress. Acting on the principle that a thief never leaves empty-handed, she took all the Gold from underneath it as well.

Judging by the way that man forged the token, he was probably no saint. As for his ill-gotten gains, she was more than happy to take them off his hands.