Chapter 315: Escape the Desert 19

「Day Seventeen of the Game.」

Early in the morning, Perry Yates arrived at the spot where the lake used to be.

The water source had completely vanished, and even the sludge at the bottom had dried solid. The ground was covered with countless marks from digging.

Perry Yates walked to the edge and suddenly felt that the ground beneath her feet was strange.

Looking down, she saw that what was once soil had now turned to sand.

Seeing this, Perry Yates instinctively took a few steps back. Then she saw it: where she had just been standing, a yellowish-orange object was now exposed.

Recalling the information she’d gotten from the leader of The Oasis Caravan, Perry Yates didn’t hesitate when she saw the yellowish-orange object. She walked right over and picked it up. Sure enough, it was a solid piece of Gold.

She tucked the Gold away and scouted the area, but unfortunately, she found nothing else.

As she turned to leave, Perry Yates noticed that the surrounding plants had become listless after the lake’s disappearance. Some of their leaves were already starting to wilt.

Seeing this, Perry Yates couldn’t help but wonder, ’Even if the water returns in a dozen or so days, can this Oasis ever go back to the way it was?’

Just as Perry Yates was returning to her inn, she found the inn next door surrounded by a human wall.

"What happened?"

Perry Yates found the innkeeper in the crowd and asked quietly.

Hearing her, the innkeeper glanced at her. For some reason, she could see distance and wariness in his eyes.

But the innkeeper eventually told Perry Yates what had happened.

"Someone died."

Hearing this, Perry Yates didn’t immediately grasp the implications and asked rather naively, "Dead? How?"

’Did they starve or die of thirst?’

’That can’t be right. The water’s only been out for a day. It takes three days without water for a person to die.’

Seeing Perry Yates’s clueless expression, the innkeeper said irritably, "They were murdered. And all the supplies they had stockpiled are gone."

The native inhabitants had lived here for generations; everyone was related in some way. Now that someone had suddenly been murdered, the first suspects were naturally outsiders like Perry Yates and the others.

The innkeeper didn’t seem to suspect Perry Yates, though, or he wouldn’t have told her this much.

Still, even if he didn’t suspect her, he was no longer as friendly as before. After all, times had changed.

This incident was the spark that lit the fuse. Fear began to spread through the crowd.

Perry Yates was now absolutely certain the culprit was a player. She was just curious how they had managed to take so many supplies at once. ’Do they have a lot of Space Cards?’

But Perry Yates didn’t dwell on it for long. After she returned to her inn, the owner was already, both subtly and not-so-subtly, trying to get people to leave.

Of course, his actions weren’t aimed at Perry Yates alone, but at everyone staying at his inn.

Relatively speaking, the innkeeper’s attitude toward Perry Yates was still better than toward others.

Perry Yates didn’t argue. She packed her bags and left the inn.

As soon as she was outside the inn, she immediately activated her Silver Cross and concealed herself within the crowd.

’Anyway, there are only about two days left before I can leave. I’ll just find a place to lie low until then.’

Perry Yates left a Clone, a Spiritual Body, and some Space Grass in the Oasis so she could monitor the situation at all times. She herself, however, left the Oasis, planning to hunker down outside for a couple of days.

’And if I’m not mistaken, this Oasis is about to descend into chaos.’

She hadn’t gone far from the Oasis into the desert when she saw a camel running toward her in the distance.

The camel stopped a few meters away, then came to her side and affectionately nuzzled her clothes.

Perry Yates patted the camel’s head, then took out her Safe House.

The upgraded Safe House now had a small courtyard.

Perry Yates sprouted a pile of plants from the ground and took out a bucket of water, letting the camel eat and drink its fill. She, meanwhile, went back inside.

In all her time in the game, she hadn’t had a proper wash since the first few days.

Especially in the desert. Even though Perry Yates had the Cold Moon Guardian to keep her cool, she was still active every day, and sweating was unavoidable.

Now that she finally had the time, she was determined to have a good, long wash.

Two hours later, Perry Yates emerged from the bathroom feeling completely refreshed.

’Whew, that’s much better.’

Perry Yates towel-dried her damp hair, then walked over to a chair made of Gold and plopped down.

「Day Eighteen of the Game.」

Perry Yates’s true body remained in the Safe House, while her Spiritual Body and Clone kept a constant watch on the situation back at the Oasis.

Sure enough, just as she’d predicted, the two men who had returned with Candice Sawyer couldn’t resist making trouble. And they started off with a bang.

During the night, they murdered several patrolling Oasis Guards.

Perhaps because they had once been Oasis Guards themselves, their attacks were swift, precise, and ruthless. Nearly every blow was fatal.

When the remaining Oasis Guards saw the familiar technique, they immediately realized who the culprits were. The entire Oasis went on high alert, and all the guards were dispatched to conduct a door-to-door search.

However, the two men had fled the Oasis under the cover of night after the killings, so no matter how the Oasis Guards searched, their efforts were in vain.

Moreover, they didn’t just kill the Oasis Guards. They also forced their way into the homes of many natives, smashing things to bits and wantonly destroying all the supplies the families had painstakingly gathered, rendering them useless.

With this, the already scarce supplies became even tighter. A sense of paranoia spread, with many people fearing their own homes would be invaded and their supplies destroyed.

The people who had previously bought Pass Tokens from Perry Yates grew anxious at the sight of this chaos. Though they had spent a fortune, they were still very wealthy and had no shortage of supplies.

But this made them even more worried, so they decided to ask if they could depart ahead of schedule.

The Oasis Guard they asked simply assumed it was one of his colleagues trying to earn some extra cash. He didn’t question their identities or know they possessed genuine Pass Tokens. He simply told them the official departure time and sent them away.

It was then that Perry Yates, who had witnessed the entire exchange through her Spiritual Body, remembered something.

’It seems I forgot to tell those buyers that the token has a limit on how many people can use it.’