Shane noticed Ethan’s reaction and quickly turned to look where Ethan was staring.
Just as Ethan thought the middle-aged man was an enemy, Shane’s expression changed. He shouted in surprise, "Deputy City Lord!"
Ford, the Deputy City Lord of the Ice City settlent, heard Shane’s call and nodded. He moved incredibly fast and reached them in the blink of an eye.
He looked at the badly injured Shane. Concern flashed in his eyes as he asked:
"Are you okay?"
Shane shook his head, his face turning serious. He quickly said, "I’m fine, Deputy City Lord. In the underground caves, we found a Siphoner related to [Calamity]!"
Ford’s face changed. He spoke quickly, "[Calamity]? A Siphoner? Looks like I was right. I was passing by and felt sothing strange, so I ca to check."
"I didn’t expect a Siphoner to appear so close to the Ice City settlent!"
"You all rest here. I’ll go in and take a look."
As Deputy City Lord Ford was about to pass Shane and enter the underground caves of Frost Valley, he suddenly stopped. He patted Shane on the shoulder and said:
"Leave this to . You’ve taken your revenge. Now take so ti to rest and clear your head."
Shane shook his head. "I don’t need to rest. The Siphoner is a threat to the whole Ice City settlent. I can’t rest now."
Ford smiled. "Alright. If you don’t want to rest, I’ll assign you other tasks when we get back."
After he finished, Ford’s eyes slid over Ethan, and then he went straight into the caves.
Shane, Ryan, Eric, and the others relaxed.
"I didn’t think we’d et the Deputy City Lord here," Ryan said.
Eric nodded. "Yeah. If we destroy the Siphoner as fast as possible, we can mostly stop [Calamity] from happening."
"We’ll get a lot of credit this ti!"
Ryan thought of sothing and smiled. "When the reward cos, I can buy a house in the core area of the Ice City settlent."
Shane wasn’t as tense now. He glanced at Ryan and smiled. "After you buy the house, it’s ti to get married, right? You and Sherry have loved each other for many years."
Ryan nodded, a little shy. Thinking of his lover, his face filled with joy.
Just then, Ethan asked, curious, "Shane, what’s your relationship with Deputy City Lord Ford?"
Shane answered, "After my mother took out of the underground caves, we went to the Ice City settlent. We happened to et Lord Ford. He adopted and began to teach how to beco strong."
"I was training in other settlents before. I only ca back to the Ice City settlent recently."
Ethan suddenly understood. No wonder Ford, the Deputy City Lord of the Ice City settlent, treated Shane so warmly.
So Ford had adopted him.
...
Deep in the caves, inside a vast underground chamber, Deputy City Lord Ford stood frowning at a huge white plant.
He sighed and said slowly: "That idiot Sinclair. He even got himself killed by Shane and the others, and he also stirred up the Siphoner."
"He deserved to die."
Ford glanced irritably at a corner of the chamber and asked coldly:
"Before the [Ice Calamity] fully arrives, keeping the Siphoner hidden from others is your job."
"Do you know how much trouble this accident has caused ?"
From the dark corner, a woman in a black robe stepped out. She said helplessly:
"You know I’m handling two Siphoner sites alone. I can’t keep up, and the organization didn’t send anyone to help."
"Besides, even if every thief in the cave died, as long as they didn’t enter here, the Siphoner shouldn’t have reacted."
"Sothing else must have caught its attention."
"This isn’t on ."
Ford took a few deep breaths. He looked toward the center at the huge plant covered in head-like tentacles, his eyes full of disgust.
He said in a low voice: "According to the plan, we just needed to wait a few days. The players would co, and the Siphoner would grow fast."
"But now all the thieves in the caves are dead. If we let the Siphoner create monsters to lure players, it will definitely draw City Lord Shawn’s attention."
"That guy isn’t soone you or I can handle."
The woman in the black robe thought for a mont and said, "How about this: Grimmount from Safe Zone 9527 has ties with a group of icefield thieves. Their leader wants to join us."
"Have Grimmount go talk to them. The Siphoner in Safe Zone 9527 has always been well hidden, so there shouldn’t be any surprises."
"Then let that group of icefield thieves stay here, and have the Ice City settlent post a quest to draw the players over."
"That way we don’t need to move the Siphoner, and the plan can go on as normal."
She paused. She was waiting for Ford’s answer, because all of this depends on Shane and the others not leaking what they saw. The surest way to make soone keep quiet and not leak any info is to kill them.
Ford clearly knew what she ant. He sighed and said slowly, "Everything we do is for that faint hope—the hope that can save everything."
He looked at the woman in the black robe and went on, "Shane...I don’t want him to die."
"I need you to change his mory and make him forget about the Siphoner."
The woman in the black robe frowned. She answered, unwilling, "You know changing soone’s mory isn’t easy."
"Besides Shane, there are four soldiers and one player."
"I can’t touch a player’s mory."
Ford’s eyes went cold. He said, "I’ll arrange ’accidents’ for the others to shut them up."
"As for the player, I’ll get his ID and use a quest reward to make him think it’s over."
"Will that really work?" the woman asked.
Ford turned and walked toward the exit. "Do you have a better idea?"
Just then, the woman in the black robe suddenly thought of sothing and quickly said:
"ID! Right—once we know this player’s ID, we can have the people on the other side look into it and get rid of this player."
Ford stopped, spun around, and shot her a warning look. His voice turned a bit sharp:
"Have you forgotten why we’re doing all this?"
"The hope isn’t in the Dawn World—it’s in the players’ world! We must never kill any player for good!"
The woman in the black robe t Ford’s eyes, instinctively took a step back, and stopped talking.
Ford didn’t stay long in the underground cave. He soon ca back to the surface.
As soon as he appeared, Shane, Ryan, and Ethan hurried over.
Shane asked anxiously: "Deputy City Lord, how is it? Did you destroy the Siphoner?"
Ford nodded. "Good thing you found it in ti. This Siphoner hadn’t fully grown. If we’d waited any longer, even I wouldn’t have been able to destroy it."
Hearing the deputy city lord of the Ice City settlent say that, the others let out a sigh of relief.
Only Ethan kept looking at Ford, lost in thought.
Ford asked Shane to explain everything. After he finished listening, Ford looked at Ethan and said softly:
"[Windchaser], you did very well. Without you, Shane and the others wouldn’t have gone into the underground cave, and they wouldn’t have found the dangerous Siphoner."
"You could say it was thanks to you that the Ice City settlent was able to remove a threat."
"It’s over now, and you should get your reward."
He took out three items glowing with purple light. With a small wave of his right hand, they floated into the air and circled around Ethan.
Smiling, Ford said, "You can pick any one of these three Purple-quality items. Besides that, you’ll also get a thousand contribution points for the Ice City settlent."
"You can use contribution points to get weapons, gear, and items from the settlent’s treasury. You can also use them to borrow materials and books from the settlent’s library."
Ethan had heard Shane and the others talk about contribution points before, but he hadn’t expected that they also let him borrow books and materials.
He looked at the three purple-glowing items floating in front of him, then glanced at Ford.
It was clear Ford was stronger than anyone he had seen, NPCs included.
Ethan pushed those thoughts aside and carefully examined the three Purple-quality weapons. Since he could choose, he would pick the one that suited him best.
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