Chapter 163: Dekan Did Not Cheat
[Marquess Roderick has died. Mission Objective 3 has been achieved in an unconventional manner.]
With the suicide of Marquess Roderick, the quest prompt in the Shadow World updated once again.
At this moment, the other challengers in the city were left bewildered by the new prompt.
Firstly, they had no idea who managed to skip past the locked Mission Objective 2 so quickly, unlocking Mission Objective 3 in an unknown manner.
Secondly, Mission Objective 3, being the ultimate task, was often the most challenging part of the entire Shadow World.
The mission had just been revealed, and in less than half a day, it had been achieved?!
And the most crucial point was that in this mission, they were supposed to be on the defensive, doing everything possible to prevent the revival of the vampire marquess.
Marquess Roderick was a formidable enemy that challengers could not defeat.
After all, in a tier 6 Shadow World, there were hardly any challengers who could contend with a tier 8 opponent, especially not an opponent as difficult to kill as a vampire marquess.
So how did Marquess Roderick just disappear?!Did someone cheat?
Such a final boss couldn’t possibly just decide to commit suicide, right?
One could only suspect that something was wrong with this Shadow World...
...
At this moment, Dekan also regained control of his interrupted livestream.
Viewers saw the situation in the church and the new prompts from the Shadow World and burst into an uproar.
"The livestream came back but Marquess Roderick is gone?! How did this happen?!"
"What did Dekan do?!"
"That’s impossible! Marquess Roderick is unbeatable!"
Dekan seemed to realize the audience's confusion and patiently explained to the screen, "Marquess Roderick just committed suicide."
"Bullshit!!"
"You might as well say you scared him to death!"
Clearly, Dekan's explanation did not sit well with the audience.
Even though Dekan couldn't see the audience's reactions, he could probably guess at the doubts everyone had about him now.
So Dekan could only take a deep breath and earnestly say, "I didn't cheat! I didn't cheat!"
...
He didn't know if the audience found his words convincing. He decided to not care.
"Phew, at least I fooled Marquess Roderick out of existence."
He stepped down from the pulpit, leaned back on a pew, and let out a sigh of relief.
"Come, have a piece of dessert."
Cornelia seemed to think Dekan was a bit worn out so she handed a slice of mango custard tart to Dekan's lips.
"Thanks."
Dekan smoothly turned his head to snatch the dessert and then gradually chewed it in his mouth.
Mauleon watched on, stunned.
"Are you two always like this?" Mauleon watched the two of them, who seemed to be so naturally comfortable with each other, as if they had been living together for years, and couldn't help but ask.
"Uh..."
Dekan and Cornelia exchanged a glance, then both looked at Mauleon.
"I just touched the coffin, Cornelia's hands are cleaner, so I just ate it directly."
"I, I'm feeding Dekan for the first time."
Originally, neither of them thought there was anything wrong with their actions just now. But when Mauleon said it like that, they both seemed to realize that they had unknowingly gotten a bit too close.
"..."
Mauleon looked at their expressions, feeling a bit helpless.
"Is there cream on my face?"
Dekan asked Mauleon, puzzled.
"No..."
After saying this, Mauleon walked over to a row of benches further away from Dekan and Cornelia and sat down.
("You two should hurry up and get married!")
He grumbled through gritted teeth, hammering the back of the bench.
At some point, Teacher Cat had already jumped onto the back of the bench next to Mauleon.
It whispered softly in Mauleon's ear, "Watching these two interact daily is a great pleasure for meow."
("Next time, let's catch up. I've missed so many episodes.")
("No problem, meow.")
The man and the cat, as if they had found a companion to watch shows with, instantly became closer.
"Are you two gossiping about me?"
Dekan frowned and looked at Mauleon and Teacher Cat in the distance.
He always felt that this sneering cat and Mauleon, the sly old fox, wouldn't be up to any good together.
Mauleon: "Ahem, we were just talking about Croix and his childhood friend. Aren’t they both a bit dense?"
Dekan: "Of course, Croix is such a blockhead. Sigh, let him have his awakening on his own. I'll just watch and keep silent."
"Isn’t that right?"
Mauleon's tone was full of playfulness.
"What do you mean?"
Dekan seemed to sense that Mauleon was teasing him.
"Nothing."
Mauleon just smiled and waved it off.
Then, with a slightly more serious expression, he changed the subject in a casual manner, asking, "Actually, weren't you a bit uncertain earlier?"
Mauleon was referring to Dekan's bluff to make the Marquess commit suicide earlier.
He felt that Dekan had breathed a sigh of relief after confirming the Marquess's suicide.
"I wasn't a hundred percent sure I could kill him. Who knows, this guy might have some sort of incredible untapped potential or special orientation and decide to really submit to me. It would be troublesome if I released the seal then."
Dekan shook his head helplessly.
Every time he thought about Isabelle's transformation, Dekan felt a bit annoyed.
Dekan hated masochists the most.
"To be honest, I was kind of looking forward to that situation." Mauleon chuckled unkindly.
If Dekan messed up, the most likely outcome would be being chased to the end of this Shadow World by a crazed marquess.
"Don't get your hopes up. You won't be able to escape then."
"I just have to run faster than you."
"Is that something a human should say?"
...
"Mr. Priest, are you in the church?"
Just as they were relaxing and chatting, the door of the church was knocked.
Earlier, they had locked the church because their team was doing some good deeds.
The three on the bench all turned their heads to look at the church door.
It was the voice of the familiar mayor.
"Our God of Wealth is here."
"Go greet him quickly."
Dekan quickly went to open the door, welcoming their beloved mayor inside.
The mayor, upon seeing Dekan and Mauleon still seated in the church, opened his mouth wide but couldn't speak for a moment, appearing extremely excited.
It was as if he had found a savior.
"Finally, I finally found you! The bridge, I don't know how but it's been destroyed again! Can you seek help from the city on our behalf?"
The mayor finally managed to gather his words, speaking anxiously.
His attitude toward Dekan had done a complete 180-degree turn.
The last time the bridge was destroyed, the town did not suffer any attacks.
They also quickly got in touch with the city afterward.
The town also had a strong knight captain.
As such, the mayor wasn't too worried.
However, with the bridge being destroyed twice in a row, it undoubtedly filled the mayor with great panic.
It was as if some force was watching them closely around the town!
The bridge, having just been repaired, was destroyed again without anyone noticing!
It was as if someone deliberately wanted to sever the connection between the town and the city, before surrounding and slaughtering them all!