Chapter 49
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Shadow of the Golden City
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Jinwoo left the Blackstone Fortress behind, the stench of blood and gunpowder still lingering in the air.
The chill of dawn was cooling the heat from the burned-out stronghold.
Behind him came the faint cheers of the resistance fighters.
There was no emotion in Jinwoo's steps.
Clutched tightly in his hand was a thick leather ledger.
'The Blackstone Secret Ledger.'
The true goal of this quest—and the key to the next chapter!
He lightly mounted the back of Falcon, who had been waiting for him.
He didn't even bid farewell to Kellogg or the other resistance members.
They knew Ghost was a being who appeared and vanished like the wind anyway.
"Let's go, Falcon!"
"Kiek!"
Falcon gave a short cry in response and lumbered toward the desert.
As the sun began to rise over the horizon, the darkness of night slowly faded to gray ash.
The quest window floating before Jinwoo's eyes smoothly vanished.
[Main Quest: Aim for the Heart of the Black Fortress]
[Completed!]
As he headed toward his new destination, Jinwoo pulled the secret ledger from his pocket.
Even as he rocked on horseback, his gaze steadily scanned the densely packed writing in the ledger.
'Up to here, it's exactly like the game.'
The contents recorded in the ledger were a jumble of numbers and text.
Nearly half was written in slang and codes, so Jinwoo couldn't fully understand it.
But the important thing was one fact.
Just like in the game, once he obtained the key item, the system immediately threw a new quest his way.
'It was the same before, and the game's rules keep applying. With even more convenience added.'
Normally, he'd have to go through several sub-quests to decipher this ledger.
And there would be episodes cross-referencing all the illegal goods, bribes, and black money flows through the Blackstone Fortress with the sheriff's ledger and notes he'd obtained earlier in Twinlax.
After all those steps, the destination of the funds would become clear: just one place.
The mirage city built in the middle of the desert.
The den of revelry and greed, Golden Oasis.
Ding.
As he flipped through to the last pages of the ledger, the familiar system alert chimed.
A new quest window appeared before his eyes.
[Main Quest: Stop the Heart of the Golden Serpent (1/3)]
[Stage 1: Rig the outcome of the 'Golden Cup Horse Race' to sow chaos in the Federation-controlled gambling ring.]
A faint smile tugged at Jinwoo's lips.
'Just as I thought.'
He tucked the ledger back deep into his pocket.
Everything was going exactly as planned.
But Jinwoo briefly turned Falcon's reins.
A direction slightly off the path to Golden Oasis.
'The walkthrough is perfect, but variables always exist.'
Processes that were just a few clicks in the game.
But this was reality.
The whims of an NPC.
A change in weather, or even a single pebble by the roadside, could upend the entire board.
'Steel Hounds might come chasing again. Or...'
There were variables like the Edgar Detective Agency.
Perhaps Trade Federation Chairman Valerius had already mobilized Edgar and his infamous underlings.
'The final boss is arrogant, but no fool!'
To clear it perfectly, he had to account for on-site variables.
And so, he carried out various minor sub-quests along the way and restocked supplies.
After several days of travel, the silhouette of a golden city finally appeared on the distant desert horizon.
'I've arrived at Golden Oasis.'
Instead of heading for the city's massive main gate, Jinwoo guided Falcon toward the dark shadows along the walls.
That was the slum district, overflowing with trash and filth hidden behind the city's glamour.
Jinwoo entered a back-alley tavern.
'To go in smoothly, I need to trigger the event here first.'
The creaking wooden door swung open, and a musty smell of booze and sweat assaulted his nose.
Despite it being daytime, the tavern was dim.
The few patrons nursed their cheap drinks with weary, world-worn faces.
Jinwoo approached the bartender and tossed a few silver coins onto the counter.
"The strongest stuff you've got."
The air in the tavern was heavy and stale.
Jinwoo sat at a corner table, piecing together fragments of floating conversations like noise.
Of course, he didn't actually drink the strong liquor.
"The Golden Cup, huh? They say the winner's already decided again. That horse from the Black Scorpion Trading Company, right?"
"Shh, don't talk like that so carelessly. If the Federation hears, they'll rip your tongue out."
At one table, drunken drifter mercenaries whispered in lowered voices.
Jinwoo's ear twitched faintly.
'Black Scorpion Trading Company. Matches my memory.'
A corrupt merchant group backed by the Trade Federation.
Information that they doped their horse with banned drugs to rig the races.
"What about the casino? Still any idiots trying to make a killing at the Serpent's Eye?"
"Heard one got carried out yesterday. Lost every coin he had, racked up debt, and had a few fingers chopped off."
At another table, grizzled old miners cackled over their gambling woes.
'Dealer Marco's trick cards. Still the same.'
Jinwoo quietly confirmed the intel.
Everything so far was known.
'Now's about when that NPC should show up.'
That's when it happened.
The tavern door burst open roughly, and a woman stumbled in.
Messy hair, unfocused eyes.
Lips pale from booze and despair.
The woman staggered to the bartender and held out an empty glass.
"One more! On credit..."
The bartender shoved her away with eyes full of contempt.
"Get lost, Sara. No more booze for you. You're scaring off the other customers."
The moment he heard that name, Jinwoo's eyes narrowed.
A piece of dormant info in his memory database surfaced.
'Former dealer at the Serpent's Eye Casino. Finally here.'
A tragic figure who existed only as a few lines of text in the game.
Jinwoo gave her a once-over.
Like taking a crude polygon lump with its shoddy texture and rendering it in real life.
The bland modeling typical of Providencia Softworks brought to vivid reality.
'As expected. Providencia female characters are ugly as sin.'
Jinwoo clicked his tongue inwardly.
Of course, looks weren't important in this situation.
She was an informant who had seen the Federation's inner workings up close.
Sara, chased off by the bartender, curled up in the corner of the tavern and began sobbing quietly.
No one around paid her any mind.
Jinwoo rose from his seat.
The tavern's eyes flicked toward his movement for a moment, but he ignored them and approached the bartender.
He pulled out another silver coin and placed it on the counter.
"The most expensive liquor and a meal for that lady. This covers it."
The bartender looked puzzled but nodded without complaint at the sight of the money.
Moments later, steaming stew and wine were set before Sara.
She alternated disbelieving stares between the server and Jinwoo.
Jinwoo sat silently in the chair opposite her without a word.
Sara began shoveling the stew into her mouth ravenously.
Tears of heat streamed from her eyes into the bowl like someone who hadn't eaten in days.
Jinwoo waited wordlessly until she finished her meal.
Only after licking up the last of the stew broth did Sara finally look up.
With warmth in her belly, wariness entered her eyes as she regarded the man across from her.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
Jinwoo nodded toward the empty bowl.
"Fill your stomach first. Then we talk."
At his indifferent tone, Sara bit her lip instead.
Charity with an obvious agenda felt more pathetic than pity.
"I don't have money. You want my body then?"
'What nonsense from a spud like her?'
Jinwoo cut her off.
Instead, he got straight to the point.
"Want revenge?"
Sara's pupils quivered faintly.
"What are you..."
"Dealer Marco. And the 'Serpent's Eye' Casino. The ones who took everything from you."
Those names from Jinwoo's lips drained the color from Sara's face.
She instinctively glanced around.
Jinwoo ignored her fear and continued.
"Tell me everything you know. And I'll give you what you want."
"What do I even know..."
'The ledger only goes this far.'
Jinwoo thought to himself.
The Blackstone Secret Ledger's role ended with revealing Golden Oasis's money source and triggering the quest.
The rest was in the vast game knowledge in his head.
'But there are a few variables.'
Certain elements in Rising West shifted subtly each playthrough or under specific conditions.
Sheriff Barrett's safe code was a prime example.
'And this time, it's the gambling patterns and codes.'
Depending on the game run or conditions, things like the dealer's sleight-of-hand sequence or the markings on trick cards kept changing.
Designed so players had to gather such variables directly from on-site NPCs.
'Thanks to that, I'm stuck doing this legwork.'
Jinwoo pulled a gold coin from his pocket and spun it on the table.
The golden gleam reflected briefly in Sara's hollow eyes.
"The Golden Cup Horse Race is in two weeks. That day, the Trade Federation's gambling ring will be in shambles. And next is the casino."
His voice carried the certainty of prophecy.
"I'm the one who'll smash their game. You choose: become the informant sharpening my blade, or rot in the gutter like this."
Sara grabbed the gold coin with trembling hands.
Its cold, hard feel grounded her in reality.
She met Jinwoo's gaze.
His eyes held no emotion.
Only unwavering purpose.
"...I'll tell you."
Finally, she spoke.
"Everything I know."
That night, in the tavern's darkest corner, Sara spilled it all.
The new markings on the trick cards.
The recently changed sleight-of-hand patterns.
Jinwoo listened silently, revising and supplementing his mental walkthrough.
Now the board was perfectly set.
Jinwoo rose from his seat. As he headed for the door, Sara urgently asked,
"Can you... really do it?"
Jinwoo answered curtly without turning back.
"Watch."
Jinwoo melted into the city's shadows, vanishing as if he'd never existed.
The horse race was two weeks away.
All that remained for Jinwoo was time to hide and sharpen his blade.