Liam did not expect an immediate response from the Assasin guild's leader as he knew that they were currently busy dying and reviving.
So he swiped it close and opened the bunch of message notifications that had popped in.
They were a couple of messages from the people whom he had teamed up with a while back, but he directly ignored those and only opened the ones from his sister.
"Oh? There are quite a few?"
Liam yawned and went through them one by one even though he was pretty sure that there was probably nothing urgent among them.
Because the cities were iron-clad safe zones and that was why he had left those two alone in the first place.
"Learning cooking skills from the trainer?"
"Even intermediate skill?"
"What are these two up to?"
"Even I haven't heard of anything happening?"
Liam's interest was piqued and he sat up straight to look at everything again.
However, there weren't any more details, except for a couple of messages asking when he was going to return back.
[I am coming back right now. What are you both doing?] Liam replied. He closed his eyes for a bit and relaxed.
A few minutes passed by and then some more. However, there was no reply from the other end.
"Hmm?" Liam frowned. He again messaged both Shen Yue and his sister but there was no reply from either of them.
It was understandable if one of them was busy but both not replying did not feel right.
In fact, the group chat that had been blowing up for several hours straight was suddenly silent and both the girls were not even talking to each other.
"Did they log out?" Liam pondered.
"No, if they logged out, then they would have at least shot me a message about it."
"Something is definitely off…"
As more and more time ticked by without any reply from the other side, an unsettling feeling cropped up in his mind.
Liam patted the wind ripper and absentmindedly muttered. "Talon, can you move a little faster."
Scree! The bird understood his words and reared its head, after which it started flapping its wings more vigorously.
It pushed its body to the limits to zoom forward like an arrow. Both Liam and the fox held on tightly as the wind rippled across their faces.
Scree! The bird chirped and pushed itself more, flying as fast as it could.
Aside from its speed, their return journey was also short since the distance between the north and the center where the royal city was located was not as great as the distance between the east and the center.
They quickly arrived in a few hours and reached the outskirts of the city. Liam once again tried calling the two but there was still no response.
"Where did they go?" Liam shook his head and patted the bird.
Talon chirped and swooped down, as usual dropping both Liam and the fox near the entrance of the city, and flying away afterward to hide in the canopy of the trees.
The little fox cocked her head to the side, watching her master. He seemed to be troubled. She jumped onto his neck and gave a few licks, but Liam was not paying attention to her.
He walked ahead in deep thought. The fact they were not replying to his messages was worrying.
It didn't matter if they were there in the city or outside, they should be able to talk to him and communicate with him.
As he thought about this, a small idea popped into his head. "Are they doing some sort of special quest?"
"Halt. Pay the entrance fees." Interrupting his thoughts, the royal guard decked in shining armor blocked Liam's path and extended his hand.
Liam silently nodded and took out the silver coins to pay him. He also pulled his cloak further up to hide his face and stepped inside the city.
Just like Abraki had hypothesized, Liam also felt that his identity was probably sold to more than one guild.
While the others might not have had the means to stalk him when he was in a remote place, now that he was in the royal city, it was a completely different scenario.
So he covered his face for now.
"Alright. You may enter." The guard removed his weapon that was blocking Liam's path.
As his gaze wandered from the weapon to the guard who now looked ahead, ignoring him, Liam remembered Shen Yue's necklace and her quest.
"It said the King's chambermaid. Hmmm…" Liam mumbled under his breath and stepped into the city.
He had not forgotten about Shen Yue's necklace that she received from the gift box and the quest that came along with it.
That was a special unique quest, specifically tailored for her. In his previous life, a lot of people had received special quests when the update was first launched.
Though these quests were not powerful enough to unlock hidden classes or special inheritances, many players learned special skills, obtained powerful pieces of equipment, and had gotten other miscellaneous unusual rewards.
This was why he had asked both of them to log in immediately to get a better chance of obtaining a good gift box.
So the necklace in Shen Yue's possession was probably not ordinary and the quest it invoked as well might not be.
But still… to not even respond back to him…
Liam decided to first log off and make sure that the two were not offline.
And just as he thought, their apartment was empty and Mei Mei's game capsule was glowing inside her room.
"So she is still playing…"
"If she is not offline and still in the game but can't talk to me, then those two are definitely in a special quest." Liam nodded and decided to wait a while.
He leisurely drank some water and ordered some food. He then took a shower and switched on the news, relaxing his mind and body a bit.
Fighting and running around non-stop had their own toll on the human body especially when it was a sudden change in lifestyle.
If Liam had been practicing martial arts or some other form of sports right from his childhood, it would have been much easier to get accustomed to the new future that awaited them.
A few minutes later, the food arrived and he absentmindedly chewed on his food while continuing to watch the tv.
But he was not able to relax at all as he was still feeling very restless about this whole situation. "Damn it. I should just log back into the game and start talking to the guards in the palace."
He threw the dirty dishes into the sink, not bothering to wash them, and stepped into the game capsule once again.
And as soon as he did, a single unopened message blinked in front of him.