Otis was eager to deliver the news that the guards had left the village, but was still trying to be extra safe.
Instead of leaving, he returned to the village and continued to explore the surroundings.
'Heh, most of the guards are really gone now.' Otis laughed silently. Along the way, he only spotted one or two guards, but they were all at specific locations. To ensure that they weren't patrolling anywhere else, he waited for 15 minutes, and the guards hadn't even moved from their position.
Essentially this meant that these guards were guarding something important and would not be elsewhere.
For the guards to act in such a way, Otis was positive that whatever was inside the building must be extremely valuable. Thus, he walked away and began jotting down the notes.
These were all important information that he required to deliver to Melvin to execute the second phase of the plan.
Once his note was filled to the brim, Otis became satisfied and exited the village, feeling gleeful. By the time he returned to the designated location, Otis expected to be praised but ended up being heavily scolded by Melvin.
"Where the hell have you been, Otis?" Melvin's expression was completely darkened, feeling the urge to kill Otis on the spot. "I've asked you to do a simple task and you nearly took an hour to return to us."
If it weren't for the fact that Melvin discovered Xu Feng and the guards leaving for the west side, then he would have suspected Otis of betraying them for his own safety.
That was supposed to be his plan if the worst comes to shove!
How dare Otis give him a fright and make him think his shrewd plan was being used against him!
'Hmph, this Otis should have died for his sins.' Melvin thought to himself while wondering what he had been up to.
"Go on, speak. What have you been doing to be taking that long?" He asked and continued, "Don't you know how worried sick we were? If you hadn't emerged in another 5 minutes, then we would have rushed to the village and committed a massacre to avenge you."
Initially feeling wronged to be scolded, Otis' emotions soon underwent a new change as he quickly felt an overwhelming amount of guilt. He almost teared up in the process of making his fellow comrades worry for his safety and nearly caused them to commit a massacre.
"Sorry, Melvin and everyone else. I was jotting down the notes and the position of the guards so it took a while." Otis hurriedly explained and retrieved the notes to show them it.
Melvin grabbed the notes and inspected them. A pleased expression appeared on his face.
"Are you sure that the guards are only deployed here?" He asked for confirmation, not daring to make any rash move.
Nodding, Otis patted his chest and swore upon his life that everything was correct. "I've even stayed longer than necessary to check if the guards would switch patrol or not."
"Good, then you bring everyone else to begin robbing while I return to our hideout and prepare for us to leave through the loophole once you got everything we need." Melvin suggested, clearly unwilling to take the risk and rather play it safe.
If the plan went well, then he would reap the most benefit. However, if it went awry, then he would remain safe and escape in time.
Still unaware of his nefarious intent, Otis and the rest naively believed the plan made sense and began gearing up for a big rob.
Of course, they would still go in disguise, and only when they are left with no other choice should they go loud and proud.
"The undefended village is ours to conquer." Otis raised his sword and raised his team's morale.
"Ours to conquer!" The others quickly followed up and chanted loudly.
Having been suppressed and become nothing more than lowlives, they were all filled with frustration and anger.
"Alright, take this drink and return safe and sound for me!" Melvin chimed in and handed everyone a drink.
Otis and the rest gladly accepted the drink and chugged them up in one gulp.
"Rest assured, Melvin. We will return successfully!"
"I can't wait to change our miserable fate!"
"Mhmm, just make sure to stay alive for me." Melvin teared up and clenched his fist. "I will not permit any of you to die. I must see you all back at our camp after 2 hours!"
Otis and the rest promised that they would succeed.
Shortly after, all of them disguised themselves as villagers and began walking away, leaving Melvin alone. Their determination was firm and stern, clearly ready to sacrifice their lives for the success.
However, what they didn't know was the fact that Melvin was more than happy to see their firm determination.
As he turned around and began planning for his next motion, he grinned wickedly.
"Heh, the fortune of Willowbrook Village shall be mine. I can then migrate to a city and begin my new life as a rich businessman." Melvin chuckled, throwing out the drink that he had faked drinking. As he poured the drink onto the ground, there was a sizzling sound and a few leaves were burned up.
Indeed, the drink was laced with poison and would take effect after 3 hours.
Hence, he emphasized that they must all return after 2 hours. A one-hour interval was good enough for him to finish hoarding all the fortunes up.
As he thought his plan was immaculate, Melvin soon returned to his camp, getting ready to ditch all those naive losers.
However, his blissfulness only lasted for that moment when he heard a voice.
"I knew the insurgents weren't actually good people with moral code, but you are something else."
"Who?" Alarmed, Melvin's eyes narrowed as he unsheathed his weapon, and wondered how someone could sneak up on him.
"Show yourself!" He continued, trying to increase his perceptiveness, only to detect no one.
A few seconds later, Melvin, who thought it was just his mind playing tricks since his plan was close to succeeding, suddenly saw a figure coming out of a shadow.
"You're asking me to show myself, then why didn't you show your backstabbing nature to your fellow insurgent?" Xu Feng removed the Stealth Cloak that could conceal themselves from perception and smirked coldly.
He then noticed something flashy behind a pile of leaves and continued, "Ah, so this is where you bunch of crooks arrived at Willowbrook Village. I didn't expect a spatial rift crack to be here."