Lin Yu naturally still remembered the general appearance and persona of "Old Yao."
Having someone who looked like they might have dropped out of middle school—probably unable to even pronounce the word "dropped out" correctly—hold forth on the Bible and Norse mythology would certainly be a jarring mismatch in tone.
So Lin Yu had no intention of letting "Old Yao" solve this riddle "on his own."
His approach to solving the puzzle was through "reliable friends."
This was also the persona Lin Yu intended to craft for "Old Yao"—someone with high emotional intelligence and a wide network of friends.
After all, while the Jiang'an Hall wasn't a large organization, with an expert like "Tycoon" among them, their combat strength ranked among the better groups.
After carefully observing the structure of Jiang'an Hall, Lin Yu quickly identified the role that the organization lacked and that the "Old Yao" identity could fill.
Someone capable of calling in "external assistance" and acquainted with all sorts of characters from various walks of life.
This was the idea that could connect all the "fake identities" and the method to make "Old Yao" truly convincing.
"May May" was building reputation through the high-combat-strength lone wolf route, so the "Old Yao" identity needed to adopt a different competitive approach.And the facts proved Lin Yu's idea correct.
"If your friend has no objections, then the reward is yours," came Tycoon's reply, sounding noticeably more cordial than before.
"Old Yao, though you've only been in the organization for two weeks... I really should consider promoting you!"
"You must have passed the First-Tier by now, right?"
Seeing Tycoon's reply, Lin Yu exhaled softly.
"Right, boss, I'll follow your arrangements!"
Good—now even within Jiang'an Hall, this "Thief" identity was gradually gaining footing.
Once this identity became fully established...
Perhaps the Thief's abilities, like the Doctor's, could remain effective long-term.
Of course...
"After building up Old Yao's presence, I can't forget Zhu Ming either..."
Lin Yu muttered to himself before picking up Zhu Ming's phone and resending the earlier message to Li Nian in Zhu Ming's tone.
Li Nian's reply came quickly.
"So it's Norse mythology... very much that woman's style."
Though Lin Yu knew exactly who "that woman" referred to, he still asked,
"Whose style? I'm quite curious who fits this description!"
Li Nian replied again: "You'll find out after officially joining. That's not someone whose name you should know yet—dangerous individual."
Lin Yu didn't press further. After all, he was just reinforcing "Zhu Ming's" presence and establishing her persona.
Then...
Lin Yu took out Heavenly Artisan's confiscated phone and quickly scanned it.
Unexpectedly...
Fish's post had been taken down.
In its place was a new pinned post:
"Riddle solved. Members at Second-Tier or above who wish to go to Jiangcheng can DM me for the address."
"Solved already? That fast!"
Lin Yu was inwardly astonished.
He even suspected whether Order or the Free Alliance had a mole.
But...
Information couldn't spread that quickly. Moreover, the post's timestamp showed it was freshly posted—likely some expert within the Marauders had solved the riddle around the same time.
Scrolling through the Marauders members' replies in the post confirmed Lin Yu's speculation:
"Holy shit, the boss personally stepped in!"
"Sis Fish has serious clout—got the boss to cast the divination himself."
"Brothers, charge!"
"Second-Tier and above can all go? When the boss says so, feels like we gotta go!"
A group of Marauders officers responded enthusiastically, none showing surprise at the riddle being solved.
To them, it seemed perfectly natural for this poster to have solved it.
Lin Yu scrolled back up to check the poster's ID again.
"Diviner."
Just the name suggested this was another big shot who either used their profession directly as their alias or had a closely related codename.
If Lin Yu's guess was correct... the other party might not even need the riddle's content to divine the time and location!
"Truly a dangerous ability," Lin Yu mused.
What struck him even more, though, was the name itself.
For the Marauders to uniformly refer to this person as "boss," their identity was obvious.
Lin Yu also remembered where he'd last seen this alias—
On the forum, ranked second among players, just below "General"!
Also the leader of the Marauders!
Fortunately, it seemed this person wouldn't be coming to Jiangcheng in person.
Not that Lin Yu would worry even if they did—when the sky falls, the tall ones get squashed first.
If Diviner really came, Lin Yu wouldn't be within ten circles of having to face them!
As Lin Yu pondered this...
High Mountain's voice came from the front passenger seat:
"Hey, Single King, make a U-turn."
"Gambler just sent word—location's been solved!"
"We need to leave the city—an abandoned enclosed section of Jiangcheng's southern overpass. We're assigned to the old overpass entrance southwest."
Single King acknowledged: "Got it. Any time pressure?"
"None... the Hai City Game Master's being decent, says the area's desolate so we can eat first, just get there by noon."
"After all, we're probably the first to solve it—no rush to secure position!"
As High Mountain spoke, Reed interjected with surprise:
"That was really fast! Could it be our Henan Province's 'Detective'? That guy's unreliable, but he's actually pretty good at solving riddles!"
High Mountain shook his head: "I sent him the riddle first thing. He solved the time part, but for location... he said he's unfamiliar with Jiangcheng's terrain, so even with direction, verification would be troublesome. No movement yet."
Lin Yu was slightly surprised.
"Seems Fu Luo, though not officially in Order, has close ties with them..."
But his thoughts about Fu Luo were fleeting.
From the timing of High Mountain's information report, Lin Yu realized something else:
"His Excellency Tycoon seems deeply connected with Order too—at minimum, he must be on close personal terms with Li Hua."
Within minutes of him solving the riddle, Li Hua had already relayed the information back to the front lines—and not just raw intel, but analyzed, planned "operation instructions" precisely assigned to each team.
This meant Tycoon absolutely had direct communication channels with Li Hua—Jiang'an Hall and Order didn't need organizational-level coordination.
In fact...
Lin Yu had reason to suspect these two might currently be together, looking at the same screen, sharing information in real time!
If so, that would mean...
"Jiang'an Hall will likely coordinate extremely closely with Order during this operation."
"Jiangcheng is truly Order's absolute home turf!"