Chapter 104 The news of his death has arrived. I must go out to sea; I should see him off on his final journey…

A week has passed, and it has been twelfth day since Areper went missing. East continued to expand the search, no longer limiting it to the sea, but there is still no news of him.

Randall's location in Manhattan has remained largely unchanged, making it difficult to fathom what he's plotting.

Easter encouraged the player to ask him for more details, but his answers remained unchanged, and he even reiterated his desire to avoid involvement.

Given Randall's obvious dislike, Easter could no longer bring himself to bother him.

Hai Li should have searched for the merfolk, but there was no response to Pearl's letter. He also contacted Serenel, a merfolk he had worked with before, and Serenel reported that Pearl had disappeared a month or two ago. The merfolk were suppressing the news; only those within their tribe confirmed that Pearl's vital signs were normal, and it seemed he had left on his own. He had left a letter for the tribe's elders, but Serenel had no idea what it contained.

The merfolk were the first to learn of Arebo's fall into the deep sea, aside from those directly involved. They sent people to search the area and contacted other sea creatures besides the merfolk. They searched the entire seabed, but still couldn't find Arebo. They could only conclude that he wasn't in the sea.

East received the same answer when he asked, but he was skeptical and sensed a hint of conspiracy in it.

Easter's headache has been getting worse lately, and there's nothing he can do to relieve it.

The more unwell he felt, the more he buried himself in official duties.

On the Orc Plains, he needed to stay in the palace to oversee things. If any problems arose, he could resolve them immediately, and his presence made his officials feel more at ease.

The Orc Plains, or rather the continent, is facing the same two problems: the threat of monsters and the shortage of food. In order to solve these two problems, Ister had to send some players from the sea to the Orc Plains to eliminate the "Little Abyss" and the monsters roaming outside, to carry out basic construction and bring food. Everything was aimed at stabilizing the situation first.

With so much work to do, the system became overwhelmed, reducing monitoring of the ocean and causing problems to arise unexpectedly.

Ister was receiving orc envoys from the orc plains in the main hall of the palace. They had come to sign a treaty. Not every tribe's submission required swearing an oath of loyalty to the monarch; a contractual agreement was sufficient.

The formal signing will take place in three days. We need to settle them in first, and we also need to prepare a ceremony and banquet. In short, we need to go through the formalities and not be too hasty.

Ister was dressed impeccably, and his usually loose hair was now styled upright, topped with a woven crown in gold and green, clean and elegant. Players had made many of these crowns for him, each unique and exquisitely beautiful.

The beastmen maintained their human forms, with a few occasionally unable to resist showing their ears and tails.

The beastmen have three forms. When they are young, they can only maintain their beast form. When they grow up, they can transform into human form. At first, they cannot transform into a complete human form. They may be half-human, with their tails and ears showing, or their upper body is human and their lower body is animal form, etc. Once they truly master their power, they can transform at will.

East's attitude was neither friendly nor warm, but rather arrogant and condescending. This was the proper attitude for him, otherwise he would easily be taken advantage of.

The beastmen didn't show any dissatisfaction or resentment; they were exceptionally obedient. They had all pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of Felix, so naturally they had thought everything through. As for now, being able to eat their fill and survive was the most important thing. As for the rest... After experiencing these past few days, they knew that following the Kingdom of Felix would bring them good days, so of course they had to behave well. Otherwise, if Ister went back on his word, they would have to collectively slit their own throats to make amends.

Just as Ister had settled the orcs in and was about to have lunch, with the players serving the food on trays, he planned to chat with them casually during this break, not wanting them to be too tense. Their progress was going well, and the other half of the orc plains would be easier to conquer.

Before the conversation could even begin, a sharp, piercing explosion suddenly erupted in his ears. Overwhelmed by the pain, East knocked over the dishes in front of him, his vision blurred, and he experienced wave after wave of tinnitus.

Just as one crisis subsided, another arose. A crimson meteor, trailing a tail, plummeted to the ground. Before East could even catch it, a voice rang out: "Arip has fallen into an underwater cavern and has lost all vital signs. Take care."

East covered his ears, unsure whether he wanted to reject the lingering tinnitus or the absurd news.

“Impossible,” Easter retorted instinctively. “How could this be? How could this be?” He was unwilling to believe it.

[Sorry, host.] The system didn't want to push for the last straw, but the host was going to ask anyway. It was an unchangeable fact, and hiding it wouldn't work. Even if it wanted to hide it, it would have to be able to fool the host. It was a system with extremely high self-awareness.

The system felt like it wanted to die. Arip's vital signs had been fine the whole time, but in that instant, Kaba was gone, without even giving anyone time to react.

East changed his hand from covering his ears to covering his chest. He was having trouble breathing, and his chest was heaving violently. His eyes were empty and blank, without any light.

Tears streamed uncontrollably from her eyes, leaving two wet lines on her cheeks. The tears gathered at her chin and dripped onto her wrists.

East was startled awake. He looked down in confusion, tears streaming down his face. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Baby, baby..." Yunmu called out anxiously to Easter. Only when Easter's gaze fell on Yunmu did she breathe a sigh of relief, but she was stuck on what to say next.

“Your Majesty, please calm down,” said Matsushita Yuki, who rushed over. “Unless a body is found, all reports of death should be classified as false.”

Easter forced a smile, but tears still streamed down her face uncontrollably. Her misty eyes were incredibly beautiful, yet terrifyingly lifeless.

“You’re right.” Easter’s voice was hoarse as he struggled to remain rational.

"Your Majesty, we will all help you find it," Ruo Rudigua assured him firmly.

The players surrounding them all nodded in agreement, and under these circumstances, no one was so tactless as to bring up quests or storylines.

East simply nodded, summoned the other officials to entertain the orcs, and seemingly handled everything calmly before leaving the reception room.

The orcs all knew how to protect themselves, and although they were curious about what had happened to cause Ister to lose his composure like this, they wouldn't ask questions that weren't their concern.

Matsukami Yuki handed over a handkerchief, which East took, wiped away her tears, and said, "Thank you."

"The King...?" Matsushita Yuki asked in surprise.

East leaned against the wall, his eyes filled with a deep weariness and despair. "I'm going to sea. I should see him off on his final journey." The sea was calm and still, almost deathly quiet.

"King!?" Several players exclaimed at the same time, all sounding equally surprised.

“Your Majesty, please calm down,” Matsushita Yuki said urgently. “Don’t be too pessimistic, everything will be alright.”

East looked up and chuckled softly, but tears streamed down her face uncontrollably again. "Don't be afraid, you're right."

Matsushita Yuki, “…” Stop saying I’m right. Do you want to check your condition? It’s terrifying. I’m afraid if I don’t keep an eye on you, you’ll commit suicide for love at first sight.

East straightened his back and said, "I told you, don't be afraid."

He hasn't even investigated the cause and effect yet, and he hasn't dealt with the person who took his life. He wouldn't do something irrational.

“Stop Randall,” East told the system.

The system did as Easter instructed, then wandered around the space, trying to think of a way to break the deadlock. It didn't believe that Arip would die so easily. After careful consideration, without the host and this unexpected turn of events, Arip would have been the chosen one in this turbulent time, the most likely person to turn the tide and save the world. His death was too hasty.

East quickly changed into clothes that were easier to move in, mounted the horse that had been prepared, and galloped toward Manhattan Harbour.

The players traveled together, their presence felt throughout the entire road leading to Port Manhattan.

The biting cold wind brushed against his skin, but East was completely unaware.

He never stopped along the way, and arrived at Port Manhattan two hours later, half the normal time.

East moved his numb fingers and stiff body, followed the system's directions to a house, dismounted, and staggered.

The players surrounding him raised their hands in a gesture of respect, saying, "Your Majesty, please be careful."

Easter thanked him sincerely and went up to knock on the door.

Randall opened the door, his cold gray eyes fixed on East, and said calmly, "You shouldn't have come."

“You’re here,” East took a deep breath, “I don’t believe there’s no agreement between you two.”

The fact that Randall had been stuck in Manhattan Harbour was suspicious, and East didn't believe there wasn't something fishy going on.

Randall said, “You should know that you are more dangerous than any of us. The moment you step out of Felix’s territory, they will be waiting to devour you alive. They are letting things take their course, letting the Felix bloodline die out naturally. I don’t believe you can’t understand what that means.”

Instead of going through all the trouble of distinguishing them, it's better to wait until only one is left, then no matter how deeply hidden, it will have no choice but to surface.

Ister is currently the most sought-after figure on the continent, and also the person the gods are most interested in and most want to get rid of.

If it weren't for Felix's final protection, Esther would have died eight hundred times over. If he were to leave His territory, the gods would arrive the moment he took a step.

"Were they the ones who directly carried out the operation against Areper?" Easter asked with absolute certainty.

“So what?” Randall said. “Aripelago begged me to stay here if he died. He said that your country doesn’t have high-level combat capabilities, and if a conflict were to break out with other countries, you might not be able to handle it. So I will keep my promise and stay here until this ‘conflict’ is resolved.”

East grabbed Randall's wrist, stared at him intently, and asked through gritted teeth, "What did you do?" It was impossible for Areper to say something like simply destroying the "Little Abyss."

Randall brushed East's hand away and said calmly, "The fact is he's dead. What's the point of asking more questions?"

East clenched his fist, his eyes burning with fury, the beauty mark at the corner of his eye flickering. "Either you tell me the whole story so I can prepare myself, or you say nothing and I'll just head out to sea."

“He’s dead. It would be the stupidest thing for you to do to die with him.” Randall’s brow furrowed.

Easter shook his head and chuckled, saying, "You guys probably haven't figured out one thing: I can't live without him."

Ignoring what Randall might think, Easter continued, "He made me fall in love with this continent, and I've never been a kind person."

Randall's brow furrowed even deeper as he conceded, "He only said he was going to find the 'bequest,' and the accident was something he deliberately arranged to get away. I don't know exactly what kind of 'bequest' it was."

In a flash, East realized whose "bequest" it might be: Emperor Patrick the Great, who was most likely hiding the "bequest" containing the method to deal with the gods.

"In the sea?" East confirmed.

Randall compromised and went to great lengths to explain further, "This is where he last stopped," he said, handing over a crystal ball, "It can help you find your way."

Easter accepted it and thanked him.

“You need to make sure you’ve thought this through,” Randall said.

Easter, clutching the crystal ball, turned and left.

Randall stared at East's retreating figure, his eyes filled with complex emotions, thinking: Arip's luck is still so good.