Chapter 12 Danger Approaches as the Demon's Seal Loosens.
"It might be presumptuous of us, but we're curious about why you ended up here." They had discussed it before; from the promotional video, it was clear that this king had fled here after his kingdom was conquered, so they speculated that asking this question would likely trigger a new quest.
Ester recalled that the Kingdom of Felix was conquered by the Kingdom of Ramon, which was only separated from it by a mountain. Thinking of this, the phrase "chickens fighting each other" popped into Ester's mind. To be precise, the combined territory of the Kingdom of Felix and the Kingdom of Ramon was probably not even as large as the fiefdom of a viscount in the Sinclair Empire. Their highest combat strength was only a high-level mage and a high-level swordsman. Calling it "chickens fighting each other" was not an exaggeration at all.
"The reason is quite simple. The Kingdom of Ramon launched a war over the port of Manhattan. At that time, the country was instable and the people were in turmoil. If it weren't for a kind knight, you might not be here today."
[Ding! All you little fire warriors, a new phase of the main quest has begun. Please help our king reclaim his former territory. The quest is complete when our king's coronation ceremony is finished.]
Rewards for completing the mission will vary depending on each little fire warrior's contribution (experience points, learnable skills, etc.). Little fire warriors, strive for our King!
The little fire people scattered across various locations received the mission, looked at each other blankly, and then went back to their own tasks. With their meager strength and a combined number barely exceeding ten, attempting this mission was probably just wishful thinking.
"Aren't you sad?" The difference is huge. Even though Roasted Sweet Potato knows that this is just an NPC, he still can't help but ask. Maybe this king is too unlike an NPC.
“What’s there to be sad about?” Easter retorted. “I’m lucky to be alive right now.”
From this angle, which is not as good as roasting sweet potatoes, you can see the beauty mark under East's eye. For some reason, he felt that it looked like a drop of blood.
Their eyes met. "I'm sorry." Ruodigua lowered his head. He saw the sadness in the king's eyes and suddenly had a thought. This king deserved the best. He didn't have any frivolous thoughts or improper ideas. He probably wanted to raise him as his own child, just like Yunmu.
East had no idea what kind of crazy thoughts were lurking beneath the surface of these seemingly respectable people. Even if he did know... he couldn't really do anything about it. He might even find them quite endearing and wonder why they all felt so vulnerable and broken.
"There's no need to apologize. You should know that the history of the Luomanjier Continent spans tens of millions of years. What is this compared to that?"
"That's not how you compare them. Pain is pain. Just because others are suffering more than you doesn't mean your pain isn't pain."
East was speechless for a moment. He didn't like to open up to people, for no other reason than that he knew himself well enough to know he wasn't a good person—selfish, despicable, hypocritical, and pretentious. Only his outward appearance mattered. He looked up at the sun and said, "Isn't it because of you all? I'm luckier than most people in the world." See how hypocritical that is?
Feeling a little embarrassed, Ru Meiyao changed the subject, saying, "Tell me about the history of this continent. You just mentioned that it's tens of millions of years old. That's so ancient!"
“The true history is hard to verify because ten thousand years ago, the continent of Luomanjier was in great chaos. Monsters roamed freely, and humanity’s living space was squeezed to almost nothing. Hmm…” East paused before continuing, “Then came the descent of the gods. It was an era in which humans and gods coexisted. With the help of the gods, humanity barely managed to find peace. This war lasted for at least three thousand years. The reason is simple: the successive fall of the gods plunged humanity into panic. The duration of the chaos is hard to verify. In the end, only twelve gods remained. Fortunately, the monsters were sealed away, and the distance between humans and gods was widened, allowing humanity to slowly develop.”
As the roasted sweet potato thought, this king must have some issues with the gods, but considering that he had already crossed the line, he decided to wait for the subsequent propaganda to come out before making any decisions. He then asked about the history he was curious about, such as famous figures or wars.
A man and a little fireman were discussing the history of Luomanjier. Four young men in the village had gathered a pile of junk, while five little firemen outside the village had already stepped into the forest.
Yunmu remained vigilant, leading the four of them around the outer perimeter without venturing too deep. "How's the situation?" In her eyes, all the plants and trees looked similar, and she couldn't tell the difference.
Matsukami Yuki, Nana, and Suibianla are all people who know a bit about plants. After taking a close look, three wrinkles appeared between their brows. "A grand gesture," Matsukami Yuki commented lightly. She had played the other holographic online games before, but apart from the first one, the others were a bit hard to describe. Now, she had come across another interesting one.
"What do you mean?" Yun Mu asked, bewildered.
“I don’t recognize any of these plants. Even if they look similar, I can’t be sure if they are completely identical,” Matsushita Yuki explained more carefully.
Cai Cai and Suibian nodded in agreement.
"I should have asked the King for a more detailed map back then, preferably one that clearly marked which foods were edible and which were not," Yunmu said dejectedly.
“No rush, we can ask Sweet Potato, he’s right next to the King,” said Butterfly.
“Oh right, how could I forget this?” Yunmu sent a message to the team for Bubu Kao Digua, “Maybe it’s because we’re in the closed beta, so a lot of things are still not perfect. Otherwise, why don’t we even have a mini-map? We have to ask King Zai Zai to give it to us.”
"This makes it more interesting. Yesterday, the approximate geographical distribution of the Luomanjier Continent was released. It can only be said that the place we are in now is an embellishment of what we call a remote mountain valley. Our little king has a long way to go!" Cai Cai sighed.
"This is a big investment, but how come we didn't hear anything about it before? It seems to be done by some unknown small company." I was completely baffled.
"As long as there are games to play, that's fine. A good company is one that can make good games. Who cares if it's famous or not?" Yun Mu didn't care about these things.
Matsushita Yuki didn't participate much in the conversation; instead, she began to study these novel plants that she had never seen before.
...
While Bagua was roasting sweet potatoes, he received a message from Yunmu and temporarily stopped talking about history with East, explaining the current predicament faced by the five-person group who were out looking for food.
“It was my oversight that I didn’t consider your unfamiliarity with this place,” Ister said with annoyance. However, judging from the original owner’s memories, this world still had many similarities to Earth. Perhaps it was because this place was relatively remote that the current situation occurred.
[Ding! The basic detection system has been activated. Currently, it can only detect whether plants and animals are poisonous and edible. If you wish to activate a more advanced detection system, please wait patiently for future development or rely on the efforts of the young warriors themselves.] The system notification sounded in the ears of all ten little firemen.
"How about I go with you tomorrow?"
Just as he was regaining his senses from roasting sweet potatoes, he heard East's question: "A wise man does not seek refuge under a crumbling wall."
Easton timely expressed his doubt.
The smooth communication made Bu Ru Kao Di Gua momentarily forget that they seemed to belong to two different cultural systems. He explained the meaning of that sentence in more colloquial terms, which was roughly that you should be wary of danger and avoid putting yourself in danger.
“Thank you,” Easter said with a smile. “It’s just that there’s no truly safe place on this continent. But I understand what you mean. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of my…safety.”
Easter's smile froze, and he immediately stood up, his gaze fixed on the direction the five young men had gone.
Rudigua stood up and asked, "What's wrong?"
With the system's announcements ringing in his ears, Easter had no time to pay attention to what Digua was asking. [Host, host, something terrible has happened! The seal in the forest has loosened, and many monsters have escaped. Quickly find a place to hide!]
[Ding! Little Fireman Warriors, danger has arrived unexpectedly. Please quickly find a safe place to take shelter. If there is no safe place at the moment, please log off immediately to ensure your safety.]
The sky darkened in an instant, with layers of dark clouds piling up and lightning appearing and disappearing behind them.
Easter's face was extremely pale. "Let's go." He picked up the roasted sweet potato in one swift motion, and the four little fire men from the village also ran out and followed behind Easter.
After stumbling and jumping into the basement, the five little firemen, one person and five little firemen, were all panting heavily. "Haha, that was quite thrilling!" they quacked, trying to liven up the atmosphere.
East's expression didn't improve. "What's going on?" he asked the system in his mind.
[Still under investigation, situation unknown.] The system also felt incredibly frustrated; things were finally starting to look up, and then this happened again. What's the end of it?
"Don't worry, everything will be alright," Meimei reassured her, her eyes fixed on her game panel. The other five members of her team were all offline. A sense of doubt began to creep into her mind. This didn't seem like something that would happen during the closed beta. It was too sudden, or was this just a marketing strategy by the game company?
Easter forced himself to calm down. "Thank you. It's relatively safe here. Everyone doesn't need to worry too much."
"What's going on?" Chunye wondered. Only two promotional videos had been released, and many background details were still unknown, leaving him somewhat clueless.
"There's a forbidden area for monsters in the mountains, but for some reason the seal suddenly broke, and many monsters have escaped. It's very dangerous outside now."
"Could this be the monster we'll be fighting from now on?" Quack Quack Quack was not worried at all; on the contrary, it seemed very excited.
“Perhaps,” Liang Jingjing replied, her tone tinged with happiness. Anyone who plays games knows that fighting monsters is one of the fastest ways to level up.
"Your Majesty, what are you thinking about?" Ruo Ruo Digua asked the thoughtful Ist.
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