Chapter 164 : Chapter 164
Chapter : 164
Yan Yunqing's expression turned strange for a moment upon hearing that, "The blacksmith whose pants were pulled down... was you?"
A flash of embarrassment crossed Merlin's face, which then went through a whole palette of colors like an overturned paint tray. Finally, he reluctantly admitted, "Well, there was no one else, so I went to be a blacksmith for a few days."
Yan Yunqing: "...A few days? Do you know how to forge?"
Merlin snorted a couple of times, "Don't look down on me. I learned a thing or two from Torin. It's no problem at all to fool these Descenders who don't know anything."
Torin, a goblin friend of Merlin's, or to use a more common term, a member of the Dwarf race. Every goblin is a natural blacksmith, and the equipment they forge is of excellent quality.
Back then, the Demon King's team also had a team of goblin blacksmiths responsible for forging equipment. Torin was the one who signed a contract with the Demon King and was considered one of the Demon King's retainers.
Although Merlin was a legendary mage, he was a peace-loving person by nature. Even after being tricked onto the Demon King's pirate ship, he didn't go to the front lines of battle.
Instead, he ran to the rear to handle logistics for the Demon King's team. It was during that time that the man and the goblin formed a deep friendship.
Yan Yunqing sized Merlin up and down with suspicion. "Don't mess this up. If that group of players, hmm, Descenders, finds out that you're acting strange and follows the clues to discover that you're the former legendary mage Merlin, I'll have to come up with a reason for you to be here."
Merlin waved his hand. "They won't find out. I've specially changed my face. Let alone those Descenders, even if your former retainers stood in front of me, they might not recognize me."
Yan Yunqing raised an eyebrow, noncommittal.
"Besides, you're already using that face directly. Aren't you more likely to be exposed than me?" Merlin hinted.
Yan Yunqing: "...The village in Romunik where you went to pretend to be a blacksmith?"
The face Merlin was talking about could only be Yan Yunqing's newly created Nolan identity. And Yan Yunqing had only used Nolan's identity to fool players in the starter village of Romunik, and had not yet been to other starter villages.
If Merlin had seen him, it must have been in Romunik.
Merlin gave Yan Yunqing a look, leaving the specific meaning for Yan Yunqing to figure out on his own. "See, you didn't recognize me either, did you?"
He really hadn't recognized him. When Yan Yunqing was in the starter village, his attention was all on the players. He really wasn't sure if he had met Merlin's disguised identity there.
For a moment, the two of them were speechless.
"What, I thought you were avoiding your former retainers because you didn't want to return to that identity. Now you've taken the initiative to put on your former appearance. Have you made up your mind?" Merlin asked.
"Made up my mind about what?" Yan Yunqing retorted, "Besides, I only put on that appearance to go fishing."
The Eternal Sect. Since they were walking among the common people in the name of the Demon King, they must have some purpose. Otherwise, with so many gods' names they could use, why did they have to use the Demon King's?
The Lord of Eternity could be called the Demon King, so his reputation couldn't be that good. Compared to the Lord of Eternity, there were also minor gods who died to protect their believers during the War of the Gods. The names of those gods were much better to use than the Demon King's.
Or, like the Church of Light, they could just invent a newly born god. That would be better than borrowing the Demon King's name and having to carefully hide from the Demon King's former retainers, for fear of being discovered and wiped out in one go.
The Eternal Sect must have a special purpose for doing this. And since Yan Yunqing couldn't figure it out, he simply appeared with the identity of the Demon King and opposed the Eternal Sect.
He believed that the people behind the Eternal Sect would definitely not be able to sit still and would reveal a flaw when they discovered that their 'faith', their 'god', had really appeared.
Merlin's gaze fell on Yan Yunqing's face, not missing a single change in his expression. However, to his disappointment, Yan Yunqing really didn't show any extra emotion. He was unnaturally calm.
Merlin sighed, "I hope you will reconsider my previous proposal."
"See, you did a great job in the past."
Merlin stood up, and a few documents appeared out of thin air in his hand. He placed them in front of Yan Yunqing, "And now, you are still so charismatic. Both humans and other races are willing to work for you."
"You were born with the ability to make others submit, Nolan."
—"Have you ever thought about re-establishing the Eternal Empire?"
...
Yan Yunqing watched as Merlin, who had left a pile of documents, walked away. He couldn't help but sigh and rub his forehead.
It wasn't a matter of whether he wanted to or not, but that Yan Yunqing knew he didn't have the ability to do so now.
A level seventy-three Demon King, what would he use to conquer those level one hundred and fifty or sixty monster retainers? Not to mention that there was also Theodore, a ceiling-level combatant.
He couldn't beat them, he really couldn't.
He couldn't possibly expect to conquer everyone with his personal charm, could he?
If it were a game, Yan Yunqing might have been able to give it a try. The worst that could happen would be deleting his character and starting over.
Now that he was in his real body, what could he start over with? He was afraid of being truly 'restarted'.
Even if his retainers agreed, the two great empires of Bartovita and Romunik would not. Not to mention the many small countries around them, who had been at peace for over a thousand years.
If the Eternal Empire were to be rebuilt, it would mean that the tide of war would once again sweep across the world, and this land could hardly bear the pain brought by the chaos of war again.
That's why Yan Yunqing had established "Flame" before the players arrived, in order to minimize the players' impact on this world. At the same time, he could also use the power of "Flame" and the players to continue exploring the origin of the game.
Compared to re-establishing the Eternal Empire, Yan Yunqing was more interested in figuring out the origin of all this...
About why he had transmigrated into this other world and was bound to the game system of Return Journey, and even... did he really just happen to play that city-building game by chance?
Was his becoming the Demon King a coincidence, or was it predetermined?
Yan Yunqing couldn't help but let out another melancholy sigh. Only then did he open the documents Merlin had sent him. The first page was an investigation report.
About the Eternal Sect.
Damn it, his head hurt even more.
Yan Yunqing read ten lines at a glance and only then did he know that Isabel and the others had dug up another lead. It was an auction house again, and it was even an old friend of his.
The Augreer Auction House.
It still involved internal members of the Eternal Sect selling dragon scales and blood at the auction house.
The amount sold each time was not large, so it was difficult to attract too much attention, but it had happened too many times.
The investigation report stated that these items appeared in the auction one to two times almost every month. A single time would be a small bottle of dragon blood, or a few scales.
The investigation report also mentioned one point: the dragon blood and scales were collected very freshly.
The dragon blood and scales that were auctioned off each time seemed to have just been collected from a dragon.
The stronghold of the Eternal Sect had at least one living dragon imprisoned.
Yan Yunqing's brows furrowed slightly. No wonder Merlin had given him the investigation report. Since the other party still had a living dragon in their hands, they couldn't just charge into the stronghold with overwhelming force and wipe out all the believers of the Eternal Sect in one go like before.
They had to consider the possibility that the other party might become desperate and, in a fit of pique, simply perish together with the imprisoned dragon.
This was asking him to think of a solution as well.
Yan Yunqing flipped through the documents again. The investigation report did not specify any suspects or the location of the stronghold, which meant that these were still under investigation. It was probably hidden too deeply and not easy to find.
And the next auction would be in three days.
This was really a difficult problem for him. Yan Yunqing put the documents aside, thought for a moment, opened his panel, looked at the player identity [Good Day] inside, and decisively switched to it.
***
After logging back in as a player, Yan Yunqing got up from his carefully prepared corpse-playing spot. For the past few days, he had often switched to his player identity to take a look, and at the same time, he had added points to his level according to the rankings on the level leaderboard, subtly keeping himself in the top ten.
It wasn't too conspicuous, but it was enough that his level wouldn't fall behind the front-line players.
Now, the highest-level players had basically broken through level 15 and could leave the starter village at will, gradually integrating into the real villages around them.
With "Flame" acting as a buffer, the appearance of the Descenders was not particularly abrupt.
The first batch of players who came out of the starter village was not large, and they did not cause too much of a shock to the common people.
Yan Yunqing was very satisfied with the current progress. He was just about to use his player identity to go to that auction house to investigate when a private message appeared in the chat panel.
[Big Brother A (Private)]: Big shot, you're online?
Yan Yunqing paused for a moment. He remembered that this was one of the two people he had met on the first day as a player. From the information revealed in the chat, he should be a game UP main.
He had also accidentally misled the other party's perception of him and created an official GM persona for himself.
[Good Day (Private)]: What's up?
Yan Yunqing had originally thought that this [Big Brother A] just wanted to chat with him and get closer, but who knew that the other party would send a long paragraph.
[Big Brother A (Private)]: Big shot, we got a clue to a hidden quest here. I wanted to ask if you're interested in joining? But it's not here in Bartovita 01, but over at the Romunik starter village. We all speculate that this quest is very likely to be related to the gameplay after the game.
[Big Brother A (Private)]: Maybe it's even related to the main quest later on. Big shot, are you coming?
When he sent these two messages, [Big Brother A] was a little nervous. After so many days of observation, he had also confirmed that [Good Day] was most likely not an official GM, because his online schedule was too regular, and his level was also steadily increasing. However, he didn't often hang out in the player circle, which was not quite the same as the GM he had imagined.
However, even if [Good Day] wasn't a GM, he was definitely a game QA (tester), or a professional player with inside information.
Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense that this [Good Day] was never seen in the starter village, yet his level could always remain at the forefront without falling behind. He must have some information that ordinary players didn't know.
If he could invite such a big shot into their team, maybe they could complete the hidden quest faster.
After all, in the closed beta, time was money!
Yan Yunqing was a little surprised. According to [Big Brother A]'s meaning, he had joined the quest in Hawthorne Village?
He had expected that the players who had accepted the quest would seek help from other players, but he didn't expect that someone was already planning to cross starter villages.
The several starter villages in the game Return Journey were all established by Yan Yunqing and his people. Naturally, he also knew that there were no fast travel channels, or so-called teleportation arrays, established between the starter villages.
And this world itself was a real world. To get from one starter village to another, one had to travel for real. Had this [Big Brother A] already found a way to travel?
[Good Day (Private)]: You're going to the Romunik starter village? How are you going to get there?
[Big Brother A (Private)]: When I was exploring the neighboring city, I found a post station where you can rent carriages and demonic beasts for travel. I have a few other players with me, so we can split the fee and get to Romunik.
Yan Yunqing felt that this [Big Brother A] was indeed worthy of being a blogger with millions of fans. His mind was so active. Other players were still gradually accepting quests in the starter village, but he had already inquired about the prices of the post station in the neighboring city.
That neighboring city was definitely not arranged by his people, so it could only be real people from another world.
[Good Day (Private Chat)]: I'm busy here, so I won't go with you for now. If you have any problems, you can private message me.
For such a smart and resourceful player, Yan Yunqing didn't mind taking care of him a little more.
[Big Brother A] was a little disappointed that he couldn't bring the big shot along to complete this hidden quest, but after receiving [Good Day]'s promise, he still felt that he had profited.
This was a big shot with connections!
[Big Brother A] agreed and happily closed the chat panel. He met the expectant gaze of [He Kou Wang] and calmly shook his head, "The big shot refused. He said he's busy and told us to go by ourselves."
"Ah, Brother A, didn't you say that this big shot probably isn't a GM?" [He Kou Wang] couldn't help but ask.
"What do you know? Maybe he's busy testing the game mechanics?" [Big Brother A] stroked his chin, hiding his contributions and fame.
"Just now, I deliberately revealed to the big shot that this hidden quest is very likely to be related to the upcoming gameplay, and even the main quest later on. But the big shot had no reaction at all, just asked how we were going to get to the Romunik starter village."
[He Kou Wang]'s eyes flickered with a clear and foolish light. "Ah, could it be that he didn't believe it?"
"Idiot." [Big Brother A] tapped [He Kou Wang]'s head. "This clearly shows that the big shot has a clear idea of the upcoming gameplay, and he might even know what the hidden quest is. That's why he had no reaction at all and just asked how we were going to get to Romunik!"
"Huh?" [He Kou Wang] was still a little confused.
[Big Brother A] lovingly stroked [He Kou Wang]'s head, "Let me ask you, if I told you that I knew about a hidden quest related to the upcoming gameplay, what would your reaction be?"
[He Kou Wang] hesitated for a moment, "I would ask what kind of gameplay it's about."
[Big Brother A] snapped his fingers: "Exactly. For this kind of hidden quest about the future gameplay and main storyline of the game, even if you're not very curious, you would at least ask a thing or two. But the big shot didn't ask anything and his reaction was completely ordinary, as if he already knew, or at least had a general understanding of the future gameplay."
"He definitely has someone on the inside of the game studio!"
"And he promised to help us if we encounter difficulties. I estimate that this big shot already knows most of the plot of the hidden quest."
...
He had no idea that his casual refusal had caused [Big Brother A] to have so many thoughts, and that the process was completely wrong, but the result was, to a certain extent, correct.
This Augreer auction house was located in a bustling city in Romunik.
There was a largest trade port of the empire here, and next to it was the longest river flowing through the two great empires, the Dokiroman River. The two great empires often conducted trade through this river.
The cities that the Dokiroman River flowed through all prospered due to the trade and transportation on the river.
The city of Slanlipa, where the Augreer Auction House was located, had prospered because of this. Therefore, the Augreer Auction House, which was only famous in its own country, was able to establish itself in Slanlipa City.
After all, Slanlipa City was a city with a developed commercial sector, and the main business of the Augreer family was also transportation and trade.
Yan Yunqing, under the guise of the player [Good Day], came to this city. Before he even entered the city, he saw a long queue outside the city, waiting for the strict inspection of the city guards.
Yan Yunqing observed from a distance for a while. Most of the queues outside the city were the convoys of small merchants, and a small number of them looked like minor nobles from families with some wealth.
There wasn't a single person with shabby clothes who looked more like a commoner.
Was it because this city was too developed, so the average wealth of the city was higher than other cities?
Yan Yunqing studied for a while and silently followed the end of the queue. In front of him was a servant of a small merchant caravan.
He reached out and gently tapped the arm of the big brother in front of him, "Sir, may I ask why there are so many people queuing in front?"
The servant in the merchant caravan in front turned around and was stunned to see Yan Yunqing's young appearance. Then he answered: "Because the Slanlipa Festival is coming soon, and these people are all here to participate in the Slanlipa Festival!"
That big brother sized Yan Yunqing up and down, "You don't know? Then what are you here for?"
The Slanlipa Festival?
This really touched upon a blind spot in Yan Yunqing's knowledge. Although his previous range of activities was very wide, they were all related to demonic beasts, magic, and swordsmen. A festival named after a city like this sounded like a local special custom. Yan Yunqing, who had basically never been to Romunik, how could he possibly know?
He answered very calmly: "Oh, I'm from out of town, so I don't know about these things. Is there anything special about this Slanlipa Festival?"
"From out of town?" The big brother was a little confused, but he still answered Yan Yunqing's question, "There's nothing special. At this time every year, Slanlipa City holds the Slanlipa Festival. The small towns around will send their goods here to sell. During this period, many big bosses from outside will come to buy things, and some noble masters will also come to play."
"In the past few years, the city lord of Slanlipa City has put in a lot of effort to attract those noble masters. Last year, there were even many more performances to watch, which were very interesting," another younger teenager who was also queuing up came over and explained to Yan Yunqing. "There are also some fun things that not only don't cost money, but you even get money back if you win. Do you think this city lord's brain is broken? Who does business like this?"
Yan Yunqing analyzed from the teenager's fragmented words. This Slanlipa Festival was roughly an annual garden party, which promoted commercial trade by attracting tourists, and ultimately increased the city's per capita GDP. The rich lead the poor—
This city lord was quite business-minded?
No wonder this place could become the number one commercial city in Romunik, even though the Dokiroman River didn't just flow through Slanlipa City.
The teenager continued to talk to himself a lot. The middle-aged man who had initially answered Yan Yunqing's question fell silent. Both in terms of appearance and the feeling he gave off, he was not as eloquent as this teenager.
Yan Yunqing chatted with him casually for a few sentences and got a general idea of the situation in Slanlipa City.
"By the way, you don't even know about the Slanlipa Festival. Why did you come here?" The teenager looked at Yan Yunqing curiously. "You don't look like a noble either."
[Good Day]'s identity was a player, and a player's initial fashion was only a set of initial coarse linen clothes. Although Yan Yunqing's temperament could also make a sackcloth look like high fashion, a sackcloth was still a sackcloth. That was an unchangeable fact.
Obviously, Yan Yunqing, who was wearing coarse linen clothes, looked no different from an ordinary commoner. Of course, based on his temperament, he looked more like a rich young master wearing commoner's clothes to go out and play.
Of course, the teenager didn't have that much experience. After seeing the cheap clothes on Yan Yunqing, he only regarded Yan Yunqing as a commoner and didn't think about the possibility of an incognito visit.
The middle-aged man next to him, however, pulled the teenager's arm. A trace of nervousness appeared on his honest and dull face, signaling the teenager not to talk nonsense.
Yan Yunqing's eyes curved into a smile, "Me? Hmm... have you perhaps heard of the 'Descenders'?"
The middle-aged man and the teenager were both stunned. The teenager was the first to react, his eyes lit up: "Descenders! I know! That legend—'When war and calamity descend, and the world is annihilated, only the Descenders can save it all!'"
"Eh, could it be that you are a—Descender?" The teenager was a little excited. "Although I've recently heard that Descenders have appeared, I always thought it was just a story to fool children—so there really are Descenders?"
Yan Yunqing nodded reservedly, not feeling the slightest bit of shame in fooling people while wearing a player's guise. After all, he was indeed a player.
Just a player who also served as an NPC.
But this prophecy of the Descenders was really widespread. It felt like everyone on this continent knew it, but no one could accurately say what the prophecy was really about.
"You Descenders, hmm, are you different from us? How did you become Descenders?" the teenager asked like a curious baby.
Yan Yunqing smiled brightly but did not answer this question.
To add another point: although these ordinary people knew about the prophecy and the existence of the Descenders, very few of them knew that the Descenders did not belong to this world, but were visitors from beyond the heavens.
Only high-level people were qualified to know this.
However strange the players' behavior might seem in the eyes of the people of Ailman, they would ignore this and treat these behaviors as the peculiar personalities of the Descenders.
Even Merlin was like this.
How could a normal person try to pull down a blacksmith's pants the first time they met?