Chapter 19

Without Mr. Suer watching him, Amuruo sprawled sideways on the sofa, abandoning every last trace of his usual elegance and looking exactly like some old washed-up mercenary rogue.

The world was heading toward apocalypse again, but Amuruo showed no panic or alarm. His brow held only the world-weary resignation of a middle-aged man who had seen too much.

After obtaining the key to Green Sand City’s library, Xia Xifeng had read many books about prophecy. Using their content as a base, he adapted the game’s storyline he knew, making it as vague, grandiose, and riddler-esque as possible, while preserving only the most fundamental meaning.

Namely: “The rules shall twist, Outer Gods descend; a lone sun hangs in the sky, the Apocalypse begins.”

Amuruo raised an eyebrow. “This Apocalypse… will even the Gods die?”

Xia Xifeng nodded.

Amuruo let out a hearty, delighted laugh. “Excellent.”

Xia Xifeng broke out in a cold sweat. “Mr. Amuruo, the world is about to end. How is that excellent?”

Amuruo smiled. “In countless previous apocalypses, only the mortal creatures suffered. Some Gods watched coldly from the sidelines; some apocalypses were even instigated by the Gods themselves. Now everyone gets to perish together. Isn’t that excellent?”

Xia Xifeng said earnestly, “No matter what others do, I love this world. I don’t want the Apocalypse to come.”

Even the virtual apocalypse storyline in the game was something players refused to accept, sacrificing countless hair and hard-earned cash to try and protect that world—let alone this one he had transmigrated into.

Amuruo sighed. “Don’t be so serious. I was just complaining. If you’d had to save the world a dozen times in a single year, with the occasional business trip to a Mirror World thrown in, you’d be just like me.”

Xia Xifeng was dumbstruck.

The Mirror World was the classic “parallel timeline.” Though it was an official setting in Fantasy Realms, the game developers hadn’t put it to use yet.

Players speculated that once the main storyline ended and Fantasy Realms II launched, they would introduce the parallel world setting—or else just go with the overused “world reset” trope seen in countless long-running manga and novels.

Did the real Dream World actually have parallel worlds? And Mr. Amuruo and Mr. Suer had even saved a parallel timeline?

Xia Xifeng clicked his tongue. “Are the Prophet and the Guardian Knight always this overworked?” He was starting to worry about his future career.

Amuruo laughed in spite of himself. “Yes, this overworked. But now Suer has been snared by Fate, so it’s your turn, and Qin Lang’s, to be exhausted, hahahaha.”

He slapped his thigh, straightening his posture. “No need for further details for now. When the future you see is about to arrive, just hint at it then. Speak little, do much—that’s the only way to avoid being targeted by ‘Fate.’ Make a list of whatever potions you need and have Damon fetch them. I’ll keep a close watch on the Dwarf Merchant Caravan; don’t worry about them.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, barely managing to reassemble the composure he showed before outsiders. “The fact they haven’t dared to infiltrate Green Sand City directly proves I still hold some deterrence over them. Tell Leo and Perila to lift their Power Suppression Runes. Everyone needs to be sharp. You and Qin Lang stay hidden. Your safety is the highest priority.”

Xia Xifeng nodded vigorously.

He and Qin Lang were still small fry, unable to withstand any great storms.

Amuruo deliberately separated a strand of his mental energy to meticulously observe the Dwarf Merchant Caravan preparing for their audience, but detected nothing abnormal.

Instead of doubting Xia Xifeng’s prophecy, he only felt a growing headache.

Oh, forget it. An Apocalypse that could kill even Innate Gods—it was only normal that such a calamity possessed terrifyingly deep schemes. Otherwise, such threats would have been rooted out long ago.

Amuruo could not discern the wrongness within the Dwarf Caravan, but the shadows hidden among them might very well see the extraordinariness of Xia Xifeng. He ordered Damon to take a squad of guards and escort Xia Xifeng directly back to the Knight’s Domain through the Teleportation Formation in Sunflower Valley.

“Get that Teleportation Formation completed as soon as possible. Don’t worry about the cost,” Amuruo instructed. “The situation is critical. Don’t refuse Suer’s and my help any longer.”

Clutching the requisition slip for massive quantities of resources, Xia Xifeng was drenched in cold sweat by the time he returned home.

He suddenly understood Qin Lang’s eccentricity. Debts of gratitude truly were agonizing.

Xia Xifeng brought back not just a requisition slip for vast resources, but also two Magic Conduit Communicators, thrust upon him.

These two Communicators were extremely rudimentary in function, possessing only a positioning feature and text transmission. However, as long as they were inside the Dream World—even if located within different subspace domains—the Communicators would not sever their connection.

The reason Suer hadn’t gifted these Magic Conduits to Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang earlier was because he knew the young men disliked having their elders track their location at will. He had wanted to modify the devices’ functions before giving them.

But now the Apocalypse was imminent, and Suer was in meditation—no one knew when he would emerge. For the sake of their lives, such minor privacy concerns had to wait.

Xia Xifeng: 【Yesterday morning, Mr. Suer suddenly had a premonition and entered closed-door meditation to try and observe this ‘prophecy.’ He cannot be disturbed during meditation; we can only wait for him to come out on his own. Mr. Amuruo says Mr. Suer was set up. ‘We’ didn’t exist in the game’s ‘history,’ so this Sun-Worshipping Festival is definitely going to go wrong. The game’s background lore never even recorded this! The devs are way too lazy!】

Qin Lang: 【When the game launched, most of the Dream World was already destroyed, so records from before the Apocalypse are sparse. But the City Lord and Mr. Suer are both still alive, and they’ve never mentioned this incident. Maybe the Dwarf Caravan just didn’t cause any trouble. Or maybe they never learned the truth even to the very end, treating it as an ordinary violent crime. I’ve listed the weaknesses of low-tier Corrupted Monsters. Memorize them when you get back. Don’t let some trash mob trip you up.】

They had to face a genuine enemy this early; Qin Lang couldn’t help but say more.

When it came to monster-farming and combat, he was always a chatterbox.

Xia Xifeng sighed.

He really, truly disliked fighting. Couldn’t these enemies just let him farm, build infrastructure, and climb the tech tree in peace?

Xia Xifeng slapped his own cheeks.

Work hard. Push yourself! He had to muster the fervent, life-consuming passion of a grind-addicted gamer and race against the Apocalypse for time!

Xia Xifeng returned with a squad of the most elite Half-Elf guards in Green Sand City, startling both Leo and Perila badly.

Even Perila was reluctant to believe it. Had the situation truly deteriorated so badly that the City Lord was this tense?

“Lift your Power Suppression Runes first, then come hear this together,” Xia Xifeng instructed. “Mr. Amuruo says that the two of you, working together, can manage to use a half-crippled Domain.”

Perila: “…Half-crippled.”

Leo: “Feng, your imitation of the teacher’s tone is absolutely spot-on.”

He twisted his bracelet, wilting slightly. “Did I make a really big mistake?”

Xia Xifeng replied, “You haven’t had the chance to make a mistake yet, just a blunder. Isn’t one of the roles of a good friend to give the other a punch when they’re being an idiot?”

Leo bared his teeth in a grin. “Yeah, true.”

Perila took a deep breath. “Let’s go. Let’s hear what this is about.” On the surface, Perila maintained his calm, but inside, he was a continuous “aaaaaaaaaah!”

His personality was the polar opposite of Leo’s.

Leo appeared easily agitated on the surface but held a core of deep calm; Perila merely maintained a composed exterior while internally, he panicked easily and got lost in spirals of overthinking.

Leo was never fooled by Perila’s expressions.

He clasped his good brother’s hand, offering silent reassurance.

Xia Xifeng caught sight of the two mini-princes—one blond, one silver-haired—holding hands from the corner of his eye and couldn’t help but internally quip: 【Straight guys being all touchy-feely with each other is gayer than actual gays.】

Qin Lang deeply agreed.

The two of them strode forward on their long legs, leaving the pair of clingy, sappy straight best friends behind them to avoid getting goosebumps.

Damon, who had come along specifically to hear the first-hand intelligence while having the Half-Elf guards stand watch outside, hurried his pace to catch up with Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang.

Just as Xia Xifeng had previously predicted, the young woman, Lana, upon hearing the potion’s effects, immediately snatched the bottle to drink it first.

She was desperate to deliver her message.

With the potion artificially suppressing her hysteria, Lana finally managed to recount the caravan’s ambush in detail.

She had accompanied her father to Green Sand City to see the excitement. As they neared the city, she had been too thrilled to sleep and had shaken her father awake to watch the moon with her.

Her father took her up into a tree, where they saw not only the bright moon but also the shadows within the moonlight, which behaved like wild beasts, biting and crushing the heads of the night watch guards.

And that wasn’t even the most horrifying part.

Lana was a very brave girl; otherwise, her father wouldn’t have dared let her travel with a long-distance caravan to broaden her horizons.

Long-distance caravans frequently encountered attacks; Lana had witnessed bloodshed many times.

But that night, she saw a nightmare far more terrifying than death and blood.

Even with the potion suppressing her emotions, Lana’s voice shook uncontrollably. “The shadows… like sludge… seeped into Uncle Ironbeard’s body. His crushed head sprouted many, many threads, which crawled along the ground and stuck together the shattered bits of bone and flesh…”

She leaned off the bed and retched.

The potion suppressed her emotions, but her body still reacted physically on its own.

Lana wiped her mouth and refused rest, continuing her detailed account of what she had seen—how, when she climbed up the rock face and looked back, she saw her father split in two by the shadow, his blood and viscera spilling across the ground.

“I was terrified of Daddy’s death, but even more terrified… even more terrified to see Daddy still alive.” Lana raised her trembling hands and covered her expressionless face.

Lana and her father, Jim, had been the last surviving members of the caravan.

Lana had witnessed her father’s death with her own eyes before being swallowed by the Scorpion. She should have been the sole survivor.

Then what had Xia Xifeng seen, watching that Dwarf Merchant Caravan from a distance?

After calming down, Lana remembered the activation passphrase for her Ruby Brooch.

The Ruby Brooch had not just a protective function but also the ability to record images. Lana had used it to capture much scenery, intending to pour the memories into a Crystal Ball back home and project them for her mother and brother.

During their desperate escape, Jim had told his daughter to activate the brooch’s recording function. If they died, he hoped someone might find this Ruby Brooch and expose the monsters’ true faces.

Strangely, the recording within the ruby showed nothing of the sludge monsters Lana described.

The dwarves appeared to be fighting empty air before suddenly erupting in sprays of blood and being torn limb from limb.

The final segment of the recording was exactly as Lana had said: her father was split in half by a monster that left no image. In the very last moments of his life, Lana’s father had kept shouting, “Run! Don’t look back!”

But Lana still looked back, recording her father’s final appearance—utterly horrific.

Damon felt his scalp crawl.

He had slacked off on the job earlier, going to gawk at the newly arrived Dwarf Caravan from afar before returning to his post.

That dwarf who had been cleaved in two… had spoken to him, asking which tavern in Green Sand City had the finest ale.

Xia Xifeng fed Lana a bottle of Sleeping Potion. After cleaning the floor, the group left the bedroom.

They were all silent, their expressions grave.

Leo was the first to speak. “The leader of the Dwarf Caravan… he was the friend who forged my axe.”

In the recording, he had witnessed his friend’s brutal death.

Damon rubbed his arms vigorously, the hairs standing on end as if frozen by an icy chill. He finally forced sound from between clenched teeth, his voice a struggle. “Your caravan-leader friend… he’s ‘alive’ too. He even asked me if you’d returned home yet. Said he couldn’t stand staying in some cramped city inn and wanted to bring the caravan to Sunflower Valley to lodge with you.”

Leo shot to his feet. A powerful current of air erupted outward, centered on him.

Xia Xifeng was nearly blasted off his feet; only Qin Lang’s timely pull dragged him safely into his arms.

Xia Xifeng latched onto Qin Lang with all four limbs, clinging like an octopus. “Stop! Have you forgotten how fragile I am?! Perila! Damon! Help, help, help!”

As the two snapped back to their senses and frantically erected protective barriers, Leo had already reined in his pressure.

He pressed both hands over his eyes. As if all the strength had drained from his body, he slowly collapsed to his knees, tears falling from between his fingers.

If they hadn’t happened to save Lana, he would have certainly agreed to his dwarven friend’s request to lodge there.