Chapter 452: The Return of the Wise and New Adventures

The Silver Moon Team and Big Bird Team confirmed their time to enter the swamp. Meow King went to buy seeds, while Lady Aqua, accompanied by Orchid, went through the Spirit Mage portal at the Maginot Line to Ancestral Forest to change equipment. The rest of the people had nothing to do.

Little Ashina pestered Brother Tune to take her for a ride on a wind griffin, and then she fell in love with these beautiful and proud flying creatures.

She was already planning to grind reputation in the Ancestral Forest after completing the swamp conquest, determined to add a beautiful wyvern to her pet house.

Although she herself was a vampire, and her flying speed was no slower than a wyvern, but who doesn’t have their own hobbies?

As a little rich lady, what’s wrong with her liking these strange things?

The other members of the Big Bird Team were all single.

But they were all battle-hardened veterans who didn’t fawn over girls, so under Tobacco Mulberry’s leadership, they went ahead to the swamp to adapt to the environment. Only Lumina and Sister Pomegranate remained at the temporary camp, along with Led More Than Three to Five Pecks who was responsible for guarding.

The three people were busy around the bonfire prepared for night lighting, chatting casually. After about ten minutes, Lumina suddenly raised her head and said:

“There’s spirit energy fluctuation! Very close, right near us!”

“Huh?”

Led More Than Three to Five Pecks reacted quickly and grabbed his war hammer, while Sister Pomegranate beside him had already extended her fist blade. Who would use spirit energy in this middle of nowhere?

It could be Gnolls from the swamp launching a surprise attack!

However, the situation wasn’t that bad. Just as Led More Than Three to Five Pecks raised his unbreakable heavy shield preparing to release a divine art barrier, a crimson rift opened on the ground in front of the three.

Under the effect of standard teleportation magic, MoeHaha, who hadn’t been in the game for almost ten days, appeared before them holding her staff.

This girl still had that unhurried smiling expression as before, and when she saw Pomegranate she even raised her hand to wave friendly, but Sister Pomegranate’s expression instantly darkened.

She made a gesture to Lumina and Led More Than Three to Five Pecks, indicating them to stay put, then went forward herself and grabbed MoeHaha’s wrist, pulling her aside.

This scene made Led More Than Three to Five Pecks widen his eyes.

He couldn’t figure out the special relationship between these two girls, so he turned back to look at Lumina with a puzzled expression, hoping she would explain.

Lumina was also a bit stumped.

The bard put down her elven flute and pistol, thought for a moment and waved at Led More Than Three to Five Pecks saying:

“Just friends having a spat, don’t ask too much, mainly because I don’t know either.”

“Uh, alright.”

Led More Than Three to Five Pecks scratched his head and put down his shield, thought for a moment, then asked:

“Sister Lumina, how does it feel to become an elf? Do you have any powerful natural affinity talents or something?”

“No, I’m just a half-elf.”

Mentioning this topic, Lumina unconsciously pinched her pointed ears hidden in her hair, and showed a happy expression again.

She played with the elven flute in her hand and said with a grin:

“Lord Murphy and Lady Tris told me that my bloodline is still incomplete, perhaps because the development team hasn’t found a proper approach in this aspect yet, anyway it’s just an experiment, I think this is pretty good already.

But if I could get 100% Moon Elf bloodline in the future that would be amazing! I heard real Moon Elves get terrifying buffs under moonlight.”

“Mm-hmm, I also hope this experiment can reach a good result soon.”

Led More Than Three to Five Pecks sat by the already set up bonfire, while polishing his precious shield, he said to Lumina:

“I want to try converting to a half-orc or minotaur too.”

“Hah? What kind of minotaur? The kind that would make those perverts go crazy?”

“Ah tsk tsk, didn’t expect you to understand these things too, amazing amazing! My respect!”

————————

“Slow down, little Pomegranate, you’re about to tear my hand off!”

In a secluded spot outside the camp, MoeHaha, who had accurately teleported herself to the destination on her first try, screamed as she broke free from Sister Pomegranate’s restraint.

Mainly because Sister Pomegranate used too much force in her anger, leaving red marks on MoeHaha’s wrist.

After comprehending the monk’s qi, her strength had greatly increased, and her physical destructive power was no joke. This was already with Sister Pomegranate holding back, if she had used her full strength, she probably could have crushed MoeHaha’s wrist since she hadn’t passed the Black Iron trial yet.

“You have the nerve to talk!”

Sister Pomegranate glared at her good friend with an ugly expression, she uncharacteristically screamed:

“You exploited me you bastard! And I trusted you so much! Even let you stay at my home, tell me honestly, do you still have surveillance cameras monitoring me at my house?”

“What are you thinking?”

MoeHaha sighed.

She knew before logging in that she would have to deal with this, but Sister Pomegranate’s reaction really exceeded her expectations, now she could only helplessly answer:

“I’m not even in charge of surveillance, there are dedicated people for that, and we don’t use outdated things like home cameras anymore. In the era of big data, cameras are almost obsolete technology. Currently all players in the game have complete files in the relevant departments.

Your communications with the outside world are indeed monitored, but this isn’t to obtain your privacy, it’s only out of proper care and protection.

Pomegranate, calm down!

Although you always act rashly, I don’t believe with your brain you can’t imagine why we have to do this?

I think you’re not unable to understand, you just don’t want to understand, right?”

Sister Pomegranate kept silent with a cold face, just folded her arms and coldly stared at MoeHaha.

She was waiting for her good friend to give her an explanation.

MoeHaha, who had high emotional intelligence, didn’t waste time talking about grand principles of country and nation, she had prepared her speech beforehand, and started speaking:

“Even without our relationship, I would still enter here, this is my work assignment! I’m not exploiting you either, it’s simply because you’re already involved. And on the contrary, I didn’t need to go to your place before, but I still went.

I had to see your situation with my own eyes to feel at ease.

Trust me, Pomegranate, I really don’t have ill intentions.

Now the inquiry meeting has ended, and the result was quite perfect. We decided not to interfere with the current situation, but to let it continue developing while maintaining minimal attention until situations requiring intervention occur.

The external environment caused by the pandemic currently faces great pressure, and officials don’t have much energy to spend on tracking a suspected third type contact special event. Its current level is merely an ‘urban legend’, and we’re very happy to see things develop in this direction.

What I mean is, you don’t need to worry about why I came back.

I do have my work, but I can guarantee that when I’m with you all, I’m just a pure player. As for my work, I’ll complete it offline and absolutely won’t interfere with your normal lives.”

At this point, MoeHaha put on a pitiful expression and held Sister Pomegranate’s hand, saying in a low voice:

“Don’t be angry anymore. I know you’re angry because I didn’t tell you all this right away, but we also have work discipline.

Be good, little Pomegranate.”

“You’ve already involved Little Ashina!”

Sister Pomegranate said in a low voice:

“Your action of dismantling the computation bead got Little Ashina a warning, but she was completely implicated by you. You could have completed this dangerous task alone, but you had to have her join you.”

“Heaven and Earth be my witness, I just asked Little Ashina to help collect a set of tools.”

MoeHaha protested:

“I repeatedly told her not to get involved, that little dummy found it interesting so she pestered me to watch the whole process, I didn’t do it on purpose. I will apologize to her and seek her forgiveness. Don’t be angry anymore, okay?”

“But you’re still hiding many things from me, I feel like I never really knew you at all.”

Sister Pomegranate shook her head and said:

“It’s very hard for me to trust you completely like before now, MoeHaha, when did you…”

“Shh, that’s a topic we can’t discuss.”

MoeHaha put her hand on Sister Pomegranate’s lips, indicating her not to ask further, she looked into Sister Pomegranate’s eyes and said very seriously and sincerely:

“You only need to know that I wasn’t forced. When faced with this job invitation back then, I didn’t hesitate much.

I’m also honored to be able to make some insignificant contributions to the country with my knowledge. As for this specific job now, well, I admit there might indeed be some reasons related to you.

But as I just said, I will ensure my work doesn’t affect you all.

In fact the situation isn’t as bad as you imagine. Just the fact that all players were born in our motherland is enough to show that this might be a unique ‘first-mover advantage’ for us.

No one wants to force Alpha Company to abandon their current setup and start over in another country.

You should trust the vision of the higher-ups and their think tank’s capabilities.”

“Fine.”

Sister Pomegranate rubbed her brow, she looked at the grinning MoeHaha, and put on a stern face again saying:

“Then now in the game, people like you…”

“Not as many as you think, and I suggest you don’t try to identify them.”

MoeHaha warned:

“If you don’t want to have a separate file sequence in the relevant departments, you better behave. If things between us are clear now, then please help me call little Lumina over, I need to talk with her.”

“Hmm?”

Sister Pomegranate scolded:

“You just said you wouldn’t involve them! MoeHaha! They’re just ordinary people.”

“No, they’re not! Little Pomegranate, you really don’t understand how special your friends are. But don’t worry, Lumina isn’t in trouble, I just want to learn about the other two people in their little circle.”

MoeHaha shook her head and said:

“Mainly that ‘Sister Concrete’ and the more mysterious seventh person ‘Ruyi’. You may not know, but the night before last, an encrypted message from across the ocean was decrypted.

The sender was Sister Concrete, and Ruyi helped her transmit this message.

She’s conducting a very dangerous research, and to put it bluntly, she faces the danger of ‘account deletion’ in the real world at any time. I must collect enough information from Lumina to feed back to other teams to start preparing rescue.

From what we can see now, Concrete trusts family more than outsiders, which is a good sign.”

“Is that so?”

Sister Pomegranate frowned deeply, she said:

“Then I think you shouldn’t talk to Lumina, she’s just an ordinary young girl. You should talk to Lady Aqua and Orchid, I think they clearly have their own understanding of this game, and they’ve known Sister Concrete longer, reportedly even met offline.”

“Alright, talking to them works too.”

MoeHaha shrugged and said:

“Want to come with me to find them? Look, I just learned teleportation magic, taught personally by the young lady, who even said I have great talent and invited me to join her ‘Scarlet Devil Mansion’ planning to develop me as her champion.

Very stable, you know.

They say because I have the ‘spatial awareness’ talent, the probability of accidents happening when I cast teleportation magic would be reduced to minimum.

Speaking of which, this material world and astral realm relative mapping formula seems to be very ancient already, the spirit mages on the continent haven’t thought about updating it.

These guys are really lazy, I should perhaps help them in this aspect.”

“I’m not going.”

Sister Pomegranate pouted and said:

“Even a 0.1% risk of malfunction is still a risk, I won’t do these dangerous things for no reason. Lady Aqua is in the Ancestral Forest now, you go find them, and bring them back safely while you’re at it.”

“Mm.”

MoeHaha nodded, she waved her staff, opening a crimson rift with not very skillful movements.

In the slight leakage of astral energy, she turned back to Sister Pomegranate and said:

“Sorry, Pomegranate, I hid these things from you, but I really don’t want this to affect our relationship. If there’s anything I can do to make you forgive me faster…”

“I’ve already forgiven you.”

Sister Pomegranate said, but MoeHaha shook her head saying:

“No you haven’t, I know you too well you stubborn donkey, I estimate I need to do many many things to make the grudge in your heart disappear, but I deserve this… give me more time, Pomegranate.

I will prove that I value this friendship more than many things.

Before it was always you protecting me, this time it’s finally my turn to protect you all in secrecy.”

After speaking, MoeHaha stepped forward, her figure disappearing into the crimson rift, leaving only Sister Pomegranate alone still standing in this secluded spot at the edge of the swamp. She stared at the crimson light flow dissipating before her, and after several seconds of silence, she clenched her fist and swung it hard.

As if wanting to vent all the depression in her heart.

On the other side, in the elder’s cabin in the Ancestral Forest, Lady Aqua was taking off her nun’s robe, wearing only undergarments about to change into the “Forest Spirit Ceremonial Robe” she had just exchanged for a hefty sum.

She hummed a tune, her pretty face full of anticipation.

Mainly because this ceremonial robe before her was designed very uniquely. Although it carried the primitiveness and ruggedness unique to mountain folk, it also incorporated vivid life characteristics.

Especially the large leaf-shaped patterns and sun patterns decorated at the waist of the ceremonial robe, which gave this outfit a primitive atmosphere of praising nature. The rare sleeveless design paired with a pair of long-sleeved bracers was very clever, and could showcase Lady Aqua’s nature tattoos on her arms as an Avalon believer, giving her wildness while adding a sense of mystery that clergy should have.

Besides the clever design, this ceremonial robe’s attributes were also very good. Although it didn’t add attributes, its four affixes were all related to nature spirit energy enhancement, wearing it could increase Lady Aqua’s milk volume… uh, healing effect by at least one-third.

She could finally change class to professional healer.

Of course, for Lady Aqua’s “special situation”, the best thing about this outfit was that ancient mountain folk elders had applied special nature inscriptions when making the ceremonial robe, allowing it to make micro-adjustments and adaptations according to the wearer’s body type, so Lady Aqua didn’t need to modify the size herself nor would she feel constricted when wearing it.

But an accident soon occurred!

Just as Lady Aqua picked up the ceremonial robe preparing to put it on, a crimson light flow suddenly opened at the top of this cabin. With ghostly howls and wolf howls, under Lady Aqua’s dumbfounded gaze, a figure wrapped in chaotic power fell clumsily from it, landing with a thud on the bed in front of her.

The poor wooden bed was smashed, and in the flying dust, MoeHaha who had a “teleportation accident” lay there covered in dirt.

Several bones were broken, making her howl in pain through gritted teeth.

“Well well, look who it is, isn’t this our capable ‘Miss Spy’?”

Lady Aqua used the ceremonial robe to cover her undergarment-clad body, drawing out her words in a mocking tone.

She wasn’t afraid though, and even casually tossed a rejuvenation spell over to slightly reduce MoeHaha’s pain.

The dirt-covered MoeHaha turned her head to express gratitude, but upon seeing Lady Aqua’s overly exaggerated figure in just undergarments, even she in her current extremely sorry state couldn’t help but quip:

“Hey! How do you maintain such roundness up top while keeping such perfect proportions below? This isn’t something you can achieve with just exercise or yoga. Your husband must have saved the galaxy in his past life, and you must have been a succubus entangled with him in yours?”

“Tch, just good genes, it’s not like I can control it.”

Lady Aqua pursed her lips, then asked:

“So, what did you come here for? Did you come specifically to tease me? You know, as the current leader of Silver Moon Team, I’m very displeased with what you’ve been doing lately.”

“I came to apologize, little Pomegranate almost gave me a beating just now.”

MoeHaha said with exaggerated expressions:

“Also, I need to ask you about Concrete Heart’s situation. I won’t beat around the bush with you – the day before yesterday, with Ruyi’s help, Sister Concrete sent an encrypted message ‘home’. She’s researching the scientific principles of Alpha Company’s game helmets and she’s confirmed that she’s being monitored by the other side.

It’s too late for her to leave now, which is why she hasn’t contacted you all for the past while.

She needs help now.

I can help her, but I need your trust and cooperation.”

“Ah, I knew it.”

Lady Aqua rubbed her temples helplessly and said:

“Tell me, how should I cooperate?”

“Uh, how about putting on clothes first? You’re exposing yourself, sister. If this continues, my feminine confidence is going to be completely crushed by your monster figure… As for Sister Concrete, she needs a ‘beacon’!

We need to find her a beacon in Transia.

This is certainly difficult.

But I think we’re not entirely without hope.”