Chapter 49: Chapter 36 Plan_1
After that, following the caravan, Duanmu Huai and his party arrived at the central city of Bartonilla, Carlacarson – the city believed to be blessed by the Lake Goddess.
This city embodies the perfect medieval style, white city walls, cone-shaped towers, red banners waving in the wind, and knights clad in full armor riding on their war horses.
Ah, no wonder the forums say that Bartonilla perfectly integrates all the fantasies people have about medieval knights. Indeed, it seems like a pastoral city from this perspective.
Because they were accompanied by the caravan of the Lake Sword Merchant Association, Duanmu Huai’s party managed to enter the city and arrive at the Lake Sword Merchant Association without much hindrance. The foolish knight’s father apologized to Duanmu Huai for his son’s reckless actions and expressed his willingness to help them.
In the end, Kristin and Elisa successfully obtained a store from the Lake Sword Merchant Association, mainly dealing in small decorative items— as nobles, their taste in this aspect was not bad.
Old Knight Karol planned to stay as a servant and remain loyal to the two, while the Elf Scout also expressed her intention to stay—after all, being a royal spy, she was now without a master and had nowhere to be.
The only ones who were leaving were Duanmu Huai and Ogis.
“Are you really leaving? Sir Black Knight? Sister Ogis?”
Elisa looked at the two with tearful eyes, utterly unwilling to part. After all, since her difficult escape, Duanmu Huai and Ogis had always been by their side, you can even say that if it weren’t for these two people, they wouldn’t have been able to leave the Empire and come to Bartonilla so easily.
“Of course, Elisa, we have missions to complete.”
Duanmu Huai stretched out his hand and patted Elisa’s little head. Bringing Elisa to Bartonilla was mainly as repayment for Elisa, after all, she had given the holy artifact to him directly and decisively, so Duanmu Huai would naturally not abandon them. But Duanmu Huai’s journey wouldn’t end here, in addition to this holy artifact, he had other holy artifacts to retrieve, including those in Duanmu Huai’s memory, and the holy artifacts currently held by the other Three Emperors in the Empire—since the Water God’s Blessing held by Elisa was one of the holy artifacts, it is highly likely that the others are as well.
However, taking the holy artifacts from their hands would probably not be as peaceful as it was with Elisa.
Besides, what’s most urgent for Duanmu Huai now is to continue to search for relics to increase the Soul Cards in his hand. The attack power of the Puppet Card Group he has now can’t keep up, only Ogis can hold the fort. The Undeath Card Set can be used occasionally, but it’s not suitable to be released in public, as it can easily arouse suspicion when combined with his appearance and dress.
So, his next objective is to first increase the usable Soul Cards, then look for the holy artifacts outside the Empire—Duanmu Huai doesn’t want to get involved in the Empire’s mess at the moment, he plans to find another holy artifact, then unlock the “Tribunal Library”, followed by decoding the “Antimatter Energy Core” to build an entirely new energy reactor, and then he can power the space station.
And then… he can rain down righteousness from the sky.
By then, no matter how chaotic the Empire is, it’ll all be resolved with a single attack.
“Thank you very much, Sir Knight.”
Kristin also respectfully paid her respects to Duanmu Huai.
“If it weren’t for you and Miss Ogis’s assistance, I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to escape from the Empire and come here on our own. We are truly indebted…”
“There’s no need for any rewards.”
Duanmu Huai waved his hand.
“Elisa gave me the Water God’s Blessing, as repayment, I helped you all leave the Empire. It’s just a trade, so you don’t need to take it to heart, so……”
At this point, Duanmu Huai looked at the Elf Scout.
“I’m leaving this place to you. After all, it’s wise to be wary of others, even if you don’t mean harm. Despite the praise for Bartonilla on the outside, who knows what it’s like inside.”
“I’ll try my best, after all, this isn’t the Empire, what I can do is also very limited.”
The Elf Scout nodded, after all, she was now in the same boat as everyone else. Moreover, she agreed with Duanmu Huai’s view, even though Bartonilla looked like a paradise of pastoral poetry on the surface, but as a scout and a royal spy, she didn’t believe that there was such an innocent place in this world, so the Elf Scout planned to investigate secretly. Even if they didn’t want to cause trouble, they couldn’t let themselves unknowingly fall into a trap, right?
Once everything was settled, a silence fell upon everyone. Although they hadn’t been together for a long time, they had become used to being together on the journey, and suddenly parting was somewhat difficult.
Finally, it was still Duanmu Huai that broke the silence, while Elisa tears welling up in her eyes were fixed on him.
“Sir Black Knight, will you come back to see us again in the future?”
“Of course, if I have the time, I will come to see you.”
Duanmu Huai wasn’t just paying lip service. Now that the teleportation beacon was unlocked, he could freely shuttle back and forth by placing a beacon here. This planet was just a primitive civilization planet, without a void shield, Duanmu Huai with his strategic command room unlocked could teleport to wherever he wanted. If it hadn’t been for this escort mission, he would have arrived at Bartonilla in a blink of an eye instead of wasting so much time.
Moreover, Elisa was the first person he encountered after crossing over. She was cute and obedient, hence Duanmu Huai also had a good impression of her.
But Duanmu Huai was not planning to get too close to them.
Generally, Judges tend not to get too close to the local inhabitants in order to avoid some tricky troubles and issues. After all, if they get too close to certain people, it is very likely that those individuals could be targeted by the Evil God. Even though Duanmu Huai isn’t high on the list for the Subspace Evil God at this moment, considering what he’s planning to do in the future, he’s bound to cross paths with the Evil God.
When that time comes, knowing the Evil God’s petty nature, if it discovers Duanmu maintains close relations with folks like Elisa, it would inevitably create issues for them.
The reason Duanmu Huai warned the Elf Scout also has to do with his wariness towards the Lake Goddess.
In this world, many who seem to be good are not necessarily so.
Similar events had occurred in the game before. At that time, a planet was struck by disaster, and radical believers on that planet tried to control the entire sphere to spread the glory of their faith. That planet was plunged into crisis, but then a holy woman emerged, leading a resistance army to counter the Radicals’ attack. Subsequently, quite a few Judge players also joined the resistance, and everyone joined forces to defeat the Radical Faction, safeguarding the peace of the planet, cause to rejoice indeed.
However, while everyone was celebrating the victory, a Great Judge player arrived and arrested the holy woman on charges of heresy.
Back then, not just the local inhabitants but also many Judge players couldn’t understand his actions. Nevertheless, that Great Judge player disregarded everyone’s feelings and pronounced a verdict of death by burning on the holy woman, right then and there. He later handed her corpse over to the local church for disposal.
Thus, that Great Judge player undoubtedly became an enemy in the eyes of the people on that planet, and many players didn’t understand him either, thinking that he had gone mad from playing the game.
Eventually, several inquisitive players conducted an investigation after the matter, and to their shock, they discovered that everything that happened on that planet was a farce. Both the Radical Faction and the faction of the holy woman were merely pawns of the God of Trickery. Regardless of the outcome of the war, it wouldn’t affect the God of Trickery.
If the Radicals won, then this planet would have become followers of the God of Trickery.
If the holy woman won, everyone would still follow her guidance and become disciples of the God of Trickery.
Win or lose, it was a win-win situation. The God of Trickery stood to gain twice, inducing total chaos.
So the Great Judge took the most straightforward measure – “Victory, my ass! Let me just wreck this whole game for you! I’ll burn everyone without exception! If I can’t win, you can’t either. Let’s all perish together.”
From then on, players tended to maintain a certain degree of reserve when dealing with local inhabitants, never extending complete trust.
Because you can never be sure whether the person genuinely believes what they’re saying, or they’ve been swayed by the Evil God. Some don’t even realize they’ve been manipulated by the Evil God. Under these circumstances, various problems can arise – hence many unfortunate players.
Therefore, in the game, the entities most trusted by any player are usually the ones closest to them.
For instance, Super Warriors trust their Genetic Seed Legion implicitly.
Technological Priests trust the Mecha Servants they create the most.
Psychics trust their Soul Cards the most.
Of these, Psychics have it the best, as Soul Cards have not just lovely and cute girls but also fluffy little animals. These are extremely therapeutic. Some female players even convert their bases into something resembling a zoo, full of adorable animals and elves flitting about, which is immensely comforting.
In contrast, whether it’s the Technological Priests or the Super Warriors, their closest companions are either cyborgs or burly muscular men. Unless you have an unusual taste, continuously fostering feelings with such things is almost asking for trouble isn’t it?
This goes to show, your spellcaster is always top-notch, living the high life wherever they are.
Hence, in the end, all players in the game would take on a secondary occupation as a Soul Walker and procure a few Soul Cards. Even if their levels are too low for combat, they can use the cards for their aesthetic appeal in their base.
They can’t always be with muscular men or mechanically augmented humans, can they? If anything goes wrong, who would be responsible?
After that, Duanmu Huai and Ogis bid a reluctant farewell to Elisa and left Carlacarson, conveniently settling the Escort II mission. In addition to leveling up to 23, he also obtained a Purification Badge as an extra reward.
[Evolution Badge (Holy Artifact)]
[+10 Subspace Resistance]
[+5-sec Fear Duration]
…Okay, his aura of fear seems to be getting stronger and stronger.
“Where are we headed next, Master?”
Upon hearing Ogis’s inquiry, Duanmu Huai gave it some thought.
“For now, let’s see what kind of cards the relics here can offer.”