"Wait a minute, you said ’Your Highness’?"
"You didn’t hear it wrong?"
Seeing Lin Yiyi’s post title, players flocked to click on it, chattering excitedly.
Though they had their doubts about the "shocking" title of the post, the fact that they clicked on it indicated that they were indeed curious about the matter...
Faced with the players’ skepticism, Lin Yiyi unhesitatingly threw out a short video.
The video was only about ten seconds long, the most informative part she had just extracted from her own live stream:
"I have not yet spoken to His Highness about your matter."
One could see the face of Darry Garden’s old baker, who, either because he was too fat, bald, or simply not very good-looking—reasons why he didn’t seem like a "good guy" in the players’ eyes—spoke to Annan in a grave tone.
Then, Annan gave a bow to Prince Albert and uttered in a cold voice, "Your Highness."
His voice was neither servile nor overbearing, and his lean and upright upper body looked somewhat defiant.
Straight after, the players saw with utmost clarity, Albert first stunned for a moment, followed by a flash of realization and surprise in his eyes. He stepped forward and asked softly, "Are you, Prince Annan? How come you are here?"
The short video ended there.
Having watched the video, the Delicious Goose murmured thoughtfully, "I remember the super moderator of our forum is named Annan..."
Lin Yiyi slapped her thigh with a crisp snap.
Jiu’er next to her covered her leg in pain.
The Wandering Child pondered, "That makes sense... A super moderator wouldn’t choose a name unrelated to the game for no reason."
"At the start, I thought ’Annan’ was the name of some big shot gamer."
The Delicious Goose whispered, "Then I thought, maybe there will be a few other moderators later on. They’ll use names of other gods... After all, I didn’t initially think ’Tan Juan’ could be a pseudonym."
"...What you’re saying seems to make some sense."
The Wandering Child couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
"Speaking of which, Uncle Goose, where do you think Annan... oh no, Prince Annan is from?"
Jiu’er asked curiously.
"There’s no guessing," the Delicious Goose said decisively, "We know too little about this world. But we can confirm it’s not the Kingdom of Noah—otherwise there wouldn’t be such unfamiliarity.
"But Albert must have seen Annan recently. After all, Prince Annan is young, and if it was from ten years ago, when he was four or five years old, he probably wouldn’t recognize him now."
"So I guess, Annan might just be next door. Considering he is now in Frostwater Harbor... My blind guess is that he might be the son of Duke Winter."
The Delicious Goose slowly answered, "It’s a strong possibility. It’s just that I’m not very clear on what Annan’s motives are, and... where the original Tan Juan has gone."
The next moment, a light screen suddenly flashed before the four of them:
[After crossing the Sea of Fog for half a month... you gradually recover parts of your lost memories and finally realize the contradiction in your identity.]
[You have now recalled your mission and the true identity of the man you once swore allegiance to—"Tan Juan Geraint"—]
[—Annan Winter. The youngest son of the Duke of Winter, the first in line of succession to the Duchy of Winter.]
[But your heart is filled with even more doubts.]
[Why... are you here? Why are you in the Kingdom of Noah? Why stay in this remote Frostwater Harbor?]
[Where is the real Tan Juan Geraint?]
[In the time that you have lost your memory... what exactly happened?]
[The lord you served, why does he protect you in silence? And... can you, the feeble mortal guards, really protect the son of a duke?]
[You’ve obtained the main quest: Embark on the Path of the Transcendent.]
[Quest Requirement: Obtain the Bronze Soul, advance to Transcendent (1/1)]
Upon realizing the issue with Annan’s identity, the four were suddenly flooded with a stream of data and received a new main quest.
Then, without giving them much time to think, the stream of light resumed its flow after a brief pause:
[Main Quest Completed: Embark on the Path of the Transcendent]
[Gained 1000 favorability with Tan Juan Geraint]
[Now, after all this time, you have finally obtained the long-awaited power of the Transcendent]
[Regardless of what burdens Annan carries or what he fights against, you have already made up your mind to give him your support]
[You shall serve him with an immortal body, protect him, and be loyal to him—]
[Even in the face of deities, you shall remain unwavering]
[New limited-time main quest received: Guardian (Time remaining to accept: 7:22:03)]
[Quest Requirement: Protect those you wish to protect in the impending disaster, and ensure that Annan survives]
The four of them were stunned for a moment and then exchanged glances.
Lin Yiyi, quick to act, checked the forum immediately.
The other players who saw Lin Yiyi’s post on the forum also received the main quest "Embark on the Path of the Transcendent." Confused, one by one, they hurriedly informed the players who hadn’t checked the forum to "go to the forum to accept the quest."
But since they were not high-level enough, they did not receive the next limited-time main quest.
"... That was close!"
Lin Yiyi exclaimed, "If we hadn’t realized this, would we have missed this timed main quest?"
"But even after they realized this, they still missed out on the main quest,"
Delicious Wind Goose said slowly, "Because their levels aren’t high enough.
"To take on this main quest... one must obtain a rating of ’Excellent’ or higher during both the ’Ordeal of the Black Fire’ and ’Disaster at Roth Fort,’ and be among the first few to clear the subsequent nightmare conquests.
"—In other words, those previous main quests were actually serving a selection function. We’ve been included in the system’s calculations from the start."
Delicious Wind Goose analyzed seriously, "It’s meant to select players who are excellent in both ’reality’ and ’nightmare’ modes, preferring quality over quantity.
"I suspect that we may have to fight a world boss in a small team mode next... This could be a door-opening mission for a large-scale dungeon."
"... Like the gate opening of Ahn’Qiraj?"
Lin Yiyi couldn’t help but ask.
She had never imagined that one day she would participate in such significant world quests that advance the world’s main storyline...
Delicious Wind Goose nodded, "You see—we are exactly four people, and with Annan, that makes a five-person team. Besides, we’ve already formed a team once during the previous dungeons and roughly understand each other’s styles of operation...
"Based on the description of this main quest, my guess is that it might be a protection task. Meaning we delay the enemy, and Annan delivers the final blow."
He laid out his analysis logically.
The other three nodded in agreement.
Both of these main quests were pre-edited by Annan.
They had indeed discovered this a bit late...
From the beginning, Annan had planned to throw out the first task whenever the players started to doubt his identity. This way, the players would have an epiphany and consider it part of the "game mechanism" and "game content."
But Annan wasn’t sure whether it was his acting skills that were too strong or if the players were too rigid in their thinking, as not a single one had come up with this idea...
Thankfully, the fourth prince was honest enough to let the cat out of the bag.
If not, Annan would have had to seriously consider how to fake a blunder, making a forced intellectual error to feed the information to the players...