Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 137

The Kingdom of Words, Royal City.

It was the moment between night and dawn when the sky wasn’t clear yet.

The moon was still high in the sky, and every household’s courtyard was adorned with jack-o-lanterns and ghost masks, while fireplaces burned with flames that never died, warding off invaders from the other world.

From afar, the city was enveloped in a myriad of flickering lights, as if a giant fireball had descended upon it, breaking into millions of sparks scattered across the land.

Due to the special Samhain festival, the city transformed into a sleepless royal capital.

Everyone anxiously awaited the arrival of daylight.

Fortunately, their wait came to an end as a hint of light appeared on the horizon, signaling the passing of the perilous season.

Zhou Qian and others, with the help of the queen, gently landed in a secluded corner of the street. They then traversed the entire city, excluding the royal palace, to get a good grasp of its layout.

The city wasn’t very large, and with a basic attribute speed boost, their journey through the city took just over an hour.

After their initial exploration, as dawn covered the city, they found an open breakfast shop at the street corner. They walk in, bathed in the morning glow, and head upstairs to a window-side table.

With the Red God temporarily gone, only Zhou Qian, Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei, Yin Jiujiu, and Yun Xiangrong, along with an NPC named Alayne, remain.

Having been through quite an ordeal without proper food, they now order plenty to eat and drink, using the NPC Alayne’s money.

He Xiaowei barely managed to swallow a few bites of dry and hard bread, then looked towards Zhou Qian, who was gazing out of the window. His chin was slightly raised, and his eyes were indifferent, seemingly having no intention of touching the shoddy food provided by the breakfast shop.

Next to him, Bai Zhou seemed to have developed culinary skills or found something in the trade shop—

He was able to cook shrimp with boiled eggs for Zhou Qian in this instance.

Bai Zhou’s actions were meticulous and cold, resembling a scientific experiment more than cooking.

As Zhou Qian waited for his shrimp and eggs, he leaned his cheek on his hand and stared towards the city gate, narrowing his eyes as if plotting something.

“What are you thinking about, Qian’er? Do you have a plan?” He Xiaowei asked.

Previously, He Xiaowei would have thought such a task impossible.

According to the queen, the king of the Land of Silence came in peace. His personal arrival in the Royal City of the Kingdom of Words signified sincerity. Yet, to protect himself, he brought numerous magicians and a strong guard contingent.

The king’s magician alone was capable of imposing deadly commands in minutes, indicating strong abilities, not to mention the other magicians accompanying him.

How could the players confront so many magicians and snatch something from their king?

It wasn’t that the players couldn’t defeat these magicians.

But spells like prohibitions and curses were the magicians’ forte; a barrage of such spells against the players would be overwhelmingly difficult to counter.

Moreover, this place was the heavily guarded Royal City of the Kingdom of Words, filled with countless guards and court magicians.

With both countries negotiating peace, the king of the Land of Silence personally visited, demonstrating both nations’ sincerity.

If he faced danger, the Kingdom of Words would naturally assist him. The players would then face the threat of both countries’ armies and magicians.

With merely five players, possibly not entirely united, to confront the forces of two entire nations…

No matter what He Xiaowei thought, this felt like an impossible task.

They might not survive until Di Fu appears.

However, by now, He Xiaowei fully trusted Zhou Qian’s intellect, so unusually, he didn’t express any fear or difficulty.

He took another bite of his bread and waited for Zhou Qian’s response.

At this moment, Bai Zhou offered Zhou Qian a spoonful of egg-wrapped shrimp. Zhou Qian smiled at him before he ate it. He Xiaowei shivered and watched as Zhou Qian turned back towards the city gate and said, “The hidden achievement wasn’t specified by the system. But our current mission is clear: we stand with the queen and Alayne against Difu.”

“Even if we put the mission aside, for Xiao Qi’s sake, we must proceed.”

“And obtaining the ‘Key of Freedom’ is one prerequisite for confronting Difu. Are we all in agreement?”

“No doubts,” He Xiaowei replied.

Zhou Qian continued, “The Red God Queen isn’t here now, but she hinted at something.”

He Xiaowei, puzzled, looked at Zhou Qian, who turned to him. “She brought us here to cooperate with Alayne in killing Difu. But why does she believe Difu will appear here?”

He Xiaowei was taken aback.

Zhou Qian explained, “There are several possibilities, and we must prepare for them. First, the kings of both countries might not really be negotiating peace. A war could break out here soon. If the meeting between the kings involves great lies and betrayal, along with bloodshed and killing, Difu, anticipating this, would certainly come to absorb energy.”

“The second possibility is that the kings are indeed negotiating peace. But for Difu to miss such a significant event to create chaos would be illogical. She might deliberately cause confusion, making each king believe the other has betrayed him.”

After a pause, Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes, and his gaze became ominously serious.

He said, “But just in case, we need another plan. It is already dawn. Today is likely our last chance to complete the mission. If neither possibility occurs and Difu doesn’t show up all day, we won’t be able to save Xiao Qi or complete our task.”

“What do you mean then…?” He Xiaowei asked, frowning with a foreboding feeling.

“If Difu doesn’t appear, we’ll have to lure her here,” Zhou Qian declared.

He Xiaowei: “You…”

“Exactly.” Zhou Qian nodded. “If the kings are truly seeking peace, we must incite betrayal between them, thereby drawing Difu out.”

“This approach serves multiple purposes, not only to draw Difu but also because we stand no chance against the powerful forces accompanying the kings. Only by pitting them against each other can we benefit*—seizing the ‘Key of Freedom’ when the power around the king of the Land of Silence is greatly diminished. If we’re lucky and he also brings the golden feather, we can directly use it to save Xiao Qi.”

*The snipe and the clam fight while the fisherman benefits. It comes from a fable describing a situation where two parties are locked in a struggle that exhausts them both, allowing a third party to swoop in and take advantage.

Hearing this, He Xiaowei fell silent for a moment, sharing Yin Jiujiu’s sentiment.

She hesitated before asking, “Is there no other way? I feel… this involves the safety of both nations’ people… If we do this, and it leads to years of war, how many will die because of us?”

Zhou Qian’s expression was stern as he remained silent. He Xiaowei couldn’t help but speak up at this moment. “I definitely want to save Xiao Qi, but Jiujiu’s words also resonate with me. I feel… uneasy about this.”

After a long silence, Yun Xiangrong spoke up. “They are NPCs, not real people.”

“Even so…” He Xiaowei sighed deeply. “Well, let’s just say I’m being sentimental. That Qian’er… anyway, the people from the Land of Silence haven’t arrived yet. Before they do, can we think of any other way?”

“Or at least, should we try to warn the citizens of this city, let them evacuate first? If the magicians and soldiers of both countries are going to fight, let them fight, but the civilians are innocent…”

“We can’t warn the civilians. We don’t have the opportunity to reset and must ensure absolute certainty of success. Doing anything extra now could expose us to the people of both countries, resulting in complete mission failure. Then we won’t be able to save Xiao Qi, and we’ll all die here.”

Zhou Qian immediately rejected He Xiaowei’s suggestion. “The king of the Kingdom of Silence likely has spies in the Royal City of the Kingdom of Words. If a spy learns of this and informs the Land of Silence, their king might not even step foot here.”

“But… then…” He Xiaowei could no longer bite into his bread, letting out a heavy sigh.

Zhou Qian looked at him and said, “Xiaowei Ge, you really don’t need to feel burdened. I haven’t finished speaking. Let me ask you. What point in time have we arrived at?”

He Xiaowei was stunned for a while, then his eyes widened. “You mean…”

“What I mean is—” Zhou Qian said solemnly, “‘What has happened cannot be changed,’ this is a constant setting throughout this instance.”

“The queen doesn’t truly have the ability to foresee the future, as can be proven from the conversation between Alayne and the queen relayed by Alayne. The queen didn’t know Alayne’s true fate or whether she could kill Difu. But the queen sent us here because she knew beforehand that Difu would appear here.”

“The only explanation for this—”

“’Difu’s appearance’ is something that has already happened, belonging to the ‘past’. ‘Whether Di Fu will be killed by Alayne’ is unknown, belonging to the ‘future’.”

“It seems that the time difference between this ‘past’ and ‘future’ is very small, possibly all occurring within today. Meaning, the time we are currently in is very close to the real ‘present’, just less than a day apart.”

He Xiaowei started to understand, and his expression gradually became less despondent.

Zhou Qian continued to explain, “In short, ‘Difu’s appearance’ belongs to the ‘past’, and her appearance itself is accompanied by lies, betrayal, chaos, hatred, and slaughter. This indicates—”

“The animosity and betrayal between the two countries also belong to the “past’, and it is something that will definitely happen.”

“How the peace talks between the two countries fail could happen in many ways. If not guided by us, there would be other triggers. But if we completely control the situation, we can ensure every detail serves our needs, not just ‘historical progress’.”

Yin Jiujiu seemed persuaded, nodding her head. “I understand. We’re only changing the specifics, not the course of history or everyone’s destined fate. If someone is destined to die, regardless of what we do, they will still die; the only difference is whether they die an hour earlier or later…”

“It’s like… like Alayne’s good friend, Qi Yunsi—during Samhain when Alayne was 8, in the original history, he died in her place during the vigil. We went back to the past, intervened in history, and neither he nor Alayne went to the vigil. But in the end… he still died!”

“Exactly. All the story set-ups before this imply this point, which is very important and can be seen as a hint from the system on how to clear the instance.”

“So, we can guide the two countries to hostility without any guilt because it has already happened.”

Zhou Qian glanced at He Xiaowei’s expression and added, “Moreover, setting aside this, Amei, Beilan… and many others we don’t know about, in every corner, have died because of Difu’s evil.”

“Today, there is only the Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words. If we don’t eliminate Difu and allow her power to grow stronger, in the future, countless countries around the world will go to war under her influence, and then people all over the world will suffer. So, even looking at the bigger picture, we can only make the choice we are making now.”

“Between the civilians of two countries and the entire world’s populace, I can only choose the world.”

“Between NPCs of no importance and Qi Liuxing, I can only choose Qi Liuxing.”

“I understand, Qian’er… I actually get what you’re saying.” He Xiaowei scratched his head. “I just wanted to lament a bit. Sometimes wanting the best of both worlds… is really hard.”

“The world never conforms to one’s desires. That’s the normal state of life.”

Zhou Qian said, “Everyone wants to find a perfect, flawless solution that doesn’t let anyone down. But before we can save everyone, we also have to weigh our own capabilities. We’re not omnipotent gods; we can’t take care of everyone and have to make choices. We… must accept the imperfections and flaws we carry.”

At this point, Zhou Qian didn’t look at He Xiaowei but turned towards Bai Zhou, who was close by.

Bai Zhou was preparing a second shrimp and egg dish, seemingly nonchalant, but Zhou Qian knew that Bai Zhou had already prepared for many complex situations in his heart.

He was composed because he was strong.

Yet, at the same time… he also demanded too much of himself.

When Bai Zhou handed over another shrimp and egg, Zhou Qian grabbed his wrist, looked into his eyes, and spoke through the private chat tool. “Zhou Ge, the last thing I said was really meant for you to hear.”

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