Chapter 22 Ya Ya
“Woof?!” Mo Tan unconsciously repeated, then made a puzzled expression at the Half-Orc girl in front of him, shrugging his shoulders: “Something wrong?”
The girl’s beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons, and she nodded happily: “Woof!”
This girl can’t communicate!
Mo Tan couldn’t possibly do what that young lady did before, trying to understand what this girl wanted to express by making her woof in various ways, though he did feel it would be quite cute…
“Is there anything I can help with?” Mo Tan gently removed her hand from his arm, then tentatively asked: “Try your best to express what you mean, and see if I can understand… It would be even better if you could say something I can understand.”
This girl’s nails are a bit sharp…
“Woof~” The young girl shook the pair of fluffy gray beast ears on her head, happily barked, then stretched out her small hand to Mo Tan, palm up: “Hmm~ Woof! Road… not woof… know.”
Mo Tan looked down and saw a string of numbers on the girl’s palm, 17502. After a brief recollection and combining it with the few stuttered words, he roughly understood.
E-class mission number 17502, if he remembered correctly, was to help Ms. Molly in the south district of Anka Market clean her garden. Although he had memorized all the numerous E-class missions in the branch with instant memory, Mo Tan obviously didn't forget as quickly as ordinary people…
After all, under normal circumstances, the duration of our regular instant memory should be equivalent to the time of an English dictation during morning reading.
“You don’t know the way?” Mo Tan nodded to the young girl, signaling her to retract her hand, then smiled and asked: “Then how do you know I do?”
The Half-Orc girl tilted her head, stuck out her small tongue, and licked the back of her hand, which was covered in a thin layer of bristles, and mumbled: “Woof map~ saw for a long time, you woof!”
If Mo Tan understood correctly, what she wanted to express was probably ‘You looked at the map for a long time’…
Suddenly felt so tired.
As far as Mo Tan knew, the common language should have been popularized throughout the entire Innocent Continent by now. Although each race had its own unique language, the ‘common language’ that appeared at some unknown time had already become the circulating language of the entire Innocent Continent, whether it was what he heard from Captain Ned as Black Vatican or what Mag told him during their casual chats.
But there are always exceptions…
The Half-Orc girl in front of him actually looked quite the part; her beautiful face was slightly cold and elegant, her shoulder-length silver-gray hair was neat and refreshing, and she wore a set of brown soft leather armor. Underneath her short leather pants with armor plates on both sides were a pair of high-top hunting boots, perfectly fitting her slender leg lines. A section of fair thigh was exposed above the knee of the boots. Without opening her mouth, she truly had the demeanor of a master, which was why Mo Tan had that absurd misunderstanding before…
But the moment this girl opened her mouth, well~ not only couldn’t she speak clearly, but even those few ‘woofs’ had a hint of a regional accent.
Rubbing his forehead…
“So you plan to ask me to lead the way?” Mo Tan smiled at her: “Just because I looked at the map for a while?”
The Half-Orc girl, who seemed to have some language barrier, gesticulated wildly for a while, finally managing to squeeze out: “Feel… feel… woof you~ person~ good woof!”
“Alright, being a good person is always better than being a good-for-nothing.” Mo Tan shrugged, turned and led the way: “Come with me, is it enough to take you to the mission location in the North district?”
The young girl skipped behind him, nodding vigorously: “Woof! Come back, can, smell woof!”
Her ears were somehow flattened against her back, and her tail wagged incredibly fast~
Mo Tan rubbed his forehead speechlessly and led the way…
Both the adventurer’s Guild and Mag’s Handbook had maps of Anka Market, and just now Mo Tan had completely compared the content he had memorized with the surrounding environment. Leading the way for someone now was quite easy.
Mo Tan had always been very sensitive to maps; this had nothing to do with intelligence. The main reason was that his sense of direction was really too poor… too poor…
Regardless of the time, place, or personality, Mo Tan was always in a state of being completely lost. Whether it was at the orphanage back then, around his current home, or the elementary school he attended, he constantly, tirelessly, and endlessly got lost.
It wasn’t until middle school that Mo Tan finally couldn’t stand it anymore, so he began to deliberately train his ability to memorize maps. After achieving some results, he started to construct an overhead view in his mind and tried to locate himself on it. By now, although his sense of direction was still zero, Mo Tan, who had successfully memorized the entire world map, basically no longer got lost.
For Mo Tan, who constantly maintained an overhead view of his surroundings in his mind, knowing only up, down, left, and right was enough. What did it matter if he couldn't find north…
Using the map in Mag’s Handbook, he found the adventurer’s Guild, and then updated the recent years’ detailed changes with the Guild’s latest map. He could now be said to be thoroughly familiar with the surrounding environment.
Leading the way for a lost dog… I mean, a Half-Orc girl, was effortlessly easy~
“What’s your name?” Mo Tan asked casually, looking with interest at the dazzling shops and stalls along the main road, to the Half-Orc girl behind him: “Or what can I call you?”
The girl had been happily wagging her tail all the way. Hearing this, she thought for a moment, then, uncharacteristically, didn’t instinctively bark, but softly said: “Ya… Ya…”
“Ya?” Mo Tan confirmed: “That’s it?”
The girl shook her head vigorously, her ears flattening back: “Ya~ Ya~”
Mo Tan scratched his hair: “Ya Ya?”
“Woof!” The Half-Orc girl named Ya Ya nodded happily.
Mo Tan: “……”
So tired…
If viewed from high above, Anka Market resembled a large, horizontally placed rhombus formed by four smaller rhombuses, situated in the lower part of the Northwest Continent.
Due to its local characteristics, its four areas—southeast, Northwest—all had a considerable number of shops and stalls, run by all sorts of people, and the types of goods were incredibly diverse, from goblin rocket belts to fake jewels used by dragons to coax children, from portable elemental pile drivers used by Orc shamans to insert totems to mint leaf snacks favored by feline Half-Orcs, everything was available~
However, the largest commercial areas were the West and East districts. The former was a large market, where it was said that if you were rich enough, you could find anything you wanted. The latter housed Anka Market’s most iconic building—the Ginseng Raspberry Auction House, and it was also Anka Market’s administrative district.
The North district, where Mo Tan was before, was a comprehensive area mainly comprising the adventurer’s Guild, Mercenary Association, Magic Guild, Thieves’ Guild, etc., and also had a large number of inns and catering services.
The smallest area, the South district, was the residential area, where many local residents of Anka Market, as well as various reclusive but wealthy researchers, scholars, or long-term merchants, lived.
Mo Tan himself also had a mission in the South district, which was reportedly to help a couple named Guluo weed their garden. The location was not far from where Ya Ya needed to go.
“That… um…” Mo Tan helplessly looked at Ya Ya, who had been standing outside a certain display window for two minutes, and patted her shoulder: “Aren’t you in a hurry? So how about we finish the main business first before coming back to look at chew toys, how about that?”
The Half-Orc instinctively turned her face and bared her teeth at him, then her face flushed red. She lowered her head and nodded, her small face rubbing against Mo Tan’s hand with a hint of embarrassment, letting out a placating ‘woof’.
…
Fifteen minutes later
Mo Tan stopped in front of a crooked wooden house, turned back to Ya Ya and nodded, pointing ahead: “This is Ms. Molly’s house. Your mission should be to help her clean the garden, right? You’ve arrived.”
“Woof! Thank~ you woof!” Ya Ya clapped her hands happily, her tail wagging so fast it was almost a blur. She happily ran two circles around Mo Tan, then leaned in and rubbed her face against his, before scampering off to knock on the door.
Mo Tan paused for a moment, then smiled and shook his head, walking towards another street not far behind. The Guluo couple he needed to help weed lived nearby, less than two hundred meters from his current location.
…
“Hmm… Scented Avenue, number 11, this should be it.” Mo Tan looked at the huge yard in front of him, which covered at least half an acre, and couldn’t help but roll his eyes. With resentment towards the rich, he pushed open the low garden gate and stepped inside, muttering: “I wonder if there are many weeds inside, it might be more than I imagined…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, but under a sixth sense-like intuition, he looked up, and then…
“Holy crap!!!!!”
Five seconds later
The two-story house in the yard was suddenly pushed open from the inside. A scrawny old man burst out, leaning on a cane, shouting as he walked: “Who’s cursing outside my house?! I’d like to see… Hmm? No one?”
…
【You have been disconnected urgently. Please choose whether to reconnect.】
“Yes, reconnect…”
【Reconnecting…】
【Connection complete, reading character information】
【Welcome to Innocent Continent, chaotic neutral Tan Mo, good night】
…
“Haha, interesting~~” Mo Tan shook his head and chuckled immediately after appearing: “It’s my first time seeing ‘weeds’ that are sturdier than people and have two rows of sharp teeth. Did that thing grow up on Gold Fertiliser… But then again…”
He glanced at the small dirt mound at his feet; the soil on it was clearly freshly turned. He snorted lightly: “Woman’s kindness… But since the system told me the mission is complete, it means that little priestess named Ai Fan Ye is safe now.”
That’s right, the moment he logged in, he had already received a system notification:
【Side Quest ‘Rescue Warm Sun Squad’ completed. Current distributable experience points: 200.】
Dead people don’t need rescuing. That night, when he arrived, La Da, the greatsword user of the Warm Sun Squad, was already cold, and the priestess Ai Fan Ye was lying in a pool of blood with a large hole in her lower abdomen. However, Dave Sager, the strongest member of the squad that Cole mentioned, was nowhere to be found.
Combined with the only mission Mo Tan had received before—【Go to Paton City, destroy ‘Hero’ Dave】—the situation was already very clear.
Mo Tan used up the last three bottles of basic healing potions and a Divine Grace scroll (all plundered from Medi’s house) to save the dying trainee priestess.
After understanding the situation, he immediately gave the girl, who had just experienced betrayal and the death of her companions, a series of simple deceptions, then told her to return to Paton City as soon as possible and hide herself, before preparing to leave immediately to deal with those two Red Ridge Beasts.
However, during this process, he inexplicably exited the game. Logically, there should have been plenty of time, but after leaving the game pod, he found it was already seven in the morning…
“Something’s not right.” Mo Tan casually sat beside the makeshift dirt mound where the greatsword user La Da was buried, leaning back carelessly, stroking his chin and pondering: “This is the second time since I started playing this game. Each time I’ve lost about two hours of real time. It’s too far-fetched to say I accidentally fell asleep in the game pod, and I always hear the ‘You have exited the game’ prompt when I wake up… Could it be a BUG caused by me having multiple characters… But if so, what is the principle that triggers the BUG… Hmm?”
He didn’t continue thinking but noticed the message bar suddenly flashing in the corner of his vision.
“Heh heh~” Mo Tan smiled sinisterly: “It seems you really miss me… Do you really want to win this ‘game’ so badly…”
This character only had one friend, so if he received a message outside of the system, its source was naturally self-evident.
“Are you there, are you there?”
“Are you there, are you there?”
“You’re not offline, are you?”
“Hey! Are you online but not planning to talk to me?!”
“There hasn’t been any activity recently. What else can a homebody like you do late at night if not play games? Feed cats!?”
“Say something!”
“I’m so bored~”
“What level are you now? I did a few quests today, and I’m already level 5.”
“Hey hey hey hey hey!!!!”
The above were all past messages from Shuang Ye. Hmm, the last one was just sent.
Mo Tan leaned on the grave mound, stretched, and casually summarized Shuang Ye’s string of harassments: “Crazy.”
Speaking of which, he should be the least qualified to call others that, right?
“At dusk, I lean by the wild grave~” Leaning against the grave with a smile, Mo Tan casually made up two doggerel lines: “The resentful girl’s lingering voice is like smoke.”
“Don’t compare with common folk who pass by in the early hours~” As he spoke, he slyly sent it to Shuang Ye: “Just remember how crazy that person is.”
A few seconds later, he received Shuang Ye’s reply: “What does that mean?”
Mo Tan rolled his eyes and replied very considerately: “I’m currently leaning against a fresh grave mound, thinking about annoying things, so I don’t have time to bother with you. You also can’t control what I do at night. Instead, I’m more concerned about how frantic you are right now…”
After saying that, he ignored the countless messages that immediately erupted from Shuang Ye. He neither blocked nor replied, but simply stood up unsteadily, turned around to compact the soil on the small grave mound, and then quickly left the place, merging into the afterglow of the setting sun…
Chapter Twenty-One: End