Chapter 55: Tearing Apart All Pretense
6:30 AM
Mo Tan climbed out of his game pod. He didn't plan on playing for the remaining half an hour.
This was understandable, as the time in Innocent World was currently 6 AM. Aside from Tan Mo's character, who could do some traveling, his other two personalities wouldn't be of much use if he logged in. Mo Tan had been passively switched to the 'Absolute Neutral' state during his last conversion, so after a brief consideration, he simply exited the game and didn't choose to reconnect.
“Anyway, there’s nothing to do even if I go online…” Mo Tan yawned slightly, muttering as he shuffled towards his bedroom, “And lately, I’ve been playing the full twelve hours of game time every day. I feel like my sleep quality is a bit poor.”
Simply put, he wanted to sleep a bit more, but he felt like he should find some excuses.
However, compared to other players, Mo Tan’s online time was indeed quite long. After all, aside from professional players and a few hardcore grind-enthusiasts, few people could play the full twenty-four hours of in-game time every day, which is from 7 PM in reality to 7 AM the next day.
It's worth noting that the game also has a day-night cycle, and the NPCs in Innocent Continent are quite different from their counterparts in other games. The latter are generally incredibly dedicated, whether they sell weapons, give quests, wait for escorts, are captured by monsters, guard castles, grill skewers, sell vegetables, collect junk, or repair shoe insoles—all are full of energy twenty-four hours a day, waiting through wind and rain for players who might wander by at who-knows-when to say a few words to them, repeating the same lines tens of thousands of times without ever getting tired, truly models of the service industry!
But the NPCs in Innocent World are different. For example, if a player has a quest that requires a wrench from a weaponsmith, it's probably fine during the day. But if you go knocking on their door in the middle of the night to borrow something, being ignored is getting off easy. If you encounter someone with a bad temper or whose nightlife was disturbed, they might even open the door and attack you.
In fact, players have actually died this way… Don't overthink it, it's just an example, definitely not Cordova!
In short, not many players remain active at night, mainly because many people have nothing to do even if they don't want to log off. Take Mo Tan as an example; if he logged in as his Black Vatican character now, he would definitely have nothing to do. As a member of the territory's Autonomous Army, he couldn't even work overtime if he wanted to.
Therefore, as stated above, Mo Tan decided to sleep a little longer…
During the game, although the body in reality remained in a sleeping state, it wasn't a deep sleep. Or rather, it felt like being in a deep sleep while constantly dreaming.
You should know that for most of us, when we dream, our sleep duration tends to be a bit longer, it's harder to get up, we're more irritable when woken by an alarm, and we feel more like hitting our unit leader or academic dean (crossed out)…
So, if you play for the full duration, even though twelve hours of gaming sleep won't affect daily life, it will still leave you somewhat fatigued.
If you're tired, sleep a little longer. Mo Tan's thought process at this moment was clearly the same as most of ours~
So, he went back to his bedroom to sleep.
Look at how perfectly roundabout that was…
At the same time, in Dieyan City, Marshall Territory, southeast of Innocent Continent.
Ned, who had been tossing and turning in the barracks unable to sleep, suddenly heard a commotion outside. He rubbed his somewhat dry eyes, stepped over the soundly sleeping Krab, and poked his head out, just in time to see the Lizardmen officer who had recruited Mo Tan striding over.
“Thank goodness,” the officer, Gart, glanced at Ned and shook his head, “You’re the first squad leader to wake up without me having to call you. Meeting in ten minutes, hurry up and get ready.”
Ned looked at him in surprise, “Now? What on earth happened?”
Gart walked past him without looking back, saying in a deep voice, “Something big happened. People from Fire Claw Territory crossed the border a few hours ago and reportedly caused a lot of trouble. I’m not too clear on the details, but someone should explain it to us at the meeting. See you later.”
“What is it?” Salazar appeared silently behind Ned, asking in a low voice, “Trouble?”
Ned shook his head with a grim expression, “I don’t know. I’m going to the meeting now. Don’t wake everyone up yet; I’ll tell you when I get back…”
He then patted his companion’s shoulder and strode out of the camp, almost bumping into Shuang Ye, who was jogging towards them.
Ned was clearly startled, “You haven’t rested yet?”
“Just got back from the Mage Guild~” Shuang Ye gave a small yawn, looking around the gradually brightly lit military camp, and tilted her head curiously, “What’s going on?”
Ned shrugged, “I don’t know either, I’m just about to go to a meeting.”
“Alright, then I’ll practice spellcasting here for a while.”
“Mm.”
...
7:00 AM
Although a detailed description of the upcoming daytime could probably fill the rest of this chapter, let's not be so meticulous.
In short, Mo Tan slept for a while, woke up, checked the forums, received an email, caught up on a few anime series, and it was almost 7:30. Of course, he also ate something in between and switched personalities twice.
Then, night fell…
【Your mental connection has been detected, personal information is being synchronized…】
【Connection complete, character information is being loaded】
【Welcome back, Absolute Neutral Black Vatican, loading Innocent World. Have a good night.】
...
As soon as he turned out of the alley not far from the military camp, Mo Tan felt a sense of solemnity in the air. This atmosphere made him feel a little uneasy.
Then he saw an orange-haired girl in a rose-colored mage robe approaching him from not far away.
“You’re here?” Shuang Ye shrugged at him, then slightly pushed up her glasses and walked towards the military camp, “Let’s go back to the barracks first, we can talk on the way.”
Mo Tan nodded, walked beside Shuang Ye, and asked in a low voice, “I remember these two days were supposed to be off, so why did you suddenly email me to log on?”
That’s right, Mo Tan was called online by Shuang Ye. He had received an email from Shuang Ye around noon (Mo Tan had given her his address last time). The content wasn't much, basically asking him to log on as soon as possible today if conditions allowed, as something quite serious seemed to have happened here.
So, around 6:50 in the real world, Mo Tan, who was originally in the ‘lawful good’ state, skillfully and proactively switched personalities, then logged in as the Black Vatican character.
“An unexpected situation,” Shuang Ye said listlessly, “Captain Ned was called to a meeting earlier, and after he returned, he immediately ordered us to gather. It seems we’re going to execute a very difficult mission today, and it appears all active Autonomous Army members must participate, so I sent you a message.”
Mo Tan quickly thanked her. He was clearly quite moved that Shuang Ye thought of him like this…
“Don’t misunderstand,” the girl pouted, “I just thought it would be very troublesome without a healer if there was really any danger.”
By now, the two had arrived in front of the Fenrir Squad's barracks. On the way, Mo Tan had indeed seen many people preparing for action, and their expressions were all somewhat solemn.
“Alright, everyone’s here.” Ned called out to the two from afar. Once Mo Tan and Shuang Ye walked over, he immediately said to the entire squad, not missing a single member, in a deep voice, “To make a long story short, I will now explain the content of this emergency mission. Last night, two villages and a small town near the territory’s border were attacked. At least over three hundred people were massacred. According to the information provided by the survivors who fled here, the attackers were…”
He gritted his teeth, and after a long while, finally squeezed out the last sentence: “The Fire Claw warriors we fought before.”
Everyone was stunned…
Although they had been attacked by the other side for unknown reasons before, no one expected that Fire Claw Territory would completely tear apart all pretense with Marshall!
Fire Claw Territory and Marshall Territory were both among the Violet Empire's nine autonomous territories. The former was a union of Orc tribes centered around the Fire Claw Clan. Each generation's Fire Claw Grand Chieftain also held the title of Imperial Grand Duke. Its territory was adjacent to the Marshall Autonomous Territory, known for its fierce populace and production of elite warriors. However, it rarely interacted with the other eight powers of the empire in the political sphere. At least in recent decades, Xiluo Bloodaxe, who was simultaneously the Fire Claw Duke and Grand Chieftain, had almost never left his territory, and even his visits to the royal capital were few and far between.
But even so, the relatively secluded Fire Claw Territory had never had any friction with the Marshall Family. The previous border skirmish still left everyone puzzled, and there had been no feedback or explanation from above in the following days, until today, when the situation suddenly changed.
Warriors from Fire Claw Territory had actually attacked several remote towns, most of which people couldn't even name, and their methods were reportedly extremely cruel!
“Not only that…” Ned sighed, “It’s said that they also abducted a large number of civilians, and our mission this time is to rescue those innocent people.”
Yinna angrily clenched her small fists and snapped, “What on earth are those guys thinking? Do they really intend to directly conflict with us?!”
“What’s the reason?” Salazar was calmer, asking Ned, “Were there any prior signs?”
The latter shook his head, “Aside from our previous unclear skirmish, absolutely none. Although Marshall Territory and Fire Claw Territory have been neighbors for too many years, they have always kept to themselves. Even the Fire Claw Grand Duke, who rarely visits the royal capital, and Grand Duke Buffy Marshall shouldn’t have any political disputes.”
“Then why are they killing people and kidnapping people!” Krab sat down on the ground with a grunt, huffing, “These people are my own kind, damn it!!”
Ned was silent for a moment, then gave a wry smile, “Alright, Krab, don’t overthink it. My mentor once told me that he had seen the most despicable humans and the most noble Orcs. Many things have nothing to do with race.”
“Captain, that statement is bordering on racial discrimination.” Krab rolled his eyes, “Why can’t it be that you’ve seen the most noble humans and the most despicable Orcs? Doesn’t that imply that we Orcs are generally…”
Mo Tan chuckled awkwardly, then suddenly interrupted, “Ahem, Krab, the Captain doesn’t mean that!”
He felt that this could go on endlessly…
Ned also choked a bit, then glared fiercely at Krab, who had suddenly learned to twist words, and said helplessly, “In short, our mission this time is to enter Fire Claw Territory and rescue those civilians. If there are no problems, hurry up and get ready. We leave in ten minutes!”
“Abducting civilians, huh…” Yinna muttered as she restrung her longbow, “What on earth are those guys thinking? Are they going to take people back to farm for them?”
Shuang Ye was fiddling with a few scrolls she had conned from the Mage Guild, saying distractedly, “Agriculture seems to be more developed in Fire Claw Territory, I heard the captain say that before.”
“Indeed, so being kidnapped to farm is probably not very realistic.” Mo Tan was currently frowning as he checked his novice set. At the moment, this character was the most miserable in terms of both level and equipment.
But thinking about Cordova… hmm… suddenly, he felt quite happy like this too.
“Tsk tsk~” Yinna scratched her hair, “They couldn’t have sold them, could they?”
...
Shuang Ye's whole body trembled, and she suddenly remembered what that tasteless guy had said last night…
【There is slave trading in the place you are.】
And at the same time, a flicker of unusual light passed through Mo Tan’s eyes as he sat on the ground with his back to the two.
It connected!
The information he had obtained in Patuo City before was indeed correct!
Just then, Ned had already started to call everyone to depart…
...
An hour later, everyone had arrived at the small dirt hill that had given Cordova such a terrible gaming experience before, which was the site where the previous skirmish had broken out.
“Our assigned direction is this way,” Ned said in a deep voice, “But this time we need to cross the border and go much deeper. Everyone, stay alert. Enemies could appear at any moment…”
Salazar flexed his arm, saying faintly, “Although it hasn’t been many days, the previous battle was truly nostalgic.”
“Thanks to Black Vatican~” Yinna smiled, “It was the first time I fought so comfortably, it was practically art.”
Ned also lightly bumped Mo Tan’s shoulder, teasing, “If you can bring everyone back alive this time, I’ll let you be the captain.”
“Luck, just luck!” Mo Tan chuckled awkwardly, “It’s mainly because everyone else is so capable.”
“It can’t be luck.” Ned’s expression suddenly turned serious, and he said to Mo Tan in a deep voice, “That’s something only you can do. So, if anything unexpected truly happens, I’m counting on you for everything.”
Whether it was an illusion or not, Mo Tan always felt that there seemed to be something else contained within Ned's slightly weary gaze…
Meanwhile, Shuang Ye, who was walking behind, was thinking about something else.
【What exactly does that tasteless guy know…】
Chapter 53: End