Getting into a Free-For-All
Daeniste recalled the last time he came to the Holy Light Elves" Dreamland. Like now, he had also lived in the Golden Finch Pavilion then. However, there had been no maidservants to lead them there, but rather just two, solemn, imperial guards brought them there with cold expressions. They then guarded the door, treating them as if humans were the most wicked beings.
Therefore, for those few days, Daeniste was constantly ill-at-ease, fearing to even speak.
However, these young maids were chatterboxes. After Knight Commander Jesse went off to see Her Majesty the Queen, the two Holy Light Elf maidservants warmly smiled at Daeniste. "Child, your appearance seems familiar to me. Are you perhaps a Holy Light Elf"s descendant?"
Daeniste thought happily in his heart, the last time I was here, the Holy Light Elves who received us were blunt and sarcastic. They said my face was cast from the mold of a Holy Light Elf, that it was both unoriginal and of poor quality.
The Holy Light Elf in charge of treating humans seems to have a poisonous tongue.
Daeniste wiped the past him"s tears: poor child, how did you manage to endure through those years!
He and the two maidservants chatted and touched upon many of the humans and the Holy Light Elves" recent developments. Everyone carefully avoided talking about some sensitive, political events, and instead mainly discussed about their local customs. Both sides found their chat very eye-opening.
Perhaps it was because that the maids felt they had gotten closer to Daeniste, and Daeniste also sprouted a trustworthy face, while they were still young and a bit naive, that they told him some of their sincere thoughts.
"There are some things that only humans would know–I mean, things that only the two of you might know the truth about. We wanted wanted to ask…" the short maidservant hesitantly asked.
The tall maidservant quickly changed their words, "We wanted to inquire…"
They looked so nervous that Daeniste lightened his voice, "It"s fine, you can speak more slowly. I can wait."
The two maidservants smiled shyly. If this had been a dating game, one would"ve seen Daeniste rapidly increasing the affection of these two Holy Light Elf girls. Luckily, this world was very ethical and nothing that was unfit for children to see really happened.
The tall maidservant whispered, "You two should be good friends with the Brave Xu Jun right?"
Daeniste nodded, even more confused as to what these two maiservants wanted to ask–if he had been a traveling bard, perhaps he would"ve speculated that Xu Jun had flirted with the two maidens. However, Daeniste was clear on the fact that Elves with such pure bloodlines usually came from large families–don"t look down on them for being maidservants, as anyone able to serve in the queen"s palace had definitely not been born into a low status. These girls definitely weren"t silly children whose heads were filled with thoughts of love all the time.
"That Brave Xu Jun, I heard he had ways of getting the world"s best beauty products…is this true?"
Daeniste looked into the two Holy Light Elves sparkling and expectant eyes.
He suddenly didn"t know what to say anymore.
f.u.c.k, Xu Jun! What on earth have you done here!
Xu Jun sneezed and felt his ears turn hot. Perhaps someone was talking behind his back.
The Alchemist Elder, who was as solemn as a homeroom teacher and as harsh as the guidance director1, immediately pulled out a tube of pomegranate-red medicine. "It"s a healing potion, use it."
The corner of Xu Jun"s mouth twitched as he thought, Yours Truly is sick at most, so why are you handing me a high-grade healing potion? Do you want me to drink myself into poverty?
Don"t be like this Alchemy Elder! When we met for the first time, you clearly treasured your potions! Yet now you"re being so wasteful, have you broken out of character?!
The other elders, including the Spirit Beast Elder who had been showing his affection this entire time, the Enchant Elder who had asked Xu Jun to buy him wine, and the rest, all furiously glared at the Alchemy Elder: f.u.c.k! He was actually this good at ingratiating himself!
The elders looked at each other, all feeling that the Alchemy Elder had changed and was no longer the youthful and artificial him of old. Therefore, they also started looking for any disease-curing herbs or scrolls of healing. "Xu Jun! Use mine!"
Xu Jun: …What the h.e.l.l is wrong with all of you?!
However, in the end, he still accepted the things that the elders stubbornly insisted on giving to him.
"I"ll take out the goods first, then all of you can look for what you want." Xu Jun put his backpack on the table and began to pull things out.
–These goods had moved from their place of origin into Xu Jun"s hands, and now into the Holy Light Elves" conference room.
No one knew where Xu Jun had found them: these precious materials, herbs, gems, hides, and even formulas. These things had most likely been grown, or deposited, in areas far from any civilization. As Xu Jun took these items out one by one, he thought back to this Brave account"s life.
The phoenix feather gra.s.s had been plucked from near a Dragonhawk"s nest in the Black Forest. At the time, he had helped a youngling who had already developed into a Dragonhawk Beastman in setting their bones. The Mutant Griffin claw he had obtained as a war trophy after completing a village"s quest. The silver-iron hunter brandy he had won through gambling at the Camel Bar.
For many players, perhaps, playing a game was just playing a game, and they would set their main goal to be taking down the final boss. However, for Xu Jun, a gamer who could spend an entire year playing a game to reach its best ending, games were a part of his real world life.
Take this game for example: it was extremely difficult to reach the best ending or even defeating the boss, relying on skill and level alone. Players, willing or not, had to complete many tasks and traverse across the entire world, meeting all sorts of new people. Perhaps it was because these games all had really good AI, and that any game developed by Gale dad gave a high degree of freedom to the players, Xu Jun had felt extremely comfortable within the game"s world back then. He made friends everywhere and opened up various storylines. Furthermore, he himself had not expected that he would actually become the first person to defeat the final boss, the Dark Demon King.
He had been a daigou for the Holy Light Elves, had gambled wildly within Sin City, had been imprisoned within the Golden Flag Empire"s capital for fighting with a n.o.ble, had traveled through famous mountains and great rivers, and had entered dogholes2 as well as crawled through sewers.
He had experienced wonderful things. To some small towns and cities, he had been a hero; however, in other places, he was yelled at and beaten.
This was a realistic game; there were some storylines that made people uncomfortable. There were often players who thought they were being kind-hearted, only to discover that they had actually committed terrible deeds. There were also cases where one would save someone, only for that person to turn on their savior. Thinking about it carefully, if this was a real world… it would be a truly cruel world.
Xu Jun shook his head. This supposed game world was no longer a game anymore. The intelligent AIs had turned into real people; he needed to change his mindset.
"I never felt like I was truly alive," he said, having become used to chatting with "Prince Ryan." When he had first learned that he had transmigrated, he had been terrified. However, thanks to the voice within his heart, he was able to quickly move on–it was like a man walking through the dark with his head covered, a guiding lamp beside him. This little light could encourage him to stop being afraid. "Every now and then, I feel like this world…isn"t very real, you know? Prince Ryan, many things I took for granted before don"t make sense anymore."
Recently, he had often had this sort of feeling. For example,when this had still been a game, when he encountered beggars on the road, he would give them money to start sidequests obtained from talking with the mysterious beggars. Now, however, he needed to consider whether or not he should give money to a beggar. If he gave them a copper coin, the other might not think it was enough, while gold or silver might turn into a death-hastening talisman3.
This sort of feeling slowly dissipated when there weren"t that many people around, turning him back into a gamer who only thought about how to pick up hidden quests and where he would go next to grind materials. However, whenever there were more people, such thoughts would resurface.
"It has always been like this," he heard Prince Ryan reply. "The nature of the world has never changed, so how do you see the world now?"
This wasn"t a question as his words did not require an answer.
Xu Jun chatted with the voice in his heart while his hands never stopped moving, organizing the various precious materials. "That"s probably all of it…"
The Holy Light Elves" elders could barely restrain themselves. If their previous enthusiasm could be called subtle, they were so excited now that their faces flushed red. This group of Holy Light Elf uncles and aunts were breathing roughly. "These are all ours? Right? Right?"
Xu Jun: "…so about the price…?"
The elders angrily looked at him, "Bartering, how vulgar–list your price! Rest a.s.sured, you will definitely be satisfied!"
"Xu Jun, ah, can you sell that Dark Stardust to me? I"ll pay double your listing price!"
"←_←Hey! I clearly wanted the Dark Stardust alright?!"
"What? That"s not right, you must"ve remembered wrong. This item is definitely mine."
"Do you have evidence?! Elder Kabu!"
"–Then, do you have any evidence?!"
Xu Jun just stared on with wide eyes as these n.o.ble and refined Holy Light Elf elders began fighting each other.
"Before, for the sake of friendship and just having fun, I handed out many benefits," Xu Jun callously stated within his heart. "However, now that I know this is the real world, I will never do such things again! One cent is still money! Rounded up it can reach a hundred million!"
His Majesty Demon King Rozenke: "…You"ve took half a day trying to come to a realization, and all you"ve obtained is an appreciation for one cent!"
Therefore, not even His Majesty the Demon King managed to resist the urge to spit out swears and said, "Xu Jun, does your life only consist of money?!"
"Ah, how could that be," Xu Jun shouted in kind. "Clearly, I also have you in my life!"
–After those words were said, inexplicably causing Demon King Rozenke"s heart to pound, Xu Jun shouted out with an even louder voice within his heart, "–and the sisters of White River Town!"
With a shatter, Rozenke unexplainably felt his heart breaking.
"Right, girls, how great would that be…" Xu Jun stretched out and perfunctorily left the elders a single sentence before he retreated to the doorway, "All of you can continue fighting, I won"t continue to disturb you."
Because he had so trustingly left, and had not bothered to put away the goods left on the table, the elders felt the joy of being trusted by someone. Obviously, they would not take advantage of this sort of trust. Since fighting besides Xu Jun"s goods could easily cause damage, one by one, the elders stopped fighting. "Let"s go! Head for the Dueling Arena!"
Xu Jun: "…All of you sure are energetic."
If Daeniste had seen this group of elders fighting until their faces were bruised and swollen over some high quality goods, he would probably pee himself out of fright. However, perhaps this was the true face of the Holy Light Elves. In truth, they were very militaristic, and were a race that never shied away from battle. In a one on one fight, their strength would not lose out to a Tauren.
"These elders are so cute." Xu Jun whispered.
At this moment, Demon King Rozenke felt that the Holy Light Elves were a race even more compet.i.tive than his Demons. Truly, he was an unfortunate person. _(:зゝ∠)_
A delightful and hotblooded atmosphere permeated inside and out of the conference room. A pleasant voice drifted over from the hallway, "You think we are very cute? –Well, I think you are detestable."
The author has something to say:
Yesterday I made another "opinionated" mistake, leading to a lot of things being unclear. The readers have asked, so here is a unified explanation.
Are the elemental bodies Elves? –Not exactly. Elemental bodies are the precursor to Elves. After thousands of years of evolution, they have already reached the final step and will become Elves in about two to three years. Elements, elemental bodies, and Elves approximately correspond to cells, h.o.m.o erectus, and h.o.m.o sapiens (although the evolution of elemental bodies is much faster than that of the h.o.m.o erectus into h.o.m.o sapiens). What does it mean that "the soul of Brave Xu Jun and gamer Xu Jun are the same?"–In the beginning, their two souls were identical, and what they experience later on are also the same. However, because gamer Xu Jun was just playing a game, while Brave Xu Jun actually experienced some very painful events, the two became increasingly different. The Demon King and Fire Lord called the Brave Xu Jun sly, mainly because he had experienced too much, and had already learned how to mask his true mood. Furthermore, he was indeed straying into a negative or evil mentality. If gamer Xu Jun was like a relatively happy teenager, Brave Xu Jun was more of an unlikable, middle-aged man. However, in the beginning, they were identical. Why did gamer Xu Jun travel around the world, meeting all sorts of NPCs? First, because the game offered a great degree of freedom, there were also many hidden storylines. He wanted to experience more (after all, he had bought the game, so it would be a waste to not sc.r.a.pe it clean [hey]). Second, the game was too difficult. He needed to find all the natural resources in the game that he could get in order to beat it. If the difficulty had been lower, he could"ve probably pa.s.sed through by just relying on his levels and skills. Now, however, he needed to rely on various equipments and medicines. Equipments and medicines required a lot of time as he needed to collect them from various locations. Translator"s Niche:
[1]I"m not actually that familiar with China"s education system, since I didn"t really experience it for that long, but from what I read, basically this is the person, usually in an elementary or middle school, who conveys and enforces the princ.i.p.al"s will, so it makes sense that they might be a bit more harsh/strict. They basically have to manage a lot of stuff, including preparing the school"s curriculum, and making sure it follows up to national standards. ⏎
[2]A place fit only for dogs to live, in other words, a place unfit for humans. ⏎
[3] Literally translated to life hastening talisman, as in, rushing one"s life towards death. It is a taoist voodoo that is supposed to hasten someone"s death. ⏎