Genshin Impact, I'm Slime

The stream of Qingxupu was rippled with golden light, and the reeds rustled in the breeze.

Tok jumped and ran at the front of the team, occasionally touching the vines hanging by the roadside, or squatting down to poke the pebbles with strange patterns.

For him, there has never been such a scenery in winter. The town of Haixie covered by snow is his whole world.

When Tok stood on tiptoe to reach the protruding stone button on the broken wall, Famas suddenly reached out and hooked the toy bag around his waist:
"Tok, be careful not to trigger the ancient defense mechanism."

Just as he finished speaking, Famas's retreating footsteps happened to step on a loose brick.

The sound of gears meshing and grinding was heard, accompanied by a rumbling sound. The traveler instantly drew out his dagger, quickly hid behind the blonde girl, and grasped his cloak in a defensive posture.

After a while, the roar gradually seeped into the rock wall. The traveler tensed his shoulders and looked around, but the tip of his sword never received the expected hidden arrows and falling rocks.

The ruins of Qingxupu have been silent in time for too long. The mechanisms that were once carefully designed have apparently long since merged with the stone walls, leaving only rusty gears spinning in vain in the empty corridors.

"Hey! FAMAS, please be careful!

Finding it was just a false alarm, Paimeng stamped her feet in the air angrily, but before she could finish her complaint, Wendy suddenly interrupted her with the wind blowing dandelion fluff from nowhere, throwing the apple in her hand and laughing:
"Don't worry, I have already blown loose all the mechanisms within a hundred miles."

"A-choo, A-choo..."

Paimon sneezed several times due to the fluff blown by Wendy. He rubbed his red nose and then stared at the smiling little poet with resentful eyes.

Why are you, a street singer, defending the stinky guarantee person so much!

But Tok suddenly broke free from Famas's shackles, and his glass-like blue eyes flickered in the shadows of the reeds, as if he had captured the vibration of some special frequency.

“Shh…” The boy turned around and put his index finger to his lips, lowering his voice to signal to everyone: “I think I heard my brother’s voice!”

He tiptoed and pushed aside the dripping reeds. On the shallows in the morning light, Tartaglia stood with his back to the crowd like a flagpole. More than two dozen newly recruited Fatui soldiers formed a cold iron array in front of him. The cold light reflected by the ice gun heavy guards shattered into ice spikes among the waves.

The executive officer's scarlet cape was blown up by the wind, and his clear voice came with the sound of running water:
"...From today on, you will begin to fulfill your oath to Her Majesty the Queen and do whatever it takes to bring victory to Winter Solstice."

"Sweeping like the cold wave from the far north, like the rime that has not melted for thousands of years in the winter palace, the extreme cold penetrates into the enemy's bone marrow."

Tartaglia raised her chin haughtily and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Brother is so awesome!"

The child blurted out a cheer, which turned into a breath and grabbed Ying's cloak: "Good sister, look! It's my brother teaching those uncles!"

Tok was almost embedded in the roots of the reeds. Famas grabbed his belt from behind to prevent the mud from sticking to the child's trouser legs.

After hearing Tartaglia's lecture, Paimon pulled the hair from his ears and muttered:
"I didn't notice it before, but Tartaglia is quite good at training people. He is indeed the executive of Winter Solstice... the toy salesman."

Paimon almost let the cat out of the bag in front of Tok, but luckily Famas pulled her cloak from behind to remind her, so she was not exposed.

Paimon's changed title mixed with the rustling of reeds was just covered by the order raised by Tartaglia. A blue water blade condensed in the palm of the young executive officer, and the Winter Pole Star emblem on his waist shone with the cold light of the ice gun.

"Then, next, we should..."

Before Tartaglia could utter the command, he felt an unusual tremor in his ears.

The spinning water blade in his palm froze for half an inch, and he saw a clump of reeds swaying unnaturally from the corner of his eye.

The golden thread of Ying's cloak was faintly visible among the shadows of the reeds, the bells on Famas' waist jingled, not to mention the gravel kicked up by Tok's boots rolling towards the shallows.

Only Wendy's green cloak almost blended in with the grass and reeds.

After all, the travelers and others were a large group, and they were only in a small river beach, so it was impossible to completely conceal their bodies. There were also soldiers with honed five senses in the vanguard, who had already locked onto the strangers hiding in the reeds, but the Fatui's military discipline was extremely strict, so they could only observe the few people in the distance with their peripheral vision while listening to the lecture.

Maybe the other party is just an adventurer passing by?

"…We should, ahem, should be more cautious and careful."

"Because the challenges we face are harsh. Our enemies, such as... kites, rattles..."

"In the Liyue market, they will become powerful competitors of "One-eyed Little Treasure"..."

After discovering the arrival of Tok and others, Tartaglia immediately changed his tone and described the enemies of the Fatui as various toys and toy manufacturers in Liyue.

"Yeah, kites are really fun."

Toke looked at the newly bought bamboo dragonfly in the toy bag and couldn't help nodding when he heard it, completely unaware that their location had been discovered by Tartaglia.

The young Fatui recruits stared blankly at the executive officer in front of them, some even tilted their heads slightly.

Perhaps a tilted angle is more conducive to the brain's thinking.

"As the saying goes, the battlefield is like a shopping mall. I am just making an analogy."

Tartaglia also noticed the confusion of the new recruits and tried to make up for himself.

"So as your... ahem... marketing officer in Liyue, I ask that you obey my orders first."

"Obedience is the most precious quality of a salesperson. Disobeying orders is equal to betrayal, and the price of betrayal is expulsion... expulsion from Liyue's "Toy Research Institute." "

Tartaglia tried her best to complete the lecture without being discovered by Tok, but the Fatui recruits all noticed something wrong with the executive officer.

After all, if they didn't discover it, they would be in vain as the vanguard of the Fatui.

But when these soldiers were about to take action, Tartaglia stopped them with an extremely stern look, and told the recruits meaningfully to obey his orders, otherwise they would be treated as traitors.

The recruits stared at the slightly trembling water blade on the executive's waist, and finally tasted the smell of gunpowder from the deliberately emphasized "toy strategy" and "market attack".

These words also successfully calmed down the somewhat restless Fatui recruits.

But Famas and Wendy couldn't help laughing when they saw how hard Tartaglia tried to cover up.

As Toke looked at the soldiers standing still, he suddenly remembered Tonya's swollen eyes when she broke her wooden sword. He covered his mouth with his hands in shock.

"Wow, so strict... Those uncles will be very sad if they are fired from the toy factory, right?"

"Of course. You might even lose your life if you quit..."

Paimon started to complain at this time, but fortunately the traveler quickly blocked the emergency food's mouth to prevent Tok from hearing these slightly cruel words.

"Well, may you all win glory, for Winter Solstice, for Her Majesty the Queen, and for yourselves."

"Now return to your original positions and disband!"

Tartaglia gave some high-sounding admonitions and finally dismissed this group of Fatui recruits.

At this point, it was clear to the recruits that the strange figure lurking in the reeds was related to the executive officer.

The soldiers immediately dispersed and retreated quietly to a farther place, no longer trying to spy on what was going on here. (End of this chapter)