Those time travelers that year

After stretching his body, Charles stomped his feet, stomping on the grass and squeezing out green sap. The next moment, Charles's figure flashed by, disappearing from the spot and turning into a black shadow, instantly covering a distance of dozens of meters before coming to a stop.

"The gravity seems different from that of normal Earth, and... what's with this feeling of being half real and half unreal?" After moving his body a bit, Charles frowned. This world felt a little strange to him. It seemed that some things in the world were unexpected, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong.

Moreover, this world seems to be more complex than it appears, because not far from Xia Er, there is a building half-buried in the ground, covered in moss. Although the building is tilted, Xia Er can still tell that it is a modern building in the style of Earth.

"After a nuclear war? Or after the apocalypse?" Seeing the moss-covered modern buildings, Charles became slightly intrigued. He didn't know what kind of world this was, but if it contained anything related to time, then the trip wouldn't have been a waste. If not, he could just treat it as a vacation—he wouldn't lose anything anyway!

I said yesterday it would be one update, but it's actually two! Happy April Fool's Day, weren't you surprised?

336. Tourism

This is a very interesting world. Why do I say that? Because after arriving in this world and wandering around for a while, Charles discovered many 'ruins' that resembled modern society. For example, collapsed buildings, cars covered with all sorts of plants on the roads, and the desolate ring road—it all looked like a scene of the world regaining its vitality after a nuclear war and nuclear winter.

However, the rules of this world allow the existence of magic. In fact, in Ciel's perception, the rules of this world are extremely bizarre... as if they were composed of countless numbers and codes. With his current clone, he could easily alter a portion of the world's surface rules if he wanted to. If his original self were to come to this world... it would probably be doomed. Ciel wouldn't even need to do anything; the power he unconsciously emanates could plunge this world into an endless cycle of nightmares.

“But I’m not here to cause trouble!” Charles retorted. “If this world has something related to time, and I can find it… well, I’ll just treat it as a trip, it doesn’t really matter anyway.” Having just analyzed the rules of this world, Charles didn’t believe that any uncontrollable factors would appear. Although this world was of a high level, much higher than the HP world, as long as it wasn’t at the level of Marvel, it was unlikely that any monsters could threaten Charles, even if he was only in a clone of himself.

However, some of the little guys in this world didn't see it that way. In fact, after Charles casually strolled around and got a general idea of ​​what was going on in this world, those 'cute' little guys couldn't wait to rush towards him.

For example, these creatures look similar to weasels, but for some reason, their tails are covered in thorny vines, and their blood-red eyes and menacing teeth make them look anything but friendly. And now, more than a dozen of these things have suddenly appeared, greeting Sharl with unfriendly stares.

Then, a whole bunch of them, with a "no fear, just go for it" spirit, launched an attack on Xia Er, pouncing head-on, intending to have a chat with Xia Er using their sharp teeth and claws as sharp as knives.

Faced with this situation, Ciel calmly used Rakuyo to slice the fastest-moving creatures into pieces. However, at that moment, Ciel was surprised to find that after being cut into pieces, these little guys didn't shed a single drop of blood; instead, they simply shattered into countless fragments, turning into specks of light and disappearing into the air. They left behind some coins and similar items.

"...What is this? Monsters dropping money?!" The scene before him was exactly like the traditional online game where monsters drop money. No matter what kind of monster it was, once you defeated it, you were guaranteed to drop money and items. "Don't tell me I've entered an online game world?" This world was bizarre, a fact Xia Er already knew when analyzing its rules, but he hadn't expected it to be this bizarre.

"Could I have actually entered an online game?" Dodging a red beam of light, Xia Er leaped up from the ground. After he left the ground, a large area of ​​red lasers bombarded the spot where he had been standing, splashing up a lot of dirt.

With his twin blades held horizontally, crimson energy and twilight flames burned on the edges. The next second, Ciel plummeted from the sky, his blades sweeping across the ground before falling to the ground. Then, flames burst forth in dazzling bloom on the ground, the surging fire and explosions instantly annihilating all the weasels that were about to continue firing red lasers at Ciel with the thorny vines on their tails.

"Seriously, could this really be a virtual world?" After instantly wiping out all the weasels, Xia Er watched speechlessly as those things, which weren't even charred, turned into fragments and specks of light that vanished from their original locations, leaving behind some coins and other odds and ends on the ground.

This blatant RPG mode, where items drop upon being completely destroyed, is incredibly frustrating for Sharl. Generally, this type of mode follows the same formula: level up by defeating monsters and eventually defeating a demon king. It's a pity how many bosses in Azeroth have fallen to these bugged players in this way.

"So what am I in this world? An NPC? Prey? Or a boss?" This bizarre situation made Charles really want to have a dream that would affect the entire world, but that was just a thought. Right now, he was just an avatar, not the real body of the cute evil god.

"But monsters can also ambush, that's quite a novel thing..." Hearing the sounds coming from behind, Charles sighed softly, instantly disintegrating into a cloud of black mist and teleporting away. At that moment, several long, enormous vine tentacles swept past Charles's former location, and their owner was... a plant!?

It was a flower as big as a tree, a flower that would stand upright and attack people with its vines. In particular, what appeared in the open flower was not a bud, but rather a cluster of carnivorous, meat-grinding, ring-shaped teeth, telling everyone that this was a carnivorous flower.

"A Venus flytrap or a pitcher plant?" Sharl, still shrouded in drifting black mist, reappeared and sized up the new 'monster' before him. "This guy can't possibly still use Razor Leaf or Solar Beam, can he?" The presence of moving plants immediately brought many thoughts to Sharl's mind, including that perpetually champion-less, perpetually immature brat nicknamed Ash, who could withstand all sorts of attacks with his bare hands, and the yellow-striped rat. But upon closer inspection, this 'man-eating plant' seemed far too different.

Just as Xia Er was lost in thought, the 'man-eating flower' attacked him once again. Apparently, being a plant, it could move, but its speed was obviously slow. So, the flower lashed out with its two vines, whipping down at Xia Er with a whoosh.

Then the two vines were instantly torn apart by a series of flashes of light.

The man-eating plant, having lost both of its "hands," let out a painful and piercing cry, then opened its large mouth surrounded by sharp teeth and, with a "poof," spat out a large clump of sticky and foul-smelling unidentified substance.

Charles dodged to the side, and the unidentified substance fell to the ground. Then, a sizzling sound began to ring out. It was something like strong acid, probably digestive fluid.

"Disgusting!" Clearly not wanting to get splashed, Charles frowned, then flashed and instantly appeared in front of the man-eating flower's forehead. With a sweep of blood-red blade light, the man-eating flower was directly cleaved into pieces.

Then, just like the weasel that Ciel had killed before, it was instantly reduced to pieces and specks of light, leaving behind some coins before turning to ashes and disappearing completely.

"They seem very weak, extremely weak. They might be able to bully ordinary people..." Picking up the coins from the ground, Xia Er estimated the combat strength of the two monsters he had just encountered. "But they are all problems that can be solved with one RPG shot. Even if they can't be solved, another shot will do."

Last night, around midnight, the author system inexplicably malfunctioned, and while I was randomly clicking around, I accidentally muted the reviewer of "Father's Love is Like a Mountain." I discovered this mistake in the group chat when I woke up this morning, and I apologize here! I'm sorry, Father's Love is Like a Mountain, I didn't mean to mute you. I'm very sorry, it was my mistake. I've now lifted the ban, and I'm really sorry for making you angry. I hope you can forgive me.

337. Three losers who couldn't even beat a rat.

These monsters were incredibly weak; almost none of the monsters they encountered along the way could withstand even a casual slash from Sharl, let alone the combined power of his enchanted dual swords. Don't underestimate this clone; it depends on whose clone it is!

A clone created by a mage with cloning abilities is basically used for resurrection, while a clone created by a legendary veteran is basically used to build a legendary spellcaster team to slap the goddess of magic.

And this clone of his, do you think it's just a simple clone? Yes, this clone doesn't have much spellcasting ability. In any case, it can't use "divine justice" to whitewash things at will, it can't create "I am the Cataclysm," and it certainly can't throw out a black hole. It might seem that Ciel giving up his forte, spellcasting, is a foolish thing to do—but that's not the case at all!

First, his clone's template is a hero template, and thanks to the friendly assistance of those reincarnators who gifted him with items, this clone also possesses vampire blood energy, can transform into a demon, and can even use his cosmos. Furthermore, the dual swords he wields are weapons called Rakuyo, which can be used to slice fruit or slay gods—in D&D, they'd be considered god-tier artifacts, given their creation during that era of rampant piracy. Then there's his gun; although it looks like an ancient smoothbore musket, it's not for gunplay, but for firing cannons.

Yes, that's right. After hearing his sister's so-called "magical cannon array," Ciel felt compelled to think that a man's romance is nothing more than giant warships and cannons. Those who play with aircraft carrier girls are all going astray; only giant warships and cannons represent the true path. Billions of turrets and endless glory are the only right way.

Based on this idea, Charles had specifically designed this clone. For magic, a Flash of Light was more than enough; the rest of the points were allocated to dual-wielding, charge, whirlwind slash… As for encountering ranged enemies, he would simply pull out his big gun and unleash a magic cannon from a distance.

Just like now!

Those little monsters posed no threat to Xia'er. Those weasels were just trash; while their tail-firing laser beams were entertaining, they were easily killed with a single strike. The man-eating plants, though slightly stronger than the weasels, were few in number and also easily killed with a single blow.

Now, the only ones who could cause even the slightest trouble for Charles, forcing him to stop, were a group of short men dressed in animal skins, carrying either rusty iron tools or inferior weapons like stone axes and bone clubs.

Unfortunately, they weren't the kind of dwarves who would slap someone on the knee; they were goblins, commonly known as gnomes. Unlike the shady merchant relatives of Azeroth, these goblins were just a bunch of mindless beasts, swarming around in a huge horde while chanting strange slogans. Add to that the fact that these guys seemed to never bathe, and the stench they exuded was like wearing socks for months, completely extinguishing any desire in Sharl to engage in melee combat.

Faced with this situation, Charles drew his gun, and a twilight-colored magic circle appeared in front of him. He then raised his gun and pulled the trigger, aiming at the magic circle.

Then a magic cannon as thick as a water bucket roared out, wiping away a layer of the ground and piercing through the forest. If you looked down from the sky, you would see a scorched earth more than 500 meters long appearing in the smoke and dust after the explosion and roar ended.

"[Magic Reload]" After wiping out all the goblins blocking his way with a single magic cannon shot, Sharl reloaded the gun with magic power and then sheathed it. "The power is decent. Judging from this, the energy limit of this clone should be able to fire a magic cannon with a range of 10,000 meters. Although that distance is incredibly weak in interstellar warfare, it's quite powerful in non-interstellar worlds..."

"Furthermore, increasing the attack range and area is not out of the question; the magic cannon's firing method could be completely changed to a spread-type shotgun..."

"Or you could use mirror magic to duplicate the gun and then float it in the air, firing it as it floats. That would be like having a floating cannon!"

"And although I can't use black hole magic, I can do the opposite! For example, I can use a smoothbore gun to fire an antimatter magic cannon or a Death Star magic cannon. Thinking about it that way, playing with magic cannons seems to have a lot of potential!"

While reminiscing about his youthful days of playing with cannons, Charles ignored the scorched earth he had created in front of him, since no one from the Environmental Protection Agency would bother him in this world anyway.

The problem now is that he needs to understand this world. After all, this kind of monster-slaying, level-up storyline is really making Xia Er envious. He wants to figure out if this world is just a simple online video game world, or something else entirely.

As for how to ask? That's simple. Just find a place where there are many, many people gathered. That's basically a city. And if this world is really related to online games, then there are players in that city. Releasing his senses, Xia Er rushed directly towards the direction where, in his perception, the most life force was concentrated.

……

Along the way, Charles saw many buildings, all typical of modern society. However, some of these buildings had collapsed, while others were dilapidated and deserted. Instead, every trace left behind by modern society was covered by moss, grass, and trees, giving them a lush green coat.

Of course, many of these buildings also became lairs for various monsters, with the three types of monsters encountered earlier being as numerous as weeds. There were also some large birds, some messy jellies, some things that floated in mid-air like jellyfish... In short, all sorts of strange creatures gave Xia Er a good look at them, and then Xia Er chopped them all into dust.

Every monster that dies drops at least something like coins, and sometimes bottles and jars too, making Xia Er increasingly feel like he was playing an online game. If he could, Xia Er really wanted to turn on the megaphone and spam the world chat asking for SS-rank characters to team up for dungeons.

In short, through sheer force of nature, including rampaging through forests and mountains, Xia Er single-handedly carved out his way through the forests and mountains, slaying countless monsters and even some dragon-like creatures, and acquiring a large amount of money, as well as all sorts of equipment and items.

Finally, under this 'monster-fighting' sense of déjà vu, as the moon rose high in the sky, Xia Er, from the edge of a cliff, gazed into the distance at the direction of the rising lights at the edge of his vision, and perceived a gathering place where at least tens of thousands of people were gathered.

Of course, there were also three people not far from his feet, in the ruins of a town, struggling against the weasels that Charles could kill with a flick of his wrist—three weaklings who couldn't even beat a group of rats.

338. Are you a person of the earth?

While these rats were mere trash in Sharl's eyes, they were a nightmare for the three people below—a nightmare they couldn't even defeat. Yes, that's right. These were only seven weasels, practically commonplace animals found everywhere in the wild. Aside from the fact that slimes were far more numerous than these rats, these weasels with a thorny vine on their tails were indeed trash.

However, these scum were now pinning down three humans (?) who looked anything but ordinary, leaving them in a sorry state. First was the shield warrior, clad in thick armor, wielding a steel shield half his height, and carrying a sufficiently sharp one-handed sword. Despite his seemingly impressive equipment, he was being toyed with by these weasels like a complete novice.

The first few weasels began bombarding the shield warrior with their red laser beams, nearly knocking him over. Simultaneously, two more weasels pounced, gripping the shield tightly with their razor-sharp claws and stabbing with their tails. Luckily, the warrior was tough and resilient; the laser beams seemed to have little effect on him, and he even had time to dodge the weasel attacks.

If this shield warrior at least managed to draw aggro well, making him a passable meat shield, then the performance of the other two... well, it's hard to know what to say. First, there's the little girl who seems like an assassin. She's agile and nimble, dodging in narrow spaces with fluid grace... but she keeps hopping and skipping around even when facing weaklings. With such nimble movements, wouldn't one slash be enough to take down those rats? Why do she keep teasing them? Is it fun? Did she not graduate from elementary school? Wait... judging by her size, it's quite possible she didn't graduate from elementary school.

Besides, that bespectacled mage (?) who exudes a decadent, nerdy vibe, is it because you've been spending too much time reading 103,000 erotic novels in bed? Your spellcasting is inaccurate and hesitant. Do you think you deserve your magical prowess? Could this be some kind of academic mage?

In short, although these three look decent and their equipment is acceptable, for some reason they seem confused and often act erratically. Xia Er can see that their bodies are instinctively preparing to fight back, but their conscious minds suppress their instincts before they act, making each of their movements seem delayed.

"Do we really have to fight monsters at a certain pace?" Ciel looked speechlessly at the three people below, who were making a chaotic mess. How should I put it? With their physical abilities, far surpassing Captain America's, they could easily crush these rats, but they just had to act stupid. Like that shield-wielding warrior, Ciel felt he could even withstand a beating from the Hulk when he wasn't in a super-enraged state. Facing these rats, he didn't need to do anything; he could just charge in. But he just had to be an idiot.

"I thought this world was much higher level than the HP world, so it should be considered a mid-level world, right? But..." Ciel covered his face, "Seeing those three idiots below, I'm not sure about the average level of this world anymore. Even the Aurors in the HP world are better than these three..." Looking at that mage, he had no defense whatsoever. He didn't activate ice armor or magic shields, nor did he place any defensive runes on the ground or set up a field barrier. He just stood there stupidly on the edge of a rooftop, awkwardly directing two other idiots to continue their foolish antics. Then a carnivorous plant sneaked up behind him and gave him a bondage play.

"Fine! I need to find out where this world is anyway!" Seeing the mage, who was bound by the carnivorous plant and slammed heavily onto the floor, barely able to catch his breath, Sharl grabbed Rakuyo and leaped off the cliff.

The speed of his descent suddenly accelerated in mid-air, as if something was pulling him. With his twin swords imbued with blood energy and twilight fire, and against the backdrop of the bright moon, he descended directly from the sky, streaking like a falling meteor. Before the horrified eyes of the three idiots below, he transformed into a blur and instantly arrived below, crushing the man-eating plant that threatened the bespectacled mage into dust.

"Need any help? Three newbies?!" Looking at the mage lying dumbfounded on the ground with his dark golden eyes, Charles said casually, "Who taught you? You could do things instinctively, but you insist on using your conscious will to suppress yourselves, forcing yourselves to fight according to an idiotic, ridiculously stupid method!?"

"Huh? What!?" The mage, who was still collapsing to his knees, was stunned by Xia Er's words.

"I mean, you could have easily killed these rats just by instinct, but you kept stopping and starting, which is contradictory..."

"So that's how it is!" The mage's expression changed, and he got up from the ground, pushed his eyes which had started to reflect light inexplicably, and ran to the edge of the rooftop, shouting, "Akatsuki, Naotsugu! Don't rely on system commands, rely on your body's instincts to make moves!"

Upon hearing the mage's words, the shield warriors and assassins still engaged in battle were stunned and didn't react for a moment. However, the assassin who was playing cat and mouse with several rats immediately reacted. Then, the short sword she was holding in reverse emitted a bright light, and her figure flashed away. The weasel chasing her was directly cut in two, turning into specks of light and leaving behind some coins before disappearing.

The shield warrior reacted a beat too slow, but by then, the weasels that had been firing red lasers at him seemed to have run out of magic. They became much weaker and stopped firing lasers, instead trotting directly towards the shield warrior. Then, the shield warrior delivered a shield bash-like attack, smashing them into a bloody pulp and shattering them into specks of light.

"So why did you all stick to that pointless gesture of drawing with your fingers in mid-air?" After watching the other two deal with the weasels, Charles looked at the mage who seemed relieved and then put on a 'I'm cunning' expression, and said speechlessly, "You all had the ability to kill those rats instantly, so why did you act like you were in a tough fight?! You guys are quite strong! Especially you, the magical energy emanating from you is not low at all. Why didn't you finish off the rats that could have been dealt with with a single fireball?"

“Um…” The cool expression on the bespectacled mage’s face instantly turned into that of a shut-in, and then he answered hesitantly and awkwardly, “…There’s a reason for that, and…you’re an Earthling?” Suddenly the mage’s eyes widened, and he stared at Charles with the look of someone who had seen God.

"what!?"

I need to go do the Qingming Festival preparations, so I'll post one chapter in advance. I won't be able to catch the boat back to Beihai until tomorrow afternoon, so it'll only be one chapter. I should be able to post another chapter when I get back on the 4th. I'll make up for the missed chapters on the 5th or 6th with five chapters! That's all!

339. Adventurer

If anything is more unlucky than reality, it's playing a game and inexplicably turning that game into reality, transforming yourself into the character you created within it. Even more unlucky is being a level 90 character, only to be relentlessly bullied by a bunch of level 28 monsters – genuine beginner monsters!

Of course, as adventurers, these three didn't seem ashamed at being bullied by a group of novice monsters. After all, not long ago, all of this was just an illusion for them. It was only after arriving in this world and receiving the template of their self-created game character that they couldn't adapt for a while, leading to frequent embarrassing situations and attacks from a bunch of weak monsters.

Then they were saved again, and it was thanks to this person's reminder that the three of them finally realized how to fight. To be honest, if the fighting was the kind where you pull out your skill bar and use skills as you go, then they might as well just go to sleep. A bunch of level 28 monsters could easily wipe them out, so wouldn't they be dead the moment they were a little higher level? Thanks to this person's reminder, they corrected their mindset immediately, preventing three level 90 adventurers from being completely wiped out by a few level 28 monsters.

However, after the incident, the mage, who had intended to thank his savior, stared in horror at the character panel that appeared before him, nearly dying of fright. A man and a woman, unaware of what had happened, rushed over. The mage, with an expression of utter astonishment, asked, "...You're an Earthling?"

Then the man and woman were stunned for a moment, and when they looked at Xia Er, they also had a look of utter dismay, leaving Xia Er feeling bewildered. Although it seemed that something was trying to probe him just now, something that seemed to be connected to some system of this world, Xia Er didn't think he would expose his identity as an uninvited outsider. After all, as soon as he entered this world, Xia Er secretly hacked into the rules of this world and registered a fake 'ID card' for himself as a local. Moreover, this world itself shouldn't be able to detect it.

It's an incarnation of an evil god, after all. If it's so easy for someone to see through something's wrong, wouldn't that be a laughing stock?

However, what Charles didn't know was that it was precisely this fake 'identity card' that truly made the three of them look like they were seeing God. He didn't know that certain rules of this world were precisely the functions of certain 'systems' that these three of them possessed, including the ability to display certain information about a target.

The reason these people looked like they'd seen God was because what appeared to them was a fake 'identity card' created by Ciel himself by hacking into the rules!

Ciel Gretel/Earthling/♂

LV? ??

HP 1 million / 1 million

MP? ??

If they could say anything, these three felt they wanted to curse the game company. Not only had they been tricked into this world, but what was this thing in front of them? An Earthling?! What kind of NPC was this? Was it some kind of final boss from a dungeon that had somehow malfunctioned and escaped, ready to wreak havoc on the city? And what was with that 100 million HP? Of their three level 90 characters, only this shield warrior had over 10,000 HP, and that was even with top-tier equipment for level 90. While the current level cap was 100, wasn't this Earthling an NPC? What was with that ridiculously high HP on its character panel?

For a moment, the three of them were filled with a lot of complaints, but they couldn't say them out, which made them feel very uncomfortable...

How should I put it? You can think of it as an awkward situation where you lead a group to Molten Core to fight Ragnaros, but find that the final boss is not Ragnaros from the 60s, but Ironjaw from the 85s.

……

Earthlings...