Those time travelers that year

Upon hearing what the mage said, Charles was taken aback for a moment, then realized that when he registered his identity upon entering this world, he had chosen the identity of a resident of this world. So, it seemed that was his title when he registered.

"Yes, that's right! What's wrong?" Charles nodded and said, "Is there something you need?"

"Ah, no! It's nothing..." The mage chuckled awkwardly, then said apologetically, "Hello, my name is Shiroe, and these two are Naotsugu and Akatsuki..." He pointed to his two companions. "Thank you very much for your help, otherwise we would probably be in a lot of trouble."

"Thank you so much!" X2

"It's nothing!" Xia Er shook his head. He had no interest in these weak monsters. Along the way, he had traversed forests and mountains, killing countless monsters far stronger than these. In any case, it was just a matter of finishing them off with one strike. So far, not a single monster had been able to withstand a second strike from him. Even some monsters that looked like dragons were decapitated with a single blow. He had been mowing down enemies as he went.

"By the way, are you adventurers or mercenaries?" Charles asked. "I see you dealing with these little guys here..." Generally speaking, in a world like sword and magic, the two professions mentioned above are the ones who usually fight monsters in the wild in twos and threes. Of course, the heroes who can kill the Demon King are also basically from the two professions mentioned above.

“Ah! Yes, we are adventurers from Akihabara.” The mage named Shiroe nodded.

“Really? That’s great…” Charles said. “I just crossed over from the forest behind here, and seeing that it was getting dark, I was thinking of heading to the nearest city…”

"Um... well, if you don't mind, would you like us to show you the way?"

"Sure! Thank you for your help!" Charles nodded.

"You're welcome!"

What Charles didn't know was that just as he agreed to let these three take him to the nearest city, a mission acceptance frame appeared directly in front of them.

——————————Divider Line——————————

Akihabara isn't far from here. This city, named in the style of Area 11, is actually just like the buildings outside, looking like a modern city that has suffered a post-apocalyptic disaster. The buildings throughout the city are covered with moss, weeds, or trees, although some are not, but those buildings are obviously newly built.

Aside from that, this city was no different from any other city of swords and magic. There were a few scattered pedestrians on the streets, after all, it was nighttime. Some of them were dressed just like the passersby in traditional sword and magic worlds, wearing very ordinary linen clothes.

Of course, many more were dressed as adventurers with weapons and equipment, but these guys looked lifeless in the shadows of the houses, like those who had spent money to draw cards but were still destined to be unlucky, having given up hope for the future.

"What's wrong with these people?" Charles asked the three who had led him into the city.

“…This!” The mage named Cheng Hui paused, then said in a somewhat dejected tone, “Something happened, some, um…”

"Whatever, if you don't want to talk about it, then don't!" Charles shook his head, ending the conversation, and then received grateful looks from the three of them. However, Charles didn't notice this. Instead, without the three of them noticing, Charles's shadow in the moonlight trembled slightly, and a wisp of darkness separated from his shadow, then transformed into a raven and flew into the sky where no one could see it.

I'm back from Qingming Festival, and I'm exhausted! So, are there any monthly tickets or death threats to comfort the author?

But... it doesn't matter if there isn't one. Five updates tomorrow is impossible; I'll wait until the day after! 2333333333

340. Recorded Horizon

Several days have passed since I arrived in this city. I've easily obtained the information I wanted in secret. First of all, this is indeed a world of swords and magic, but its history is quite bizarre. In a certain era, a civilization was destroyed, and a new civilization was born from the ruins. A race called the Ancestral Race developed magic, but because of this, they were coveted by all other races. In the end, everyone teamed up and wiped out these people who monopolized technology.

However, precisely because of this, the surviving members of the ancestral race who hadn't been wiped out retaliated. Xia Er didn't know the specifics of how they did it, but the endless hordes of monsters outside were a prime example. And so, to deal with these monsters that threatened the survival of all intelligent life, the special group of adventurers was born.

Of course, in the eyes of the Earthlings, the local natives, these adventurers were practically a bug in the system—they were invincible, tireless, and each one seemed to have an irreconcilable hatred for the monsters. It was precisely because of these adventurers that many intelligent races were not directly wiped out by the monster sieges.

And these adventurers are practically all Preel, aren't they?

Then, through a little hypnosis, Ciel easily extracted all the information that an adventurer, who was filled with despair about the future, knew.

Just as Xia Er had initially guessed, this world was indeed a game world, but it had now become real—something had happened to make it a tangible reality. Then, these adventurers, the players, unfortunately found themselves unable to log off or contact the real world for unknown reasons after the world's largest online game, boasting a twenty-year history, released its latest expansion and opened its servers. Essentially, they were forever trapped within the game world.

And this world is so real and authentic...

Clearly, these players lacked optimism. Apart from a very few who, after suffering a major setback, reacted immediately, adjusted their mindset, gathered manpower, and planned a long adventure to find a solution to the problem and, incidentally, seize resources as soon as possible, the rest have become dead dogs on the streets.

Incidentally, the prices in this world are incredibly cheap. Xia Er estimated that the coins he earned from grinding monsters all the way here were enough to keep him in a very comfortable inn for a year or two. Not to mention the other dropped items and weapons.

However, one thing that annoyed Xia Er was that the better buildings in this city weren't for sale, or rather, they weren't sold to the Earthlings, that is, ordinary people; they were only sold to adventurers. Locals who wanted a place to live either stayed in inns, built their own, or lived in buildings left over from the previous civilization.

What a rip-off...

Another point is that the food in this world is incredibly unpalatable. No matter how beautifully presented it is, it has absolutely no flavor. Moreover, people without proper chef qualifications are not allowed to cook it, otherwise it will turn into a pile of waste. This greatly displeased Xia Er, so he directly expended his power to alter his 'identity card' in this world, adding the profession of chef. Then, he went to the wilderness, killed some monsters, and grilled them on the spot, so that the food would finally have some flavor.

In short, this is a realistic game world, a very frustrating world that has turned almost all adventurers into dead dogs.

Over the next few days, the tension in the city escalated. Unable to log off, the adventurers began engaging in what seemed like a healthy activity – player-versus-player combat (PvP). Adding to this, they appeared to have discovered that they were practically invincible; every time their health reached zero, they seemed to respawn in a building called the Great Temple. This caused the adventurers to go berserk, engaging in chaotic battles outside the city one after another. Inside the city, it was relatively peaceful, but as soon as a PvP session started, city guards would appear out of nowhere to arrest them. These guards seemed to possess the invincible swordsmanship of characters from a legendary game; anyone who dared to disobey the law was arrested on sight, and anyone suspected of attacking a guard was executed on the spot – reminiscent of the police in the US.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Xia Er. Those guards only target adventurers; Xia Er's registered ID card isn't targeted. However, it's precisely because of these adventurers' PvP activities that Xia Er always encounters malicious PvP attacks whenever he goes out hunting, and each time, those adventurers who intend to maliciously attack him end up returning to the fountain to respawn.

Because there were so many people willing to engage in PvP, every time Sharl went out, he would encounter two or three waves of adventurers maliciously engaging in PvP. Basically, every time he went out, at least ten people would be sent back to the fountain by Sharl. The most outrageous time was when Sharl witnessed a chaotic battle involving over a hundred people. A huge number of magically summoned creatures were flying around in the sky, and warriors, assassins, archers, and other classes were fighting each other in a chaotic melee. Then Sharl was caught in a barrage of fireballs and arrows…

The result was that Charles, single-handedly wielding two swords, gave these weaklings a PK lesson from start to finish, while the great temple in the city was quickly packed with a huge crowd.

So, over the past few days, the name of the Black-Clad God of Death began to spread. Many skeptical and impulsive adventurers, driven to madness by PvP, specifically came to cause trouble for Sharl, only to be promptly sent back to the fountain by him. Recently, these hot-headed adventurers have finally stopped daring to cause trouble. Whenever they see Sharl, they basically act as if they don't see him and run as far away as possible. Of course, there are still those who don't believe in his power. For example, a warrior clad in heavy black armor, with striking red hair and wielding a greatsword, came knocking on his door, wanting to duel him!

Then he was killed by Ciel. Of course, before he fell, he seemed to have spotted Ciel's fake ID. Before he died and the Great Temple reloaded the save, he even showed an expression as if he had met a GM.

Who was this guy again? He seemed quite famous among the adventurers in this city, maybe the leader of some guild or something, but Charles didn't care. Although this guy looked like a skilled adventurer, in Charles's eyes, he was just so-so, someone he could easily kill.

However, the atmosphere in this city called Akihabara is getting worse and worse. If it weren't for the fact that the local inhabitants don't leave the city, they wouldn't be afraid of getting caught up in adventurer PvP.

Staying in this city doesn't seem to allow for gathering any more information, and this world doesn't appear to have any time-related items. While some adventurers do have similar items, they are mostly just simple things like speeding up, slowing down, or causing dizziness, and Sharl himself has already absolved himself of these negative effects.

So, without any way to obtain it, Xia Er chose to leave the city and continue his unparalleled journey across the wilderness, taking the opportunity to see if there were any monsters he hadn't yet defeated.

341. Palum Tunnel

In this world, Xia Er genuinely believes it's highly unlikely that anything related to time exists; certain levels are simply too low. Although this world seems to possess some decent magic, it's essentially just the adventurers' professional skills—something they naturally learn after reaching a certain level. If you were to ask these adventurers to explain their abilities, they would be completely baffled.

Judging from Charles's observation of these adventurers' mentality, he guessed that these guys were probably just looking for something that would be useful.

However, it seems that the game uses Earth as a template for its map, and Akihabara is just one of the adventurers' gathering places. It is said that there are others here, but due to the long distance and the fact that the portals that could be opened during the game could not be activated for some reason, the connection between cities was directly severed.

However, this had nothing to do with Charles. He was currently heading straight for the next city, and his method was simple: kill all the monsters along the way, and if he encountered obstacles, he would just blast them open with magic cannons and demolish them. He did encounter some new monsters along the way, but they were mostly hacked to pieces.

After walking and stopping intermittently, Charles arrived at the foot of a mountain and paused to rest. His travel-oriented mindset meant he felt no urgency; he figured there was probably no one in this world who could threaten him.

The mountain blocking his path was now teeming with a large swarm of dragon-like monsters. According to information he'd recently received from a nearby settlement, these flying dragons were scientifically known as Steel-tailed Pteranodons, and any one of them could easily raze the entire town.

But in Xia Er's view, it was the same, just harder to clean. However, this world was originally a game, so according to the RPG game process, there must be a way around such a seemingly insurmountable place. Then, having nothing better to do, Xia Er casually searched around and actually found a cave entrance with obvious man-made structures at the bottom of a cliff.

However, when Charles arrived, he discovered that he was not among the first group of travelers.

"Huh? It's you guys!" At the cave entrance, Sharl looked at the trio with interest: a mage who couldn't use fireballs, a shield warrior, and a young female assassin (?). "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Mr. Charles!" Of course, upon seeing Charles approach, the bespectacled mage named Cheng Hui, who appeared to be the leader, was equally surprised. "What's this?"

“Ah! It’s because your city is so chaotic…” Charles said, “Every day I go out for a stroll, and basically every time an adventurer jumps out of the bushes shouting ‘Demacia!’ and says they want to rob me, then I have to kill them… But you guys are so hard to kill, I’m almost losing my motivation to mow the grass, so this is how it is!”

"Aha, hahaha, yes, is that so!" Faced with Xia Er's answer, the three broke out in a cold sweat. They had probably all heard about or were aware of Xia Er's gangster-like style of wielding twin swords and hacking his way from outside the city back into it, cutting down nine streets. Logically, adventurers' combat strength should be higher than that of the native Earthlings. However, these adventurers didn't know Xia Er's true identity, so everyone who saw his fake ID acted as if they were meeting a GM.

Those who didn't believe in superstitions now believe...

"So why did you come here?" To be honest, this world, in Xia Er's opinion so far... well, it's not that exciting, but it's not bad as a place for leisure and tourism. However, it seems that there is no information about this world in the data inherited from the original body. This is not surprising; it would be truly strange if Xia Er could understand every world. In addition, the clone is not the original body after all, and cannot reach the level of being able to glimpse the timeline and the river of fate like the original body. Therefore, they are currently traveling with a purely touristy mindset.

Upon hearing Ciel's question, the shield warrior named Naotsugu and the assassin named Akatsuki simultaneously turned their gazes to the bespectacled mage. The bespectacled mage remained silent for a moment, then his demeanor changed completely. He adjusted his eyes, which, despite the overcast sky and lack of sunlight, inexplicably reflected light, and began to explain the situation to Ciel.

"So you're planning to rescue a companion?" Charles chuckled. "Interesting! I was just about to head to the next city anyway. If you don't mind, could I come along?" As soon as Charles finished speaking, a quest frame popped up in front of the three of them. Of course, getting an NPC who looked almost like a boss into their party was a win. The mage named Cheng Hui quickly agreed to let Charles accompany them, but none of the three noticed the subtle smile that flickered across Charles's face.

Having been in this world for so long, Xia Er had naturally figured out some of its rules, especially the adventurer rules for these players. Disguising himself as an NPC was no problem at all; he could even play the quest-giving trick. As for the rewards, they were all drops from the monsters he killed along the way, so he wasn't losing out.

……

This is a tunnel called Palum, clearly man-made, with massive stone pillars and neatly paved stone floors. However, it's now abandoned, occupied by a group of wild monsters, making it a dangerous area. Of course, that's true for ordinary local residents; for the earth-people's army, even a large, fully armed squad would suffer heavy losses just to get through this tunnel.

Of course, it's different for adventurers, and the same goes for Sharl!

The tunnel was dark and extremely complex. Traces of lighting devices that used to be on the walls and pillars were now gone. But this didn't faze the adventurers. The mage, who only possessed support abilities and no fireballs—well, here called a sorcerer—summoned a glowing orb from his staff to illuminate the path. Then, the young assassin named Xiao naturally became the scout. The three seemed to work together quite well, unlike the disheveled state Xia had initially witnessed.

Along the way, the enchanter named Shiroe chatted with Sharl about this and that, while the shield warrior named Naotsugu would occasionally chime in with a few words. The two of them worked together seamlessly, trying to extract some information about Sharl from him.

However, Charles brushed it off by saying he was just a traveler, much to the annoyance of the two. Of course, not long after, as is customary, wild monsters spawned right in front of them.

There was a group of large rats standing up, but for some reason, they did not attack. Instead, they just stared at the group of people as they walked away with their red eyes.

This made Xia Er look at them with newfound respect. These monsters weren't all mindless trash; at least at this moment, these ratmen showed sufficient organization and discipline.

However, seemingly out of concern that she might contract a plague during the battle and thus be infected with a debuff called "Disease," and also because these rats were disgusting, Shiroe decided to take a different path.

However, seeing the three of them decide to change their route because of the rats, Charles narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He wouldn't tell them that these rats were organized and forcing them to take a different path.

"What clever little mice!" Charles glanced at the rat-men staring at them with red eyes and smiled. "...But unless a mouse is named Jerry, they are just ordinary mice."

342. Boss Appears

While Cheng Hui and his two companions certainly possessed extensive gaming experience, reality is vastly different from the game. In the game, these rats—well, ratmen—were perhaps just troublesome monsters with debuffs. As long as they didn't enter the aggro zone, their level 90 characters wouldn't initiate attacks. However, reality is different. These three were mistakenly using their preconceived notions from the game to judge these level 40 monsters. They weren't fixed program code like in the game; they were creatures with a faint sense of self.

Moreover, this creature is social and omnivorous. In nature, a solitary beast may be powerful, but in terms of trouble, a pack of beasts is definitely superior.

These rats were blocking the road in an organized manner; otherwise, why would a large group of rats gather at one intersection instead of at every intersection?! However, Charles didn't say anything to warn them, since if these three level 90 adventurers couldn't handle these rats, they would be too useless.

Moreover, this isn't a world of comedy, and these rats aren't Jerry, so there's no need to worry about them becoming unscientifically immortal, nor about them suddenly pulling out a sledgehammer from some unknown corner and smashing you in the face.

After changing routes and walking for a while, Cheng Hui and the other two stopped at a drainage outlet to rest. The tunnel was very long and they wouldn't be able to get out for a while, since it was a tunnel that ran directly through the entire mountain range.

"This area seems relatively safe."

"Oh, yes!"

Listening to the conversation between the Eyes and the Shield Warrior, Charles smiled but didn't pay much attention. The little assassin girl had scouted the area but found nothing. Then came the dreaded mealtime. Watching the group's background turn black and white, Charles maliciously refrained from suggesting how to make the food taste good. Seeing them munching on sandwiches that offered absolutely no flavor, Charles grinned wickedly and pulled out some biscuits he'd recently made with ingredients he'd gathered in a nearby town. He ate them with some locally bought all-natural milk, then gloated at the three unfortunate, weathered figures. Indeed, happiness must be built on the suffering of others!

Especially in this leisurely world, it's simply delightful and refreshing!

During their rest period, the mage named Cheng Hui, who couldn't use fireballs, was communicating with others through telepathy. It seemed to be a unique rule system for adventurers, similar to a telephone, probably like the remote voice communication in a game.

It's convenient, but the encryption is very weak. Anyone who can sense the rules can eavesdrop at any time. Xia Er can do it, and so can those legendary veterans who have access to the Source Sea. Anyway, this communication method only works among these adventurers and has no reference value whatsoever. Xia Er has no intention of hacking into this rule system.

Then Charles and the others continued walking through the tunnel, and as time passed, the surrounding roads became increasingly worse, and of course, other things were even worse. They couldn't sense it, but Charles could easily perceive that many life forms were gradually surrounding them, and one of these individuals was nearly ten times stronger than the others in Charles's perception.

If nothing unexpected happens, it seems the rats are planning to encircle them.

However, before that, a little accident happened. Because the road underfoot had been in disrepair for many years, it suddenly collapsed. Unfortunately, Cheng Hui, who wore glasses, was unlucky and the collapse started right under his feet. Before he knew it, he fell down with a cry of "Ah!"

"Tsk tsk! This is so unlucky!" Charles walked to the edge of the landslide, glanced down, then turned to the other two who were worried and said, "It's okay, don't worry..."

"But..." The young female assassin didn't seem to think so. She looked like she had an impulse to jump down and save people, if she hadn't been held back by Naotsugu.

"Hey! Have you forgotten? You're adventurers who won't die!?" Charles said. "And how did you improve your strength to this level? It's not deep here, and there's a pool of water below. Do you think someone could die from such a fall?"

"You mean the lord is alright?"

"Of course!" Charles walked over and grabbed the shield warrior. "If you're worried, then go down and take a look!"

How do we get down?

"I see!" With that, Charles pulled the two of them down.

"Ah~~~" x2