Those time travelers that year

What a sad story!

……

"Huh? Invited to a meeting?!" After a day of toying with adventurers and buffing monsters, Xia Er leisurely returned to the inn in the city, where he encountered Akatsuki, a young female assassin from the Shiroe Group, right in front of the inn.

“Yes, Mr. Charles, this is a letter that the Lord asked me to give to you!” With that, Xiao handed a letter to Charles.

"Hmm... let me see? A meeting!?" After glancing at the contents of the letter, Charles said with interest to the tiny assassin before him, "Interesting, I'll be there..."

The letter from the guy named Shiroe proposed reforms to the current state of Akihabara and implored Ciel to represent the Earthlings at a meeting called the Round Table. Hmm, a representative of the Earthlings... well, you could only say Ciel's fake ID was incredibly useful.

Time passed quickly, and a few days later, in a spacious room away from the hustle and bustle of the guild hall, a large round table was set up in the center, around which sat thirteen people, all of whom were representatives of various forces in Akihabara. Ciel was sitting there, arms crossed, watching with great interest.

Basically, even those who don't know Ciel are more or less aware of his rumors. Even those who don't know him, when they see the ridiculously high 1 million HP on that fake ID, they all show a conflicted expression.

The three adventurers are representatives of major production guilds: Dao Long, the "powerful" leader of the [Ocean Organization]; Lordrick, the guild master of the [Lordrick Merchant Guild]; and Karasin, the young master of the [Eighth Shopping Street]. While I'd heard of Sharl's previous unparalleled individual prowess, this is the first time I've seen him in person.

On the other hand, the other five combat-oriented guilds all knew of Sharl's existence.

For example, there's Isaac, the Grand Master of the Black Sword Knights, who wears black armor and has striking red hair.

"Hey! You wearing glasses..." Isaac's face twitched unnaturally when he saw Ciel, then he asked Shiroe, whose glasses were reflecting light, "Why is this humanoid boss sitting here?"

"I invited Mr. Charles to represent the Earthlings at the meeting." Pushing up his reflective glasses, Shiroe calmly stated, "Is there a problem, Commander Isaac!?"

"It's been a long time, little guy!" Charles said. "Last time, I remember you were the one who survived the longest of all the guys I fought one-on-one. Interested in a match with me later? I'm short of punching bags lately!"

"Ugh!" Izak's face darkened instantly, especially when he saw the leader of his rival, [DDD], "Berserker" Klasti, whose glasses were also starting to reflect light, and his ambiguous smile. He almost died of anger. Last time, he went to be Ciel's punching bag and got beaten up so badly he was sent back to the Great Temple to reload his save. It was all because Klasti casually mentioned it when they met while grinding monsters in the wild. Then, out of a sense of unwillingness to admit defeat, or perhaps out of disbelief, he actually went to find Ciel.

Of course, the end result was to reload the save file.

Basically, Charles beat him to death with his fists... It's worth mentioning that after he revived, he discovered a new passive skill in his skill bar, which essentially reduced damage from punches by 10%. This was very effective against melee fighters, but it almost drove him crazy...

Including the extra chapters, this is the fourth update today! Horizon will temporarily end with the roundtable meeting. Ciel will return to this world later, and the next world will be a Hong Kong comic! It's definitely more enjoyable to watch Hong Kong comics with all the fighting and killing!

354.Meeting

Fortunately, after reloading a save, the adventurers would immediately return to their original state, preventing Izak from ending up with a bruised and battered face. However, he wouldn't give Sharl a friendly look. If he didn't know he was absolutely no match for this human-shaped bug in front of him, he would have already brought his guild members over to farm the dungeon.

Therefore, Isaac harbored deep resentment towards Krasti, who had tricked him into stirring up trouble. Unfortunately, as the leader of [DDD], Krasti's behavior often contradicted his "Berserker" title. He remained calm and collected, never suffering any losses, while Isaac, who was eager to cause trouble, grew increasingly angry.

"Tch!" To be honest, Isaac didn't want to fight this humanoid bug NPC. He simply crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and stared intently at... Klasti, the leader of [DDD].

Seeing the atmosphere growing increasingly tense, especially among the guilds that already had their own conflicts, particularly the combat-oriented guilds that had basically clashed with each other, the atmosphere was becoming more and more like the kind of atmosphere where they would draw their knives and start fighting at the slightest disagreement. As the one who opened the meeting, Invasion-type Tsukishiro Megumi stood up and gave the opening remarks: "Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to come... I am Shiroe from Log Horizon."

"That's enough for the pleasantries!" Izak rested his left arm on the table and said bluntly, "Shiroe of the Libertine's Tea Party..."

"I'm honored that Isaac still remembers me."

"So, what exactly happened?" William, the guild leader of the Silver Sword guild and the "Young Master of the Elves," interrupted impatiently. "This meeting?!"

"Then I'll get straight to the point..." Shiroe continued, seemingly unconcerned, "The point is to gather everyone here to discuss the current situation in Akihabara."

"Everyone here is aware of the Great Disaster, but precisely because of this, the atmosphere in Akihabara has deteriorated since then. Many adventurers have lost their motivation, and some have even given up on themselves. The economy is in recession, and exploration efficiency has not improved at all. We hope to address this situation as much as possible, which is why we have gathered everyone here..."

Charles watched as Shiroe gradually revealed her thoughts without interrupting. After all, these were internal issues concerning the adventurers themselves, and if he wasn't mistaken, Shiroe had invited him over for something else entirely.

During the meeting, the Silver Sword guild, wanting to completely ignore these matters and instead more interested in exploration, adventure, and combat, simply chose to leave the meeting and turn away.

Then, naturally, conflicts and disagreements will arise between guilds along the way. Most importantly, there's the issue of enforcement. To unite all the adventurers in the city, establish clear rules and regulations, and prevent Akihabara from becoming like Susukino, a sufficient deterrent force is essential. Unfortunately, no one possesses this deterrent force!

But faced with such doubts, Cheng Hui simply pushed up her glasses and added, "From now on, four hours ago, I bought this guild hall."

"In other words, people I've blacklisted..." Shiroe said with a gloomy face, pushing up his reflective glasses, "are not allowed to use this guild hall."

At first glance, Xia Er found the expressions of the adventurer guild leaders around him incredibly interesting, absolutely fascinating. After a moment's thought, Xia Er immediately realized that the reason was that these guild leaders weren't surprised by the threat of being blacklisted; in fact, they were completely stunned by the extravagant display of wealth that Cheng Hui had displayed by spending millions to book the entire venue and real estate.

Indeed, in any world, the wealthy may not be the strongest in individual combat, but they are definitely the most powerful in terms of overall operational capability and combat strength. All the bumpkins and poor people are basically kneeling before the wealthy.

Faced with the offensive of burning through five million gold coins, these guild leaders, especially those of combat-oriented guilds, had no choice but to admit defeat. After all, it was a blatant and aboveboard crushing victory achieved through sheer money.

"Next, the last topic." The meeting had basically reached this point, and Xia Er, who had been bored for a long time, knew that the main topic was coming after hearing what Shiroe said.

"On the issue of human rights, it shouldn't just apply to us adventurers, but also to all people of the land!"

The guild leaders were all stunned. They looked at each other, and then more or less turned their gazes toward Xia Er's side.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Facing these gazes, Xia Er was not intimidated at all. "You think I care about any meeting bills? To put it bluntly, all of you combined are not enough for me to cut down..." It was definitely a hate-inducing statement, and it would definitely make Sun Ze even more hateful. But all the guild leaders, especially the few combat-type guild leaders, uniformly showed a very conflicted and aggrieved expression.

Let him be strong, I'll chop you down; let him be arrogant, I'll chop down your whole family… That's basically what Charles means. He doesn't care what you all think; at worst, he'll just go on a rampage through nine streets and settle everything. And this is only because this clone is strong in melee combat but weak in spellcasting. At worst, the clone can use its trump card to summon the main body and directly destroy this world. Charles simply doesn't believe that a Marvel-exclusive cosmic god-level monster could emerge from this world.

Especially now, after analyzing the system's rules, killing someone also inflicts a long-lasting debuff that severely damages their psyche and causes mental pollution, making Xia Er completely disregard these adventurers. So what if you can resurrect infinitely? I just don't believe your mental fortitude is strong enough. Of course, if you're a freak, then that's a different story.

Therefore, Xia Dun immediately revealed a malicious smile, which made the guild leaders break out in a cold sweat and quickly avert their gaze.

Seeing these guild leaders back down, Cheng Hui confidently pushed up his reflective glasses, as if everything was under control.

"Please understand one thing first: the original inhabitants of this world were actually Earthlings; we adventurers are merely a minority," Shiroe said. "Each person has their own personality, their own troubles and dreams, and in that respect, they are no different from us..."

“Moreover, what do we adventurers have to be proud of in front of the Earth People? Nothing! If we’re talking about strength—” Shiroe said, looking at Ciel, “Mr. Ciel Gretel, you are perfectly capable of challenging all the adventurers in Akihabara all by yourself.”

Everyone looked at each other, then noticed Charles's mischievous and dazzling smile, and the twin swords that had somehow ended up draped over the chair. They were all speechless with disbelief.

Then Shiroe kept giving examples, and Maria from the [Mikazuki Alliance] also spoke up to support Shiroe's proposal.

After a moment of silence, Klasti, the president of [DDD], was the first to stand up. "We in DDD also set up roundtable meetings and participate in..." And so, the proposal was passed.

355. The Next World!

The roundtable meeting of adventurers went smoothly, and Sharl was merely there to represent the Earthlings. Although he was partly manipulated by that bespectacled woman named Shiroe, Sharl didn't care much. He was here for sightseeing, not to grind dungeons.

This world is very leisurely for him, but it's good to be leisurely! At least he doesn't need to fight or kill, nor does he need to fight to the death with super life forms that can destroy planets at any time.

Conversely, while Sharl didn't find anything about time in this world, he did find something almost as significant as time itself—a clue to a spell called [All Things in the Universe]. Although Sharl hadn't been able to deduce the spell yet, it didn't matter; he had plenty of time and patience. Moreover, the little gadgets he frequently created caused low-level adventurers to constantly die and have to reload their saves. These thousands of deaths allowed Sharl to easily glimpse the system's rules, and he then used these as a core to gradually explore the true nature of the spell.

This kind of magic, which can directly alter the core rules of a world, is far more powerful than many world-destroying forbidden spells.

However, while he was patient, Ciel wasn't about to idly wait. So he decided to leave a coordinate in this world first, and then return when his hidden hand was activated. After his previous trip to the Harry Potter world, Ciel felt that time, such an unreliable thing, wasn't entirely unreliable, at least with coordinates. In other words, when returning from the world with the coordinates, not much time would actually have passed.

So, Charles didn't bother with that whole mess of attending some lords' meeting in that district called Istaru. A bunch of feudal lords, getting all cocky!? Believe me or not, I'll expose your true identities and slap your ancestors in the face!

After secretly storing a tampered knife at a weapons shop, Ciel casually said goodbye and disappeared. Shiroe and the others couldn't find Ciel's trail, and of course, no matter what they did, they couldn't find him—at least not in this world.

——————————Divider Line——————————

"【All Things in the Universe】?" Far away in the main world, Ciel easily received the message transmitted by his clone. Although many things had happened in the main world recently, and although his twin brother had died, Ciel didn't care at all. Did it matter? No! If he had cared a little before, after returning from the Marvel world, Ciel had completely stopped caring about these things.

Would you consider someone you could crush countless times to be on the same level as you, someone you could have an equal conversation with? No! At this moment, Xia Er understood why those evil gods kept wreaking havoc on the world, and he could also understand why those reincarnators treated the inhabitants of every world as NPCs.

It's not for any other reason than that they are on different levels.

After receiving the message from his clone, Xia Er instantly left the main world and arrived in the outer void of the world. He then focused his gaze on the world marked by his clone with the coordinates: Record Horizon. Hmm, a guild name sounds good, plus the one created by the guy with glasses, so he just used it.

"Time can't be synchronized, but at least it won't be too far off!" Gazing at that world, Xia Er directly used the power of the evil god to seal off the information there, and then sealed off the area to prevent other bastards from discovering it and running over. Anyway, after going through the 'onboarding' training, although it seemed that the silver-haired guy had given him a debuff, it was also thanks to that that Xia Er was now able to use some methods that could only be used after the 'onboarding' training was completed.

For example, leaving coordinates allows you to directly lock onto the information of that world and close it off. Of course, this is on the premise that the world isn't a high-level world. And coincidentally, the world marked as "Horizon" is within Sharl's capabilities.

"Although the level isn't high, but... spells like [All Things in the Universe], which can directly tamper with the core rules of a world, are probably quite rare, especially in high-level worlds where such things are practically impossible." Gazing at that world, Xia Er didn't plan to go there now. In any case, his clone had already tampered with that world. Once some unlucky soul grasped that tampered knife, that unlucky soul would naturally become a transit point for copying and pasting the rules of that world.

Of course, after copying and pasting, that unfortunate guy is no longer useful.

……

After the original Ciel sealed off the world marked as the Horizon of Records that he had previously experienced, the clone also broke away from that world and began its slow journey again.

Within that same void of stars, each different world shimmered with light of varying brightness and size. After leaving the world recorded on the horizon, the avatar, burdened with endless toil and no human rights, naturally had to embark on its arduous journey once more. Of course, this time it was luckier than before; after only experiencing about ten worlds, it finally crashed headlong into another world on its path.

Unfortunately, this world wasn't as friendly as Log Horizon; it was basically undefended. As soon as the clone entered this world, it immediately sensed an omnipresent malice—the world's faint consciousness had begun to detect Sharl, this uninvited guest.

Of course, unless an entity similar to a suppressor force emerges in this world, it's merely a passive defense. However, even a passively defending world consciousness is something deadly.

Soon, when Xia Er's clone broke into the outer layer of this world, accompanied by a rumbling sound, the world's defense mechanism was activated, and the target was the clone that had just entered.

"Damn it, what bad luck, what bad luck, what bad luck!" Faced with this situation, Charles cursed inwardly, and then had no choice but to stay on the outer layer of this world, dealing with the world's defense mechanisms that were already aimed at him, and at the same time, he had to quickly deploy his disguise.

The next moment, in the starry universe of this world, a cloud layer covering an area of ​​tens of thousands of kilometers appeared out of thin air. Yes, that's right, a cloud layer, a huge thundercloud appeared mysteriously in the vacuum of space.

"Holy crap, am I going to end up in some super dangerous world?" Faced with this utterly illogical thing, Xia Er's eyes twitched. "This is a heavenly tribulation! Seriously?! I don't want to ascend to immortality, you idiot!"

Boom!!!

Where there should be no sound, a tremendous thunderclap suddenly resounded, and a huge vortex appeared at the center of the clouds that covered an area of ​​tens of thousands of kilometers and was still expanding.

Within that vortex, countless bolts of lightning converged into one, resembling a vast ocean.

"Could this move be called 'Endless Sea of ​​Thunder Descends Upon the World'?"

After making a comment, Xia Er faced the sea of ​​lightning, which resembled a celestial river pouring down, and was engulfed by endless lightning.

356. A divine weapon?!

"Heavenly Tribulation" is a term from Taoism, meaning a calamity or misfortune, or what is commonly referred to as being struck by lightning. Of course, to some extent, it is also a test, a test from the world itself.

Who in this world is without worries? Only immortals are carefree and without sorrow. The Great Immortals reside in the Great Luo Heaven, ageless, immortal, and eternally blissful, free from all worries in their celestial realm. Mortals in the mortal world live on Earth, subject to birth, death, and endless reproduction, their lives filled with the interplay of gain, loss, joy, sorrow, and desire.

For those who cultivate the Tao, the natural desire is to attain immortality. However, to become an immortal and enjoy the lifespan of heaven and the radiance of the sun and moon is the greatest transgression. To attempt to cultivate into a true immortal with a mortal body will result in heavenly tribulations; those who pass will ascend to immortality, while those who fail will be reduced to ashes and their souls scattered.

However, Xia Er felt wronged. He wasn't a true immortal, so why was he struck by lightning? And this strike was no small matter; it almost completely destroyed his clone. The endless sea of ​​lightning, with its power to destroy everything, would be difficult even for the main body, let alone a mere clone.

Then, when he was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes, Ciel pondered deeply and finally came to a conclusion: although it was an avatar, its strength and status were at the level of a planetary god. In the Marvel universe, this would make it a super-life form capable of directly confronting a planet; however, in essence, it was an evil god, even if it was at a relatively weak level. But within the Marvel universe, it was a true god-father level.

In a fantasy world, would you believe that this level isn't considered immortal?

Thus, in this world, it wasn't just the external defense mechanism that was activated; even the Heavenly Tribulation, which served as a make-up ticket, naturally appeared and directly confronted Xia Er.

Then Ciel was unlucky and was thoroughly greeted by the heavenly tribulation. After being struck by lightning, he was finally spared by the world and fell directly from the cosmic sea towards the light blue planet below.

Although it was unlucky, at least Xia Er could now be certain of one thing: this world was not the magical world he had experienced before, but a fantasy world with something as grand as heavenly tribulations.

In other words… there are gods in this world?!

…………

This era was the Sixteen Kingdoms period, a chaotic and war-torn era. War was the theme, and slaughter was its defining characteristic. Of course, if this world were truly a simpler world, then its history would inevitably be a dark and bleak one.

Unfortunately, this isn't a historical drama. The thing that truly dominates the changes of this era isn't the number of people, but rather—martial arts.

Therefore, this era in the world is not particularly dark. On the contrary, in this chaotic period, all kinds of martial arts emerged one after another, and one master after another, capable of rivaling thousands of troops, kept pouring in. What should have been a time of war and chaos was transformed into a battleground of martial arts, a one-on-one duel between the strong and the strong.

A strong person can destroy a country single-handedly, a strong person can rival a thousand troops, a strong person can hold off ten thousand men. Therefore, the true pinnacle of this world and this era is not those war-torn countries, but rather—the martial arts world.

The four great families of the East, West, South, North and South occupy the top of the martial arts world, or perhaps only temporarily. After all, a hundred years ago, an organization called the Divine Alliance unified the martial arts world. Compared to the Divine Alliance, the four great families of the East, West, South, North and South are far inferior in terms of both foundation and strength.