Dying In Real Life Is Another Way To Play - Chapter 17 Surprising Discoveries

As dusk settled in, Zhang Shan and Titiana slowly crept their way into the settlement. As they drew nearer, they saw that the settlement resembled a poor rural town, an assortment of small thatched houses, some houses were made with stones and ones made with dried mud littered all throughout the settlement.

Both of them noticed that the settlement was still alive with activity albeit the poor living conditions. What surprised them was that this was a settlement of blue skinned demons who wore medieval clothing for peasants, these demons are either bartering for stuff or rushing about to their homes. These demons resembled humans in every way except for their light blue skin, just like the two of them.

In the Kingdom of Sylvannas, demons can also be found, their skin color though were black as ink and they were dressed in rags. Although rarely these demons are under the employ of rich nobles or royalty. While most of them were slaves, some traders would rather engage with selling warriors types that can fight to the death for the enjoyment of the public.

What made them agitated was that at the center of the village square a battered demoness with disheveled red hair was tied to a wooden post while a young demon child was sprawled across the ground in front of her bleeding as if rocks were threwn at him.

Titiana touched her womb and clenched her fist, as she was about to move forward, Zhang Shan held her hand and shook his head as he whispered.

“Not yet, we must understand the situation first or wait until midnight before we do anything.”

Titiana gritted her teeth as she nodded. When she did, Zhang Shan noticed that her teeth grew fangs just like what normal demons in stories would. He then tried to feel his teeth as well, he found that their teeths can retract or detract accrodingly. This new discovery surprised him.

Whenever children and adults passed by, they would turn their eyes away, as if afraid of the woman and the child. Zhang Shan told Titiana that the child was still breathing normally and doesn’t seem to be in danger, most likely he must have been knocked out cold. For the woman on the other hand, Zhang Shan wasn’t too sure as the woman was bleeding from her crotch as if she just had her menstruation.

“…”

The night went deeper and they both noticed that the demons started to get inside their homes. A few more hours later, not a single soul was left outside, the only things that can be seen are the dim flicker of the torches in front of the houses. Light was even denied to the woman and the boy which made the task easier for the two to slowly move forward without being noticed.

Zhang Shan gestured Titiana to get the woman as he carried the boy and swiped a few equipment in a nearby stall that he placed in a make-shift bag. Once they were done, they swiftly retreated to the forest and after a few distance found an abandoned cave to rest.

As they settled the two down the ground, Zhang Shan went out to get food and water while Titiana made a bed of grass and started a fire to warm them up.

Zhang Shan came back after a while carrying dead game and a pouch of water. Zhang Shan started to cook the dead creature which resembled an oversized rodent the size of a dog.

Titiana on the other hand started cleaning the wounds of the two unconscious demons.

A bit later, the boy’s nose started to twitch as he smelled the cooked meat. When he opened his eyes, he saw Zhang Shan and Titiana but didn’t care at all as he searched for the source of smell. When he found the barbecued rodent, he hastily moved to grab it.

“Kraaaa!!!!” the demon boy yelled. He touched the rodent and pulled back due to it being too hot, the boy started blowing his burnt hands to ease the pain.

When Titiana saw this, she immediately held the boys hands and blew on it as well. Zhang Shan saw this and smiled, he observed that the boys burn wounds healed in an alarmingly fast rate.

Initially, the boy wanted to pull his hands back but couldn’t as if he was locked in place, however when he felt the pain go away, he stopped struggling and was amazed as he looked at Titiana in awe.

After that, Zhang Shan took the cooked meat from the fire and gave a piece to the boy, making sure it was cool enough to eat.

The cave was silent aside from the munching sounds of the boy. After a while the woman regained conciousness as well. When she saw this scene, she moved back a bit and then grabbed the boy back trying to shield him from the two strangers.

After she didn’t see any movement from the two, she lowered her guard and started to speak.

“N-nalak ta.. A-arsta sadua… N-narana luar.” she said stuttering.

When Zhang Shan heard this he was stumped on how to reply. However what surprised him was Titiana’s response.

“Arasta leyar, rugar noran traka ulur?” she answered

….

Vice-chief Liu was back at the Game Monitoring department as he continued to ask about the progress of the upcoming updates.

“Has the “pantheon” for the Kingdom of Sylvannas completed their updates?” he asked

“We should be expecting them to be operational within three days” said one of the employees

“Vice-Chief Liu, the Game Development Team has submitted their report. The original Titiana can no longer be recovered due to the extent of damage that her crystal core has received.” Yue Jing reported.

“Sir, the Sylvannas Guild alliance has requested compensation for their losses” Yang Sun reported.

“We’ll give them a reply soon enough…. Let’s send Reschel once he’s updated.” Vice-Chief Liu ordered.

…

Meanwhile, Ye Qing,Ye Qian and Lan Ranyang arrived at the inn earlier than expected. Ye Qian ordered food and drinks. Just as Lan Ranyan was about to grab a glass mug, Ye Qing stopped him.

“Lan, I know you’re still mad about losing an obedient slav… err… friend… but try not to piss off the whole Guild Alliance, although we can take them on. We wouldn’t want to lose our “spot” remember?…”

Lan Ranyan released her hold on the glass and nodded like a child being scolded by their parents.

“Besides, it’s tiresome to clean up after your mess… remember what happened to the city of Denaria?” Ye Qing added in which Lan Ranyan nodded again, but this time faster.

Seemingly satisfied with her response, Ye Qing discreetly breathed a sigh of relief. He looked around at the inn to check the surroundings, this was the second time he was here, once he passed by to rest during one of his quests.

The Inn was a two-storey establishment. again with a middle eastern theme. The first floor was arranged like a pub, complete with a bar, wooden tables and chairs and a few stools here and there. The second floor was more of just rooms for lodgings.

Later on more and more people came into the “La Nara” Inn. The three saw a few acquaintances, some tried to greet but majority just nodded or intentionally avoided them. Unlike the previous guild alliance gatherings, only Guild leaders and Vice-Guild leaders attended, members didn’t seem to be allowed to be here at all.

By the time everyone was gathered, it was already a bit noisy as everyone was either done with eating or drinking minding their own business. A man approached the owner of the inn, whispered to him and gave him a pouch of Selas, he was instructed to leave the premises for a few hours together with his staff. The owner accepted the offer happily.

After the owner and the staff left, everyone started arranging the tables and chairs in a classroom-like set up and the bar was where the speaker would be situated at and acted as the podium the windows and doors of the pub where closed as sentries where placed outside.

Everyone acted in decorum as the speaker of the alliance started talking. The Guild alliance did not have a president or leader but every now and then, one of the guild leaders where given the task of being the speaker to host any of the gatherings. Unlike other alliances, The Guild Alliance of the Kingdom of Sylvannas were actually well-kept with their behavior, aside from the two “guests”.

“Thank you for coming despite the short notice, first off our agenda for the evening would be the discussion of the recent events for the past fee days which caused a few losses and deaths from our guild members.” The man said.

“As everyone knows, a few days ago an event was prompted to all high level players, veterans and beta-testers alike. While lower level players received a maintenance notice which never occurred, however, once the low-level players logged off, they where unable to log back in for some time, this issue appeared only within the city of magic.” he continued.

“Garam, do you mean to say that the game moderators have already provided a response in regards to our compensation request?” one of the audience raised his hand and asked.

“Not really, the game moderators have not provided an official explanation yet, but promised to send the God Reschel in a few days time…” Garam stated.

“The main reason we’re here today would be to collate information about the events that transpired that day, after a few inquiries, we have found out that the point of origin is the hunting grounds of the Juggernaut and Snow Queen which we have agreed to avoid pre…” he added

Lan Ranyang stood up when she heard this and interrupted “Is the reason you invited us here was to put us on trial?” she asked with a cold tone and her bluish white aura emanated.

As if Garam and the other guild leaders have expected this outburst they remained calm and collected.

“No, Snow Queen, if that were the case we wouldn’t have trapped ourselves in a confined place with the both of you.” he answered.

“Continue..” she realized this point and poised herself as she sat down.

Garam continued on, “As I was saying, we have agreed to avoid their hunting grounds in accordance to the peace treaty. However, the Quest indicated to move to that place and the attack the target. As everyone should have now guessed, was the first Legendary entity the game has released…” he said gazing seriously at all the audience

Murmurs and small discussions all around started to appear and can be heard but was immediately cut short as Garam continued.

“However, not one player lasted and groups of guilds died in a matter of seconds or minutes. After our main combatants died successively, the game moderators sent a few investigation teams on these sites. This happened previously before during the beta-phase and was considered normal occurence, given that there are strong creatures that have been “procedurally generated” by the system…”

“The reason we have gathered here today is to listen to the Snow Queens input regarding this issue, everyone knows that that she is the top contributor for discoveries in this procedurally and randomly generated game world. However everyone is also aware of her “crazy theory”…” Garam clasped his hand and bowed together as he signalled an apology to Lan Ranyan as he continued

“Everyone here has heard of this before, from her directly or from others who have been in contact with her… previously it has been running joke for us, however the images she sent on that day seemed to prove this possibility to exist…”

“Wait, are you saying that we are truly in another world? Have you even thought about how insane and ridiculous you sound right now?” one player asked mockingly.

Everyone looked at him in silence as if looking at a dead man, while some bowed and shook their head in pity. A few looked at Lan Ranyan’s direction, eager to see action.

“….”
for visiting.

However Lan Ranyan just sat there without moving as if waiting for something…