After a period of silence that made the mood gradually settle, the hoarse roar from the speaker interrupted the two people's gaze: a monster patrolling the game world dutifully noticed the intruder's standing motionless figure, and instantly showed...

Taking advantage of its warm and hospitable nature, it waved its iron pitchfork, which was branded red, and rushed towards the little leather shield warrior.

Alice took the lead to look away from each other, turned around and finished dealing with the little living corpse monster that was slightly embarrassing. Then she let go of her lower lip that she was biting and stood up from the computer chair where she was curled up.

"friend……"

While she was chewing the pronunciation in a low voice, Klein had an intuition that was almost a premonition.

Sure enough, the next second, he heard her chuckle with a slightly evil nature.

"Want to play the emotional card and buy my favor? If you want to take this route, I suggest you practice your eloquence again." Alice smiled and arched her eyebrows, playing the game that she had never let go of since she held it.

The controller was thrown into Klein's arms, "That's it for tonight's dream relaxation time. If there is a chance next time, let's play together again."

This, no, are you just going to run away like this? Are you not giving any room for negotiation?

Klein was unable to react in time and could barely catch the object she threw. He tried to persuade her a few more words, but found that her figure was like an ink mark melting in water, losing its original shape almost in the blink of an eye.

The perfect outline, only a few ripple-like colored halos of light remained, which disappeared without a trace after a brief sway.

He held the controller in his arms blankly, and looked at the stiff-faced little leather shield hero on the computer screen silently for a few seconds. He realized that Alice had just thrown away her hands and ran out of his dream, as if there was no attraction here anymore.

Her things...

Wait, what was she doing in his dream tonight?

Klein frowned and thought for a long time in confusion, confirming that she was really just repeating the game process of killing monsters, leveling up, and running the map. By the way, she provided him with some third-party information related to her past...

Thinking about it this way, the questions she asked him on the gray mist seemed to be just to confirm whether his memory and impression of the earth were clear and distinct...

After several far-fetched inferences, Klein couldn't help but frown at the guess he came up with:

"Does this witch think of me as a ready-made game library?"

This is outrageous...it's too much!

And even if you really want to play it, you should play the Assassin game... Although the protagonist of the latest game has completely lost the shadow of an assassin and is more like a berserker, it is still quite good in terms of gameplay. It is better than this kind of suffering.

The game is so much fun...

He muttered and sat back in front of his computer chair. He was about to operate the handle to close the game in front of him. Suddenly, his heart moved. He called up the operation help and took a few glances. He couldn't help but feel itchy. He eagerly controlled the character to turn twice, and tried.

He walked towards the route he had talked about in the video guide.

Seeing how easy she was playing, it seemed like this game wasn't that difficult after all... Well, except for the boss, as long as you don't fight the oppressive boss, you should be fine!

The brave man with the little leather shield, whose inner core had changed, ran up the single-plank bridge one by one, and started to head towards the village not far away with a relaxed and happy trying attitude.

As he trotted forward, an arrow burning with kerosene flew out crookedly and hit the suspicious pile of barrels at the end of the single-plank bridge.

At the moment when he realized that it was too late to escape from the explosion range of the oil barrel, Klein's thinking stopped for a moment, and then he suddenly recalled with incomparable clarity the three-step, one-trap, five-step, one-ambush game.

The word "TOU_DIED" lit up on the screen without any suspense. He wiped his face wordlessly, decisively chose to quit the game, opened the game that he had not completely cleared, and made the decision to fight until he woke up.

The next morning, No. 15 Minsk Street.

With a little confusion about whether he had slept well or not, Klein walked down the stairs and was about to go to the bathroom when he stopped in the cold atmosphere where his home seemed to have become extremely quiet.

Instinctively, he suppressed the light mood brought by a good night's dream, tightened his lower lip, and walked quickly towards the restaurant, and soon found the source of the strange feeling this morning on the dining table.

The usual breakfast after moving into the new house was missing the hot toast and fried eggs. There was only a seemingly homemade sandwich piled on the plate. There were also empty teacups, teapots, and jars with black tea leaves beside it.

On the corner of the dining table where Alice usually sits, there is a note with writing on it pressed in a small leather drawstring bag.

Klein walked over, picked up the note that she obviously wrote to him, and read it.

"I forgot to tell you yesterday. I will be going out soon, and Eve will go out with me, so you can take care of your own meals these days. I left the meal money on the table."

Putting down the unsigned piece of paper, Klein stared at the small bag that looked like a money bag for a few seconds before carefully opening the opening and taking out the paper items folded in half.

He spread out the things in his hands and found that there were four brand-new and shiny banknotes, all with a pleasant denomination of 5 souli. He suddenly couldn't help but feel a complicated emotion.

Firstly, he always felt that by accepting such money that obviously exceeded the standard for meals, he would be suspected of being a softie; but secondly, he thought about the condition he had negotiated with Alice, which was that she would solve the problem of food and accommodation.

As for the meal part, he found another reason to accept it calmly.

Thinking about today's plans, Klein took a deep breath, finally made the difficult sacrifice and choice, and stuffed these brand-new banknotes that smelled of printing ink into his pocket one by one.

After collecting his meal expenses for the past few days, he went to the kitchen and while waiting for the water to make tea to boil, he began to think in the form of sorting out his thoughts.

First, divine whether there will be customers coming to entrust the door. If the answer is no, then go out to collect specific information about the gold thieves... Well, it is not difficult to collect information about housemaids and plumbers, and they can be sorted out before Friday.

The corresponding investigation report. The more difficult thing to deal with is the pair of young people who collaborated in the crime. The only thing I know about it at present is their appearance, but I don’t have enough helpers to do the carpet-like investigation work on my behalf...

Alas, if I have enough connections, the ideal choice would be to hire some gangsters who are familiar with the local situation... But hiring people to investigate will also cost money, and there are also safety issues to consider. Maybe I can go to the place mentioned by the Sun believer

Try your luck at the bars in the Jiaqiao area, and there will probably be some connections to the places where gatherings of extraordinary people are held...

Being a detective is not easy either.

Klein sighed softly, then slapped his cheeks to encourage himself, and then walked to the dining room with a boiling hot water kettle to brew fragrant rose black tea in preparation for this morning's breakfast.

Detective Sherlock Moriarty's day begins with such a beautiful morning where he can breathe in the fresh haze.

…………

Far away on the other side of the continent with the time difference from Backlund, facing far away from the southern coastline of the Republic of Intis, the Oradec Islands are still sleeping before dawn.

Ports, large and small, and island towns are surrounded by the waves of the misty sea. You can hear the exhales and breaths from this vast sea all the time.

In a narrow, damp, dark room, a young man was holding an unlit low-quality cigarette, sitting on the edge of a hard board bed and looking at the wind lantern outside the window, lost in thought. He was as quiet as a sculpture cast from sea rock.

At night, on the streets of this port city called Polepan, you can clearly see the kerosene lanterns that people hang outside their houses. The bright lights stand like stars in the manic sea breeze.

It is said that this is a special local custom in Polepan Port. Every night when the weather is good, a unique windproof oil lamp is hung outside a house where someone is sleeping to protect people's sleep from being disturbed that night.

As for the specific intrusions they will encounter if they do not follow this custom, the islanders have different opinions on this, and they have never reached a unified conclusion over the years.

Some islanders believe that the custom of hanging kerosene lanterns outside their houses is to guide the souls of those who died at sea, to help them find their way back in the mist, and to warn them not to enter houses inhabited by living people.

Of course, some people firmly believe that the reason for hanging up the wind lanterns is not out of baseless superstition, but a theory that pays more attention to scientific principles - the foggy sea has thick or light fog all year round, and even the geographical location is only in

The Oradek Islands on the edge of the Misty Sea are often shrouded in fog from the sea. Lights are lit outside the house at night to facilitate pedestrians to identify the direction.

What actually happened is irrelevant to former penalty taker Eric Worden.

Loen is a far more advanced country than this backward island region. Gas street lamps are installed every fifty meters on the streets of Tingen City. Whenever night falls, there are lamplighters holding long poles walking on the streets.

To light up the lighting equipment that is much brighter than kerosene lamps and candles, gradually giving the city a warm glow...

Of course, this is a sight only seen in wealthy areas.

In the slums, in the dark alleys far away from the main roads, in the corners of the city where filth accumulates, you can only see it on a clear night. The faint radiance of the crimson moon shines on the figures hidden in the darkness, illuminating that face.

He has a sallow face and a thin body that has been deprived of adequate nutrition for a long time.

At this point, the Kingdom of Loen, which prides itself on being powerful, does not seem to be much different from this archipelago region that is so backward that it seems like it is still stuck in the last century.

No, there is still a difference.

Today is the thirty-fifth day that Eric has lived a new life, and it is also the thirty-fifth day that he has stopped praying to the Lord.

Like the previous thirty-four days and nights, he did not suffer divine punishment.

There was no sudden thunder, no stormy waves that swept the betrayer into the sea, and even raindrops did not fall for a few hours.

This may be the tolerance of the Storm Lord, or it may be that he simply does not care about the conversion of a mere ordinary punisher. In short, the result is discouraging and relieved, but it also makes him truly accept himself and realize his current position.

.

He dedicated his prayers and soul to the Daughter of the Deep Sea, and became her... no, her follower who walked on land.

And He did fulfill his promise and fulfilled his wish, albeit in an unreasonable way.

Eric knew that he could not go back, so he almost gave up on himself and accepted the will of the Daughter of the Deep Sea, and settled in Polepan Port, which was closest to the entrance of the Sea of ​​Mists.

Of course, at the beginning, the former Punisher, who did not know the geographical knowledge of the Sea of ​​Mist, Sea of ​​Sonia, Sea of ​​Violence, etc., did not think of the problem too complicated at all.

In his opinion, most of the sea people believe in the Lord of Storms. A foreigner like him who worships the heretical sea god will inevitably be ostracized. What's more, the way to please the Daughter of the Deep Sea is, as he said, to sacrifice a living person to her.

...or should I say, a living "sailor" who is out of control.

Even Eric, who had seen old Steve's current situation with his own eyes, felt that this sounded like a living sacrifice request that had broken through the moral bottom line of modern society and was full of primitive and barbaric tremors.

The image of the Daughter of the Deep Sea in his mind was therefore fixed on the appearance of an evil god who loved cruel and bloody rituals.

But after more than a month of living on the island, Eric gradually grasped some things, things that he would not even observe or consider in the past.

The locals living here have always been reluctant to mention the Oradek Islands in the last century casually. Unless they are drunk, don't expect to hear it from this group of freedom-seeking fishermen, route guides, and occasionally part-time pirates.

Ask about that period of history more than a hundred years ago.

Located on the edge of the Sea of ​​Mist, this archipelago was once conquered by Intis's naval fleet and incorporated into its territory. It was not until later that the huge Kingdom of Intis underwent reforms and became a republic. In the following decades, it suffered repeated attacks.

The turmoil of twists and turns, changing from a republic to an empire, and then from the empire back to the republic...

The people of the Oradec Islands finally saw the hope of independence, so when Intis at the end of the coastline fell into internal and external troubles, they brazenly raised the flag of rebellion, repelled the Intis navy stationed in the waters of the archipelago, and welcomed back the

He adopted the Storm Lord's faith which had been strictly prohibited by Intis officers.

To this day, there are not many things that have survived the influence of Intis's rule, but there are quite a few, and faith is one of them.

The beliefs distributed in the Oradec Islands are roughly divided into the following categories: the traditional position of believing in the Lord of Storms, the new sea god "Moyucatrika" who only appeared in the last one or two hundred years, and those that have nothing to do with storms and oceans.
To be continued...