Chapter 1 An Unreasonable Request?

The players exchanged glances, a hint of doubt in their eyes.

Under normal circumstances, it was best to avoid unnecessary complications, but in script missions, extra exploration might lead to completing side quests and obtaining key props—not essential for clearing the game, but able to greatly reduce its difficulty.

"I can't make decisions for my teammates, but since it's your request, Village Chief..."

Hohenheim nodded and said, "Please tell us."

"It's like this,"

The village chief coughed and said with a flickering gaze, "According to records passed down by our ancestors, every team of heroes, after completing numerous trials, can have one wish granted.

Such as resurrecting someone precious who has already died;

Saving an empire on the verge of collapse;

Obtaining blueprints for incredibly powerful ancient technology;

This wish is extremely precious, but it is not without limitations—when resurrecting the dead, the deceased's time of death cannot be too long, and the not completely rotten corpse must be brought to the holy temple on the sacred mountain;

In addition, the wish mechanism cannot be too complicated—for example, saving an empire about to collapse will not suddenly make its ruler become wise and martial, but simply descend boundless power to eliminate the enemies around the empire.

Wishes such as [Changing the world] or [Making the sun rise from the west] are impossible to fulfill."

"Oh?"

Hohenheim frowned slightly, exchanging glances with his teammates.

Players are not like the natives of this world, with such a strong sense of reverence for the so-called sacred mountain.

The player group is arrogant and self-reliant. Any extraordinary element can be analyzed, and any script natives are just stepping stones for players to become stronger.

Although the people present did not despise everything in the script world like some extreme groups, they regarded the sacred mountain's wish mechanism more as a high-mystery extraordinary item like the [Holy Grail],

More vigilant than eager.

The village chief was immersed in his story, not noticing the other party's indifferent emotions, and continued on his own: "In addition, our village also summarizes some rules based on the hero teams that come down from the mountain.

For example, the more difficult the trials completed, the higher the completion rate,

The larger the scope of wishes that can be made, and the more perfect the fulfillment of the wish.

For example, with the same wish of granting longevity, some might only live for two hundred years before aging and dying, while others might directly turn people into elves or other long-lived species, living for four or five hundred years.

In addition, if you stubbornly demand a high-difficulty wish that does not match the completion of your own trial, or express disrespect to the sacred mountain during the wishing process, the wish will also turn into a curse.

Such as turning the wisher of eternal life into an immortal stone, or turning the one who tries to destroy the world into a madman—in his mind and cognition, the world has already been destroyed, which is, in a sense, a fulfillment of the wish."

The village chief paused, covering his mouth and coughing violently, "Cough cough cough,

In fact, all this information is something that I, as the guardian of the sacred mountain, should not tell you heroes,

To some extent, my current behavior seriously violates the ancestral teaching of not interfering with hero teams and letting them develop freely.

After I die, I may have no face to face my ancestors..."

Tsk...

The muscles in Hohenheim's mouth twitched. The other party's implication was naturally that he had revealed so much valuable information and hoped that they would pay a corresponding reward.

However, what the village chief said was indeed of some value.

Hohenheim nodded and said, "Village Chief, please tell us what you need. We will try our best to satisfy you without affecting the completion of our mission."

The current stage of the mission is [Kill the magical beast, complete the commission of the village chief of the guardian clan, and obtain the key to the sacred mountain],

The mission time limit is 18 hours.

I don't know if the [Complete the Village Chief's Commission] refers only to killing the magical beast and retrieving the bricks, or if it also includes the current conversation.

If it is the latter... I hope the completion time does not exceed ten hours, otherwise the players will definitely use some unconventional methods.

The village chief was overjoyed when he heard this, and said in a deep voice, "I would like to venture to know, have you heroes decided what kind of wish you want to make after entering the sacred mountain and completing the trial?"

Wish?

The players exchanged glances, not very enthusiastic.

Hohenheim coughed and said slowly, "Well... my teammates and I have not completely made a decision yet. We may have to wait until we complete the trial and face the wish opportunity before we can make a decision.

After all, we come from small places and have not seen real wish cases."

"Is that so..."

The village chief rubbed his palms, took a breath, and suddenly pleaded, "Then, can you please make a wish to save our guardian village?"

"Huh?"

Hohenheim was stunned when he heard this, "What?"

"Save our village."

The muscles on the village chief's face tensed, revealing an extremely sincere and bitter expression, "Our village has been plagued by aging diseases for decades, from nearly ten thousand people at its peak to less than a thousand people today.

Anyone, regardless of origin, gender, or health, cannot live past the age of thirty, or even twenty, and becomes as skinny as me, frail, and dies prematurely.

If this continues, I am afraid that the village will decline and become extinct in less than three generations.

Please, heroes, save us..."

After saying that, the village chief dropped his crutches, walked off the sofa, and knelt in front of the players with a thud, kowtowing.

"This..."

Hohenheim frowned. Under other circumstances, he would not mind lending a helping hand,

But it concerns a wish opportunity.

If the wish mechanism is faked or has limited magic power, it's fine.

If the wish limit is extremely high and can really help the players...

He really doesn't have that much kindness to give away.

And there are teammates next to him, even if he agrees, the teammates may not be able to reach a consensus.

"Village Chief, please get up first."

Hohenheim reached out and pretended to help, but in fact, he released several Mage Hands to support the old village chief's hands, feet, and limbs, gently helping him up, so as not to break the old man's bones and trigger some punishment mechanism (this village is the guardian of the sacred mountain, and may also be within the protection range of the Thunder Prohibition).

This village chief has definitely not watched bitter dramas, and his face is not thick enough. He didn't say "I won't get up if you don't agree." He stood up honestly and was gently pressed back into the sofa by the Mage Hands.

"It's like this,"

David, who was next door, took over the conversation in a timely manner and politely declined, "We would also like to help you, but our team members come from different places.

Some people want to save their country,

Some people want to save their lost lover,

Some people want to find ancient technology,

Everyone has different aspirations and goals..."

The village chief said, "I can pay a very generous reward."

"...However, I believe that the pursuit of justice and kindness is engraved in the hearts of every member of our team. It is our duty to petition for the people."

David added the second half of the sentence without changing his face, and said with a smile, "Please continue, I'm listening."

The attitude changed so decisively and naturally, without any procrastination. He deserves to be from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

His teammates gave him approving glances, but the village chief didn't notice this and continued, "Uh... for a long time, our village has been the guardian of the sacred mountain, responsible for receiving hero teams from all over the world who come to pilgrimage.

Before the war swept the outside world, our village was simply the hub of the world.

Countless heroes with their own legendary experiences in various places poured their blood and hope into the sacred mountain's trial journey, and also brought inventions and technologies from all over the world to our village."

The village chief pointed to the furniture decorations in the spacious room with obviously different design styles, and said slowly, "Although our village has not deliberately collected them, over the long years, some heroes have failed to pass the trial and died in the process,

Or after completing the trial and wishing to leave,

They left behind their belongings within the sacred mountain (of course, many heroes directly gave us some things that they didn't need).

We have also been keeping these items well.

Unless there is a lack of technology, poor maintenance, we have to store them in the warehouse."

Hohenheim nodded. On the way here, the players saw optical camouflage generation equipment that was close to, or even slightly exceeded, the technological level of the real world, as well as many mechas, weapons, and armors with unknown functions.

Even if most of these things are rusty and scrapped, taking them back to the real world will definitely have more or less research and analysis value.

If they can all be moved back, it may be more valuable than the final clearance reward.

"If you heroes agree to make a wish to cure the aging disease in our village after passing the trial, I can violate the ancestral precepts and give a large number of stored items to you heroes for you to choose at will."

The village chief said in a deep voice, "The war in the outside world should be getting more and more serious, and the scope is getting wider and wider, and it hasn't ended yet, right?

Every time a war occurs, island countries are destroyed and a large amount of technology is lost.

Therefore, our village's warehouse may be the place where knowledge and technology are best preserved. It will definitely not let you suffer."

"This..."

Hohenheim frowned and glanced at Li Ang, who nodded and turned on the group mind link to create a mental communication network.

Li Ang: 【Okay, the network is set up. What do you guys want to say?】

Ambri: 【Wow, the technological wealth of a whole world. Listening to the village chief's previous narration, things similar to "time travelers" would fall from the sky in this world before, right? This leads to each island nation developing completely different and relatively developed technology trees. Tsk tsk tsk, if this was the Door World, the major organizations in the real world would have to fight each other to the death to compete for it.】

Hohenheim: 【Although it's not very pleasant to say, that's indeed the case. Both the Clock Tower and the Federal Bureau of Investigation would probably be willing to pay a sky-high price for this wealth. But...】

Ding Zhensi: 【But what?】

Hohenheim: 【You have to have the life to enjoy it. Remember what the village chief said? In this world, there are accidental time travelers falling from the sky. In order to return to their original hometowns, they will also become heroes, go to the sacred mountain to complete the trial, and finally wish to leave. This "leave" is very ambiguous. What if leaving means being teleported out of this world and back to the real world?】

David: 【Are you saying...】

Hohenheim: 【That's right. I think the final clearance condition is likely to be that we complete the trial and wish to leave this script world. In other words, if we agree to the village chief's request now, we may not be able to complete the mission objective when it's time to make a wish.】

Ambri: 【But we can also break our promise, right? We can pretend to agree now, and then run away with the money when the time comes, right? Uh... wait, never mind. If it's all the wealth, one Departure Ticket is worth it. If it's divided into six shares among the six of us, then using the Departure Ticket is not worth it.】

David: 【Yes. Although the distributed wealth is good, it is not as valuable as the Script Departure Ticket, which is directly equivalent to a life-saving opportunity. According to the information collected by our Federal Bureau of Investigation, after the Door World is fully opened, subsequent missions are likely to become more and more difficult. Even the first echelon players, whose strength far exceeds the original script mission's difficulty increase mechanism, cannot guarantee their own safety. Besides, none of us are really particularly short of money, right? There are no expensive epic-level equipment and props appearing in large quantities in the mall...】

【I am.】

Li Ang's calm voice sounded in the mental network link.

Everyone's eyes turned to him at the same time. Li Ang leaned against the wall of the room, rubbing the beard of his dragon head mask on his own.

He coughed lightly, cleared his throat, and said slowly: "Village Chief, don't look at me like this, but I am actually a well-trained and clinically experienced professional doctor.

I specialize in treating disobedience and various difficult and complicated diseases,

For example, in order to prevent patients from committing suicide by cutting their wrists, I preemptively performed amputation surgery for them;

Performing backflips and fancy hand gestures during surgery to cheer up dying patients;

Playing memes every day to cause patients with myocardial infarction to heal themselves without treatment;

In order to cure patients' persecution paranoia, I carry out real persecution on them;

If you don't mind, I can help diagnose the residents of the village to see if I can directly cure the premature aging disease in the village without the help of the wish mechanism."