Chapter 1 The Village Chief's Request

Almost the instant the village chief finished speaking, the players heard a system notification in their ears.

The current quest objective has been updated from [Find a way to enter the Holy Mountain] to [Kill the demonic beast, complete the village chief's request of the Guardian Clan, and obtain the key to the Holy Mountain].

The quest time limit has also been changed to 18 hours.

That is to say, the village chief in front of them is indeed the key NPC for this script quest.

The players exchanged glances. Hoenheim cleared his throat and looked at the village chief, asking, "We only wanted to climb the Holy Mountain for pilgrimage. We didn't expect this would happen.

Um... Village Chief, what kind of demonic beast are we talking about? And how did it destroy the Holy Mountain gate?"

"This..."

The village chief hesitated for a moment before slowly saying, "Actually, I don't know very well. There are no relevant records in the village.

The villagers of my grandfather's generation were very secretive about that matter and never told it to later generations..."

"Wait,"

David couldn't help but interject, "You just said that the Holy Mountain gate was destroyed by a strange demonic beast fifty years ago, right?

Were you not present at the time?"

The village chief took it for granted and said, "Of course, I wasn't even born yet."

???

The players looked at the village chief with his full head of white hair and wrinkled skin, who looked at least seventy years old, and collectively fell silent for a moment.

David opened his mouth and hesitated, "May I ask... how old are you this year, Village Chief?"

"According to the seasons outside, I should be twenty-four years old."

The village chief sighed, stroked the white beard on his chin, and said leisurely, "Thanks to my usual attention to health, going to bed early and waking up late, eating small meals frequently, having a balanced diet, and insisting on exercising every day, I can maintain myself so well."

Paying attention to health and still looking like this... Are you the legendary god-level programmer?

Seeming to notice the expressions on the other players' faces, the village chief sighed and said, "Most of the other people of my age in our village are already dead. I am one of the longest-lived in this age group.

Although this is not something to celebrate..."

David hesitated, "What exactly is going on..."

The village chief sighed again, beckoned for the servants to fill up the tea, and slowly explained.

Their Guardian Clan has guarded the Holy Mountain for countless years, at least a thousand years according to the incomplete genealogy.

Their mission is to guard the Holy Mountain, receive brave individuals from all over the world, and issue preliminary trials to screen out pilgrims who are either too weak or have bad intentions.

This is both to prevent overly weak brave individuals from entering the Holy Mountain to challenge it, resulting in death incidents that would cast an ominous shadow over the Holy Mountain,

And to prevent despicable people from sneaking into the ranks of pilgrims, abusing the Holy Mountain's wish-granting blessings, and causing harm to the outside world.

All the villagers will not take a step outside the Holy Mountain range. The trials they propose are generally carried out at the foot of the Holy Mountain, in several freely changing dungeons.

Those dungeons reset every twenty-four hours and are filled with all kinds of bizarre monsters, deadly or non-lethal traps. Outsiders who enter them will either complete the trial and walk out,

Or die in them and be swallowed by the dungeon's reset effect. The villagers of the Guardian Village will never actively interfere.

For a long time, pilgrims from the outside world have come in an endless stream. Interdimensional travelers who want to return home and brave individuals who want to fulfill their wishes have embarked on pilgrimages in batches.

Their arrival will inject new vitality into the Guardian Village, bring in outside supplies, improve the lives of the villagers, and bring news about the outside world, allowing the isolated village to know what is happening outside.

But about a hundred years ago, the number of interdimensional travelers falling from the outside world gradually decreased. According to the fragments left by the pilgrim teams,

It seems that several powerful principalities in the outside world broke out in long-lasting wars due to some kind of belief. The scale of the wars grew larger and larger, drawing in other countries that initially tried to stay out of it.

Since the tech trees of the island kingdoms in the script world are completely different, the war has become extremely complex. Assassination, infiltration, sabotage behind enemy lines, large-scale airship bombings, spreading poisonous gas in the atmosphere to create toxic acid rain...

The long war destroyed the original social order, and the number of brave individuals with strength also became smaller and smaller.

Seemingly affected by this, the dungeons at the foot of the Holy Mountain have also gradually fallen into disrepair.

Since then, the village has become a bit strange. Many villagers have suffered from premature aging, appearing old and decrepit before their time, looking like eighty-year-olds before the age of forty.

By the time of the village chief's grandfather, even the longest-lived people in the village could hardly live past the age of thirty.

"Over the generations, we have also wanted to figure out the cause of this aging disease and solve it once and for all,"

The village chief sighed, "But as guardians of the Holy Mountain, we are not allowed to take a step outside the Holy Mountain range, nor can we enter the Holy Mountain as pilgrims, accept trials, and make wishes...

Ahem, speaking of which, fifty years ago, my father had just been born. He later heard my grandfather mention that a powerful strange demonic beast took advantage of the night to destroy our top-secret Holy Mountain gate.

You should have seen the optical stealth equipment placed inside our village, right?"

The players nodded. On the way to the village chief's house, they saw a large, square optical camouflage device, about the size of a refrigerator, on a plaza. The technological level was in stark contrast to the surrounding medieval village.

"Including that optical stealth device, our village has preserved quite a few pieces of equipment and props that were given or abandoned by brave individuals throughout the generations. Although most of them have been abandoned now, there were still many that could be used fifty years ago,"

The village chief said, "And fifty years ago, the aging disease in our village was slightly less severe than it is now, and the guards protecting the Holy Mountain gate also had some of the average strength of brave individuals."

David and Hoenheim exchanged glances. The Guardian Clan responsible for guarding the Holy Mountain naturally could not lack the ability to defend themselves.

Although they are now extremely weak and have to be vigilant with pitchforks and longswords when encountering outsiders,

Their blood still hides a trace of supernatural power.

"However, that demonic beast easily broke through our defenses on the Holy Mountain gate, cruelly killed the guards, violently destroyed and stole a rock from the Holy Mountain gate,"

The village chief said slowly, "After that rock was stolen, the Holy Mountain gate no longer responds to the key.

The several dungeons affected by the Holy Mountain have also all become ineffective and no longer have a reset effect.

We also don't know whether the aging effect in our village is related to that rock.

Of course, it would be great if you brave individuals could retrieve the rock."

The players looked at each other. The quest objective clearly stated that they had to kill the demonic beast and complete the request, so it was impossible not to complete it.

Hoenheim nodded and asked, "Then where is that demonic beast now?"

"Northwest direction, in an underground cave five kilometers away."

The village chief added, "It should be there."

Hoenheim frowned slightly, "Should?"

"I don't know the specifics very well,"

The village chief said with a wry smile, "In the past, our village could organize patrol teams to inspect and patrol the various dungeons.

But now... you can see it too, we really don't have the strength.

The reset effects of those dungeons have long disappeared and have become nests for demonic creatures, which is too dangerous for us.

The only thing I know is the words left by my grandfather—that 'huge demonic beast covered in shadow' fled towards the underground cave in the northwest direction after stealing the rock."

Li Ang narrowed his eyes and tapped the wooden teacup containing warm tea lightly with his finger.

Several players seemed to be silent and thinking silently, but in fact, they were already discussing in the [Group Telepathy] mental link.

Hoenheim: [The lie detection spell on me shows that he is not lying.]

David: [But he must be hiding something. For example, his eyes flickered a bit when it came to the cause of the aging.]

Li Ang: [That should be normal, right? After all, judging from the aura, this Guardian Clan is some kind of dark race. Whether it's longevity or premature death, it involves the core secrets of their race, so it's impossible to tell a random outsider. But this script world is really malicious, actually having a dark race as the guardians of the Holy Mountain...]

Amberlee: [Uh... so what do we do now? The defense force of this village is quite empty. Although there are three guards squatting outside the door who think they are very hidden, we can easily sweep away this bit of defense force. How about we use truth serum or mind control-type spells to force the village chief to tell us additional information?]

Hoenheim: [I personally hold a conservative opinion. These people are the guardians of the Holy Mountain. Attacking them might trigger some mechanism, such as directly summoning lightning from the sky. And according to past walkthrough experience, it is unlikely that we can use "deception and concealment" methods to get away with it.]

Ding Zhensi: [Get away with it?]

Hoenheim: [That is, deliberately avoiding the walkthrough route designed by the system and completing the objective to the minimum extent according to the written description of the quest. For example, our current quest is "Kill the demonic beast, complete the village chief's request of the Guardian Clan, and obtain the key to the Holy Mountain." We can go to the dungeon and kill any low-level demonic beast, trick or violently threaten the village chief that we have completed the request, and get the key. On the textual level, we have completed the quest requirements, but in actual operation... some cheating behaviors may instead increase the difficulty of the quest.]

Playing with words is an important part of the Killing Game. If you don't like it, don't play it.

Not only can the system set up word games to trap players, but players can also cheat through loopholes in the textual level (sometimes cheating is also part of the walkthrough).

But now everyone is doing a high-difficulty script quest for first-tier players, so there is no reason to take risks and go the long way around.

The players quickly discussed and agreed on a decision in the mental link. Hoenheim took the lead in standing up and said to the village chief, "Okay.

As pilgrims, we have no reason to refuse the trial.

But before that, we want to know the shape of the Holy Mountain gate rock."

The village chief was stunned, "Ah?"

"What we have to do is retrieve the rock that repairs the gate, right?"

Hoenheim said calmly, "Suppose we finally find that 'huge demonic beast covered in shadow' and successfully kill it, but what if it lives in a ruin full of rocks?

If we know the specific characteristics that can identify the Holy Mountain rock, things will be much easier."

"Oh, oh, that's right."

The village chief stood up and walked into the next room, returning a moment later with an old, yellow-brown scroll that was at least several decades old, with a picture of a rock drawn on it.

The rock was generally long and narrow, pure white, with a complex pattern in the middle that resembled a cloud.

The village chief explained, "The Holy Mountain gate rock is indestructible and emits a faint light in dark and lightless environments. If it hasn't been abandoned in some corner, it can definitely be found."

Hoenheim carefully observed it and took the scroll from the village chief's hand, "Time is of the essence, we will set off now."

The village chief paused, his hands rubbing back and forth, "So fast?"

"The sooner we complete the trial, the sooner we can go on a pilgrimage."

Hoenheim smiled and did not explain that the time limit for this stage of the quest was 18 hours.

It is very likely that the range of that dungeon will be very wide, or that the demonic beast is not in the dungeon in the northwest direction, but in other areas,

The players need to travel further to track and lock onto its location.

"Oh, oh, uh, then I wish you brave individuals a smooth journey."

The village chief's words had multiple pauses, his eyes flickered, and he hesitated to speak.

"What's wrong?"

Li Ang asked, "If there is anything you need help with, you can say it directly. We are happy to help."

"No, it's nothing."

The village chief finally swallowed the words back down, said nothing, and stood at the door watching the players walk towards the village entrance.

After the players walked out of the village entrance, the entire village was once again covered by optical camouflage, assimilating into the ordinary rocky landscape at the foot of the mountain.

"Let's go. The system has given us an 18-hour time limit this time. If we can't find that demonic beast or the rock in the dungeon in the northwest direction, we will have to search again on a large scale."

Hoenheim withdrew his gaze from the village and said indifferently.

This time with a clear direction and goal, the speed of the group suddenly increased.

Ding Zhensi drove the Kui Niu mecha, activated the pulley mode, and dragged everyone sitting on the sled at the forefront.

Along the way, the gale howled. The others continued to discuss the topic just now in the mental link. Outside of the Group Telepathy, Li Ang released another mental link, connecting to Liu Wudai.

Li Ang: [It's me. I have opened a private channel. The others cannot hear our discussion. I noticed just now that your mental link fluctuated after the village chief took out the picture of the Holy Mountain gate rock...]

Liu Wudai interrupted: [I have seen the cloud-shaped pattern in the middle of that rock.]

Li Ang: [You've seen it? Where?]

Liu Wudai: [Special Affairs Bureau, Heterodoxy Society, database.]