Yuan Tong

Chapter 133 A Terrifying New Discovery

Chapter 198 Rumberg Town

Hao Ren was curious how much truth there was to the legend about the ancient magical civilization being destroyed for angering the goddess. He always maintained that legends were not without foundation. Even if later generations distorted them severely, myths should have a verifiable prototype—even ancient people needed inspiration to fabricate stories, right? The myths and legends on Earth seemed so mysterious now, but behind them wasn’t there a group of genuine aliens running amok in those days? Vivian even knew Odin…

So he thought it was probably true that there was an ancient civilization in this dream plane. The talking wolves in front of him, which seriously violated evolutionary theory, were probably also related to the biological modification experiments of that year. However, the issue of “the goddess destroying the world in a fit of anger” was debatable.

He just didn’t know if this ancient civilization could help him uncover the mysteries of the dream plane.

Hao Ren discussed the current intelligence with his data terminal in his mind. This was fast and wouldn't be noticed: “I remember Raven 12345 said that the dream plane and the real world evolve in sync, which means that the historical process here is also linear, and the flow of time is the same as on Earth. There was a major disaster here several thousand to ten thousand years ago. If we can find some traces at the corresponding point in time on Earth, we can probably determine some of the mapping relationships between the dream plane and the real world.”

“A major event on Earth ten thousand years ago?” The data terminal rummaged through its database. “Humans were walking upright, werewolves and vampires were fighting, Odin’s second cousin eloped with a cripple, a demon hunter named Caesar stewed Fenrir’s uncle, a small meteorite hit near the equator and became the source of ironware for local primitive tribes many years later… Well, the rest are just minor things, not worth mentioning.”

Hao Ren: “…What kind of messy stuff is in your database?”

“This unit doesn’t know. This unit’s database was input by Officer Raven. How would this unit know where she downloaded these pirated materials from?” The data terminal washed its hands of the matter. “So, you’re really a moron to discuss historical events with this unit.”

Hao Ren: “…I’ll wait to go back and ask Vivian about it and see if anything major happened on Earth at that time.”

“Are you so sure that the major event that happened in the dream plane ten thousand years ago will be mapped to Earth?” The data terminal was very curious why Hao Ren was so敏锐 and confident this time. “You’re usually a pretty slow guy.”

“Just a hunch,” Hao Ren replied inwardly. “Raven 12345 said that there is a mapping between the dream plane and the real world, but I haven’t grasped this mapping relationship yet. The biggest event here in the last ten thousand years should be the destruction of the ancient civilization. If such a big event didn’t affect Earth… then I misunderstood from the beginning and didn’t understand what Raven 12345 meant.”

The data terminal thought for a while and decided that this was not its job, so it left a sentence, "This unit is just a PDA" and went into hibernation. Becky stared at the Wolf King for a while, then poked Hao Ren's arm with the hilt of her sword: “Are we going or not? Or do you want to catch up with your wolf friends? I think you can find a human town with these wolves as guides.”

“I’m not going to a human town,” the Wolf King immediately took two steps back. “You eat everything. What if you stew me?”

Hao Ren gave Becky a "See, that's how it is" expression: “See? You can see it too. I still need you to take me for a ride.”

As he spoke, Hao Ren's attention suddenly fell on the big bag that Becky was carrying: “Speaking of which, I should have a share in these… uh, medicinal materials, right?”

“Oh, right, I forgot if you didn’t mention it!” Becky suddenly realized and grabbed the bag to divide some for Hao Ren. “Mercenaries are all about fair deals. I have to give you half. But speaking of your fighting style, it’s really unique. This is the first time in my life I’ve seen a melee mage. Did you really break your brain when you fell?”

Hao Ren was too lazy to correct the girl's stubborn misunderstanding and just waved his hand vigorously: “I’m not interested in these bone plates. I just want to discuss with you how about using my share of the spoils as a reward for leading the way? This… uh, music box is actually useful to me.”

Hao Ren was thinking well. The data terminal would eventually run back by itself. He was actually tricking people by using the data terminal to lure this girl. At first, he really had no choice, but now he could use a bunch of bone plates that he wasn’t interested in to repay this favor, which would make the conscience in Hao Ren’s stomach feel a little better. But Becky’s stubborn temper didn’t give Hao Ren the chance to get his wish: “No! I want your music box!”

Hao Ren: “…You should think carefully. This thing has no other use besides playing music. Your half-bag of bone plates is much more valuable than a music box.”

“Who said that? Your music box can also fly!” Becky was quite stubborn. “Girls like pretty things. It’s unreasonable!”

At this time, the Wolf King suddenly said quietly: “You guys keep chatting. I’ll take the cubs somewhere else to hunt. Seeing you bargaining over things cut from wolves makes me feel weird…”

“Aren’t you always dismissive of these guys who don’t have enough brains as your own kind?” Hao Ren was surprised that this Wolf King actually cared about these. If he had known earlier, he would have led Becky to a place that didn’t matter. “Besides, your own subordinates have bitten more wolves to death than Becky has killed.”

“I can’t help it. They look too similar. You’d probably feel sick if you saw wolves eating people too.” The Wolf King grumbled, then turned his head and howled to call his pack, said goodbye to Hao Ren, and ran off into the distance like the wind.

“A very interesting species,” the data terminal commented in Hao Ren’s mind. “Caught between beasts and humans, possessing both ideologies at the same time, using human wisdom to think about a wolf’s life. He must have felt very awkward watching you two bargain just now.”

“It’s because I didn’t think it through,” Hao Ren said apologetically. “It’s mainly because he speaks so fluently that I forgot he was a wolf.”

“That’s how it is when you live with demon girls for a long time.”

Hao Ren: “……”

In the end, Becky still stubbornly wanted Hao Ren’s music box and unceremoniously stuffed half a bag of bone plate fragments into the latter’s hands. Hao Ren found that it was difficult for him to influence this heroine’s way of thinking, so he could only give up.

If we can meet again next time we enter the dream plane, I’ll bring her a real music box…

The two strange companions embarked on the journey again, and everything went smoothly after that (I don’t know if it was because the Wolf King led his pack to help them clear out the other beasts around, but Hao Ren felt that he saw the shadows of black wolves in the distance a few times when he passed over several grassy hills). Soon, Hao Ren vaguely saw the outline of a town in the distance.

“That’s Rumberg Town,” Becky pointed her whip at the outline of the city walls that appeared vaguely in the undulating sea of grass in the distance. “Don’t think it’s just a town, but it’s very large. Look, there are city walls!”

As the two got closer to the town, Hao Ren also saw the appearance of this “Rumberg Town” clearly. He saw a circle of gray-white city walls surrounding the town. The material didn’t look like rock, perhaps some kind of artificial material. He could also see facilities like towers and guard posts on the city walls. He didn’t know if it was to defend against the beasts on the prairie or some other enemy. Because he was coming down from a slightly higher mound, Hao Ren could also see the situation inside the city walls. He saw that the buildings in the town were well-ordered, mostly two-story or lower sloped-roof buildings. The houses were square, and the roofs uniformly faced southeast, forming a slope. This should be a local architectural feature. The taller buildings in the town were mostly located in the center of the town. One of the facilities with a spire and stained-glass decorations caught his attention, but now didn’t seem to be the time to ask questions, so he didn’t ask any further.

The town looked close, but that was because the view on the prairie was wide open. In reality, it took them a lot of time to run over. When the two finally arrived at the entrance of the town, Hao Ren suddenly heard a prompt from the data terminal: “Attention, you are about to ‘wake up’.”

“Buy some time, let Izhaks and Nangong Wuyue wait a moment. I’ll try to squint.” Hao Ren said, feeling that his senses were a little dull at the same time. It seemed that the connection between this body and the dream plane was becoming unstable. This was the first time he had noticed this detail.

“We’re here,” Becky pulled Hao Ren off the horse. “Want me to show you around?”

“Uh, try to, try to.” Hao Ren said vaguely, feeling that Becky’s voice was a little distorted. He saw that Becky was greeting the guards at the town entrance very familiarly, while another young man who passed by was looking at him, the “strangely dressed” outsider, with curious eyes.

In this situation, Hao Ren could only try to widen his eyes, wanting to capture more useful information before leaving the dream plane. He could vaguely hear the sound of waves crashing from his ears. Nangong Wuyue seemed to be singing some strange ballad. His vision slowly swayed, blurring…

In the last few minutes, he turned his head and saw decorative patterns on the outer walls of the houses by the roadside. The patterns looked particularly familiar.

They were Leta runes.

Becky heard a few exclamations from the passersby behind her. When she turned her head, she found that the strange mage who had come with her was gone. There was only half a bag of black wolf bone plates that she had given him on the ground.

“No way, he actually used teleportation to run away just for a music box?” Becky was stunned. “I didn’t force him… He really must have broken his brain when he fell.”

(Anyway, I'm idle, asking for recommendation tickets!)