The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

Page 151

"I have a silly, innocent, and adorably foolish younger sister."

"Ah."

"Yesterday, she was swindled by a scumbag."

Please accept my condolences...

"However, I originally thought that scum would take me away."

"...Uh, Miss, your sisterly relationship seems a bit complicated. Please allow an outsider like me to avoid any appearance of impropriety..."

"And now, I suspect that scumbag is back, so I asked him if he was born in the Year of the Roe Deer."

"..."

……

Chapter 224 Will the Bionic Little Red Riding Hood Dream of the Electronic Big Bad Wolf? (Part 1)

The curtain was lifted, letting in the moonlight.

"Hearn, it's your turn to keep watch."

Then a white fox spirit, yawning, crawled in.

"Okay, I understand. Please wait a moment."

Inside the tent, the believer looked up and responded upon hearing the voice.

"Then I'll wait for you outside."

Seeing that he was still sleepy, the white fox spirit considerately shrank back.

She has a very good eye.

He couldn't help but ponder.

The false sleepiness dissipated, and it was time to organize my thoughts.

[I am Hern, a believer, seventeen years old. (The rest is omitted.)]

……

Stepping out of the tent, I nodded and greeted the white fox spirit, changed shifts, and then proceeded to the sentry post I remembered agreeing to meet there.

Looking up, the moon is high in the sky.

Well, judging from the current situation, he should have fallen through the electronic sea and into some unknown depth [Hive].

The term "Hive" is an industry-specific designation for nests that inhabit special areas of the electronic world. These nests often contain outliers that are not accepted by human society and universal values ​​in 2092.

For example, a post-nuclear explosion surface ruled by cockroach people...

For example, civilizations forced to retreat to the underground world due to the frequent occurrence of solar flares...

For example, rats wiped out humans during the Great Plague of the Middle Ages and became the dominant species on Earth...

Such cases are still within the more acceptable range.

Let's set aside what's even harder to accept for now and first examine ourselves.

Fortunately, I still have a clear sense of self, rather than being in a daze.

The believer gazed at the bright moon in the night sky, and her heart calmed down.

Just as my older sister often says—his family, though they have been away from their hometown for many years, has always received the blessings of that bright moon in some way.

Yes, he must have fallen here while habitually logging into the electronic sea when he was falling asleep.

It was fortunate that he had a similar experience before, otherwise he would have thought that he was attacked and killed by the 473 victims of the suicides after he fell asleep, and that's why he was transported to another world to start over...

Guilty sin.

Thanks to her early experience of surviving in the deep mountains of the Far East, the believer has the most basic ability to cope with such supernatural experiences.

Since waking up in the tent and exchanging brief greetings and handovers with a few colleagues, Xin Nu, now standing on the night watch, has clearly sorted out her experiences along the way and her interpersonal relationships with everyone in this small team.

The actual experience is similar to reading a background introduction, and the gameplay is similar to playing the Dragon Quest game in a deserted village when I was a child.

As for why she has such a perspective and stance, the believer is not worried about that.

As for why there is no worry, the reason is equally reassuring, almost to the point of being unreasonable.

He knew it was necessary.

Instead of thinking about these things, we should think about how to solve the problem.

The believer's gaze descended from the bright moon on the horizon to the sky. The group had set up camp on a hillside, while in the distance, on the fertile plains, lay a peaceful and serene great city.

Her Highness Salome Reinhardt, the leader of the squad, referred to it as the city of Sales, which is the squad's current destination.

The believer turned her gaze away from the distant, sleeping city, found a puddle and looked at herself. Her appearance had not changed much, but the red jade-like dragon horns and the blue scales of her dragon tail made her feel somewhat novel.

The Gozanlong people are a branch of the original inhabitants of this world called Thranheim, and also the disguise he currently wears.

Next, this team will try to infiltrate the city of Salame. Princess Salome seems quite curious about the city's prosperity, even though, according to their intelligence, Salame should have been destroyed long ago.

Based on the team's pace, they should arrive at the city walls by tomorrow evening at the latest.

So, he only has tonight left to prepare.

The first thing to do is to check the resources you have at hand.

Thinking of this, the believer couldn't help but sigh.

These deep layers of the electronic ocean [Hive] each have their own operating rules. While the general parts are largely harmless, the resources that can be mobilized in their respective professional fields are quite different.

The most prominent manifestation of this is the tendency of the energy realm.

To give a simple example, imagine a Black Panther Saint in the team with profound cultivation. He might be adept at using the energy of the Holy Light Realm here, but if he were thrown into a world that is extremely inclined towards the Shadow Realm, he would essentially become a high-energy battery without a power source. Without a powerful dimensional figure forcibly opening a channel to supply him with energy, it would be a foregone conclusion that he would eventually run out of energy in the Shadow Realm.

In this respect, the believer herself is a jack-of-all-trades.

Thanks to his early experiences, personal background, and the various Hive experiences he's had in the last six months, his skills can be described as a wide range of knowledge.

He doesn't deserve the title of "know-it-all," but he's capable of handling most of the minor tasks. After all, he's not the kind of person who would get stuck in one energy realm.

Hmm, everything seems normal...

Also thanks to her early experience of being bored in a deserted village and becoming obsessed with antique games, Xin Nu has habitually turned her self-reflection abilities into a simple and easy-to-understand UI panel during her long-term exploration of [Hive]. She even created a pixelated character for herself and hung it on the UI. As for the matching avatar, of course, she also made one.

"Ok?"

After checking through a series of familiar realms such as the Elemental Realm, Nature Realm, Arcane Realm, Shadow Realm, Time Realm, and Void Realm, the believer noticed a new realm entry next to the Void Realm that she didn't recognize.

The symbol of the boundary is a pale moon hanging in the night sky, which naturally makes him feel good about it from any point of view.

Driven by curiosity, the believer pointed with one hand and opened the document to view its contents.

Then they discovered that this realm beneath the pale moon was completely empty...

Nothing at all……

"..."

Ah, it was probably a discarded design that came about on a whim or by accident when creating the UI panel.

That's true. Where in this world can you find such a free lunch? You wake up one morning to find an entire energy realm of precious resources.

After a brief silence, the believer calmly accepted this psychological gap, then composed herself and offered this consolation.

At seventeen years old, it's time to stop having unrealistic fantasies about one's luck.

Haha...

"Phew—that's really too much, Hern! You only just opened the channel interface to let me out now."

Well, I told you not to have any more unrealistic fantasies about your luck. Yes, yes, I know I'm very unwilling to accept it, I even had auditory hallucinations. It's so embarrassing. This kind of silly girl hallucination, like throwing a tantrum because she was almost stood up on a date, should probably stop by now. If it gets back to the long-gone countryside, the folks on the other side of the Sanzu River will laugh at us...

"Hey! Hearn, over here! Moshi moshi, Hearn, answer me!"

"..."

"Hearn?"

"...Who are you?"

When the moment came, realizing that she could no longer fool anyone, the believer's face darkened as she looked at the realm panel again. This time, it was no longer empty.

Beneath the pale moon lay a sea of ​​white flowers, a sight that evoked a sense of nostalgia for death.

Above the sea of ​​flowers lies a pale and ancient sleeping city, illuminated by the pale moon.

Amidst the sea of ​​flowers, a pale human figure stood with one hand on its hip and the other waving at him, seemingly trying its best to attract his attention.

Although it is just a blank outline, one can feel a genuine sense of anxiety in its posture and atmosphere.

It's as if something regrettable would happen if it went unnoticed.

It's always a sad feeling when others remember you but you forget them.

"Okay, okay, I see you."

With these thoughts lingering, the believer sighed helplessly.

Although the exact cause and effect are still unclear, let's try to ease the other person's anxiety first.

After all, the other party had already called out his name correctly.

"Phew...that's great..."

The other person seemed to finally relax, leaning back and falling into the pale sea of ​​flowers, letting out a long sigh.

"How did you know my name?"

One thing at a time. Relieving anxiety is one thing, but there are some things that still need to be clarified.

"Didn't you introduce yourself?"

"I don't have that impression."

“I know, because it’s part of your plan, Hern.”

"?"

"After all, Hearn, you said you were good at handling these kinds of nonsensical situations."

"...Wait, I think I understand now, you are—the fuse I left behind?"

"The job of 'fuse' is done by someone else. As for me, according to Hern, you should call me... emmmmmmmmm... 'Grandpa'? No, no, no, that's too awful... Then... 'Grandma'? No, no, no, that's even worse! I guess you should just call me 'Teacher'!"

Hiring a stupid roe deer like you as a teacher... Has my brain never been kicked by a roe deer?

The believer's face darkened upon hearing this.

"Ahem, anyway, just call me Teacher Aimee!"

After muttering to itself for a while, the blank outline that looked like a silly roe deer suddenly seemed to have a sudden realization and gave a thumbs up in the direction of the believer's perspective.

Although you can't see their face, you can feel their bright and confident smile, like the summer sun.

"Farewell."

The believer coldly refused, then turned and started scrolling through the realm page, preparing to go back to the void to clear her head. She was getting impatient with the idiots in this Azure Moon Realm!

"Wait, wait, wait! Why are you running away, Hearn!? The docking almost failed just now. I put in so much effort to decide to participate in your plan, and I was worried that you might be planning to ditch me and run away, so I put on this show... But then I remembered that you're my only friend right now, so I chose to believe you... Ugh... So you really think 800 million is too much, so you're planning to break the contract and run away..."

The silly roe deer's anxious voice was tinged with a hint of sobbing.

"impossible."

The believer was suddenly pulled back, returning to the Azure Moon Realm.

"Although I ask myself if I'm a bad person, I never break my promise."

“Hearn…”

"Okay, uh... um... Teacher Ai... Ermei, tell me, you know, and there's something else I should do, if you really made a prior agreement with me."

Calming down, the believer roughly understood the current situation. His current state must be the result of self-deconstruction, and the teacher in front of him, Ms. Elmer, must be a hidden pawn he left behind, seemingly taking on the role of a guide.

In other words, based on his previous assessment, everything that follows must be faced in the current state, otherwise he will miss out on something.

To borrow from my experience playing games back in the day, you had to meet certain hidden conditions to enter the true Demon King's Castle.

Things were progressing well, and the blank outline that called herself Teacher Aimee seemed to have emerged from her slump. She had returned to her previous lively appearance, which in Xin Nu's eyes looked like a silly roe deer that had never been beaten. Then, she boldly pointed to Xin Nu's eyes and declared.