Dusk.
White Dove City, the Sparrow District, where commoners and impoverished adventurers abound.
"Just let this deity pee first, then you'll understand whether I am a real man or not."
Kafni felt the need to prove something, otherwise there might be danger tonight: she noticed Lin Da stealing glances at her with a sleazy look.
If she were a true woman, she would have felt disgusted, but Kafni only felt a chill down below, at risk of being attacked.
She was still a virgin, and she absolutely couldn't be screwed over by some lousy hero!
Lin Da fiddled with the seven copper coins in his hand, worrying about where to stay for the night.
"What do you mean?"
Hearing that, he looked at Kafni, puzzled.
Kafni smiled and said, "Think about it, a real girl wouldn't just pee behind the holly bushes on the street, right? But this deity doesn't care, I don't have any psychological burden about it, so I'm a man, a real man."
"Hey, don't boast about peeing on the roadside like that! Think about the sanitation workers!"
Lin Da helplessly put his hand to his forehead.
Is this guy really a deity?
Being a deity doesn't mean you don't have to take tests, right?
All I saw was Kafni crossing over the holly, finding a tree for double insurance, and hiding behind it.
"Hm hm hm hm~"
Humming a strange tune, Kafni let out a grunt, shamelessly starting to take care of business.
As a deity, her adaptability was strong.
What's the old saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
Swish swish—
The sweet sound of water rang out, and Kafni had no psychological burden whatsoever.
"Whoa!"
Suddenly, Kafni got so frightened she almost peed her pants.
She glared at Lin Da angrily, "What are you looking at? Scram, get lost, what the hell are you staring at?"
Quite a sweet mouth.
"I'm just curious," Lin Da said.
He was puzzled, pointing at Kafni, who was squatting on the ground, having rolled up the hem of her dress and holding it in her arms: "Aren't men supposed to take care of this standing up?"
"You have no freaking idea, standing up it's easy to get it on yourself."
Kafni shifted her angle, circling around the large tree to avoid Lin Da's gaze.
She suffered from pee-shyness, getting stage fright if someone stared, unable to let it out.
Lin Da, with his hand on his chin, pondered, "Even though you're a man, you actually got used to a girl's body very quickly. Maybe, you actually want to be a girl? Have the heart of a girl?"
"What?!"
Kafni pulled down her dress, ready to have a big fight with Lin Da.
But both of them noticed that outside the holly, without knowing when, a crowd of onlookers had gathered, along with a cleaning lady, angrily hurrying over with a broom.
"How shameless, peeing right on the street, I'll beat you to death, you sly wench!"
Alas, the deity was mistaken for a fried chicken again!
Kafni, ashamed and angry, grabbed the hero's wrist and whispered, "Let's go, or we'll be arrested by the Law Enforcement Bureau!"
"They're catching you, what's it got to do with me..."
Lin Da complained, being dragged by Kafni, running a good distance away.
Kafni barely stopped to catch her breath when she saw Lin Da clap his hands, his face brightening with delight, "I've just thought of a way to make money!"
"Oh? So we don't have to sleep on the streets tonight?" Kafni's eyes lit up.
Lin Da nodded, grinning as he pointed at Kafni, "When we were running just now, I noticed that your dress is made of fine Ice Silk, it could sell for at least one gold coin."
"..."
Kafni stood frozen, her head trembling as she looked down at her thin dress.
Inside, other than a set of light blue underwear, there was nothing left.
The family in the Divine Realm, who would understand?
On the verge of mental collapse, Kafni had finally summoned a hero, but instead of fighting the Demon King, he was eyeing her clothes to sell.
Otherwise, she'd have to sleep on the streets.
Was saving the world really this hard?
All those predecessors who had saved dozens of worlds, how did they manage it?
"You damned hero, don't you dare strip off a deity's clothes!!!"
Kafni's cry of despair echoed through the streets.
...
"Don't move from there, I'm going to sell your clothes."
Lin Da held a warm white dress with a faint fragrance in his right hand, nodding with satisfaction.
Behind the holly on both sides of the street, there was a girl wearing only light blue undergarments.
Kafni, her face filled with both shame and anger, hugged her head to hide herself and turned her back to Lin Da; only the straps of her underwear were visible.
This deity's skin, it looked so white, so soft.
Lin Da's mind was filled with wild thoughts.
Even Kafni... was probably warm too.
This was no different from a normal girl.
Hiding behind the holly, Kafni, her face full of shame, said, "You damned hero, why must you sell my things? Don't you have things you could sell?"
She was referring to the magic potions in the form of transparent test tubes hanging from Lin Da's belt.
Small-sized Mana Recovery Potion, nicknamed Little Blue.
Small-sized Life Recovery Potion, nicknamed Little Red.
Aside from a few Magic Pharmacists who could concoct them, most of these potions came as rewards from the World Tree Secret Realm, a scarce necessity in high demand and short supply.
On Lin Da's belt, each magic potion was placed in an individual long, brown pouch specially made for carrying them.
Kafni counted them, ten each of Little Red and Little Blue.
With the market value in White Dove City, they were worth approximately 2000 gold coins.
"Sell my magic potions? Absolutely not!"
Lin Da's eyes widened in refusal, his hands protectively clutching his magic potions like a stingy miser.
With his understanding of the World Tree, having sufficient potions meant that he could slowly whittle down monsters without taking on challenges beyond his level, securing an unbeatable position.
Ten bottles each of Little Red and Little Blue was the minimum number he had precisely calculated. Losing even one would make him anxious.
In other words, these potions were Lin Da's nest egg, not to be used lightly except in the most dire circumstances.
Lin Da caressed the potions on his belt fondly, mumbling to himself:
"Jack, you're my first Life Recovery Potion. I remember it clearly—you dropped from a Lava Monster on the first layer of the World Tree. For you, I spent six hours grinding...
And there's Lucy, you're from the third layer of the World Tree. I casually killed a minor creature and it dropped the most precious reward it could offer—Lucy, the Small-sized Life Recovery Potion. The day I got you was undoubtedly a miracle!
Then there's Osland... you're from the fifth layer of the World Tree.
Carby, I bought you with a hefty sum from Black Uncle. The cork was so large, it must have hurt a lot. Thankfully, I prepared a cork of the right size for you."
Lin Da knew the names and origins of each of the twenty bottles of Little Red and Little Blue like treasured possessions.
He described his stories with them to Kafni, his expression rapt with enthusiasm and his eyes sparkling with excitement.
Magic potions? No, they were Lin Da's family!
"Ugh, disgusting," Kafni said, looking at Lin Da as if seeing him for the first time, her face filled with revulsion, "How could there be someone who is romantically attached to potions, disgusting, perverted, just go die already."
"In summary,"
Lin Da coughed, looking serious, "I will not betray any of them, so don't even think about getting your hands on my potions!"
"Fine, not selling them, okay?" Kafni pouted, then pointed to a pocket on Lin Da's chest, "What about that one? Selling it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
What Kafni was referring to was a pocket watch, whose chain looked like it was made of platinum, so it must be worth some money.
But to her surprise, Lin Da refused even more quickly: "This can't be sold either."
"Huh?! Why can we only sell my stuff? Show a little sincerity yourself!" Kafni said annoyed.
Lin Da awkwardly touched his head, "Didn't I contribute seven copper coins?"
Seeing Kafni's face growing increasingly unhappy, he finally stopped joking around: "Sorry, an ordinary pocket watch is one thing, but this one really can't be sold."
With that, Lin Da took the pocket watch out of his pocket.
It was round, the size of a baby's palm, with a golden matte finish on the outside, and soft music sounded as soon as it was opened.
Kafni leaned in to see that a photo was embedded inside the watch case, featuring two people, Lin Da and a black-haired young girl.
Her skin was pale, and her body extremely frail, but her eyes, black as onyx and full of life, sparkled with activity. She was smiling mischievously, hugging Lin Da's arm and making a 'yeah' sign with scissors fingers next to her eye.
"Who is this person?" Kafni noticed that Lin Da's eyes became very tender when he looked at the pocket watch, as if spring breezes were brushing across a radiant lake.
So even the reckless hero had such a side?
Lin Da was silent for a moment, then said, "My sister."
"Sister?"
"Yeah. She went missing at the World Tree two years ago, and we still haven't found her."
Lin Da looked at the towering tree in the center of White Dove City, falling silent, as if reluctant to talk about it.
Many memories surfaced in his mind.
Three years ago, Lin Da came to the game world of the Mystic Continent, not alone, though.
He had been pushing his sister, Lin Xi, in a wheelchair when a dump truck had struck them.
The siblings, along with Lia, formed the Snow Goose Adventure Team together.
Things went smoothly at first.
However, on the fourth level of the World Tree, Lin Xi disappeared, as if she had evaporated from the world, leaving no trace behind.
When Lin Da returned to the adventure team's base, heartbroken, he strangely found Lin Xi's ever-present pocket watch on his desk.
Lin Da still couldn't make sense of what had happened that day. Did Lin Xi return to White Dove City before him, leaving her pocket watch there?
Or had Lin Xi already died, and someone else had placed the watch on his desk?
Either scenario had many unexplainable aspects.
One of the big reasons Lin Da entered the World Tree was to look for Lin Xi.
"Don't worry, we will definitely find her, and I will help you once my power is restored," Kafni reassured him, seeing Lin Da looking a bit downcast.
"But there's something I find strange, why are you so sure she's missing, rather than having been eaten by Magical Creatures or something?" Kafni changed the subject, "The space inside Mystic Realms isn't that big, right? If you search diligently, you should always find some clues."
Lin Da shook his head: "It's like that for combat-type Mystic Realms, where the space isn't large and the layout is simple; you mainly encounter Magical Creatures. But story-type Mystic Realms are different."
In the game "Mystic Continent," some instances have players going straight to battle. Others set several tasks across a vast map, letting players explore and fight monsters until they encounter the final boss.
Story-type Mystic Realms belong to the latter.
Kafni, confused, said, "Combat-type, story-type, what do these mean?"
"That's what we locals call them."
Lin Da explained: "Around here, there are generally three types of Mystic Realms. The first type is the one you just mentioned, the most common combat-type."
"Combat-type Mystic Realms are similar to playing an instance in a game, killing minor creeps, finding the Secret Realm Guardian, taking them down, and then you've cleared it. These kinds of Mystic Realms are generally not big; you could walk through them in a few hours."
"Oh, what about the second type?"
"The second type is story-type."
"Created by the World Tree Goddess, each world has a different background: science, wasteland, magic, etc... The space of these Mystic Realms is thousands to millions of times larger than the former, so looking for one person is like finding a needle in a haystack."
Lin Da put the pocket watch back in his inner pocket, took a deep breath, and gradually adjusted his mindset.
Now, he had long emerged from the despondency of Lin Xi's disappearance and was determined to reach the top of the World Tree one step at a time.
He indulged in his sentimentality for a moment and then recovered.
Making Kafni, the new team member, aware of the types of Mystic Realms was now the most important thing.
Kafni thought for a moment and said, "Story-type Mystic Realms sound a bit like Illusionary Training? What's the third type then?"
"The last one is Public Grand Mystic Realms."
This time, Lin Da's tone was a bit lighter.
"Public Grand Mystic Realms are what adventurers like the most. There are no mandatory missions, essentially a free-exploration open world. All adventurers who reach this level appear on the same map and can meet each other.
In the Great Mystery Continent, there are numerous elite monsters and wild bosses. Killing them can earn a wealth of rewards as well as abundant mineral resources, truly making it a beneficial Mystic Realm.
A Great Mystery Continent appears every five levels, and adventurers can enter once a month, but not at any other times."
Lin Da thought that this setup was different from the one in the game, where it could be refreshed once a week and unlimited times with money.
In the real version of the Mystic Continent, for the same tier of Great Mystery Continent, whether noble or commoner, everyone can only enter once a month.
Due to the strict limitations on the number of entries, adventurers aimed to climb higher to obtain more resources.
Lin Da held up a finger and said:
"Each Great Mystery Continent appears every five levels and also determines the naming convention for adventure teams:
Below 5th level, not even classed.
5th level, novice adventure team.
10th level, rock level adventure team.
15th level, Steel Level Adventure Group.
20th level, dawn adventure team.
25th level, radiant adventure team.
30th level, honor adventure team.
35th level, Legendary Adventure Group.
40th level, mythical adventure team.
No one has conquered levels beyond that."
After speaking so much, Lin Da felt much better.
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