“The hero summoning can be performed? What a wondrous occasion!”

“It hasn’t been performed in many generations.”

“We might really be free of the demon lords and take back our lost lands!”

The people cheered while Zhang Dong on the other hand was to the side listening. It sounded like the people here would be performing some kind of ‘Hero Summoning’. If he went by the knowledge from his more nerdy days he kind of knew what this would bring.

‘Will they really summon people from outside? Could they be from my original world?’

He was the only one here that really understood from where these ‘heroes’ were coming from. Just like him before they might be clicking on a strange email and getting transported. There could be other ways of them being transported here but one thing was clear.

‘If they can summon people into this castle then one of the cubes must be close by… probably right under it…’

With this reveal came the good news. With a fully functional nucleus, he might be able to boost his chances of getting home. There were a few problems with this though.

‘I don’t think this king will just let me dig under his castle, the cube might even be in the summoning chamber directly.’

Zhang Dong was just a summoned spirit, he couldn’t just take the castle apart to find the item that he needed. The king was stronger than him in his current form, getting the girls to aid him against their own monarch would probably not be possible. There was also another problem with his plan, mainly these new heroes.

What would happen if he took the thing that brought them here with him. After absorbing it, the cube would lose all of its teleporting capabilities. The people being brought over here would be stuck here forever.

‘But is there even a way back home? I’ll have to observe and decide later…’

There was a possibility of just swiping the cube and running for it. That wasn’t really his style though, his morals kept him from betraying Beatrice and the people that he was helping here.

“We will be performing the summoning ritual soon, please everyone gather in the hall outside!”

The person that looked like a high-class Buttler proclaimed while the nobles shuffled outside. Apparently, the ritual wouldn’t be taking place in any chamber but somewhere out of the castle.

When everyone stepped outside they could see a cleared-out space. It was clear that there was something like a large garden or a hedge maze here before but it had been cleared out.

Instead, there were five large pillars that were connected by a magic circle. Inside of it was a large podium that was surrounded by a pentagram. After reading all of the books he was sure that this was akin to a teleportation formation. He even tried to recall the one that he saw back in his own world, the one under the spot that he appeared in.

‘It is similar...the cube might be below this area or somewhere in the general vicinity.’

He wasn’t sure about the range these teleportation spots had. In his world, it was directly under the open field he appeared in but it was buried several kilometers below ground. If he didn’t have his system map he would have never found it in the first place.

‘The range is still too small…’

When the people were gathering he started to move around with his map out. There were no dark spots on it even when he was standing outside with the others. There was nothing more that he wanted to do but dig underground but he had to wait till this ceremony was over. First, he needed to see this so-called summoning ritual being performed.

‘Bob, record everything that will be happening. Maybe if you get more data on this teleportation circle we can use it to get me home faster.’

The problem of getting home was the route. Only after escaping this world would he be able to triangulate the world where his wife and kids were. But now when this grand summoning ritual was taking place there was a chance of getting more data. He might be even able to tell where these ‘heroes’ were summoned from.

“Isn’t it great Mr. Leigong, I would have never dreamed about being able to witness a hero summoning.”

Beatrice said while standing to the left of Zhang Dong.

“This is truly a joyous occasion.”

Isabella commented while she was on the right along with some other nobles from her friend circle. There was a lot of space here so everyone could look at this ritual.

“Hm, is it?”

He replied while rubbing his chin. From his perspective being summoned to another world was a traumatic experience. Now if he was dropped off here with many strange noblemen and noble ladies looking at him he would be even more traumatized.

There were guards and wizards all over the place. It looked like they were expecting a demonic being to appear there and not a hero. What would happen to the people that were forcibly brought over here?

It looked like this king wouldn’t take a no for an answer. The heroes would probably start out fairly weak which would not help Zhang Dong with his situation. There was also a possibility that they would come with some kind of cheats included. This could hasten the process of them heading to the demon continent and getting the DemonKing.

“Is there something wrong Mr. Leigong, you look troubled?”

Beatrice turned to Zhang Dong, the white-haired man was intently looking at the summoning circle while everything was being prepared. Apparently thanks to the stars aligning in the right way this very moment it would be possible to summon these people. He himself knew that this was probably a lie and somewhere a cube was going to power this teleportation function.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

It was finally time to start the ceremony. Many mages in blue robes gathered around this summoning circle and there was a large number of mana stones gathered as well. These stones were similar to spirit stones but Zhang Dong wasn’t able to absorb their energy as he could with the ones from his own world.

The king was just looking at everything from afar without even coming out from the castle. He was up on a large balcony and just sitting on a large chair. There were other people with him with various hair colors. It was clear that this guy had multiple spouses and children, Zhang Dong could spot at least 10 youths of various ages along with four women there. The king couldn’t hold a candle to Zhang Jin but probably for this type of world, he was in that ballpark.

Soon the chanting commenced, the magical circle lit up in deep blue and started shining. The sun had already set so it was quite the mythical show. Tiny blue lights danced around while forming the spell formation.

‘World rift detected.’

Bob sounded the alarm while Zhang Dong looked up to the sky. The clouds were opening up as rays of blue light descended to this magic pentagram. With his enhanced vision he could see something in that hole in the sky. The image was flickering about but he could somewhat see into that world.

‘Are those cars? … what country is that… ‘

It was clearly a similar world that he came from, if it was the same was unknown. He couldn’t make out too much as the portal was opening from above the clouds so he could only see skyscrapers and cars that looked like small ants.

‘I think I have seen that tower somewhere, wait… could it be?’

“Now everyone, the stars will align, pour all of your mana into the summoning circle!”

The main court mage shouted out while everyone focused. The magical pentagram started shining brightly and a column of light shot up into the sky above. It was really bright and even caused some of the nobles to avert their eyes. Zhang Dong on the other hand was staring at the whole display with much interest.

‘Bob, try to find the nuclei, it will probably give off some kind of energy signal when this summoning spell is activated… Also, what are my probabilities of survival if I jump through that hole in the sky right now?’

‘Calculating… data inconclusive…’

‘I figured…’

He could try jumping through this gate to another world but if he would be able to go through it was another thing. Then if he ended up in that world would he even be able to survive? What if it was his old mundane world and he would lose access to his system altogether? Then returning to his new home would be impossible.

In the end, he decided against diving into the large hole in the sky. It was more probable to gather to just gather more cube energy here and draw up a teleportation circle himself.

Soon more and more light burst through the sky and covered the entire area in warm light. Zhang Dong could feel someone slipping through the opening and being transported to this place.

‘One… two… four people?’

Even before the light stopped shining he could tell that there was more than one person present. The light began to fade and the opening in the clouds vanished from this world entirely.

‘Bob, did you get it?’

‘Affirmative, the location is 12….’

His trusty AI started listing him the geographical location of where the signal originated from. To his dismay, it wasn’t directly under this summoning circle but a bit to the side, which would put it directly under the castle. It was also quite far beneath the ground, further than the one that he spotted in his own world.

‘Damn, that puts me out of range of Beatrice and Isabella…’

If he ever wanted to go down there he would need to at least take Beatrice with him. How to explain the plan of digging down beneath the castle was something that he would need to come up with.

“It’s the heroes!”

“It really worked, the legendary heroes have arrived!”

Some of the younger nobles cheered while looking at the platform where the people were summoned to. Everything was quite loud and the youths out on the platform looked quite confused.

“Koko wa doko?”

“Hm?”

Zhang Dong listened to one of the summoned heroes speak up in a different language. This was a language that he was familiar with due to watching certain animated movies back in his old shut-in days.

What he saw was a group of dark-haired Asians. There was one youth of about fifteen or sixteen years of age and around him were three young girls. The group of girls varied in age, size, and demeanor.

There was the young sister type with twin tail hairs. There was the busty older sister with quite the chest. Then to end it there was the one in the middle that more or less was a combination of the two. The young man on the other hand looked quite average, he wasn’t that tall or muscular, just normal in all sense of it.

“Is… Is that a harem protagonist?”