Thank you to Enze for proofreading!

Just a small chapter spanning about 3 pages. But hey, I include a side story.

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After the complete massacre that deserved an aggressive mode of mosaic and censorship, I moved out and collected the loots. I took every usable weapon and armor that I can and stuffed it into my inventory bag.

As for the mermen’s bodies, I left them for now and I’ll skin them all later when we finished the quest. It won’t be long. That is why, wait here my most precious soon-to-be-looted dead bodies. It won’t be long, I promise you.

I can already see the ending!

Joke aside; it seems I’ve unlocked quite an amount of my inventory bag slots. From 100 initial slots at the first time I logged in, I now have 153 usable slots. Nice, I can fit a lot more loots than before. From the mermen here alone, I already filled over 100 slots of my inventory with weapons and whatnot.

When I first heard about ‘virtual reality that is identical to the real reality’, I thought it applied to everything, and when I said everything, I mean EVERYTHING! The very thought of having to hold the burden on my back with a big stuffy bag had already discourage me. But it looks like I was wrong, and for the first time ever I’m glad that I’m wrong.

No Hair gave the signal and we went on our way back into the village. Looks like we were using the shortcut again and we’re going to pass through the Mangdora Creeps, but this time, I was not worried. In fact, I was hoping that something would happen. But putting that thing aside, I still activated my invisibility when we reach the place where the Mangdora Creep was sighted. No matter what the situation is, never let your guard down. Not long after, we reached the location where the Mangdora Creeps were.

“Eh? Is this not the same place where the Mangdora Creeps were?” Subconsciously I blurted my question that I intended to ask myself out loud.

“It is,” Eden replied. He fall on one of his knees and swiped the dirt with his index finger. I don’t know what that was even for. “They left.” Eden continued.

Well, thank you Mister Obvious. I can see that very clearly.

“I got a bad feeling from this.” Eden added, he got back up and stare straight at No Hair eyes. Painted on both of their expression was no other but a grim look.

“The village!” They said in unison.

No need for words, or at least that was what I thought. We ran using all of our might towards the village.

“I knew it….” Eden broke the silence while running. “The Mangdora Creeps, the sudden change in Mermen military system…”

Okay… I’m sorry but I think I lost you there Eden. I knew that I’ve been doing the quest since I was at the Beginner Town but honestly speaking, I don’t even know what nonsense that Eden was spouting about.

You have been speaking in fragments Eden!

Is this nonsense supposed to be the > like every game does? Or just another spice for the quest to make it interesting? Sorry dude but I always skip things like this…

“What is it Eden?” No Hair asked, needlessly to say, he was still running. I know it pointless to say this but, how the hell can one talking while running and not even panting? I’m not even saying anything but I already gave out a hard breath, as if I have a dumpling chocked in my throat.

“The Gospel…”

What?

“The Gospel, you say?”

“Remember the incident a few years ago when pirates came attacking the island?”

“Yeah, I still remember the day as if it had just happened yesterday!” No Hair shouts out.

“At that time, we were fighting the pirate, and chaos had befallen inside the ship… Do you still remember that Captain?”

“I don’t remember which chaos; there were always chaos when we found a pirate ship.” No Hair added.

“The pirates were fighting for the treasure chest… Inside the treasure chest, there was a bottle of potion, and inside the potion there was a > of Asgard. While we were busy fighting I noticed how the pirates tried desperately to hide the treasure chest. In the mid of confusion, I charged at them and the chest that was on their hold was accidentally thrown outside the ship and fell into the sea.”

“How do you know all these things?” No Hair stopped his step and looked deeply into Eden eyes.

“…Err, because I was there.” Eden replied short.

“O-o-ok-ay… So.. wha-what, does it has to do with the ….” I need water… “Mermen military?” I asked, almost running out of breath.

“If my deduction is right, the potion had mixed into the sea water and somehow polluted it. The mermen who had been breathing the sea water for all these year somehow got a lot more intelligent, and they might’ve found the Gospel that was hidden inside the bottle. They read it, and gained even more experience and knowledge from it. As time pass by, they managed to decipher the >.”

The lost teaching? Like what, how to read Alphabets?

“…and that is where the Mangdora Creep came from… am I right?”

“I’m afraid you are Captain… the existence of the creep has something to do with the mermen, but I can’t say for sure when and how is it connected to the mermen.”

“…following the flow of event, the probability of the creeps being summon are bright.”

Yeah, as bright as your bald head under the sunshine!

“But my deduction is correct. I also had the doubt that the gospel is some kind of method or Plant Synthesizing.” Eden added.

Oh my god! Everyone is a 'Sherlock Holmes' here!

At the end of the journey or should I say, marathon… I was left 50 meters behind when we reached the village. Those 2 AI’s stamina is monstrous! I wonder if it has anything to do with our level of differences.