WTYTIAAN Chapter 241

Yan Yunqing looked at the little red dot on the map coinciding with the yellow dot representing the Scarlet Smoke Squad and closed the mini-map.

It seemed that Captain Scarlet Smoke had taken his words to heart.

Clearly, the fellows who had been following them since they left the city today were after the Scarlet Smoke Squad, and the sudden monster attack might also be related to those guys.

However, these things had nothing to do with them.

The sound from the neighboring camp hadn’t stopped all night, rustling and bustling, making it hard to tell what they were doing.

The dark curtain slowly faded, revealing a hazy, fish-belly white sky. In the distance, a small whirlwind of sand was stirred up by the wind, and the contours gradually became clearer.

Yan Yunqing opened his eyes. He had spent the latter half of the night resting with his eyes closed. Several players were still full of energy and had even run out a few times. Yan Yunqing pretended not to know, letting them spy on the secrets of the neighboring squad.

After the quest NPC, the sugar daddy Arthur, was fully awake, they set off on the road to Erandik City.

They spent some time along the way and encountered a few monsters that weren’t too high-level, all of which were smoothly dealt with by [Ying Yi] and the others with good teamwork. During this time, Arthur remained calm. After all, there was a powerful figure in the team, and if anything unexpected happened, throwing the powerful figure out could solve ninety-nine percent of the problems.

The remaining one percent was if they encountered monsters of a higher level than the powerful figure.

But the probability of that was lower than the powerful figure abandoning them halfway and running away.

To Yan Yunqing’s surprise, he didn’t detect much probing from [Ying Yi] and the others along the way. The ones who chatted with him the most were still [Lonely Fire] and [Bin Storm], this pair of living treasures who could be described as comedy brothers. [Ying Yi] and [Woof Woof Squad] occasionally chimed in with a few words, without any intention of probing.

As for [Hell Cruiser], he was still as lifeless as ever, and it seemed like it would cost him his life to say an extra word, let alone chat.

Yan Yunqing was very curious. For players, this world was indeed a game, but did it also have settings for physical strength and perception? Would fighting monsters in the game also make you tired? Or was it simply mental exhaustion?

Otherwise, why did [Hell Cruiser] always look so exhausted and drained?

As they approached Erandik City, everyone except Arthur stopped because they simultaneously received a notification.

[Internal Beta 2.0 is over. The game will undergo a non-stop update. Internal Beta 3.0 is officially launched, adding 40,000 new players. We wish all Descenders a pleasant journey in “The Road Home” and may the stars guide your way.]

The newly added 40,000 players were online.

Yan Yunqing raised his head and looked at the boundless sky. The sky in this world hadn’t yet been polluted by exhaust gas emitted from various industrial machines. It was a patch of azure blue, like a spread-out sky-blue canvas, with fluffy, cotton-like clouds hanging lazily in the sky.

The sky was as usual, with nothing out of the ordinary.

But at the moment the game system popped up the notification, Yan Yunqing faintly heard a crisp sound, like the sound of glass breaking…

An illusion?

Yan Yunqing hesitated and lingered for a few more seconds. [Lonely Fire] noticed his confusion and also stopped to take a few glances in the direction he was looking.

“What’s wrong, Boss? Is there something wrong? Could it be that a flying monster is about to attack us?”

As soon as these words came out, the others drew their weapons, waiting in formation, ready to fight to the death with any monster that might pop out.

Yan Yunqing withdrew his gaze and shook his head, “No, it’s nothing.”

As he said that, he paused and mentioned as if unintentionally, “Did you guys drop something?”

“Something?”

The crowd looked at each other, obviously not understanding what Yan Yunqing was talking about.

Yan Yunqing said, “I seemed to vaguely hear the sound of glass breaking just now. I was wondering if you guys dropped something.”

“Ah, no?”

Everyone checked their personal belongings, especially Arthur, and didn’t find anything they had dropped, let alone something made of glass. They wouldn’t bring such things here in the first place.

“Glass breaking?” [Lonely Fire] was lost in thought, and suddenly realized something. He clenched a fist and struck the palm of his hand, “Ah, Fifth Personality activated?”

Yan Yunqing: …

Others: …

Arthur: ???

Yan Yunqing decided to ignore this fool’s remarks, “Forget it, maybe I was just hearing things.”

However, with the new players coming online, everyone’s attention was naturally focused on these 40,000 people, and Yan Yunqing openly slacked off to browse the forum.

“Eh?” [Bin Storm] exclaimed, “Captain, the forum…”

He swallowed the words he hadn’t finished saying, glanced in Arthur’s direction, and lowered his voice, “Captain, you can see the forum in the game.”

[Ying Yi]’s eyebrows twitched, and his fingertips gently flicked as he inconspicuously summoned the system panel.

Yan Yunqing’s hearing was good, and even though [Bin Storm] lowered his voice, he still heard it clearly and blinked his eyes.

Eh, were players unable to see the forum in the game before?

Was he able to see the forum purely because he was a privileged dog? No way?

But that would explain why the timeliness of some forum posts was so-so.

In the gap between the 2.0 and 3.0 major version updates, there was also a minor update, or rather an optimization, which was the game experience update that reduced the death respawn cooldown by half and allowed players to log in multiple times a day.

Yan Yunqing had originally thought that the function of viewing the forum in the game had already gone online with the minor update. After all, his game system had the forum function from the beginning, but now it seemed that this wasn’t the case.

Yan Yunqing lowered his eyes, studying the new functions that had appeared in his game system while listening to [Ying Yi]’s conversation.

His gaze swept across the translucent system panel and suddenly stopped on a newly appeared function.

[Record/Stream]

Yan Yunqing: ?

What the hell is this?

Yan Yunqing opened the game forum. As expected, the forum had begun to explode with posts because players could enter the forum in the game, and new [new] icons appeared on the homepage every time it was refreshed.

He refreshed it twice and spotted a post with a camera icon in front of it, marked with the status [Live].

Yan Yunqing clicked on the post. The post lagged for a few seconds and quickly jumped out. However, unlike normal text posts, this page was more like a video website, with a window playing the video and barrages constantly popping up on the side, while the normal replies were updated in real time below the video window.

This wasn’t the most surprising thing for Yan Yunqing. What surprised him the most was that the background of the video was clearly a military camp in the city of Kastella.

And Yan Yunqing was also familiar with the face of the poster. It was the game model of [Big A Bro], the game streamer he had met a few times before.

This was really the in-game streaming function?

Yan Yunqing was shocked, but what was the game doing by suddenly launching the streaming function?

Could it be that it really regarded itself as an ordinary game and was diligently promoting itself?

Yan Yunqing thought it was a bit outrageous and couldn’t figure out what use this streaming function had for him.

His player persona [Rian] was already taking the mysterious route, fooling and misleading others that he was an internal member of the game. No one knew that he was actually just a guy who simultaneously possessed an NPC panel and a player panel and had transmigrated into the game.

With this identity setting, running to stream would seem very idiotic.

And his other identities were even less suitable for streaming. Could it be that he was going to pull out his Joker identity and debunk the fakes on stream?

Oh, the reason for debunking the fakes was naturally because the Joker identity had been hyped up several times before the game officially started its internal beta, but players hadn’t seen Joker appear much since logging into the game. Now, many players were fabricating fake experiences of meeting Joker and posting them on the forum.

Yan Yunqing had seen it all, but he couldn’t expose that Joker was a player, so he naturally couldn’t go debunk the fakes.

So what was the significance of this streaming function?

Yan Yunqing couldn’t figure it out.

On the other hand, the expressions of [Ying Yi] and the others beside him weren’t very good, as if they had thought of something.

Most likely it was something related to this world that he didn’t know, but the officials had already noticed.

Yan Yunqing still wanted to hear if they would chat about anything, but this time they seemed to have learned to be smarter and didn’t say anything out loud. However, Yan Yunqing clearly saw them exchanging glances, as if they were communicating with their eyes.

How could they communicate with their eyes?

Yan Yunqing’s gaze fell on the chat panel and suddenly realized, so that’s how it was. There were official cheats as well!

With the chat panel, they could send messages even if they were thousands of miles apart, let alone face-to-face chatting like this.

Alas, if only he could peek at their chat logs.

So when would the officials come to him to reveal the truth? Were they still evaluating his level of friendliness?

As Yan Yunqing thought this, he suddenly sensed a strange gaze falling on him. At his level, he would be sensitive to the gazes of others, and the gaze falling on him now was clearly not from [Ying Yi]’s squad.

Yan Yunqing suddenly stopped and raised his eyes, his sharp gaze falling on a huge rock not far away. He drew his heavy sword and pointed it in that direction, “Who’s there?”

At the same time, he looked at the mini-map. Very good, besides his group appearing on the mini-map as green dots, there were no other figures.

Very good, another fellow with a built-in shielding effect.

This mini-map was too useless, failing to detect people again and again.

With Yan Yunqing’s voice, [Ying Yi] and the others stopped talking and turned towards the place where Yan Yunqing was pointing his sword. There was only a large rock there, standing quietly at the moment, without the slightest sign of anyone being there.

[Lonely Fire] swallowed, but remembering the boss’s exaggerated perception, he felt that there really was an unknown fellow behind the rock.

There was no response for a long time. Yan Yunqing frowned, just about to raise his head and throw the heavy sword in his hand to smash the big rock, his hand already raised, when suddenly a white translucent thing darted out.

“Don’t hit, don’t hit, I’ll come out, just put it down!” The little white thing scurried away, holding its head.

Yan Yunqing took a closer look. The white translucent thing was actually a male undead.

The hand holding the sword paused, loosening its strength, and he re-slung the heavy sword on his back, “Undead?”

The undead’s features were somewhat flat, and it was impossible to see its appearance clearly. It was also in a simple ghostly state, with a thin tail at the hem that curled up again and again, and its soul was in a translucent state.

This was a manifestation of extremely weak soul power, to the point where Yan Yunqing could almost crush it with one hand and send this undead gentleman to heaven.

Powerful undead would appear with the same appearance as they had in life, except for the translucent state of their souls. There wasn’t much difference from normal people.

[Lonely Fire] also curiously approached, “I’ve long heard that there are undead in this world, but this is the first time I’ve seen one. Isn’t this just like a ghost? How is it different from the legends? Didn’t they say undead are very strong?”

The knowledgeable Arthur explained to [Lonely Fire], “Not all undead are strong. Most undead are actually creatures who had some unfulfilled obsessions before death, and were bound by their obsessions, remaining in the world and becoming undead. Whether they are powerful or not mainly depends on the degree of their obsessions, as well as their strength before they died, and the number of living creatures they devour.”

Undead could obtain power by devouring living creatures.

“Oh…” [Lonely Fire] drew out the ending sound, not knowing if he understood.

“So this guy is so weak, is he a good one?”

The man trembled as he floated over, still holding his head in his hands, looking very timid, “Y-yes, I’m a good undead. I haven’t harmed living creatures.”

Yan Yunqing frowned. Although this undead was so weak that he could almost kill it with one hand, he still remained vigilant, “What were you in life? Why are you staying here? And why did you become an undead?”

Hearing this question, the man released his hands, raising his head in confusion, “Ah? I… I don’t know.”

Didn’t know?

Yan Yunqing revealed an obviously disbelieving look. Seeing this, the man trembled again, “I, I really don’t know. When I had memories, I was already in this form, wandering around here. Occasionally, I would lose my memory again, and wake up to continue running around here.”

He showed an embarrassed smile, and on that blurry face, the place that could vaguely be seen as a mouth cracked open, looking quite like a horror story come true.

The ultimate uncanny valley effect.

[Ying Yi] and the others all took a step back, almost drawing their weapons, and even Yan Yunqing felt his hair stand on end.

The man was startled and jumped more than a meter away with a “wow” sound, “What are you doing? I’m just an innocent undead, I didn’t do anything, are you going to kill me?”

[Bin Storm] wiped away some imaginary sweat and twitched the corner of his mouth, “Don’t smile, your smile makes my heart twitch.”

The man was wronged, “Wasn’t I trying to express friendliness?”

Yan Yunqing muttered in his heart: It’s better not to be friendly.

“What’s your name?”

The man was stunned, as if lost in thought. He kept holding his head in one posture. As time passed, just as everyone thought he had fallen asleep, the man suddenly jumped up excitedly, “Sean!”

[Bin Storm] was startled by him, and a swear word burst out, “Damn, scaring people can scare people to death, can’t you not be so jumpy?”

The man paused, “But I’m an undead?”

[Bin Storm] was even more speechless, “Undead are even more likely to scare people to death, you fellow.”

The man was wronged, “Oh, okay…”

[Woof Woof Squad] glanced at [Bin Storm] and smiled to smooth things over, “Did you remember something just now?”

The man nodded excitedly, “Yeah, I remembered, my name is Sean!”

[Lonely Fire] interjected, “Sean’s Redemption? Did you also shoot your wife and her lover?”

[Bin Storm] was speechless, “If I remember correctly, that was a misjudgment, right?”

[Lonely Fire]: “Ah, misjudgment? I only remember that he eventually broke out of prison. By the way, does this Sean have anything to do with Shaun the Sheep?”

“They’re not even the same species…”

Yan Yunqing: …It started again, the comedy duo.

Yan Yunqing shielded himself from these two guys who had started doing comedy again and asked Sean, who looked confused, “Then do you remember who you were in life, why you appeared here?”

Hearing this, Sean shook his head in confusion, “I don’t remember, I only remember that my name is Sean.”

Very good, he still didn’t know anything, and just knowing a name was completely useless.

Yan Yunqing looked at the quest that had suddenly appeared in his quest list.

[Sean’s Wish]

Description: You encountered a mysterious undead in the Eternal Ruins. He calls himself Sean, but knows nothing about himself. He doesn’t know where he came from, nor where he is going, and counts down the few remaining moments in this ruin that has been sealed by the years and filled with a decaying aura.

He has lost all his memories, only knowing that there is a strong wish in his heart that has yet to be fulfilled. Please help him fulfill his wish.

Quest Objectives:

1. Find Memory Clues: Perhaps you can find traces of what may exist in the ruins. Could that be the past that Sean once left behind?

2. Explore Sean’s Past: After you have collected enough clues, explore Sean’s past. Perhaps you will discover something from it?

3. Fulfill Sean’s Wish: Clarify Sean’s wish and help him fulfill it.

Quest Reward: [Unknown]…

Yan Yunqing looked at the quest that had been added to the quest list and looked at Sean, who didn’t know anything and looked at a loss, and was speechless.

This guy who didn’t remember anything and seemed so submissive, when did he say he wanted him to help him fulfill his wish? Did the game system have to force a connection so much when issuing quests?

He looked in the direction of [Ying Yi] and the others, and found that their expressions were normal, and they didn’t seem surprised to suddenly receive a quest. Obviously, this quest was only issued to him.

What? Was the game system picky about who it connected to?

Yan Yunqing twitched the corner of his mouth and focused on the quest reward. It didn’t even specify how much quest experience there was, and the two words “unknown” could completely summarize it. How could he not think that this was unreliable?

What if the final reward was something like [Sean’s Gratitude]? Wouldn’t he have been scammed?

Yan Yunqing decided to ignore this quest and focus on completing the escort quest with abundant experience first.

After chatting with Sean for a few words and finding that he really didn’t know anything, not even if he had been asked if anyone had been here before, everyone gave up on the idea of chatting with him.

On the other hand, [Lonely Fire] was a little eager to try. He felt that this suddenly appearing undead was very special, and looked like a special NPC with a hidden mission!

He circled around the undead, asking one question after another, making the undead Sean’s soul even more transparent.

Ordinary people really can’t handle chatterboxes, and neither can undead.

On the other hand, [Ying Yi], as a reliable captain, was confirming the route to Erandik City with Arthur.

Arthur took out the map, fiddled with the references and compared them, and said hesitantly, “Well… it should be almost here, the map shows that it’s nearby.”

Hearing this hesitant tone, [Ying Yi] rarely showed a bit of suspicion, and always felt that Arthur was very unreliable.

And Sean, who was avoiding [Lonely Fire]’s questioning, dashed to the two people’s side and happened to hear their conversation, and said “Eh”.

The two people’s gazes fell on Sean, only to see that Sean seemed to fall into thought again, but this time it wasn’t as long as when he was recalling his name, but reacted in a few breaths, “Erandik City? Erandik… Erandik… Eh, this name seems a little familiar!”

Yan Yunqing, who originally wanted to give up on this quest, stopped his actions and prepared to listen to what this unreliable undead had to say.

Sean excitedly ran back and forth beside the two, “Erandik City, are you going to that city covered with white mud everywhere? I know where it is! I’ve lost my memory a few times and woke up near there.”

As he said that, he hugged his arms and shuddered, “But that city is very strange, with white people everywhere, are you really going?”

White people?

This key word attracted the attention of everyone present, especially Arthur, Erandik City was originally his destination this time, and he asked with great interest: “White people, what do you mean? Are you saying that there are still humans living in Erandik City now? What do they usually live on? I remember that this ruin has already been desertified, right?”

More than two thousand years ago, at the beginning of the establishment of the Eternal Empire, this area was not a desert, but a very rich land. Otherwise, the Demon King would not have chosen to establish the empire here. On the contrary, the areas where the two major empires are located today were extremely barren areas at the time.

It’s just that time has passed, and the world has changed. After more than two thousand years, this once rich land has become a desert and a Gobi Desert, barren to the point that this land can no longer grow any food crops. Arthur can’t think of what people living here should rely on to fill their stomachs.

You can’t rely on hunting, right? The problem is that there are no prey to hunt here! Besides monsters, this ruin is just monsters.

Hearing this, Sean shook his head repeatedly, shaking his head like a rattle, Yan Yunqing even suspected that Sean’s amplitude was a little bigger, and his head would be thrown off, and then a horror movie “Have You Seen My Head?” would be staged.

“No no no—” Sean said, “There are no living people in that city, you misunderstood, the white people I’m talking about are… are…”

Sean stammered for a long time, but couldn’t find a good adjective. Losing his memory was the downside of it. No matter how high his cultural level was before his death, it was difficult for him to say one, two, three.

Of course, it is also possible that this Sean was an illiterate guy before his death.

Sean thought for a while, and finally said: “That is a group of people covered in white mud, you will know when you go to see them, but it is really dangerous there, are you sure you want to go?”

“Danger?” [Ying Yi], who had been silent, repeated the word danger, “What kind of danger, are there very powerful monsters inside?”

“Eh? Monster?” Sean began to think again, he held his head in his hands and floated around in the air, “I don’t know, I only know it’s dangerous over there… dangerous… eh, why is it dangerous? But there are clearly no monsters…”

Yan Yunqing understood.

No need to guess, this undead should be related to Erandik City, maybe he died in Erandik City.

It’s just that the identity of this undead is still to be discussed. This Erandik City is already in the inner circle area of ​​the Eternal Ruins. Basically, there are no too weak people who can go deep here.

The occupations are basically limited to a small range: mercenaries, bounty hunters, adventurers.

However, this undead showed an extraordinary weakness…

Perhaps there is another possibility.