yournovel Chapter 76 The Can't Afford a Hami Melon
Chapter 76 The Can't Afford a Hami Melon
Chapter 76 The Can't Afford a Hami Melon
The pavilion, about the height of a person, has walls made of transparent glass and a metal frame.
The pavilion's colors are mottled, revealing the rusted metal underneath.
A suspended microphone is faintly visible, its black spiral hanging loosely.
The standard style that could be seen everywhere on the streets around the turn of the millennium.
Nan'an held the painting and examined it carefully, while Grave continued to add to it from the side.
"Its ringtone sounded like someone was frantically shaking a copper bell next to their ear. Almost every Fogbreaker felt the urge to answer it. Before that, no one knew or understood what it was, but the idea of 'answering' naturally came to mind, as if it could be equated with a communication statue."
Has anyone tried it?
"That's too amateurish. The ringtone only arouses impulses, but it's far from reaching the level of hallucination, hypnosis, or mind control. Taking a detour can avoid the interference."
When encountering less aggressive gods or demons, ignoring them without interfering with the mission or exploration objectives is indeed the most reasonable approach.
"Is there a symbol on the dot of this electrical circuit—uh, on the machine?"
Grave stared at Nan'an in surprise, his tone revealing an incredulity.
"Yes, it is. Due to the distance, no one can see it clearly, so it was left blank during the drawing—how did you know that?"
Nan'an quickly laughed it off, saying it was just a natural thought that arose from seeing the small dots arranged evenly and neatly.
The exploration of the Sickle River has reached a bottleneck.
Upon their initial entry, they quickly advanced to the outskirts of Gransol Fortress, making rapid progress. Everyone began preparing for what would happen once they entered the fortress.
However, after more than half a month, their exploration into the black fog was repeatedly thwarted, and they never saw the outline of the fortress again.
The progress of the strategy is not advancing but regressing, and the number of gods, demons and spirits encountered is gradually increasing.
Grave issued an order to suspend the exploration and organized the Fog Breakers to summarize their recent encounters.
"Can't I explore it either?"
"The Radiant Owl has no control over the Deer of Evil," Grave reminded him. "However, you might need to keep an eye on the Mind Erosion Legion."
"Legion?" Nan'an repeated in surprise.
"There were multiple eyewitness reports, with the total number of people estimated to be in the thousands, wandering aimlessly in areas with open terrain."
A dozen or so Spirit Corruptions would be a challenging dungeon for an ordinary Mistbreaker team.
With nearly a hundred spirits eroded, most fog-breaker squads would choose the best strategy: escape.
With numbers reaching the thousand-strong level, the magic's destructive range could no longer effectively cover the area, and any survivors could bring annihilation to the Fogbreaker squad.
They are not slow-moving zombies, but a group of beings with divine and demonic abilities who maintain physical activity and follow their hunting instincts.
Its presence only in open areas means that any direct attack will be a dry, unprotected attack.
Grave's owl squad managed to escape by the cost of one seriously injured and three slightly wounded.
Within the Spirit Erosion Legion, there exists an individual capable of teleporting together with their companions.
"Compared to living erosion, spiritual erosion annihilates the soul, leaving the body as nothing more than an empty vessel. It can be squandered at will without being affected by side effects. Therefore, some divine and demonic powers that are limited by flesh and blood are actually more threatening when used by the dead."
Grave rubbed his temples and sighed, a brief sense of helplessness filling his chest at the sight of his companion.
On the way to the entrance, Suiyue asked, "Shouldn't we wait until the new device is finished forging?"
Nan'an shook his head.
The device was still commissioned to Nilar's acquaintance, that reliable Black Fang craftsman, forging it in at least four days.
He decided to make a short round trip through the black fog first.
Similar to the previous two experiences, the moment I was enveloped in the black fog, a feeling of weightlessness and falling followed immediately.
As the white light that filled our vision dissipated—
Another church?
The benches were neatly arranged, and a hazy light shone through the stained glass windows. The scene and the style of decoration were very similar to before.
The solid sensation beneath my feet came instantly—
"Thump!"
With each dull thud, the ground beneath his feet would tremble, causing his body to shake.
Suiyue's lips twitched.
"Could it be... we're on a mobile church?"
Nan'an acknowledged her keen observation and released a swarm of flies.
In the last battle, he left behind a pile of eroded remains in the church. Assuming the scene of entering the black mist this time has not been reset, the fly mist, which is sensitive to the corpses carrying fragments of gods and demons, should react.
After hovering quietly for a while, the swarm of flies became as calm as still water.
Nan'an pushed open the heavy doors of the church, which faced the garden, where there was no living creature.
Suiyue stood in the garden holding the Yin-Yang glass bead, while Nan'an returned to the church.
As the surrounding light was gradually obscured by Suiyue's fingers, the viscous and deep light outlined the contours of her body.
With a "whoosh," she appeared beside Nan'an.
Practice has proven that the glass beads' transmission capabilities remain intact even in black fog.
"If we bury glass beads, wouldn't that mean we can quickly return to a safe area without any worries if we encounter any danger?"
Nan'an helplessly rubbed Suiyue's large horns, hoping to increase her wisdom through this method.
"Little Suiyue, if a god, demon, or Eclipse took the bead, guess what kind of weird place we might be teleported to?"
Suiyue quickly scratched her cheek to cover up her embarrassment.
The fly mist led the way, guiding the two through a corner under the church corridor.
Nan An suddenly stopped, causing Sui Yue, who was stuffing small nuts into her mouth, to stumble.
She looked up and met the lifeless, cloudy eyes of the skinned buffalo, as if they were made of frosted glass.
The cowhide was placed not far away, taking up most of the corridor, which is a typical example of encroaching on the road for business.
However, it was clear that no nun would come to drive him away from this church.
The Fly Mist's perception of the fragments of gods and demons requires the addition of the keyword "corpse" to be effectively activated.
The living gods and demons showed no reaction, only frantically tumbling and buzzing in the air when they were almost face-to-face with each other.
In his haste and panic, he lunged forward and pounced on Nan'an.
"Zero Wisdom God and Demon —"
Nan An silently complained to himself as he slowly walked forward.
"This is our second meeting. What can we trade this time?"
"It depends on what price you are willing to pay."
The exact same response.
In fact, Nan'an is more interested in whether the gods and demons here have any memories.
Nan'an's experience was quite different from Nora's experience with the fogbreaker. Both of his black fog expeditions landed at the moving church, which did not seem like a random occurrence.
"You said before that knowledge can be traded?"
"Rare and unknown, therefore expensive."
The answers remained mechanical, still avoiding any mention of "memory verification".
"How should I acquire trading knowledge?" Nan'an looked directly into those cloudy eyes. "Just explain it to me verbally?"
The eyes of the skinned buffalo gleamed with a crystalline white light, and the buffalo hide stretched out on the ground.
The originally rough and thick leather surface now rippled, like the surface of water rippled by the wind.
A quill pen, soaked in ink, "overflowed" from the ink and floated down into Nan'an's palm.
"Write it down."
"If the deal falls through, aren't you just getting my knowledge for free?"
"Actions will be weighed."
Since it was a test, Nan'an no longer hesitated and sketched out that the continent of Nora did not exist. As far as he knew, no continent that had trade relations with Nora had ever had a record of growing Hami melons.
It has an oval shape, a rough, net-like skin, and orange-yellow flesh inside when cut open, with a bunch of wet seeds in the middle.
He has a certain level of drawing skills, and with just a few strokes, he sketched out the basic appearance, and even drew a cross-sectional view.
Then, in the blank space of the drawing, he supplemented the basic knowledge of cantaloupes in Nora Common.
Since rare and unknown information is equivalent to skinned buffalo, and it is associated with "valuable" in the eyes of gods and demons.
So, what methods should they use to evaluate and weigh knowledge from another world?
And also—what is their trading system based on?
The skinned buffalo, which had been kneeling on all fours, slowly stood up.
Its movements were slow and stiff, as if it hadn't exercised in a long time, with every joint silently protesting.
Staring at the oval-shaped fruit that Nan'an had casually sketched, a fruit that had never existed in this world before.
The bull's head tilted slightly, then slowly straightened, its eyes revealing a complex expression.
In the spacious corridor, it paced back and forth hesitantly, its hooves pounding the ground rapidly and erratically.
Like someone lost in deep thought but unable to find a way out, they can only unconsciously spin around in place.
"Have you seen enough? I should state my request now." Nanan toyed with the quill in his hand. "Tell me how to get into Gransor Fortress here."
The skinned buffalo remained motionless with its head tilted to one side, for so long that one might have suspected it had already passed away.
"The price—cannot be paid."
Nan'an pressed further: "Was the knowledge I provided not valuable enough?"
The skinned buffalo lowered its head honestly: "It is indeed unknown—I cannot assess it."
The ink from the quill seemed inexhaustible. When Nan'an lifted it up and forcefully splashed it onto the leather scroll, it gushed forth like a spring, instantly staining the surface of the scroll black.
Nan'an was very dissatisfied with the waste of skinning the water buffalo and went all out.
"Can't afford it but still asks prices, no ability but pretends to be a god or demon and sets up a street stall? A master of getting knowledge for free, huh?"
Why don't you put it in the pot as hot pot broth?
Despite his anger, Nan'an at least confirmed one thing.
This buffalo seems to actually be able to retrieve existing knowledge about the world.
Otherwise, how could they have confirmed so quickly that cantaloupe is not a fruit from Nora's world?
The skinned buffalo lowered its head even further, as if it were gnawing on the floor tiles.
He spoke stiffly, "Your knowledge has value, but I simply lack the ability to satisfy it."
"Name your price!" Nan An said irritably. "You have to give me something, or I'll take action."
The skinned buffalo was silent for a moment, then warned, "There is a special—strange—being watching you, and it is approaching."
He paused, then continued.
"The church is approaching, it's now running away in the direction I'm pointing, there's a way to hide."
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