"Huh...huh...did you find anything?"
"No, what about you?"
"Xi Ye is still in there and hasn't come out yet. He should still be looking...but Liu Shui Xuan Qing found another exit."
Here is the exit of a cave leaning against the mountain path. A man who has just walked out of the cave is breathing heavily and talking quietly with another man waiting there. The terrain of the mountain road here is flat, the slope is not high, and there are no cliffs on both sides. But judging from the environment here, it should be a place with a higher altitude. The surrounding snow and the cold air are enough to make anyone passing by this place feel less lazy than walking on a flat road.
What's more, the snow here also reminds others that no one has been here for a long time.
It is only a matter of time for a game world that players appear in places that few people visit, because players have unparalleled advantages in the real world, allowing them to relentlessly explore every corner of the world. As long as you have enough curiosity and patience, even on high mountains and at the bottom of the sea, it is only a matter of time before all the secrets are revealed. The trails in the mountain streams and a cave that no one has ever discovered are only available to players. It’s just a trivial past incident in exploring the secrets of the free world.
However, the two players here do not seem to intend to do so, or... are not capable of doing so.
"The news has been spreading for so long, why are there still no people coming?"
"Do you think every player is like us and has the strength to come to this place? Besides, I don't think this move is very reliable..."
"If it's not reliable, let them go, we will follow behind, and we will take action at the critical moment. If it doesn't work, we can still strike first."
"That's what I say..." The man who came out of the cave before huffed and sat on the big rock at the entrance of the cave, and then took off his hat for keeping warm: "But I always feel that something might happen like this. And Brother Tie is also opposed to this matter..."
"He just has that temper, don't worry about him." The tall and thin man walked to the big rock, stretched his neck and looked down the mountain road covered by snow: "Look, he's still here, we just need to continue searching. There will definitely be a discovery..."
"What if another group of people comes? Should we send them back like last time?"
"It depends on the situation... Isn't this our purpose? This cave is too big, just the few of us are too slow, and the guild's station is also so far away. The game is about to start again. If After searching for a long time, I still found nothing. In the end, I missed the registration, which would not be fun..."
"Alas..." The man sitting on the stone sighed: "I sign up for the competition every year, and I am beaten to disgrace every year. The president has persisted for so many years..."
"So we need to make a breakthrough elsewhere!" the tall and thin man said after hearing the sound, and at the same time looked towards the entrance of the cave: "If there are really any ruins here... you should know about the City of Freedom Those recent discoveries, right? There are so many good things in those ruins. The ruins we found on Falling Star Mountain cannot be any worse, right?"
"Come on, just those few small stones..." The man sitting on the stone slapped his thigh: "I don't believe it myself! What's more, Falling Star Mountain has been explored so many times, even if there are The things should have been taken away by others long ago, right?"
"No, we haven't found any recent traces in the past few days. It seems that no one has been here, and the early group of people were so poorly equipped, how could they find such a deep place... ..”
"So that's why you're so confident?"
The man stared at the tall and thin man's face, and the latter looked away and shrugged to himself: "I have no choice, I want to find something to gain, I want to save time, and I don't want to be discovered by others... You have to give up something."
"This is why Brother Tie doesn't want to do this."
"It's okay, he doesn't want to do it, let's do it for him." The tall and thin man patted his shoulder: "There is really no other way. Let's finally explore in the direction where Liu Shui Xuan Qing found it, and then... go back."
"Then what if someone comes before?"
"What else can we do? Just stick to the previous method."
"Brother Ye Lin, I'm not telling you..." The man stood up from the boulder and pushed the other person's hand away at the same time: "There is no future in thinking about these little tricks."
"Hey, what about the people we cleared back before..."
"That's because we have a good location. If a few masters really come... Huh." The man turned around and walked into the cave again: "It's not certain who will be cleared back. "
"As a member of the Dawn Glory Guild and an experienced player in several League Cups, I have never been afraid of others!" The player known as Night Scale chuckled, then straightened his equipment, and then walked into the unknown room. in the famous cave.
"Come one and kill one, come two and kill a pair!"
****************
"Are you sure you're going this way?"
"......Yes."
"It's really difficult to communicate with a little girl like you, and it's hard on you..." After receiving the usual indifferent answer, Nan Tieshan looked at Duan Qing next to him, who pretended not to know. He whistled and looked at the mountain wall, as if he didn't know anything.
"Forget it, since you are so sure, let's continue walking on the main road." Nan Tieshan glanced at the woman in the black cloak with some uncertainty, then shook his head and continued walking along the hillside: "It is said that this road is used by everyone. It’s a road that every climber can walk, but as more people walk it, it becomes as flat as it is now.”
"I really don't believe that we can really find any Nosier people by walking this way."
Xue Ling Huan Bing did not answer, but followed behind. However, Duan Qing, who had just pretended to be ignorant, asked a question first: "Um...brother, don't we look for the ruins first?" ?”
"Looking for it, of course. But..." Nan Tieshan threw a stone in his hand and scratched the back of his head with some distress: "Those people said, where are the ruins? This stone was found. ', how do I know where..."
"This stone is indeed different from the surrounding stones." Duan Qing looked at the appearance of the stone, and then looked around: "Well...brother, can I take a look at this stone?" ?”
"What, are you afraid that I will deceive you? Take it."
With the still bright sunshine, Duan Qing carefully observed the stone in his hand that was said to be a "clue to the ruins".
Gray in color and irregular in shape, at first glance, this stone looks like an ordinary stone, no different from the usual stones on the roadside. The rough surface is covered with pits and cracks, and there are also cracks in the middle. There are some small grains of sand. Judging from the edge of the stone, this stone seems to be a piece of gravel, the product of the fragmentation of a large stone.
"This stone... should be a man-made product." After looking back and forth, Duan Qing gestured to Xueling Huanbing. After the other party shook his head, he threw it back to the black-armored man: " It looks like it was knocked off something artificial.”
"Hey, if it weren't for this, I wouldn't have bought this stone from him!" Nan Tieshan laughed twice, and then suddenly realized something: "Eh? I'm not being blackmailed, am I?"
"Uh... Although it may have been taken casually, this stone should have been picked up from the mountain." Seeing the other party's ugly expression with some doubts, Duan Qing hurriedly explained: "Look at that The marks in the stone...here, and here, and those holes in it."
"This means the stone was once frozen, or...was frozen."
"In other words... this stone was taken from a high mountain?" Nan Tieshan held the stone in one hand and looked up at the mountain: "Well..."
"But what if it's not something on Falling Star Mountain..."
"It's not that far away, right? The only place with snow-covered mountains nearby is the Andacier Mountains."
"...That makes sense." Nan Tieshan thought for a long time, and finally nodded: "Even if it's not on Falling Star Mountain, it shouldn't be far... Ha, I didn't expect that you kid actually has some sense. , Uncle, I believe you, yes, yes!"
He laughed again, and then suppressed his smile: "But in this case, the Ruoshizi ruins will be too troublesome... Let's prioritize the Nosir tribe."
The three people walked forward again. Among them, Nan Tieshan raised his hand. After thinking about it, he still reluctantly took the stone into his arms - it cost money, even if he found it in the end. No, it’s okay to keep it as a thought, and you can also take it back to brag about...
Well, what am I thinking about? The mission is more important.
The Andachel Mountains are a very long mountain range. According to past players' descriptions, this mountain range from east to west spans the middle of the Free Continent, dividing most of the Free Continent in half, and also became the empire. Natural boundary with the principality. Falling Star Mountain is just one of the mountains, so in order to climb this mountain, everyone must first enter the vast mountain range.
But precisely because of this, the mountains here are still very gentle.
The slowly rising mountain road, the gradually sparse vegetation, the surrounding scenery, and even the color are gradually changing, from green to yellow-green, and then to a complete earthy yellow. Boulders continue to appear on both sides of the road, with some broken branches and broken roads in between, as well as steep slopes and cliffs. If you stand on the edge of the cliff and look down, you will see only bottomless mountain streams and There are some pieces of clothing attached to the surroundings, and I don’t know who has accidentally fallen from here in the past.
Of course, from Duan Qing's perspective, only people with poor IQ would fall off such a cliff.
On the road leading up the mountain, some monsters will occasionally appear. Some of them are monkey-like creatures, but they are much larger than real monkeys, and their legs are upright. Whenever Duan Qing looks at the creatures hidden behind the boulders, they will be caught in his eyes. Frightened, he retracted his head with a whoosh and screamed in surprise. After that, Duan Qing and the three of them were ready to fight, because it didn't take long for a huge monkey with a big wooden stick to lead its little brothers who had been frightened before to seek revenge on the three of them. I'm in trouble.
Of course, they were all beaten back in the end.
When you first enter Falling Star Mountain, these creatures seem to be the most troublesome. Others include mountain leopards that jump nimbly among the boulders, rock snakes that occasionally emerge from the cracks in the rocks, and giant birds flying down from the sky. wait. Nan Tieshan couldn't even name these monsters, so he stopped caring about them after killing them. Duan Qing, who had been hiding behind and acting as his younger brother, was a little curious about these creatures, and he thought that the Snow Spirit Huan Bing next to him I definitely know their names, but unfortunately... Although she said well at the foot of the mountain, this woman had no intention of acting as a tour guide.
Then they came to the end of the mountain road.
"This is it."
On a wide mountainside cliff, a small wooden house stood there quietly, as if it was permanently gazing at the endless mountain tops in the distance with its own eyes.
"This is the wooden house you mentioned before." Seeing Nan Tieshan walking towards the wooden house first, Xue Ling Huanbing explained to Duan Qing in a low voice: "Because... for some reasons, there is a The old man has been guarding here, and he built this mountain road for the convenience of...living."
"He lives in this place?"
"It looks like this." The woman in the black cloak turned and looked forward: "When the first player discovered this place along the mountain road, the old man was here. He seemed to be a person with a story, but even if No matter how many players come, he will still only issue the same task to the adventurers - to clean up the mountain road."
"I won't say anything else."
"Another one like this..." Inexplicably thinking of the library in Fenghua Town, Duan Qing shrank his neck in fear, and then looked around: "That... so-called What do you mean by climbing to the top of Falling Star Mountain? If this is the end of the road, how should we go from here?"
"Well, that's right there."
Xueling Huanbing pointed to a path on the other side of the cliff: "Actually, there are many ways up the mountain, and this is just one of them."
She walked forward and continued to introduce to Duan Qing: "I... When I came here before, I found out about many roads up the mountain. More people choose this one because there are still many roads ahead. It’s considered safe, and there’s a wooden cabin in the middle where you can rest.”
"Rest? Will the old man agree?"
"Of course, he will provide a place to rest, but it is not the same as a hotel."
Xue Ling Huan Bing lowered her head: "Don't ask me how I know."
"OK, OK..." Duan Qing pushed his hands: "Then let's go in and take a look. There should be no problem..."
"Hey, it's still the same."
Before the two of them could reach the cabin, Nan Tieshan, who had already entered before, walked out of the cabin: "No need to go in, it's still the same mission."
"Um...brother, is there any reward?"
"... Of course there are, but they are just daily necessities. I guarantee you won't like them either." Nan Tieshan said a little irritably: "Let's not waste time... Huh?"
"what is that?"
He suddenly stood on tiptoe and looked towards the way they came - behind them, at the bottom of the slope, a huge green backpack first appeared on the horizon. The backpack swayed left and right for a while, and then stabilized. , continues to slowly rise upward in the sight of Duan Qing and others.
Then, a woman carrying a huge backpack appeared on the mountain road opposite the wooden house.
