Hearing the black dragon lady's helpless sigh, the rocking chair under Modir finally stopped. The old mage rolled his eyes at the sky and said a little impatiently, "What nonsense are you spouting? My original plans for the adventure have been put on hold. Every day, I just watch people come and go and listen to them come back and tell me about the changes outside the camp. How can I not be bored?"
The young black dragon girl looked troubled. "That … We are worried about accidents —"
"I know, I know." Modir waved his hand impatiently without waiting for the other party to finish. "You're just worried that I'll die out there before my descendant from the Loren Continent arrives. What's the point of making up so much?"
The black dragon girl's expression suddenly became more awkward than before. "Actually … we are not entirely worried about that …"
"It's also because my mental state has been getting more and more strange recently. You are worried that I will cause a big mess when I go out with other adventurers." Modir had already figured out the thoughts of these Dragons. Although he said it impatiently, the smile on his face never stopped. "Hey, don't look so awkward. I'm not embarrassed. Why are you embarrassed? Actually, I understand. Your concerns are not malicious and not wrong, so I am quite cooperative. Since the last time I met your leader, I have not even stepped out of this street. It's just that I am usually bored, really bored … "
As he spoke, the great adventurer could not help but shake his head. "Sigh, there's too little entertainment here. I've only been to taverns a few times, and I'm not good at gambling. I want to find a few people to play cards or chess, but there aren't many adventurers who are interested in that …"
Listening to the great adventurer's rambling, the black dragon girl's expression gradually changed. Her eyelids drooped and she sighed. "Entertainment … The adventurer camp now has limited conditions, but back in the Tarlonde, we did not lack all kinds of 'entertainment'. If you could see the Agundor Lower Zone at that time, I am afraid you would not be bored."
Modir lifted his eyelids and glanced at the black dragon. "Are you referring to those addictive drugs, those hallucination generators that stimulate the nerves, and those gladiator arenas and the like?"
The black dragon girl blinked, her expression was a little surprised. "You know about those?"
"Adventurers will see information about the Kingdom of the Great Dragon before they register. I'm not the kind of boor who will throw away the information after getting it." Modir shook his head. "Try to understand where you are going in advance. This is the necessary professionalism of every adventurer."
"That's true … You're different from other adventurers." The black draconic girl smiled, before a curious look appeared on her face. "If that's the case, what do you think of Tarron?"
"Me? I have never seen it with my own eyes, so I can't imagine what that grotesque world really looks like. "Modir shrugged." But seeing that you would rather pay such a huge price in exchange for such a wasteland and break free from that situation, I guess it must not be as beautiful as it looks on the surface. "
The black dragon girl did not speak for a while, as if she had fallen into some kind of memory. After a long time, her expression suddenly relaxed, and a faint smile appeared on her face. "In fact, from the perspective of individual 'survival', the old Tarlonde could be called a paradise. But when you have to live under a fixed trajectory for tens of thousands of years, and even your daily words and actions must strictly follow a huge, complex and invisible framework, any paradise is just a long torture. You are right, it is not a beautiful place. "
"I am suddenly curious." Modir looked into the girl's eyes curiously. "I heard that during the old Tarlonde period, most of the Giant Dragon did not need to work. So what did you do every day?"
"Duel." The black dragon girl smiled faintly.
"Duel?!" Modir was shocked. He looked up and down at the girl's slender body. "You? Is that what you do every day? "
"It was actually a kind of … entertainment. We took our brain tissue out of our original body and put it into a highly modified 'competitive body'. Then, we drove the powerful competitive body to compete for the 'target' and ranking in a very, very large container, accompanied by reckless death battles and cheers. And I was a regular in the Agundor's Ultimate Arena. Don't judge me by my looks now, but back then, I had dissected more opponents than I could count with two hands."
"This …" Modir tried hard to imagine what it would be like. "So, you were competing for some kind of precious treasure in the arena?"
"No, it was usually just an industrially made mechanical ball, or a symbolic metal ring, used to represent the score."
"Then … the winner gets a lot of prize money?"
"The prize money is indeed a lot, but most of the contestants don't care about it. And most of the time, the income from participating in the competition is used to repair the implants in the body, or for central nervous system repair surgery."
As she said this, the black dragon girl had a faint smile on her face. Modir could not help but widen his eyes. It was a way of life that he could not understand, and the madness during it left him dumbfounded. "Then … what are you after?"
"To prove that you are alive, and to alleviate the central nervous system agitation syndrome caused by the overdose of synergist," the black dragon girl said calmly. "There are also some who are simply seeking death. The Omega System and the upper temple forbid any form of self-execution, so various' Ultimate Arena 'based on combat competition is the only way for the Dragons to prove that they are alive, and that they have the right to die … But now, all of this is in the past."
"… Well, I still can't understand." Modir was stunned for a long time, and finally shook his head and mumbled. "Fortunately, I don't have to understand this crazy life."
The black dragon girl just smiled, and then bowed slightly. "Well, I've taken up a lot of your 'sunbathing' time, so I won't waste any more."
Modir immediately waved his hand and pretended to be impatient. The black dragon girl, on the other hand, smiled nonchalantly and turned to walk to the other side of the street.
"Tsk … Now I know why these Dragons are willing to pay such a huge price to 'smash everything'," Modir could not help but mumble softly as he watched her leave. "It's going crazy from top to bottom …"
After saying that, he moved his body back and forth on the rocking chair, changing himself into a more comfortable position. Then, as if he was really bathing in the sunlight, he slightly narrowed his eyes. As the chair swayed gently, the sounds from the street gradually faded away in his ears ….
The great adventurer suddenly opened his eyes and saw the empty street stretching before his eyes. The adventurers and the humanoid Giant Dragon that came and went on the street were gone, and everything in sight had faded, leaving only monotonous black and white, and a quiet environment.
And at the end of the street, the buildings and the straight road that originally stood there came to an abrupt end, as if the area had been directly cut off by some invisible force. Beyond the clear boundary line was the familiar grayish-white desert, the tall throne and altar, and the black silhouette of the city ruins in the distance.
Modir's heart suddenly tightened, but this time he was much calmer than before. This was the third time he had entered this strange place, and although he still did not know the reason behind all this, at least the experience of returning safely from the previous two times had made him much calmer in this third time.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with his condition, he quickly cast a full set of protective spells on himself, and then hid in the shadow of a nearby building with the agility of a bandit to prevent the huge "lady" sitting on the throne from discovering him. And almost at the same time, the languid but majestic female voice rang between heaven and earth.
"Not a bad story, Mr. Great Adventurer. And this time, your story seems to have a lot of new elements? A powerful race sealed in an ancient kingdom, and due to long-term isolation, gradually degenerated, addicted to hallucinatory potions and crazy entertainment … and subconsciously pursued self-destruction. Mr. Great Adventurer, I like this new story … "
Modir, who was hiding behind a nearby building, was stunned.
What the languid and majestic voice was describing … was not the information he had just heard from the black dragon girl about the old Tarlonde?!
The old mage felt his heartbeat suddenly quicken. At that moment, he even thought that he had been discovered by the lady, and that the latter was using this method to tease this dishonest "intruder". But in the next second, the expected pressure did not descend on him. He only heard the voice that was exactly the same as his rang somewhere near the throne.
"I also think that the story this time is not bad. You should have guessed that this story is also made up by me, and it just popped out of my head … I don't even know how I came up with such a 'background setting', but looking at your reaction … my ability to make up stories is indeed getting better and better."
"Sigh, my Mr. Great Adventurer, I don't mean to praise you. Although your new story is really good," the languid and majestic voice seemed to say helplessly. "I kind of miss the past. At that time, you were still unswervingly upholding the dignity and professional ethics of an adventurer. Even if the old story was repeated many times, you would never use fabricated stories to fool me. But now, you take your ability to fool as something to be proud of."
"Because I've thought it through now. All you want is the story. You don't care if it's true or not. Besides, I'm not writing my own adventure notes. Why are you so obsessed with the 'real record'?"
The conversation near the throne continued, and Modir, who was hiding in the shadow of the building, gradually calmed down. But there was still great shock and uncontrollable conjecture in his heart. Now he was completely sure that what the "lady" had just mentioned was the information he heard from the black dragon girl. But here, the information seemed to have become a story that the "storyteller adventurer" had just made up … and the "storyteller adventurer" even said that the story suddenly popped out of his head!!
The information he heard in the real world was mapped to this world? Or the voice that was exactly the same as his was actually a projection of himself in this world? Was that his subconscious self? Or was it some kind of split at the soul level?
There were too many possible speculations behind it. Even the most knowledgeable archsorcerers did not dare to speculate on their own. Modir even had the urge to run out of the 'safe zone' that he was in and confirm the real face of the 'lady' at a close distance below the throne, where his' voice 'came from, and who the person who was talking was exactly, even if it was really' another Modir '…
But the rationality in his heart suppressed these dangerous impulses. Modir followed the guidance of his heart and hid better in the shadow of the building.
At this moment, the voice of the "other Modir" came again from the direction of the throne. "Well, my story is over. My lady, it's your turn. You can continue to talk about your dream."
"My dream … Well, there's nothing else to talk about anyway." The languid and dignified female voice seemed to smile, and then said slowly, "It's still in that huge city crawling on the ground … I dreamt that I've been wandering around that huge city. There seemed to be my mission there, and there was a job that I had to complete.
"There were many figures. They served me, or rather, followed me. I heard their voices all the time. From their voices, I could understand the changes of almost the entire world. All the secrets, knowledge, schemes, and tricks were presented before me like grains of sand under the sun. I gathered the 'grains of sand' together and restored the appearance of the world like a jigsaw puzzle …" Yes, there were many figures. They served me, or rather, followed me.
"There's another figure. He's at the center of the giant city. He seems to be the ruler of the city. I have to keep giving him the puzzle pieces that I've put together, and he'll convert the puzzle pieces into his own power to sustain the life of an invisible behemoth … Beside him, in the giant city, there are other individuals similar to me. We have to hand over the 'things' that our followers have gathered to him to sustain the life of the behemoth … But there's another figure.
"It's a little weird, but to be honest, I think it's quite interesting."
The lady described everything she saw in her dream slowly. After she finished, there was a few seconds of silence around the throne before the voice of the "other Modir" broke the silence. "Ah, to be honest, my lady, the dream you described is getting weirder and weirder … Not only weird, I even think it's a little scary."
"Great adventurer, you shouldn't be so timid. Didn't you say it before? You even dared to dig some graves full of strange and terrifying auras, and what I'm talking about is just a dream. I thought the two things in front of you were equally interesting. "
"That's different, my lady." The voice of the great adventurer immediately retorted. "I dig the grave to find the truth from the buried history. This is a serious and awe-inspiring thing to do. It's not something I do for fun …"
"Is that so? Well, maybe I really don't understand. "The lady's languid voice had a hint of a smile." Find the truth from the buried history … I don't quite understand the truth in those short histories that are worth digging up, but if there's a chance, I'm quite interested to be your companion and try out the things you're talking about … "
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