Chapter : 51

His face turned green from fighting the lovebirds. After the third time the couple kissed and healed, Yan Yunqing finally controlled his damage and successfully K.O.'d the pair together.

This mechanic could only be described as having average damage, but being extremely humiliating.

Even Yan Yunqing, who was determined to be loyal to his work, couldn't help but be fed a bellyful of dog food, making him want to bark.

Kalenna, with her health depleted, dropped her magic staff and slowly knelt down, with Henry always by her side.

"Henry... have we failed?" Kalenna murmured.

Henry hugged her, stroking her soft hair, and whispered, "No, we can just rest now."

The two embraced and shattered into countless points of light.

Only a treasure chest was left in their place.

Yan Yunqing rubbed his temples. He felt that for some time to come, he would get a headache just thinking about this instance.

There was no way he was fighting it again, not for any amount of experience!

Yan Yunqing casually opened the treasure chest. In an instant, the instance completion experience smashed onto his head.

With a profound and mysterious feeling, his level directly jumped over thirty, soaring to level thirty-one.

...It wasn't like he couldn't fight it again!

It wasn't that he was greedy for the experience, but he now really wanted to join the FFF inquisition and burn all the couples in this instance.

Level thirty seemed to be a watershed moment.

His game system unlocked several new modules one after another.

Yan Yunqing didn't have time to check them for a moment, first looking through the items that came out of the treasure chest.

This time, it didn't give him another blueprint, but a skill book and a bow...

Wait, a skill book???

Yan Yunqing was shocked.

He picked up the dropped skill book, and a notification immediately popped up on the game panel.

[You have picked up [Archery·Absolute Aim].

Do you want to spend 10 skill points to learn it?]

[Archery·Absolute Aim]

Passive skill, within one hundred meters, every arrow you shoot has a 50% hit rate and a 20% increased critical hit rate; within fifty meters, 70% hit rate and 30% increased critical hit rate; within thirty meters, 90% hit rate and 40% increased critical hit rate; within ten meters, 100% hit rate and 50% increased critical hit rate.

『No one survives within a hundred paces of a master archer.』

When Yan Yunqing saw this skill description, he gasped, "Holy crap!"

This... what did this even mean? It meant that when he held a bow, within ten meters, not only would he have a 100% hit rate, but every arrow would also have a 50% increased critical hit.

This wasn't a master archer, this was a master cheater! Not only did it come with an aimbot, but it also had a critical hit boost...

Could this kind of skill book really be farmed from a low-level instance?

Yan Yunqing suspected that this instance was broken.

Could it be that Kalenna and Henry felt so good after being beaten up that they gave him a big gift?

And it even came with a bow... huh?

Yan Yunqing picked up the bow and tilted his head in confusion.

It was a bow that was emerald green overall, made of winding vines, with specks of starlight shimmering on it, full of life.

[Bow·Verdant Shadow]

This is a beginner's bow handcrafted by an elf. Inject mana when using it, and drawing the bow will generate an arrow constructed from mana, with a bonus to wood-elemental magic attack.

This bow, why did it look a bit like... the one Silf once made for him?

It had been mentioned before that the main character of "Demon King" had initially recuperated in the elves' territory.

During that time, the main character had learned many skills from the Elf King and had also expressed a desire to learn the elves' beautiful archery.

But the main character didn't have a suitable bow, and the other elves' bows weren't suitable for his practice either.

So, Silf had grown vines and crafted a beginner's bow for the main character.

Speaking of which, where did he throw that bow in the end...?

Yan Yunqing rummaged through his backpack while recalling.

Finally, from scattered fragments of memory, he remembered that in the later stages of the game, his backpack was full.

During one inventory cleanup, that bow was taken back by Silf, who then gave him a better one the next day.

However, by that time, Yan Yunqing already had better weapons from instances and no longer needed to use a bow.

But, that was so long ago.

That bow should have been thrown away by Silf by now, right?

Who knows where it was buried...

Yan Yunqing stroked the bow, made a space for it, and solemnly put it back into his backpack.

With this bow and the Absolute Aim passive, he would basically be invincible against ranged mobs from now on.

This had to be well-preserved. Before finding a replacement weapon, this bow would be his bound weapon!

His gains from this instance were huge.

If it weren't for the cooldown, Yan Yunqing would want to run it again to see what other good things this couple could drop for him.

Yan Yunqing packed up and exited the instance.

As soon as he got out, he saw Lilian grabbing the tail of a Lulu Pig, being dragged by it as it ran wildly through the woods.

Yan Yunqing: ???

"Help, help—" Lilian keenly noticed Yan Yunqing's return and quickly cried out for help, "Quick, make this stupid pig stop! I can't get off!"

Yan Yunqing: ...

Speechless, Yan Yunqing used an Imprisonment Spell to fix the Lulu Pig in place.

With a sudden stop, Lilian almost flew off.

Fortunately, Yan Yunqing was quick enough to catch her, preventing this tragedy from happening.

Lilian let out a long sigh of relief, patting her small chest, "Thank goodness, thank goodness.

I thought my little life was going to end here today."

Yan Yunqing was speechless: "I told you to wait for me outside for a while, why did you go and provoke a Lulu Pig?

And—with your level, it's not like you can't beat a Lulu Pig.

Why were you grabbing its tail and letting it drag you around?"

Lilian chuckled sheepishly, "Weren't I just bored waiting for you... I had to find some fun for myself."

Then she said with a serious face:

"Do you know? Waiting is long and lonely.

You should make me wait less in the future."

Yan Yunqing was helpless, "But you can't enter the instance, what can I do?"

Not continuing this topic, Yan Yunqing took out the bow he got from the instance and showed it to Lilian, "Look, I got this from the instance. It looks pretty good, right!"

When Lilian saw this bow, she showed a surprised expression, "A bow?"

"Yeah, you just need to inject mana to form arrows.

It's a magic bow, I guess."

Yan Yunqing stroked the body of the bow, in a good mood, "As long as my mana doesn't run out, I have infinite arrows.

This feels great."

All fear stems from a lack of firepower, and this bow perfectly solved that problem.

He just needed to prepare more small blue potions to restore his mana at any time.

Yan Yunqing rambled on and on, then realized Lilian wasn't responding, which was unlike her usual chatty self.

He turned his head and saw a complicated expression on Lilian's face.

"What's wrong, is there something wrong with this bow?"

Yan Yunqing asked, seeing that Lilian kept staring at the bow.

"Um... there's nothing wrong." Lilian averted her gaze, "This bow looks like it's for a beginner. Won't you find it awkward to use?"

"Hmm?" Yan Yunqing found it strange, "I am a beginner.

To be honest, this is my first time touching a bow and arrow.

I don't even know if I can draw the bowstring.

It would be embarrassing if I can't... Right, I'll need to add archery training later, in case I don't even know how to draw a bow when I need to use it."

"A beginner..." A trace of confusion appeared in Lilian's eyes, which she quickly hid before Yan Yunqing could notice, becoming energetic again, "If you want to learn archery, I can teach you!

Don't forget, we elves are the best at archery!"

Yan Yunqing remained skeptical: "Aren't the elves who are good at archery all adult elves?

You're a young elf.

Never mind whether you can draw a bow, do you even have your own bow?"

Lilian huffed and put her hands on her hips: "You underestimate me.

Of course I already have my own bow, I just left it with my clan and didn't bring it out!"

"As for being a young elf—humph, my inherited memory has instructions on how to use a bow.

There's no elf in the entire clan who is better at archery than me!"

Lilian said proudly: "The elders also said that as soon as I reach adulthood, I will definitely become a master archer!"

Yan Yunqing stroked his chin, quite convinced by the elves' inherited memories, "Alright then, you can teach me."

Time for some special archery training!

Lilian was all fired up, "Okay!"

The human and the elf began to discuss the future archery training.

While listening to Lilian's teaching plan, Yan Yunqing opened the game panel.

He seemed to have seen new modules appear on the panel when he leveled up just now, but because of opening the treasure chest, he had temporarily forgotten about them.

Now he could finally see what new functions had been added...

When Yan Yunqing's gaze fell on a line of large words displayed on the panel, his pupils suddenly shrank.

[《Homeward》 World Debugging in Progress. Time remaining until Closed Beta launch:

7298:12:24.]

Yan Yunqing: ???

Yan Yunqing slowly... no, it couldn't be called slowly anymore.

He violently typed out three question marks.

What the hell? Homeward??? What is this thing?!

Closed Beta launch??? Huh?

Yan Yunqing was stunned by the shock.

He stared at the section on the game panel marked as a forum, reached out his hand, and slowly, slowly, clicked on that new section.

[Let's discuss, the world's first fully immersive game is about to be launched, do you guys think it's reliable?]

[Ahhhhhh Homeward has been promoted for three years, and they finally gave a definite date, but isn't it a bit too late to wait almost ten more months for the closed beta?]

[Holy cow, I saw the official announcement for Homeward three years ago, and there's been no news for so long. I thought it was dead in the womb. Why did they suddenly announce a closed beta? I'm not prepared at all!]

[The first fully immersive game, is the equipment expensive? Is this game really reliable? Last time I spent tens of thousands on equipment only to play a piece of crap, I'll be damned! Waiting for the inside scoop from an uncle party!]

[Breaking news—the official website has updated the game equipment, the cheapest one is only]

[Wait, you're all celebrating, am I the only one who's not optimistic about this so-called fully immersive game?]

...

Yan Yunqing stared blankly, his eyes scanning ten lines at a glance, accurately extracting the key points from a pile of forum posts.

First, the world he had transmigrated to was indeed a game, named 《Homeward》.

Second, the world he had transmigrated to was indeed a game, and it would soon welcome closed beta players, open beta players, and countless... fellow Blue Star compatriots!

Yan Yunqing's spirits were lifted. What did this mean?

It meant that in ten months, this other world would welcome a large batch of players from the same place as him.

Here, he would no longer be a lonely traveler in another world!

For a moment, Yan Yunqing's heart surged with excitement.

He wished he could just close his eyes, wake up, and ten months would have passed, with his compatriots appearing right in front of him.

"What's wrong with you?" After chattering on for a long while, Lilian turned to find Yan Yunqing in a daze and couldn't help but wave a hand in front of his eyes, "Did you hear what I just said?"

Lilian's voice broke Yan Yunqing's fantasy.

He came back to his senses, took a deep breath, and exhaled.

He closed his eyes, letting his somewhat feverish mind calm down.

Whew—

Lilian subconsciously fell silent.

Yan Yunqing quickly ran through everything in his mind, from the moment he transmigrated to his discovery that the game's closed beta was about to be released.

In this series of events, he suddenly found something amiss.

Wait, if it could be confirmed that this was a fully immersive game, then did he transmigrate into the game, or did he not transmigrate at all, but his consciousness merely entered the game, becoming one of the players?

Although Yan Yunqing often casually joked about the game's poor writing and art, the overly realistic world had long made Yan Yunqing treat the game system as his golden finger, and that he had merely transmigrated into a different world within a game.

If there really was a game development team debugging the game itself, then were his quests a coincidence?

Or had someone planned everything from the shadows?

Was his every move being watched?

If these were all planned, then why let him see this so-called game forum? Did they think it wasn't fun to keep him in the dark and wanted to see him constantly feel monitored, living in fear every day?

The initial joy of being able to meet his compatriots had passed, and one question after another popped up, throwing Yan Yunqing's thoughts into chaos, his temples throbbing.

Yan Yunqing pinched the bridge of his nose, unable to sort out a single clue for a moment.

The main issue was that these questions were ethereal, and he didn't have a single lead, making it impossible to unravel the truth behind it all.

...Wait a minute.

Yan Yunqing suddenly remembered something and immediately called out to Lilian.

"I'm here." Lilian looked worriedly at Yan Yunqing, whose expression had suddenly turned very ugly, "What's wrong with you? Were you injured just now?"

"No... I just discovered some things." Yan Yunqing frowned, "I have a few questions for you.

The prophecy of the Descenders you mentioned before, Merlin once interpreted it, right?

You said before that the time of the Descenders' appearance he interpreted was different from mine, so what was the time he interpreted?"

Lilian was taken aback, not knowing why Yan Yunqing suddenly brought up that prophecy.

She thought for a moment, "The time Merlin interpreted was also vague, only accurate to the month. It's August of next year."

August!

It was now... Yan Yunqing opened the system page and glanced at the date. It was currently October in the game.

There were still nearly seven thousand three hundred hours until the closed beta.

Converted, that was exactly... ten months! From now until August next year was exactly ten months.

Case closed. The Descenders did not refer to him, but to the players who were about to log in.

Yan Yunqing took a deep breath: "When did this prophecy first appear?"

"Hmm? It was in the decades after the Demon King disappeared, the specific time is uncertain.

It suddenly started spreading among the common folk in the Imperial Capital." Lilian paused, then casually mentioned, "However, it might be related to the Demon King's retainers."

Hearing this, Yan Yunqing was surprised: "The Demon King?

What does this have to do with the Demon King's retainers?"

"Well... it's my guess." Lilian said, "At that time, not long after the Demon King disappeared, such rumors unfavorable to the Demon King's rule started spreading among the people.

The Demon King's Royal Guard, that bunch of madmen, would definitely be investigating everywhere.

But that guy Theodore seemed to have not noticed anything, allowing the rumor to spread wider and wider."

"So you think..." Yan Yunqing hesitated.

Lilian said with conviction: "This rumor has something to do with Theodore.

He probably made it up. He must have ill intentions, making up a lie to usurp the throne."

"Maybe he has been searching for the Demon King all these years just to kill the Demon King and become the Lord of Eternity himself!"

Lilian had already started to delve into conspiracy theories.

Yan Yunqing: ...

The Demon King's Royal Guard, a unit subordinate to the Demon King and only taking orders from him, was led by the Archangel Theodore.

Yan Yunqing was at a loss for words, "You also said before that this prophecy has been proven to be true... And the Eternal Empire has been destroyed for so long, what kind of Lord of Eternity could he be?"

Lilian blinked, "I was just guessing! Anyway, I don't think that guy Theodore is a good person. He definitely has designs on the Demon King!"

"Otherwise, why didn't he stop this prophecy from spreading?

At that time, many people were already starting to panic because of the Demon King's disappearance.

The spread of the prophecy could be said to have accelerated the demise of the Eternal Empire."

Speaking of the Eternal Empire, a complicated look flashed in Lilian's eyes.

That empire, which had flourished because of the Demon King, eventually fell in the currents of time due to the Demon King's disappearance, turning into a speck of dust in history.

The Eternal Empire had only existed for about three hundred years, yet its prosperity and splendor were unmatched even now, more than a thousand years later.

Yan Yunqing pondered.

Indeed, if the rumors had really spread like that, Theodore must have known more details about this prophecy.

After all, at that time, the Demon King's Royal Guard was also secretly responsible for maintaining the security of the empire.

It was absolutely impossible for them to allow such rumors that could easily disturb the people's hearts to spread.

Yan Yunqing recalled the text messages he received after uninstalling "Demon King"...

Tsk, thinking about it now, it was a bit terrifying.

Could it be that someone had been watching him while he was playing Demon King?

Could it be that he had transmigrated for no reason just because he quit the game?

Yan Yunqing rubbed his temples, feeling more and more confused the more he thought about it. He decided to stop thinking.

But this prophecy of the Descenders must be related to his transmigration.

Perhaps he should first figure out the complete version of the prophecy, and then think about what the prophecy was trying to say.

Although he didn't care where he lived, being constantly pushed around was very annoying.