Cannon Fodder NPC Would Never Encounter the Child of the Version

Huodian City.

The top floor of the Fire God Tower.

This was the center of all Huodian City and the heart of the Fire God Cult. The ordinary outer members were all distributed throughout the grand cathedral below; only Professionals were permitted to enter the tower.

It should have been a solemn, quiet place, but at this moment, it was filled with the sounds of an argument.

"Move aside! I have something important to discuss with my mentor. Now, immediately, at once!" A black-haired young man in a mage robe shouted angrily at the guards in front of him.

But the guards crossed their weapons, blocking the young man from entering.

"Damir, Archbishop Maggie is in secluded cultivation. The archbishop ordered that unless she comes out herself, no one is allowed to disturb her."

"Even if you're her disciple, we can't let—"

Before the guard could finish speaking, the black-haired young man angrily grabbed him by the collar.

Although, as a Spellcaster, his slight build was rather unimpressive compared to the tall guard before him.

"I'll say it again. Let me in!"

"You don't understand at all! I sensed an extremely evil power in Claw Forest to the north. Teacher Maggie has to know about this immediately!"

Just as the situation was about to get out of hand, the sound of leather boots came from the spiral staircase of the Fire God Tower.

Following it was the magnetic voice unique to a middle-aged man.

"Shh! Damir, don't get worked up."

"Though I don't mean to discourage you, at this distance, your magic can't protect you. These elite guards could knock you down with ease."

"So whatever you have to say, just talk it out properly."

The owner of the voice came over and pressed Damir's hand away from the guard's collar.

When the guards saw the sturdy, burly middle-aged man approaching, their expressions immediately became far more respectful than they had been toward Damir.

"Commander Harvey!"

Harvey waved his hand, signaling that the guards did not need to salute.

Then he directly hooked an arm around Damir's neck and, like an old buddy, took him away from the top floor where the archbishop was cultivating.

"Let go! Let go of me, Harvey!" Damir struggled nonstop along the way, but how could a little mage's physique compare to the Knight Commander, who had seen countless battles?

Only after they reached an unoccupied corner did Harvey release Damir.

"All right, all right. You know perfectly well that ever since Maggie announced her secluded cultivation to advance a few years ago, your teacher has barely shown herself."

"Even the old city lord has trouble seeing her, let alone you."

Harvey patted the young man before him—one who could be called the most promising and talented young mage in all of Huodian City.

A Third-Tier Professional, a Spellcaster, an Elemental Archmage—Damir.

He was also the sole disciple of Archbishop Maggie of the Fire God Cult, one of the strongest people in Huodian City and a peak-level powerhouse.

"Harvey, listen to me. You have to help me this time." After being forcibly removed from the tower's top floor, Damir had regained some of his composure.

"Help you with what? Speaking of which, what were you shouting at the guards about that evil power? What happened?"

Seeing that Damir did not seem to be joking, Harvey's expression finally grew more serious.

"Something happened in Claw Forest!" Damir said concisely.

"Claw Forest?"

"Yes, that monster forest. Just now, while I was meditating, a terrifying aura fluctuation that made my heart tremble came from the direction of Claw Forest. It was very well hidden and lasted for almost no time at all, but I still detected it."

"And I'm certain that power..." At this point, the young Genius Mage of Huodian City paused, seemingly finding it difficult to put into words.

But in the end, he said firmly:

"That power absolutely does not belong to the nine elemental forces!"

After hearing Damir's words, Knight Commander Harvey furrowed his weathered brows.

"That's why you called it evil?"

"Yes. You're not a Spellcaster, so you don't understand. All power in the world should come from the nine elements, but this power was bizarre! It had no elemental fluctuations at all. Instead, it was more like... more like..."

"The Abyss." After struggling for a long while, Damir finally found a fitting description.

"You know, right? The kind where you can't see the bottom at a glance, where it feels as though your entire body is wrapped in darkness and cold, and you can't help but keep falling downward..."

"Stop!"

Seeing that Damir was about to continue, Harvey hurriedly raised a hand to stop him.

This important figure of the Knight Order began looking the anxious young mage up and down. Then Harvey clutched his stomach and roared with laughter.

"Damir, do you think it's possible that you've been reading too many novels lately and hallucinated?"

"You!"

"Stop, stop! Fine, let's say everything you said is true. But then let me ask you: if something this serious really happened, why didn't the Fire God Statue react in the slightest?"

That was the real reason Harvey did not believe him.

The Fire God Statue.

It had existed since Huodian City was founded. It was a symbol of the will of the God of Fire and had protected the people of the Flame Domain from generation to generation. Whenever a major disaster descended, the first thing to issue a warning was always the Fire God Statue.

"The statue... it..." Harvey's question left Damir speechless.

Because people could still make mistakes, but when it came to a god, such a possibility absolutely did not exist.

For several hundred years, the Fire God Statue had never once issued a false warning.

If the statue did not issue a Divine Oracle, that meant that even if there was some anomaly, it was merely a minor disturbance. It could not threaten Huodian City, much less even a small village.

"All right, Damir. If you ask me, your teacher has been in seclusion for so long that you've simply grown too lonely these past few years. Look at yourself—you're practically going stir-crazy!"

"As your good friend and uncle, I'm telling you, stop fiddling with that magic knowledge all day. It gives people a headache just looking at it and makes them want to sleep."

"At your age, a young man ought to be lying on a woman's belly, not on those pungent-smelling parchment books!"

"How about it? Want me to introduce you to a bar? I guarantee it's not the respectable kind! After one visit, you'll feel refreshed and never be lonely again."

"Hey, hey! Come back! Don't leave! Fine, you don't have to go to a bar. How about I introduce you to someone? I think that noble young lady from House of Sisl is pretty good. She's just reached the age to attend the Royal Academy. Why don't you two give it a try? Hey! I'm talking to you! Why are you leaving?"

Watching Damir flee in embarrassment, his face red from Harvey's words, the deliberately wicked grin on Harvey's face quickly faded.

He walked to a window in the Fire God Tower and gazed complicatedly beyond the city at the tall, holy Fire God Statue standing in the grand cathedral of the Fire God Cult.

In principle, as a citizen of the Flame Domain and the commander of the Huodian City Knights, Harvey should have believed in and trusted the Fire God Statue without question.

After all, the statue could not be wrong. Because if—if, he emphasized—something had gone wrong with the statue, that would mean an even more terrifying truth lay behind it.

The God of Fire had encountered a problem.

That was absolutely impossible!

Harvey did not want to think about it, nor did he dare to.

But...

As he looked at Huodian City, its gates shut tight and the city under a state of semi-lockdown, Harvey could not help but feel suspicious.

Why had the strange infectious disease that had spread throughout Huodian City without anyone knowing exactly when it began received no advance warning from the Fire God Statue?

Could it be that even after the entire city had entered a state of emergency—and Harvey had heard that it was not limited to Huodian City, with similar situations appearing to some degree throughout the rest of the Flame Domain—this massive anomaly still was not enough to make the statue react?

"Ugh, Maggie, you wretched woman! At a time this critical, when Huodian City needs you most, how can you still be in seclusion?"

"Ugh..."

After letting out another heavy sigh, Harvey turned and left the Fire God Tower, hurrying toward the Knight Order's armory in the city.

"First squad, prepare your gear and horses. Tonight, sneak out of the city with me to investigate."

"Leave the city? Investigate? Boss Harvey, where are we going at a time like this?"

Faced with his subordinate's question, Harvey was silent for a moment before continuing toward his office, leaving behind only one sentence.

"Claw Forest."

Was I really just too lonely?

After leaving the Fire God Tower and walking down the street, Damir found Harvey's words faintly shaking his resolve.

But soon, the young Genius Mage hurriedly shook his head.

How could that be!

How could women possibly be more interesting than the profound and wondrous knowledge of magic?

Women will only affect the speed of my spellcasting!

That's right!

After reaffirming his convictions, Damir began thinking about Claw Forest again.

He felt that this matter absolutely could not be left alone.

Damir had always had a bad feeling about it. It could also be called a mage's intuition, a genius's innate gift.

Even if no one else believed him, even if the Fire God Statue continued to show no reaction, he still had to leave the city himself and investigate Claw Forest alone.

Once the thought arose, he could not suppress it.

If Liao Zixuan had been present at this moment—uh, who was Liao Zixuan?

Oh, he had almost forgotten that such a person existed. Ahem. If Liao Zixuan had been there, the Wolf Cub would definitely have exclaimed, "As expected of the Child of the Version!"

Look at that keen perception, that decisiveness, that initiative! No wonder he had become the protagonist NPC of the 1.0-version Raging Fire and the greatest driving force behind the players' main storyline.

He was completely different from a certain scum who was clearly a protagonist too, yet never stole the spotlight at all!

Back to the matter at hand.

Damir acted as soon as he made up his mind. He immediately headed toward Huodian City's gates. He might have looked as though he had made no preparations, but he was a Third-Tier Professional, after all. One had to know that even the Bishops of the Fire God Cult had only barely reached the Third-Tier level.

But those Bishops were all practically halfway into the grave, whereas Damir had only just turned twenty. He was at the age when he was full of vitality and passion, and his powerful strength made him fearless.

Up to this point, one could say that all the world lines were still proceeding normally.

Until...

After the young Genius Mage arrived at the city gate, he stopped in a daze, staring at the inspection checkpoint that had been left in complete disarray.

The city guards who had originally been responsible for security were sprawled all over the place. Some clutched their stomachs, while others held their legs and feet, all of them lying on the ground, groaning and writhing in agony.

The most miserable of them was the original inspector. He had been beaten the worst. His face was swollen and bruised, and several footprints had been stamped onto his chest as though someone had vented their anger on him.

This...

What had happened here?

Bandits? Invaders? Rioters?

Who would dare attack Huodian City's guards in broad daylight?

Before Damir's mind could process the situation, another exceptionally tragic groan quickly drew his attention.

Damir was very familiar with that voice.

Yoseph, a Second-Tier Professional, an Elemental Mage, and a deacon of the Fire God Cult!

But at this moment, this dignified Second-Tier Mage and deacon was foaming at the mouth, his face swollen into a pig's head. If Damir had not examined him carefully, he might not even have recognized him.

And if one looked farther down at his lower body...

All right, Damir took back what he had said about the inspector being the most miserable.

So...

Who had done this?

Damir quietly circulated his magic power within his body. Between his hands, a faint blue glow began to appear—the preparatory light of a spell as he warmed up.

Soon, a translucent Magic Shield protected him.

The enemy had even crushed a deacon of the Fire God Cult. Damir could tell at a glance that Yoseph had been subdued almost without any ability to fight back. An enemy like that was probably only...

Third-Tier!

And a Third-Tier warrior or assassin!

Only someone like that could possess such powerful close-combat ability, allowing them to leave an entire checkpoint of guards and a Second-Tier Mage unable to resist.

His breathing quickened.

A thin sheen of sweat dampened his forehead.

Damir had never imagined that before he could even leave the city for Claw Forest, he would first encounter the most difficult battle of his life.

"True Sight!"

"Keen Perception!"

"Magic Amplification!"

As expected of a Genius Mage, he began by applying three buffs to himself. Once he was prepared, he took a deep breath.

Step by cautious step, Damir walked toward the innermost door of the checkpoint, several Magic Missiles always held ready in his hands.

Then...

Creak.

The door to the deepest room, the "Registration Office," was pushed open.

But after seeing what was inside, Damir froze again.

A little girl was sitting inside the small room. Her expression seemed somewhat bewildered, and when she heard him push open the door, she turned her head toward Damir.

A pauper, with a frail physique and no outward fluctuations of magic power.

Not an enemy.

She was probably just someone who had come to the checkpoint to enter the city!

After quickly assessing Vivian, Damir immediately shouted at her as she sat on the wooden chair.

"Come over here! It's dangerous over there!"

"Oh... okay!"

Vivian saw that someone had finally arrived, and he seemed to be an even more powerful figure. Her little head turned left and right. There was no one around her who was still standing, so he must have been talking to her.

After confirming this, the little girl obediently hurried over.

After using his Magic Shield to protect both himself and the pauper girl, Damir breathed a sigh of relief.

While continuing to stay on guard against the unknown enemy—who might have left, or might still be concealed nearby—he hurriedly asked Vivian beside him:

"Miss, when did you arrive here? Did you see what happened?"

Then...

Vivian obediently nodded.

"I know."

"What happened!?" Damir, too tense over his imagined enemy, failed to notice the strangeness in the conversation for a moment. After receiving a lead, his voice was urgent and delighted.

"I have something urgent to do in the city, but they wouldn't let me in. One of them even tried to steal my Fire God Token." Vivian's tone was extremely aggrieved at first.

"So."

The little girl's tone gradually softened, and her head drooped.

But when she raised it again—

"I..."

"Hehehe, I just made them all fall down~"

Here's a joke: the protagonist of this novel is Liao Zixuan.

Ahem, everyone, rest assured. The protagonist will have more and more scenes later on, though there may indeed be fewer of them in the early stages.

That's because, according to the author's plans, the protagonist is still just a Wolf Cub in the early stages and can only communicate with Vivian telepathically, so many plot points can't be written yet.

Once the protagonist reaches maturity and can take human form, he'll naturally be causing trouble every day and will absolutely reclaim the presence befitting a protagonist!

As for why so many people say I'm padding things out, it may also be because the protagonist hasn't appeared much. It really isn't padding, though. Aside from a few chapters, the rest are semi-everyday scenes that build the characters and lay the groundwork. This novel was meant to be a lighthearted one in the first place.

If you still feel it's dragging, why not try imagining Vivian as the protagonist? Sob, this is a newcomer's first novel and a rather clumsy first attempt, so I hope all you benevolent readers will be generous and overlook its shortcomings!