Different Ideas

More than twenty Awakened Ones gathered in the main hall on the first floor of the Lord's Manor.

They have different identities, different skills, and different positions and responsibilities in the town.

But one thing is certain at this moment.

When the Awakened Ones arrive in the hall and see Anrui's empty left shoulder, their expressions immediately become tense.

The Lord of the Border Town has lost an arm! Something big must be happening in the Black Mountain World! It's already late.

Anrui, sitting in the main seat of the hall, scrutinized everyone's expressions but remained silent.

Out of respect and inner nervousness.

The awakened ones discussed it quietly, and no one took the initiative to break the apparent silence.

The last to arrive at the Lord's Manor in the north was the Female Hunter lived in the south of the town.

Seeing Anrui's condition, she, who had known the situation beforehand, sighed slightly and accepted the reality before her.

"..."

At this moment, Anrui's gaze swept across the hall.

Besides Anna, Qiao Er, and young people like Linsey, all the awakened individuals from the town's long-established businesses have arrived.

He waved his hand, signaling the guards to close the gate.

Once the door was closed and the air was completely quiet, Anrui began to announce to everyone, "As you all know, I went to the Black Mountain World a few days ago."

"There, I was attacked by Devil Beast, and this arm was unfortunately destroyed in the battle."

As Anrui spoke, Song An, the town's doctor, walked up to him.

The white-haired old man carefully examined the healed wound on Anrui's arm. With his skill only at the Fourth Stage, he quickly could only express regret and shake his head.

Anrui continued speaking in front of the doctor:

"I have some dangerous news for you all: the Dragon Beast of Black Mountain are advancing in power!"

In an instant, the hall became eerily quiet.

Then came the explosion:

"What?! That Dragon Beast is really advancing in rank?! The Eighth Stage!"

The awakened ones in the hall were immediately filled with fear.

The strongest among them Anrui, a warrior at the Fifth Stage.

As a result, the Dragon Beast next door is about to advance to the Eighth Stage, a stage that is almost legendary! As an awakened one who is in the midst of this situation.

They find it even harder to accept than ordinary people.

Faced with this news, people quickly stepped forward to question the message Anrui had just released:

"When the town lost contact with the outside world ten years ago, didn't we send people to investigate? That thing had only just advanced to the Seventh Stage, which is why it suddenly appeared and blocked Black Mountain. In all these decades, it's impossible for a Devil Beast to advance again!"

Anrui didn't care about being contradicted by others.

He simply nodded in acknowledgment of the other person's idea, and then continued to state the truth:

"Normally speaking, of course not."

"But that Dragon Beast did something so reckless. It tried to merge with the world's Essence in order to forcibly increase its strength and thus advance its own level!"

"Even our Hidden Borderlands Snowy Wasteland on the frontier is a phenomenon that spread from the Black Mountain World because of its reckless actions."

Anrui's explanation immediately sparked a heated discussion among the crowd.

"This isn't necessarily a bad thing!"

A few minutes later.

A deep, resonant voice rang out from the crowd.

That was Iruier, Qiao Er's teacher, the most experienced craftsman in town.

"As everyone knows, if this reckless method of advancement fails, the Dragon Beast's life will immediately perish, following the world that it has excessively extracted from its Essence."

"With the biggest threat gone, we can rest easy and even restore contact with the outside world."

Iruier is telling the truth.

Such a hasty and opportunistic advancement cannot be without a price; otherwise, wouldn't everyone act like the Dragon Beast?

But the Female Hunter stood up and disagreed with the old craftsman. "What if it succeeds?"

"We're not going to do anything right now, we're just letting this guy do whatever he wants. If he succeeds, the aftershocks of the Essence's influence will be enough to freeze this place into an ice and snow world!"

The Female Hunter and the old craftsman were locked in a fierce confrontation.

At this moment, Song An, the doctor who had examined Anrui's wound, came downstairs and tried to calm the two down:

"Dan, Iruier, don't worry."

"Advancing from the Seventh Stage to the Eighth Stage? It's not that simple!"

"Even if that beast succeeds, the whole process will probably take a lot of time."

At this point, the doctor turned his gaze to Anrui.

The Lord of the Hidden Borderlands nodded in agreement. "Based on my observations, it will take at least six years, and at most ten years, for that Dragon Beast to complete its advancement."

"Ha, ten years!" Someone in the crowd immediately began to mock themselves. "So, we really are safe here! We've been trapped here for over ten years now. How many more decades do we have left to live?"

Immediately, someone else stepped forward and offered their opinion. "The Hidden Borderlands is a dilapidated world, too small!"

"Even the effects of just the advancement process can be devastating. Do you think the crisis caused by temperature change will be less serious?"

The threat from the Black Mountain World completely intensified the emotions of the Awakened.

Soon someone else stood up and cursed:

"What else can we do? We can't beat them in a fight, and we can't run away!"

"Are you just going to close your eyes and wait to die?"

"..."

"There's still time for some things. Regardless of how we handle things later, let's focus on the present first."

Just as the argument among the crowd was escalating...

But the grocer Suo Mu Jin, suddenly stepped forward.

This merchant, whose goods were extremely scarce and who was usually almost invisible, stopped the increasingly tense argument and immediately turned his attention to Anrui:

"Anrui, you probably don't know what happened in town while you were gone. We were recently attacked by a group of spider Devil Beast and suffered considerable losses. Getting through this winter is our top priority."

"You must have some opinions on this, right?"

Anrui replied frankly:

"Those spiders must also be subordinates of the Dragon Beast. I fought against them in the Black Mountain World..."

Anrui hadn't finished speaking yet.

Suo Mu Jin grasped the key point in his words and then deduced:

"You've been in contact with those spiders!"

"So those spider Devil Beast that destroyed Farmland came up because you went down to the Black Mountain World?"

"..."

Anrui fell silent.

Whether it's pleasant to hear or not, what Suo Mu Jin said is the truth.

The shopkeeper blinked; he didn't press the issue any further.

Instead, it happened under the watchful eyes of everyone.

He fixed his gaze on Anrui's empty left arm and stared at it silently for a few seconds.

Suo Mu Jin turned around, his back to Anrui, and faced the crowd, saying:

"Gentlemen, I think it's time to take some action."

"Once the Dragon Beast successfully advances, staying here will only lead to our own demise. Even just for the sake of the young children in the town, we can't afford to waste any more time like this!"

"Even though things are somewhat dangerous, but..."

"Suo Mu Jin, shut up!" Anrui suddenly interrupted the merchant. "You want to take everyone on a risky trip to try and cross the Black Mountain? Enough, that's just suicide!"

Suo Mu Jin closed his eyes slightly.

He then turned around and met Anrui's angry gaze directly:

"That Dragon Beast is busy advancing its level!"

"This may be a rare opportunity, since its attention is definitely on its own advancement process. We can take advantage of this opportunity."

Anrui reiterated in an extremely serious tone:

"You're treating everyone's lives like a game!"

"Suo Mu Jin, I know you can't trade here and your skills are almost stagnant, but that's no reason for you to bewitch others to pay with their lives to open up an escape route for you!"

Suo Mu Jin neither confirmed nor denied this.

He simply stated his opinion calmly:

"We can't just do nothing."

"Besides, I'm not the only one who really wants to leave here."

"..."

The night grew deeper.

The atmosphere in the Lord's Manor gradually became tense.

But far away at the other end of the town, Linsey, holding a torch, looked hopefully at the newly sprouted seeds before her.

The green seedlings are full of vitality and grow very well.

After more than a month of trekking, Linsey finally had time to fully immerse herself in the process of cultivating crops.

The potential of Resource Conversion Skill has not yet been fully explored.

Soil, water, fertilizer... so many aspects can be explored for Resource Conversion.

Linsey is in a very optimistic mood right now.

He felt that this winter would be the last time the Hidden Borderlands would face a food shortage!

I've forgotten what I wrote yesterday.

Ah, thank you so much, Alliance Leader, Charge-up Fungus!