The Forest Was Vast

For nearly two-thirds of Mo Tan's life, he had been dealing with all sorts of trouble. Half of that time, he had been the one causing it—making trouble for himself, his friends, street thugs, school bullies, the hacker codenamed Sun whose real name was Mu You and nickname was Shuangye, honest people, teachers and classmates, local police officers, neighborhood committees, city inspectors... This difficulty rating seemed a little too high...

But regardless, the phrase "causing trouble" had always followed him. Most recently, he had rendered the author the great service of padding out forty words.

What I mean is that this sort of behavior actually placed very little burden on him. Whether in terms of quality of life or moral condemnation, the trouble he caused others had never affected Mo Tan himself—not even a little.

The problem was that, during half of that two-thirds of his life spent dealing with trouble, he had actually preferred solving it.

Or perhaps we could replace those four words with another phrase: helping others.

During that half of his life, whenever someone faced hardship or danger, as long as they were not evil in the strictest sense or simply suffering the consequences of their own actions, he was almost always willing to lend a hand without asking for anything in return—unless that so-called "return" could make the person involved feel a little better.

He might not be kind enough to give even a single coin to fake beggars who were lazy, glib, and masters of exaggerated expressions, but he was willing to spend half a day accompanying a boy who made a living through "recycling garbage" as they picked up empty bottles and cardboard, for fear of hurting the boy's humble and fragile self-esteem in the eyes of others.

In truth, Mo Tan had never been satisfied with that vague morality or with the law, and had never felt that he represented "justice"—at least not justice in the literal sense. Yet he always followed a set of principles of his own, helping anyone he felt deserved help. That might seem narrow-minded, but it was often more objective than broad, generalized justice.

"Have you read The Study of the Bloodstained Letter? If it were a true story, I would definitely do everything in my power to help Hou Bo. Perhaps the law wouldn't forgive a murderer, but I would. If the truth meant that a good person would be judged and punished for sending two villains to hell, I would rather help him keep the truth hidden forever."

That was something Mo Tan had said to Yi Dong during a casual conversation many years ago, while in his Lawful Good state.

"That would be a very fair trial, but the problem is that the law doesn't forgive." Yi Dong shrugged. "A detective's position, meanwhile, is to expose the truth. Still, I never thought you'd say something like that. I thought I already understood you pretty well~"

"Compared to you, I understand myself even less." Mo Tan had only smiled faintly at the time. "I've never dreamed of becoming a judge or anything like that, nor do I think I represent justice. I only want to have a clear conscience."

In the end, Yi Dong had been stunned for a long while before rolling his eyes. "You know, the most exhausting thing in the world is being your friend. Three hours ago, I watched you replace dozens of the library's middle-school-to-high-school reference books with illustrated Jin Ping Mei, all for some so-called 'fun'..."

"I already regret it. Those books are far too corrupting for boys and girls that age." Mo Tan had asked with an exasperated, bitter smile, "Would you mind helping me replace them again?"

"Get lost!"

In short, despite taking more than eleven hundred words to circle around the point, what I really wanted to say was simply this: Mo Tan would not feel the slightest dissatisfaction over the genuinely troublesome E-rank missions before him. After all, even helping some old lady find her beloved cat, which had gone missing two days ago, was meaningful to him...

He adhered to his own understanding of justice, stood with the weak, the kind, or the suffering whenever he could, and strove only for the fairness he saw with his own eyes. He judged those who deserved punishment yet stood drinking their fill from the suffering of the innocent. That was enough.

So what if the one he helped was an AI? So what if the one he judged was data? So what if none of it meant anything? What did it matter?

It didn't matter~ It really didn't matter~

Standing before the quest board in the Adventurers' Guild's first-floor lobby, Mo Tan spent roughly ten minutes reading through all one hundred E-rank quests on the magic crystal screen. He felt that the days ahead would be quite fulfilling.

Assuming he didn't disconnect...

Don't find it strange that, in this world filled with fantasy elements, there was a magic crystal screen capable of "quickly searching quest information." It might not be scientific, but at least it was very magical.

The truly absurd settings were those worlds filled with swords and battle aura—or spiritual energy—where hot-tempered powerhouses could wipe out stars with a single blow and fly at dozens of times the speed of light, yet still had to spend half a day flipping through ancient books to look something up, choking on dust in the process. That was neither scientific nor magical, and not even particularly xianxia...

In any case, the digression was over...

After looking through the quests, Mo Tan did not rush to accept one and raise his adventurer rank. Instead, he planned to return first, greet Mag, and ask when the forest elf elder—the caravan leader and the employer of the Voltilong Mercenary Group—would be free to meet him. He wanted to arrange his schedule as best he could. Even if he had to disconnect forcibly, he should at least avoid making it too abrupt.

After all, he still wanted to avoid causing others unnecessary trouble because of himself.

Unexpectedly, just as he turned to leave, he spotted Mag in the distance. Three other members of the mercenary group were beside him: the mustached man from that day, the human female mage who specialized in clubs and wielded dragon breath with great skill, and the Lizardfolk second-in-command who supposedly carried an Idari Firearm.

"Hey~ Mo! We're over here!" Mag spotted Mo Tan almost at the same time he turned around and waved at him with a hearty laugh. "Come over!"

He really didn't need to wave so energetically. Although Mag's group of four was quite common in an adventurer branch, their distinctive air—mainly that they looked somewhat more reliable than everyone else—made them highly recognizable here.

Just think about it. In a place filled with elderly novice mages whose exploding staves were constantly going off, thieves who forgot to cut eyeholes in their masks, rangers who bought sparkly powder mixed with gunpowder to make themselves shine brighter, Dog Girls who could only say "woof," and so on, even a man like Mag—who was something of an old drunk and also a fan of melodramatic soap operas—could be called incredibly reliable...

"Thank goodness you're finally awake." The female mage who had used dragon breath to open a path for everyone that day smiled at Mo Tan as he approached. "How are you feeling?"

Mo Tan blinked and gestured around him. "Do you mean physically, or here? I was doing pretty well physically, but because of the latter, I can only be grateful that I'm still alive..."

He then briefly explained the recent "staff exploding on the spot" incident to Mag and the others, leaving all four of them utterly stunned.

"Tsk, tsk..." Mag glanced at him, then shrugged. "All right, I suppose I should've warned you to be careful first. The first floor of every Adventurers' Guild is pretty chaotic because that's where the lower-ranked adventurers gather, and they're always getting into trouble. I just didn't expect you to run into something like that. Anyway, the important thing is that you're alive!"

The human female mage beside him, Kasha, muttered, "I've heard of that guy. His name is Jadeka. Supposedly, his entire family had been knights for generations, but he insisted on becoming a mage. He even found an antique staff somewhere and claimed it was a family heirloom. But speaking of that..."

She scratched her cheek thoughtfully and frowned. "Apparently, he was pretty impressive when he was young. He could knock down more than a dozen high-level feral beasts in minutes. So how is he still a novice mage now?"

"Um..." The mustached man raised his hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but I've never heard of a novice mage who could knock down that many high-level feral beasts in minutes!"

Kasha rolled her eyes. "He used the staff to beat them. Didn't Mo just experience it? That thing explodes, you know..."

"He was all right?!" Mo Tan finally couldn't hold back his question. "Or does the staff not explode on its owner?"

If that were really the case, then nearly getting himself blown to death while saving that old man had been far too unfair.

"Not exactly." Kasha shook her head. "They say that staff explodes on everyone."

Mo Tan felt somewhat comforted by that, but then...

"But he can withstand it." Kasha continued, "Maybe it's a matter of bloodline. Although he's a human like me, with mediocre talents in every area, I've heard that Jadeka's physical abilities are at least on the level of an advanced warrior. And although his spellcasting ability is terrible, he does possess a little natural affinity for fire elements. It hasn't helped his career as a mage much, but it gives him a certain resistance to fire. So... sigh... If he had focused on becoming a knight or warrior, he'd probably be a great adventurer by now."

By the time she reached the middle of her explanation, Mo Tan had already gone completely pale.

So the white-bearded old man who wielded a staff like a siege hammer, the wooden Pinocchio who had maxed out his sniping specialization, the skeleton who looked like a lich but was actually a succubus, the minotaur machine gunner, and the like weren't performance art. They actually existed!?

Mo Tan seemed to hear the crisp crack of his worldview shattering...

"Damn it!" Mag stared blankly for a long moment before cursing, "This world is dangerous."

Mo Tan, however, had already adjusted his mood and casually changed the subject. "Speaking of which, Mag, you came at just the right time. I was about to go back and ask when the forest elf elder who wants to meet me would be free..."

"Who knows?" Mag shook his enormous head like a rattle drum. "Probably sometime in the next couple of days. Why?"

"Nothing much." Mo Tan pointed at the magic crystal screen behind him. "I'm planning to do some quests first, so I might be rather busy for a while. I was worried you wouldn't be able to find me, so I wanted to give you a heads-up."

The second-in-command finally found an opportunity to speak. In the Lizardfolk's heavily mispronounced Common, he said with a smile, "That won't be a problem. We'll be staying in the city for a few days anyway. Finding something to occupy yourself is a good idea. The caravan isn't in a hurry. Forest elves are slow-paced people~"

"Then let's do this—we'll be going." Mag belched and waved his large hand. "E-rank quests aren't difficult. Stay at the same place for the next few days, and come find me or any of these three if you need anything."

Mo Tan readily agreed. After Mag and the others headed toward the nearby mercenary guild, he turned and walked back to the window from before, only to find that the person inside had changed.

"Hello. How may I help you?" A polite Half-elf bowed to Mo Tan. His spirit and professionalism were worlds apart from those of the young lady from earlier.

Mo Tan didn't mind. Shift changes were perfectly normal in a place like this. Speaking of which, there was that one time he had exploited a loophole at a bank...

Never mind. He was still rather uncomfortable with those memories. He had done both the good and the bad things himself, and thinking about it too much made him depressed.

"I'd like to accept a few quests." Mo Tan showed the other man the adventurer's manual he had just received and directly recited a string of numbers. "The codes are 10308, 53267, and 44759."

The other man paused briefly, then picked up the magic crystal board beside him and said apologetically, "Could you please repeat that?"

Mo Tan slowed down and repeated himself. He also realized that he had taken certain things for granted. For people without specialized training in instantaneous memory or temporary imprinting magic, projecting what they had just heard into their minds and forcibly memorizing it was extremely difficult.

Without targeted practice, it was almost impossible for NPCs with less than around forty Intelligence in the game.

"Let me see... Helping the Gulo Couple in the southern district with weeding, collecting soil samples around the market for the Dumen Alchemist, and... um... finding out what Hotshot Lady likes or what her interests are." After confirming the details, the Half-elf receptionist asked Mo Tan, "They're all two-day quests. You want to accept all three at once, correct?"

Mo Tan confirmed it. He had weighed the options beforehand, and these three quests were currently the most suitable for him. They had neither excessively strict time limits, such as tending a stall, nor any chance of accidentally triggering something that would make him anxious and cause him to switch personalities, such as looking after a child whose parents were away. The rewards were decent, too.

Ten minutes later, Mo Tan completed the registration and walked out of Pioneer's Gate, ready to head for the location of his first quest. Before he could align the map he had memorized with the scenery before him, he felt someone lightly tugging at his sleeve.

He turned around... Huh. She looked rather familiar.

"Woof~~~"