The Forest Is Vast

Mo Tan has spent nearly two-thirds of his life dealing with all sorts of trouble, and half of that time was spent creating it. Creating trouble for himself, for his friends, for local thugs, for school bullies, for the hacker codenamed Sun, real name Mu You, nicknamed Shuangye, for honest people, for teachers and classmates, for the local police, for the neighborhood committee, for the urban management… This level of difficulty seems a bit too high…

But regardless, the words "creating trouble" have always surrounded him, most recently contributing to the glorious feat of padding out forty words for the author. (The entire paragraph is crossed out)

What I want to say is that this kind of behavior doesn't really put much of a burden on him, whether it's in terms of quality of life or moral condemnation. The obstacles he creates for others have never affected Mo Tan himself, not even a little bit.

But the problem is that in the two-thirds of his life that he's been dealing with trouble, half of that time has been spent preferring to solve it.

Or we can replace it with another four words, such as—helping others.

During this half of the time, he is almost always happy to lend a helping hand to people facing difficulties or crises, as long as the other party is not strictly a villain or reaping what they sow, and he doesn't ask for anything in return, unless the so-called 'reward' can make the person feel better.

Perhaps he wouldn't be kind enough to give even a penny to those lazy, highly skilled, and facially expressive fake beggars, but he would be willing to spend half a day picking up empty bottles and waste paper with a boy who makes a living by 'recycling', for fear of hurting that humble and fragile self-esteem in the eyes of others.

In fact, he has never been satisfied with that vague moral code and the law, and he has never felt that he represents 'justice', at least not literal justice, but he always follows his own set of principles to help anyone he thinks is worth helping. This seems a bit narrow, but it is often more objective than that broad sense of justice.

"Have you read A Study in Scarlet? If this were a real story, then I would do everything in my power to help Hou Bo. Maybe the law won't forgive a murderer, but I would. If the truth means that a good person will be judged and punished for sending two villains to hell, I would rather help him keep the truth hidden forever."

This was a sentence Mo Tan said to Yi Dong in Lawful Good state during a casual chat many years ago.

"A very fair judgment, but the problem is that the law doesn't forgive," Yi Dong shrugged. "And the detective's position is to reveal the truth, but I really didn't expect you to say something like that. I thought I knew you pretty well~"

"Compared to you, I don't understand myself even more." Mo Tan just smiled slightly at the time and replied, "I never imagined myself becoming a judge or anything like that, and I don't think I represent justice. I just want to have a clear conscience."

Finally, Yi Dong was stunned for a long time before rolling his eyes and saying, "You know, the most tiring thing in the world is being friends with you. You know, three hours ago, I watched you replace dozens of sets of junior high school entrance exam reference books in the library with illustrated Golden Lotus, just for some so-called 'fun'..."

"I already regret it. That kind of reading material is too polluting for teenagers of this age." Mo Tan asked with a helpless wry smile, "Do you mind helping me put them back?"

"Get lost!"

In short, after rambling for over eleven hundred words, I really only want to make one point: Mo Tan, at this moment, won't have any complaints about those truly awful E-level quests before him. After all, for him, even helping an old woman find her beloved cat that went missing two days ago is meaningful...

Adhering to his understanding of justice, standing on the side of the weak, the good, or the sufferers as much as possible, striving for the justice in his eyes, and judging those who deserve to be punished but stand on the suffering of the innocent and drink freely, is enough.

So what if he is helping an AI? So what if he is judging data? So what if all these things are meaningless?

It doesn't matter~ It really doesn't matter~

Standing in front of the quest board in the first floor lobby of the Adventurers' Guild, Mo Tan spent about ten minutes reading all one hundred E-level quests on the magic crystal screen, and felt that his next period of time should be very fulfilling.

If he doesn't get disconnected...

Don't think it's awkward to have a magic crystal screen with the function of 'quickly querying quest information' in this world full of magic elements. After all, although it is very unscientific, it is at least very magical.

Those settings where gods are in a world full of swords and magic or spiritual energy or something, who can destroy stars with a small temper, and can fly out dozens of times the speed of light in minutes, but have to flip through ancient books for half a day to find information, and can also choke on a nose full of dust, are bullshit. That's really neither scientific nor magical, and not very cultivating...

In short, the detour is over...

After reading it, Mo Tan didn't rush to claim the quest to improve his adventurer level, but planned to go back first, say hello to Mag, and also ask the leader of the caravan, who is also the employer of the Wyvern Mercenary Group, when the Wood Sprite elder would be available to see him, and try to arrange the time well, so that even if he might be forcibly disconnected, at least it wouldn't be so abrupt.

After all, he should try to avoid causing unnecessary trouble to others because of himself.

Unexpectedly, when he turned around to leave, he saw Mag's figure from a distance. There were three other mercenary groups with him, namely the little mustache from that day, the staff-specialized human female mage who used dragon breath well, and the Lizardfolk second captain who was said to have an Idari Firearm.

"Hey~ Mo! We're over here!" Mag also saw Mo Tan who had just turned around almost at the same time, and waved to him with a big laugh: "Come over here!"

In fact, he really didn't need to greet so loudly. Although Mag and his group of four were a very common combination in the Adventurers' Guild branch, their unique temperament (mainly because they looked more reliable compared to others) made them highly recognizable here.

Think about it, in this place full of old novice mages whose staffs explode, thieves who forget to cut holes in their masks, rangers who buy glitter mixed with gunpowder to try to make themselves more dazzling, dog girls who can only 'woof'… etc… even a guy like Mag, who is some kind of old drunkard and a lover of bloody dramas, can be called very reliable…

"Thank goodness you're finally awake." The female mage, Kasha, who used the dragon breath spell to open a path for everyone that day smiled at Mo Tan who walked over and asked, "How do you feel?"

Mo Tan blinked and gestured around: "Are you referring to the physical aspect, or here? The former was originally not bad, but because of the latter, I can only be glad that I'm still alive..."

Then, to show his well-being, he slightly explained the 'staff explosion in place' that had happened not long ago to Mag and the others, which made the four of them stunned.

"Tsk tsk..." Mag glanced at him, then shrugged and said, "Okay, it seems I should have reminded you to be careful before. The first floor lobby of every Adventurers' Guild is relatively chaotic, because they are all lower-level adventurers, so it's easy to cause trouble, but I didn't expect you to run into such a thing. Anyway, it's good that you're alive!"

The human female mage Kasha muttered, "I've heard of that guy, his name is Jadeka. It is said that his ancestors were knights, but he wanted to be a mage, and he didn't know where he picked up an antique staff and said it was an heirloom, but speaking of which..."

She scratched her cheek thoughtfully and frowned, "That guy was said to be very powerful when he was young, able to take down a dozen high-level savage beasts in minutes. So he's still a novice mage!"

"Um~" The little mustache raised his hand and asked, "Interrupting, but I've never heard of any novice mage who can take down so many high-level savage beasts in minutes!"

Kasha rolled her eyes: "He smashed them with his staff. Didn't Mo just experience it? That thing explodes, you know..."

"Is he okay?!" Mo Tan finally couldn't help but ask, "Or does the staff not explode its owner?"

If that were the case, then his action of almost being blown to smithereens in order to save that old man just now would be too unjust.

"That's not the case." Kasha shook her head and said, "It is said that the staff explodes anyone."

Mo Tan felt a little more balanced when he heard this, but unexpectedly...

"But he can withstand it." Kasha continued, "Maybe it's a bloodline issue. Although he and I are both humans with relatively mediocre talents in all aspects, I've heard people say that Jadeka's physical fitness is at least at the level of a high-level warrior, and although his spellcasting ability is extremely poor, he has a natural affinity for fire elements, which doesn't help his mage career much, but it allows him to have a certain resistance to fire elements, so... alas... if he had majored in knight or warrior, he should already be a great adventurer by now."

By the time she was halfway through her sentence, Mo Tan had completely turned pale...

So the white-bearded old man who wields his staff like a siege hammer, the wooden puppet Pinocchio who has maxed out his sniping specialization, the bone spirit who looks like a lich but is actually a succubus, and the minotaur machine gunner are not performance art, but actually exist!?

Mo Tan seemed to hear the crisp cracking sound of his worldviews shattering...

"Damn it!" Mag was stunned for a long time before muttering, "This world is so dangerous."

However, Mo Tan had quickly adjusted his mood and casually changed the topic: "Speaking of which, it's good that you're here, Mag. I was just about to go back and ask you when the elder that the Wood Sprite side wants to see me will be available..."

"God knows." Mag shook his big head like a rattle drum: "Probably in the next two days, what's up?"

"Nothing much." Mo Tan pointed to the magic crystal screen behind him. "I plan to do some tasks first. I might be a bit busy later, and I was afraid you wouldn't be able to find me, so I wanted to let you know in advance."

The Second Company... Captain finally found a chance to interject, and laughed in Lizardfolk's rather broken Common, "That's okay, we'll be staying in the city for a few days anyway. It's good that you can find something to do to pass the time. The merchants aren't in a hurry, Wood Sprites are slowpokes~"

"Well then, we'll be off." Mag let out a boozy burp and waved his big hand. "E-rank missions aren't difficult. We'll be staying at the same place as before these next few days. If anything comes up, you can find me or any of these three."

Mo Tan quickly and happily agreed. After Mag and the others headed to the nearby Adventurers' Guild, he turned around and walked back to the window he'd been at earlier, only to find that the person inside had changed.

"Hello, is there anything I can help you with?" A courteous Half-elf bowed to Mo Tan, their spirit and professionalism were on a completely different level from the previous young lady.

However, Mo Tan didn't mind. It was perfectly normal to have shift changes when working in a place like this. Speaking of his previous scheme of exploiting a loophole in a bank...

Never mind, he was still rather resistant to memories of that. After all, he was the one who did both the good and bad things, and thinking too much about it could easily lead to depression.

"I'd like to accept a few tasks." Mo Tan showed the other party the adventurer's handbook he had just received and directly rattled off a string of numbers: "The codes are 10308, 53267, and 44759."

The other party paused slightly, then picked up the magic crystal tablet and said somewhat apologetically, "Could I trouble you to say that again?"

Then Mo Tan slowed down and repeated it. He also realized that he had seemed to take things for granted just now. For people who hadn't been specially trained in instant memory and temporary imprinting, immediately projecting what they heard into their minds and forcibly completing rapid memorization was a very difficult task.

Without targeted practice, it was almost impossible for NPCs with intelligence below 40 or so in the game.

"Okay, weeding for the Gulo Couple in the southern district, collecting soil samples for the Dumen Alchemist outside the market, and... uh... finding out what the Hotshot Lady likes or is interested in." After a little confirmation, the Half-elf receptionist confirmed with Mo Tan, "All tasks with a two-day time limit, accepting them all at once, is that correct?"

Mo Tan affirmed this. He had already weighed the options beforehand, and these three tasks were currently the most suitable for him. They didn't have strict time limits (like helping someone watch a stall), nor were they likely to accidentally trigger something that would cause him to switch personalities due to anxiety (like taking care of a brat whose parents were out), and the rewards were also pretty good.

Ten minutes later, Mo Tan, having completed the task registration, walked out of the Pioneer's Gate, ready to head to his first task location. But before he could superimpose the map he had memorized with the scenery in his field of vision, he noticed someone gently tugging at his sleeve.

Looking back... wow, that was pretty familiar.

"Woof~~~"

Chapter 20: End

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