Yaya

"Woof?!" Mo Tan repeated instinctively, then made a perplexed expression at the Fangtooth Dog-Girl in front of him and spread his hands. "What is it?"

The girl's beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons, and she nodded happily. "Woof!"

This girl can't communicate at all!!

There was no way Mo Tan could imitate that older girl from before and figure out what this girl was trying to say by making her bark back and forth, although he had to admit it would probably be pretty cute...

"Is there something I can help you with?" Mo Tan gently removed her hand from his arm, then asked tentatively, "Try to express what you mean. I'll see if I can understand... It would be even better if you could say something I can actually make sense of."

This girl's nails are a little sharp...

"Woof~" The young girl shook the pair of fluffy gray beast ears on her head and barked happily. Then she held out her small hand toward Mo Tan, palm open. "Mm~ woof! Route... not woof... know."

Mo Tan looked down and saw a string of numbers written on her palm: 17502. After thinking for a moment and combining it with the few halting words she had said, he had a rough idea.

Quest 17502, an E-rank quest. If he remembered correctly, it was to help Ms. Molly, who lived in the southern district of Anka Market, clear her garden. Although he had memorized all the branch's countless E-rank quests through instant memory, Mo Tan clearly didn't forget things as quickly as ordinary people did...

After all, under normal circumstances, the duration of our ordinary instant memory should be about as long as it took to complete an English dictation exercise during morning reading.

"You don't know the way?" Mo Tan nodded at the young girl, indicating that she could take her hand back. Then he asked with a smile, "Then how did you know I did?"

The Dog Girl tilted her head, stuck out her little tongue, and licked the back of her hand, which was covered in a thin layer of short fur. She mumbled, "Woof map~ looked long, you woof!"

If Mo Tan had understood her correctly, she was probably trying to say, You looked at the map for a long time...

I'm suddenly so tired.

As far as Mo Tan knew, the common language had already spread throughout the entire continent. Although every race had its own unique language, who knew when the so-called "common language" had appeared? It had long since become the lingua franca of the entire Continent of Innocence. That was what he had heard from Captain Ned when he was Hei Fan, and what Mag had told him during a casual conversation earlier.

But there was always an exception...

The Dog Girl in front of him actually looked fairly convincing. Her attractive features were somewhat cold and striking, while her shoulder-length silver-gray hair was neat and refreshing. She wore a set of brown soft leather armor, and beneath the short leather pants with armor plates attached on both sides was a pair of high hunting boots that perfectly followed the lines of her long legs. A stretch of pale thigh showed above the boots at the knees. As long as she didn't open her mouth, she really did look somewhat like an expert. No wonder Mo Tan had previously made that ridiculous misunderstanding...

But the moment the girl opened her mouth, well... not only could she not speak clearly, even her few barks carried a hint of a dialect.

Facepalm...

"So you want me to guide you?" Mo Tan asked with a smile. "Because I looked at the map for a while?"

The Dog Girl, whose language system seemed to have some problems, waved her hands around for a while before finally squeezing out a sentence: "Think... think... woof you~ person~ good woof!"

"All right. Being a good person is better than being a good man." Mo Tan shrugged and turned around to lead the way. "Come on. I'll take you to the place in the northern district where you need to do your quest, okay?"

The young girl hopped along behind him, nodding vigorously. "Woof! Come back, can, smell woof!"

Her ears had somehow folded back, and her tail was wagging so fast it blurred~

Mo Tan rubbed his forehead speechlessly and lowered his head as he led the way...

Both the Adventurer Branch and Mag's Notes contained maps of Anka Market. Earlier, Mo Tan had already matched the information he had memorized with the surrounding environment, so guiding someone now was fairly easy.

Mo Tan had always been very sensitive to maps. This had little to do with intelligence; his sense of direction was simply too poor... far too poor...

No matter the time, place, or personality he was in, Mo Tan was perpetually unable to find north. Whether it had been the orphanage in the past, the area around his current home, or the elementary school he had attended, he had always gotten lost over and over again, endlessly and relentlessly.

It wasn't until the beginning of junior high that Mo Tan finally couldn't take it anymore. He began deliberately training his ability to memorize maps. After achieving some results, he started constructing overhead maps in his mind while trying to locate himself on them. By now, although his sense of direction was still nonexistent, Mo Tan had successfully memorized the entire world map—how insanely obsessive did someone have to be?—and basically no longer got lost.

For Mo Tan, who maintained an overhead view of his surroundings in his mind at all times, knowing only left, right, up, and down was enough. What did it matter if he couldn't find north?

Using the map in Mag's Notes, he found the Adventurer Branch, then updated the details of the changes from the past few years using the branch's latest map. By this point, he could be said to know the surrounding area like the back of his hand.

Guiding a lost dog... I mean, Dog Girl, was naturally a piece of cake~

"What's your name?" Mo Tan asked the Dog Girl behind him casually while looking with interest at the dazzling array of shops and stalls lining both sides of the main road. "Or how should I address you?"

The girl had been swaying her tail happily the whole way. After hearing him, she thought for a moment, then, unusually, didn't instinctively bark. Instead, she whispered, "Ya... ya..."

"Ya?" Mo Tan confirmed. "That's all?"

The girl shook her head forcefully, her ears folding backward. "Ya~ ya~"

Mo Tan scratched his hair. "Yaya?"

"Woof!" The Dog Girl named Yaya nodded happily.

Mo Tan: "..."

I'm so tired...

Seen from above, Anka Market looked like a sideways... giant diamond formed by four smaller diamonds joined together, situated toward the lower part of the Northwest Continent.

Because of its local characteristics, all four of its southeastern, northeastern, southwestern, and northwestern districts contained a great many shops and stalls, run by all kinds of people. The variety of goods was even more astonishing, ranging from goblin rocket belts to fake jewelry dragons used to placate children, from portable elemental pile drivers used by Orc shamans to install totems to mint-leaf snacks favored by feline Half-Orcs. They had everything~

The largest commercial districts, however, were still the western and eastern districts. The former was the main market. It was said that as long as you had enough money, you could find anything you wanted there. The latter contained Anka Market's most iconic building—the Golden Raspberry Auction House—and was also Anka Market's administrative district.

The northern district where Mo Tan had previously been was a general area centered around the Adventurer Guild, Mercenary Association, Mage Guild, and Thieves Guild. It also contained a large number of inns, restaurants, and other service industries.

The smallest southern district was a residential area. Many locals of Anka Market, as well as various reclusive and wealthy researchers, scholars, and resident merchants who particularly disliked going outside, lived there.

Mo Tan also had a quest in the southern district. He was supposedly supposed to weed for a couple surnamed Gulo, and their home wasn't far from where Yaya was going.

"Um..." Mo Tan looked helplessly at Yaya, who had been crouching outside a display window for two minutes, and patted her shoulder. "Weren't you in quite a hurry? So why don't you finish the important business first and come back to look at the chew toys later?"

The Dog Girl instinctively turned and bared her teeth at him. Only then did her face redden. She lowered her head and nodded, then rubbed her little face against the back of Mo Tan's hand and gave an ingratiating "woof."

Fifteen minutes later

Mo Tan stopped in front of a crooked-looking wooden house. He turned and nodded at Yaya, pointing ahead. "This is Ms. Molly's home. Your quest should be to help her clean the garden, right? We've arrived."

"Woof! Tha... thank woof!" Yaya clapped happily. The tail behind her was practically leaving afterimages. She ran two circles around Mo Tan, then leaned over and rubbed her face against his. After that, she dashed ahead and knocked on the door.

Mo Tan was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a smile and walked toward another street a short distance behind them. The Gulo Couple he had to help weed lived nearby, less than two hundred meters from where he was.

"Hmm... Aromatic Avenue, number eleven. This should be the place." Mo Tan looked at the enormous courtyard before him, which occupied at least half an acre, and rolled his eyes. Resenting the wealthy, he pushed open the garden's low gate and walked in, muttering, "I wonder if there are many weeds inside. It might be more..."

He didn't finish. Guided by an intuition similar to a sixth sense, he raised his head, and then...

"Holy crap!!!!!"

Five seconds later

The door of the two-story house in the courtyard was violently pushed open from within. A thin old man rushed out, leaning on a cane, and shouted as he came, "Who's cursing outside my house?! I'll see who it is... Huh? No one?"

You have been disconnected in an emergency. Please select whether to reconnect.

"Yes, reconnect..."

Reconnection beginning...

Connection complete. Reading character information.

Welcome to the Continent of Innocence, Tan Mo of Chaotic Neutral. Good night.

He glanced at the small mound of earth by his feet. The soil on top was obviously freshly turned. He snorted softly. "Softhearted... But since the system says my quest is complete, that means the little priestess named Ai is safe now."

That was right. The moment he had disconnected earlier, he had received a system notification:

Side quest "Rescue the Warm Sun Squad" completed. Current assignable experience: 200 points.

Dead people didn't need rescuing. When he had arrived that night, the Warm Sun Squad's greatswordsman, Lada Dona, had already gone cold. Beside him lay the female priestess Ai Fanye, whose lower abdomen had been ripped open and was surrounded by a pool of blood. As for the person Cole had mentioned, the squad's strongest member, Dave Sager, he had already vanished without a trace.

Combined with the only quest Mo Tan had received earlier—to go to Pato City and destroy the "hero" Dave—the situation was perfectly clear.

Mo Tan had used up the last three beginner health potions and a Divine Grace scroll—all looted from Medi's house—to save the dying apprentice priestess.

After learning what had happened, he immediately spun a string of lies for the girl, who had just experienced betrayal and the death of her companions. In the end, he told her to return to Pato City as soon as possible, hide herself, and prepared to leave at once to deal with those two Crimson Ridge Beasts.

Yet during the process, he had somehow logged out of the game. There should have been plenty of time left, but after leaving the game pod, he discovered that it was already seven in the morning...

"Something's wrong." Mo Tan casually sat beside the simple mound covering the greatswordsman Lada, leaning back against it without a care. He stroked his chin and murmured, "This has happened twice since I started playing this game. Each time, I lost roughly two hours of real-world time. Saying I accidentally fell asleep in the game pod is too far-fetched, especially since I heard the 'You have logged out of the game' notification each time I woke up... Could it be a bug caused by having multiple characters at the same time? But if so, what's the principle behind the bug... Hmm?"

He didn't continue thinking. Instead, he noticed the message box flashing in the corner of his vision.

"Heh~" Mo Tan gave an insidious smile. "Looks like you really missed me... So you want to win this 'game' that badly..."

This character had only one friend. Since he had received a message from outside the system, its source was obvious.

"Are you there?"

"Are you there?"

"You're not offline, are you?"

"Hey! Are you seriously online but refusing to answer me?!"

"There hasn't been any action lately. What else could a shut-in like you be doing late at night if not playing games? Why are you ignoring me!?"

"Say something!"

"I'm so bored~"

"What level are you now? I did several quests today and reached level five!"

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!!!!"

They were all old messages from Shuangye. Well, the last one had just arrived.

Mo Tan leaned against the grave mound and stretched. He casually summarized Shuangye's string of harassment: "Psycho."

Though, come to think of it, he was probably the least qualified person to say that about anyone.

"By dusk, I lean beside a wild grave..." Mo Tan leaned against the grave with a smile and casually made up two lines of doggerel. "The grieving girl's last echoes fade like smoke."

"Don't mind the common fool's hours and ways~" As he spoke, he sent the lines to Shuangye with an obnoxious grin. "I only think of how crazed my beloved may be."

A few seconds later, Shuangye replied: "What does that mean?"

Mo Tan rolled his eyes and thoughtfully answered, "I'm leaning against a fresh grave, worrying about something. I don't have time to deal with you, and you have no right to care what I do at night. I'm more interested in how frantic you are right now..."

After that, he ignored the countless messages that instantly exploded from Shuangye. He neither blocked nor replied to her. Instead, he swayed to his feet, turned around, tamped down the soil on the small grave a little more, and quickly left, disappearing into the afterglow of the sunset...

Chapter Twenty-One: End