Before the Calamity Arrived

Hearing his boss's mutterings, Feng Xue felt a jolt in his heart. Based on his experience as Webnovel novelist in his previous life, the phrase "those idiots" immediately brought a possibility to mind—

The world of online games.

Moreover, it's the kind of story that's supposedly an online game, but is actually a Real World Fourth Natural Disaster novel.

So here's the question--

Is this world a digitized, highly Real World evolved automatically by an AI, or is it the kind of world Great Power Black Technology, magic, or divine status to pull modern players into another world?

And in this world, do characters like time travelers/reincarnated individuals/reborn players who know the truth about the Fourth Natural Disaster exist?

While pondering these questions, Feng Xue gradually began to notice some new issues: what exactly is the structure of this world?

According to Old Li, the Tower of Babylon can only reach the Benchmark World, in other words, the "real world," and the fact that this world contains many True Thing that can be used as a foundation for Reforge but cannot Smelt is the best proof of this.

But this seemingly normal world appears abnormal to Feng Xue, because according to Old Li, the Benchmark World above the fiftieth floor should be affected by some kind of Weird Tale.

However, this could also be because Feng Xue's current focus is limited to the small village.

After all, for Weird Tale, population itself is a resource. No matter how wealthy a small village with a hundred or so households, or at most a thousand people, is, the population is still there, and no matter how hard they try, it is not enough to generate sufficient knowledge.

And a village with such an ancient style is obviously unlikely to have the foundation to Supernatural Tale Transmission.

Of course, there is another possibility—

Those so-called "fools" are not actually the Fourth Natural Disaster in the traditional sense, but rather a group of Weird Tale.

However, Feng Xue felt that this possibility was not very high, because if the player were Weird Tale, there would first need to be an understanding of the player, and in an ancient world, there shouldn't be any understanding of the "player".

While pondering, Feng Xue didn't stop moving. After figuring out the general structure of the village, he left without hesitation. Although waiting for the players to appear here was also an option, he felt that he still needed to learn more about this world.

With the help of her drone and mobile Phantom Object, Feng Xue easily lit up the surrounding map. The village was not too isolated. Along the small river outside the village, there were scattered villages both upstream and downstream. Following the only relatively wide road, Feng Xue walked for more than ten miles and arrived at a County Town.

Before he even entered the city, a middle-aged man with a single sword at his waist approached him. He looked unkempt, with a faint sense of vicissitude on his face, but he seemed to be in good spirits. Calluses could be seen on the tiger's mouth and the pads of his right hand, and there was a glint in his eyes. Based on Feng Xue's eyesight, the man should be a master who was skilled from the outside in.

"Some Yan country elementary school students who have just started school... cough cough, they're at Ke Zhen'e's level." Feng Xue muttered to herself, only to realize that Yan country elementary school students couldn't be used as a standard for evaluation.

After all, for the people of Yan, there are only two definitions: learning and not learning. As long as they start learning martial arts, they can achieve some success within three months. Their strength is only linked to the cultivation method. And those babies born after experiencing the Golden Embryo Iron River Chariot Six Jia Horizontal Training Fetal Protection Skill might be even stronger.

If we want the people of Yan to have a standard for measuring strength, we'll have to wait until this generation of newborns grows up.

Feng Xue mentally grumbled a bit about the martial arts world of Yan Kingdom, then casually stuffed a bag of salt into her sleeve, stepped aside from the swordsman in front of her, and immediately discovered that there were actually quite a few chivalrous figures in this small County Town.

Soon, Feng Xue found a restaurant that was clearly beyond the spending power of ordinary locals. Seeing the sign "Huiyanlou", he immediately stepped inside.

Sure enough, upon entering, one was greeted by a sea of martial arts practitioners wielding knives and swords.

Hearing the waiter's question, "Are you here for a meal or to stay the night?", Feng Xue casually found an empty table, tossed out a gold ingot, and said:

"Bring me two of your best dishes, and a pot of fine tea."

"Alright, please wait a moment, sir!"

When the waiter saw the gold, his eyes lit up immediately. Almost at the same time, Feng Xue felt more than a dozen gazes fall on him.

However, Feng Xue didn't care at all; in fact, this was exactly what he intended to achieve.

In those eyes filled with either greed or curiosity, he relaxed his Hermit Authority, revealing the powers of a [Senior Expert].

Instantly, the entire restaurant fell silent.

Feng Xue immediately activated his [Mirror of Clarity], and a jumble of thoughts began to resonate within his mind—

"Who is this martial arts master?"

"He looks like he's not even thirty yet? Could he be a Daoist master with some kind of age-preserving technique?"

"This senior is unarmed, and his hands are fair and slender. Could he be practicing some kind of Finger Technique?"

"..."

"Oh, not bad, you have some insights." Listening to the various opinions, Feng Xue immediately gained a certain understanding of the local martial arts levels.

Putting aside everything else, the mindset one has when discovering Senior Expert alone reveals the state of the martial arts world. If it were a conspiracy theory world where there are no good people in the world, the mindset would inevitably lean towards greed and darkness. But if it were a world view of righteousness and integrity, the mindset would naturally be much more peaceful.

Judging from the situation in this restaurant, these martial arts figures are more driven by curiosity, which means that the world, at least the local martial arts community, is in a relatively peaceful state.

"Interesting. The world of online games is surprisingly peaceful. Was it during the Closed Beta, with chaos only to erupt after the Open Beta? Or is it because this is just Beginner Village map, hence the relatively simple and honest people?"

Feng Xue pondered to himself, while the people of the martial arts world were observing him, he was also observing them.

The martial arts practitioners in the restaurant were all relatively young, the oldest appearing to be only in their early thirties. Their skill level was roughly equivalent to second-rate masters in the Jin Yong martial arts world. Occasionally, one or two first-rate masters could be seen, but their demeanor showed neither arrogance nor obsequiousness towards those around them. This seemed to suggest that their strength was not outstanding in the martial arts world, perhaps even bordering on the lower ranks, which aligned with his guess about the Beginner Village.

The only problem was that Feng Xue didn't hear anything about the "idiot" from their thoughts.

Not only them, but along the way, neither the street vendors nor the guards at the gate seemed to have any thought about the "fool".

"Is it because players have less influence on the County Town's residents than on the villagers, or is it because those 'idiots' have never even appeared in the County Town?"

I already submitted my leave request at the beginning of the month, so everyone understands. Just one chapter today.