The Adventurer's Last Wish

"How exactly did you get here?" After the two had embraced for a long while, Zhang Ruofeng asked with an awkward smile, looking at Xin Mu, who was still clinging tightly to his waist while the goddess teased them.

Xin Mu finally calmed down, wiped away her tears, and began to recall: "Weren't you about to cross the street? I originally wanted to startle you by tapping your back, but for some reason, you suddenly took a step forward—a single step that landed you right in the middle of the road."

Zhang Ruofeng quickly waved his hands: "Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying I didn't walk into the middle of the road myself?"

"You're always in a daze, yet I've never seen you get into an accident before." Xin Mu shot Zhang Ruofeng a cold glance, expressing her dissatisfaction with his habit of having his head in the clouds. "I don't know how you manage to get completely lost in your own thoughts while walking, but the fact that you could dodge a basketball or a prank attack from your classmates while fully preoccupied is just bizarre."

Zhang Ruofeng could only offer a sheepish smile; it wasn't the right time to bring up his past experiences. "So, I was pulled into the middle of the road, and then I just vanished?"

"No." Xin Mu shook her head. "I don't know how to describe it. It was as if you merged into a mirror in an instant. The car actually stopped, so you would have been fine even if you had stayed put, but in my panic, my finger touched that strange mirror. A massive pulling force surged through my finger, and then I lost consciousness."

Zhang Ruofeng scratched his head, unable to find words for the information he had just heard. He felt that such anime-like plotlines shouldn't exist in reality, yet he was standing on the outskirts of a city called Orario, a city from an anime. The shock was dizzying, but as an otaku, his greatest strength was his imagination, so he accepted the premise quickly.

"Well, Xin Mu, listen to me. Based on what I've just gathered, we seem to have arrived in the world of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" Zhang Ruofeng sighed helplessly.

"That... the one with Bell? The one with the popular goddess Hestia?" Xin Mu's expression went blank. She had considered the possibility of transmigration, as the scene felt like it was dragging Zhang Ruofeng to another world, but she was speechless to find it was the world of a new anime that had only recently finished airing.

"You've mentioned the name of a friend of mine." Goddess Flora suddenly clapped her hands. "However, Hestia is only scheduled to descend as a deity next; she is still in the Heavens right now."

Zhang Ruofeng frowned. "So, we are at a point in time before Bell appears?" he muttered. "We appeared at a time when Bell hasn't shown up yet. Are we just cannon fodder for the protagonist? Or part of the protagonist's friend group? Or..."

"He's doing it again..." Xin Mu walked toward the goddess helplessly. "He's always like this. Sometimes he starts talking to himself, his voice low and fast, and most of the time I don't know what he's saying. Goddess, although I'm not as obsessed with details and settings as Zhang Ruofeng, I do have some understanding of this world. I would like to join your Familia, may I?"

"Ah, Xin Mu, is it?" The goddess smiled happily. "Having two people from another world join my Familia at once—if the other gods found out, they would be green with envy. But that's no problem. I know you're very fond of Zhang Ruofeng, right? I imagine you wouldn't join any other Familia if you weren't allowed to join this one."

Xin Mu's face turned bright red. She hurriedly turned to look at Zhang Ruofeng, and seeing that he was still head-down in thought, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't be nervous. Come, while Zhang Ruofeng is in his 'static state,' let's sign the contract."

Zhang Ruofeng had been thinking for a long time, cycling through all the experts and deities he had seen in the anime, but found no clues about the gods. When he looked up, he saw the goddess and Xin Mu performing the same contract ritual he had just undergone. The sight of two stunning women bonding was truly a feast for the eyes. Realizing his thoughts had wandered, he quickly shook his head. By now, a look of pain had appeared on Xin Mu's face; it seemed the falna had been successfully inscribed. "Goddess, you mentioned earlier that it might be possible to go back, right?"

"Don't call me 'Goddess' all the time. Since you've joined my Familia, just call me Fura, like the other members did in the past," the goddess said softly, taking Xin Mu's hand. She continued, "Although we are deities, we are new gods born after the Ancient Titan Gods. The original Ancient Titan Gods possessed the power to traverse different planes and worlds, but we do not. However, it is said that when the Ancient Titan Gods traveled to other worlds, they left behind a portal deep underground in the mortal realm. Activating this portal allows one to travel to other worlds. But because we were newborn deities at the time, our order and power were unstable. The Dragon race learned of the power of the Ancient Titan Gods and turned it into their own. Their leader, the Black Dragon, even gained power second only to the Ancient Titan Gods, wreaking havoc on the world. 900 years ago, the main god Zeus, Hera, and other deities descended, bestowing power upon the strongest warriors on earth. After countless deaths and resistance, they finally drove the Dragon race back underground. But because the underground is the Dragon race's home turf and holds the power of the Titans, Orario was eventually formed. For these 900 years, monsters and the Dragon race have been waging a cruel war against the humans and other demi-human races on the surface."

"Hmm, this matches the background I know." Zhang Ruofeng nodded to show he understood Fura's explanation. "The 'greatest wish of all adventurers' refers to the Black Dragon in the deepest part of the underground. Slaying it is the wish of all human races. Under its leadership, over 50% of humans and demi-humans perished, and the world once faced collapse." The goddess seemed to transport them into that bloody and sorrowful world; the countless battlefields stained with blood seemed to appear right before their eyes.

"And at the very bottom of the labyrinth lies the portal of the Titans, now occupied by the Black Dragon. The labyrinth, originally meant as a trial for heroes, has been turned into an incubator for vicious monsters under the influence of the Black Dragon's evil energy. So, by joining my Familia and becoming the strongest, you might be able to open the Ancient Titan portal and return to your world."

"The strongest..." Zhang Ruofeng's face darkened. "Who is the strongest person right now? Ais?"

"Who is Ais?" Fura tilted her head again. "The current strongest person belongs to the Zeus Familia. It's not someone named Ais, you know?"

"Uh, okay." Zhang Ruofeng realized deeply that his knowledge of the anime and the current point in time had a massive discrepancy. He fell back into thought. At this moment, the goddess took Zhang Ruofeng's hand with her left hand. "Don't think so much. You two must be starving. I don't know how you can think while your stomachs are empty." Reminded, Zhang Ruofeng realized he was indeed famished, but the successive events had filled his head so completely that he had forgotten. He had no choice but to follow the goddess out.

Zhang Ruofeng walked at the very back while the two women walked in front. He watched Fura ask endless questions, and Xin Mu—already affectionately dubbed "Mu-mu" by the goddess Flora—replied with a stiff expression. Recalling the rumors that Xin Mu wasn't particularly enthusiastic about other girls, he could only conclude that, as he had known, a god's curiosity could overcome anything.

"Look." Xin Mu waved her hand, and Flora also looked at Zhang Ruofeng, who had been hit by a stone but didn't react at all, merely shaking his head slightly to dodge it while still lost in thought. She blinked her eyes in curiosity.

"Alright, stop thinking." When Zhang Ruofeng finally came to his senses, he found that the three of them had arrived beneath a tall city wall, and four tall soldiers in full armor were standing near the city gate.

"Now, let's go home."