"How exactly did you get here?" After the two of them had hugged for a long while, and the goddess had given them an amused smile, Zhang Ruofeng awkwardly asked Xin Mu, who was still clinging tightly to his waist.
At last, Xin Mu had calmed down. She wiped away her tears and began to recall what had happened. "You were about to cross the street, remember? I was going to startle you by tapping you on the back. But somehow, you suddenly took a step forward and ended up right in the middle of the road."
Zhang Ruofeng hurriedly waved his hands. "Wait, wait, wait. You mean I didn't walk into the middle of the road on my own?"
"You're always spacing out, but I've never seen you get into an accident before." Xin Mu shot Zhang Ruofeng a cold glance, expressing her displeasure at how he was always lost in thought. "I don't know how you manage to get so absorbed in your own head while walking, but somehow you can dodge a basketball or a prank attack from behind by your classmates while thinking about something else entirely. You're really weird."
Zhang Ruofeng could only give an awkward smile. It wouldn't do to bring up his past experiences here. "So I was brought to the middle of the road, and then I disappeared?"
"No." Xin Mu shook her head. "I don't know how to describe it. You seemed to merge into a mirror in an instant. The car had actually stopped, so you would've been fine even if you'd stayed where you were. But in my panic, my finger touched that strange mirror too. Then a tremendous force pulled at me through my finger, and I lost consciousness."
Zhang Ruofeng scratched his head, unsure how to describe the information he'd just heard. This sort of thing from an anime couldn't possibly happen in real life, yet here he was on the outskirts of the anime city called Orario. The shock of it all even made him feel a little dizzy. Fortunately, daydreaming was what he did best, so he accepted this new reality pretty quickly.
"Okay, Xin Mu, listen. From what I've gathered, we've ended up in the world of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" Zhang Ruofeng sighed helplessly.
"Um... the one with Bell? The one with the hugely popular goddess Hestia?" Xin Mu's expression went blank too. She'd already guessed they'd crossed into another world, given how it had seemed as if Zhang Ruofeng was being taken to one. But she hadn't expected it to be the world of an anime that had only recently finished airing. She was at a loss for words.
"You even gave your friend the same name as mine." The goddess Flora clapped her hands. "But Hestia has only just been scheduled to descend next time. She's still in the divine realm."
Zhang Ruofeng furrowed his brow. "So we're at a point in time before Bell shows up?" he muttered. "We appeared before Bell did. Are we part of the protagonist's cannon-fodder group? His friend group? Or..."
"There he goes again..." Xin Mu walked over to the goddess helplessly. "He's always like this. Sometimes he suddenly starts talking to himself, really fast and in a low voice. Most of the time, I can't understand what he's saying. Goddess, I may not be as interested in all the little details and lore as Zhang Ruofeng, but I know a bit about this world too. I'd like to join your Familia. May I?"
"Ah, Xin Mu, right?" The goddess smiled happily. "If two people from another world joined my Familia at the same time, the other gods would be green with envy. But of course you can. I know you really like Zhang Ruofeng, so I doubt you'd join another Familia if I turned you down."
Xin Mu's face turned bright red. She hurriedly glanced over at Zhang Ruofeng and saw that he was still looking down, deep in thought about his own questions. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Don't be nervous. All right, while Zhang Ruofeng is frozen in place, let's get the contract signed."
After thinking for a long time, Zhang Ruofeng had mentally run through all the anime he'd watched, along with all the powerful characters and gods in them, but found no clue about the gods. When he looked up, he saw that the goddess and Xin Mu had already completed the same contract ritual he'd gone through. The sight of two beautiful women getting along so well was lovely. Realizing his thoughts had wandered off course, Zhang Ruofeng quickly shook his head. Xin Mu's face was already contorted with pain, so it looked like the inscription had been completed. "Goddess, you said there might be a way for us to get back, right?"
"Don't call me 'goddess' anymore. Since you've joined my Familia, just call me Fura, like the other members used to." The goddess spoke softly as she took Xin Mu's hand and continued, "Although we're gods, we were born after the Ancient Titan Gods. The Ancient Titan Gods had the power to travel between different planes and worlds, but we don't. However, when the Ancient Titan Gods went to other worlds, they supposedly left a portal deep underground in the mortal realm. Activating it would let you travel to other worlds. But back then, we were all young gods, and order and power hadn't yet stabilized. The dragons learned about the power of the ancient Titans and made it their own. Their leader, the Black Dragon, even gained power second only to that of the Titans, and wreaked havoc across the mortal realm. A thousand years ago, Zeus, Hera, and the other gods descended and bestowed power upon the strongest warriors in the mortal realm. After countless people died in the struggle, they finally drove the dragons back underground. But the underground was the dragons' home turf, and they also possessed the Titans' power. Eventually, Orario was established, and for the past nine hundred years, monsters and dragons have waged a brutal war against the humans and other demi-human races on the surface."
"Yeah, that's about the same as the background I know." Zhang Ruofeng nodded to show he understood Fura's explanation. "The adventurers' great wish refers to the Black Dragon in the deepest part of the underground. Killing it is the wish of every human race. Under its leadership, more than fifty percent of the human and demi-human populations died, and the world nearly collapsed." The goddess spoke as though she'd brought them into that bloody, sorrowful world. Countless blood-soaked battlefields seemed to appear right before their eyes.
"And the deepest part of the dungeon is where the Titans' portal lies. It's now occupied by the Black Dragon. What was originally a dungeon meant to test heroes has also become a breeding ground for brutal monsters under the Black Dragon's corrupting influence. So if you join my Familia and become the strongest, you may be able to open the Ancient Titans' portal and return to your world."
"The strongest person..." Zhang Ruofeng's face darkened. "Who's the strongest right now? Ais?"
"Who's Ais?" Fura tilted her head again. "The strongest person right now belongs to the Zeus Familia. Her name isn't Ais."
"Uh, all right." Zhang Ruofeng realized just how much his knowledge of the anime differed from the point in time he'd ended up in, and fell into thought again. Just then, the goddess took his hand with her left. "Don't overthink it. You two must be starving. I don't know how you can think on an empty stomach." The reminder made Zhang Ruofeng realize just how hungry he was. The events piling up one after another had filled his mind so completely that he'd forgotten. He could only follow the goddess outside.
Zhang Ruofeng walked behind the two women. He watched as Flora kept asking questions while Xin Mu—whom the goddess Flora had already taken to calling Mu Mu—stiffly answered with a few words. He remembered hearing that Xin Mu wasn't particularly warm toward women either. Just as he'd expected, a god's curiosity could overcome anything.
"See?" Xin Mu waved her hand, while Flora watched Zhang Ruofeng. He'd been hit by a thrown stone but had shown no reaction, merely tilting his head to dodge it while continuing to think about something. Flora blinked in curiosity.
"All right, stop thinking." When Zhang Ruofeng came back to his senses, he found that the three of them had reached a tall city wall. Four towering soldiers in full armor stood near the city gate.
"Then let's go home."
Before you continue