Looks Like I Came at the Wrong Time

Silver Wolf was quite satisfied with the result. After all, she had taken no damage throughout the entire match and had never truly used her special ability to interfere with the duel.

She glanced down at her points. "Only up by 10 points..."

Silver Wolf stared at the number for two seconds and clicked her tongue softly. "I can only accumulate them little by little, huh? But win streaks give extra points..."

She stroked her chin and began seriously considering whether she should make a push for the rankings.

Of course, she could directly alter the leaderboard. To her, that would not even be difficult.

But if she really did that, the game would lose its meaning.

Besides, rankings did carry a bit of weight. Silver Wolf had just briefly tested the arena's matchmaking system.

If the players on this leaderboard were roughly as strong as Berry Soda had been... then this would probably be an easy leaderboard for her.

Silver Wolf narrowed her eyes. But then again, what if that was just an exception? What if Berry Soda was simply weak?

Silver Wolf was still somewhat conflicted. This would clearly require repeatedly grinding points, and nobody liked endlessly doing the same thing over and over, right?

Prometheus reminded her, "A friend request from Berry Soda has been detected."

"Hm?" Silver Wolf was a little puzzled. Why did the other party want to add her now? "Don't tell me she got beaten up and came to complain about me."

Silver Wolf stared at the friend request for several seconds, but curiosity ultimately won out.

She casually tapped accept.

The moment they became friends, a message popped up. "Silver Wolf! You're amazing!"

"If you have something to say, say it."

"Okay, well, there's actually nothing. I just think you're really amazing."

"Oh."

Silver Wolf then closed the communication window, wondering what the other party had meant.

She stretched lazily. "Whatever. They should be done over there too. I'll go see how things are."

A stream of data swept through the air.

The next second, Silver Wolf appeared out of thin air beside Windchaser. The moment she steadied herself, she saw the scene before her.

Windchaser and Elena were huddled together, and the atmosphere looked rather strange no matter how she looked at it.

"Huh?"

Elena was clearly startled by Silver Wolf's sudden appearance.

She instinctively let go and took half a step back before steadying herself again and silently looking at Silver Wolf.

Windchaser was startled as well. "Wolf Venerable, could you please stop appearing out of nowhere?!"

Silver Wolf scratched her head awkwardly. She looked down at where she was standing, then at where the two of them had been standing just now. She really had come at the wrong time.

"Looks like I came at the wrong time. My bad, my bad."

Vernacular Poet immediately stepped forward to explain for Silver Wolf. "Actually, it was my fault. I was the one who called Silver Wolf over."

Silver Wolf abruptly turned to look at Vernacular Poet. She was absolutely certain that she had not received any message just now.

This guy was purely trying to smooth things over for her.

Yet Vernacular Poet showed no sign of guilt. Instead, he casually continued, "Wolf Venerable, let's go outside and talk for a bit. You too, Sunken Crow!"

After saying that, he turned and walked outside. Sunken Crow said nothing and silently followed him.

Silver Wolf looked at Vernacular Poet for two seconds. This guy really knows how to handle people.

She then followed them out as well, and the room fell quiet again.

Only Elena, Windchaser, and Vita, who lacked common sense, remained.

After they stepped outside, Vernacular Poet spoke again.

"Wolf Venerable, I looked into it. There are basically no suitable targets that match the criteria for cooperating with the Abyss."

Silver Wolf had not expected Vernacular Poet to suddenly bring up the Abyss. "Hm? Are we pushing the main storyline now?"

Vernacular Poet's tone turned serious. "Yes. I'm worried that, after learning the truth... we need to understand information about the Abyss. No one knows whether we'll encounter it."

Silver Wolf looked at him. After a moment, she chuckled and pulled a mint from her pocket, casually tossing it to him.

"That makes sense. But it's only the second day, and you're already this tense?"

Vernacular Poet caught the mint, unwrapped it, and tossed it into his mouth. "It's complicated..."

With the candy in his mouth, he let out a long breath before continuing. "The guild leader already called an emergency meeting... Based on some subtle overlapping evidence, they decided to fully investigate everything related to the Abyss."

"Looks like you guys are taking this very seriously."

"Yes, but we were lacking some historical records about the Abyss. Every guild keeps its own database tightly guarded."

"Because of dungeon information?" Silver Wolf raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Since there aren't any clearly defined dungeons, places highly related to the Abyss tend to have lots of monsters to farm, and everyone treats those places as their own terri..." His voice noticeably paused as he considered his wording.

"Hoarding resources, huh? You really don't care about the solo players' experience."

"Uh... Anyway, that's the situation. If we want to learn more, we can only negotiate with other guilds."

Vernacular Poet skipped over the sensitive topic and continued explaining his thoughts.

"Of course, some guilds occupy many monster-farming spots but may not necessarily know much. But there's one guild whose players are quite varied, so they must have relevant records internally."

"Oh? Which one?"

"Strawberries Are Delicious."

"?" Silver Wolf's expression froze for a moment. She even suspected she had misheard. "Wait, that's really its name?"

"Yeah. The naming issue is a long story—they're basically a gathering of solo players, and they're also the guild with the most small cliques."

"Wow, they even have small cliques."

"They don't manage things strictly, or rather, they don't manage them at all. They were spontaneously organized by some fans."

Silver Wolf could not help but sigh. "Thank goodness they can even keep operating."

Vernacular Poet nodded, then continued, "Next, I'll contact them..."

"No need to make it so troublesome."

Silver Wolf suddenly raised her hand.

Smack.

With a flick of her little hand, it was done in an instant!

"Done. This is their guild's database."

Silver Wolf sent Vernacular Poet the data link she had obtained after hacking in.

Vernacular Poet froze. He looked down at his communicator, then back up at Silver Wolf, the corner of his mouth twitching slowly.

"Oh my god... Wolf Venerable, you... you're incredible."

"You're welcome~" Silver Wolf casually waved her hand. "Anything else?"

"Not really..." Vernacular Poet answered as he checked through their database.

Silver Wolf looked at the focused Vernacular Poet and did not disturb him.

Silver Wolf glanced at Vernacular Poet, who was seriously reviewing the information, and did not interrupt him.

She walked off by herself. In the distance, the World Tree still stood between heaven and earth, its enormous canopy covering nearly half the sky.

Silver Wolf slowly raised her head. Her gaze flickered behind her goggles as data began to appear.

[World Tree]

[Status: Damaged]

[Abyss Connection: Residual]

[Forest Moon God: Unknown]

Silver Wolf watched silently for several seconds. "Why did the Abyss invade the World Tree first...?"

She murmured softly, her fingers unconsciously tapping against her arm. "Sen Yue clearly controlled Space-Time, so why hadn't she taken precautions...?"

She could not figure it out.

If the Forest Moon God truly controlled Space-Time, then by all reason, she should have found it easier than other gods to detect abnormalities.

Yet reality was that the Forest Moon God had still suffered severe damage, and even the World Tree bore traces of the Abyss.

Silver Wolf narrowed her eyes slightly. Could it be that Sen Yue had already been partially corrupted during the War of Fantasy?

There might have been other reasons as well. It might even have been related to that so-called "foreign power."

There were too few clues. Thinking about it now would only be blind speculation.

Silver Wolf gave the World Tree one last look, then raised her hand and recorded the data she had just seen into her system.