"There are many more."
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] Reflecting on the miserable life he'd been living lately, he started frantically typing in the chat box:
"Actually, it mainly depends on where the food for this meal came from..."
"If it's just been moved from the warehouse, you'll find rat droppings in it."
"If it's transported from the west, near the Skeleton Alliance, then you can eat a lot of sand and stones."
"If they are transported from places in the south, you can eat insects the size of your little finger."
"If they were conscripted from ordinary imperial citizens..."
As he watched the other person lay out the various condiments they might taste later, [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] froze on the spot.
Is this really porridge?
Even the chain milk tea shops downstairs from his house don't have this many kinds of toppings, okay?
"Dude, with conditions like that, how did you survive?"
"I'd like to know—"
On the other side, [ Practice More If You're Bad ] also had some doubts:
"You managed to get all this way, how come you haven't tried any of these?"
"Oh, that's because I'm a summoner player. Didn't we update the patch for 'plants and animals (moving plants)' summons? My Vine Dog can now grow three Tasteless Fruit every day. They're not very tasty, but they're still better than porridge with toppings."
"Then you're very lucky..."
Seeing the other party's explanation, [ Practice More If You're Bad ], lying on the single bed, turned over, and the snoring of the other members of the horse team reached his ears:
"I'm just a pathetic half-dragon, I haven't missed a single meal of food..."
Annoyed by the snoring around me, and not wanting to log off, [ Practice More If You're Bad ] thought for a moment and asked:
"Can you come out? Let's talk in person."
"Isn't this a military camp?"
[ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] was extremely surprised.
"How strictly were auxiliary soldiers managed in the Middle Ages? They weren't supervised unless they ran away from the camp."
"Really?"
"Really, why don't you tell me your tent number, and I can come find you."
"Dongying No. 24."
"Okay, five minutes."
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] He suddenly sat up on the single bed and listened to the sounds around him for a while.
After confirming that everyone was asleep, he got out of bed and quietly slipped out of the tent, heading towards tent number 24 in the eastern camp by the dim firelight and moonlight.
Five minutes later, [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] in the dormitory heard faint footsteps mixed with snoring.
He quietly got up and slipped out of Enoch and A Luo's encirclement, not even bothering to put on his shoes, and quietly went outside the tent.
As soon as the tent flap was lifted, a tall figure appeared in front of [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ].
Fortunately, he had loved watching horror movies since he was a child, so he didn't take this level of "jumping fright" seriously at all and kept walking out.
Having confirmed each other's identities through their IDs, [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] hadn't even said anything when [ Practice More If You're Bad ] had already lost all composure.
As soon as the tent flap fell, he greeted us in a sarcastic tone:
"Ah, is the centurion here?"
[ Soaring Clouds 3773 ], ignoring the other's taunts, slipped into the night. The two reached a spot in the shadows a hundred paces away and sat against the camp wall behind them, beginning to communicate in the language of another world:
"Hey buddy."
Listening to the naturally occurring white noise around me, and having not seen a fellow [ Practice More If You're Bad ] for a long time, I idly remarked:
"Given the atmosphere of the movie, we should have a couple of cigarettes at this point."
"Oh? You saw that new product too?"
What goods?
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] was a little confused, while [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] opened the shop page on the player panel.
The two were currently outside the Root Network, unable to purchase physical items, but this did not prevent them from receiving store update notifications.
"I thought you were talking about this new Aberration plant, [ Poisonheart Tobacco ]... I heard it's incredibly effective; one puff and someone with a weak constitution will collapse."
"Wow, there are traditionalists too?"
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] That stern face from the daytime has completely disappeared:
"I've been so busy lately, I haven't had any time to look at these."
"I'm alright. It's certainly new and exciting here in the Empire, but it gets boring after a while. If it weren't for this conscription order today, I'd probably be planning to head south again by now."
"I don't recommend going. I heard there's a serious insect infestation there right now..."
"Ugh... that's disgusting..."
"I've been really busy with work in real life lately, and there's also a lot going on in the game..."
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] sighed:
"Anything new happening at the Second Holy See?"
" Ed is going on a pilgrimage to the Holy City at the end of next month, that's what the game announcement said, but actually he's probably going to pull off something big..."
[ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] initially felt that the change in [ Practice More If You're Bad ]'s dialogue style was a bit unnatural. After chatting for a while, he realized that the other person was really busy in real life and had accidentally ended up with this identity in the game. He was reluctant to give up and start over, so he could only try to balance the game and reality, which is why he was not very clear about some recent events.
After briefly recounting several major events recorded in the forum recently, [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] sighed:
"Sigh, actually I've been away from my 'hometown' for over a month now. I saw all this on the forum. What about you, buddy?"
"So, how did you infiltrate the Empire? And how did you become an officer? I thought I was already pretty impressive, but I never imagined you were even more legendary..."
"It's not that simple..."
When asked how he managed to become a low-ranking officer in the Empire, [ Practice More If You're Bad ] instinctively reached into his pocket, but found nothing. Disappointed, he gave up and began his story from a strange angle:
Do you know [ Clear Soup Master ]?
I know them, but we're not very close.
"Did you know that he once uncovered a hidden side story in Fir City?"
"I think I've heard something about it; I saw it on a forum a long time ago."
"That side quest..."
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] sighed:
"It's not over yet."
"Ah????"
[ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] was stunned upon hearing this.
Fir City Operation seems to be a winter event, right?
It's already summer, and the main storyline has been over for almost half a year, yet they're saying the side quests aren't finished?
Thinking back carefully to the settlement screen of the major mission "Fir City Operation", [ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] vaguely remembered that the side quest was indeed not completed at that time.
It's quite bizarre that the main storyline ended six months ago, but the side stories are still progressing...
He nodded and looked at [ Practice More If You're Bad ], signaling the other person to continue.
"That side quest was really difficult. [ Clear Soup Master ] couldn't handle it by himself, so he pulled a few people together from the forum."
"I was a freelancer, and I had some free time at that time. Plus, I liked reading about fictional settings, so I got hooked on his pirate ship..."
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] sighed and said:
"We have roughly uncovered some intelligence, such as that the children used by the Stained Ones for experiments are divided into two categories. One category consists of school-age children within the local jurisdiction, who are tricked into going to the church's underground by various means."
"The other type is called ' Base Body ', which only has a number and no name."
"There is evidence that the ' Base Body ' originated from the south, and we can now be fairly certain that the Base Body came from the Empire."
[ Soaring Clouds 3773 ] frowned slightly upon hearing this:
"Why couldn't it be from the Skeleton Alliance?"
[ Practice More If You're Bad ] took a deep breath and sighed:
"Because that's the ' Skeleton Alliance,' and the people there are all skeletons."