After seeing off the envoy Charlie, the group returned to the tiny mobile fortress, restarted the engines, and began to slowly move forward.
Shortly after they left, the wooden sign, planted in the hard sand and gravel to remind future generations, slowly sank and disappeared into the quicksand.
A gentle breeze stirred up gusts of dust, and the shifting sands gradually disappeared behind the low slope.
"No, although we were indeed late, there's a feeling that the BOSS we've been eyeing for a long time got his kill stolen."
On the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess, players were chatting amongst themselves.
"Who can argue with that? I wonder how long the Twin Kings have been watching Antos. If they've been watching for decades, I might feel a little more at peace with it."
"Yes, but I've been thinking about something—"
"What?"
"What happens to the remaining Blood Corpse in a lineage when a grand duke dies?"
On the rooftop of the fortress-like structure, resembling a tour bus, [ Lion Hidden in the Eyes ] suddenly said:
"It's impossible that Antos was the last one to die in the entire lineage, right?"
"Definitely not, Bennett is still alive and well, isn't she?"
"That's true, but I wonder what will happen to these children who have lost their parents after Antos dies."
"It's supposed to be a joyous occasion, how did you turn it into a tragedy?"
"It's alright, turning a funeral into a celebration is fine too. Right now, I just want to capture an earl from the Antos Lineage and see if he knows about this. If he doesn't, we'll tell him the news and see if he cries, hehehe."
"Hey, do you guys remember?"
The group was chatting enthusiastically, but [ the Good Times Don't Last ] when they suddenly remembered something.
"What's up?"
Do you remember the Battle of Fir City?
"I remember, so what?"
"Back then, didn't the [ Howling Pothos ] boss even have Antos possess him? I remember he was on the verge of death. If Antos was still alive then, the Twin Kings were pretty quick."
"I've thought about this before. According to Silvis, Antos should have left Klaf City about six months ago, which should have been before the Battle of Fir City."
"But if Antos was already in grave danger at the time, he wouldn't have helped [ Howling Pothos ] for no reason. As the progenitor, shouldn't he at least have sent some kind of distress signal to his descendants? I've never heard [ Howling Pothos ] mention this."
"That makes a lot of sense. I didn't say this when Charlie was here, but I actually suspect that Antos faked his death, or maybe the Twin Kings were popping champagne at halftime..."
"Hmm, are there any other possibilities?"
"Or perhaps they're simply unaware of their current situation? Like they've been hypnotized."
"Both sides make sense. Should we post this message on the official website forum?"
"I don't think it's necessary. At his riding speed, he should be at Valhalla in another two or three hours. We're already on a sneak-in trip; if we spoil it for them, we might get a kill order."
"Let them chase us, just don't misspell any words."
"Alright, I'll log off and rest for a bit. The four of us will take turns driving, switching drivers but not vehicles, and head towards that unknown sealed land as fast as we can!"
"No problem! Oh, by the way, have you been in contact with [ Howling Pothos ] and the others recently? How's the situation in Klaf City these past few days?"
"Ah, you mean over there...?"
Wilderness of Chaos, Klaf City, deep underground.
In a relatively spacious stone cave, a dozen or so Soul Returner were resting.
They formed a circle, with a Ignite campfire in the center and the monster's tender flesh roasting in the center.
At this moment, some people were flipping the roasted meat, some were sharpening their weapons, and others were counting supplies and cutting off the ears of the Blood Corpse to sell for money.
If you deliberately ignore the glittering, semi-transparent game panel in front of them, the scene is no different from any other dungeon game.
Around the campfire, three people were huddled together, looking at something. [ Howling Pothos ], [ Retreat Drum Player ], and [ Elderly and Children Fly First ] were still the captains of their respective teams, and they were discussing their next exploration plan.
Suspended between the three was a three-dimensional trajectory map, with each glowing line representing the path they had taken.
These lines are intricate and complex. Some are very close together but are sandwiched between thick rock walls, while others are quite far apart but can be connected by a cave, either natural or man-made.
The three of them looked at the densely packed, tree-root-like trajectory map and discussed where to go next.
This was the method that the three teams summarized after fighting in Klaf City for more than half a month.
Although for the first ten days or so, everyone was constantly switching between "I feel like I've been here before" and "Why is there a road here?", as time went on, these top-tier players realized that doing so was just a waste of time.
So they began to record the paths they had taken, and with the help of the game system, they planned and drew routes, which finally prevented them from repeating the same paths.
For players, when the randomness of a game begins to decrease, completing the entire collection becomes the next goal.
As for the entire collection, that is, of course, the entire territory of Klaf City.
So from then on, the players began to mark each cave entrance and summarize the routes. To this day, they feel they have explored about a third of the complete structure of Klaf City.
Although they are far from having collected everything, their primary task remains finding the location of the Grand Duke of Adelaide.
As their exploration progressed, some signs seemed to indicate that Adelaide was nearby...
Taking a bite of the slightly fishy-smelling meat skewer in his hand, [ The Retreat Drum Player ] complained for what felt like the umpteenth time why the world didn't have cooking wine, a helpful tool for removing fishy odors.
He reached out and lightly tapped a spot, then said to the two people beside him:
"The road network density in this area is relatively low, and there are two unexplored cave entrances nearby, so I think this place has a high probability of being the location."
"I think it might be here."
[ Elderly and Children Fly First ] indicated another location:
"There are four vampire nobles guarding this place, and they're all from the Adelaide Lineage, so the probability isn't low."
The two had a slight disagreement about the next destination. In this situation where each side had one vote, [ Howling Pothos's] statement would determine the team's final priority for exploration.
So the two captains looked at [ Howling Pothos ], who hadn't said much.
[ Howling Pothos ] didn't give an answer, but instead pondered and said:
"I've suddenly discovered another blind spot."
"What?"
The two asked in unison.
"Do you remember how we got down into this underground city?"
"Isn't it done by digging holes with Blood Corpse?"
"That's right, it was the Blood Corpse digging the tunnels. The fact that the Blood Corpse would actively dig downwards means that a more powerful Blood Corpse was summoning them, right?"
The two nodded.