Chapter 1 The Melting Stone Pillars

Won or lost?

Seeing the inquiring expressions on his companions' faces, Hohenheim gave a faint wry smile, stepped off the stone platform, and onto the grass.

"Losers pay the price."

Claude, who also stepped down from the platform, coldly tossed the three bags in his hand towards Hohenheim, keeping a distance between them.

The latter activated Mage Hand, grabbing the three bags of questionable material from the air, without putting them into his spatial storage device.

"I lost this time."

Claude dusted off the palms of his hands, twisted his neck, and said indifferently, "There are one, two, and three black dots at the bottom of these three bags respectively.

Their opening times are when you encounter evil and filthy things;

When you hear unreasonable requests;

And when you are about to leave this place;

Strictly follow these three time nodes, open the bags in order according to the number of black dots, and it should help you through the difficulties ahead.

If you open the bags at inappropriate times, or repeatedly try to explore the contents of the bags,

Some pretty bad things will happen...

Don't blame me for not warning you."

After saying that, he glanced at the ground, at the boar carcass that had been dissected by David and neatly piled on the plastic sheet, and said in surprise, "Why did you dissect it? That was my dinner!"

"Huh?"

David was stunned for a moment, a little embarrassed, and said, "Uh... I thought you killed this creature to demonstrate to us.

But it should be okay like this, right? I just helped you break it down."

"You know nothing. I was going to use it for soup. I smashed its brains directly with my fist just now to ensure the original flavor of the ingredients could be locked under the fur. Now you've ruined it all..."

Claude rambled on with red eyes for a while, then calmed down after a moment, took a deep breath, and picked out a few pieces of wild boar meat with a straight face, wrapped them tightly in a plastic sheet, and tied them into a package.

Bang.

He carried the package on his back, turned his head and took a deep look at the players, and said with a straight face, "Starting from here, go three kilometers in the eleven o'clock direction, then go five kilometers in the eight o'clock direction, and then go two kilometers to the left..."

Claude reported a long string of travel routes at a rapid pace, and concluded, "If you follow the route I said, you shouldn't be attacked by beasts.

If you deviate from the road, don't respond to any sounds you hear, and walk towards the sunlight until you meet up with the others.

Once you leave the forest,

You will know where to go next..."

After saying that, without waiting for the players to ask again, Claude picked up the package containing the pork, stepped on the ground, and窜 (cuàn – darted) into the depths of the dense forest, his figure quickly swallowed and disappeared by the intertwined shadows of the trees.

"So such a big wild boar, how big a pot do you need to make soup..."

Ding Zhensi smacked his lips while standing in place, and looked at the others, "Should we chase him?"

"No need."

Hohenheim, standing at the front, shook his head, turned to look at his companions, "Let's follow the route he said. I'll tell you what happened earlier on the way."

The group of players set off on the road. Just as Li Ang had guessed, the actual explorable area of this forest was quite vast. The road pointed out by Claude was intricate, but overall, it was still heading in the eleven o'clock direction.

At the speed of the players, it would take about an hour to know the road.

Along the way, Hohenheim began to recount the experience of tossing the coins earlier.

In the first two rounds of throwing, he first won, and then was immediately tied two games in a row by Claude, entering the match point game of two to two.

"In the fourth round, I had already calculated almost all the interference factors, including the surrounding air density, wind direction, wind speed, the angle and strength of the coin toss, but I still lost that game."

Hohenheim explained, "From that moment on, I realized that this was not a simple matter of luck, or a mathematical game comparing probability calculations.

The essence of tossing a coin is actually comparing whose technique is more superb, and who can influence and interfere with the coin without being discovered by the other party."

David raised an eyebrow, "Cheating?"

"That's right, it's cheating."

Hohenheim nodded and said, "There was nothing wrong with the coin itself, the problem was with Claude himself.

In the short period of time when I tossed the coin, causing the coin to fly up and rotate in the air,

He used his gaze to stare at the coin, causing the trajectory of its rotation to change subtly—this was something I discovered before the start of the fifth round, by constantly replaying the previous recordings in my mind.

Every time he tossed the coin, a tiny, almost imperceptible red dot would light up deep in his eyes.

Although at the beginning of the fifth round, I still didn't know what the red dot in the depths of his eyes had to do with the coin, but knowing his cheating method, I could interfere and counter his moves."

Hohenheim shrugged his shoulders and said, "Controlling the ejection force of Mage Hand is obviously not going to work, it will definitely be interfered with by the other party.

Manipulating gravity, wind power, and other methods would probably be noticed by the other party on the spot and caught red-handed.

So my method is to use light."

Ding Zhensi frowned, "Light?"

"That's right."

Hohenheim nodded and said, "Although light does not have static mass, it does have momentum, which is manifested in the macroscopic world as light pressure.

The thrust generated by this light pressure can be ignored in most cases,

But in special circumstances, such as when I use magic to strengthen sunlight and form a macroscopic optical tweezer, I can interfere with the rotation of the coin with the thrust generated by light pressure.

At the beginning of the fifth round of tossing, I pretended to toss with regular force, and then suddenly increased the force, causing the coin to bounce high, instantly pass through the canopy, and fly into the air.

Claude did not anticipate this. When he suddenly raised his head, wanting to focus his vision on the coin, I had already used magic above the canopy to complete the light pressure interference, causing the angle of rotation of the coin to change.

The potential energy of the coin began to transform into kinetic energy, falling straight down and landing in my Mage Hand.

Not giving Claude enough opportunity to interfere with his gaze.

In the end, I won that game without violating the rules - I just tossed it with a little bit more force."

Hohenheim paused for a moment and slowly said, "Now that I think about it, Claude's gaze should be a kind of ability based on the law of causality.

When he enters the observation state, the coin will rotate in the direction he wants.

Maybe in addition to light pressure interference, I can also win the game by cutting down the surrounding trees, changing the wind direction and wind force, or blocking his line of sight.

After all, he was too confident. In the fifth round, he still chose tails, tails, tails as his toss result.

As long as heads appeared in the first three tosses, he would definitely lose."

"So that's how it is."

David nodded, looked at the three bags held by Hohenheim's Mage Hand, and asked, "Aren't you tired of holding the bags with magic all the time? Don't you put them in the backpack slot?"

"This thing is displayed as a bound item and cannot be placed in the backpack slot."

Hohenheim's expression became a little strange, and he revealed the item description of the bag.

[Name: Suspicious Bag]

[Type: Quest Item]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: Containment. A strange bag containing the cherished items of the three-armed monster Claude]

[Consumption: None]

[Cooldown: None]

[How to use: Untie the bag]

[Remarks: Quest item, cannot be placed in the backpack slot or spatial storage device]

[Remarks: A long, long time ago, the three-armed monster Claude was a famous chef. Every dish he developed caused a trend in the kingdom. Until one day, it was discovered that the secret to his delicious food was adding parts of his own body to every dish, such as nails, dandruff, rubbed dirt, saliva, snot, etc.]

[Remarks: Claude, the famous chef who was kicked out of the kingdom, went to the Holy Mountain to pilgrimage, repent, and reform, but his personal hygiene became even worse. Personal recommendation... it's best not to touch anything he gives with your hands]

"This..."

David was stunned for a moment, smelled the strange smell emitted by the bag, and countless possibilities flashed through his mind, "Okay, I understand why you want to hold it with Mage Hand..."

"But if it can't be put in the backpack slot, we have to carry it all the time."

Ding Zhensi thought for a while and said, "Mr. Hohenheim, haven't you used magic to observe what's inside?"

"I tried it, but it didn't work."

Hohenheim said, "This bag can absorb energy. Detection spells are ineffective, but according to the shape, weight, sound..."

"The first bag should contain metal products, the second bag contains stones, and the third bag contains a piece of meat or rubber products.

Considering that this thing belongs to a quest item, it will definitely be useful later. It's best not to destroy or dismantle it according to Claude's instructions."

Along with Hohenheim's narration, the group walked out of the dense forest without encountering additional trouble.

They stood outside the forest and looked back. The dark and deep forest was like a huge monster, silently opening its bloody mouth, choosing people to devour.

"We're out."

Ding Zhensi took a deep breath and looked at the remaining battery power in the cockpit, which was still ninety percent.

The Kui Niu Mech had undergone a comprehensive upgrade after the Doorway Contest, and the overall battery power was much higher than before. There were also two large-capacity energy devices in his backpack slot, which should be enough to cope with the subsequent script tasks.

"Mm."

Li Ang nodded slowly, "Standing outside and looking at it, the phenomenon of this forest moving is really obvious."

From the players' perspective, the entire dark dense forest was changing in a strange way. One second, the trees and canopies at the edge of the forest were rustling in the wind.

The next second, that area of trees suddenly changed,

The types, shapes, and colors of trees, shrubs, and grasslands had all changed,

But no obvious abnormality could be seen, as if the new area of trees had originally grown there.

"These trees are changing together with the land below, but the leaves falling from mid-air do not shift."

Liu Wu Dai observed for a while, and said calmly, "Maybe the position change is based on the ground.

If we hadn't encountered the NPC Claude, or lost the coin toss game, we should have been able to get out of the forest by suspending ourselves.

It might even be faster."

"But it might take longer to find the rules of suspension."

Hohenheim said lightly, turned his head and looked ahead, "The Holy Mountain should be ahead."

Everyone turned to look, and saw a towering snow-capped mountain, located in the extreme distance.

The jagged rocks on the mountainside were blue-black, the snow on the peaks was quite thick, pure white, surrounded by clouds and mist, like a fairyland.

And on the summit of the snow mountain, there stood a towering, bizarre building.

The building was generally in the shape of a cube, jet black, covered with intersecting golden straight lines, dividing the building into pieces,

Like a Rubik's Cube, it abruptly inserted into the snow mountain surface,

The volume of the building below that penetrated deep into the snow layer was unknown.

"Holy Mountain..."

Hohenheim narrowed his eyes, "Let's go."

The first stage of the mission objective is [Cross the forest and reach the foot of the Holy Mountain]

The first half has been completed by the players, and the second half still needs to continue forward. Even at the speed of the players, it is best to hurry up.

Everyone rested briefly and set off again.

After stepping out of the forest, the lightning strike barrier still existed.

Since modern vehicles and summons could not be used,

Li Ang simply used the soil of this world to release alchemy, and kneaded a few sleds with spring shock absorption systems, letting everyone sit on them.

Ding Zhensi, opened the roller function of the Kui Niu Mech, and dragged the rope in front, pulling the sleds forward.

The Kui Niu Mech was originally made to adapt to harsh environments, and can also adapt to the lack of energy of "altitude sickness" in environments with extremely low free energy.

Its speed is faster than the others, and it can also help the others save some energy.

For the high-level players present, it has a kind of "plainness is true" experience.

Soon Ding Zhensi pulled his other companions, climbing over several small slopes, and approaching the foot of the Holy Mountain.

The moment the Kui Niu Mech's feet stepped on the blue-black rock, everyone heard the system prompt sound.

[First stage mission completed]

[Second stage mission objective: Find a way to enter the Holy Mountain]

[Mission time limit: 5 hours]

[Mission reward: None]

[Mission failure penalty: None]

"Find a way to get into the Holy Mountain?"

Ding Zhensi was stunned for a moment, released the sled rope, turned around and looked at the others, "Does this mean we can't go directly in?"

"It's entering the Holy Mountain, not climbing the Holy Mountain."

Hohenheim frowned and said, "We are already within the snow mountain range.

According to the literal meaning of the system's mission description,

It may be asking us to enter the interior of the Holy Mountain through that Rubik's Cube-shaped building?

Or directly dig a tunnel."

"Another 5 hour time limit..."

David squinted his eyes and slowly said, "Digging a tunnel is unlikely. There is a problem with the stones at the foot of the snow mountain. The hardness is much higher than ordinary stone materials in the real world.

I guess we can only go from the Rubik's Cube building.

But the distance between the Rubik's Cube building and the ground is above the height that we detected before that would cause lightning strikes.

Recklessly climbing the snow mountain may cause lightning strikes.

In addition, there is also the risk of encountering monster attacks and avalanches on the snow mountain.

Hmm?"

Suddenly, David seemed to have sensed something, and instantly pulled out the Judgement Spear from his backpack slot, the power surging from his body flowed to his right arm.

The surging current penetrated the golden spear, and the spear tip zapped the air, crackling.

"Who's there? Come out!"

David roared at a vacant area at the foot of the snow mountain, the spear in his hand ready to be launched at any time.

"Don't attack, don't attack."

Only a hoarse cry was heard, ringing out in that vacant area.

On the vacant area in front of everyone that seemed to be empty, the light rippled and changed, revealing a small mountain village composed of wood and stone buildings, and a group of emaciated.... vampires?