Chapter 1 The Road

During their journey, Hao Ren learned that the young woman who seemed to be traveling alone was named Becky, and in her own words, she was a freelance mercenary.

Freelance mercenaries, a martial profession that traveled around, seemed to be a common group in this world. They had their own organization, but the structure was so loose that it could hardly be called an "armed group." They operated among the people and accepted all kinds of work according to their abilities. Although Becky didn't say much to a stranger, Hao Ren guessed that these people probably dabbled in everything from murder and looting to finding cats for old ladies, depending on what the employer paid them to do.

This sounded like an incredible profession. Hao Ren used his Earthling logic to think for a long time but couldn't figure out how these people could appear in reality in such a blatant way, let alone why the authorities of various countries would allow such groups to exist in the civilian world. But Becky appeared in front of him so vividly that he could only admit it was a fact. Perhaps there was some special social structure in this world that made the existence of freelance mercenaries possible. Anyway, this group of seemingly powerful guys was indeed very active all over the world.

"Don't look at me like I'm young. I'm a Grade Two mercenary. I've been making a living since I was fourteen," Becky was a carefree girl. She was probably very confident in her strength, and this profession gave her a talkative and generous attitude. After confirming that Hao Ren was not a threat, she became more talkative. "I'm familiar with eighty percent of the places around Holletta. I've even been to the Empire. Do you believe I crossed this great prairie alone? Haha, I originally came to the prairie for a small mission, but I didn't expect to pick up an interesting guy... By the way, your name is Hao Ren? I still feel weird about this name. It doesn't sound like a Holletta name."

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat every fifteen minutes during the two hours he walked with Becky. He realized that he was truly an honest person and was not good at lying to others within a two-meter radius (it was much easier to lie over the phone or in other situations where he didn't have to meet). Every time he talked to Becky, he was worried that he would expose himself as a suspicious person and be stabbed by this girl—not that she would kill him, but he would lose the free guide he had finally found, and it wouldn't be so easy to find a local to fool and inquire about information next time. So now he was trying to listen more and talk less, pretending to be a research-oriented talent who spent all day at home doing academics. That way, even if he made mistakes in his speech, he could get away with it by being bad at communication. The less you say, the fewer mistakes you make, that's the truth.

"My name belongs to a minority..." Hao Ren chuckled dryly, while trying to remember the bits and pieces of information that Becky revealed in her conversation. Now he knew that the town of Lunbeier he was going to was a border town located in the southern part of the prairie, and that Lunbeier belonged to the Kingdom of Holletta. It was also Becky's hometown. He also learned that there was a new empire called the Horner Empire on the north side of the great prairie, and Becky knew very little about it. Because the two countries were too far apart to attack each other, they were currently flirting remotely, trying to show the international community that they were peace-loving gentlemen—but they had also beaten down all the small countries around them, so the credibility of this remote flirting was not very high.

The above was all the information that Becky had revealed during her idle chatter. Hao Ren was very curious as to why this girl was so talkative. It seemed like there was nothing she didn't know, but then he thought about it. He had a Lily at home who was even more outgoing than Becky. When Lily took the bus to his new home, she went from the local vegetable prices to the American Civil War. That husky was obviously a more skilled bullshitter...

"By the way, where are you from?" Becky asked, tilting her head slightly. "I've seen a lot of magicians, and even the most unreliable ones wear a hot robe all day to show their style. Your clothes look more like a commoner traveling. Do the magicians over there dress like this?"

Hao Ren thought to himself that he really was traveling—he was an idiot for agreeing to a more idiotic female boss to come out of his house and travel to a primitive planet eight hundred light-years away, blowing the sea breeze for half the night and then falling into the dream plane, and from the height of a ten-story building. This was like traveling with his life. But when he really said it, he just smiled: "I personally like it this way. You wouldn't know if I told you where I came from—actually, I'm an Imperial."

Becky had just said that she didn't know much about the country across the great prairie, so it was the smartest thing to say to put himself on the Empire's side. And the words "Imperial" were not strictly nonsense. The Xiling Empire was also an empire...

"Wow, teleporting from the Empire to the great prairie?" Becky almost fell off her horse. "How many crystals did you smash on the teleportation array? I don't think you look like a nobleman... Did you bankrupt yourself just to come to the great prairie to experience landing face-first?"

Hao Ren: "... I don't know. I was stunned when I fell. My mind is very confused now. Don't ask too much, okay..."

"See, I told you that your brain was broken when you fell, but you didn't believe me," Becky shook her head. "Anyway, I'm responsible for sending you to the border, and then you can figure out how to go back yourself. Tsk tsk, I'm really a little worried about how you're going to go back. The Horner Empire is separated from here by the entire great prairie. All you have is a flying music box that can be sold for money—and it's mine now."

Hao Ren couldn't help but feel a little apologetic. That music box was destined to fool this girl, but looking at the expectant expression on her face, he felt a pang of guilt in advance.

Just as Hao Ren was wondering how long it would take to see the border town, Becky suddenly pulled on the reins and stopped her mount, then pulled Hao Ren off the horse: "Wait, something's up."

Before Hao Ren could figure out what was going on, he was pulled off his horse by this strong girl and pressed his neck to the leeward side of a small hill. He moved his head hard: "What's wrong?"

"A pack of wolves...fighting over territory," Becky lowered her voice, and used some kind of gesture to make her horse retreat to the side, "Let's take a look, maybe there's a bargain to be had... Ah, will you be a burden?"

Hao Ren poked his head out and took a look, and sure enough, he saw two groups of black giant wolves fighting in the hollow in the distance. They were the unique and mighty beasts of this dream plane.

If this situation were placed in front of ordinary people, I'm afraid everyone would want to find a way to hide far away, but this Becky girl next to him saw two packs of wolves fighting, and she stopped with great interest, ready to "take advantage"?!

Hao Ren didn't know how powerful the humans in this world could be, but he had a one-sided relationship with a certain silly wolf king on the prairie, and he had a rough understanding of the comparison of combat power between humans and wolves. He knew that ordinary people were just food in front of these giant wolves, so if this Becky girl's head wasn't broken, it only meant one thing: this was a bizarre world where the difference in power between ordinary people and combat professionals was vast.

This setting was getting weirder and weirder.

"One...two...three...many...many, many," Becky counted the number of enemies. "Well, after they fight to a close tie, we can suddenly attack. We should be able to handle it. Wolf packs fight for territory until one side is dead. Hehe, we're going to make a fortune this time. The bone plates on their bodies are treasures. Hey, are you really not going to be a burden?"

Hao Ren really wanted to fall into the grass. The girl beside him seemed to always have a slightly obsessive tendency in subtle places. She was the type who said things without regard for other people's explanations. She still insisted that Hao Ren's brain was broken when he fell. But Hao Ren didn't have time to argue with her too much, because his line of sight was suddenly attracted by the two groups of black wolves fighting.

The two groups of black wolves had not completely mixed into a peak battle, only the cannon fodder on both sides were fighting, and a large number of wolf packs were still wandering on the outer edge of the depression without joining the battlefield. Among the wandering wolf packs, one black wolf had a broken bone plate on its waist, several black wolves grinned and showed a mouthful of bad teeth, and a particularly large alpha wolf looked unusually familiar.

He had run into acquaintances...no, acquaintance-wolves! Weren't they that group of silly wolves?