Chapter 560: The Lost Land of Gold

Mu Sicheng ripped off his pierced white uniform gloves, pulled off the monkey headset from his helmet, and at the sight of the hip-hop monkey logo stuck through his head, [Mu Sicheng]'s gaze suddenly paused for a moment, then averted as if nothing had happened, and put it back on.

...... It's been so many years that anything his desire generates still carries this monkey symbol on it.

Is Yuan Qingqing ...... such a big influence on him?

It was just a high school classmate, and she'd been dead for years, so it was time for him to move on.

[Mu Sicheng], with his eyes averted at the fading monkey symbol on his dangling earpiece, averted his gaze and turned away.

In-game.

Chased by the hurricane, Mu Sicheng had reached the bottom of the castle - the furthest point he knew from the mine - but the hurricane was still in pursuit, and Mu Sicheng looked back twice, only vaguely able to see the golden hurricane coming towards him in the swirling phoenix eyes. Armand.

Damn, Armand, does it take that long to use?

Mu Sicheng looks at his depleting stamina bar and skill time and grits his teeth and stops - he can't run at full speed anymore and would rather stop and take a skill from Armand, lowering his life.

With Liu Jiayi giving him a life-giving antidote, he should be able to take Armand at least twice, and if he doesn't let Armand interact with Georgia, he should be able to hold Armand off for about three hours, all told.

...... three hours, Bai Liu says he should be able to push this copy through to the end if he moves fast enough.

In fact, Mu Sicheng and Buming understand why Bai Liu is in such a hurry. After seeing everyone inhaling the gold powder and not losing any spirit or life, Bai Liu, with just a little thought, doubles the speed of the fast-paced confrontation they were doing - the original pace was already fast. The aim was to finish the book in one day within the game time.

But Bai Liu later turned that time into three hours.

This speed confrontation is particularly stressful and demanding for everyone, especially for him as a roaming player who has to consistently hang the main attack.

The speeding hurricane engulfed the slowing Mu Sicheng almost in a blink of an eye. Countless chains staggered in the golden hurricane, binding Mu Sicheng's hands and feet in moments, others grazing his body, the cold metal leaving scars on Mu Sicheng's body as his life began to drop with the naked eye.

Fuck, that hurts!

Mu Sicheng's features are scrunched together.

Armand, in the eye of the hurricane phoenix, slowly walks towards him.

Mu Sicheng said loudly in a stern voice, mentally calculating the time he had to eat the skill: "How can you leave the main team so easily, you're the main attacker, aren't you afraid that your team won't be able to output and will just be sent away by our team in one wave?"

"Our main attack is a great one!"

"You do have a point." Armand, who had stepped in front of Mu Sicheng, raised his eyes, "Your main attacker is quite a deterrent, but I can't let you off the hook for stealing, your theft would cause the thought of bad publicity."

"You, who watched Yuan Qingqing die in front of you, know this best, don't you?"

Mu Sicheng's pupils shrank for a moment at the words, then he gave a vicious laugh and provoked in a mute voice: "...... What nonsense are you talking about, you're starting to talk nonsense, are you that afraid of me?"

"The very act of stealing is unjust." Armand looks calmly at Mu Sicheng, "Once you were tortured by it, and the pleasure you derive from it eventually turns to pain back to yourself."

"I will not let you steal or let my own team be governed, so I will keep you here and return to help."

"How long do you think a hurricane can hold me without your guard?" Mu Sicheng laughed out loud as if he had heard a very funny joke, "I can steal your hairpiece from the hurricane and naturally I can break free from your hurricane!"

"You know I'm not talking about me." Armand's tone was flat, "I'm talking about Yuan Qingqing."

"The logo on your headphones is still a monkey, so you should remember the name, right?"

Mu Sicheng's expression froze completely.

"I know a hurricane of chains without me holding it down can't trap you, so-" Armand lifted his hand, the butterfly resting on his fingertips, his gaze turning condensed, "[I] will stay here. "

"But I will also return to help, in another form."

[System Alert: Player Armand equips Monster Book Form - (Hurricane Butterfly)]

[Butterfly and human souls swap. Butterfly enters player Armand's body and can act as the eye of a hurricane, continuously causing hurricanes and tracking down suspects, while the human soul enters the butterfly's body and can move freely, causing a new round of hurricanes. this form, when equipped, allows the player to cause hurricanes on multiple points in both directions].

[This form can be interrupted by a mutual exchange after the butterfly's weakness has been discovered].

The butterfly's wings fluttered away, leaving Armand's pupils with all their light lost, leaving only an inorganic, murderous, cold light, and a butterfly symbol above his throat, as colourful as a tattoo, with a sheen flowing from it.

This [Armand] raised his head and stared at the chained Mu Sicheng with emotionless eyes, making a peculiar, creepy sound as if the insects were beating their wings.

"Use the hurricane and kill, Mu Sicheng ."

More intense hurricanes are coming.

Inside the mine.

After passing through countless caves, the mine cart finally reached the deepest part of the mine. Bai Liu They jumped off the cart and looked up at the subtle sky light coming down from the very top, and following it, they could see a golden sculpture bending over and digging for something.

"This man doesn't seem to be a miner." Muke moved over to look as he examined the statue, which was crouched on the ground, looking anxious and digging for something, "Judging by his clothes, he must be a priest of some sort of high standing in this country."

"It's certainly not gold that the priests come here to dig."

Liu Jiayi followed the priest's digging movements and picked twice at the ground, which was covered with mineral soil and scattered gold nuggets: "This hole is not deep."

"It doesn't feel like digging something ......" Liu Jiayi frowned, "It feels like burying something."

"But the question is what to bury?"

"Will it be the Hourglass of Time?" Tang Erda asked.

"Not like that." Bai Liu stroked his chin, "This priest is obviously on some sort of mission to ride out the critical point where the people outside come to protest and drag out the time to come and bury something on the backs of someone who would be of such high status and unavailable that a figure of his stature would be used to do such a grunt work. "

"It makes some sense to come and bury the hourglass of time at a point like this."

"Then this person who asked him to bury something was either the king or Georgia, and only these two were qualified to ask the priest to bury something." Liu Jiayi stared at the sculpture for a moment, then suddenly reached out and pulled something like a silk scarf out of the sculpture's gold dusted coat, "What is this?"

Liu Jiayi shakes the gold dust off the silk scarf, then notices a wedge-shaped black mark on the yellowed white scarf.

"It looks like some kind of stone, traces of the explosion." Liu Jiayi looked closer and halfway through, she suddenly covered her mouth and choked violently, her fingertips spilling gold dust as she coughed and wrapped the silk scarf around her and stepped on the ground to keep it out of the others' reach, "Ahem ...... this is supposed to be the heretic that can generate gold, the heretic that was here shattered, and this silk scarf is what wrapped that heretic."

"This priest came here, too, to bury this heretic, who is supposed to be ...... ahem, the king's man!"

" Jiayi, has your panel dropped?" Bai Liu asked quickly and calmly.

Liu Jiayi coughs hard while tapping on the panel, then shakes his head, "No drop, life and spirit levels are normal."

"Don't mind me, the overall picture is basically out now, ahem, time is of the essence, sort out the information and push the line first!"

"Ten years ago, the gold production in Gloren fell, the people panicked, prices rose, the king got hold of some kind of heresy from the gods to increase gold production again, and wanted to deal with the gods again to get more of this heresy, but the then Grand Prince Georgia did not agree, and this second burst of gold caused many miners to suffer from a peculiar organ Sclerosis disease, and Georgia thought there was something wrong with this gold, some kind of heresy, and wanted to turn the mines over to the processing bureau that dealt with heretics to take them in." Muke quickly deduced.

"And the people at the time couldn't take it and came to protest at the gates of the mine on the day Georgia forcibly handed it over, stalling the Georgia faction who wanted to hand over the cave, while at the same time -" Bai Liu turned his attention to the The king took the opportunity to secretly send the high priest inside the mine with the heresy he already had, in order to bury it underground and make everything final."

"But for some reason, it didn't work out to bury it, and it made this heresy explode."

"It seems you guys have the ability to deduce things after all." A clear male voice came from above, "Since you have guessed my identity, you should know that this is my home map, so why did you follow without thinking of yourself?"

Bai Liu's voice trailed off as he spoke and turned his head to look over, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the flapping butterfly resting on Georgia's shoulder, "So that's it."

-- No wonder Armand's skill can deal such a wide range of damage with so little presence, it does it in the form of a butterfly.

The [body] draws attention to the attacker with a hurricane, and it's the unassuming butterfly that does the main attacking - a subtle skill, I must say, as if it was made to counteract Mu Sicheng, the fast roaming member of their team.

"I was going to scatter you all one by one." Bai Liu shrugged and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, "Now it seems you've been guarding us against this for a while, Captain Georgia."

"The Hourglass of Time is in your hands too, isn't it?"

Bai Liu's eyes moved down to the hourglass looming in Georgia's hand and smiled as he asked, "But have you ever wondered, Your Highness, if anyone's tears could fill this hourglass?"

The moment he said that, his right index finger gouged downwards. With a sweep of the tail of his eye, Muke quickly understood the meaning of Bai Liu's gesture and disappeared from his spot, appearing behind Georgia's back in the next second, his sharp dagger jammed in front of Georgia's neck, pinning him backwards.

"Move." Bai Liu ordered calmly, "Follow the previous plan, scatter them one by one and confront them at full strength."

Ornamental pool.

"Bai Liu is at a disadvantage." Lu Yizhan stared at the big screen for a while, thought for a moment and then suddenly said, " Georgia's home advantage is too big, and Armand's skill is like adding another player to their team, which is also hard to handle."

Liao Ke looked helplessly at Lu Yizhan, who had avoided his previous question: "Captain, what I just asked you was not about the game."

"What I'm asking you is what's going on with Georgia's heresy under the sea, and I've called you into the corner of the viewing pool to avoid the Spades, so you don't have to keep me in the dark, do you?"

"This thing has your hand in it at first glance, Georgia was only sixteen ten years ago, how could he have handled the country he turned into a heretic when the Heresy Authority at the time didn't have the funds or the ability to sink a heresy the size of a country."

"The only person who can do this and keep this in check is you, tell me what's going on and what you've done?"

"Eh ......" Lu Yizhan rubbed his head with a sad face, "I told you, you'll definitely scold me again."

Liao Ke took a deep breath as he propped his hands on his knees, "You speak first, I'll try not to scold, weren't you watching Bai Liu at the orphanage ten years ago, why are you in charge of this again?"

Lu Yizhan covered his face for a moment, but finally, under the sly gaze of his lieutenant, he spoke helplessly: "I was indeed at the orphanage, but the identity of the first captain of the Heresy Bureau set for me by Bai six was still there, but the body I landed in this world line was only fourteen years old, so how could I go over there and take charge? "

"But before walking away, Georgia's matter was reported to me."

"He was seeking cooperation with the members of the Third Bureau stationed closest to Gulohai." Lu Yizhan said with a complicated look and tone, "But the people from the Third Bureau soon realised that it was no small matter and reported the matter to the General Directorate here, and I got the message and was ready to go over to deal with it."

"On the day of the incident, Georgia was ready to close the mines, but because there were popular protests at many of the mines, it was impossible to close them, meaning that the boy had lost the game with Bai six, but he didn't give up then, he contacted the then three boards and wanted to use our strength to hold the mines from the people and then dispose of the gold inside. "

"The members of the Third Bureau field team were led into Gloren country by Georgia, and they lurked in the mines, ready to wait for Bai six to emerge with the gold point stone and take it in."

"But Georgia had no idea that her own father had actually made a private deal with the evil gods to advance the suffering of the nation, had already gotten his hands on the Pointing Stone, and was going to have the high priest bury it in the veins of the earth ahead of time while the people held back Georgia's faction."

"The king did not want to clash with Georgia head-on and chose to do so, wanting to put an end to all the farce."

" The Gloren State was hidden by the Bai six guy and you had to be guided by someone from the Gloren State to get in, and when I went over there, Georgia came out and guided me without knowing it."

"And at the same time, two waves of men who had both lurked in the mines ahead of time met, and a clash broke out between the priest and his party, who wanted to force a burial in the point stone, and the members of the Third Bureau, who wanted to house the heretics."

Lu Yizhan wipes his face a little wearily: "When Georgia and I entered Gloren country, basically everyone in the country, including all the field team members who were there at the time from the three bureaus, were turned into gold sculptures, except for some small animals that were far away from the mines."

"Only Armand, his brother, who was sent ahead of time to be housed by him at the Third Board, was spared."

" Georgia broke down."

"He felt that he was responsible for all of this ......, whether it was the destruction of the Gloren State or the death of these players in the Third Council."

"The gold dust was still spreading outwards, and to prevent this heretic from turning the whole world to gold, I used my heavy sword to cut the country of Gloren from the sea in front of him, wrapped it in the protective shield of the Heretic's Authority to prevent it from spreading, and then sank the country into the deep sea."

Lu Yizhan closed his eyes, "...... There were still a lot of Third Board members who knew about it at the time, and as you know, while I trusted the Heresy Handling Board members, there were many times when I had to plan for the worst."

"This heresy is so attractive to people that it is hard for anyone to resist the temptation of stealing just a little gold dust up from the heresy at the bottom of the sea and putting some small animals together with this gold dust to create a constant flow of gold."

"So I used my skills, and I said to Georgia that I would erase any trace of the existence of this Golden Land from the memory of everyone, including you."

"...... He begged me on his knees for a long time, begging me not to erase his memory, even saying that he could stay under the supervision of the Third Bureau and that it was okay to monitor him as a heretic, as long as I didn't erase his memory."

"I ended up keeping Georgia's memory, but the kid knew his stuff and he got himself into the third bureau, made it to the director's position and basically placed himself under the supervision of the Heresy Processing Bureau and me the whole time."

"He felt sorry for the Three Bureaus and for his brother, so he has been working hard to make it up to them, turning the Three Bureaus into warehouses, turning them into the first partial doors for heretics without field teams, but charging himself to be on the front line of taking in heretics, paying for the expansion of the Three Bureaus out of his account, refusing to let his brother into the Three Bureaus, all efforts he has made. "

"Gold for the three bureau expansions ......" Lu Yizhan looked up at Georgia on the big screen and he sighed, "Originally when it was the Grand Prince of the Gloren State Georgia sold a lot of his stuff, saved from the Gold Dispensation in the changes, stored outside, and was going to be used to get the nation through the long winter that would soon be without gold."

"But in the end, this gold was not used to issue to these nationals, but to expand the three bureaus."

" Georgia moved the Three Bureaus to the side of the Gurro Sea, and he kept watch over them, over the sea, over his homeland at the bottom of the sea, forbidding himself to laugh, forbidding himself to be happy, forbidding himself to be irresponsible, wanting to keep everything protected, and slowly becoming what he is today."

"I don't know what Bai six said to him."

Lu Yizhan bowed his head wearily: "But that Georgia boy, whatever happened, hadn't cried since he was sixteen."

"I asked him about it, and he answered me that the gods had fixed his people in that moment ten years ago, that they were painless, and that if only one day he could pay off the thousand-year gold equivalent of the pain owed to the gods for all the people of the Gloren Kingdom, as promised, the deal would stop, time would be reversed, those people would come back to life, and the people of the Three Councils would not die, and The Gloren Kingdom can return to the earth again."

"Everyone will be able to be as happy as they were in the beginning."

"For this reason, he could not shed another tear because of his pain; he would store it up and put it in the hourglass."

"But the game with the evil god ...... was originally full of traps." Lu Yizhan closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, "I sometimes wanted to advise him, but after thinking about myself, aren't I also walking the path of playing games with God?"

"Perhaps he had no other choice or expectation than that, just as I did."

Game on the outskirts of the palace.

The hurricane kept on rolling and Mu Sicheng struggled to get out of the chains, but [Armand] pressed on.

The thing moved very briskly, but created a sense of imminence significantly less than the real Armand before it, moving not as if after thinking, but as if it were a real butterfly rounding up its prey, hiding in its chains and constantly closing in on him.

But it's still a pain in the arse.

It wasn't that he couldn't break free, it was just that his hands were trembling.

...... Yuan Qingqing ...... how long had it been since he had heard that name and why did this Armand guy know Yuan Qingqing ?

Why did this one know, why did this one remember, why did this one remind him, when even he himself had almost forgotten?!

[Theft is an unjust thing, Mu Sicheng.]

[It's not right to steal, Mu Sicheng].

The cold male voice and the stern female voice mingle in Mu Sicheng's brain, his pupils tremble with all sorts of stirring emotions, and the scaly powder of a butterfly appears in the hurricane, caught in the gold dust that he inhales.

[System Warning: Player Mu Sicheng has inhaled butterfly scale powder and has become dizzy and psychedelic, his spirit level has begun to drop!

The moment [Armand] approached him along the chain, a blank Mu Sicheng subconsciously reached out with his monkey paw and grabbed the golden hairpiece on the side of [Armand]'s hair, ripping it off.

The gold hairpiece fell from the midst of the hurricane and tumbled to the ground with a crisp, tinkling crunch.

--The sound coincided with the sound of the bell in Mu Sicheng's memory of the evening study session.