Chapter 200: Chapter 200 Mutation Demon Reappears
“I think what might drive human progress is competition, what might drive scientific progress is laziness, but what absolutely drives entertainment industry progress is boredom.”
Not every action team works as smoothly as mine does, like Pandora-Sandora’s violent duo currently boxing with the Dragon Clan somewhere in the world, or Qianqian who’s becoming increasingly obsessed in front of the pearl coral luminous pearls… Well, that’s about it, the rest seem to be going smoothly.
Therefore, because the progress of each group is different, Anwina and I had no choice but to continue to stay in Circle City, an extremely boring and easy-to-get-lost-in place, until a few other major races threw themselves into the Salvation Army’s embrace and we could then take the Forgotten One’s Envoy to Serramo for a meeting. According to Lin Xue, this was to create a grand scenario where representatives from hundreds of Clans would approach as if in formal audiences, rather than coming separately in dribs and drabs that felt, as Miss Lin put it — let’s set her rhetorical style aside for a moment — like bits and pieces haphazardly. Mainly, I believe she just likes to give me trouble. And considering her foreknowledge abilities, I suddenly thought that her arranging me to come to this boring place had Miss Lin’s encouragement behind it, not to mention she definitely knew how boring I would find this place.
Look, I digress again.
Returning to what drives the entertainment industry’s progress, which is boredom, this is absolutely based on facts. The most obvious example is that due to the extreme boredom Anwina and I felt, all sorts of entertainment projects sprouted up like bamboo shoots after rain in Dark City — poker, soccer, billiards, pachinko, mahjong, card games, table tennis. These entertainment activities, quirky as a tropical storm from Southeast Asia, swept through the entire underground city, and these skeleton frames suddenly realized, life can indeed be more beautiful.
I also suddenly realized, I am quite a professional in the realm of entertainment, pity I always thought I was a diligent and honest student.
“Pressure brings out potential,” Anwina commented and then flicked two playing cards, “Pair of sixes!”
“I really don’t know why the world’s entertainment activities are so sparse, just banquets and balls, as if all pleasures are exclusively for nobles,” I sighed and then pulled out two Ghost Talisman-like playing cards, “Pair of tens!”
Sylvanas glanced at the poker table, pondered for a moment, then cautiously placed her last four cards in front of us, cautiously saying, “This… is right, isn’t it?”
You see, there are always many bizarre things in this world. To Sylvanas, the strangest thing is how such a powerful Divine Envoy can be so approachable and spend all day teaching those Dead Souls civilians all sorts of entertainment games to pass time, which is not something a God should do. As for me, the strangest thing is that the renowned Dark Queen Sylvanas is now playing poker with me. Moreover, this poker-inept Her Majesty possesses a luck that could make even a god of gambling green with envy — a hand of top-notch cards every time is utterly bewildering, the basic theories of probability shattered to bits in front of Sylvanas’s luck, turning into mere scraps on the ground, and eventually, Anwina and I ended up plastered with tiny notes on our faces.
After being gloriously obliterated by Sylvanas’s four kings for the forty-sixth time, I flung my almost untouched cards on the table and sighed skyward, “Ah, too bad Valimas refuses to come, otherwise we could have had a full table for mahjong.”
What I actually meant was, if Valimas were present, I wouldn’t have to be at the bottom. That old demon’s luck is even worse than his appearance, even a reincarnated gambling god, if possessed by Valimas’s bad luck, could only face the card table and sigh.
Exactly because of this, Valimas, a unique spectacle in the card-playing world, has always borne the responsibility of being at the bottom of our high-end Leader Level card table. However, after being collectively tormented by Sylvanas, Anwina, and myself over one hundred twenty-seven rounds, even a shameless old demon couldn’t bear to disgrace himself further at the card table…
If it were the first few days, we might have gone out for a walk out of utter boredom. Although there are not many tourist attractions worth visiting in Dark City, it is, after all, the capital of the Forgotten One. This immensely huge underground city is in itself a thing worth visiting. And if considered as a live-action version of Ghost House Exploration, I could still find a bit of an unexpected surprise. But since a few days ago, when our final identities were revealed, Anwina and I have rarely gone out anymore. Once our identities were known, those Forgotten One civilians who could normally blend well with us naturally underwent a significant change in attitude. The identity of a Divine Envoy is not something a normal person peddling plastic jade at the alley entrance, like Er Pang, could be indifferent to. Whether the attitudes of those Forgotten One civilians were fanaticism, reverence, caution, or resistance, in any case, Anwina and I could no longer wander carelessly between the dungeons of Dark City. What remained for us was to hole up here with Sylvanas playing poker, mahjong, or messing with other trinkets to enrich the monotonous daily lives of the Forgotten One.
How great it would be if something explosive happened to relieve my boredom, or even going out to pick a fight…
As it turns out, although I don’t have my sister’s abilities, my thoughts also seem to have a certain curse effect…
Almost as soon as I had this thought, an ordinary ghost whose brightness was much dimmer than Anwina’s hurried into the hall and stopped in front of Sylvanas, who had just touched a good hand of cards and revealed a slight smile, I could clearly read anxiety and unease on the face of this dimly lit ghost.
Could it be that spending too much time with Anwina, a quirky ghost who adjusts her brightness at will and takes delight in lighting and cleaning rooms, had led me to develop the odd habit of observing the brightness of any ghostly creature I encounter as my first response?
“Anna, what happened?”
Sylvanas set down her cards with a look of regret and asked with a furrowed brow.
It seems this card game I “invented” had induced a subtle change in the renowned Dark Queen…
“Her Majesty, the elite forces we dispatched to suppress the Bloodthirsty Crusaders were attacked in the northern hills of Tirisfal Forest, with only one ghost surviving.”
I found it strange to describe a ghost, who had been dead for who knows how many years, as “surviving.”
“Did they encounter the main forces of the Bloodthirsty Crusaders?”
Sylvanas’s voice rose coldly, an unintentional authoritative pressure emanating from her, as I watched Sylvanas fully embody the Queen, I couldn’t help but think it quite out of place seeing the massive pile of cards and little pieces of paper on the table next her—this sparked a bizarre illusion of world leaders squatting together, picking at their toes while seriously discussing a global nuclear disarmament plan—how did such a complex image that requires numerous neural reflexes to form suddenly pop into my head?
The ghost opposite Sylvanas immediately bowed down and answered, “Your Majesty, according to the surviving ghost’s report, the attackers were not humans but a group of… creature suspected to be demons.”
“Creature suspected to be demons?”
“Yes, as described by the ghost, they resembled demons in appearance, but they were much larger in size and their method of fighting was unlike any demon race we know of. There were only about thirty of them, but they managed to eliminate all five hundred of our battle-hardened soldiers in less than three minutes.”
Anwina and I locked eyes, both reading the same message in each other’s gaze.
“Divine Envoy, could those be the variant demons you spoke of?”
I nodded, spreading my hands, “Unless your scouts had the misfortune of encountering a group of aliens that came through a portal, it’s likely the variant demons.”
Then I patted Anwina’s head, my face full of fighting spirit, “Nana, we finally have something to do…”