“Eh? You are—”
After hearing that cheerful voice, Xia Li immediately turned her head, only to see a blond man smiling toward her.
Unlike the majority of slum residents who wore tattered and dirty clothes, moved sneakily, and had eyes full of unease and vigilance, the fellow in front of her looked simply like a carbon copy of the “Prince Charming” from fairy tales.
He wore a set of gleaming light power armor that was quite valuable on the ground, carried a long-barreled laser rifle with a high-magnification scope on his back, and wore a swift sword with gold-plated decorative patterns covering the guard and scabbard at his waist.
His handsome face was filled with a sunny and warm smile.
In short, this person looked like precisely the type of character who was very worth trusting—although in this slum, Xia Li had long since learned the iron rule of “cannot completely trust anyone.”
But at least, the one in front of her looked far more trustworthy than the other people in the slum.
“You may address this one as Xushinige, Baron of the Lastuan Protectorate.” The “Prince Charming” said with a smile.
“A baron, ah…” Xia Li nodded—in her incomplete memories, for the original body who had been the Crown Princess of the Elysia Federal Empire, this kind of lowest-rank noble at most was merely a “background board” ranked farthest away among the hundreds or thousands of imperial nobles who came to pay respects and offer congratulations to her every New Year.
And as everyone knew, the titles of the various “protectorates” and dominions established by the “people of the earth” were usually one rank lower than those of the “people of the heavens.”
However, at this very moment, for Xia Li whose identity was that of a “banished heavy criminal,” so lowly that even regular inns would not allow her to stay, even a baron of a protectorate counted as a high-ranking official and noble.
“Oh, of course, this one actually has neither fief nor official post, and was only granted this title because of contributions to the protectorate.” Xushinige added.
“What goddamn ‘contributions,’ to put it bluntly isn’t it just donation for title?” Weeping of the Shadow was clearly rather unhappy, “Donate a few million to the protectorate’s treasury, and anyone can muddle into a lowest-rank title—of course, this way one can enjoy special judicial preferential treatment, and it is also more useful when swaggering around and committing fraud.”
Fortunately, Xushinige of course could not hear Weeping of the Shadow’s words.
He merely looked at Xia Li with interest: “Although this one knows that Miss has difficulties, that kind of inn is not something one can enter, you know.”
“Why?”
“Because that is a genuine black shop—lone travelers, especially young girls, once they enter, are no different from pigs walking into a slaughterhouse of their own accord. Not only can property not be preserved, even one’s own body may… uh…” At this point, Xushinige suddenly covered his own mouth, “Ah ah, apologies, this one used crude rhetoric. If I have offended you, please forgive me!”
“It’s fine, there are plenty of people who have offended me.” Xia Li shrugged her shoulders, “I’m used to it.”
“Truly unfortunate.” As Xushinige spoke, he glanced at the alcohol cotton ball for disinfection stuck on Xia Li’s arm, “Looking at your appearance, you just came out of Feiste’s private blood collection station, right? That shameless old bastard often secretly colludes with all sorts of shady characters. What a pity I have no solid evidence, otherwise I would have reported him long ago.”
“Be careful.” Weeping of the Shadow’s voice suddenly rang out in Xia Li’s mind, “This fellow… although he looks like there is no problem, my intuition tells me that this person seems… to have something not quite right somewhere.”
“Ha? You artificial object still have intuition?”
“After all, I am one of the final crystallizations of the high-level artificial intelligence technology that simulated human thinking in the past! Something like intuition can of course also be simulated—and my intuition is still very accurate most of the time!” Weeping of the Shadow was clearly a bit unhappy, “In short, first carefully probe him a bit.”
“Alright.” Xia Li answered in her mind, then turned her gaze back toward Xushinige, “However, as a noble baron, why are you so familiar with the slums?”
“Because I am a professional ‘Seeker.’ Of course, in the Golden Age the term for people like me was ‘Player.’ My profession forces me to frequently wander in all directions, dealing with—and even cooperating with—all sorts of shady characters,” Baron Xushinige explained, “Do you know what the most common and most famous ‘entertainment project’ on this planet was in the Golden Age a thousand years ago?”
“Uh… it was…” Xia Li searched through the original body’s memories, “It was the ‘Death Games’?”
“Exactly right.” As Xushinige led Xia Li away from that black shop emanating an ominous aura, he said, “In the past, when human civilization had not yet declined and collapsed, the people of the Golden Age once possessed everything they could imagine. In that era, the greatest problem faced by large numbers of people was ‘boredom.’ In order to defeat this omnipresent great enemy, they truly racked their brains.”
Xia Li nodded: “And the method that could most make people ‘not bored’ was to stimulate the desire for survival in human instincts.”
“Precisely so, clever Miss!” Xushinige said, “And on the planet Elysia, there exists the nearly miraculous ‘Extra-Rational Power.’ Although it cannot be used outside the planetary system, the existence of this power still made many clever-minded people realize the optimal method of utilization: that is, turning the planet into an amusement park with death games as the theme.”
“A planetary-scale amusement park? That’s truly a grand gesture…”
“Yes. Although after the decline of civilization most death game areas disappeared, the game areas that are still operating and whose locations have been ascertained still number more than four thousand worldwide. Among them the large ones occupy several thousand square kilometers, while the small ones are also two or three square kilometers. And modern people can still go adventure and clear these games, and obtain various rewards.” Xushinige continued.
“Truly interesting.”
“Yes. These matters are basically common knowledge among us ‘Seekers’—of course, for a ‘person of the heavens’ Miss like you who lived in the deep inner chambers, it is normal not to understand much about such things.”
“You saw through it?” Xia Li subconsciously touched the gauze stuck on her face.
“Very normal. Although biomodified beast-form people are extremely common in this world, dog ears and dog tails mean either a heavy criminal or their descendants. And heavy criminals usually have brands on their faces… You are probably not ‘coincidentally’ injured there, right? And being forced to sell blood and stay in that kind of unsafe black shop also proves your identity from the side.”
“Tch—” Xia Li instinctively pulled away some distance from the other party, “Then you still—”
“Please do not misunderstand, Miss,” Xushinige said, “This one has neither the intention of distrusting you nor of attempting to blackmail you. In fact, this one is very clear that internal struggles within the Federal Empire have always been frequent. Unworldly noble young ladies like you being implicated in political struggles and then banished because of fabricated crimes is not rare in history.”
“Ah… that’s right.” Xia Li hurriedly nodded.
Although the other party’s guess was not correct, letting him think this way was still much better than bluntly telling him “I was actually kicked out because I blew up my biological mother.”
“As a noble gentleman, this one has the necessity to shelter and help an unfortunate young lady like you,” seeing this, Baron Xushinige continued, “Bearing the brand of a sinner, living down here is very inconvenient, especially making it difficult to obtain stable work… If one wants to live a secure life, there is only one path to take.”
“Could it be…”
“That’s right, the same as this one, become a ‘Seeker’ who participates in the ‘Games’!” Xushinige patted the chest armor hanging with ammunition belts and revealed a super warm-guy style smile, “In our line of work, because the risks are enormous but the rewards are also huge, origin is completely not looked at! No matter what kind of person, as long as one is willing to go adventure in the ‘Games,’ there is a chance to stand out!”
“Just like the sailors of the Age of Exploration, huh…” Xia Li muttered softly.
“Once one becomes a senior ‘Seeker’ who has rendered meritorious service, even if one was previously a so-called sinner, one can still obtain respect—and according to law and agreements, housing agencies and inn owners can no longer refuse you at the door,” Xushinige continued persuading, “In this way, daily life will become much more convenient.”
“It does sound like a good idea.”
“More importantly, this is also an effective method of returning to the ‘heavens’!” Xushinige said, “Do you know the Saint Theodoros Academy?”
Xia Li blinked.
This time, she was very certain that even in the original body’s memories, she had only heard this name and knew nothing of the related knowledge—after all, the gaze of the “people of the heavens” rarely fell upon the lower world in ordinary times, let alone Her Highness the Crown Princess who stood at the apex of the Federal Empire.
“That is the most important promotion channel for us ‘Seekers.’ If one wants to legally and reasonably obtain the opportunity to return to the tower city-states, this is the best path.”