Cthulhu Gonfalon

Ray was bothered by Sui Xiong’s questions. He thought very seriously and only became more distressed while thinking, without coming up with an answer that could satisfy him.

So that night, he suffered from insomnia.

Of course, he didn’t know that the questions raised by Sui Xiong were carefully crafted by some trouble-makers on the Internet on Earth who designed the questions so that readers could understand the so-called “viciousness of the world”. Even the scholars on Earth couldn’t think of a perfect answer when faced with such questions, not to mention Ray, a robber from a different world.

The next day, when Sui Xiong also intended to discuss questions about the nature of the world and life, Ray plugged some rags into his ears to show his determination not to respond.

Of course, Sui Xiong could easily snatch the rags away, but why be so awkward when others weren’t willing to discuss such topics? It was never interesting to force others to do something, which was similar to the proverb saying, “nothing forcibly done is going to be agreeable”.

But it didn’t apply to some things. For example, saving people.

It was late in the day and they were close to the edge of the Graystone Mountains. When setting up camp, they heard the sound of fighting and calls for help.

According to Ray’s plan, they would keep moving forward. Even if it needed to happen at night, they must first make it out of the Graystone Mountains and then camp. However, unfortunately, they met an impasse at a cliff, so Sui Xiong cast a spell of detection, which determined that bypassing the cliff required them to walk for almost a day. But building a temporary bridge wouldn’t take any less time, so Sui Xiong didn’t bother with a bridge. Thus, Ray took a detour that greatly lengthened their distance traveled, which meant they also had to sleep in the mountains again.

Ray was not afraid of sleeping outside because he was close to the edge of the Graystone Mountains and in theory, there should be no demon beasts there. Even if there were, most of them had deserted this area because they’d been defeated in the depths of the mountains. As he’d marched through the mountains, he had killed a lot of powerful demon beasts, let alone these weak ones! They simply chose to die in vain.

But he was really tired of the environment in the mountains. The infinite number of poisonous insects had overwhelmed him, let alone the poisonous snakes and dangerous beasts. Even if he had pest control drugs that prevented him from being bitten, the buzzing noise at night alone had practically bored him to death!

He was more annoyed because every day before going to bed, Sui Xiong would always talk to him about ideals and life.

Sui Xiong no longer asked the awkward questions that made people uncomfortable, but instead talked with Ray very earnestly: “The most precious thing in human life is life, and life belongs to a man only one time…” or “Different men have different strength, but as long as you have the right spirit … “and topics such as this.

These topics made him feel heavy and made him far more uncomfortable than the annoying conditions in the mountains. But he couldn’t avoid these topics because it made him feel that his mind was weak.

However, discussing them before bed was obviously affecting his sleep quality. Coupled with the insects that buzzed incessantly, he rarely got a good night’s sleep, and his state of mind was gradually deteriorating.

So he was looking forward to getting out of the mountains as soon as possible and going into the territory of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. There the jellyfish god who liked to teach others about life would perhaps shift his target to someone else, leaving him to sleep peacefully. Even if this nasty jellyfish god continued to bother him by asking excessively profound questions, at least there’d be no buzzing insects!

However, not today.

Consequently, Ray was in a very bad mood, so when he heard the sound of fighting and calls for help coming from afar, he had no interest in intervening.

“Someone is in danger,” Sui Xiong said.

“Yeah,” Ray said as he took out a blanket, intending only to wrap himself up and sleep until he was fully rested.

“Don’t you want to save them?” Sui Xiong asked.

“I do not want to,” Ray replied. Right as he was about to lie down, Sui Xiong quickly jumped onto his head, pressing a tentacle against his temple.

This tentacle was icy and exceptionally sharp, so Ray could not help but suspect that in a second a hole would be drilled into his own skull, and blood and brains would flow out together onto the ground.

“You…what are you trying to do!” He asked in a loud voice, startled and suddenly concerned.

“Correcting your thoughts,” Sui Xiong said with a smile. “There’s too much filth and evil in your mind. I’ll help you to draw some of it out.”

Ray was shocked, and he quickly rebutted, “After my brain has been drawn out?!”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Sui Xiong. “You’ll get what you lose, and this is the principle of exchange of equivalence. It is a universal principle. Don’t you think it’s cost effective to exchange a bit of brains for goodness and tranquility?”

“I do not think so! I don’t want the damn goodness and tranquility!” Ray protested loudly.

“You opposition is invalid! For evil people, the word of the strong counts, isn’t that correct?”

“…I see, so I guess I will save those people!”

Sui Xiong laughed and withdrew the tentacle, “A wise choice. If you had done it earlier, there wouldn’t have been any trouble.”

Ray smiled, hung the long gun on the back hook on his back, inserted the long sword into the sheath on his waist, and inspected all of his equipment. Then he set off for the place where the fighting and cries for help came from.

He was powerful, and after all the trekking he’d been doing, he’d become very accustomed to walking in the mountains. He walked quickly, like a vigorous monkey jumping between rocks and trees. It wasn’t long before he came to the source of the distress calls.

In the woods, four adventurers were fighting fiercely with a giant bear, which was as tall as two people combined.

It was more an unsuccessful attempt at defense than a fierce battle. The giant bear was very powerful and highly defensive, and although its reaction speed was slightly slower, it protected itself well and gave the adventurers no chance to attack.

The four adventurers were not old. Two of them, who were fully armored and responsible for the frontal attack, were about twenty-four or twenty-five. The one wandering around with bow and arrow trying to contain the bear was just above twenty, and the one lying in the tree and using magic to provide assistance was less than twenty. They could be called a group of young people.

Being young often meant a lack of adequate exercise and growth and lack of strength. Young adventurers had the highest rates of death because their lack of experience made them unable to avoid dangerous situations that sophisticated adventurers could mostly avoid.

For example, with the giant bear they were fighting, if experienced adventurers like Rhode and Ryan had encountered it, they would throw it a piece of fresh meat, throw more when it was busy eating, and then retreat slowly. They might even prepare some sweet treats, put them in the trunk, and leave when the giant bear struggled with the big tree.

Most bears in this world were lazy and obsessed with sweets, and when it was easy to get food, they were generally reluctant to risk injury and fight against heavily-armed adventurers. If sweets were close at hand, even if you were unarmed and took on a clear posture that said “I am prey”, they would still be too lazy to pay you any mind.

However, these young people were apparently too inexperienced or lacked the appropriate preparation. They could only fight with the giant bear, relying on their underdeveloped bodies.

This approach had little chance of success: the giant bear had grown to be nearly the size of a truly fierce beast. A team of well-equipped, well-funded senior adventurers—probably at the level of Gerrard and his companions—could kill the bear without risking serious injury.

Out of the group of four young people, in Sui Xiong’s opinion, he could see one or two of them being killed and the rest severely injured if they fought against Gerrard. He was invincible when fighting against skeletons with a tomahawk in hand at that night in White Leaves Village; he could do some real damage to these youngsters.

Obviously, they could not beat the giant bear. The only reason there were no casualties until now was because they were a reasonable team with a certain capacity to withstand the bear’s pressure.

The two in charge of defending the front were a warrior and a priest. Both were wearing heavy armor and holding a shield. This solid armor had saved them more than once before in times of crisis. With the help of heavy armor, the priest could sometimes pray and cast a spell to restore physical strength to his companions or himself.

In addition, the mage’s spell played a significant role. Although he didn’t use no advanced spells other than the simple ones like Shield Spell, Flying Bullet Spell, Creamy Spell and Blurring Spell, the young mage cast the spells in a timely manner so he was able to offer help every time.

In other words, they were constantly depleting their magical ability to consume the physical strength of the giant bear. But only physical strength, because so far, the giant bear had not been injured at all.

If this continued, the ending was obvious: when their magic was depleted, the four youngsters would not be able to withstand the giant bear’s attack. Perhaps the gunner could run away, as well as one of the fighters or the priest, but at least one wouldn’t make it. The mage, who wasn’t particularly agile, was likely doomed.

Ray lurked near the battlefield, quietly watching their battle, but didn’t rush to help.

“Why don’t you save them?” Sui Xiong transferred his words to Ray’s brain using magic.

Ray gently shook his head and replied with temporary telepathy, “They can still keep fighting; it’s not yet the time.”

“When they can’t hold on any longer, they’ll be seriously injured.”

“Not too seriously, because I’ll step in. For these young people, the experience of fighting hard until the last minute is precious and can really help them grow up.”

Sui Xiong did not urge him again. On the topic of adventure, Ray was an expert. Since he said that this plan was best for the young people, Sui Xiong chose to believe him.

Not to mention…even if he really refused to rescue them, Sui Xiong could do it himself when the crucial moment came. Fighting at this level was completely under his control!