Chapter 79
Ye Bai, although now a 'Dragon Language Expert' who can understand the ancient tongue, found herself in a situation where she could only read but not speak it. As a human, she lacked the complex vocal organs of a dragon.
“Oh no! It’s so late already.”
Snapping back to reality from her thoughts, Ye Bai suddenly noticed that the sky had turned a deep blue, and night was fast approaching.
Recalling the unsettling feeling of being watched earlier, she glanced around. With the onset of night, that same anxious sensation returned.
“Ugh…”
A strange buzzing sound drifted from afar, reminiscent of some animal, or perhaps metal, or even the mountain wind.
Ye Bai looked at the donkey that had been following her and pulled out a piece of bread from her backpack to feed it.
“Do you sense anything?”
The donkey: “Munch munch…”
Ye Bai sighed, “Forget it.” It seemed she wouldn’t get any answers from it.
As night fell, Ye Bai found a flat, open spot among the stone formations to rest for the night. She quickly gathered some firewood from her backpack and lit a simple campfire.
As a high-level map, the divine realm had its own peculiarities. Night here was different from that in the myriad realms; due to the presence of 'divinity', many undead creatures roamed at night. Players who strayed too far from the fire would attract attacks from these undead, typically at least level 60.
Thus, in the divine realm, if one wanted to avoid monster encounters at night, it was best to light a campfire before logging off.
On this trip to the divine realm, Ye Bai had brought three bundles of pre-cut firewood and a finely crafted axe embedded with energy crystals. Even if she ran out of firewood, she could easily gather materials to make more.
“Hey, I say… you’re not just an ordinary donkey, are you?”
Sitting by the campfire, with nothing else to do, Ye Bai struck up a conversation with the donkey.
The donkey lazily glanced at her, too indifferent to even bray, merely flicking its tail in response.
Getting used to this, Ye Bai continued, “You can understand me, right? How did you manage to steal two loaves of bread from my backpack?”
The donkey: “…”
Ye Bai pressed on, “If this is a dragon tomb relic, it’s quite unusual for a donkey like you to be here. Stop pretending.”
The donkey: “…”
Ye Bai shrugged, “Since we’re already in the process of taming you, how about I give you a name?”
“Let’s call you…”
She hesitated, dragging out the naming process, when suddenly she fell silent.
The donkey perked up its ears, its white muzzle twitching, and opened its mouth…
“Autophis.”
“Uh?!”
Ye Bai jolted, staring at the donkey, which wore an expression of surprise that mirrored her own—though it was hard to read expressions on a donkey’s face, this one was surprisingly expressive.
If it weren’t for the familiar bray that followed, Ye Bai might have thought that sound had come from the donkey itself.
In the next moment, realizing what had just happened, Ye Bai sprang to her feet.
“Who’s there?!”
She drew her sword, the Snow-colored Blade, and scanned the area behind the stone formations, ready for any creature that might leap out.
“Did I scare you? Sorry, I mean no harm.”
The male voice spoke again, this time more prepared. Ye Bai located the source of the voice, which came from a large white stone near the campfire, behind which a person could indeed hide.
Being able to communicate was a good sign, but Ye Bai kept her eyes fixed on the outline of the stone, waiting for several seconds. However, the expected figure did not emerge.
—No one, or nothing, stepped out from behind the stone.
Ye Bai’s brows furrowed slowly.
“If you’re hiding and peeking, I can’t trust that you mean no harm.”
“Uh… I’m not hiding; I’m right here.” The voice replied quickly, then added with a hint of embarrassment, “I’m on this white stone. Can you see me waving?”
“???”
Waving?
Ye Bai was puzzled; she hadn’t seen any creature near the white stone at all!
With doubts swirling in her mind, she hesitated for a moment before pulling out a candle made from animal fat produced in her territory. She lit it by the campfire and cautiously approached the white stone, wondering if the speaker was from a particularly small race.
Sprite? Floaters? Logically, these two races shouldn’t appear in such a place, and the former was a magical creature from the myriad realms, while the latter rarely interacted with other races.
As she carefully examined the outline of the white stone, Ye Bai found no sign of the expected ‘miniature race’ NPC.
It wasn’t until her gaze dropped that she noticed something unusual on the surface of the stone, causing her pupils to constrict.
The dragon language characters on the stone had somehow changed. The marks that had clearly been 'written' by dragon claws remained, but the dragon language characters that should have formed had transformed into something entirely different.
Though the style of the dragon script was somewhat abstract and rough, it was still evident that it depicted a humanoid outline.
What caught Ye Bai’s attention was the arm of that humanoid outline.
The ‘etchings’ that formed the arm seemed to come alive, swaying back and forth, as if it were ‘waving’ at her.
Ye Bai shuddered, startled, and stumbled back a step.
What the hell is this?!
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Chapter 56
A ghost!
As a game developer, Ye Bai had always felt she had a handle on any situation, even if this myriad realm wasn’t the same as the last. Yet, seeing this scene before her, she realized there were indeed things she had never encountered.
Noticing Ye Bai’s clear fright, the humanoid outline waved its hands, quickly trying to reassure her.
“Please don’t be afraid; I’m not undead, and I truly mean no harm.”
If you were undead, that would be fine!
Ye Bai steadied herself. Even if a lich or an undead knight emerged from behind that white stone, she wouldn’t be this shocked.
What truly unnerved her about this humanoid outline was that its form of existence exceeded anything she, as a developer, had ever known.
Regarding the divine realm map, Ye Bai had never felt the same confidence she had in the myriad realms. This was because the expansion of the “Shattered Divine Court” expansion pack would only begin after the public beta.
Even as the lead developer, the information Ye Bai had about the divine realm before her freezing was limited to basic background settings.
She knew the appearances, racial traits, strengths, and weaknesses of various advanced races… but aside from a fundamental storyline of racial conflict, no other plots had been designed yet.
Having established the worldview and placed these diverse and powerful races onto the grand map of the divine realm was like setting the stage without starting the performance.
Not to mention, the holographic version of the myriad realms was not without its differences from the version Ye Bai had created. The most obvious difference lay in the intelligence of the NPCs; currently, Ye Bai didn’t feel they differed from real people in terms of intelligence, aside from being limited by system values.
The NPC behavior codes in the version she created for the divine realm were different from those in ordinary worlds, being more intelligent, and the holographic version was even more so.
This kind of ‘intelligence’ was likely enough for the divine realm to evolve on its own without players.
Thus, at this moment, Ye Bai was completely in the dark about what was happening in the divine realm, as if she were immersed in an experiential version of her own ideas being filled in by the intelligence.
This strange, eerie humanoid figure was clearly not part of the game settings she knew; it was evidently something that had been ‘filled in’.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Bai tentatively asked, “So… what are you?”
The figure, seeing that Ye Bai had calmed down, withdrew its hands and replied with a hint of resignation, “A cursed person.”
“A curse, huh…”
Ye Bai pondered, her mind racing. From this statement, she gleaned an important piece of information: a curse could only be cast by someone with ‘divinity’.
‘Divine beings’ were a type of identity that only appeared in the divine realm, characterized by their connection to divine or demigod-level powers—either through bloodlines or having actively received divinity stripped from these powerful beings.
The bizarre effect of the curse she was witnessing led Ye Bai to immediately suspect it was linked to a divine or demigod-level entity.
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