The City Lord gradually awoke, his face pale. As soon as his eyes landed upon Xu Jun, he flinched.
Xu Jun, rendered speechless, thought, why was the City Lord acting like he's being bullied?
Picking up the recording crystal from the ground, Xu Jun began tossing the thing up and down. City Lord Dika's eyes followed the recording crystal's trajectory, afraid that Xu Jun would place the blame on him if the crystal broke. Xu Jun, however, didn't give it much thought, mainly because he wasn't aware of the recording crystal's value. After all, these toys had not been tradable within the game world because they were products that players could purchase from the official platform. Furthermore, recording crystals had originally been used by… players who loved adult content to tape valuable game content and cut scenes. How they were used was something that should not be discussed. For example, Xu Jun's friend, Little Fatty. That fellow had bought over a hundred recording crystals to record the conversations he had with females across all of his accounts, using them as proof of his ability to flirt with girls. _(:зゝ∠)_
Xu Jun had bought these crystals for fun. They were extremely durable objects and each recording crystal had a memory equivalent of five gigabytes and could be used repeatedly. Xu Jun had bought over ten of them, originally intending to record his journey to the peak of his life after killing the Demon King. However, he had never expected to cross over into another world, so he hadn't really used the crystals at all.
He widened his eyes, innocently staring at City Lord Dika, who was clutching his own chest. "I have evidence here of the Ester family's involvement in the abduction of Sand Leopard beastmen. You could use this as an excuse to begin investigating them."
Xu Jun pinched the recording crystal. "So do you want to buy it?"
The speechless City Lord Dika wondered, would you believe me if I said that I will go die again?
Nevertheless, no matter how excellent the City Lord's body was, he could not faint at will. All he could feel was his heart beating like thunder. His mind repeatedly thought the same phrase, "Two hundred thousand gold is being placed in front of me! Two hundred thousand! Two hundred thousand! Even if you sell it, I can't afford it! I can't afford it!"
Xu Jun laughed innocently. "You can just fork out a bit of money and buy this recording. I still need to use it, so I can't sell the entire crystal to you."
The next sentence, he said in his heart. " I still have to rely on these crystals to record things. Hey, Ryan, you said this world also has little yellow books1 right? Hehehe."
Demon King Rozenke, who had just witnessed how the Hero had scared a human city lord silly, replied, "Don't ask me these kinds of questions."
What was a little yellow book? Although he had never heard the term before, he could vaguely guess the meaning after seeing Xu Jun behaving like a cat that had stolen food. This hero was truly a person without morals! Being such a successful person, shouldn't he be able to choose and pick any partner that he liked?! A human princess, elf princess, or even a beastman princess, couldn't he grab as many as he wanted?! Why did he so desire some… some little yellow book?! Not only did he lack morals, he was also such a wretched person!
Like this, His Highness the Demon King suddenly thought of something and frowned. "Hero, don't forget that I am still here within your body."
Xu Jun, however, completely missed the point of those words. "I know that. It's why I always talk things over with you when I encounter something?"
Demon King Rozenke forcefully resisted the embarrassment in his heart. For–whether he was the human prince of before or the dark Demon King–he was never someone who liked to pry into others' affairs, especially when it related to their privacy. He and the Hero were not relatives. In the future, the other could only become his subordinate at best, this was truly… He carefully thought about how he would word things and said, "Therefore, whatever improper things you do while reading books, I can feel all of it. Do you understand now?"
The stone-faced Xu Jun responded, "…Oh, I understand now."
Fuck, could things get any better! What is the implication here? What are you trying to make clear? As an adult, Yours Truly reads little yellow books… and you mean to tell me that I can only look at them?!
Th-thi-this is–too cruel!
City Lord Dika, as well as the many others present, saw the inexplicably depressed Xu Jun and couldn't but consider things more carefully. Indeed, how could such a treasure-level recording crystal be sold off to others on a whim? Such a crystal definitely did not just contain evidence for a kidnapping, but precious memories as well!
Obviously he only needed to buy the rights to display that specific clip!
City Lord Dika was greatly relieved. "In that case, this warrior brother, I have never seen such a high quality recording crystal you see, and don't know what price I should give…"
Xu Jun thought, any amount of gold would still be a profit. He slightly nodded his head. City Lord Dika gulped and offered, "Then, would five thousand gold coins be enough for you?"
EH?! Five thousand gold coins?! Originally only wanting a few hundred gold , Xu Jun was shocked. "Ha?"
CIty Lord Dika thought that Xu Jun wasn't pleased and quickly changed his price. "Ten thousand gold! Ten thousand gold! Brother, don't think this to be a small sum!"
At this time he was still sitting on the ground. Being anxious to stand up and pay the deposit, he nearly fell over. His personal guard's captain, Allen, walked in from outside and, upon seeing this scene, believed that something had happened. With a clack, he pulled out his longsword and turned in a circle, directing it towards the people around him, especially Xu Jun.
City Lord Dika tried to stop him in a wild hurry. "Allen! Stop! Stop! –Big brother, don't be afraid!"
This change in title from young warrior to brother and then to big brother occurred within the timespan of a single meal.
The many onlookers were also feeling the power of money.
Kanaman and the other Sand Leopard tribesmen were carefully observing the recording crystals that Xu Jun had brought out. Kanaman thought to himself, these tiny little stones are so expensive? When I meet human merchants in the future, I'll see if I can rob a few of these…
After two hours, a powerful and impressive number of troops surrounded the gates of Wilderness City's Ester family.
The street-sweeping old man of the Ester family was nearly scared to death. He wanted to enter the household and report what was happening, but was instead grabbed and taken away. "Senior, the Ester family is suspected of having committed the crime of trafficking. We kindly ask that you temporarily leave the area."
The old man fled as if he had seen a ghost.
Under the pleasant atmosphere, furious hollers of "How could we have participated in trafficking!" and "These are false, slanderous charges!" sounded from all across the Ester family. So it was that the Wilderness City's first "trafficking campaign" began.
City Lord Dika looked upon this "grand occasion" of the Ester family. He had been smiling, but gradually his mouth pursed. Was this the first time that there has been trafficking in the Wilderness City? No, every year, children and women would inexplicably disappear. As a city lord who wanted to protect the interests of the entire city, he could only turn a blind eye to some of the behaviors of the privileged class. When the young of beastmen tribes, like the Sand Leopard tribe, living by the Dark Swamp also went missing, he would tell himself that he need not care for non-human beings, and refrained from asking too many questions.
After all, every city had a market for human trafficking; each held a place for people to sell their sons and daughters, as well as to buy slaves.
Everyone lived like this, and gradually it no longer felt strange. It was the same as how after the increase of the dark element, which muddied the skies, after the Demon King's birth, such a sky became normal after a long time of gazing.
As the City Lord of Wilderness City, he clearly ruled over an independent city, yet he couldn't be the master of his own city, nor protect the people within his city.
Whose interests was he truly protecting?
"I want to thank you again, Mr. Xu Jun," the Wilderness City's Lord Dika Maines whispered.
Wilderness City was an ordinary and independent city on the continent of Shen Juan.
It would make small, perhaps subtle and unnoticeable, changes. Either way, it was now embarking upon a different road.
After the City Lord finally took down the Ester family that he had bitterly hated for so long and subsequently, after a thorough search, found evidence of the Kabel family inviting in the beastmen, he wrote a letter to the King of Snow Blade Kingdom, reporting to him of how despicable and shameless the Kabel family's head was. At the same time, inspired by the City Lord, Xu Jun mailed a letter to His Holiness the Pope of the Bright God's Church.
Furthermore, this sacred knight always maintained a respectful attitude towards the youthful priest. The identity of the young man could easily be imagined.
As for why such an important person would come to Wilderness City, the City Lord had no idea. _(:зゝ∠)_
It didn't really matter anyways as, no matter how important the person, they paled in comparison to the warrior beside him who could toss around a recording crystal as if it were just a stone.
Evil rich people…
After the day's events, City lord Dika now felt that the Sand Leopard tribe's beastmen were a lot cuter than before. At least, this group of Sand Leopard were truly poor and it would be impossible for them to suddenly take out a treasure that would both scare and incite envy within him.
The important person within City Lord Dika's mind was currently playing with Xu Jun's recording crystal.
For the first six years of his life as the Bright God's Holy Son, he had lived like a mascot. Everyday, he torturously learned this and that and was often criticized by the elders from the Elder's Circle. His personality had also changed from a silly white lotus2 to a mature and stoic (Nar: ???) type. The next few years were a bit more comfortable as not even those snakes, the elders, could find fault with him. His study of holy light magic had finally relaxed and he was often able to head out to do things like disaster relief and saving people. At each place, he would say things like how the Bright God protected his people, words that he himself did not believe, and fool people into entering the Church.
As the esteemed Holy Son and the adopted child of the Pope, he was obviously treated very well, as can be seen from his clothing and equipment. However, even if it was him… he would never be able to get his hands on such a high-grade recording crystal!
Furthermore, Xu Jun had even randomly tossed on out and said, "You like it? I'll gift you one."
Holy Son Daeniste became silent. He suddenly felt the pain which City Lord Dika had felt. At one moment he felt as if he wanted to just go die, in another, he wanted to lift up Xu Jun and give him a beating.
However, he looked towards Xu Jun's arms, revealed after Xu Jun took off his outerwear. They were covered with a dense layer of fine scars, seeming as if someone had tested all eighteen types of weapons on his body. Upon Xu Jun's elbow, Daeniste saw an arrow wound, a ferocious, terrible scar the size of gold coin.
Xu Jun followed Daeniste's gaze over to his elbow. "Oh, this was from when I was fighting the Flame Lord and was shot by an arrow, it was even a fire arrow! That burn hurt like hell!"
Holy Son Daeniste was a bit speechless. "…Then the black surrounding it…"
Xu Jun nodded his head. "The burning effect of the dark element. It's already healed inside, but it's left a mark."
He laughed, treating it as if it were a matter not worth discussing. However, Daeniste knew how destructive the dark element was towards the human body. With Xu Jun being able to pull out a high-grade recording crystal, he definitely wasn't someone who was unwilling to eat medicine to save his life. However, seeing that there was still a burnt mark upon his skin despite that, it was imaginable how bad the injury must have been.
Xu Jun shook out his hand and thought, that had been an extremely close call for him. His elbows had been broken and it had taken two days of munching on medicine before he had healed. However, he had also succeeded in killing the Flame Lord, and had laid down a good foundation for killing the Demon King in the future.
"It was a worthwhile price to pay," he proudly smirked.
Daeniste suddenly felt his nose go sour and he quickly blinked his eyes.
When the Demon King was born, the whole continent fell to darkness.
Everyone had waited to be saved, but never would they know the sacrifices of their savior.
The author has something to say:
*Knocking on the blackboard* The players who play on the highest difficulty have their senses set at 100%. In other words, their sense of pain can't be lowered!
[However, choosing the priest profession means you can use magic to lower your pain perception, while nobles can apply for a special badge issued by the royal family which also can reduce pain. Only the hero is the little white cabbage that no one loves.]
In this day and age, playing a game is like self-abuse_(:3ゝ∠)_
(So Xu Jun had really originally prepared to take his run through the game and make billions out of it.)
As for His Highness the Demon King not letting the Hero read little yellow books…well, this later turns out to be the love and interest ♂ between them.
You can try to imagine for yourselves (⊙v⊙)
Translator's Niche:
[1]Erotic novel, usually one with pictures (-_-) ⏎