The royal city of Tourmaline Closter.
Bountiful Church area.
Chen Lun's real body was walking out of the archway alone, standing beside the marble column, and turning his head to look at the distance of the road. A carriage was slowly approaching from the end and stopped directly in front of him.
The coachman seemed to travel between the central area and the upper and lower cities all year round. He was very familiar with the man in the black hat in front of him. He quickly took off his bowler hat to greet him and respectfully called him Father Jack.
"May the God of Contract bless you."
Chen Lun nodded in response.
He immediately turned his gaze towards the door of the carriage, and saw a fair-skinned boy wearing round-frame glasses coming down from it carrying a huge painting bag.
It was Noah, who had not been seen for several months.
"Ah, Mr. Jack, are you waiting here just for me?"
The boy was a little surprised, and then shyly scratched his short silver hair. Although he still looked introverted, he was obviously happy.
Chen Lun handed the coachman a dozen silver coins, and without paying attention to the other party's repeated thanks, he put his arm around Noah's shoulder and turned to take him into the church area.
"Well, the Pale Seal sensed that you were back."
Chen Lun said with a chuckle and touched the boy's head affectionately.
The coachman, who was about to leave, was quite surprised to see this scene. When the young man got on the carriage, he felt that his words and deeds were aristocratic, but he did not expect that this little guest was actually Father Jack's "brother".
Perhaps in the eyes of uninformed bystanders, the relationship between these two people is more like that of brothers... But Chen Lun didn't care about these. He said to Noah slowly:
"You must be tired from traveling outside. Let's go in and eat something and take a rest. We can slowly talk about our experiences during this period."
"Yes, Mr. Jack."
Noah nodded.
"During this period of time, I followed Teacher Lutina out to explore the world. I missed everyone every day, as well as the food cooked by Miss Floy... Hehe."
As he spoke, he smiled very sheepishly.
Chen Lun smiled and told him that he would get what he wanted later, because Floy had learned of his return and was preparing dinner carefully and had even fried two steaks for him.
“That’s great!”
Noah seemed very happy.
The two of them chatted and laughed as they came to the lobby on the first floor of the residential area. They found it empty, and he immediately asked in confusion:
"Mr. Jack, where are the others?"
"The prince issued an important imperial order a few days ago, requiring all major forces to summon undead strangers to hunt in the spirit world and stop the spread of the pollution tide... almost everyone else went to help."
Chen Lun poured a glass of water and explained.
"So that's how it is. I've heard some news during this period of time. It seems that things are indeed very serious... I'm sorry, Mr. Jack, I couldn't help, but now I'm back, let me join starting tomorrow!"
Noah put down his painting bag and said to him.
"Of course, if you want."
Chen Lun nodded in agreement.
As he said this, he pointed upstairs again.
"Before you came, the church area underwent a major renovation. In addition to your separate room, I also asked craftsmen to design and build a large studio for you. It has excellent sound insulation and lighting."
"Oh! That's great news! Thank you, Mr. Jack!"
Noah's eyes widened and he thanked him quickly.
Chen Lun waved his hand, motioning him to sit down and talk about what had happened during this period. Noah sat down on the sofa obediently, ate the snacks prepared by Miss Floyd, and told the leader about his travels.
It turned out that after he left with Rutina, he first traveled around the royal city, visiting almost every town and village. During this process, Rutina asked him to try his best to describe every scenery he saw.
According to Noah's basic skills, this is actually not a problem, but this painting teacher seems to be very "picky". He always finds problems in Noah's paintings and asks him to correct them.
The sentence I say most often is -
“This work has no soul.”
If he could not draw a painting that satisfied Him, the journey would remain at the same place. At the beginning, Noah seemed very confused, because even though Rutina pointed out the problem, he could not understand it well.
"The teacher told me a lot at that time. He told me that there are generally two types of artists . The first type is motivated by the injustice of society, the country and even the world, and wants to shock the world with their own works. This type can be called an 'external artist'. The second type is influenced by their own experiences and have too many impulses to express themselves, so their paintings are mostly to convey their own emotions and focus on skills. He calls them 'internal artists'..."
Noah took a sip of black tea and told the story.
Chen Lun asked with great interest:
"Did Miss Lutina tell you which one you are?"
"No."
Noah shook his head.
"Because the teacher doesn't seem to like these two types of artists... He said that external artists profit from the suffering of others, while internal artists only care about the expression of personality, and both are trapped in the maze of selfishness... Only the third type of 'spectator artist' can depict the greatest masterpiece, recording everything that happens from an absolutely objective perspective. He hopes that I can become such a person."
Chen Lun had no knowledge of art and philosophy. He just nodded to show that he was listening carefully.
"During this journey, my teacher taught me a lot, not just about painting... The things I experienced along the way seemed ordinary, but they also hid the truth of the world. This almost changed most of my concepts, and also profoundly influenced my paintings, and even my understanding of supernatural powers."
Noah's face lit up with joy.
"Mr. Jack, although I haven't paid attention to my mystical accumulation in the past few months, I have reached the limit of Sequence 6 without realizing it. Now I am preparing to start the promotion ceremony of [Bone Husband]."
Chen Lun raised his eyebrows and began to investigate the boy. As expected, Noah had already reached the maximum level of Sequence 6.
"Very nice, Noah."
He nodded with satisfaction and appreciation, and said with emotion:
“Miss Lutina is worthy of being a Sequence Three Saint. Even if she is a high-ranking person in the natural realm, she can be of great help to you in your journey on the Path of Flesh and Blood.”
"Yes, I always feel that teachers are knowledgeable and understand a lot of things... just like Mr. Jack."
Noah nodded in agreement.
When Chen Lun heard his last sentence, he thought it was flattery, and thought to himself that after not seeing Noah for a few months, he had already learned to flatter... But unexpectedly, when he looked up, he saw that the boy's face was full of seriousness and sincerity.
He suddenly thought, I hold such a high position in Noah's heart?
Somehow, Chen Lun found it both funny and touching.
"Has Miss Rutina returned to Coleridge Forest?"
Chen Lun refilled their tea and asked casually.
"No, after the tour, the teacher said that he would stay in the royal city for a while... It seems that he said he would visit old friends in the Moon Church, and he would also be invited to the prince's birthday next month."
Noah replied.
"Friends of the Moon Church?"
Chen Lun raised his eyebrows.
In his impression, as a saint of the Natural Religion, Lutina should not have a good relationship with the Church of the Seven Gods. He did not expect that she had good friends in the Church of the Moon.
"Yes, she is the current head of the Moon Church branch in the royal city, Sister Olmedo... I heard the teacher casually mention that He knew two friends from the Moon Church many years ago. One of them was His Majesty Olmedo, and I don't know the other one."
Noah said honestly.
Chen Lun nodded.
He knew the "Sister Olmedo" that Noah mentioned. He had seen her at the imperial meeting convened by the prince. She looked like a serious old man and gave people a cold feeling.
"Okay, let's stop here for now. It's time to eat."
Chen Lun saw Floy coming over with a tray, so he smiled and said to Noah.
"Well, I didn't eat anything on the way back, so I'm a little hungry."
Noah nodded expectantly.
Chen Lun stood up and walked over, taking the plate from Floy's hand. The two smiled at each other, and then took Noah to the restaurant area.
"I'll go call Connie Maggie and the others..."
Floy whispered.
"Need not."
Chen Lun held her hand, and then conveyed the message through the "Pale Seal" to Maggie in the laboratory upstairs, Connie in the workshop behind the square, and Alex who had gone somewhere to slack off.
Soon after, the restaurant was filled with the ladies' cheers of surprise and words of welcome for Noah's return.
…
…
…
The time came to the beginning of September.
On the lawn of the Bountiful Church, Antonio the Cow was playing with the little white cat Bib and the hedgehog Ding Ding. Several members of the Black Cat Warriors were sitting on the stone decoration nearby, wanting to join but not daring to, pretending to wipe their machetes while looking furtively at the man in the black hat under the parasol not far away.
"Go and have fun. You have a day off today. They are enough to patrol the church area 24 hours a day."
Chen Lun sat on the chair and pointed at the Black Crystal Doll passing by behind him with a smile.
Hearing what the leader said, the black cats looked at each other, then slowly put down the machetes in their hands, then tentatively climbed down from the stone sculpture, and finally, hesitantly walked towards Anton and the others.
Chen Lun couldn't help but smile when he saw this. These black cats brought out from the dream world actually still retained a very original purity in their hearts. It was just that the heavy experiences and burdens in the past had made them trained to be warriors since childhood.
Now that they follow me, I should let them enjoy a normal life.
Chen Lun glanced at the black cats who were slowly integrating into the "circle", smiled knowingly, and immediately opened the panel to take a look.
Over the past half month, the players under his command have been constantly fighting against polluted creatures in the spirit world. Although the frequency of popping up kill rewards is not as high as during the Western War, it is more persistent and continuous.
Moreover, the rewards for killing polluting creatures are obviously much higher than before, with an average of one hundred to two hundred experience points each time.
So far, even though Chen Lun has done nothing, he has accumulated more than four million experience points. He plans to upgrade his secondary occupation [Engraver] to the maximum level in one go after a while.
At this time, another prompt box popped up——
[The circus player "Mr. Yan" killed the son of the ancient god "Didak" (pollution source channel), and you gained 10,000 experience points! ]
"Um?"
Chen Lun raised his eyebrows.
'A player actually killed the Didak bug man?'
He changed his mind and thought that after more than half a month of leveling up, the average level of the players might have risen to a higher level. In addition, after they have adapted to the environment, it would not be impossible to do this as long as they gather enough players, prepare potions, bombs and damaging monsters, and launch a siege with command and coordination.
After all, the Didak insect man, which is the "pollution source channel", does not have much combat power, but is very resistant to beatings. Given the players' nature of getting more excited the more they suffer, it is only a matter of time before they defeat this level of "elite monster".
"The growth rate of players is really amazing..."
Chen Lun shook his head and sighed inwardly.
A few days ago, he discovered through the game forum that several players had been promoted to the middle sequence, and the situation where Polaris was leading the way had changed.
Perhaps in the near future, there will be more and more mid-sequence players, and they may even become the norm in the first echelon.
"Golov, Barton, and Morey are just ordinary people with average talent. They happened to step into the mysterious realm and struggled at the bottom for many years. Even though they later joined the circus and received all kinds of help from me, they were still caught up by the players in this version..."
Chen Lun felt a little emotional.
'Of course, people like Floy, Noah and Antonio, who were BOSS-level 'destined people' in the original world line, have extremely terrifying growth rates and specific templates. Even if players can find loopholes, they can hardly catch up... What's more, their fates have been changed by me, and their future ceilings will only be higher, and they will no longer be trapped in the same place by the established direction.'
After he finished his thoughts, he picked up the iced milk beside him and took a sip.
At this time, he noticed that there was actually more than one prompt box, but he didn't notice it at the first time.
[You have killed 100 "Didak", the sons of the ancient gods, and the curse "blasphemer" you suffered is even stronger! ]
[Blaster LV2 (Curse)]
Curse description: Your hands are stained with the rich, fresh blood of the descendants of gods , and will be engraved with this mark, existing as a "living sacrifice" of revenge, attracting the attention of the believers, patron saints, and other sons of gods of the ancient god "Father of Darkness" Distdak!
Curse Effect: All attributes -2 (Cursed Skin is in effect, this effect is immune)
Chen Lun was a little surprised.
He didn't expect that the Son of the Ancient God killed by his players could also be blamed on him, and this curse was marked when he teamed up with Mr. Pinghu to eliminate the first Didak insect man. He just kept it because he thought that [Cursed Skin] could make him immune to it and reversely amplify his own attributes.
After so much time had passed, he had somewhat ignored the curse. If it weren't for the reminder that the curse level had increased, he might have forgotten about it.
"During this time, the Avatar of Deception has been searching for Carmen at the end of darkness. He must have killed some Didak insects along the way. The one the player killed just happened to meet the conditions for the curse to be upgraded..."
Chen Lun thought.
"Forget it. For me, this curse is harmless and can actually improve some attributes. It can be regarded as turning waste into treasure."
He smiled and no longer cared.
…
…
…
A few more days passed.
On September 9, 4420 of the solar calendar, it was the 23rd birthday of the Sun Prince Dazzlet. The central area of ​​the royal city was decorated with lights and many residents took their families out to celebrate. Special offers were held in the commercial streets, and the city was bustling with activity.
In the evening.
Chen Lun, wearing a black suit and a flat-top hat, led Floy, who was wearing an expensive black and purple evening gown, and boarded the exquisite carriage sent by the palace.
He had a smile on his face and his expression was no different from usual, but his heart was filled with solemnity.
Because he knew that Princess Anna and the Sun Cross would take action against Prince Dazzlet at the upcoming palace dinner.
"There may be unexpected situations at the dinner later. If the situation gets out of control, I will send you back to the church area."
Chen Lun sat in the carriage and used [Thought Transmission] to give Floy a shot of prevention. The latter was stunned at first, but then he didn't ask any more questions and just nodded obediently.
In the end, she gazed at him with her beautiful lavender eyes and said softly:
"You must also prioritize your own safety. If you are in danger, I will not leave... Even if you bring me back, I will go find you."