A Core Ship From The Start

Duanmu Huai marched forward, looking left and right. The dazzling light from his helmet illuminated the dim ruins in front of him. Most of it was buried in the sand. Only some remaining pillars and statues stood there, stubbornly asserting their existence.

Duanmu Huai advanced step by step, observing the decorations and creation around him. But behind him, a bump appeared in the smooth dust and sand pile, slowly approaching the prey in front of it. Then it suddenly sprang out of the sand and lunged towards the target with its sharp teeth bared.

At the same time, Duanmu Huai tightened his grip on his war hammer, and struck back with a blow!

“Boom!!”

The steel hammer instantly hit the shadow, sending it flying out. The shadow fell to the ground, emitting a piercing squeal. It stared fixedly at Duanmu Huai. It was a giant snake as thick as a barrel and nearly ten meters long. It opened its mouth and venom spurted out towards Duanmu Huai.

Duanmu Huai, successful with his strike, did not foolishly stay put. On the contrary, he clenched his hammer and sprinted forward as the giant snake spat venom at him. Then, he jumped high, avoiding the snake’s venom, and smashed his hammer onto the snake’s head again, knocking it over.

Under the relentless hits of the steel hammer, the snake collapsed. When it tried to struggle again, a shadow emerged out of nowhere, blocking its field of view.

“———–!!”

Duanmu Huai stomped down, his powered foot mercilessly stomping on the snake’s hard head. The snake tried to resist, but its skull was obviously not hard enough to compare with the ruthless mechanical force. With a “squelch”, its head was crushed into pulp.

[The Wilderness Giant Snake perished, you gained 50 experience points]

Duanmu Huai glanced at the system prompt and continued walking forward. At that moment, he felt as if he were back in the game, which reminded him of his initial sentiment when he first played Star Ocean Online. With different identities, he traveled in different worlds, exploring unknown adventures, desiring to find some entertaining secrets or even powerful treasures. These interests were more fulfilling than merely killing monsters, and exploring the unknown was a fascinating thing to do.

That was why he loved this game. Countless planets, countless worlds, countless adventures.

The excitement and satisfaction of exploration was always addictive.

Moreover, he seemed not the only one exploring this place.

Duanmu Huai stopped and crouched down. He stretched out his hand and gripped something buried in the sand, then lifted it up. It was a corpse, half of which had already rotted away. The exposed white bones shuddered as they moved along with Duanmu’s actions, as if they had a consciousness of their own. Based on the decayed and bluish face, the man was probably the snake’s last victim.

I avenged you.

Duanmu Huai was calm in front of the corpse, having seen too many disgusting things in Star Ocean Online, especially in the late stage when he went deep into the subspace of the Evil Gods. Every place there was hundred times more disgusting than a B-grade plasma film. The place he was in now could even be considered pleasant in comparison.

It was Elisa who turned pale at the sight of the corpse and almost vomited.

“Sir Black Knight, let’s take another route… this place is too dangerous…”

Elisa was on the verge of tears. She regretted telling Sir Black Knight about this place. If she had known how dangerous it was, she wouldn’t have come…

But she had nowhere else to go if she didn’t come.

The Evil God Cultists had been chasing them relentlessly. In fact, on the way to the ruins, Duanmu Huai and Elisa had encountered several chasing squads, all of which Duanmu Huai had killed. From their words, the two confirmed that a large number of these Cultists had indeed been sent out to capture Elisa at all costs.

“We press on.”

Of course, Duanmu Huai would not listen to Elisa. He shook his head and moved forward, and she could only follow behind.

“By the way, do you know the history of these ruins?”

As he looked at the remnants around him, Duanmu Huai asked. This was his favorite thing to do in the game, walking through the broken, forgotten ruins of times past, imagining their former glory. In this city, what had happened, how many people had lived here, and how had they embarked on the road of destruction that turned this place into a ghost town?

Because of this, Duanmu Huai had once thought about majoring in archaeology. But… someone said he looked like a grave robber.

That’s ridiculous. I’d rather be called a smuggler. Which grave robber is as burly as me? Wouldn’t I get stuck in the tomb?

If he couldn’t do it in reality, Duanmu Huai thought it was equally satisfying to do it in the game.

“Uh… I’ve heard a few things.”

Elisa seemed to be familiar with the place too. While keeping up with Duanmu Huai and carefully watching her surroundings, she whispered.

“I heard that a country once existed here. This country had very advanced technology for creating magic puppets. The king of this country used this technology to create numerous fearless magic puppets that invaded other countries, seizing a lot of land.”

“So how was it destroyed?”

Duanmu Huai curiously inquired, and Elisa pondered for a bit.

“It seems that they created a very powerful Magic Puppet with the intent of conquering the world. However, for some unknown reason, the Magic Puppet went berserk, attacking the Royal City, entirely obliterating it, and even killing the King. There are rumors that some sort of curse was at play… Anyway, after that, the kingdom started to decline, and the citizens left.”

“I didn’t see any remnants of a Magic Puppet.”

Duanmu Huai looked around the desolate wilderness. Apart from shattered walls and ruins, nothing was left.

“After all, it’s just a rumor, and that’s was hundreds of years ago…”

As she spoke, Elisa suddenly stopped in her tracks, then tilted her head to listen.

“Sir Knight, did you hear that? There’s the sound of water!!”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Great! Can we go over there?!”

At this moment, Elisa grabbed Duanmu Huai’s arm and looked at him pleadingly. Even though she wanted to rush over, she didn’t dare to.

The dangers hidden here were simply too many, the gigantic snake they encountered earlier being a prime example.

“Of course, no problem.”

Those Evil God Cultists hadn’t caught up yet, so Duanmu Huai wouldn’t mind letting Elisa relax a bit.

The source of the water sound was a river. It seemed deemed that this river was a moat a long time ago, but now it had turned into a small stream.

“Excellent!”

Upon seeing this, Elisa was overjoyed, and then, looking a bit shy, she turned to Duanmu Huai.

“Sir Black Knight, um… I want to take a bath…”

It’s no wonder Elisa had this request. Since she was rescued by Duanmu Huai, she had been looking disheveled, covered in blood, in tattered clothes, and smelling stinky. If it weren’t for the armor’s isolation, Duanmu Huai might have smelled the foul odor on her — a humiliation that any beauty-conscious girl would find unacceptable.

“You’ve got twenty minutes.”

Duanmu Huai didn’t say much. Since Elisa indeed needed a bath, he didn’t stop her. After scanning the surroundings to ensure there were no hidden creatures around, Duanmu Huai nodded and walked away, leaving Elisa who gleefully dived into the stream.

Duanmu Huai didn’t loiter around sneakily to peep at Elisa bathing. Instead, with Elisa away, it gave him an opportunity.

As an experienced player, Duanmu Huai knew that it was basically impossible to escape the pursuit of those Evil God Cultists. This kind of chain quest becomes more challenging as it progresses—alongside the foot soldiers that appear at the start, there are also the higher-ranking bosses. Having already fended off three groups of soldiers, in the “Escort” mission his completion shows “3/?”, which indicates there will be pursuers, and even potent BOSS-level enemies.

Whether or not he could deal with this depended on Elisa’s value. If she was highly valuable, then the entire organization might mobilize to get her. If she was of average value, dealing with a few Evil God Cultists trying to snatch her should resolve the issue.

Regardless, under no circumstances would Duanmu Huai let these cultists get away.

In the world of Star Ocean Online, all Evil God Cultists are followers of the Chaos Evil God, enemies of order.

They betray order, ally with chaos, and wreak havoc on the world.

Such blasphemy!

In Star Ocean Online, players have great freedom to choose their faction, but the Chaos Evil God and the Evil God Cultists are always hostile factions that can’t be changed!

With Duanmu Huai’s current power, he could only deal with small BOSS. If a more powerful enemy came, he might be a bit helpless. Even with power armor, with his low-level, the value of armor is not high, and he is just a sitting duck for high-level demons. This is why he came here—only here, he would become stronger.

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai’s eyes narrowed, and he raised his right hand.

“Activate, Soul Resonance!”