Chapter 398: The Excavator’s Booty
This might not be entirely due to myself; perhaps… the other party discovered something, and their consciousness left this shell?
It’s too bizarre. Could it be that the civilization invading this world is actually a parasitic life form?
However… I haven’t observed anything unusual leaving, or perhaps I didn’t focus on using Spirit Vision to investigate the information?
I slightly closed my eyes, and then forced the talent of Spirit Vision to activate, actively accepting the information that I had previously given up or ignored.
“This is… hmm?”
I originally thought I could see the invisible form of the opponent escaping, possibly speculating about energy life forms, but as I activated Spirit Vision, I surprisingly only saw a strand of golden thread that I had overlooked before, abruptly breaking from this lifeless person.
I stimulated my mental power to prepare to chase after it, but it was as easy as grasping floating duckweed when I held it in my hand.
“Thread of Fortune…” I frowned at this strand of fortune, then looked at this guy who was already dead and couldn’t d*e anymore. His originally bright and shiny clothes seemed to have lost some support and shattered into negligible small chunks, and I also noticed that those small chunks were square-shaped, yet they didn’t seem to be any entity. Eventually, these chunks continuously disintegrated into familiar informational data.
However, this informational data seemed just as meaningless. At least at this moment, my Spirit Vision couldn’t discern its significance.
“So… what is going on?” My brows furrowed, unable to understand how this guy related to fortune.
Could it be that I was wrong from the beginning, misclassifying these Excavators as outsiders invading the world?
After all, this is just one world. What right do they have to be invaded by Abyss Demons, this extraordinary race, and this unknown civilization together? It seems too coincidental.
However, my mood wasn’t great. Judging from that earlier guy, these Excavators seemed not to fear d*ath, or perhaps the d*ath of their shells didn’t constitute their true d*ath, which is why they acted so recklessly.
So… could they reappear through other means?
If they understood my methods, it’s highly possible they could launch a surprise attack targeting those very methods. The only fortunate thing is that I came here in disguise.
But this disguise won’t hold for long. With the use of my abilities, I will eventually expose myself.
At this moment, I arrived before the other two guys. They were only severely injured and not unconscious.
But when I got there, I found one of them already as immobile as that previous guy, not even a hint of breath left.
This person was the one who had been ambushed by the Spirit Cat and Falcon Summoning Spell, and was the one most heavily injured. Surprising that he just up and left.
This d*ath was even more decisive than the earlier guy.
But I noticed that the Thread of Fortune on this deceased guy seemed to have disappeared; the thread couldn’t simply dissipate into thin air unless… it was transferred, but there were no targets for transfer in the vicinity.
Next, I had no choice but to focus on the other guy who hadn’t chosen to “self-destruct.” He had taken a punch from me, and I estimated his abdomen must still be pained… no, perhaps it was already a severe internal injury. After all, I had indeed landed that punch a bit hard.
So I chose to communicate through consciousness, not wanting to miss the possibility of obtaining information from him.
“I ask you, what happened to these two guys?”
“Um… strange way of communicating, don’t you know?” He struggled to raise his head to look at me, seeming somewhat surprised. “Wait! Aren’t you %$&?”
“Your words are muted; what’s going on?” Seeing that he had the desire to chat, I quickly spoke up.
“Muted? As expected, you’re not an explorer, right? That means it’s not muted anymore?” he replied.
“Yeah, I’m not an explorer. What does this muting mean? Is it trying to prevent you from conveying some information? Can you write it down? Or provide hints?” I hurriedly continued to ask.
“Don’t waste your efforts, $&% doesn’t want you to know, and you’ll never understand it. I’m very curious about your methods… you’re definitely not from this world, right!” he asserted.
“How do you know?” I didn’t directly admit it.
“Your clothing, your appearance, your aura, and… you probably don’t know the language of this world, right? That’s why you used this way of consciousness communication. When you stand among the crowd, it’s like the gap between a player character and NPC in a game!”
“Well…”
“You admitted it! You really came from beyond this world, right! Who are you? Those methods—it’s magic, right?”
“Maybe. I’m a traveler who was forced to come here due to an accident, looking for a way back home.” I responded.
After all, experiencing interworld travel could just be considered tourism, right? I was indeed forced to come here, and it’s true that I can’t go back—no lie there.
“Really! Really! I never thought I would encounter such a situation! Can you tell me your name?”
“You…” I glanced at him with slight disdain; even in this state, he still had the mood to ask for my name?
“It’s fine, I’m just curious. Aren’t you going to say even a name?”
“Are you guys capable of resurrecting?” Suddenly, I didn’t answer his question directly, but instead posed a question I was very concerned about.
“Oh dear~ you guessed it. So can you tell me your name? Perhaps we’ll encounter each other again.”
“Even if there is a connection, it should be a cursed one that I’ll sever myself…” As I spoke, a blazing fireball ascended in my raised hand.
In an instant, the temperature in this bare room surged.
“Whoa… Whoa! Magic fireball!”
“Stop, stop!” Upon seeing this scene, he quickly shouted, “Don’t be so bloodthirsty! You still haven’t answered my question! Your name, even if it’s just a code, is fine!”
“So what are you willing to pay?”
“Uh… changing subjects so quickly? You’re serious? What do you want? Let’s make it clear, there are many things I can’t disclose; you’ve already seen that.”
“Money—money of this world, valuable precious metals, equivalent items from this world. If you offer enough, I might tell you my name, even my code name or title.” At this moment, I revealed my true intention.
After all, don’t those Excavators enjoy looting wealth and luxury goods?
Then they should be quite wealthy; those two who just died couldn’t give anything out.
“Money?” Upon hearing my words, this Excavator looked shocked and then revealed understanding, “Oh~ money is indeed important. However, I didn’t partake in the robbery much, so I don’t have much money, just received a good portion during distribution.”
“Then hand it over.” I said nonchalantly.
“I’m afraid that if I hand it all over, you won’t be able to take it away!”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Alright, but… could you let go of one of my hands so I can operate? Don’t worry, your strength is so strong; I definitely won’t run away.”
“Mm.” I agreed, and while loosening his right hand, several hovering spells appeared in his visual blind spot. The Spirit Cat remained on standby in the corner, while the Falcon checked the situation outside.
You could say it was essentially foolproof. If he could break free from such measures, there’s a decent chance I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
As his right hand was freed from confinement, he unconsciously shook it. The strong restraining force seemed to make him uncomfortable. Then I saw his fingers move, and instantly, countless coins surged forth.
Due to this sudden change, I instinctively pulled back a bit, and only when I saw that what had spilled out were wooden coins and stacks of bills, did my tense expression finally relax. So it was something akin to storage equipment?
I just couldn’t see what kind of storage equipment it was, or if it was simply a means of storage magic.
But soon, as I pondered, the money piled up into a small mountain!
Seeing this pile of money, I instinctively swallowed—this could hardly be called “not much”?
This was “a portion distributed”?
Not just paper money and wooden coins; I also spotted gold and other precious metals, along with what looked like gems or diamonds—those should be luxury goods.
I picked up a piece of gold; it didn’t seem to be the Aoqin I was familiar with.
Although Aoqin is also a rare yellowish gold metal like gold, this piece of gold was merely a precious metal, while Aoqin is an extraordinary material!
“That’s about it; is it enough? I actually have a Lanas bank card from this world, but I don’t think you’d let me go. As long as I’m dead or someone other than me goes to withdraw, those stingy bankers wouldn’t hand you even a coin.”
“That’s quite unfortunate. I won’t let you off; in fact… I’ll take your corpses for bounty rewards.”
“Really? What an honor that after I d*e, I can still create value. Wish you luck; now you should be able to tell me your name?”
“You can call me… Moon.” I pondered for a moment before speaking.
“Moon? A single-character name? Quite nice! What about your code name? Title? I’m very curious!” He persistently asked, “Hey, hey, I saw how your eyes lit up at the sight of this money; you must be satisfied! Don’t go back on your word!”
“Catastrophe Witch; you can call me Catastrophe Witch.” After all, that’s the title those from the Witch Academy called me. Although it seemed trivial in the eyes of those extravagant witches, I accepted this somewhat pleasing title, and just so happened to use it here.
“Catastrophe Witch? My gosh! You dare to call yourself Catastrophe Witch? Can you really create disasters?”
“Perhaps.”
Without the suppression effect of the Greater Weakening Spell, the power of my Fire Rain Field Spellbook would surely increase.
Back then, the Fire Rain Field conjured by hand in the Underground City of Ninglan had such great power, and that was only drawing from the thin fire elements in the environment. If I were to use magic power to trigger it… billowing fire clouds, obscuring the sky, annihilating nations… seems quite possible.
Moreover, Tan Han’s Ancient Ice Transformation Spell is also in my possession. It’s hard to imagine how terrifying the transformed state would be without the suppression of the Greater Weakening Spell. Speaking of which, back then in Ninglan, was Tan Han using this spell poorly? I hadn’t paid much attention at the time.
So… since I arrived in this world, it seems the people haven’t yet realized that an existence far more terrifying than those Excavators and demons has quietly descended.
But who would expect such an existence to be halted by a cricket coin?
I felt ashamed of my actions, yet I didn’t think there was anything wrong. If I had come here and started with the extermination of a small nation, I would encounter considerable trouble.
Furthermore… the world is a fragile thing; not only the world but also civilization, ecology, and so on. After all, a world could face continuous disasters due to global warming, or an ecological cycle could break and cause complete collapse.
So fundamentally, world destruction isn’t difficult.
It merely requires a little method to turn a peacefully developing modern society into war-torn wastelands. Moreover, this world contains so many countries that with just a little instigation, it could trigger a world war.
Wait… am I thinking of something strange again? Why am I so fixated on apocalyptic thoughts?
“Whoa… it really is possible!”
“Of course, there’s one more thing I want to ask you; once I’m done, I’ll let you go.”
“Still have something? What is it?” Now, he was made curious.
“You call yourselves… Excavators, right?”
“Ah, close enough.”
“What secrets are you trying to excavate in this world?”
“What secrets to excavate? How would I know? Does it concern me? Such things are definitely not for me to do! What’s wrong with being a bandit in this world?”
“Mm?”
Hearing his response made me furrow my brows deeply; this answer was almost equivalent to saying nothing, but it seemed to reveal some information as well.
However, I still lacked some key pieces to string these together to fully understand what these Excavators really were.
At this moment, my gaze also fell on this guy in front of me. Upon closer inspection, I found that there was a strand of fortune on him too. It was very fine, but it existed.
The fortune in this world seems to be withering, to the extent that the information my Spirit Vision saw nearly made me overlook it.
As soon as these guys d*e, the fortune will be completely severed from connection. So… what if I proactively severed his Thread of Fortune?
Though earlier, it seemed that transferring fortune required some kind of ritual, this guy before me had already lost to me, and he didn’t even have a Fortune Seed. So… theoretically, I ought to be able to directly sever his Thread of Fortune, as their relationship with the thread seems similar to that of the Store Manager and the thread of fortune back then; I seem to… be able to unravel it!
“In any case, thank you for clarifying things, this beautiful Catastrophe Witch Miss; after talking for so long, I haven’t introduced myself…”
“I’m not the slightest bit curious about your name.” Seeing this guy starting to get familiar again, I no longer hesitated and directly attempted.
As I extended my hand to grasp the Thread of Fortune!
The person before me was startled, not knowing what I was doing, and the words he tried to say were interrupted.
“It’s time to move!” I exerted force suddenly. I just wanted to forcibly seize this strand of fortune and see if he would be fine; if he was okay, then I’d let him go directly. If something happened… then I’d have to observe carefully.
“Uh? What are you doing…”
Before he could finish his sentence, I quickly untied the Thread of Fortune on him, and he immediately slumped onto the ground.
“The words were left unfinished… so the fortune is his…”
“What is this? Has the world’s will become sentient, or has fortune gained its own consciousness?” I said with a grim expression.
Because the development of the situation was heading towards the most confusing direction I had anticipated.
