Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The Forest Is Vast

For most of Mo Tan's life, nearly two-thirds of it had been spent dealing with all kinds of trouble. Half of that time involved creating trouble—trouble for himself, trouble for his friends, trouble for local thugs, trouble for school bullies, trouble for the hacker codenamed SUN (real name Mu You, nickname Futaba), trouble for honest folks, trouble for teachers and classmates, trouble for neighborhood cops, trouble for the residents' committee, trouble for city inspectors... though that last one seemed a bit too high on the difficulty scale.

But regardless, the phrase "creating trouble" had always clung to him. Most recently, it had even earned him the meritorious service of padding out forty characters for the author. (Entire paragraph crossed out.)

What I mean to say is that this behavior never really weighed heavily on him. Whether considering quality of life or moral condemnation, the annoyances he caused others never affected Mo Tan himself—not even a little bit.

But the problem was that, in that two-thirds of his life spent dealing with trouble, the other half was devoted to solving it.

Or we could put it another way, with four different words—like "finding joy in helping others."

During that half, when faced with people in difficulty or crisis, as long as they weren't strictly evil or reaping what they'd sown, he was almost always willing to lend a hand without expecting anything in return—unless that so-called "return" would make the person feel better.

Perhaps he wasn't kind enough to toss even a single coin to those lazy, masterfully acting, and expression-rich fake beggars, but he would gladly spend half an afternoon picking up empty bottles and cardboard scraps alongside a boy who relied on "trash recycling" to get by, afraid of hurting the pride that others saw as humble and fragile.

In truth, he had never been satisfied with vague morality or the law, and he never thought of himself as representing "justice"—at least not in the literal sense. But he always followed his own set of principles, helping anyone he deemed worthy of help. This might seem narrow-minded, but it often turned out more objective than broad, generalized fairness.

"Have you read *A Study in Scarlet*? If this were a true story, I would do everything in my power to help Hope. Perhaps the law wouldn't forgive a murderer, but I would. If the truth means a good man will be judged and punished for sending two villains to hell, I'd rather help him keep the truth buried forever."

This was a line Mo Tan said to Yi Dong during a casual chat years ago, while in his [Lawful Good] state.

"A fair judgment, but the problem is that the law doesn't offer forgiveness." Yi Dong shrugged. "And a detective's stance is to uncover the truth. Still, I didn't expect you to say something like that. I thought I had you pretty well figured out~"

"Compared to you, I understand myself even less." Mo Tan just smiled faintly and replied, "I’ve never fantasized about becoming a judge-like figure, nor do I consider myself a representative of justice. I only seek a clear conscience."

Finally, Yi Dong was stunned for a moment before rolling his eyes and saying, "You know, the most exhausting thing in the world is being friends with you. Just three hours ago, I watched you swap dozens of sets of middle school to high school reference books in the library for illustrated Jin Ping Mei, all for the sake of some so-called 'fun'..."

"I already regret it. That kind of reading material is way too harmful for young boys and girls of this age." Mo Tan smiled wryly and asked, "Would you mind helping me swap them back?"

"Get lost!"

...

In short, despite rambling on for over a thousand words, what I really want to say is just this: at this moment, Mo Tan doesn't feel any dissatisfaction with those truly ridiculous E-rank quests in front of him. After all, to him, even trivial tasks like helping some old lady find her beloved cat that went missing two days ago are meaningful...

Upholding the justice he understands, doing his best to stand on the side of the weak, the good, or the suffering whenever possible, striving only for the fairness he sees in his own eyes, and judging those who deserve punishment yet drink from the suffering of the innocent—that's enough.

What does it matter if the ones he helps are AI? What does it matter if the ones he judges are data? Even if all these things are meaningless, what difference does it make?

No difference~ Really, no difference~

Standing before the quest board in the main hall of the Adventurer's Guild, Mo Tan spent about ten minutes scanning all the hundreds of E-rank quests displayed on the magic crystal screen, feeling that the next period of time should be quite fulfilling.

That is, if he doesn't disconnect...

Don't think it's strange that in this world full of fantasy elements, there's a magic crystal screen with the function of quickly querying quest information. After all, while it's not scientific, it's at least very magical.

Those settings where mighty beings in worlds filled with swords, fighting spirit, or spiritual energy—who can destroy stars with a single outburst of temper and fly dozens of times faster than light in an instant—still have to flip through ancient books for half a day to find information, choking on dust in the process, are the real nonsense. That's truly neither scientific, nor magical, nor even close to cultivation...

Anyway, the rambling ends here...

After looking through everything, Mo Tan didn't rush to accept a quest to raise his adventurer rank. Instead, he planned to go back first, say hello to Meg, and also ask the leader of the merchant caravan—the Forest Spirit elder who was the employer of the Manticore Mercenary Company—when he would be free to meet him. He wanted to arrange the schedule as best he could, so that even if he were forcibly disconnected, it wouldn't be too abrupt.

After all, he should try to avoid causing unnecessary trouble for others because of himself.

But unexpectedly, just as he turned to leave, he spotted Meg from a distance. Beside her were three other members of the mercenary company: the mustached man from that day, the club-specialized human female mage who wielded dragon breath so well, and the legendary lizardman second captain with his Idari firearm.

"Hey, Mo! We're over here!" Meg spotted Mo Tan, who had just turned around, and waved at him with a laugh. "Come over here!"

He really didn't need to greet him so enthusiastically. Although the group of four, including Meg, was a common sight at the Adventurer Branch, their unique aura—mainly that they looked more reliable than the others—made them stand out here.

Just think about it: in this place filled with an elderly Novice Mage whose staff tends to explode, a Thief who forgot to cut eyeholes in his mask, a Ranger buying flash powder mixed with gunpowder to make himself more dazzling, and a dog-eared girl who only says 'woof'... wait... even someone like Meg, a bit of an old drunkard and a fan of melodramatic soap operas, could be considered incredibly reliable here...

"Thank goodness you're finally awake." The female mage who had used dragon breath to clear a path for them that day smiled at Mo Tan as he approached. "How do you feel?"

Mo Tan blinked and gestured around him. "You mean physically, or here? The former was fine, but because of the latter, I'm just grateful to be alive right now..."

He then briefly recounted the 'staff exploding on the spot' incident that had happened not long ago to Meg and the others, who were curious, leaving them all stunned.

"Tsk tsk..." Meg glanced at him, then shrugged. "Well, I guess I should have warned you to be careful earlier. The first-floor lobby of every Adventurer's Guild is pretty chaotic, since it's full of low-level adventurers who tend to cause trouble. I just didn't expect you to run into something like that. Anyway, at least you're alive!"

The human female mage, Kasha, muttered beside him, "I've heard of that guy. His name's Jadka. They say his family has been knights for generations, but he wanted to be a mage. He picked up some antique staff from who knows where and claims it's a family heirloom. But come to think of it..."

She scratched her cheek thoughtfully and frowned. "I heard he was pretty tough when he was young, could take down over a dozen high-level savage beasts in no time. Turns out he's still a Novice Mage now!"

"Hey~" Mustache raised his hand and asked, "Hold on, I've never heard of any Novice Mage who could take down that many high-level savage beasts in no time!"

Kasha rolled her eyes. "He does it by smashing them with his staff. Mo just experienced it firsthand, didn't he? That thing explodes, you know..."

"Is he immune to it?!" Mo Tan finally couldn't help asking. "Or does the staff not blow up on its owner?"

If that were the case, then his near-death experience from trying to save that old man would have been a huge waste.

"No, that's not it." Kasha shook her head. "I've heard that staff blows up on anyone."

Mo Tan felt a bit more balanced hearing that, but then...

"But he can take it," Kasha continued. "It might be a bloodline thing. Although he's a human like me, with relatively average talents across the board, I've heard that Jadka's physical constitution is at least at the level of an Advanced Warrior. And despite his abysmal spellcasting ability, he has a bit of natural Fire Element Affinity. It doesn't help much with his mage career, but it does give him some resistance to fire. So... sigh... if he had focused on being a knight or a warrior, he'd probably be a Grand Adventurer by now."

By the time she was halfway through, Mo Tan had already turned completely pale...

So the white-bearded old man swinging his staff like a battering ram, the wooden puppet Pinocchio maxed out in sniping, the skeleton that looked like a lich but was actually a succubus, the minotaur machine gunner—these weren't performance art, but actual reality!?

Mo Tan felt like he could hear the crisp cracking sound of his worldview shattering...

"Damn it!" Meg was dumbfounded for a long moment before cursing out, "This world is dangerous."

But Mo Tan had already quickly adjusted his mood and casually changed the subject: "Speaking of which, Meg, you came at the right time. I was just about to go back and ask you when that elder from the Forest Spirits who wants to see me will be free..."

"Who knows." Meg shook his big head like a rattle-drum. "Probably in the next couple of days. Why?"

"Nothing." Mo Tan pointed at the Magic Crystal Screen behind him. "I'm planning to take on some quests first. I might be a bit busy for a while, so I wanted to give you a heads-up in case you can't find me."

The captain finally found a chance to chime in, speaking in the Lizardman's non-standard Common tongue with awkward phrasing: "That's fine. We'll be staying in the city for a few days anyway. It's good for you to find something to pass the time. The merchant caravan isn't in a hurry—Forest Spirits are all slowpokes~"

"Alright then, we'll be off." Meg let out a burp and waved his hand grandly. "E-Rank Quests aren't difficult. We'll be staying at the same place as before for the next few days. If anything comes up, you can find me or any of the three of them."

Mo Tan quickly agreed with a smile, then turned and walked back to the counter after Meg and the others headed off to the nearby Mercenary Guild. He noticed the person inside had changed.

"Hello, how can I help you?" A courteous Half-Elf bowed to Mo Tan. His demeanor and professionalism were on a completely different level from the young lady who had been there before.

But Mo Tan didn't mind. Shift changes at a place like this were perfectly normal. Take that one time he exploited a loophole at the bank, for instance...

Better not go there. He was still pretty resistant to memories in that area. After all, both the good and bad deeds were his own doing, and thinking too much about them would just make him depressed.

"I'd like to take on a few quests." Mo Tan showed the Adventurer's Handbook he had just obtained and rattled off a string of numbers: "Codes 10308, 53267, and 44759."

The other person was momentarily stunned, then picked up the Magic Mirror Board beside them and said somewhat apologetically, "Could you please repeat that?"

So Mo Tan slowed down and repeated himself once more. He also realized that he had been a bit presumptuous earlier. For those who hadn't specifically trained in Instant Memory or the Temporary Transcription Method, immediately projecting what they heard into their minds and forcibly completing shorthand was an extremely difficult task.

Without targeted practice, it was nearly impossible for NPCs with an Intelligence stat below 40 in the game.

"Alright, weeding for the Guro Couple in the southern district, collecting soil samples for the Dumen Alchemist on the outskirts of the market, and... uh... inquiring about what Lady Hot Explosion likes or is interested in." The Half-Elf Receptionist confirmed after a brief check, asking Mo Tan, "All tasks with a two-day time limit, accepting them all at once, correct?"

Mo Tan confirmed. He had already weighed his options earlier. These three tasks were the most suitable for him at the moment. They didn't have overly strict time constraints (like watching a stall for someone), nor did they risk accidentally triggering a situation that might cause him to switch personalities out of frustration (like babysitting a bratty child whose parents were away), and the rewards were decent as well.

Ten minutes later, having completed his task registration, Mo Tan walked out of the Pioneer's Gate, ready to head to his first task location. But before he could align the map he had memorized earlier with the scenery before his eyes, he felt someone gently tugging at his sleeve.

He turned around... well, that was quite familiar.

"Woof~~~"

Chapter 20: The End