Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Heaven-sent Justice

An extremely ominous premonition swept over Mo Tan. Without a moment's hesitation, he threw away the wooden plank and paste in his hands, stomped his legs hard against the ground, and leaped backward about four or five meters. Then he heard a thunderous crash as a heavy object slammed into the earth, followed by...

Being crushed under the stones and timber that collapsed from all directions!

He had been smashed for a full twenty percent of his Health Points! On top of that, he was afflicted with a stun effect lasting over a dozen seconds, and after struggling for quite a while, he still couldn't crawl out...

Leaving aside what exactly that thing was that had suddenly fallen from the sky, at least one thing was certain now: the rough framework of the Main House that Mo Tan had painstakingly built for half a day had collapsed once again. Although it wasn't the kind of catastrophic destruction that Jadka and Yaya had caused earlier, it could basically be considered that his entire afternoon's work had been in vain.

"Gah!" The old orc, who had just been jolted awake from his sleep, opened his eyes, took one look, and promptly fainted again.

It was a good thing this old fellow was still fairly robust, or else with his mental fortitude, he'd probably have been pissed to death several times over by now...

Mo Tan, having finally crawled out of the rubble, decided not to wake his employer for the time being. First, because he wasn't sure if the old man would faint again upon waking, and second, because he wanted to confirm whether that so-called "heaven-sent" thing that had just crashed down was still alive.

If it were any other time, seeing the fruits of his hard labor destroyed in an instant, even if the brother who had fallen were still alive, Mo Tan would probably find a way to kill him. But since he was currently in his Lawful Good personality state, and since building things in this game wasn't as difficult as in reality (roughly setting up the framework and structure was enough; the system would provide a certain degree of correction), although he was a bit annoyed, he still somewhat hoped that person had survived...

As the dust cleared, a tall, half-crouched figure slowly emerged. The scene was strikingly reminiscent of an old movie from long ago, where the Terminator 3... I mean, the T800 made its appearance...

Crack! Crack!

The figure slowly stood up, gently stretched its body, and after a series of crisp pops, let out a long sigh: "I thought I was gonna die again..."

With that, the brother who had fallen from the sky slowly turned around, revealing a faintly mechanical, magnetic voice as he smiled at Mo Tan: "Hello, I've come to get my kidney~"

"Gah?" Mo Tan was momentarily stunned, then carefully examined the being before him, which appeared to be human.

At first glance, the visitor seemed to be a humanoid creature, no problem there. But upon closer inspection, there were some differences from a normal human. His body surface was covered with faintly glowing blue light bands that flowed subtly, yet they didn't seem like magic or anything similar. Moreover, although this fellow had a face extremely similar to a human's, careful observation revealed that it didn't look like real skin or human tissue. It gave the impression of some kind of highly anthropomorphic robot.

Although it felt a bit strange to describe it that way, the ceramic-like texture of the face, the numerous glowing gaps on the neck and arms, and the slightly stiff movements really didn't resemble a pure 'living being' at all.

"What are you?" Mo Tan asked awkwardly. "What did you want from me just now?"

"My name is Cordova~" The other person smiled at him, then reached out and pointed to the area behind their waist. "I've come to get my kidney."

As soon as the words were spoken, a system notification chimed in Mo Tan's ear.

[World Quest 'Escort the Eternal Crystal' content updated: Hand over the Eternal Crystal to Cordova]

His expression immediately became quite interesting, and he quickly retrieved the crystal prism he had obtained earlier from the Forest Spirit Elder from his backpack, tilting his head to indicate it. "This?"

"That's right, it's my kidney." Cordova smiled and extended a hand toward Mo Tan. "Thank you."

"If possible..." Mo Tan didn't hand it over right away but glanced around briefly before continuing, "I'd like you to help clean up the mess first. Hmm, at least lend a hand~"

Cordova was taken aback, then looked at the surrounding ruins, staring wide-eyed as he pointed at himself. "This... I smashed all this?"

"Not exactly, you only collapsed a small part." Mo Tan told the truth. "Most of it was done by me... and my companions. But if you're not in too much of a hurry, it'd be great if you could help tidy up. Of course, I'll give this to you first."

With that, he handed over the Eternal Crystal in his hand.

[Quest: Escort the Eternal Crystal, Completed]

"Thanks." Cordova took it, immediately stuffing it into a square compartment at his waist (presumably a spatial item), then smiled and nodded at Mo Tan. "I'm happy to help, buddy. Besides, due to some unexpected events, I can't leave for now anyway."

With that, he stepped forward a couple of paces, casually picked up two long wooden beams meant as pillars, and began humming a tune as he prepared to work...

Meanwhile, Mo Tan stared wide-eyed at those arms that seemed to feel no weight at all, unable to react for a long time.

...

Innocent Realm, around seven in the evening

"Heave-ho~" Cordova drove several wooden fence posts firmly into the ground with the speed of a pile driver, then turned back to wink at Mo Tan. "Take a break, I'll have this circle done in no time."

At that moment, his shoulder was carrying a large stack of wooden stakes piled half a head taller than himself, while not far behind him, the farm's Main House was already about seventy or eighty percent assembled.

"I really appreciate your help." Mo Tan smiled sheepishly, sitting down on the spot, panting heavily. "I do need a rest..."

Over the past while, the two of them had cooperated to complete nearly seventy percent of the farm's restoration work. The materials had been delivered by the Adventurers' Association along with the compensation earlier in the afternoon, and now there was hardly any left.

This guy named Cordova was practically a monster—his work efficiency was more than ten times higher than Mo Tan's. Thanks to him, the reconstruction work, which would have taken at least two days to show initial results, was now almost complete.

The farm owner was still lying on the ground, covered in some fabric Mo Tan had found from who knows where, sleeping soundly.

He had actually woken up once in between, but Cordova had knocked him out again immediately. In the latter's words, he wanted to "give this old orc a surprise."

Although Mo Tan found it a bit speechless that the premise of the surprise was based on unconsciousness, he didn't really mind...

"By the way," Mo Tan suddenly asked Cordova, who was still busily working, "Why did you fall from the sky earlier?"

He hadn't asked about it before, but after working together for a while, Mo Tan felt that this guy had a very optimistic personality and wouldn't mind such questions, so he finally spoke up.

"Ah~ that thing," Cordova shrugged. "It's a long story~~"

Let's rewind time a bit...

Five minutes before Cordova's fall, south side of Anka Market, high altitude

An ice-blue giant dragon was leisurely circling above the clouds. Its body was covered in magical patterns emitting a cyan glow, and an occasional, faint pressure rippled around it. On the surface, this appeared to be an Azure Dragon native to the northeast continent, and an adult one at that. It possessed both its unique Ice Dragon Language Magic and immense physical strength, capable of easily destroying a small city if it went on a rampage. Of course, it couldn't do much to a place like Anka Market... even several adult dragons combined would have a tough time...

But it wasn't here to cause trouble. If you zoomed in, you could see that sitting on the broad back of this Azure Dragon was a person.

A humanoid creature with an extremely excited expression!

"I'm telling you, seriously! Femigel!" Cordova shouted, waving his arms. "If I hadn't yelled out that time, that senior who looked like a goblin would have definitely sliced me up. It was terrifying, but now the hard times are finally over~ Ahaha, oh hahahaha~"

The dragon carrying him rolled its eyes dramatically and huffed, "Alright, we're here. I'll drop you off and then I have things to do. Once you get the Eternal Core, activate the Teleportation Crystal immediately and return to Celestial Pillar Mountain. Then... Hey! Cordova, are you listening to me?"

"I'm listening." Cordova was holding a silver crystal, examining it closely while muttering, "But how do you use this thing? There's not even a manual."

The dragon sighed, using Mana to stabilize itself in midair before saying helplessly, "Throw it to me. I'll teach you."

"Oh." Cordova obediently tossed the crystal down.

"Listen carefully." The Azure Dragon named Femigel caught the crystal with its front claw and instructed earnestly, "First, you need to guide the Primal Force within your body..."

Cordova nodded.

"Now concentrate the Primal Force into the hand holding the crystal until it glows. See? Like this."

Cordova nodded.

"Finally, silently think of the place you want to go in your mind. This crystal only has one location recorded on it, so just think of the Heavenly Pillar..."

Whoosh!!!

A silver light suddenly enveloped Femigel.

"Hey!" Cordova shouted in shock. "What do you mean by this!?"

The light grew brighter and brighter!

"Roar!!! I'm go—"

His answer was a dragon's roar that cut off abruptly.

Then...

Cordova fell.

And that's how Mo Tan had heard that shout from high above: "Damn it, you traitor!"

...

"So..." Mo Tan's expression was now a mix of disbelief and amusement. "The dragon you were riding teleported itself away, and you just fell down?"

Cordova, who had just finished fixing the last section of fence, nodded with a very calm expression.

"My condolences," Mo Tan said sincerely. "That must have been tough."

"Ah, this is nothing," Cordova shook his head with a laugh. "My previous few tours... I mean, my previous few lives were the truly unlucky ones. So now I'm pretty content. Anyway, that's the gist of it. You get what I'm saying?"

Mo Tan was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed, "You're also... a player?"

"Huh?" Cordova was equally startled. "You too?!"

Mo Tan nodded. He had always assumed Cordova was an NPC, especially since it involved the World Quest he had taken on earlier, and Cordova seemed incredibly powerful. And yes, powerful was an understatement—if it had been him, falling from that height would have definitely killed him...

"How long have you been playing?" Mo Tan suddenly asked out of curiosity. "You seem way too strong."

"This character has only been played for a day~" Cordova chuckled. "As for the reason, I can't reveal that just yet."

But although Cordova had no intention of telling Mo Tan, we can still take a look at his character sheet from God's Perspective:

Cordova

Race: Rune Construct

Gender: Default Male

Level: Priest 1/1 (Hidden Class: Agent 1/1)

Alignment: Neutral Good

Talents:

Don't Die: Your will to survive is incredibly strong! (Obtained after second death)

[Note: Yes, this skill gives you no attribute bonuses; it merely describes you.]

Indomitable: You will never feel despair! (Obtained after fourth death)

[Note: A harsh life has forged your will as strong as iron, but what use is that?]

Gifted: Your aptitude is highly suitable for learning skills such as the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, Buddha's Palm, Kamehameha, and Pegasus Meteor Fist. When learning the above skills, ignore their mastery restrictions. (Obtained after fourth death)

[Note: These skills don't seem to exist in the game.]

Chosen One: You are the LeBron James of basketball, the Tiger Woods of golf, the (Data Deleted) of photography, the Sister Phoenix of entertainment! Yes! You are that Chosen One! Therefore, each time you fail, the World Collapse will increase by 1% (obtained after the fifth death).

[Note: You'd better not fail. The penalty for failure is something you cannot bear!]

Transcendent: Your attributes are fixed, you cannot level up, you cannot accept normal quests, you cannot use any conventional equipment with bonus stats, and you cannot learn any skills.

[Note: This is already good enough. Don't ask for a bicycle.]

Base Attributes: Strength 60, Dexterity 40, Intelligence 30, Constitution 60

Civil Attributes: Eloquence 1, Charm 1, Knowledge 90, Leadership 1

Combat Attributes:

Rune · Steel: Your body is as hard as steel, reducing all physical damage received by 25%.

Rune · Giant Strength: Your Strength attribute is twice the normal value.

Rune · Tenacity: Your Stamina Points recovery rate is increased by 300%.

Rune · Evil Breaker: The magic damage you receive is reduced by 25%.

Rune · Storm: Your speed is increased by 5%, and your attacks carry a thunder effect, dealing an additional 10% damage.

Flaw · Soul Fusion: Your soul is not perfectly attuned to your body, so the negative effects of mental-type spells you receive are increased by 25%.

Flaw · Attrition: Your power comes from pre-injected energy and is therefore limited. Be sure to return to Celestial Pillar Mountain before the energy is depleted!

Soul-Bound Equipment:

Staff of the Agent

Quality: Unique Fine

Attack: Medium

Attributes: All Attributes +1%

Requirement: Rune Body

[Note: This huge staff looks more like a long spear. It has no distinctive features; its only advantage might be... that it's heavy enough? An ancient text is inscribed on the staff's shaft: 'There are many ways to protect friends, such as stabbing their enemies or crushing their enemies.']

...

Since Cordova was unwilling to say much, Mo Tan naturally had no intention of digging deeper. He just sighed and remarked, "Brother, you sure have good luck~"

His response was a dry laugh filled with bitter tears.

"Heh heh..."

Chapter 48: End