Episode 206

The man left with the two newbies. When they left, Wu Chen started to feel like he had gone overboard with his reaction, but Su Jin became more cautious now. The other old timer also left, and Su Jin’s team didn’t stick around either.

They had opened their eyes earlier to find themselves in a warehouse of sorts. When they walked out, they were shocked to find that they were actually in a valley. The entire valley was in shambles, as though it had just gone through a war. There was fresh blood and black smoke everywhere.

Su Jin observed his surroundings, then said to his team, “This place didn’t get attacked too long ago. It was probably within the last hour.”

The other owners weren’t far from them and were clearly observing their surroundings as well. Ten minutes later, some of them started walking away. This place had just been attacked, and it definitely wasn’t a safe place to be in. Everyone knew that the attack must have come from that dragon. If the dragon suddenly decided to come back and attack this place again, they’d be in danger.

All the other owners left except for Su Jin’s team. He had purposely waited for everyone to leave before walking back into the warehouse.

He looked around and finally fixed his gaze on this strangely placed wooden crate among the other goods. The crate was covered with cloth, which was weighed down by a bunch of rocks.

“Here?” Su Jin laughed and walked toward the crate. He pulled the crate out from among the other boxes. Just like what he had expected, some sounds could be heard coming from inside the crate. His acute hearing could also hear the sound of something holding back tears and the sound of bodies trembling. Whatever was inside the crate was alive.

He removed one side of the crate and someone tried to move to the far end of the crate. He called out gently, “It’s alright, it’s safe now. You can come out.”

His three teammates were surprised. It was clear that there were humans inside the crate, but this had never crossed any of their minds.

Su Jin’s words didn’t seem to work at all, since the people inside the crate refused to come out. He could only give Kano Mai a pleading look to help.

Kano Mai burst out laughing, then approached the crate and said gently, “It’s really safe now! You can all come out! I promise it’s safe!”

Based on the noises coming from the people inside and the size of the crate, it was probably some children hiding inside. After Kano Mai said those words, one little head peeked out from the inside.

That head belonged to an adorable girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She blinked several times as she looked at the adults in front of her, and she was so cute that anybody would melt from just looking at her.

After she had stuck her head out, another four little heads peeked out as well. They were all about 11 or 12 years old, and they were looking at Su Jin and his team very cautiously.

Kano Mai went closer and said softly, “It’s alright, all of you can come out now.” She reached out and helped the first girl to come out of the crate.

Su Jin reached out to help the other children out as well. They weren’t as afraid of them anymore, probably because Kano Mai was really amazing with children.

The first girl’s name was Natasha, and the other four were her friends. According to her, the village had been attacked by the evil dragon, so the adults hid them here.

“Where are your parents then?” asked Su Jin, because he had noticed that there wasn’t a single dead body in the valley earlier. There weren’t even that many bloodstains either. One possible explanation was that the dragon had eaten all the humans, but he had never heard of any legend where the evil dragons ate humans.

Natasha pondered for a moment, then said, “The village chief and the other adults have gone to kill the dragon. The dragon keeps trying to destroy our homes and it hurts people too, so the village chief said that we must get rid of this bad dragon.”

The team was rather surprised. They thought that killing the dragon was their job. They didn’t expect the people within the Challenge to be doing the same thing too.

“Will they come back?” asked Su Jin.

Natasha nodded. “They will, but it will take them a couple of days. Before that, we can’t come out of the crate, or else we’ll be in danger.” Her friends nodded as well in agreement.

Su Jin paused to think, then pulled his teammates to one corner to discuss. Situ Jin immediately asked, “How did you know there were people inside this warehouse?”

“Easy. The valley looks like it’s gone through some major bombing but only the warehouse remained perfectly fine. The Handbook universe is full of crazy things but it wouldn’t give us a starting point that didn’t make sense. I mean, have you ever found yourself in a Challenge where your starting point was some boat in the middle of lava?” said Su Jin. The rest of them shook their heads and realized that Su Jin was right. The Handbook always gave them a reasonable starting point that was not out of place with the rest of the Challenge.

“That’s why I’m sure there’s a good reason for leaving this place behind. It’s probably essential for our progress in this Challenge,” said Su Jin.

“So, you’re saying that this place is protected by some special power?” asked Kano Mai.

Su Jin nodded, then laughed and said, “There’s also a possibility that the dragon has deliberately avoided this place, and so it’s able to remain standing.”

The rest didn’t get it. Wu Chen asked, “But why would it do that?”

“I can’t say for sure now, but the villagers have the ability to go after the dragon, so this warehouse might have been their defense base. Or perhaps the villagers have some other way of making sure the dragon doesn’t come near to this place,” said Su Jin casually even as he scanned Natasha and her friends unnoticeably. Nobody noticed at all.

Situ Jin frowned and asked, “What do we do now?”

“We have two options. The first is to stay here and wait for the villagers to return. We can ask them where the dragon is, then we’ll go and kill it. The second option is to go after it right now. The dragon attacked this place not too long ago, so if we want to go after it now, I think we’ll be able to make it,” said Su Jin.

“Let’s go after it then. If we catch up with it now, we might be able to team up with the villagers, which will make killing it easier.” Situ Jin felt that having more people to fight the dragon together would be best.

Su Jin didn’t object. He said a few words to Kano Mai and she went over to speak to the children. “We’re leaving now to help your parents and the other adults to kill the dragon. Hide here and don’t run about unnecessarily, alright?”

Natasha and the other children nodded and promised to be good. Kano Mai and Situ Jin helped them back into the crate and Su Jin pushed the crate back into its original position.

After they walked out of the warehouse, Su Jin inspected the valley again, then said to Situ Jin and Kano Mai, “Situ, Mai, don’t come along with us. Find a nearby place to hide yourselves and keep an eye on Natasha and the other kids.”

They stared blankly at him and Situ Jin asked, “Why? You think there’s a problem with those kids?”

Su Jin nodded gravely. He glanced at the warehouse, then whispered, “Yeah. So, I’ll count on you guys.”

“What do you need us to do? Just stay here and watch them?” asked Situ Jin.

Su Jin nodded and said, “Just watch them. Even if something happens, don’t do anything. Just tell me everything that happened once we’re back.”

Situ Jin nodded, but he was still puzzled and wondered what Su Jin was up to. Kano Mai had always been supportive of any arrangement Su Jin made, so she just nodded obediently and went to look for a good hiding spot with Situ Jin.

Su Jin and Wu Chen ran out of the valley. He asked Wu Chen if he had any tracking skills, and Wu Chen actually said that he did. This man was indeed an old timer who had gone through dozens of Challenges. He patted his own chest and said to Su Jin, “You can count on me!”

“I’ll be counting on you to track that dragon down, then,” said Su Jin.

Wu Chen froze for a moment, then laughed awkwardly. “Um… Jin, that’s something that can fly. I can’t possibly track that! Ask me to track a human instead. I’m good at that.”

Su Jin nodded. “Sure, let’s track humans then. The villagers followed that dragon, so we can track them.”

Wu Chen nodded and proceeded to track the villagers down. But after a long time with no results, Su Jin was getting impatient. Wu Chen finally came back and said in an embarrassed voice, “Jin… do you think there’s a possibility…”

“A possibility of what?”

“A possibility that the humans in this Challenge aren’t like us. Maybe… they can fly?” Wu Chen was in a very awkward position because he couldn’t find traces of any humans at all.

“Well, that… that’s possible. Since a dragon exists in this Challenge, then perhaps those capable of slaying dragons have some special skill too. Being able to fly isn’t completely impossible,” said Su Jin with a nod.

Wu Chen breathed a sigh of relief, then said very seriously to Su Jin, “Jin, I’m so glad you said that. I can’t track down those villagers at all. I can’t find a single trace.”

“Wu Chen.”

“What is it?”

“Next time, don’t claim that you have the ability to track people down when you don’t have it. I can let it go, but not everybody is willing to.” Su Jin sighed heavily as he patted Wu Chen’s shoulder.

Wu Chen gritted his teeth and retrieved an item from his Handbook. Su Jin panicked and said, “Don’t use any item rashly! You don’t know what sort of situation we’d face later, so if you use one now, you’ll have one less to choose from later.”

“I don’t care anymore! If I don’t find those villagers, it’d be so embarrassing! What’s the most important thing to men? Pride!” Wu Chen proceeded to fling the item in his hand into the air. It floated for a while before shining a white light down on their surroundings.

After a short while, Wu Chen pointed to one side and said, “This way. Many signs of life just passed through this place, so it’s got to be the right way.”