Chapter 68: Chapter 68: The Missing Bigwigs and the Inner World
Wu Chang took out the letter from the compartment, and the envelope read "Professor Ebert’s Receipt".
He did not hesitate at all and directly opened the letter.
The letter looked ordinary, but the sender was someone significant, it was actually an Archbishop.
The purpose of sending the letter was to have Professor Ebert, who happened to be on Briff Island, help investigate the whereabouts of the Saintess and others.
According to the letter, the Saintess and others were spreading the Lord’s glory along the overseas trade routes. Originally, every two weeks, the Saintess would report the latest progress back to the Church, but in the recent three months, the Saintess’s fleet has lost contact.
In the last communication, the Saintess mentioned that the next stop would be Briff and noted that sea ghosts appeared in the waters around Briff, attacking many merchant ships, and there must be a plot by heretics around the trade routes. She needed to find out the situation.
The Church sent three batches of people to investigate, but they found no clues, so they wished for Professor Ebert to conduct a secret investigation to find traces of the Saintess.
"Hidden side quest: find the missing Saintess or recover the Holy Mark. No penalty for mission failure. Do you accept the quest?"
Oh, it seems there’s more than one significant person missing on the island.
Accept!
There’s no penalty for failure, so why not accept?
At the bottom of the envelope, there was a crystal necklace with a pure white crystal pendant hanging at the end of the chain.
"Item Name: Blessing of the Great Saint Mother"
"Item Type: Special"
"Item Description: A pendant blessed by the Great Saint Mother, which can protect the Saintess through hardships, a coming-of-age gift from God to the Saintess. The crystal pendant reacts when near the Saintess or the Holy Mark."
Wu Chang placed the necklace around his neck but found no change in his own attributes.
It seems to be an exclusive item.
Putting the pendant in the personal space, he started to look through clippings made by the previous postman.
The clippings collected a lot of information about Briff Island, including its history.
Going back two hundred years, Briff Island was still a deserted island, with harsh conditions, sparsely populated, and full of snakes and wild beasts.
Back then, the Ogre Kingdom would send serious criminals and pirates meant for execution here, leaving them to fend for themselves.
At that time, it was also called Black Prison Island.
Until twenty years ago, when the first steamship came into being, Count Jermaine realized that sea routes would be the future for the Kingdom. Recognized for his persecution of heretics, he chose this island as his fief when awarded by the King.
Count Jermaine highly valued Black Prison Island, bringing with him the belongings of three large steamships when he arrived.
He brought new populations, churches, schools, hospitals, and also civilization and morality to the island.
He renamed Black Prison Island to Briff, meaning a place of peace and prosperity.
Jermaine was a famous iron-fisted Count, known in the Kingdom for his control, claiming there was nothing he couldn’t tame.
For the island’s original inhabitants with criminal blood, he took only three years to teach them literacy and morality, successfully integrating them into civilized society from a semi-primitive state.
The price for this transformation was merely reducing the original population of more than 5,000 to just 925.
Compared to civilization and progress, it was insignificant.
The tamed natives and the slaves brought by Jermaine formed new families, reproduced, and gradually led to the Briff Island of today.
Two months ago, Count Jermaine suddenly disappeared with his family, and their whereabouts remain unknown.
The town’s residents organized several search parties but could not find any trace of Count Jermaine.
Wu Chang closed the clippings, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu regarding the replica world’s background.
No wonder the island’s townspeople all seemed stout and unusually strong.
They were descendants of serious criminals and pirates, pure-blooded standard white people, truly authentic.
The history of Briff Island also explained why the townspeople were so doctrinaire about work and had such animosity towards those who broke the town’s rules or disregarded work.
Because they were tamed by Count Jermaine in such a manner.
Out of more than 5,000, only 925 remained. With that level of restraint, it was unavoidable to imprint it into their DNA.
Putting away the clippings, Wu Chang turned to the letters in the bag.
One letter caught his attention, different from the others. This one was addressed to someone named Tony Stark.
Clearly a name created by a player.
Opening the envelope, the handwriting matched the annotations on the clippings, all made by the former postman.
The former postman and the letter’s recipient, Tony Stark, seemed to be exchanging information through postal communication.
The letter contained intelligence collected by the previous postman on his last day. Each segment was brief, but the information was dense.
"I guessed right: violating the town’s rules indeed prioritizes selection by the Inner World. Also, it’s true that breaking specific rules can lead you into corresponding areas of the Inner World. Tonight, I entered the Inner World again, to that same dock."
Just the first segment of information exceeded Wu Chang’s expectations.
If this information was accurate, it suggested the existence of a so-called Inner World within Briff Town, which would randomly draw players into it each night.
The Inner World was divided into different areas, and without intentional control, players would enter random regions.
But intentionally breaking a rule could lead to a fixed region within the Inner World.
The former postman consistently entered a specific dock in the Inner World by refusing to work. If nothing unexpected happened, it was the dock where he was executed.
Wu Chang sifted through the first segment of information, continuing to read downward.
"There’s one bad news and one good news."
"The bad news is that our assumption was correct. This replica might have been tampered with, and even if no player dies, it continually self-pollutes. The increase in pollution level will simultaneously raise the danger in the Inner World. Tonight, I encountered monsters I hadn’t seen before."
"The good news is that I encountered a group of fishmen, and I’m sure the thing we’re looking for is related to these fishmen!"
"It’s easy to kill those fishmen. I tried eating their flesh; it had a high fat content, similar to the belly of tuna, but more fishy. It’s a pity I didn’t have wasabi on me."
Wu Chang read these two pieces of information several times.
Based on the paper’s details, his predecessor and the predecessor’s team were seasoned players.
Their entry into the replica had a clear purpose: to find an item related to these fishmen, or rather, related to sea monsters.
They could not only choose the replica to enter but also had some understanding of the items that dropped within and knew that the replica could be tampered with.
Manipulated replicas would self-pollute, even if no players died in them.
This high-level intelligence was something Wu Chang had never encountered, even in conspiracy theories on forums. It was certainly information blocked by top-tier factions.
A replica targeted by a major organization would not easily let other players enter if a breakthrough was achieved.
Moreover, such a tampered replica was only listed as specially noted by the Management Bureau and not immediately investigated for a breakthrough.
This suggests that the former postman’s team not only failed to achieve a breakthrough but likely suffered significant setbacks, preventing the dissemination of key intelligence.
For players like Spirit Fox, this information was enough to crush her newly regained spirit, potentially leading to mental collapse under pressure.
But for Wu Chang, this felt just right.
The Abyssal Game’s arrangement of replicas; if they weren’t challenging, he would feel uncomfortable.
He looked at the last paragraph in the letter.
"I suspect that those fishmen are the monsters attacking merchant ships. I tried consulting the sheriff, but due to my recent strike, that woman’s only response was a middle finger."
"I’ll leave this matter to Logan. I overheard the mayor saying, due to Logan’s diligent work, he’ll be invited to join the town council and become a true town citizen."
"Tomorrow, I will continue my strike. I’m eagerly anticipating what other surprises the dock will give me after meeting the fishmen."