"We've reached the village."
At Fu Zhu's announcement, Herta, who had been busy kiting Endermen, immediately snapped to attention. She leaped off her staff, then commanded it to fly forward and smash an Enderman directly.
The staff struck the Enderman's head with great force—a one-hit kill.
Fu Zhu gave an impressed glance at the unfazed Herta. As expected of an Emanator of Erudition, her attack power was high enough to one-shot an Enderman.
Just then, Screwllum, who was covered in arrows, came over and stood beside Fu Zhu. He looked curiously past the village, and when he saw the wooden roofs, cobblestone walls, and the large number of houses still made primarily of wood, he couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
"Fu Zhu, are there no cities in this world?"
Screwllum had assumed Fu Zhu was taking them to a highly advanced city, only to end up in this rural place.
Of course, this wasn't to say that Screwllum looked down on such rural villages. He was just eager to study the technology of Fu Zhu's homeland, and this kind of village was clearly not the optimal place for research.
"There are, but they definitely wouldn't meet your requirements. Why don't we get familiar with this world in the village for now?"
Fu Zhu couldn't help it. In MC, there were only a few types of areas that could be considered civilized. The first was the most common and numerous: villages. The second was the pillager outposts. The last, and the one that would best meet Screwllum's requirements, was the underground ancient cities guarded by a large number of Wardens.
The latter two were quite difficult to find, so it was best to start by studying a village.
Hearing Fu Zhu's suggestion, Screwllum didn't object. They had only just begun their research in the Simulated Universe today, so there was no need to rush. Besides, Ruan Mei hadn't arrived yet. Studying the local culture first was also a good choice.
With that in mind, Screwllum reached up to pull out the arrows stuck in his body. After all, they were about to visit the local villagers, and showing up bristling with arrows would likely cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
However, to Screwllum's surprise, the arrows that seemed to be shallowly embedded in his body wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he pulled. He couldn't even make them move a single millimeter.
"These arrows… are a bit strange."
Herta and Silver Wolf came over. Seeing Screwllum covered in arrows, both girls wore odd expressions.
Herta even stepped forward, flicked the tail of an arrow with her finger, and teased, "Screwllum, this is the first time I've seen you in such a state. What's wrong? Can't even dodge arrows now?"
Hearing Herta's teasing, Screwllum explained with some exasperation, "I was just trying to study that skeleton archer, so I didn't deliberately try to dodge its arrows. But now, for some reason, I can't seem to pull them out."
"Hmm?"
This surprised Herta. She recognized Screwllum's strength; he wasn't so weak that he couldn't even pull out an arrow. She stepped forward and took a closer look.
"Hmm… Besides a very faint aura of the [Hunt] Path, there's nothing unusual about these arrows… Perhaps it's because of the Path's power. Hey, Fu Zhu, aren't you going to explain?"
Fu Zhu, who had been enjoying the show from the sidelines, stepped forward with a smile upon hearing Herta call his name. "Screwllum, don't worry about it. These arrows will disappear on their own after a while. They won't affect you in any way during this time, oh, besides your appearance, that is."
Screwllum gave a wry shake of his head. It was his appearance he was worried about!
If he were worried about getting hurt, he wouldn't have let that skeleton archer hit him in the first place.
Herta, meanwhile, stroked her chin as she stared at the arrows. She then reached out and tapped one, channeling her own power into it.
As Herta's power completely enveloped the arrow, it suddenly crumbled and disintegrated into countless pixelated particles, vanishing without a trace.
"Just as I thought, it's the power of the [Hunt] Path at work. With enough power, you can make it disappear sooner. However, the cost for this is rather disproportionate to the gain."
Herta did a quick calculation. To make this arrow disappear prematurely, she would need to expend ten times the amount of Path energy lingering on it. While it wasn't a lot, it was clearly not worth it. It was better to just listen to Fu Zhu and let it disappear on its own.
Although Screwllum thought so too, he considered it for a moment and, for the sake of his appearance, chose to expend ten times the energy to clear the arrows from his body.
Fu Zhu watched from the side, clicking his tongue in amazement. He hadn't expected this to work. It seemed the fusion of the Simulated Universe and MC was quite thorough.
If it could be done in the Simulated Universe, then the same thing should be possible in the real world outside.
"Alright, let's head into the village."
---o---
Fu Zhu took the lead, pulling out some blocks. With a casual wave of his hand, a bridge materialized between the two banks, allowing the group to cross smoothly.
Just before entering the village, Herta and Screwllum stopped Fu Zhu again.
"Fu Zhu, is there anything we should be aware of when interacting with the villagers?"
This time, their goal was to study the local culture. If possible, they didn't want to cause any conflict with the locals, so asking the guide, Fu Zhu, was very important.
"Things to be aware of…?"
Fu Zhu thought about it. There didn't seem to be anything special to pay attention to in a village.
In the past, he would just loot the place and leave. Unless the librarian villager spawned a particularly good enchanted book or his base was short on people, he generally wouldn't visit the same village twice.
Besides, even if he needed enchanted books or people, he would just kidnap them directly, leaving behind an empty village.
Thinking about it that way, there really wasn't anything to be careful about in a village.
"Hmm, the only things to watch out for are not to hit people and not to jump on the farmland. Other than that, you can do as you please."
"Is it that simple?"
Herta was a bit surprised. She had thought a civilization that could produce someone as miraculous as Fu Zhu would have many strange rules. She didn't expect them to be so mundane.
Fu Zhu rolled his eyes at her. "This is just a village, not some strange and ancient place. Let's go."
The group entered the village and quickly decided to split up. Moving together was too inefficient, and both Herta and Screwllum were quite confident in their own abilities.
Silver Wolf looked around and chose to follow Fu Zhu.
After the group of four split up, Fu Zhu immediately headed for a nearby house, with Silver Wolf trailing closely behind.
Fu Zhu walked up to the house, casually pushed open the door, and went inside. This left Silver Wolf, who was following him, stunned.
"Is it really okay to trespass like this?"
Fu Zhu, already inside, casually replied, "I told you to do as you please. Just treat this place like your own home."
Silver Wolf almost lost her composure upon hearing his response. She had originally thought his "do as you please" meant that the rules to be aware of in this world were not that different from the outside world. But it turned out… the 'as you please' literally meant to only pay attention to the first two rules, and all other rules… could be completely ignored!
The corners of Silver Wolf's mouth twitched. She quickly followed him into the house. Although she was quite smart, she was far from Herta and Screwllum's level. To understand this world, sticking with Fu Zhu was her best bet.
Once inside, Silver Wolf immediately surveyed the house. The layout was very simple: a crude table, a chest, and a bed. There was almost no other furniture.
Even the villager in a brown robe lying on the bed wasn't covered with a blanket. It was clear that the village was not very well-off.
Just as Silver Wolf was feeling sorry for these villagers, she saw Fu Zhu walk with clear intent to the wooden chest, open it, and start rummaging through its contents.
"Dude, you're so poor. All you have in this chest are saplings and bread?"
Fu Zhu disappointedly pulled a piece of bread from the chest, stuffed it in his mouth, and began to eat.
Seeing this, Silver Wolf's eyes widened. She pointed a finger at Fu Zhu in disbelief and demanded, "What… what are you doing?!"
"What?"
Fu Zhu turned around, still chewing on the bread, and looked at her in confusion.
An indignant Silver Wolf pointed at the villager sleeping on the bed, then at Fu Zhu's mouth. "This is their food, and you just ate it like that? Can't you see their living conditions aren't very good! Can you still call yourself a Nameless after doing something like this!"
"Oh, this…"
Fu Zhu hesitated for a moment, then walked over to Silver Wolf, patted her shoulder heavily, and said in a grave tone, "Silver Wolf, you need to understand, this is my world. I can do whatever I want. Besides, the villagers won't starve. I ate some of their bread and in return, I'll kill the zombies and pillagers that invade the village. Isn't that a fair trade?"
As Fu Zhu was speaking, a zombie slowly shuffled in through the open door. Since it was still nighttime, the zombie didn't catch fire.
Fu Zhu went up and killed the zombie with a single sword strike, causing a few experience orbs to pop out and merge into his body.
Silver Wolf watched this scene, feeling that something was wrong with Fu Zhu's words, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Fu Zhu couldn't be bothered to explain further to Silver Wolf. After all, they weren't on the same team, so why explain things so clearly?
He walked directly over to the villager sleeping on the bed and yanked him up.
"Hey pal, move over. It's my turn to sleep."
Fu Zhu lay down directly, while the villager just stood silently by the bed, watching him.
Silver Wolf was shocked by this scene. Was this man really a Nameless?!
Why hadn't Pom-Pom expelled him from the Nameless yet!
Silver Wolf couldn't stand it anymore. But considering her strength was no match for Fu Zhu's, she could only walk over to the villager and try to comfort him.
"Are you okay?"
The villager turned to look at Silver Wolf. "Hmph-hmm~"
Hiss, this old fellow is definitely angry!
"I'm sorry, I'm not actually with him! Please don't misunderstand!"
"Hmph-hmm~"
---o---
"Uh… I'll be leaving then… Please don't misunderstand."
"Hmph-hmm~"
Afraid the villager would associate her with Fu Zhu, Silver Wolf scurried out of the house.
Choosing to follow Fu Zhu was definitely the worst decision she had ever made! She would have been better off looking for Herta!
At least Herta, compared to Fu Zhu, still understood how to follow the rules!
And so, Silver Wolf began to search all over the village for Herta, continuing until dawn.
Meanwhile, Herta was looking around in frustration at all the closed doors. Perhaps because they had arrived at an inconvenient time, all the houses in the village were shut tight, and not a single living person was in sight.
Fortunately, the flow of time in this world was very fast. Soon, it was dawn. The door of a nearby house opened, and a villager in a green robe walked out.
Herta's eyes lit up, and she quickly walked over.
"Hello?"
Herta awkwardly raised a hand and forced a smile as she greeted the green-robed villager, feeling a little uncomfortable.
You see, in the outside world, it was always others who took the initiative to greet her. She had never been so friendly to a stranger before, and it made her feel a little out of sorts.
The green-robed villager heard her voice and turned around, hands in his pockets, and looked Herta up and down.
"Hmph-hmm~"
A corner of Herta's eye twitched at this slightly contemptuous grunt.
"Uh… hehe, I'm so, so sorry to bother you so early in the morning. I'm a passing traveler, and I just wanted to ask a few simple questions."
"Hmph-hmm~"
The green-robed villager's dismissive attitude made Herta's anger simmer while also feeling a bit wronged.
When had anyone ever looked down on her like this! It had always been her being unreasonable to others, but no one had ever treated her this way!
"Hey! I just want to ask a few questions! Even if I shouldn't have bothered you so early, that's no reason for you to have this kind of attitude!"
"Hmph-hmm~"
"You detestable fellow! Do you even know what manners are!"
"Hmph-hmm~"
"Is all you can do is hmph-hmph-hmph?!"
"Hmph-hmm~"
"Argh, I can't take it anymore!"
Herta summoned her staff, intending to teach this green-robed villager a little lesson. Just then, Silver Wolf, who had been searching for Herta all over the village, saw this scene and rushed over, grabbing Herta's hand from behind.
"Lady Herta, please calm down!"
"I can't calm down! This is the first time anyone has ever looked down on me like this! He… he actually just hmphed at me! Without saying a single word!"
The green-robed villager, hands in his pockets, glanced at Herta and Silver Wolf, let out a slightly "contemptuous" hmph, and turned to walk away.
Herta: "ARGHHHH!"