This is not good. There is an unknown guy hiding in this city... Should we evacuate from here quickly?
Su'er's mind immediately came up with this option, but what drowned out this option was a deep reluctance... and fear.
He didn't want to leave this warm and sunny place.
He didn't want to leave this small wooden house that he had built with his own hands.
He didn't want to leave this illusory dream that seemed like it would never be broken.
Just thinking about the barren and murderous land outside, and the endless cold and hunger, Su'er could feel the tangible pain on his body more and more clearly, lingering around the wounds that had now healed, and not going away.
The stiffness and coldness from when he was dying seemed to have returned to him across time and space. When Su'er couldn't help but pinch his arm with his other hand, he found that it was just an illusion.
He was afraid.
If he could, Su'er just wanted to hide here and not take a single step out... ideals and responsibilities and so on were all irrelevant.
There was food, drinks, and even clothes. The Elf who were brutally slaughtered by the Flügel twenty years ago left behind too many things that could be used. If you seriously dig, this abandoned city is simply an endless treasure trove.
"Well, let's think about it from another perspective, maybe it's not the worst-case scenario?", Su'er forced a difficult smile and said to Think: "Maybe the hidden... friend doesn't have any malicious intentions?"
He even changed to a more friendly description after some consideration.
"Look, at least he put the stone back after taking some food, which can be considered a kind of politeness, right?", catching up before Think could speak, Su'er quickly added, "Or it could be a smart wild beast? For example, it saw me moving the stone and imitated it..."
Meeting Think's sympathetic gaze, the smile on Su'er's face became even more forced, almost unable to be maintained.
"...At least he didn't choose to attack us, so it's okay to consider it friendly or a prank... right?"
Su'er's voice became smaller and smaller.
"Has Mr. Monkey lost his most basic judgment because of his desire?", the sympathetic gaze became clearer. Think sighed a long time. The hand she extended seemed to want to pinch Su'er's cheek, but the man dodged it, "The old you would definitely not say such a judgment... Is it because of your reluctance that you chose to deliberately ignore it?"
Think knew everything. She saw everything clearly.
"It's time to wake up, Mr. Monkey", looking at the frozen Su'er, Think's hand this time was not dodged. It accurately pinched Su'er's cheek, and it hurt.
"The world you used to live in is no longer there. Even if you find many similar things here, they are all fake. This world is still the world where you will perish without even knowing the cause of death."
"---If you relax your vigilance... you will die."
Perhaps it was the most serious expression he had seen on this woman's face since he met Think. Su'er stared at her eyes steadily. Think's warning still echoed in his mind.
He was silent, but he couldn't refute it.
Su'er knew she was right.
"The situation is very obvious now. The food that Mr. Monkey stored in the cellar was undoubtedly stolen by a smart creature, including the meat that was hanging on the roof. It was also stolen by the same creature. If it were an ordinary wild beast, it would be impossible to escape my body's perception."
Think took a few steps outwards. Her eyes scanned over the hole that Su'er had dug outside the wooden house. A stone was blocking the entrance of the hole.
"Although I still can't use magic, my basic physical fitness is still superior to Mr. Monkey's. Without using magic, it's impossible to escape my perception, and the beast that can do this with just their physical body wouldn't be so secretive. It could have just killed the two of us. There's no need to steal."
Think was still analyzing.
"From this perspective, the guy who is wandering around us may not have the strength to kill the two of us directly. Is it injured? But it can still use magic, and even those magic traps that are similar to the work of the Elf were also set by it."
"That's right, I also became slack. Even though all the defense measures in this city were deliberately broken by that monster, I mistakenly thought that they were traps set by the Elf who came here later... I was indeed deceived by my preconceived notions..."
Biting the tip of her thumb, Think muttered to herself in a low voice. Her expression gradually became ugly.
"Now, the only thing that can increase the sense of security is that it didn't choose to come and kill us directly, but chose to steal in the dark... Is it also lacking food? That's not logical..."
"---I'm telling you, you've been muttering over there, and you keep saying stealing. It's so annoying!!"
Think's muttering was suddenly interrupted. Instead, she and Su'er had been waiting for this moment. Even the mumbling just now was a fishing-like method. The two of them twisted their heads without hesitation and looked in the direction of the voice.
The mysterious creature hiding around them easily revealed its figure. It was not a magical technique like invisibility, but a more exquisite one. It broke through space and appeared there. Crystalline, shimmering dust drifted behind her along the trajectory of her appearance.
Angel - this was the first impression that came to Su'er's mind, followed by a more accurate realization.
Flügel.
The barbaric race that retains the habits of a primitive headhunting tribe. Their entire body is composed of the fantastical substance of elves. Even from the perspective of life form, they are a powerful species that surpasses the mortals like Su'er and Think. The word creature is no longer worthy of describing their existence. They are true higher-level beings.
Just the amount of elves that formed her single hand surpassed the amount of elves in Think's entire body during her peak. Overwhelmingly powerful. The bottomless and impassable deep holes that they had seen along the way were evidence of the power of this race, and even in this city, there were traces of their rampage.
The only problem was that this Flügel that suddenly appeared was not completely what Su'er had fantasized about - perhaps the biggest difference was the size of her body?
Small, as if she was a... little girl who was only a few years old.