"So this is the item from another world mentioned in the mission briefing?"
Inside the slightly chilly carriage, Felix examined the oddly shaped black device in his palm, his handsome brows furrowing.
"Ronald, can you tell what it's used for?"
"No idea. Can't figure it out at all, and there's no magical reaction either." Ronald shrugged.
"Maybe we could see something if we took it apart, but I don't have the skill to put it back together."
Felix pondered for a moment before deciding, "Then we'll wait until we get back to Blackwater Town and have a clockmaker who specializes in precision instruments handle it."
He pulled out a pristine white silk handkerchief and began carefully wiping the grime covering the black router in his hand.
Under Felix's careful cleaning, the dirt on the router's surface was wiped away, revealing the cracked plastic casing beneath.
The wear marks covering the device gave it a sense of weathered decay, as if it had endured the ravages of time.
"This machine looks extremely old, like it's been sitting in ruins for years, or even decades."
Felix thought for a moment, then raised his head to solicit his teammates' opinions.
"What do you all think? Could the other side of the 'Black Gate' be the ruins of a civilization?
That would explain why this broken-down machine appeared together with goblins."
Ronald laughed. "Captain, you're not about to tell us some ridiculous story about goblins destroying the world, are you? That's pretty far-fetched."
Raygore had a different view. He waved his plate-sized hand and said, "Ronald, just because goblins appeared doesn't mean there are only goblins. Perhaps there are greater threats. We can't let our guard down."
As the members of the Ice Hawk Guild discussed this, they didn't notice that Orum stood to the side with downcast eyelids.
He appeared to be resting briefly due to fatigue, but in reality, he was desperately trying to conceal his wildly pounding heart and the frenzied waves of emotion surging through him.
"That's right... that's a router!"
"Holy shit!!!!"
Orum couldn't believe that shortly after crossing into this other world, he'd obtained crucial information from Earth!
Going home!!!!
These were words Orum had thought of before but never dared hope for, even in his dreams. Now they crashed through his mind like a thunderbolt splitting heaven and earth!
Any wanderer who leaves their homeland for a strange land will yearn to return home. The greater the distance, the stronger the emotion!
Orum's mouth felt dry, and an almost manic, irrepressible impulse drove him forward, making him want to rush over immediately, snatch the router from Felix's hands, and examine it frantically up close.
But Orum couldn't do that. If he acted too abnormally, it would only invite suspicion and might even expose the enormous secret that he came from another world.
He could only gaze at the router with calm eyes, desperately trying to find more clues about his homeland from its worn exterior.
"Parameters, brand name, model number... anything! Just one letter or number!"
"As long as there's a single character, I can confirm that behind the 'Black Gate' is my home!"
However, this router was far too dilapidated. Its casing had deteriorated beyond recognition, and Orum couldn't find any legible text.
Looking at the cracked router casing before him, a ghostly chill suddenly rose from the depths of Orum's heart.
"Why was this router... so old?"
The polyvinyl chloride plastic forming the router's exterior showed advanced signs of deterioration, though it remained structurally intact despite decades of exposure to environmental stressors.
Yet the casing of this router before Orum had already warped and become brittle.
Orum clearly remembered that wireless routers only became widespread ten years later.
He had only been in this other world for a few days. By all rights, a router this severely aged shouldn't exist on Earth!
A horrifying thought suddenly surfaced in Orum's mind:
"Could it be... that decades have already passed on the Earth beyond the 'Black Gate'?"
"A broken-down router, hordes of goblins... what has that world become?!"
Orum clenched his fists, then slowly released them.
Taking a deep breath, Orum forcibly suppressed all the tempestuous emotions within.
Right now, Orum understood he had to stay calm. Until he saw the portal in Locke Village with his own eyes, everything was just speculation.
"Is the world beyond the gate Earth, and what has Earth become now? I must find out!"
His obsession with "going home" transformed into a scorching fire that threatened to burn through Orum's very core.
Orum was frantic with anxiety, wishing he could swap the carriage for a high-speed train and head straight to Locke Village.
...
After Ronald had been driving for several hours, the sky gradually darkened and night fell.
An oil lamp with a windshield hung from the top of the carriage, but its dim light was swallowed by the darkness the moment it pierced the thick night.
The carriage stopped by the roadside. The members of Ice Hawk took a brief rest, ate some jerky, took turns relieving themselves in the grass, then set off again.
Ronald, who had been driving all day, returned to the carriage to rest, sleeping with a disgusted expression beside the half-orc Raygore.
Meanwhile, Captain Felix personally took over the reins.
When they departed, Felix used a black cloak to cover his excessively brilliant golden hair.
Then he called Orum out of the carriage.
"Orum, come sit beside me." Felix's eyes held a trace of amusement. "On the road at night, sometimes you encounter very interesting things."
"Interesting things?" Orum blinked and curiously sat down next to Felix as instructed.
"Hiyah!"
The moment Orum settled in, Felix snapped the reins, urging the two fine horses into the night.
On the rural dirt roads, there were no lighting facilities at night, making the path even more rough and uneven.
Fortunately, the moonlight was clear tonight. The silver glow cast blurred outlines on the road surface, enough to barely distinguish the boundary between road and grass and avoid large rocks.
Felix's driving skills were superb. Even driving the carriage at night, he still appeared completely at ease.
Holding the reins, Felix could even split his attention to chat with Orum:
"Orum, what's your opinion of that item from another world? You've seemed preoccupied all afternoon."
"Captain, I don't really have an opinion. My reluctance to speak is mainly because my knowledge is too shallow." Orum said with an awkward tone. "After all, I used to be just a farmer."
Speaking of which, Orum smoothly changed the subject:
"If not for that adventure where I luckily formed a contract with my patron, I probably would have remained a bottom-tier adventurer forever."
This was the identity story Orum had prepared for himself: a contract-bound Knight who had signed a pact with a Archfey. All the peculiar powers he possessed came from this source.
Hearing Orum bring this up voluntarily, Felix's curiosity was indeed piqued:
"May I presume to ask which of the Archfey your patron is?"
"She is the Oak Princess from the Court of Jubilation, the supreme dryad goddess." Orum offered the explanation he'd prepared long ago.
This story was actually half-true, half-false, because any adventurer who witnessed 'Symphony of Life' would be immensely shocked by Orum's ability to summon forest sprites to fight for him.
Adventurers would immediately believe without question that "Orum's patron is the 'Dryad Goddess Vilanesri.'"
Otherwise, they couldn't explain why Orum could wield 'Symphony of Life,' a power that defied common sense.
"I see." Felix's expression immediately took on a noticeably more solemn quality.
Felix tactfully fell silent. As a nobleman who had received a good education, he had studied theology and had some understanding of divine knowledge.
As far as he knew, the dryad goddess Vilanesri was a Archfey deity with an eccentric personality, capricious moods, extreme vanity, and a jealous nature.
As Vilanesri's contract-bound Knight, Orum couldn't casually mention Her true name.
If there was even the slightest hint of disrespect in his tone, he might suffer divine punishment.
The carriage moved forward in silence, with only the monotonous sound of wheels rolling over the dirt road.
Orum was still wondering what the "interesting thing" Felix had mentioned could be.
"Orum," Felix suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. "You mentioned your parents were farmers, right?"
"Yes, Captain." Orum answered honestly.
"Then your childhood... must have been very hard, wasn't it?" Felix pressed.
"I wouldn't say hard, just the daily life every farmer must experience." Orum recalled:
"There was endless farm work every day. We had to get up before dawn, drink porridge so thin you could count the grains of rice, then the whole family would squeeze onto that narrow bed infested with lice... that's just how it was."
"The whole family... squeezed into one bed?" Felix was shocked, his voice full of disbelief.
"That's very common in the countryside..." Orum didn't understand what Felix was so surprised about and continued his account:
"We had to get up at four or five in the morning to fetch water from the river.
This water had to be sent to the mill, and in winter we even had to break through the ice..."
"After drinking thin porridge at six, we'd go work in the lord's fields, pulling weeds, gleaning grain.
In the afternoon we'd do odd jobs in the cattle shed, working until night. Sometimes we even had to guard the orchard..."
"If the work wasn't done well, we'd be whipped severely. Once my back was beaten raw. I lay in bed with a high fever for three days and almost died."
As he spoke of these memories, countless images automatically surged through Orum's mind. An inexplicable sadness welled up in his heart, and his words unknowingly became more numerous.
Orum turned his head, only to be surprised to see Felix's eyes had grown moist.
"Captain..."
"Orum, you truly are a genuine commoner, a commoner among commoners." Felix sniffled, his nose reddening, looking at Orum with eyes full of pity and approval.
"You're different from those pot-bellied damned nobles. You've been tempered by hardship. You radiate an indomitable light."
"No wonder Raygore took a liking to you at first sight!"
"Captain, you flatter me." Orum was momentarily speechless. After a few seconds, he understood Felix's logic.
Since wealthy nobles deserved to die, the poorer the commoner, the more "common" they were?
Glorifying suffering, is that it?
Orum really hadn't expected that Felix's hatred of nobles had evolved into love for commoners. And the "more common" someone was, the more Felix loved them.
No wonder the Ice Hawk Guild didn't recruit nobles... for Felix, this was a hard requirement.
...
The night deepened.
An hour and a half later, sitting beside Felix, Orum felt drowsy. Just as he was about to doze off,
a hand suddenly patted his shoulder.
"Wake up, Orum."
Orum opened his eyes to find Felix looking ahead, a smile on his handsome face, his emerald eyes sparkling with excitement.
"The interesting thing is here!"
"What is it?"
Orum followed Felix's gaze, and his drowsiness was instantly dispelled.
Not far ahead, a thick fallen tree lay across the middle of the road, completely blocking the way forward.
Four figures clad in leather armor and holding torches stood beside the tree.
The torchlight illuminated the metal blades in their hands. Four gleaming swords made Orum instantly alert.
Orum had no doubt about their identity. The four men before them were clearly a gang of highway bandits!
Looking at their vicious eyes, they were like four crazed wolves! Ready to tear apart and devour any passing merchants in the darkness. How terrifying...
Wait, what am I afraid of?
Orum suddenly snapped to his senses.
For the four people in the carriage, who were really the wolves and who were the sheep?
Whether it was Orum or the eight-foot-tall Raygore, they were both genuine human-shaped monsters.
Once armored, no ordinary person could stop them. Killing would be as simple as slaughtering chickens or dogs.
Felix looked like a delicate noble son, but he was a sorcerer with formidable combat power. The ice blade that could condense from his fingertips was far more lethal than any sword.
As for Ronald, though he claimed to be merely a healing priest, his muscular build and the iron war hammer strapped to his back both proclaimed that this guy was definitely not someone to mess with.
Thinking about it this way... these four menacing bandits had actually become the vulnerable party.
And at this moment, the bandits, unaware that death was at their doorstep, still thought the two people driving the carriage were just ordinary merchants.
The bandits' eyes were full of greed and cruelty. They laughed loudly, baring their yellowed teeth.
"Could the interesting thing the captain mentioned... be these bandits?"
Orum suddenly turned his head to look at Felix beside him, whose face showed excitement.
A phrase Ronald had said suddenly came to mind:
Their Captain Felix must loved to...
play weak to catch enemies off guard.