After flying for a while, Hades lowered his altitude. After aimlessly searching for anything interactive, he finally spotted a source of light.
Though dim, he knew that in darkness, light was something only intelligent beings could produce.
He began to descend slowly. As he did, the cold wind whistled past him. While it wasn't enough to make him seek shelter, could such a realistic sensation truly be simulated by a nano-virtual device?
Hades couldn't help but ponder the question.
His device did have a realistic experience function 'for medical purposes', but that function's sensations were reduced by seventy percent, leaving only thirty percent of the real feeling. Moreover, for safety reasons, only a handful of authorized programs could activate it.
So was this realistic sensation the result of a malfunction? But could a function limited to thirty percent truly simulate it so vividly?
He didn't know why, but a bold thought suddenly flashed through his mind—could he actually be in the real world right now?
At the idea, Hades shivered involuntarily. Perhaps his guess was true—perhaps he had become his YGGDRASIL character and crossed over into reality...?
"…"
But the very next moment, he dismissed the thought. After all, humans in the real world couldn't fly without some kind of flying device.
And beyond that, there were no landscapes like this in reality. In terms of ecological cities, the natural scenery stretching before him was far too complex—not just endless grasslands, but also forests and mountains.
Even the most advanced ecological cities could hardly achieve such a level.
As for the areas outside the ecological cities, if there were still unpolluted, untouched natural landscapes like this, the government wouldn't have needed to spend so much effort and money building ecological cities for the ultra-rich in the first place.
In the early 22nd century, the environment had been severely damaged, agriculture had collapsed, and the sky was often shrouded in black mist, making it nearly impossible to see the sun. Streets were enveloped in a dense fog of harmful substances, and no one could go outside without wearing a gas mask.
Of course, this had nothing to do with Hades. He had lived in an ecological city for as long as he could remember. Although he couldn't go wherever he pleased and often couldn't see his parents, he lived a wealthy life and could obtain anything he wanted.
What displeased him, however, was the constant pressure from people who wanted him to study those dull, tedious courses.
After more than twenty years in an ecological city, he had grown accustomed to the confinement, and his life had long since lost its excitement. If he could, he would leave the ecological city and venture into the vast polluted sky outside.
Even if he had to wear a gas mask, he wanted to see what the wider world looked like—perhaps there were still untouched, unpolluted environments left on Earth.
If this were the real world, Hades thought, it wouldn't be so bad.
But he couldn't help worrying that he might just be an early-access player for YGGDRASIL Part Two.
Such things weren't unheard of—a well-known game operator had once done something similar. Though it eventually led to a lawsuit and prompted the government to impose restrictions on nano-virtual device legislation, it still served as a form of promotion.
Hades didn't know which was real—the world he was in now or reality itself. But as his thoughts clashed intensely, he reached the ground.
The feeling of his feet firmly touching the earth, the weight of his body pressing into the soles of his feet, made his heart lean ever so slightly toward believing this was the real world.
On the plain ahead, he saw scattered houses made of thatch and wood, with light spilling out from one of them.
"A village?" Hades murmured to himself, walking toward the illuminated house.
Upon reaching the doorway, Hades could faintly hear muffled voices from the other side of the wooden door. He couldn't recognize the language—it didn't seem like any he used in daily life—yet he had the distinct feeling that if he could hear the words clearly, he would understand their meaning.
Raising his hand, Hades knocked lightly twice on the wooden door.
The dull sound was like the toll of a death knell, and the voices inside immediately fell silent. At the same time, it felt as though the entire village had been plunged into stillness by the knock.
Hades, too, unconsciously grew tense. Not knowing whether he was in the real world or a virtual one, he couldn't rule out the possibility that some unspeakable monster might appear when the door opened.
He felt a pang of regret for acting so hastily. At the very least, he should have tried eavesdropping to hear what was being discussed inside. But as the thump-thump of footsteps approached from behind the door, Hades could only grit his teeth and remain in place, taking up a guarded stance.
At the same time, he instinctively tried to bring up his panel to check his character attributes—only to remember that the YGGDRASIL operation panel had vanished.
However, what Hades didn't expect was that, all of a sudden, deep within his consciousness, a stream of information surged into his mind—precisely the character attribute data he had been trying to call up.
=====
Character Name: HaHaHa·Hades
Race: Human(???)
Gender: Male
Justice Value: 200
Attribute: Good
Class Role: Warrior (Monk · Combat Specialization)
Classes: Monk 10, Inner Ki Monk 10, Outer Ki Monk 10, Qigong Master 10, Dragon Breath Walker 5, Eternal Death 5, Duelist 10, Duel Master 10, Peak Martial Artist 10, Champion 10, Invincible 5, Attainment 5.
=====
Hades felt slightly dazed, but there was no time to dwell on it. With a creak, the wooden door opened.
His muscles tensed, cold sweat trickled down his forehead—and then the weight in his chest eased. Behind the door was not some unspeakable, monstrous creature, but a human—a man with graying hair.
The man's face bore features of both Asian and European descent, and the weathered lines on it showed that he was no longer young. His rough hands, covered in thick calluses, were something Hades had never seen before.
Although the person before him was a male human like himself, it would have been far better if the man hadn't been holding a steel fork pointed at him.
"Who are you?" Emmot gripped the steel fork tightly with both hands, eyeing the handsome young man at the door.
In this remote village far from the city, strangers were a rarity. Every man, woman, and child knew each other, and after nightfall, everyone returned home to rest.
If someone needed to knock on another's door at night, they would announce themselves while knocking—the voice being the surest way to identify them.
This was an unspoken rule of the village. So if there was a knock at this hour and the person didn't identify themselves, it meant trouble was possible. Whoever the visitor was, grabbing a steel fork was a necessary precaution.
Inside the house behind Emmot were his wife and two daughters. If the visitor turned out to be a thief, at least he could strike first—and the sounds of a struggle would alert the other villagers.