Chapter 283: Fire, Firearm Head?

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"Ah, I've come back to life!"

As her feet touched solid ground once more, Yun Mu looked at the frontier town before her, which possessed a unique charm, and her mood couldn't help but brighten.

This was the northernmost human settlement in the Frost Kingdom, Folaka Town.

The Xiangyang planned to rest here for a day, then follow the ocean currents all the way to the Federation's port.

By then, her mission would be complete, and Yun Mu and the others would transfer to a Magic Train, following the tracks laid by the Beastkin to head toward the capital of the Federation. She hoped that before then, she would be able to promote to the Expert level.

After all, once she reached the land of the Federation, she wouldn't be able to advance even if she wanted to.

Wait, no. Yun Mu suddenly remembered that before leaving Frostfall City, she had used her Divine Blood Pendant to leave a spatial coordinate on the second floor of the Sisilaiya Cafe—which was her own room.

As long as she wished, she could set a second coordinate beside her at any time.

In that case, when she met the requirements for advancement, she could use the earring's Ultra-long Distance Teleportation ability to return to Frostfall City to advance.

However, it was best not to use this ability on the ship; after all, the ship itself was a floating object, and it would shift positions while at sea.

Even with an Anchor dropped, there would be slight swaying. If, because of this margin of error, she accidentally got a part of her body stuck inside a wall when teleporting back, or was directly severed, that would be a loss that outweighed the gain.

Of course, the "loss outweighing the gain" here referred to the pain of having a hand or foot severed, not a worry about causing a permanent physical disability.

It was merely a minor injury like a severed hand or foot; relying on her recovery ability, she would still be able to heal it.

The only problem was that the sensation certainly wouldn't be pleasant, and in any case, Yun Mu didn't intend to risk injury to try it.

"It shouldn't take too long."

She tapped open her Game Panel and chose to check her current reputation.

Directly beneath the pen name 【Sleepy Cat】, her only work, "Torina's Adventure Journal," had now reached 10 points of reputation.

It was just a little bit away from changing from the 【Little Known】 state to the 【Stand Out】 state.

Besides that, Yun Mu's own reputation within the region of Frostfall City had already reached a terrifying 58 points, which was the 【Rising Fame】 state.

But when placed within the scope of the entire Frost Kingdom, it was only 6 points, belonging to the 【Little Known】 level.

As far as the current situation went, this personal reputation had almost no impact on her combat, only causing her to be recognized by passersby from time to time when she was active on the streets of Frostfall City.

And once she left Frostfall City... "Sorry, who are you?" She would immediately become Unknown.

Actually, this was quite good, because she had no interest in being famous at all. No, rather, she didn't want to be famous at all.

The best situation would naturally be for her works and her Writer name to be 【Renowned】, while her own reputation remained in the 【Unknown】 state.

When people are famous, they attract trouble; this principle remained the same even in another world.

"Wow, what a big ship!"

Beside the port of Folaka Town, two boys were looking at the Xiangyang docked at the shore with eyes shining.

As a remote frontier town, the port of Folaka Town rarely had large ships docked; for the vast majority of the time, there were only salvage fishing boats and surging Waves on this stretch of sea.

This was mainly because there was almost no interaction between the Frost Kingdom and the Orc Federation, and even when there was occasional official or commercial contact, most of it went through the interior.

And there was actually no need to come here when sailing on the sea.

Brenna setting this as a town for a rest stop on the journey was mainly because she was worried that Yun Mu might experience seasickness, so she had made preparations in advance.

But now it seemed her worry was somewhat superfluous; during the three days Yun Mu had spent sailing on the sea, she had not experienced any nausea or desire to vomit.

Because of the resolution of the Scarlet Incident, the slightly swaying hull, and the white-noise-like sound of the flowing water, she had even slept better.

"Can you two keep it down?" Beside the two boys, a girl with chestnut short hair and a white beret looked at them with some disgust.

"The people on this ship haven't gone far yet, it's so embarrassing."

"What does it matter? If the people on that ship heard us praising their boat, they would definitely feel happy too!" the boy who spoke first said indifferently.

"Exactly, exactly." The other boy nodded in agreement: "My dad told me that because we are children, we can do many things that adults can't, so it'll be fine!"

"Ah, two idiots." The girl held her forehead in speechlessness; if it weren't for the fact that there were no other children of the same age in town, she would absolutely not stay with these two.

"Hey, Aersasi, let's sneak on board." The boy who spoke first suggested.

He looked eager to try: "Don't you guys want to go up and take a look?"

Wait, Aersasi what? Yun Mu, who was eavesdropping on the side, heard the other boy's name, and the expression on her face nearly failed to hold.

She continued to stand on the side and eavesdrop.

"Are you okay, Qigefei?" Aersasi looked at the boy with the eyes of someone looking at a moron: "There are so many people on the pier, how could we possibly sneak on board."

He paused, then added silently: "Even if we were to sneak on board, it should be at night."

Pfft, Qigefei... this one was even more Heavy.

Yun Mu couldn't help but start to look forward to the girl's name. Although this expectation had absolutely no basis, since the two boys' names were so special, what was wrong with her looking forward to the girl's name a little?

"Aersasi, there was no need to say that last part!" The girl looked at Aersasi with some dissatisfaction. She said: "And if we don't go home when it gets dark, it will make Mom and Dad worry."

"If we sneak on board and are mistaken for thieves, that won't be good. Last time Malik stole something, his butt was beaten to a pulp by his mom after he got home."

"Ew~ Beiliya, you're so Cowardly. But you're a girl, so it can't be helped." Qigefei shrugged his shoulders with feigned helplessness: "When night comes, you can just go home by yourself to find Mom and Dad to sleep. Aersasi and I can just... Ouch, ouch, ouch."

"Hmph!" Beiliya retracted her left foot that had kicked Qigefei's calf and gave a light huff.

"I didn't say I wasn't planning on going up, it's just that your two idiots' methods won't work."

"You two don't misunderstand, I actually have zero interest in getting on the ship. If it weren't for the fact that I'm afraid you two idiots will cause some trouble, I would absolutely, absolutely not help you."

"Remember this well, okay?"

As Beiliya spoke, she turned and walked toward Yun Mu's side, and when she arrived in front of Yun Mu, she immediately stopped in her tracks.

She put her hands behind her back, a Cunning look appearing on her face: "Big sister, eavesdropping on children's conversations isn't something a decent person should do, you know."

"... What?"

Yun Mu knew that her eavesdropping had been discovered, so she feigned a distracted posture and responded a beat slow, as if she had just come back to her senses.

"Sorry, little sister, I was just thinking about something. Is there something you need?"

"Tsk."

"Hmm?"

"Ah, it's nothing. I just thought it was a bit strange. Big Sister was standing here just now, and you always had a smirk on your face. I thought you were the kind of adult who would mock children's dreams." Beiliya's eyes darted around as she spoke with feigned innocence.

"Ah, was this adult secretly laughing at our conversation just now? That's too much!" Two boys arrived behind Beiliya at this moment. Upon hearing her words, Qigefei looked quite dissatisfied as he spoke.

"What a terrifying woman," Aersasi muttered under his breath, though it was unclear whether he was talking about Yun Mu or Beiliya.

As for Yun Mu, although she herself wasn't sure if she had been smirking earlier, it was far too naive to think she could be tricked by this level of acting.

Heh, if you want to play games with me, go back and practice for a few more years!

As for scheming and maneuvering, she had already grown tired of playing those games with her roommates back when she lived in the university dorms! Yun Mu sneered in her heart.

"I'm not quite sure what you mean. I was just thinking of something funny just now." She leaned down to look at Beiliya, speaking with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Without waiting for a reply, she continued: "Do you have something you need? If not, I have work to do. Hmm, if you're lost, I can take you to find your parents."

"We're the locals here, how could we possibly be lost!" Upon hearing Yun Mu's words, Qigefei immediately retorted.

"Idiot, the point of her words was finding our parents." Aersasi, standing to the side, covered his face: "If my old man finds out I'm causing trouble for the town's guests, I'll have to threaten him with the location of his secret stash."

Good grief, as expected of Aersasi, truly a case of 'benevolent father and filial son'.

Yun Mu raised an eyebrow: "Anyway, if you have something to say, say it quickly. I'm very busy."

"..."

Beiliya, who had intended to use the excuse of being overheard to get Yun Mu to let them board the ship for a tour, fell silent. She hadn't expected this person in front of her to be so uncompromising with children, showing absolutely no intention of going easy on them.

Since that was the case, she had no choice but to... "Big Sister, you're a crew member on that ship, right? We want to go on board and take a look, is that okay?"

Beiliya looked at Yun Mu with the innocent face unique to a child, her pair of bright, watery eyes blinking expectantly.

"Sure." Unexpectedly, Yun Mu agreed quite readily.

Anyway, Brenna was handling the procurement of supplies, and with the Xiangyang resting here for a day, she didn't have much to do; playing with children for a bit wasn't a big deal.

She actually quite liked children.

Because children usually represented the hope of the future, and well-behaved human cubs were usually very cute.

As for brats? That was a problem with the parents' upbringing; you couldn't push everything onto the child. After all, what could a child really understand?

Of course, if they make a mistake, there must be punishment. It can't be exempted just by saying "because they are a child," because if you don't discipline them, they won't realize it's a mistake and will do it again next time.

Only by making them realize that doing something wrong will result in punishment can the appearance of brats be avoided. At least, that's what Yun Mu thought.

Just lecturing is useless; only by experiencing pain firsthand can people understand the pain of others! "Follow me."

She beckoned to the three children and turned to walk toward the Xiangyang moored at the harbor pier.

Qigefei and Aersasi weren't shy, following along brazenly. As for Beiliya... she had probably seen her come off the ship with her own eyes, which was why she was certain of her identity.

Of course, it was also possible that there were simply no outsiders in the town, and the location where Yun Mu was standing was very close to the sea.

Hmph, at the end of the day, they're just a bunch of brats with poor vigilance.

What if she were some kind of bad person, like a human trafficker or a slave trader? Wouldn't they be handing themselves over as a performance bonus?

Yun Mu's thoughts weren't wrong, but she clearly forgot one thing.

The reason Beiliya took the initiative to approach her wasn't just because she noticed her eavesdropping earlier.

Besides that, there was also the fact that Yun Mu's Charm attribute was too high, as well as the currently activated effect of the Favorite of the Gods title—all living beings gain increased favorability when meeting her for the first time.

If not for that, Beiliya would never have spoken to someone she was meeting for the first time like that.

"So big, so spacious!"

Arriving on the deck of the Xiangyang, the more lively Qigefei immediately started running around on the flat deck.

Because the vast majority of the crew chose to go ashore to spend money after docking, there weren't many people on the deck at this time.

As for the remaining crew members, they had all seen that Qigefei was brought on board by Yun Mu, so they ignored him as he shouted and made noise.

"Be careful, don't fall," Yun Mu kindly reminded him.

The deck, which had just been cleaned, was still quite slippery, and Qigefei was only wearing ordinary cloth shoes. The soles of such shoes were very flat and had basically no grip. "Bang!"

Well, it seems her warning came a bit too late.

"That idiot." Aersasi couldn't bear to watch, immediately jogging over to help the fallen Qigefei up from the deck.

"Hehehe, I was too excited, sorry." Qigefei laughed foolishly and thanked Aersasi.

"It's fine, you're an idiot anyway, I'm used to it," Aersasi said, turning his head away indifferently.

"Hehe." Qigefei laughed embarrassedly.

"I wasn't complimenting you!"

"**."

Beiliya watched the scene before her, silently looking away, and said: "Boring boys."

That said, she was actually just a bit envious—envious that Qigefei and Aersasi could play around with boys of the same age, while she could only accompany these two fools... "Do you want me to pet you?" Yun Mu noticed her mood at this moment and asked softly.

"Uh, no."

Upon hearing Yun Mu's question, Beiliya was slightly stunned and refused without hesitation.

(End of chapter)