Chapter 662

No. 31: Let's still take a look at the distant Heavenly Pool.

Changbai Mountain, the king of Eastflame volcano, once had an eruption column reaching up to 25 kilometers high three thousand years ago, with volcanic debris flows sweeping the outskirts, a violent major eruption whose reach extended beyond 50 kilometers.

This is the most violent volcanic eruption in Eastflame's history, and it is the origin of its title as king.

But that was a long time ago.

A lava plateau with a diameter of 60 km and an area of square kilometers was ultimately covered by stacked volcanic ash and limestone under high-altitude wind and snow, turning into a mountain peak that appears completely snow-white at a glance.

Even the center of the vent once churned by lava became Eastflame's largest volcanic crater lake.

Surrounded by peaks, towering to touch the clouds, it is named Heavenly Pool.

Approximately 4,462 meters long north-south and 3,462 meters wide east-west, with an elevation of 2,312 meters, an average depth of 214 meters, a maximum depth of 426 meters, and a total water storage of about 2.1 billion tons.

It is both the largest and deepest lake in Eastflame.

It is also the highest-altitude volcanic lake on Earth.

It was like that in the past, and it is still like that now.

The mountain bearing it had once been shaken by heavenly debris, yet it erupted and piled up even more minerals, thereby revealing an even greater majesty.

No matter how the earth's veins are twisted or disordered, the immovable origin of the sect always begins with that nonsalty mountain.

In the vast wilderness there is a mountain called Nonsalty, and there is the country of the Sushen—according to the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

Setting aside the oral tradition that speaks of it having a divine nature, the reason for its name is that it looks slightly white like salt but lacks salt's saltiness.

This clearly refers to the limestone stacked in volcanic ash.

After years of mixing with snow, it makes the meaning of 'long white' in the mountain's name obvious at a glance, and it is also the most common stone at the summit of Changbai Mountain.

So abundant that it can easily be turned up in forest flower clusters that seem unrelated to volcanoes, passed hand to hand in countless gloved palms, examined as if playing with it, and finally placed into a deforming and extending mechanical instrument.

A precise 3D model is constructed on the screen above the instrument, with various values displayed and changing beside it, then gradually slowing as the stone block's 3D model rotates, eventually stabilizing.

"This stone is at least two thousand years old," said the sharp-eared male gazing at the gauge, "it should be a trace of that greatest eruption."

"Sounds like it's from your father's generation?" asked the female with fish‑fins on her ears, chuckling lightly.

"Pretty much; back then, if he was well‑informed, he could still see eruption news in the newspapers," the elf investigator shrugged, "but such a traditional fellow wouldn't like volcanoes—each eruption would sweep away a large swath of forest."

"But there'd also be good fertilizer, right?" said the wolf‑person investigator, hauling up the petite captain from the slope, "My mom who farms at home often thinks I could bring her a cartload of volcanic ash, leaving me speechless."

"I get it, I get it; my dad also thinks I'll surely bring him some gems back," said one of the human investigators who likewise helped their companion, feeling the same, "Really, what do they think geological surveying is?"

"It's like thinking programmers can develop software and plugins on their own, or that doctors can treat their own illnesses," said the youthful interface on the light screen, "laypeople always have many misunderstandings about professions."

"Has Mr. Lindon also encountered that?" Adel wondered curiously, "Is he a mercenary or a trainer?"

"No, that hasn't happened; mercenaries and trainers are both well‑known professions," Aomo said calmly, "having peers who often appear in variety shows and films is also a good thing."

Actually, if one insists, there are some.

Morrison's kind of 'When will you bring a horse‑girl girlfriend?' is a very common stereotype, as if being a trainer necessarily means having one, or even multiple horse‑girl girlfriends.

This is actually a case of survivor bias.

It's not that trainers necessarily marry horse girls, but only those trainers who marry horse girls become widely known; each time they appear, they inevitably cause a stir in the media and leave a deep impression.

After all, horse girls already possess some elements of Jidong idols and sports stars, making them highly talked‑about public figures; every move is watched, let alone marriage, such a major event.

But frankly, ordinary trainers indeed have too many of their opposite‑sex interaction opportunities taken up by horse girls.

Especially those male trainers who live directly in the trainer dormitories.

From morning to night, the attractive women one sees are either a few female colleagues or many more horse girls; only on holidays does one get a chance to go out—and possibly be 'occupied' by some familiar horse girls, turning into a subtle date.

Some can do cross‑region random matching, while others have been locked into a small server to play ranked matches, facing only high‑rank players.

The options available to them for leaving singlehood, aside from internal resolution and pursuing online romance to meet in person, are limited to that one choice everyone likes to hear about.

How to put it? Without effort, one will become a plaything of horse girls (crossed out).

The reason stereotypes become impressions is either through heavy promotion or because they have some basis—but!

But Aomo doesn't live in the dormitory.

He, standing in the activity room waiting for his subordinate to take charge, is nevertheless a noble commuting trainer!

Having the right to cross‑region matching, he is fully capable of putting on a face that says 'Let me play Arknights!' for that unfashionable foster father.

"Really? No?" Miss Adel seemed unable to believe it.

All that greeted them was Aomo holding a book, head not lifting, calmly answering: 'No.'

After all, who would go through the trouble of taking such a difficult trainer certification just to marry a horse girl?

Moreover, the difficulty of the central trainer certification has increased geometrically; Aomo only seemed to breeze through it by using a back door, and even though it seemed easy, he never stopped absorbing professional knowledge.

Even now, on his desk are stacked paleontology, morphology, molecular biology… Sorry, that's his 'charging' for studying monsters; the books about trainer work are placed on the other side: nutrition, classic running training methods, and sports science.

Besides job evaluations, there are also staff tests each semester, requiring him to occasionally flip through books at his desk to fill in new knowledge.

The trainer profession looks like a coach at first glance, but its actual work content and position evaluation standards are more like an alternative teacher.

The main difference from teachers is that the 'students' must be found by oneself.

If one fails to sign up for a horse girl to take charge of within a set time, they may be dismissed; this is very unfriendly to socially anxious adults.

One would persist in staying in this place just to marry a horse girl—if you have that motivation, you'd be better off looking for retired horse girls.

After all, the girls who run on the Saichang basically have only racing on their minds, and once you truly become a trainer, it's also hard to want to interfere with their race schedule.

By comparison, each year those who can't keep up with the competition and retire early are always another batch after another.

Horse girls like Qianming representative and Ludaofu Xiangzheng who can stay at their alma mater are actually extremely few.

Many more retired horse girls go into various industries, and even appear in the police and fire departments of the Jidong district.

These girls who once raced wildly on the Saichang also have outstanding talent on the path of ascension, naturally enabling them to contribute in resisting danger and protecting the populace.

After no longer burying themselves in high‑intensity running, they also develop a clearer interest in talking about love.

What? You say you only care about those who haven't retired?

…Please wait a moment, I'm going to call 110.

This lets the horse girl police come arrest you, you pair of underage monsters who struck out!

That's said to be the case, but Aomo still has no contact information for any horse girl police; he only has a tiger…… or rather, the phone number of the big cat sheriff?

In the transmigrators' memory, his impression was a tiger, but it seems that Bixi and Miss Adele's homeland always gives a finer definition to their kind of group——the race named Feline/Feilin by Bixi is, in Hong English, basically 'cat'.

That is to say, feline animals.

No matter if you are a tiger or a seal, or even a fantasy cat, it's the same; only in memory there is a Feilin girl codenamed 'Ya Ye', whose impression belongs to the mongoose family rather than feline, and if forced to say, it can only be considered a feline suborder.

And likewise, the hyena group that imagines itself as a feline suborder is not a member of the Feilin.

Thus, holding that book 'Evolutionary Developmental Biology', Aomo can't help but think that over there, the definition of intelligent species' races by Terra perhaps only depends on 'what race they look like'.

After all, that world clearly has traces of a civilization break and restart; in such an early civilization where some concepts are indeed inherited but there are large gaps, these people's definitions of themselves and others might end up as primitive judgments passed mouth to mouth.

By contrast, the race assigned to Miss Adele Newman in her homeland is Caprinae/Capri ni, likewise the 'sheep subfamily' in Hong English, and it is uncontroversial.

Her twin ears and slender curved horns on her head are undoubtedly the characteristics.

Before the transmigrators' numbers expanded, only some demons in the demon realm area had such characteristics, but now we have encountered good times, able to register using the refined race of sheep-like subpeople, and on ID cards it can even be summarized as a major category:

【Human】

Horse girls are the same, demon people are the same; all are folded under the label 'human', and on official online data one can often open the label to see the full picture of things like 【Human/Demon】, 【Human/Horse Girl】, 【Human/Sheep-like Subperson】, and so on.

Each year some transmigrators also call for adding new racial classifications, and in certain districts it is actually smoothly implemented, for example, the Anmei District already has 79 genders.

Over there, their races can also be divided into over a hundred, bringing huge initial pressure on management.

Well, initially, because it only takes effect initially.

Just a symbolic emphasis, after which no one pays attention anymore; this can't even be called a tiger's head and snake's tail, only a head without tail, and it's the norm of policy implementation in that district.

Even if directly mocked on television by countless people, it's still useless.

And when mentioning television, a certain woman with conspicuous fish fins, a siren hybrid, lets out a long sigh at this moment:

"How nice, I also want to be on TV, but unfortunately, we expedition teams basically have no such chance."

Her topic still lingers on the variety show Aomo mentioned earlier, but as a member of the scientific expedition team……

"If we had a chance to be on TV, it'd probably be because some volcano somewhere is about to erupt; that kind of chance we might as well forget." Another human expedition member sighed.

"And even if the team leader gives you the chance, could you even finish a whole sentence?"

"Landa, if you can overcome your social anxiety, I can let you handle the announcement!" Miss Adele also directly supported with actual words.

"Um… then let's just forget it."

Although the team leader is very supportive, social anxiety is truly social anxiety, just a case of liking dragons but not being able to withstand the test.

However, social anxiety also has its own worldly wisdom; seeing that she is about to become the center of attention, bringing a lively atmosphere to everyone, she quickly points to the distant lake, faintly visible through the forest cover, and shifts the topic to:

"Let's not talk about this, let's look over there instead! The Heavenly Pool is almost here!"