My family runs an adventurer's guild.

Mmm, she's such an adorable, super cute blonde loli!

However, looking at her flushed face, tightly pursed lips, and bright eyes that seemed to be leaping with flames, one could clearly feel that this blonde loli was extremely angry, almost to the point of exploding with rage!

—Even though the cute little girl is still adorable when she's angry, no one would dare to be reckless and rub against her or reach out to touch her head, considering her status.

Come to think of it, this proud little princess Catherine had excitedly left the capital for her newly acquired fiefdom, intending to display her majesty and demeanor before her subjects. However, she was caught in a stinking sewer explosion, leaving her covered in filth and so enraged that she lost her temper and spewed fire in public... Her dignity and majesty as a princess were completely absent from her subjects' sight, while her ladylike conduct was greatly diminished.

Next, brimming with the enthusiasm of a new broom sweeping clean, Catherine was eager to implement reforms and streamline government agencies in Totoro Town, aiming to reduce government spending. However, her plan was quickly met with a barrage of pleas and objections, each offering various reasons to persuade her to reconsider. Under pressure from various quarters, coupled with her own lack of confidence, she had to revise her plans repeatedly. Ultimately, only the Adventurers' Guild and the Public Library remained as viable options for elimination, saving a mere five platinum coins annually—far from enough to cover her own food expenses, hardly a respectable achievement to boast about!

Princess Catherine, having just taken office and already facing a disastrous start, was utterly exhausted and decided to take a nap. However, she had barely entered the dream realm of the god of sleep when she was dragged out by the demigod golden dragon Harald. She then learned that even in dreams, familiar figures had come to plead her case for the Adventurers' Guild… Ugh! This princess has had enough!

In fact, Princess Catherine was already about to explode at this point. But she couldn't disrespect Teacher Helena, so she had to barely hold back. The entire dragon was on the verge of exploding at any moment, and if it wasn't calmed down soon, it might just unleash a massive explosion.

However, as Ms. Lulutia, the president of the Adventurers' Guild, explained the epoch-making latest research and development project of the Totoro Town Adventurers' Guild to her, Catherine's anger gradually dissipated, replaced by an explosive surge of curiosity and excitement.

"...What? You already have safe methods for interdimensional exploration? You're preparing to organize adventurers to explore other dimensions! Even if an adventurer is killed in another dimension, it'll just be like having a nightmare? Their body and soul won't suffer any harm? Oh! That's fantastic!"

Princess Catherine jumped up, her eyes sparkling, "...When does the first interdimensional adventure team depart? I want to go too!"

—Although she had just been racking her brains over the affairs of the territory, how could mundane and trivial matters such as streamlining the organization and saving expenses compare to the freshness, excitement, epic atmosphere, and legendary heroic spirit of exploring and conquering a new world?

Just imagine! Traversing endless void to explore other planes—no matter how much you gain in the end, it's a magnificent feat worth boasting about!

If I could participate in such a great expedition and make some impressive contributions, my parents and younger siblings would definitely stop treating me like a child, right?

Catherine, who had been holding back her energy and eager to make a big splash and impress her friends and family, was instantly excited and euphoric!

—For young dragons whose bloodline is infused with a desire to conquer, adventure and conquest are far more appealing than governing a country and managing finances.

As for the previous grudges with the Adventurers' Guild in Totoro Town, they are relatively insignificant and can be completely ignored.

As Phil listened to Lulutia's explanation, he finally understood the cause and effect. He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. "...This...the first experimental time travel to such a dangerous world like Type-Moon? Will such a bold move cause any problems, meow?"

Author's message

P.S.: To maintain the friendly atmosphere between North and South Korea, the South Korean government actually proposed to regain wartime operational control of its military from the United States in 2023—such a provocation to the US suggests that Moon Jae-in intends to continue the South Korean tradition of successive presidents ending up in prison. Wait, no, if you do the math, the South Korean presidential term is five years. By 2023, Moon Jae-in will already be in jail, a perfect opportunity to drop a bombshell on his successor!

Chapter 18, Let's embark on a spontaneous adventure in the Type-Moon world! (Part 2)

What are the main challenges in embarking on a spontaneous, cross-dimensional adventure?

First, it is necessary to find and lock onto the destination. If you don't even know where the plane you want to reach is, then randomly teleporting will either result in being thrown into the endless chaotic void, or you might be lucky enough to reach a plane, but end up being teleported into the deep sea or into a rock... However, relying on the information extracted from the head of Phili, the transmigrated magical pet, the research team assembled by the silver dragon Miss Lulutia has successfully locked onto the plot worlds of various anime, movies, and games, and there are no serious difficulties or problems in terms of navigation.

Secondly, after identifying the desired plane of travel, each teleportation of the traveler's true form requires an enormous amount of magic power. After all, the distance between two different planes is often unimaginable to mortals, and the transportation costs are simply unavoidable. Even with the generous donation from the goddess of sleep, "Mengmeng," gathering enough magic power for a large-scale, collective interdimensional teleportation is no easy feat.

Third, even if the desired plane is found and locked, and there are ways to teleport there precisely, adventurers attempting to cross planes may not possess a powerful physical body capable of withstanding the void turbulence during the journey. As for the dangers and malice they will encounter upon arriving in the other plane, whether they will be instantly annihilated, these are things even the gods cannot predict. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's a near-certain death sentence.

Although being an adventurer is a high-risk profession that involves dancing on the edge of a knife, dying so mysteriously like this would still deter most people from pursuing it.

Besides, anyone capable of using such a technologically advanced device as "interdimensional teleportation" would likely possess some wealth and status, and wouldn't be a poor person willing to gamble their life away. Not to mention, the core members of this research team are all dragons at the top of the food chain—although many dragons die on the battlefield, what dragon would willingly become cannon fodder for scouting?

It is precisely because of the aforementioned risks and difficulties that Miss Silver Dragon Lulutia's interdimensional exploration plan has been stalled. She can only call on her friends to become voyeurs and watch various plots over and over again through screens and crystal balls, or rather, "observe the evolution of other dimensions".

However, not long ago, this expedition, which had been stalled, suddenly made a huge breakthrough!

While watching the "Fate/Grand Order" series in the "Type-Moon" universe, Helena, the "Sage of the Dragon," was suddenly inspired by the "Heroic Spirit Descent" scenes. She thought that adventurers could descend to other dimensions like "Heroic Spirits," creating a visually stunning and safe spectacle. Even if an adventurer were killed in another dimension, only their magically projected clone (Servant) would die; their body and soul would remain intact in their original world. After the clone dissipates, it would return with its memories, essentially making it feel like a dream for the adventurer.

Even better, since "Heroic Spirit Summoning" doesn't require teleporting the adventurer's true body to the other side, the mana consumption for each interdimensional teleportation can be reduced to a negligible level. Even the mana used to project an avatar of the adventurer in another dimension can be largely "requisitioned locally," using things like ley lines from other dimensions to "replenish mana"—making it a cost-effective, safe, and reliable option!

Thus, Harald, the former master, mount, and agent of the sleep goddess "Memmon," used the goddess's name to establish contact with the world's will in the Type-Moon universe and strike a dirty deal. In exchange for helping the world's will resolve a certain "trouble," he acquired the complete Holy Grail War - Heroic Spirit Summoning and Descent spell system. According to the calculations and analysis of the great sage Helena, this spell system should theoretically be without problems, and after certain modifications and improvements, it could be used for interdimensional adventures.

The problem is that theory is still just theory and cannot replace the test of practice. Before actually embarking on a cross-dimensional adventure, no one can guarantee that this "new type of cross-dimensional travel" will not encounter any problems. In other words, to ensure everything goes smoothly and to accumulate proficiency, they must gather a group of volunteers to go to the Type-Moon world, under the guidance of the two major counterforces, to act as Heroic Spirits and fight in a Holy Grail War.

Well, it's like the test drive after buying a car or the test sailing after buying a yacht in the modern world! You really can't feel at ease without trying it out!

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"...The Holy Grail War? Summoning Heroic Spirits? Projecting virtual clones into another world using magic to embark on adventures? Isn't that just 'spirit summoning' in summoning magic? Hmm, it seems that the great demons of the abyss and the gods of the astral plane also descended upon the prime material plane in this way..."

Listening to the introductions from the three—Silver Dragon Miss Lulutia, Dragon Sage Helena, and the transmigrated cat girl Phili—the Golden Dragon Princess Catherine, who hadn't read the story, finally gained a rough understanding of the "Holy Grail War" and "Heroic Spirit Summoning" in the Type-Moon world.

"...Indeed, they are somewhat similar, but not the same, Your Highness. On our side, whether it is a god or a great demon, if they want to create an avatar and descend upon the prime material plane, they must bear the required magical power themselves, or have their followers sacrifice it."

The Dragon Sage Helena explained, "...However, the 'Heroic Spirit Descent' in the 'Type-Moon World' is different. The magic power required for the projection can be drawn from the place of descent, and the Heroic Spirit itself does not have to pay a single penny! It's roughly equivalent to one person spending their own money to go out and have fun, while the other spends someone else's money to go out and have fun! Even if the adventurer's projection in another world is weak and is instantly killed by an enemy, the adventurer himself suffers no loss..."

"...So, according to this method, adventurers can go on adventures in other dimensions just by lying in bed, right? And they won't get hurt or suffer. Even if they experience a lot of hardships in other dimensions, it's just like having a nightmare, right? This is too easy, right?"

A cat-like follower who had come to the floating island to watch the excitement exclaimed in astonishment, "...It's even safer than going into the forest to hunt monsters, meow! Even trained adventurers often get killed by goblins or trolls on their first adventure!"

Random Thoughts: Why American Homeless People Are So Fierce

There's a meme circulating online these days that says Japanese high school students, Chinese time travelers, and American homeless people are the three types of people you absolutely shouldn't mess with in this world.

Regarding the meaning of the first two, I believe everyone already has some understanding of them through various Japanese anime and transmigration novels featuring overpowered protagonists.

In any case, no matter how pathetic Chinese time travelers were before they traveled to another world, once they did, they were always surrounded by all sorts of halos, extraordinary encounters, domineering auras, and unscientific phenomena.

Japanese high school students are incredibly tough, often claiming to be humanity's and Earth's last hope, and saving or destroying the world is commonplace for them. At the very least, they are either the embodiment of good or bad fortune (Conan, the elementary school student possessed by the Grim Reaper, is actually a high school student named Kudo), or they have several powerful backers.

However, why do American homeless people have such a tough image, and can they be compared with Japanese high school students and Chinese time travelers? I am a little puzzled by this.

While there are indeed homeless individuals among the superheroes of the Marvel and DC series, they are not the most well-known mainstream figures and do not possess the widespread savior aura of figures like the Japanese high school student and the Chinese time traveler.

Yes, there was indeed a very tough homeless man in "The Purge," but that was just an isolated case.

It wasn't until recently, after reading a human rights report on the United States written by a Polish author, and combining it with China's "2016 Human Rights Record of the United States," that I finally realized—the reason why American homeless people are so tough is not because of the exaggeration of artists, but because they really are that tough!

According to these two human rights reports, based on US standards, approximately 4500 million Americans currently live in extreme poverty. Of these 4500 million, 800 million have a daily disposable income of less than $10, and the worst-off 400 million have a daily income of less than $5! For various reasons, this group receives no relief, not even food stamps—if they could receive subsidies, each person would have at least $200 per month to survive, but the problem is that food stamps are limited, and those without means simply cannot obtain them.

In other words, even though agricultural products are so cheap in the United States, these four million poor people with a monthly salary of less than $150 still cannot afford them.

Of course, there are some people in China who are so poor that they are practically destitute. But most of them live in the most remote mountainous areas, have never left their villages more than a few times in their lives, grow their own food, live in ancestral houses, and are unknown to the citizens of big cities.

However, the United States is a highly urbanized society, and these extremely poor people come from big cities. Some of them are too old when they lose their jobs, such as being in their fifties or sixties, and cannot compete with young people when looking for work; some are too irritable, unsociable, and always causing trouble, so no boss wants to hire them; some have unhappy families, have been kicked out of their homes, or have run away on their own.

Others have too limited knowledge and skills. For example, an old man who had spent half his life developing photos and only knew how to develop photos became permanently unemployed after digital cameras were introduced.

When they are unable to find employment again, they generally have only three options: first, to go to slums; second, to go to remote areas such as Native American reservations; and third, to become homeless.

This resulted in the expulsion of bankrupt and impoverished white people from American society: because, at the very bottom of American society, reverse discrimination against Black people was widespread. And the slums of major cities were almost entirely occupied by Black people.

Poor Black people moving in are fine, but impoverished white people moving in either have to grovel before the Black bosses and become their lackeys, or they will be bullied to death by the Black people—of course, Asian people moving in will also be bullied in the same way.

However, Asian Americans are generally more resilient and tend to give up in such situations.

In short, those "white trash" who have backbone but no education usually find it difficult to survive in slums.

Rural farmers wouldn't take them in either, because they didn't know how to do farm work, had no connections with the villagers, and weren't worth pitying.

Even in remote areas like Indian reservations, xenophobia was strong, and poor white people couldn't survive without some skills.

Thus, these impoverished white people could neither integrate into the countryside nor make a living in the city—not every bankrupt poor American could receive relief subsidies and food stamps, because according to regulations, anyone who lost their job due to "personal reasons" such as voluntary resignation, making mistakes, or being involved in labor disputes would not receive any relief.

As for the truth, and how much shady business there is, only God knows.

In short, there are millions of poor people who cannot receive welfare. According to American news media, in many places, due to government corruption and inefficiency, these two welfare programs have almost become a money-making frenzy for corrupt officials and "conscientious social celebrities," as well as the exclusive privilege of certain special groups and their connections.

Even though these impoverished, poorly educated "white trash" beg on the streets, they are often driven away and beaten by black people behind their backs unless they are willing to pay protection money to the black boss beggar. In addition, the American countryside does not welcome them either, so these "white trash" become homeless.

—In the United States, there are more Black people in slums, but the majority of homeless people are white, because they can't even stay in slums.

Of course, Black homeless people are also common in the United States, but whether you look at the number of people or the proportion of the population, there are still more white homeless people.

Americans call homeless people "homeless," meaning people who have nowhere to go. They are easy to identify by their appearance: their hair is dirty, they have a strong sour smell, and they push a dilapidated shopping cart stolen from a supermarket, which contains their clothes for all four seasons and their bedding.

The Poles gave them a rather amusing name: "Road Wanderers." These impoverished American vagrants, like duckweed, wander aimlessly through the American countryside and cities. They beg from passersby, steal fruits and vegetables from fields and livestock, scavenge food discarded by passing vehicles, and gather leftovers from campers, surviving on a hand-to-mouth existence.

In addition, they often forcibly occupy uninhabited houses and refuse to leave, causing homeowners a lot of headaches. Occasionally, they will even dare to commit crimes, such as stealing or robbing, or even murder and robbery.

At night, homeless people have nowhere to sleep, so they sleep on benches at bus stops, under bridges, or simply spread out blankets on the street. American winter nights are very cold, but with nowhere to go, they can easily freeze to death.

Some homeless people go to fast food restaurants like McDonald's that are open 24 hours, order the cheapest thing like fries, and sit there all night. The staff can't kick them out because they are customers.

Some American cities have homeless shelters, which are large auditoriums filled with beds for people to rest in at night. Because beds are limited, people have to wait in line to get in, and if there are no beds available, they have to spend the night outside on their own.

This scene was mentioned in the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness".

Some well-equipped homeless shelters not only have beds but also provide a few meals for newly arrived homeless people. However, there are bound to be some rules for those who eat and live there for free. For example, they may require you to strictly adhere to a regular schedule, help out at a certain place during the day, or force you to participate in some very tiring and difficult labor.

Therefore, most homeless people do not stay in shelters for very long. It is said that one-third of them stay for less than a week, and 60% for less than a month.

As homeless people, they inevitably face stares and judgment from others, which can eventually lead to mental instability. American police often expel them, preventing them from entering restaurants or sitting in public places.

It's well known that American police are quite violent, readily resorting to stun guns and shooting. Therefore, many homeless people in the US carry injuries, sometimes inflicted by police, sometimes from bites by rats or dogs while sleeping.

In earlier years, churches would provide relief and assistance to the homeless, and encourage them to do good, helping them reintegrate into society. However, in recent years, with the deterioration of the economy, American churches have faced financial difficulties and have gradually lost their compassion, ceasing to help them.

As a result, the number of homeless people in the United States has increased dramatically in recent years, with 60,000 in Wisconsin alone and nearly one million nationwide. Moreover, they are no longer exclusively old bachelors; there are increasingly more homeless families with children and young homeless women.

More than 90 percent of the homeless women are victims of domestic violence. They are abused by their husbands or parents and then either run away from home or are kicked out by their husbands.

Unfortunately, a significant number of American women stop working after marriage. After being kicked out of their homes, they lose their ability to work and their source of income. If they want to sell their bodies on the street, some women can't bring themselves to do it, but many are too ugly for anyone to want, so they end up as homeless women.

A significant portion of the homeless population consists of American veterans, including those who fought in the Iraq War or even the Vietnam War. When they return from the battlefield, they are often wounded or disabled, and with no organizations providing them with job opportunities, they feel lost and adrift.

In addition, many veterans suffer from PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) after experiencing war, making it impossible for them to communicate normally with others, let alone find a job.

When a soldier suddenly experiences life and death, especially when he witnesses his comrade die in front of him, he will often suffer great emotional damage.

To cope with this trauma, alcohol and drugs became the main ways for American veterans to find solace on the battlefield, and the military intentionally or unintentionally condoned soldiers' drug use to maintain their combat effectiveness.

By the time these veterans returned to the United States after the war, they were already hopelessly addicted to alcohol and drugs. However, the killing skills and survival abilities they had learned on the battlefield enabled them to endure a long period of homelessness.

(During the Vietnam War, there was another group of American homeless people of the opposite nature, mainly young people who were evading military service.)

At the time, the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War was surging, but the conscription agencies were not paralyzed. In order to avoid being conscripted to Vietnam to die or lose their hands and feet and become disabled, many young people dared not stay at home and had to wander around the country to evade military service.

Driven by a life of constant displacement and the shame of being seen as cowards, some members of the community engaged in group sex, drug use, and moral decay, becoming hippies… The origins of hippie culture are roughly equivalent to the American "scar literature."

Okay, now you should understand what homelessness in America means, right? Veterans, desperate housewives, runaway girls, bankrupt business owners, drug addicts and alcoholics... They're basically like lone swordsmen in Chinese martial arts novels and adventurers in Western fantasy!

Moreover, don't be fooled by the disheveled appearance of those American homeless people on the street; the entry barrier for this line of work is actually quite high.

To be a successful homeless person in the cold and indifferent modern American society, one must first have excellent physical fitness; otherwise, getting caught in the rain, snow, or a typhoon will kill them.

Secondly, you need to have Bear Grylls' strong stomach, able to swallow any leftovers, expired canned food, cat food, or dog food. If you're really starving, you can even catch cats, dogs, and mice to roast and eat.

Then they also have to be good at wilderness survival and urban guerrilla warfare, struggling to survive every day in battles with police, security guards, black gangs, and violent, armed ranchers. The homeless also often fight among themselves over expired food thrown out of supermarkets.

Finally, one must be adept at changing faces and dealing with others. Whether it's pretending to be a thug to rob, playing the victim to beg, or even kidnapping and extorting, one must act naturally and vividly.

Therefore, when a nuclear explosion or a zombie apocalypse occurs, American homeless people are undoubtedly among the most resilient survivors. Their daily lives are already quite similar to a zombie apocalypse. They're constantly being chased by the police, bitten by dogs, or shot by ranchers (for stealing food). Sometimes they feign helplessness and beg, sometimes they nimbly steal wallets, sometimes they rob pedestrians with handguns (possibly toy guns), sometimes they fight with gangsters, and they have to be homeless, scaling walls, crawling through sewers… Some are even skilled at crafting bizarre weapons from discarded trash, as well as setting traps to hunt animals and swindle people.

Those homeless people who weren't physically strong have long since died. Those who weren't nimble enough have been thrown into prison—every single one of the homeless people who have been able to stay out in the streets for years is incredibly tough, more resilient than a cockroach.

Furthermore, American homeless people are not just barbarians who know how to swing big sticks and howl, but civilized people who know how to use various modern communication devices and means of transportation. Some of them are even veterans who once killed people without batting an eye with the most advanced high-tech weapons, so their fighting power is naturally more formidable.

In 21st-century Europe and America, homeless people are generally perceived as incredibly tough fighters. This led to the popular game "Hobo the Invincible," where the homeless Hobo, after beating up police, thugs, aliens, and even demons across America, becomes a god. But even in heaven, someone—no, a god—dares to question him and disturb his sleep. "What's wrong with sleeping?!" (Each round of the battle begins with Hobo being disturbed.) "You hypocrites are outrageous!" So he continues his rampage, beating up heaven and even defeating God.

—This Hobo isn't some American homeless person anymore; he's clearly Sun Wukong causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace!

Even Chinese urban management officers who can dismantle Gundams with their bare hands would probably be helpless against this American homeless man who's like Sun Wukong, capable of even beating up God!

Chapter 19, We Don't Need to Be Very Tired or Troublesome to Be Adventurers

As everyone knows, while adventurers are the glamorous protagonists in countless legends and songs, it has always been a profession with a high mortality rate, even higher than that of soldiers. After all, soldiers in most countries cannot fight year after year without stopping. Adventurers, however, have to constantly fight monsters and complete quests. Once they stop hunting monsters, adventurers have no income and can only go home and eat black bread.

In short, this is a daring profession where one trades their life for money, fame, and status.

Every year, countless poor people accidentally acquire swords or shields, and then excitedly dream of becoming adventurers and making a name for themselves.

In this world, this is a very common occurrence. Compared to the boring and impoverished rural life, the adventurous life of wielding a longsword to defeat monsters and gain wealth and honor seems like an enviable lifestyle for young people whose passion hasn't yet faded. However, the vast majority of these people perish in their initial adventures—some die at the hands of seemingly weak monsters, but many more succumb to more shameful causes such as dysentery, colds, getting lost, or infected wounds.

Even seasoned adventurers can stumble unexpectedly. Even if they don't lose their minds and avoid taking on hellish difficulty epic quests, there are still frequent reports of veteran adventurers being killed by goblins or gored to death by wild boars.

Therefore, most ordinary people who are doing reasonably well in life are generally unwilling to become adventurers unless absolutely necessary.

In contrast, this seemingly more sophisticated and high-class interdimensional adventure is something anyone can participate in—simply lie down in your own bedroom, enter the dream realm of the god of sleep, and then project a clone into a mysterious and unfamiliar interdimensional world to embark on a thrilling adventure. No matter what tragic fate awaits the projected clone in the interdimensional world—whether it perishes in flames, is hacked to pieces, falls off a cliff, or starves and dies of thirst—the real body lying in this world will remain completely unharmed.

—Unless someone's mental fortitude is so fragile that they would be scared to death or driven insane by the nightmare memories of their clone's encounter in another dimension... but if they were truly that cowardly, they probably wouldn't have the courage to participate in the adventure in another dimension.

"...Yes! If the experiment succeeds, then we really won't have to work so hard or go through so much trouble to become adventurers."

Lulutia, the silver dragon and head of the Adventurers' Guild in Totoro Town, announced with great enthusiasm, "...From now on, anyone, regardless of their profession, can easily become an adventurer from home! Even if you lie at home all day without going out, you can still participate in all sorts of great adventures in your dreams!"

Then, her magical pet, Firi, raised its paw and stabbed her in the face, "...But, hasn't this experiment failed yet?"

—While the prospects for this interdimensional adventure are indeed very promising, there are currently no successful examples!

Therefore, in order to prove that the above things are not just wishful thinking, the silver dragon Lulutia must first conduct a trial interdimensional adventure, gather seven volunteers to go to the Type-Moon world, experience the descent process in place of their "Heroic Spirits", and fight a Holy Grail War along the way.

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