Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Xiangzi felt that simply being well-read couldn't explain her unusually familiar demeanor. Although Xiao Su Shi was the Red Empress and spent most of her time in the palace, she seemed to know everything about everything, as if she had experienced it all firsthand.

However, seeing that Xiaosu was playing with her sideburns and seemed unwilling to continue the conversation, Xiangzi also chose to temporarily put this small matter out of his mind.

Anyway, having a guide is definitely a good thing.

Closer to home.

"What resources could such a world possibly have that would make people from the world of desire flock here?" Xiangzi asked blankly, staring at the endless expanse of flying sand and red earth.

Aside from her, everyone else probably thought the same thing.

This is a scene straight out of an apocalypse, like... a wild, desolate red earth world like in Mad Max.

"Minerals—you can find many valuable and rare minerals here. If you can bring even a little back, you can make a fortune," Xiao Su Shi explained. "Of course, it's not just minerals; there's something even more important..."

The wind stopped.

The dust gradually settled, and the sky returned to its clear state.

Xiao Su Shi pointed ahead.

"...and those too."

Following Xiaosu Shi's finger, several kilometers away in the middle of the plain, in the vast desert, there was a building that seemed to rise out of nowhere.

"That is......"

Xiangzi squinted, then slowly widened his eyes.

"......factory?!"

Isn't this supposed to be a medieval fantasy world? How come there are factories here?!

This is too surreal... too unsurreal!

The Lost Tale: The Lost Child - Chapter 356 The Steam Factory and the Greedy World

An hour later.

The building looks tiny from a distance, like a castle from the opening of a Disney movie, but considering the distance between here and there, its actual size is unknown.

Xiangzi stood at the entrance of the abandoned factory, looking up to his limit at the towering chimney that seemed to hold up the blazing sun, his pupils trembling.

How can such a thing really exist?!

And it's a really big desuwa!

Was the factory really that big, Desuwa?!

She had never seen a real factory in her life. The area it occupied, and that chimney, must be fifty or sixty meters high!

Of course, Xiangzi couldn't possibly show her naive and unsophisticated side to everyone. She calmly pushed open the door of the "Metal Dini Castle" and went inside first.

The factory seems to have been out of the light of day for some time.

At least... one or two months?

It didn't take as long as I had imagined.

Xiangzi looked down and kicked a mummified corpse.

The man appeared to have died during the argument, his face contorted with terror and anger, clutching a bulging backpack tightly to his chest.

"Where is this place?" she asked, looking up.

"ah!"

Xiao Su Shi looked terrified, hugged Xiang Zi's waist, and buried her face in Xiang Zi's cloak.

"This...is an Imperial outpost, isn't it?" she murmured softly.

“It should be a supply station.” Chu Hua pried open the mummified corpse’s hands, picked up the bag in its arms, and poured out a bunch of gears and metal objects of unknown origin, as well as a pile of dry rations. “When the Wrath Pass became like that, this place lost its supplies and naturally became abandoned… But this person doesn’t seem to have starved to death.”

“No, I’m asking about the building itself.” Xiangzi shook his head, looked up at the high and spacious dome inside the factory, “This shouldn’t be the work of the Empire, right?”

"This is the ruins of the Dwarf Factory." Xiao Su Shi's voice was barely louder than a mosquito's buzz.

“Yes, I remember Yu--” Ai-yin stopped mid-sentence, glancing at Xiao Su-shi, and changed the word “Yu-game” she was about to say to another word, “I remember that the Gentle World three hundred years ago was the settlement of the dwarf race. They had many amazing inventions, and the main city was also very… steam, which was very popular.”

“You look a bit silly, but I didn’t expect you to be so good at history.” Xiao Su Shi peeked out from behind Xiang Zi and glanced at Ai Yin. “The dwarves went extinct two hundred and fifty years ago. Now most people don’t know that the dwarves existed. Many people don’t even know what they came to the Wrathful World to look for.”

"Why are you always targeting me, Su Shishi?" Ai Yin complained, arms crossed. "When are you going to talk to me properly?"

"No way!" Xiao Su Shi snorted, blowing hot air from her nostrils. "We'll talk about it when you stop using such a corny name like Su Shi Shi!"

For some reason, Xiao Su Shi felt an innate dislike whenever she saw this pink-haired girl, and she always liked to say something sarcastic from time to time.

"What could there be in dwarven ruins, just these useless gears?"

"Most of the time, that's how it is. 99% of the things you bring back from the ruins are useless, but collectors and researchers still fight over them, so basically, bringing back things from the ruins is a sure thing."

"And on a smaller scale?"

"I'm not sure exactly what things are worth researching," Xiao Su Shi murmured. "But..."

She raised her hand and pointed forward.

"That thing is something everyone wants."

She was pointing to a place that looked like a control panel, with a round notch the size of a head above it.

“The steam core,” Xiaosu said. “Legend has it that it can release endless steam to power creations made of steam technology.”

She shrugged and said again.

"However, that's just a legend. Anyway, no one has ever actually found it."

"I'm more concerned about what we'll do after this than the steam core."

The speaker was Li Xi.

She leaned against the metal wall, looking up at the enormous factory.

Hailing tugged at her sleeve.

However, Lixi continued talking.

“We can take shelter here for now, and our rations are enough to last us for a while, but—” She turned her gaze to the doorway; the calm outside was only temporary, and soon the sandstorm would rise again, “—in such a harsh natural environment, what is our goal?”

======

Meanwhile, in a place quite far from the world of rage.

Greedy World

Compared to the harsh environment of the Wrathful World, the climate of the Greedy World is relatively mild, and could even be described as pleasant.

The world of greed is a world made up of countless high mountains. Between the mountains are more mountains, and between several peaks there may be a habitable plateau basin. However, the distance between the basins is too far and the roads are too treacherous, so the people of the world of greed basically do not leave the basins they live in, and the connection between people is almost non-existent.

They were content to live in their own paradise, leading a fulfilling life.

Since everyone sees each other all the time, people are very generous to their neighbors. They don't lock their doors at night, help each other out, give to others when they need it, and receive help when they need it themselves.

So, many, many years ago, this place had another name—Generosity.

What changed everything was the appearance of the Holy Grail fragments.

Want your wish to come true? Then trade your most precious possession for it.

Such thoughts arose in the minds of some young people who wanted to leave the unchanging basin. They fulfilled their wishes, became monsters, and then... destroyed the world.

Generosity thus turned into greed.

In the centuries that followed, the greedy world, driven by the desires of some, gave birth to bridges connecting mountains, some suspension bridges and others large stone bridges.

Because of the existence of the stone bridge, the countless small plateau basins of the Greedy World were connected and developed together.

Between the basins, on a stone arch bridge connecting them, an inconspicuous battle is taking place.

A monster, clad in lion-like armor, stood in the middle of the bridge, holding a ram-head-shaped spear in its left hand and a shield that resembled a coiled snake in its right.

And its rival...

"Lena, cover for me!"

The girl with short gray hair called out her companions' names while holding up a shield made of offerings to block the monster's attacks.

That's right, the monster's opponents are Takamatsu Akari and Kaname Rakuna.

The Lost Tale: The Lost Child - Chapter 357 Heartfelt Words and Monsters

With Lena's help, Lantern was able to enter the Fairy Tale Town barrier as she wished. They entered the barrier even a few hours earlier than Chu Hua, which would be equivalent to several days in the game.

Since Deng already had an account in Fairy Tale Town, she retained her account data when she entered the game.

When Chu Hua and Xiang Zi met up, Deng and Le Nai had already been exploring the game for several days.

It's called exploration, but it's more like aimless wandering. The lamp only has one big goal: to "save the world," but it doesn't know how to accomplish it, just like a certain knight whose mission is to save Zelda... cough cough.

Speaking of purpose, the purpose of the lamp is very clear: to save Su Shi, Aine, and perhaps Riki, who is completely unaware that she has been actively drawn into this vortex.

What about Lena?

Lamp still doesn't know why Lena is following him.

However, L'Arc is helping her, and L'Arc understands her, which is enough for L'Arc.

Magical girls are not assigned a system when they enter a barrier, but Akari is an ordinary person. She has a game system and is a "player" who can fully utilize the game mechanics.

Her profession is also "spellcaster," and she can use offerings, so she is not a useless person.

In this world, she has the ability to save her companions.

......

"Lena, cover for me!"

As the lamp called out the names of its companions, it held up a shield made of offerings to block the monster's attacks.

With a clang, the monster's spear struck the shield that the lamp had erected.

The spear with a ram's head hanging from it had repeatedly met with resistance from the lamp, but the lamp dared not leave the protective range of the stone shield.

Offering: Fragment of a Stone Shield

Attribute: Stone, Uses: S, Duration: A, Rarity: B

Fragments of the simple stone shield are shields erected by the people of the Greedy World on the stone walls built around the mountains to defend their dwellings. Used as an offering, they can create massive stone shields to block attacks, or they can be used for shield strikes. Both blocking and attacking consume their durability; once it's depleted, it breaks.

The endless offerings in Xiangzi's hands become a problem of how many times they can be used when they reach other spellcasters.

Unlike Xiangzi, who is very aggressive and basically only uses one support-type offering, Deng prefers to use defensive and support-type offerings to provide Rakuna with convenience in battle.

when--!

The ram's head on the spear had an eerie light gleaming in its eye sockets. The monster's swings became even more powerful and heavy. The lamp once again blocked the monster's attack with its stone shield. However, obvious cracks had appeared on the stone shield.

The stone shield won't hold for much longer; if it breaks... recasting will take time, and during that time she'll be hit by monsters... Damn it, the noise is so loud... so annoying...

Deng swallowed hard, trying to shake the voice out of his head.

"Father—if I abandon my emotions, will I become the person you wish me to be—?"

The monster muttered the same words it had repeatedly uttered when it was still human.

"Father......"

To ordinary people, these words are nothing more than the unconscious roar of a demon, but to the lamp, they become a monologue filled with persistence and despair.

"—It's so noisy!" Deng shouted, his eyes tightly shut, finally unable to bear it any longer.

With a final blow, the monster shattered the stone shield erected by the lamp. With a loud "bang," the stone shield exploded, turning into countless fragments that sprayed towards the monster.

Fragments of rock shattered the ram's head spear that was in direct contact with it, black blood splattered everywhere, and the monster let out a painful roar.

The spear is also part of its body.

"Lanna!" the lamp called out again.

At this moment, Yoru Nai, whose whereabouts had been unknown, finally appeared.

Like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, she appeared out of thin air, landed lightly behind the monster, took two running steps forward, and then immediately slid over the monster's crotch.

Its outstretched five fingers extended sharp claws, radiating a chilling, gleaming light.