The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

He scratched his head in confusion, casually tossed the broken knife off the train, and began to think about what to do next.

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Chapter 36 Family Owns a Mine

"Interesting."

The believer, Hearn, sat on the gray shipping container, examining the pure white rhombus in her hand in the gradually dimming sunlight.

The train had already derailed, but fortunately it was a relatively minor incident.

After he dealt with the Immortal Yamato mecha, the entire train experienced an unnatural braking jolt. He quickly moved towards the front of the train, only to see the engine, which should have been dragging the carriages forward, disappear from sight at an even faster speed.

The irresponsible train crew appears to have cut off most of the carriages from the run.

Although he had reservations about their decisive act of abandoning the goods and running away, the situation was more serious than he had imagined. As Xin Nu checked the following carriages for survivors, he found a large number of limb fragments of the mech soldiers that had stopped working. He could barely identify the model of the scrap metal as "AK-300" by the product nameplate. There were also a lot of bullet holes and slash marks in the train carriages.

There were also train crew members who died from their injuries. The believer Hearn wandered to the back of the train and searched the bodies of two of the deceased who were not quite at peace. He then turned back. Before returning to the open-top carriage, the train, which had lost its traction and braking, finally derailed on a bend in the road after swaying and sliding for several minutes, and slid onto the green grass covered with a little snow.

Was it a mechanical riot caused by the AI ​​malfunctioning? Or was it an external invasion that triggered the defense system? Perhaps both, but investigating the truth is of little use to Mr. Hearn's current predicament.

【Remnant】, remnant, survivor, scraps. If translated directly according to the conventional grammar of Earth's English system, the result will not deviate too much from the above words. Of course, there may be other romantic translations, but from a purely emotional point of view, the believer Hearn does not have too optimistic expectations for a world that will be given such a name.

The pure white crystal he was rubbing between his fingers began to show signs of instability. In the sunlight, he could see with his naked eye that a part of the crystal was rapidly vaporizing. Finally, with a short explosion, the pure white crystal turned into a sharp, multi-faceted ice flower, freezing Hern's entire right hand inside. The most prominent tip of the ice flower was less than two centimeters away from his eyeball.

The next moment, the ice flower began to return to its origin in slow motion, as if time had reversed. However, it was not in the shape of a rhombus, but a pure silver-white ice mist. The believer compressed the ice mist in her palm like a ball of dough until it was about the size of a pigeon egg, and then swallowed it in one gulp.

It is Mana.

We've found the common ground.

Mana still exists in this world, in the atmosphere, in the soil, and among all living things and inanimate objects, but more often it exists underground in the form of crystals, perhaps just under a different name.

This is good news, but also bad news.

The existence of mana meant that casting spells was possible, but the believer noticed something amiss the moment she opened her eyes—he seemed to lack the authority to cast spells on this land.

The mana in the air would also resonate and converge under his guidance, but the complete spell model would always get stuck at the last line before 99% completion, turning into an unstable explosion or elemental disorder.

There was some kind of law interfering with him, an outsider, or rather, with the vast majority of people.

From the strange communicator—which reads like a scroll and is written as an ultra-thin foldable full-screen phone—found on the body of the deceased flight attendant, the woman searched for a large number of words related to magic, but without exception, this thing only existed in fairy tales.

A strange world where mana is everywhere, elemental tides surge and swell, yet there is virtually no trace of magic.

Despite Mr. Hearn's aggressive and brutal methods when he beat up the giant spider, he is actually an elegant, classic British boy at heart. He has a full seven-year formal education from a regular academy and all his credentials are complete. He can easily wield everything from "Expelliarmus" to "Divine Strike Without Shadow." Occasionally, when the atmosphere gets really high, he can even unleash a couple of moves like "Crushing Bone," "Astral Projection," and "Avada Kedavra (crossed out) Death Finger." However, his personal favorite is still the super powerful Fireball.

When the weather is bad, you can shout "Lok (sky) Vah (spring) Koor (summer)".

However, there is no month of Mao (卯).

All the experience and accumulation in the magic field in the past seems to have become useless. All that remains is a physique that has become more solid with the passage of time, close combat skills, and some innate abilities that have not yet been explored.

Borrowing external objects seemed feasible, and Mr. Hearn seemed to have come up with an idea.

This is a civilized world built upon mineral veins, which they call "dust crystals." Before being processed, these minerals seem to exist in nature in a single-element form. The traditional elemental concepts of earth, fire, feng shui are rejected, and in their place are four original forms: fire, water, thunder, and energy. After further processing, these can evolve into eight different colors: ochre, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and white, which also signify eight distinct elemental tendencies.

This crystal has permeated the entire technological system of civilization, and its status in the energy field is basically equivalent to that of the aggregates of oil, coal, and natural gas on Earth.

In other words, in this world, which we'll call "Remnant," the "mine" used to praise someone for being rich basically refers to this thing.

It's getting late, time to leave.

Despite knowing full well that this was a priceless "mine cart" guarded by a team of intelligent mechs, Xin Nu thought that guarding a mine and waiting to die in this snowy mountain forest was not a wise thing to do.

The believer stared blankly for a moment as she looked at the rift in the subspace that she had casually opened a second ago when she was trying out her innate abilities one by one out of a gamble while lost in thought. Then she suddenly turned around and looked at the headless iron dragon that still had twenty-one cargo compartments left.

His lips started to curl upwards wildly.

Sent!

A figure in white rushed back with a howl.

After the sun had completely bathed the ground in a deep red, at sunset, on a small hill by the roadside, Mr. Hearn sat on a pure white hard-shell suitcase he had found on the train. The suitcase was beautiful, with a twelve-diamond ice crystal emblem painted on each side. He took off his tie and pretended it was a white handkerchief, which swayed in the wind.

It doesn't look like a national highway. The road surface isn't asphalt or cement, but rather the kind that has become a road due to frequent use. Fortunately, the ground is flat enough and not muddy. There are still relatively fresh tire tracks on the snow on the road, indicating that this road is not uncommon.

However, the timeframe is indeed not very optimistic.

While it is possible to use subspace rifts for displacement, unfortunately, the disastrous consequences of recklessly acting in areas where the map has not yet been opened far outweigh the benefits, such as the other end leading directly to a planet's lava layer.

Spare him.

In the past, when I played Minecraft with my neighbor's daughter, that idiot who only knew how to rush out and die, and had no idea about the hardships of logistics and cultivation, dug through the lava layer with a pickaxe, causing all the hard-earned underground facilities to be back to square one overnight.

The believer happened to have a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and she couldn't tolerate things like a fence that was placed crookedly, a field that wasn't replanted in time, or the wool in the house not being plucked all at once.

Therefore, if such a situation occurs, a real-life fight is inevitable. However, most of the time, Kaguya, who has heard the commotion, will come to mediate and break up the fight, which is truly regrettable.

Oh dear, I had already prepared myself for surviving in the tundra.

Car headlights appeared in the distance.

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Chapter 37 Going Too Far

As the last rays of sunlight cease to grace this subarctic coniferous forest region, night falls completely, and the temperature approaches zero degrees Celsius.

Fortunately, Mr. Hearn was in the passenger seat of an SUV. The air conditioning system was working well, and warm air was blowing from all directions, comforting the lonely heart of the wilderness traveler. The roar of the steel behemoth's engine carried far and wide in the quiet night.

Mr. Hearn discreetly browsed the information on the scroll panel. A gentle female voice echoed in the spacious and luxurious car—the radio was faithfully broadcasting one brief news report after another. The white box he had casually taken from the train to use as a temporary seat was tossed on the back seat, while in the driver's seat, a muscular young man with eight-pack abs was freely driving this steel behemoth through the coniferous forest under the cover of night, occasionally striking up a conversation with him.

This generous and kind blond young man's full name is SunWuKong. It's worth mentioning that Sun is his first name, not his surname. This is probably due to the strange, variant English environment here. To put it simply, calling him Sun Wukong wouldn't be a problem.

Mr. Hearn liked it very much because, according to the local language family, he could refer to himself as Xinnv Hearn when interacting with people, instead of Nobume Hearn from the Far East, which made him, a victim of his mother's regrettable taste in naming things, feel very comfortable.

Ah, there is so much knowledge to learn, yet time is so little.

For example, right now, Mr. Hearn has to be careful with his words and actions to avoid revealing his "outsider" status under the barrage of questions from the talkative driver.

"Speaking of coconut trees and deserts reminds me of my hometown, I mean the Vacuum Kingdom to the west, that's my birthplace. But speaking of which, Mr. Hern, where are you from?"

The topic was so sad that Mr. Hearn's lips twitched slightly.

"Just call me Hearn, that title always makes me feel like I'm getting old."

"Ah, sorry."

"As for where my hometown is, I think that's a question enough—I mean, my appearance is convincing enough. Sun, why don't you take a guess?" The believer smiled and turned the question into a puzzle-like, reserved program.

"A riddle? It feels just like the Sphinx back home. Okay, challenge accepted!" Sun scratched his tousled blond hair. To be honest, driving with one hand is not a good habit, especially with a passenger in the passenger seat who has a history of countless pitiful offenses. Xin Nu felt her eyelids twitching wildly, but fortunately, Sun quickly put both hands back on the steering wheel.

During a break from driving the SUV, the young man took another look at the passenger he had picked up from the side of the wilderness trail. The man was dressed in a well-tailored white suit, a well-made top hat in the same color, and a tie around his neck that matched the style of his dark gray striped shirt. His social class was obvious, but it was clearly not an outfit suitable for traveling in the wilderness. In addition, his skin was a bit too pale, and his fingers were long and slender without any trace of calluses from physical labor. He looked like an office worker or a pianist. Combined with some personal guesses and the patterns on the box on the back seat, the young man was also impressed.

Sun had probably made up his mind.

“Hearne, I think you’re a businessman whose ancestors came from the cold winds, but who eventually migrated and settled in Skyrise.”

"Oh? Tell me your reasons." The woman's lips curled up slightly.

"Your appearance, whether it's your hair color, hairstyle, or facial features, possesses the classical Eastern charm of the inhabitants of the Coldwind Kingdom. However, your skin is fairer than that of traditional Coldwind people, which is a characteristic of the northern inhabitants who have short hours of sunshine. In addition, your eye color, that azure blue like sea ice, is not of Coldwind descent. So I guess you come from a mixed-race family that migrated from Coldwind to Skyrise. Hmm, that's probably it."

“And you are a pure-blooded desert son.” The believer replied jokingly to the brown-skinned youth in the driver’s seat, her attitude amiable, seemingly tacitly acknowledging his guess. “But you can rest assured, thanks to the cold wind bloodline in my family background, I don’t harbor the same resentment towards Faunus as most pure Skybreakers do.”

"I can tell, otherwise I wouldn't have let you get on the bus." Realizing that her guess seemed to have hit the bullseye, Sun was in a good mood and occasionally let out a hearty laugh.

This world, given the ominous name of "Remnants," indeed has a slightly more romantic name—"Tree Without a Child" is the official name of this planet. Shinju looked up at the half-broken crescent moon in the cold winter night sky through the sunroof of the SUV and felt that the name was exceptionally appropriate and well-deserved.

The Funa are the second race on this planet, far fewer in number than humans, the first race. They look very similar to humans, but their bloodlines carry some animal genes. Due to these genes, their physical abilities are naturally superior to those of untrained humans. Most of them have night vision and some parts of their bodies show atavistic animal characteristics.

This is where the conflict arises.

The believer's gaze lingered for a moment on Sun's long, thin monkey tail, then decided to stop worrying about the racial conflicts among the local inhabitants, after all, he was just an outsider.

"We have an urgent report. According to the latest feedback from our reporters on the front lines, the wreckage of a transport train, suspected of being hijacked three hours ago by the extremist terrorist organization 'White Fang,' which was en route from Bai Mu to the safe haven, has been located by police within the Coldwind Kingdom. It is understood that this transport train belongs to the SchneeDustComp.any/雪倪尘晶集团 (SchneeDust Group). At the time of the incident, the train was carrying a massive amount of industrial dust crystals of considerable value, along with dozens of crew members. This batch of industrial dust crystals is a preliminary clause in a series of friendly cooperation agreements signed between the Skyward Kingdom and the Coldwind Kingdom." The funds, intended to revitalize the declining heavy industry of the Coldwind region, were found to have been completely looted, with dozens of crew members killed. On the same day, His Excellency James Ironwood, Supreme Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of the Military of the Skyward Kingdom, and His Excellency Jacques Scherney, Chairman and CEO of the Scherney Crystal Group, expressed their deepest condolences to the families of the victims and issued a joint statement: The Skyward Kingdom's military will immediately launch a full-scale crackdown on all illegal Fern people gatherings within Skyward's borders, and sincerely hopes that the Coldwind Kingdom will assist in the crackdown within its own borders, restoring peace and stability to the public.

Sun abruptly cut off the radio communication, then punched the center of the steering wheel, and a rough horn blared across the open field.

"It's because of those lunatics, the White Fangs, that our situation is getting harder and harder!" Sun was furious about the news broadcast. He turned around and tried to explain something to his companion, only to see that his companion was casting a vague gaze into the distance outside the car window, whistling a tune that sounded like it was none of his business but also felt somewhat affected and deliberate.

"Hearn?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Speaking of which, this whole thing seems to have blown up pretty much?"

"Of course, Skybreaker Kingdom is an oligarchy formed by the military and giant corporations. The fact that James Ironwood and Jacques Scherney issued a joint statement shows that White Fang has really gone too far this time!"

"Sorry, I've never seen an oligarch who would issue such a national-level public statement and launch a military operation after being robbed of a truckload of ore. I feel like this guy is really petty." The believer chatted casually while frowning and searching for all the information about Xue Ni Chen Jing Company. She quickly got the results.

A colossal corporation that monopolizes all energy, heavy industry, light industry, and manufacturing on this planet has perfectly achieved the monumental feat of providing for a person's entire life, from pacifier to coffin lid—from a capitalist's perspective, combined with the Sky-Supporting Kingdom's unique oligarchy of politics and business, its national power surpassing that of the Vacuum, Valley, and Cold Wind Kingdoms, and its icy, permafrost environment.

In short, the believer stared at the photo of CEO Jacques Cherny on the scroll, and couldn't help but think that the bearded man resembled Stalin, the late Soviet leader known as the "Iron Father."

"If it were just a truckload of dust crystals, it wouldn't be like this. Hearn, I forgot to mention, there was another piece of news three hours ago: the second young lady of the Xue Ni family also went missing shortly after arriving at Bai Mu Port. According to the publicly available official itinerary, she was invited to attend the anniversary celebration of her alma mater, the Holy Domain Academy. The Hundred Mu Sky-Piercing Garrison searched for a long time but couldn't find her. Judging from the current situation, [White Fang]'s main target isn't that truckload of dust crystals; they're going to kidnap someone and then sneak out of the country on that train that has to depart according to the treaty's time limit, returning to Cold Wind territory. Hmm? Hearn? Hearn? What's wrong with you?"

"Ah, it's nothing, I'm just a little sleepy." The woman waved her hand wearily, indicating to Sun that he was alright. "Speaking of which, where is Sun's destination? A safe haven?"

"Slightly to the east, there is a port."

"Golden City?"

“Yes, Golden City, I’m going to visit some old friends. There are a lot of people from Furnah there, so I don’t have to worry about some racist idiots causing trouble. Hearn, what about you?”

"I think we are truly destined to meet. When we get to the Golden City, I will treat you to a drink as a token of my gratitude."

"You're going there too? That's wonderful! You don't even need to tell me, we really have to have a good drink together!"

The cheerful laughter of two young men emanated from the spacious SUV, which quickly transformed into an exotic song with a strong desert flavor, the resounding baritone voice dispelling the silence of the night.

As the blond-haired young man beside her sang a folk song from his hometown in high spirits, the slightly drowsy Hearn's mind began to race. She was lost in thought, considering many plans for the future.

For example, how can we get in touch with our lost companions as soon as possible?

For example, when and where should you shake off this friendly fellow traveler?

One lie requires more lies to cover it up, and he couldn't guarantee how the cheerful monkey guy would treat him, a stranger, after his lies were exposed.

However, none of these are the most important things. The most important thing right now is...

Inside the spacious SUV, in the not-so-lonely night, Xin Nu Hearn rubbed her slightly aching temples, letting the faint heartbeat of the third person in the back seat quietly slip into her ears.

[Detect Humanoid Creatures], a cheap and useful talent ability, one of the benefits of a past adventure, which has helped him avoid being surrounded on several occasions.

The only slight drawback was that just now on the train, before I even had a chance to try out this talent, I casually picked up that large suitcase with the pure white emblem.

It was clearly a seat that was casually dragged away during the "Three Alls" campaign (kill all, burn all, loot all) so that people could sit and rest while traveling, and also used to increase persuasiveness when pretending to be travelers on the roadside to flag down a car.

And it's clearly not heavy at all!

"【White Teeth】, right?"

The believer silently recited the mantra, while simultaneously resolving to send all these troublemaking beasts to the fields to fertilize the land—if he were to be hunted down by Qingtian all over the world in the future.

The devout woman, Hearn, began to ponder what to do next.

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Chapter 38 Rainbow

Kingdom of Cold Winds, a haven from the storm, the wealthy high-rise district.

Inside a luxuriously decorated and elegantly styled hotel suite, warm air filled this top-tier suite, rich in oriental elements.

Four girls sat around a sofa in the lobby of the suite. A pot of honey tea with steaming vapor and some matcha pastries were placed on the coffee table in the center. The girls held warm ceramic teacups in their hands, and the refreshing tea dispelled the chill of the winter night.

"The Lien Coin issued by the Valley Kingdom is in circulation in the four kingdoms, and we have a substantial reserve of currency." Yukinoshita, as was her habit, took charge of logistics and briefly reported a figure to her companions.

“We were all graduates of the [Sanctuary] Junior Hunter Academy in the Kingdom of Coldwind, and then chose to study at the [Beacon] Elite Hunter Academy in the Kingdom of Valley, graduating from [Beacon] and working as hunters ever since,” Touma continued.

"This world is not safe. A supernatural creature called the Grimm lurks in the dark lands beyond the edge of human civilization. They are attracted by the negative emotions of the human community and then invade the civilized world. The purpose of the four academies in training hunters is to fight against the Grimm and protect the flame of human civilization." Charlotte shared the information she had gathered with her companions.

"There is no magic in this world. Instead, every native inhabitant of the [Shubuzi] world has a chance to awaken an innate ability called Semblance. This power varies from person to person, and it is almost impossible to find two hunters with the exact same Semblance. Of course, there are some ancient families with ancient bloodlines who can pass on Semblance through heredity—they are usually rare and dangerous, without exception," Kuroyukihime added.

"So, the reason we're here is because of an invitation from a classmate from our time studying at the Sanctuary Junior Hunter Academy?" Yukinoshita countered.

“It looks pretty good. By the way, we’ve been a team since our student days, and we’ve never separated. The team’s name is [BBBG], and I’m the captain,” Touma replied.

"That sounds awful! Why is it called that, Captain?" Kuroyukihime protested.

With a cold expression, Touma picked up a strand of hair and used her other hand to point at each of the four people, starting with herself. Finally, her finger stopped in front of Charlotte. "It seems that the locals like to name their children with synonyms related to colors, and this child's hair color is likely to be similar to the child's name. So, the team's name is usually linked to the members' personal colors. Kuroyuki, if you're not satisfied, persuade Charlotte to go to the hair salon tomorrow to dye her hair black. Our team will go to the Hunter Guild registration office the next day and change our name to 4B!"

"I refuse." Little Red Riding Hood spoke expressionlessly, her voice devoid of warmth, as if it could freeze the heartless passerby who refused to buy the little girl's matches to death.

"Ahem, gentlemen, please don't get agitated. I think our most urgent task is to find Mr. Hearn's whereabouts." Seeing the atmosphere gradually becoming tense, Yukino tried to smooth things over.