Whose world-class drama are they criticizing?

This is common knowledge in Western fantasy.

Yuzu loves these melodramatic soap operas about the ethics and relationships between nobles.

Yes, the noble knight must have fallen in love with a country girl of low status, but was not tolerated by his family's honor. Although they had a child together, the girl did not tell the knight and chose to bear the burden in silence.

One day, a curse of decay ravaged the village. The knight who had once sought so desperately to save his wife formed a knightly order, venturing into perilous territory himself. But the young woman was already afflicted by the curse, leaving the knight no choice but to kill his beloved with his own hands.

Before she died, the girl entrusted the knight's biological child to him and told him the truth.

Just thinking about the knight's regretful expression makes Yuzu feel really excited.

She even had a title in mind: "Forbidden Love ~ A noble knight abandons me, a village girl, but regrets it deeply."

Just as Yuzu was immersed in her beautiful fantasy, she heard a calm voice.

"My idiotic brother has no illegitimate children."

"He's an idiot and stubborn, all he does is practice swordsmanship all day long, no girl would like him."

Ryan and all the players looked over at the sound, and the person who spoke was just as ugly, eerie and strange as the withered knight, as if they were cut from the same mold.

He was covered in blood, wounds all over his body—the blood of mad dogs, the blood of strange chickens, the blood of the withered villagers. The yellowish blood seeped into his wounds, leaving long trails that stretched all the way to the end of the withered village.

The person who came was Viscount Kiri.

But he didn't take a roundabout route like Ryan and the players.

Instead, they marched head-on from Kubing Village to Kubing Town.

"That baby had no surname or given name; he was the child of a farmer and his wife."

“An infant from a village of withered diseases.”

"That's all."

Those equally withered yellow pupils, when reflected in the sunlight, seemed to shimmer with a golden hue like ears of wheat.

“And my brother, Simon Blair, is the mayor of Blighttown, the leader of the Straw Knights, and the heir of the Straw family.”

"A sworn paladin."

"That's all."

Chapter 66 "A Child's Smile".

Why are you here?

Ryan asked Kiri with a dark face, "Hey old man, didn't you have Battlefield PTSD?"

Who sent you?

Or did they attack from the front of the Blighted Village?

To be able to directly confront a large map like the Blight Village, that's truly impressive.

That old guy is pretty ruthless.

He looked towards the village entrance, where blood and corpses were everywhere. Viscount Kiri had cleared a path through the horde of monsters.

Despite having such a ruthless subordinate, Ryan was in a very bad mood.

"You unclogged my perfectly good toilet?"

The players who had died earlier followed Kiri, adding fuel to the fire, looting corpses along the cleared path, and quickly ran back.

Especially the old uncle, who was originally planning the xylophone with a red-hot hue, has now changed his tune. Upon seeing Viscount Kiri, he praised, "I must say, Mr. Kiri is truly a legend."

"The truth is, the whole way was filled with clanging and banging, like a symphony of battle. The thrill of the battle was simply unparalleled. So this Dry Village is really a great map. You might even feel like crying your eyes out after you finish it."

Ryan wanted to breathe on it.

Observing Kiri's condition, his whole body was covered in wounds. The diseased blood of the villagers had seeped into the wounds, and the withered roots and stems had further replaced the blood and flesh curse, densely stitching them together.

Kiri was originally supposed to remain in a state of decline for another two weeks, but after this incident, he won't last more than a week.

"So what are you doing here?" Ryan asked again.

"I am a cowardly and selfish person, I don't have the courage to die."

Kiri, however, mentioned something else: "Thirty years ago, I returned here with mercenaries and saw Simon like this."

"And so I ran away."

The Simon Knight Commander that Kiri and the mercenaries encountered was a monster who had lost its rationality, muttering "baby, my baby" in a delirious voice, and attacking all living things in its path.

"For the next thirty years, I never set foot in the town of Blight again, nor did I ever come to see him."

Kiri remained silent for a long time, his withered eyes fixed on the hut, and slowly said, "Because I'm afraid... I'm afraid to see the truth."

"I'm afraid I'm the only one who's despicable."

Kiri murmured, "The mercenaries' rumors were full of holes, but I believed them because I chose to believe them. I chose to believe that my brother was a greedy and despicable person, and that's what put my mind at ease."

"Only by doing this can I comfort myself to keep living. Only by doing this can I endure thirty years, like a pile of rotten and moldy straw, pretending that I am still growing in the field even though all the wheat ears have fallen."

“Mr. Ryan Lumin,” Kiri looked up and said, “but you told me that it wasn’t so bad, so I decided to come back.”

What I meant was, if you look like that, you don't need to worry about fan groups.

The milk powder group is actually the Sanlu milk powder group.

Ryan wanted to slap himself for his foul mouth, but he soon realized why Kiri understood things this way. It was all the fault of the [Curse of Ignorance and Delusion].

This thing is usually nothing special, but it secretly harbored a big one for itself.

Ryan rubbed his temples. What happened thirty years ago was truly beyond his expectations.

Ultimately, it was because he was too impatient and complacent.

He needs to analyze this mistake.

Eden is not a game; it is a real world. People and events are not just a string of cold code. You can't act recklessly just because you know what previous players have. The few plots presented in the game are just the tip of the iceberg of this complex world.

To pass through Eden, you need to acquire more information and learn more about the people and things around you.

Ryan remembered the note he found in the drawer of the cabin. He took it out and examined it closely. The handwriting was blurry and illegible. It didn't contain any martial arts manuals; it was just a marching log from thirty years ago.

The legendary investigator tried to glance this way, but Ryan blocked him, protecting his food.

We can't let the players see this.

[Written by Simon Blaine on October 3rd, Autumn, 970 of the White Night Calendar]

Autumn has arrived, and a layer of early frost has formed on the horse trail.

[The town of Kubing has been sealed off by the Straw Family for seventy years, but today, suspected Kubing has been reported in some villages.]

I assembled the Straw Knights and sent them to investigate the outer rice flower village.

...

[October 4, Simon Blair's book]

At the village entrance, we met a farmer who was harvesting crops. He told us that this year was a famine year, and the wheat was withering quickly. He needed to hurry up and harvest because his wife and children were waiting for food at home.

I looked at the wheat; it was a frighteningly withered and yellow.

Ryan suddenly remembered the man who had been farming at the village entrance.

The man kept muttering, "There's not enough food at home... harvest more rice." When attacked by players, he yelled, "Don't steal my food!"

If fire were thrown into the withered field, he would rush forward and use his body to block it.

But this isn't a game mechanic or a bug; it's the farmer's obsession when he's lucid.

His wife and children were waiting for food; if the rice paddies were burned, they would have nothing to eat. That's why he had to use his body to shield them. Even though his body withered from the curse, this obsession was etched into his instincts.

For thirty years, he planted rice paddies that would never ripen and harvested grains that no one would ever eat.

They piled up mountains of them, and then rotted away with them.

...

[10 month 5 day]

Seventy years later, the withering disease has struck again. This time, all villages—no, the entire Land of No Light—will be engulfed in the curse of withering.

There is only one way.

[Infiltrate the town of Blight, assassinate the Blight Princess, and end this destiny.]

As the leader of the Straw Knights, I have made this decision.

...

[10 month 6 day]

We failed.

I sent Kiri to the Twilight Mountains to seek help, hoping he could escape.

...

[10 month 7 day]

A farm woman took me in after I was seriously injured. She bandaged my wounds and gave me a piece of wheat bread. The woman said that if it wasn't enough, she would have more at home, and her husband would bring food back.

I noticed that she had recently given birth and had a baby at home.

I threw away the withered bread and gave them the remaining rations.

...

[10 month 8 day]

I've built a magic array trap next to the hut and inscribed it with fiery runes. This should hold out for a while, maybe until reinforcements arrive.

[Outside the house were infected villagers; the entire village was cursed.]

This world is beginning to wither.

...

[10 month 9 day]

The peasant woman's cursed illness has flared up.

Her husband didn't come home, and my reinforcements never arrived.

I freed her with the blazing fire.

...

[10 month 10 day]

Since reinforcements haven't arrived, I've decided to withdraw, or rather, to flee, even though it would betray my oath.

As a knight I should die here, but as a lord I must flee.

This is a wise and responsible decision.

The Straw Knights have been destroyed. I am the last Straw Knight. I need to continue my family's bloodline. The villagers are all cursed. This world is terminally ill. Holding out here is meaningless. This is the most sober judgment I can make.

Although I too am afflicted by the curse, with my sacred bloodline, I may still be able to survive for another ten or twenty years. Even if I am plagued by this disease for the rest of my life, I must still live on, ugly as I am; this is the duty of a lord.

[Seriously wounded, carrying an infant, one cannot fight their way out.]

I put the child in the shop window and locked it. Maybe that way the villagers with the disease wouldn't find him, maybe he could hold on a little longer, or maybe it was just psychological comfort.

But the child kept crying and crying... The crying attracted the villagers nearby, so I hummed a lullaby to him until he fell asleep and then left.

[I haven't sung in a long time, I only remember the first two lines, and my singing wasn't very good, but he still fell asleep peacefully.]

The child had a smile on his lips; he was smiling at me before he fell asleep.

So I decided to stay.

The world is terminally ill; we adults are withering and decaying, but children should still thrive.

Even in the darkest of nights, he still has the right to sleep.

Looking at the illegible handwriting, Ryan recalled the problem that had been troubling him before—

"What kind of treasure could have bewitched the heart of a paladin?"

The answer is: