Chapter 810 — Nightfall Visitors

It was a young girl in a worn white dress, her long white hair hanging almost to her ankles. She stood barefoot behind the old man, head bowed to look at her toes, so that Gao Yang could not make out her features clearly—only judge roughly that she was young, slight of figure, and delicate of countenance.

An old man and a young girl, come calling late at night bearing a battered paper lantern—they appeared utterly harmless.

But within Sandbox One, within this world now utterly devoid of people, their very existence was a grotesquerie in itself!!

Gao Yang relaxed not a whit of his vigilance on account of the visitors' apparent harmlessness. He had already assumed them to be some manner of test by the "upper-level Narrator," and keeping the highest guard in his heart while maintaining a placid face, he spoke. "It's rather late. What brings you here?"

"There's been no lamplight in the city of Xuanque for a long while now," the old man began, a gentle expression on his face and a kindly tone in his voice. "When we saw the lights from afar, we were so surprised that we came over to see what was going on."

So natural. Such an ordinary way of speaking.

Yet the more normal he acted, the more unnerving Gao Yang found it.

Footsteps sounded from behind him, and Selina came to Gao Yang's side.

She glanced at the old man and the girl at the doorway, gave a slight nod, and spoke in an equally natural tone: "Guests?"

"Forgive us for disturbing you at night," the old man said. "Might we come in and rest our feet for a while? Lamplight is hard to come by again in Xuanyuan City."

To receive visitors on a night when no visitors should by any right appear was, without question, a highly risky act.

Yet after studying the two figures at the doorway for a moment, Gao Yang suddenly broke into a smile and said generously, "Of course—the desert grows bitterly cold at night. Come in and warm yourselves."

Selina watched this with a rather peculiar expression, and some strange associations rose up unbidden in her mind:

The Upper Narrator knocks at the explorer's door; the wanderer from beyond the realm pushes the door open and warmly welcomes the former inside as a guest—and then things get interesting.

Of course, she had no evidence whatsoever that this seemingly ordinary old man and girl were the Upper Narrator's avatars, but since they had appeared under such bizarre circumstances... then even if they were not "avatars," they were clearly not ordinary people.

In the abandoned dwelling, warm lamplight lit the room; the long table was laden with mouth-watering food; the fragrance of wine drifted through the air; and the guests who had come in from the chilly night were ushered to the table.

Yuri and Magnum sized up the strangers before them with curiosity and wariness. The old man, Wenjin, answered with a smile, while the white-haired girl in the white dress simply sat quietly to one side, head bowed, staring at her own toes, as though deaf to everything happening around her—or as though she dared not meet the eyes of the strangers nearby.

"My name is Duvalt," said the old man in the tattered robes, betraying nothing out of the ordinary. He merely seated himself politely at the long table and said with a smile, "A priest still walking the world, hah... likely the last one, too."

A priest...

Gao Yang caught the word, but gave no sign of it.

The old man who called himself Duvalt then gestured to the girl beside him and continued, "Her name is Naritil."

He offered only the girl's name and then said nothing more—unlike what Gao Yang had expected, he did not take the opportunity to explain who she was or what relation the two of them shared.

It was Yuri who spoke up instead: "Naritil... a lovely name. Is she your granddaughter?"

"No, merely traveling companions by chance," the old man said with a shake of his head. "In this world of ours, it's no easy thing to find a fellow traveler."

The girl called Naritil timidly raised her head to glance around, pointed at herself, and said very softly, "Naritil."

That seemed to count as her self-introduction.

Magnum pursed his lips and said nothing.

"We're a group of explorers who grew curious about the city of Xuanque," Gao Yang said, seeing how normally these two "people" who had stepped out of the visitorless night were introducing themselves. Since he had no idea what they were really up to, he did not make the first move against them, but instead smiled and introduced himself in turn. "You can call me Gao Yang—Gao Yang Cecil. This is Selina Guelfen, this gentleman beside me is Mr. Yuri Charvin, and this is Mr. Magnum Keirabor."

"It feels good to see travelers here again," Duvalt said in a gentle tone, his gaze sweeping over the sumptuous food on the long table nearby. "Ah... what a lavish supper."

"You're welcome to join us," Yuri said courteously. "Sharing food is a virtue."

"The food really is good," Magnum chimed in, giving his nose a vigorous sniff. "Alas... a pity, though. It would be better without this stench drifting everywhere."

A strange, foul odor permeated all of Nim Drol and the surrounding surveyed regions, and this lingering, unshakeable reek had clearly begun to wear on the mood of these disciples of the Yaoxu Order.

Hearing Magnum's complaint, the old man Duvalt showed a faint, gentle smile. "The stench of decay, is it... that too is only natural."

Gao Yang frowned and asked instinctively, "Why is it natural?"

"The god is dead," the old man said in a low voice, placing his hand over his chest, palm held sideways and facing down, his tone growing steadily lower. "And now... at last, He has begun to rot."

(Oh my god!!!)

(End of this chapter)