Chapter 113: Du Juan’s Invitation

At least fifty meters underground, in the elevator surrounded by silence, a phone suddenly ringing made Xiao Fen feel a bit creeped out. He hurriedly took out the phone and glanced at it; it was an unfamiliar number.

“Hello, Xiao Fen, what are you doing?”

Xiao Fen was stunned for a moment; he could vaguely recognize that the voice on the phone was Du Juan’s voice, and hurriedly answered, “I’m in the elevator, preparing to go to the basement.”

“Nonsense, of course I know you are in the elevator. I’m just asking, what are you doing twisting and turning so seductively in the elevator? Are you planning to become a male model? Your height is a hard flaw. Unless you let Yggdrasil change your body shape during your next upgrade, otherwise, I advise you to honestly stick to this very promising job of being a Trialist.”

Xiao Fen broke out in cold sweat, wishing the elevator would just stop so he could escape directly to the basement and never come out.

However, even worse than this embarrassment was that when the elevator door opened, Du Juan was sitting in the chair Xiao Fen had been sitting on, greeting him with a half-smile.

“Not bad, knowing to do physical exercise normally. How does it feel?”

Xiao Fen turned his head, trying not to look at the other person to avoid eye contact. In short, everything that happened in the elevator just now made him feel embarrassed. This ostrich-like method gave him a moment of peace, and he answered in a low, mumbling voice, “Ah, it’s okay, pretty good. Can get some basic exercise, hahaha, not bad.”

Du Juan looked at Xiao Fen’s embarrassed appearance but did not continue to press the question. Instead, she smiled slightly and said, “Alright, let’s get to the main topic. I need your help. Here is the Real World Mission authorization from the Council of Elders. If you are willing, come and sign it.”

Xiao Fen had just heard from Aizawa Reika that there was a Real World Mission, and then immediately received such a mission. Only a fool would think the two were unrelated. Xiao Fen turned his head to look at Du Juan and asked, “News from the Auction House?”

Du Juan shrugged and said, “Of course. Every agent must report necessary situations to the Council of Elders. However, even if you hadn’t asked this question, I would have eventually come here to find you. Because there are no other Trialists nearby, and what we have to deal with is precisely related to Yggdrasil. For me, I’m afraid I can’t complete it alone, so I can only ask you for help.”

Xiao Fen took the Real World Mission authorization from Du Juan’s hand and glanced at it roughly. The line “Life and death are one’s own responsibility” at the end of the authorization made Xiao Fen’s eyes jump. It seemed that Real World Missions were not much different from the Trial World; they were equally full of the threat of death. Otherwise, such words would not appear.

Thinking of this, he carefully read the entire authorization again and asked in a low voice, “What does it mean to maintain the Access Point of the World Tree?”

“This world, or rather, this Earth, has a giant tree growing on it, which is Yggdrasil. The World Tree you speak of had its Rhizomes spread across every corner of the planet. Every Rhizome was a complete access line. Both Awakened and Trialists could access the World Tree very easily through these Rhizomes, just like we do in this basement.”

Pausing for a moment, Du Juan continued to explain, “Through the World Tree, Awakened can even easily cross half the Earth, traveling from Tokyo in Asia to New York in the Americas in a few hours, just like wandering in a small city.”

Du Juan looked at Xiao Fen’s confused face, smiled slightly, and said, “Don’t be confused. The books in this basement are only for beginners. You will be able to learn this knowledge when you enter the School. I am just telling you this knowledge in advance.”

“No, I am not confused about this history. Since I accessed the World Tree, I have been able to imagine it. What I am confused about is, why are there so few of these Rhizomes now?”

“This will be something you explore on your own when you participate in various Trial Missions. Yggdrasil creates Trial Worlds with many historical backgrounds. When you complete missions in these Trial Worlds, you can explore the deep history hidden within history through the Main Quest and learn more things you didn’t know before.”

Du Juan knocked on the table and said, “Of course, these are not the main point I am talking to you about now. The main point is that the Rhizomes of Yggdrasil on the entire planet have greatly decreased compared to the past. Correspondingly, there are currently only 112 Access Points in the whole of Asia, and every Access Point is extremely precious.”

Looking at the authorization document nonchalantly, Du Juan continued, “A few days ago, I received a mission authorization from the Council of Elders, stating that a reaction suspected to be an Access Point was discovered in Fuyuan City. It was precisely because of this that I came from the Imperial Capital. After arriving in this city, I was delayed for a day because of you. After that, I went to Fuyuan City and came into contact with that reaction there. It is certain that there is indeed an Access Point there, but there is no exact location. I need the help of other Trialists.”

Xiao Fen frowned and asked, “Is it difficult to determine the Access Point?”

“Determining the location of an Access Point is extremely difficult. You can imagine it as a sound wave deep underground, appearing on the surface after being refracted multiple times throughout the ground. We can only roughly know that this sound wave comes from underground in Fuyuan City, but we cannot determine exactly where it comes from. And we cannot excavate the entire Fuyuan City completely. Therefore, we can only use the method of joint perception by multiple Trialists to determine the approximate area of the Access Point.”

“How big will the approximate area be?”

“It must be less than 2 square kilometers. If it exceeds this range, the difficulty of excavation will increase further. As long as it is within this range, it belongs to the Council of Elders, and also to all Awakened.”

Xiao Fen smiled bitterly and asked, “Buy it with money?”

Du Juan shrugged and said, “Transactions in Reality have nothing to do with you or me. You just need to come with me to determine the address of this Access Point. The danger isn’t too great. Of course, the benefits you can obtain are also related to precision; the higher the precision, the higher the reward you can get.”

Xiao Fen nodded and looked at the document again. Sure enough, regarding the reward, no numbers were written at all. A seven-digit gap was left there, waiting for Xiao Fen to fill in himself.

“What danger do we have?”

Satisfied with Xiao Fen’s calm attitude, Du Juan nodded and said, “The danger mainly comes from other Trialists. After all, the Real World is not the Trial World. Fighting here does not incur Yggdrasil’s punishment.”