Chapter 4: The Cow and Amu
Sitting on the bed inside the prison cell, Su Xiao gained some understanding of the war world he was in.
First, the faction he belonged to was called the Geya Alliance, also known as the Free Nation. The Free Nation had multiple races, and because it was so damn free, there was no discrimination between the various races.
Or rather, there was simply no reason for discrimination. The Free Nation had a fierce folk culture, valued military strength, and prioritized ability.
Due to its long-term plundering of external resources, the Free Nation’s reputation wasn’t great. Hoarding military power, being bloody and barbaric—these were the impressions other countries had of the Free Nation.
Excessive freedom and openness led to a unique order here. Minor offenses were manageable, but if you committed a serious crime, you were basically done for.
The country hostile to the Free Nation was called the Sun Kingdom, a nation ruled by monarchy plus theocracy. Seeing the keyword “theocracy,” Su Xiao immediately thought of those from the Sanctuary Paradise. If his guess was correct, the contractors from Sanctuary Paradise should be in this faction.
The Sun Kingdom had strict laws, clean and tidy streets, almost spotless. This country was a single-race nation, somewhat xenophobic, but fortunately, the degree of exclusion wasn’t too extreme.
In the past hundred years, the Sun Kingdom’s technological level had been utterly crushed by the Free Nation, which did whatever it wanted. If not for the support of theocracy, it would have long been defeated by the Free Nation.
The reason for this situation was the different attitudes toward talent. In the Free Nation, even a beggar could rise to prominence quickly if they had ability.
The Sun Kingdom was different. This country was not only righteous to the point of being obsessive but also valued birth. If your background wasn’t good enough, even if you had talent, you would die in obscurity. As for talented foreigners, forget it—either defect to the Free Nation or settle down for a peaceful life in the Sun Kingdom.
Of course, defecting to the Free Nation wasn’t necessarily a good thing either. The folk culture here was quite fierce, and with too much freedom and iron-bloodedness, it was easy to lose your life.
The two great powers each had their own advantages and corresponding drawbacks. The Free Nation was stronger in technology and military, while the Sun Kingdom was stronger in resources and mysticism.
Interestingly, the religion of the Sun Kingdom wasn’t the Sun God but the Dawn Goddess.
This was quite intriguing. Originally, the sole deity of the Sun Kingdom was the Sun God, Asertanler. Then, for some unknown reason, the Sun God stopped granting “divine power” to his followers.
The Sun Kingdom’s royal family and the divine court were not to be trifled with. Don’t think the divine court favored the gods; on the contrary, their relationship with the royal family was much closer than with the deity they worshipped. The successive “High Priests” were very clear-headed. The royal family could destroy them physically, while the god could at most impose minor punishments.
After some discussion, they made a decision: since you, the Sun God, won’t give us divine power, we won’t believe in you anymore. You’re a war god, yet you won’t help us fight—what use are you?
Then the royal family and the divine court changed their deity…
Leaving aside the bewildered and furious Sun God, the newly installed Dawn Goddess was clearly very sensible. It must be said that the gods worshipped in this world were a very peculiar form of “life,” or perhaps they were higher-dimensional beings or some kind of consciousness?
Regardless of what the Sun God or Dawn Goddess were, after the Sun Kingdom changed its deity, the country experienced a period of turmoil. Fortunately, the nation’s order was stable enough, and with the royal family and divine court’s propaganda about how the Sun God had failed his followers, the people gradually calmed down.
Because of this, the Sun Kingdom now worshipped the Dawn Goddess. Changing the country’s name wasn’t easy, so the Sun Kingdom renamed its capital to Dawnlight City.
Apart from these two major powers, there was also a medium-sized country on Blue Star, along with over a hundred small countries.
The small countries could basically be ignored. If Su Xiao guessed correctly, the people from Apocalypse Paradise were either in the Sun Kingdom or that medium-sized country.
Given the current situation, Su Xiao didn’t plan to deal with those two factions. In fact, he wouldn’t even see their contractors for a short time.
This wasn’t Su Xiao’s first world war. In the initial stage, he needed to understand this world and integrate into his current faction, using the faction’s power to find the World Core.
Finding the World Core was the key; everything else was just talk.
There were three steps to winning the war: first, find the World Core; second, hold the World Core for a period of time; third, deliver the World Core to a designated location. Reincarnation Paradise would generate a world coordinate, and once the coordinate was generated, the war was won.
Generating a world coordinate took time, and quite a bit of it. During this period, the side holding the World Core was the defender, while the other two sides were the attackers. A chaotic battle among contractors was inevitable.
Before finding the World Core, the contractors first needed to explore this world. Without sufficient understanding, it was impossible to find the World Core.
The initial stage, which was also the longest, was exploration. The moment a contractor found the World Core marked the start of the three-way war.
Therefore, Su Xiao wasn’t in a hurry. Before someone found the World Core, he needed to explore and reap benefits. He wasn’t good at reconnaissance, so the task of finding the World Core wouldn’t fall on him.
As Su Xiao expected, Bubu Wang was once again assigned to a reconnaissance team, responsible for finding the World Core. In the last world war, Bubu Wang was definitely the MVP, not only finding the World Core but also seizing it.
This time, the situation wasn’t optimistic. Bubu Wang was teleported to an icefield and had infiltrated a group of icefield wolves with explosive combat power. In Bubu Wang’s words: “Master, although this dog looks very similar to those icefield wolves, this dog feels very panicked. Online, waiting, quite urgent.”
When Su Xiao received Bubu Wang’s message, he couldn’t help but imagine a scene: on a snowy icefield, a group of cold-eyed icefield wolves stood atop a snow mountain, with a “husky” mixed in, looking as steady as an old dog but actually panicking like crazy inside.
Su Xiao rubbed his forehead. He couldn’t think about it anymore; the image was already in his mind, and the sense of déjà vu was too strong.
Bubu Wang’s situation was still amusing, but Amu’s was laugh-out-loud funny. That guy was teleported to a farm, surrounded by a herd of cows…
Su Xiao didn’t keep thinking. The image of Amu’s situation was also too vivid. Fortunately, both Bubu Wang and Amu had strong survival abilities. Splitting up in the initial stage was a good choice, as it could speed up the exploration progress.
What puzzled Su Xiao the most was why he was in prison. Reincarnation Paradise had assigned him the identity of a member of the Assassination Unit, whose usual work involved behind-enemy-lines assassinations and sometimes espionage.
During wartime, the Assassination Unit acted as “firefighters,” deployed to whichever war zone was under the most pressure.