“What’s the plan? I imagine everyone here will spread out in the lower areas, depending on their level. Everyone will try to level up as quickly as possible.”
While other games tempted their players to run into a new territory to explore, Haven punished them badly if they overestimated themselves. New areas held new monsters, and new monsters had new habits. That included the possibility of a high ranking monster patrolling around, which would result in an instant-kill.
In Haven, the best tactic was to slowly work yourself forward. Exploring the edges first would allow you to find out how the monsters would behave, and you’d find signs if there was a boss monster patrolling.
There were many cases where people had run into the recently added forest area, only to find out that the moment night fell, a bunch of overpowered spiders would pop up everywhere. Those at the edge of the terrain had time to flee, contrary to those stuck in the middle. This kind of area hazard increased the difficulty, or set up the base for later quests.
But Ice had different priorities than most players around him.
Uncertainly playing with the string of his coat, Ice scrunched up his eyebrows and spoke. “I’d… like exploring quickly.”
“That’s unusual?” Bloody blinked, surprise obvious in his voice. “I mean, I’ll go along. It’s no problem if I die or anything, I’m not too worried about losing experience. But is there a reason?”
Haven had a common death penalty at least – you could be revived or would respawn in the last city you visited, but you’d lose a certain amount of experience. You could also lose items – if someone stole them from your corpse before you revived or if they were thrown too far away.
That was why saying that he didn’t mind dying just because of Ice’s request was a very kind gesture.
“There should be a castle somewhere”, Ice mumbled, remembering his title. “I… I want to go there. There’s someone I’d like to meet.”
If the Ice Emperor – the true lord of the mountain – was the second loneliest person… Who was the first? It was weird that Ice, who had gotten this title, also had the quest about a miserable person asking for help. For some reason, he felt reminded of that quest whenever he saw his title’s description.
Maybe, just maybe, they were linked in some way. But no matter what, he wanted to meet the original owner of this title.
“Does that have to do with a quest? Did you hear about that castle somewhere?” Seeing Ice nod, Bloody smiled widely. “Alright! Let’s go check it out! I think the highest point or the middle sound like places where you’d put a castle. We can try searching there first!”
“Thank you”, Ice said warmly, genuinely touched.
“The map we have sucks, though. It will be a lot of trial and error to find it. But I’m also curious.” The beastman pointed at the map that the guards had put up. It was a very simple map, showing the rough form of the mountain area and drawing a couple of lines where you could find paths.
At the other end of the mountain was the ocean, which meant that even if a player decided to cross over all the way and continue into the water, they’d drown pretty soon.
Or get eaten.
It was actually very likely to get eaten by a sea monster.
“Is everyone ready?” The bellow of the captain had all players raise their heads. The whole area turned perfectly quiet. “We will now allow you lot to pass. We are not responsible for anything that happens to you! You Foreigners can revive anyway…”
The man grumbled something and shook his head. With a wave of his hand, the sentries stepped aside.
What followed was a stampede of players running in. The separate players had previously come to an agreement of who would go where. It was an agreement reached through fists and money. After all, there were over 50 players focused on getting the best out of this beta phase.
No one worried about Ice and Bloody, who were considered non-competitive. They were easy to talk to if it came to territorial disputes.
“Let’s go.”
Bloodless Sunset took a deep breath and began to walk.
The mountain area turned steep almost immediately, with only a few trees remaining. Stony areas were soon covered in white snow, growing thicker and thicker.
They could walk easily where the soldiers had cleared a path, but with everyone spreading out and the two of them wanting to get to the middle of the mountain, they were forced to enter the deep snow.
Everywhere around them were unevenly grown stone formations and white nothingness.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Bloody walked with both arms spread apart, balancing on a thick layer of frozen snow, covered in a slippery layer of freshly fallen flakes. He only held back his curses because of Ice, who walked in front and used his staff to test the ground.
“Gb sbe atlcx kf klii cffv milwylcu fdelqwfca ja rbwf qblca?”, tf ijwfcafv lcrafjv bo megrlcu.
“Ktfgf rtbeiv yf qjatr ab ufa fnfgsktfgf klatbea tjnlcu ab milwy. Ciatbeut, xcbklcu Ljnfc, la rtbeiv yf jc bqalbc”, Pmf rjlv jujlcra atf klcv, qjerlcu. Lf ibbxfv jgbecv.
Ktf kfjatfg kjr rbwfktja ubbv, ktlmt wfjca la kjr reccs jcv atf klcv kjr jmmfqajyis ragbcu. Ktfgf kjr cb jvvlalbcji rcbkojii. Olxf atlr, sbe mbeiv rff qgfaas ojg, jcv ktlif rbwf wbecajlc abqr kfgf eq tlut lc atf mibevr, Pmf vlvc’a atlcx atfs’v tbiv atf mjraif.
“What’s wrong?”
Bloody placed a hand on his shoulder, asking carefully. Ice looked over his shoulder at him, chewing on an edge of his lip.
“I’m wondering which way we should go.”
“I’ll follow you wherever. Just go with your instinct! You’re the Ice Emperor, right? Let the snow guide you or something.”
While spoken as a joke, Ice took the words seriously.
The lord of the mountain was a lonely person who only had the stars accompany him.
That did not sound like a mountain top. A mountain top was lofty – it could see far, from this height easily until the capital. It was a place that would make one feel like they were above everything.
But a place where you could only see the stars, where you’d be all on your own…
That was not high up.
That was down below.
Like a frog sitting in a well.
“I think the castle might be buried under the snow. Or, no. Not buried. But surrounded? A deep valley?” Ice gestured around for a bit before, at a loss of how to explain, squatting down.
He used the snow to form an elevated area and added a couple of higher spikes as mountains. Then, in the middle, he poked his finger into the snow, creating something like a hole.
Bloody hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t know how you came to that conclusion, but… It’s different. It sounds like something Haven would do. Tempt everyone into climbing up the mountain tops, while the true treasure is in the opposite direction. You’d be all high, only to look around and see the castle somewhere entirely else.”
That would also be a valid method to find the castle without exploring mindlessly. Once you climbed up high enough, you’d have an overview of the terrain.
“The minimap isn’t helping us at all for now, so we will have to orient ourselves using the highest mountain tops and the sun. There, in the north, it looks a bit like the area is dipping down. Shall we go there?”
Ice gave a determined nod and wiped away his little creation.
There was still a long way to go.
The steep path turned a bit flatter, with frozen plants growing out of the ground like sculptures. A couple of common animals flashed by – hares, foxes and birds – which could be hunted to alleviate hunger.
The obvious lack of monsters was suspicious. Bloody scratched his head with an uncomfortable expression. “I’ve only seen a couple of enemies from afar. I know the amount of monsters is always a bit lower during beta phase but this isn’t enough at all. Does that mean they will attack only at certain times? Or is there some other kind of danger we aren’t noticing?”
“How long have we been walking for?”
“Two hours.”
Ice pointed up at the sky, where clouds were gathering quickly. The previously clear sky had darkened quickly. “It might be that the enemies retreat before a snowstorm, to give players enough time to find a place to hide.”
The first snowflake fell down.
Bloody’s face distorted.
“Damn.”
Their guess was correct. There was an exact one hour frame in which monsters would retreat, followed by half an hour in which the snowstorm would pick up to its full strength. This kind of area hazard appeared only in higher-level areas. Its intention was not only to slow the players down, but also to add another level of danger and realism to the setting.
If you wanted to explore a snowy mountain, you had to expect a snowstorm!
If you couldn’t deal with that, you’d freeze to death or be buried under the snow. This wasn’t just any game, it was Haven, and Haven expected you to understand the terrain you were exploring.
Half an hour was barely enough for both players to build a little snowcave and hide inside. The blizzard raged outside, howling like an angry beast.
Huddled up next to Ice, Bloody could only sigh. “How long do you think this will go on?”
“At least an hour.”
“Should we log off and check in later? There’s nothing much we can do and I don’t think we will get attacked in here. I mean, there’s a chance there’s a boss monster patrolling around that will step on our cave, but it will do that even if we aren’t here.”
Ice agreed. Both of them logged out, their bodies inside the little cave vanishing.
[Logging out…]
The capsule shut down with a soft hum.
Jian Lin pushed the capsule’s top open and shook his head. He blinked several times and looked around his room. It was a good time to eat a meal.
Sighing, he wandered into the kitchen and stood before the stove. He wasn’t too good at cooking and quite lazy, so he mostly ordered take-out or ate instant food. A lifestyle that only worked because he had so much money.
Not finding any instant food he was interested in right now, Jian Lin paced around for a bit. If he ordered food, it might come late and the blizzard might have passed.
Almost as if called, someone knocked on his door.
“Mister Jian? It’s me! Xi Yang!”
A dull voice sounded through the door. Jian Lin flinched and quietly walked towards the door, peering out through the camera.
A face with a cheeky grin was shown on the display, a hand waving in greeting. The messy hair was dyed dark blue, and the black eyes shone like obsidian. The handsome young man in front of the door looked like a cheerful person, unlike the one next to him.
Half a head smaller, the clearly younger version of the first person looked a bit unhappy.
“Why are you doing this?”, he muttered, but the camera picked it up.
Xi Yang knocked his little brother’s head. “Mister Jian is a very nice person. He lent me the password for his internet when mine didn’t work yet. He just doesn’t go outside very much.”
He cleared his throat.
“Mister Jian, we’ve made too much to eat. If you want to, you can take the portion. I’ll leave it at the door!”
Xi Yang bent down, then dragged his brother away. A door opened and closed.
Feeling conflicted, Jian Lin waited for a while.
Bloodless Sunset was… his neighbor. Not that he knew – there had been a row of misunderstandings that led Xi Yang to believe that his neighbor was an antisocial but not unfriendly older man living on his own.
Back at the start, when Xi Yang had moved in, he had rang the bell to introduce himself and ask for help with his internet connection.
The one who had answered the door hadn’t been Jian Lin, but his grandfather with a bad leg. Grandfather Jian had had a short talk with Xi Yang, which led to Grandfather Jian commenting he did not cook often.
A week later, Xi Yang had left a slice of homemade cake for “Grandfather Jian”. Jian Lin had thanked him by contacting someone to speed up the process of Xi Yang getting his connection.
Like this, they had formed a weird relationship of Xi Yang sometimes dropping food in front of his door and Jian Lin doing him favours in all kinds of ways.
At the point where Jian Lin found out that Xi Yang was Bloody… he was too awkward to admit his identity to the other.
After all, Xi Yang thought that an old man lived here!
Sighing, Jian Lin opened the door and quickly pulled the disposable container inside. It was fried rice, filling his nose with the scent of oil and making his stomach rumble.
The only reason why Xi Yang didn’t notice the connection between his reticent neighbor and the Ice Emperor was probably that Jian wasn’t a rare last name and that the apartment was certainly too simple for a young man who was rich.
Jian Lin ate his meal and went to the bathroom to wash his face. He looked into the mirror, tugged at his white-blonde hair and sighed again.
His father european. His mother had grown up in China, which was where his father moved too once they got married, but she also had european blood.
Jian Lin’s name was chinese, but he looked european. Another reason why his childhood had been complicated with how much he stood out. The only good thing was that people dyed their hair as they pleased nowadays, making everything look more colourful. Now he didn’t stand out as much anymore.
It was still quite annoying to have such a bright hair colour, especially when paired with soft brown eyes like a deer’s.
Jian Lin ruffled his hair, lamenting how long it had gotten again, and walked to his sofa to lie down for a while.
Xi Yang was sending him messages, asking if he had already eaten and showing off pictures of his own food. Some included who should be Xi Yun, the little assassin.
Jian Lin answered the messages with short words, keeping half a conversation until one hour was over. Both of them logged in again, waking up in the cave.
They staggered a bit on the uneven ground, steadying each other. It was dark inside the cave, and silent.
“The blizzard stopped”, Ice commented dryly. “We should hurry out.”
The beastman agreed loudly and went forward to dig them a way out.
Judging from the clouds, the storm had only stopped a short while ago. Now was the best time to move, before the monsters would come out. They could already hear the first howls far away.
“Well… Let’s hurry”, Bloody sighed, offering Ice a hand to climb out of their hole.
Author’s Note
It was too funny to not make them neighbors.
Short explanation for the family tree: Dad – european, Mom – with chinese Dad and european Mom. Mom grows up in China (or rather “a country similar to China in a parallel world”), then starts working as a model, and meets Dad during her travels. They marry and move to “China”, where Jian Lin is born, following his mother’s name.
Little Theater:
Bloody: “My neighbor is a kind old man.”
Jian Lin: sneezes
Grandfather Jian: sneezes
Grandfather Jian: “It sure is cold here.”
Also I’m not the world’s best artist, so have just a rough sketch of Bloody~ (Other chars maybe following. Or not.)
huddling in a little snowcave…huddling together… XD
YES omg Xi Yang is Bloodless!
Didn’t expect them to be neighbors lol And that hilarious misunderstanding! 🤣 Can‘t wait for Xi Yang to find it out~~
Thank you for the chapter 💜💜💜
Okay, that came unexpected lol He’s the elder neighbour, eh? xDDD And now I want to have fried rice too D:
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Awww Bloody looks like an adorable puppy!
Thanks for the chapter <3
PFFT- omg I love that. Neighbours 😂
Ooh dear you’re the best.. that pic is awesome..
Shy
Thank you!
Great writing and nice artwork 👍
He looks like a puppy! I love him! Thank you for sharing both your writing and your art! I love them both a lot! Enough to make my first comment, overcoming my habitual lurking