Chapter 61: A Fateful Letter

Not long after discovering this line of text, the 1234 team received several consecutive prompts from the system—

[Congratulations to players Old Li, Hua Nord, Number Two, and Scott for triggering the main quest: Discovering the Novice Village!]

[Novice Village coordinates have been opened and marked on the map panel.]

[Novice Village Description: The rapidly growing little merfolk have discovered a novice village on the edge of the outer lands.
There are swarms of monsters and a peaceful space.
Now your mission is—to snatch back the occupied land from the hands of the monsters and spread the glory of the merfolk throughout the ocean!]

[A limited-time novice village construction quest has been opened.
The entire server shares the progress.
If the quest is not completed within the time limit, the novice village will be permanently closed.]

The players all over the territory, no matter what they were doing at the moment—digging stones and chopping trees, exploring outside, running dungeons and teasing bosses, setting up stalls and cooking, and so on—all looked at the system announcement bar in the upper right corner in unison.

After seeing the system’s prompts clearly, they exploded.

Today’s player forum also exploded.

[LT, is Sea Realm about to do something big?]

[Quest, those who understand, come in.]

[Shocking, the divine team has made a new move again, actually changing the entire Sea Realm?]

Posts with all sorts of overt and covert metaphors emerged one after another.
Anyone with a bit of gaming acuity had already realized what this mission meant—Open Beta!
Open Beta!
Open Beta!

The last shocking-title post was not the first to be posted, but it was the one with the most replies.
The reason why the clickbait routine never gets old has probably been found.
No matter the era, people can never resist the temptation of gossip.

-First floor for the great gods.

-Every time I see their names in the system announcement, I know Sea Realm is about to make a new move.
Any brothers want to exchange a secret code?

-I was tricked in by the title, but you’re right.
I was digging stones today, and the system sent several messages, which scared me so much I almost sprained my back.

-Old Li never disappoints!
As expected of my favorite UP master!!

-Huahua the little fool yyds!

-The few above, don’t derail the thread.
Can no one seriously answer the original poster’s question?
This cloud player is dying of curiosity.
I’ve browsed several posts and still haven’t found the answer.

-Alright, I’ll do it.
Here are the original words of the mission [Image][Image][Image]

-I feel the storm is coming.

-+1

-+11111

-It can’t be what I’m thinking, right?
Is it really coming?

-I think it’s coming!
Anyway, in my heart, it’s coming!!

-What are you guys talking about??

-Closed beta players, work hard and finish this limited-time mission!

-I have a cousin who’s playing Sea Realm.
Tomorrow I’ll send him some chicken soup, so he doesn’t have to leave the house all day and can focus on the mission!

-I just remembered I have a younger brother who’s also playing.
Count me in for sending chicken soup!

-No, what are you guys talking about?
Why is this mission so important??

-Sigh, the brother above clearly hasn’t played many games.
The meaning of this announcement is obviously that the open beta is coming.

-Wuhu, open beta!
Will I, I, I, I also have a chance to go in and learn magic!

-Ahhhhhh, I’m doing a 360-degree Thomas flair and kicking all the streetlights in the neighborhood to pieces, scaring all seventy-two dogs so much they don’t dare to bark at me!!
Hurry up with the open beta, hurry up with the open beta, hurry up with the open beta!
This child can’t wait any longer!

-You’re hurting my eyes, but I also want to say—give me the open beta quickly!

The players had already moved from the forum to Cloud Weibo, and in the end, they had also blown up Sykes’s personal Super Topic.
A pile of netizens once again gathered under the official Sea Realm Cloud Weibo account to collectively pray and check in, counting down to the open beta.

And Sykes’s side was completely unaware.

After he had logged off the players, he had immediately contacted Tom.

“Yo, isn’t this Sykes? Why the sudden thought of looking for me?”
Tom on the other side of the magic mirror looked to be in an extremely good mood, humming an unknown tune while answering the call.
“How is it, good to hear? This is the latest song by the bard Kbinos~”

The big snail on the other end shook his head and was about to sing a part for Sykes, but was interrupted by the other with a wave of his hand.

Only then did he see the unusual seriousness on his friend’s face, which made him also become serious, and he asked with a taut snail face, “What on earth happened? Tell me, Sikes.”

“The person you were looking for before… have you found him yet?” Sykes was silent for a long time, and in the end, still didn’t tell Tom about the message.
He turned to mention the disappeared, unlucky runemaster.
For some reason, the merman who had previously been disdainful of that person suddenly wanted to ask him in person if he really knew the runes of the abyss.

Sykes raised his hand and gently patted the figure beside him , who was said to be lucid.

Tom saw all this, and his entire face was twisted in fright—

“My god, Sikes, you really haven’t been affected? You should have known from the last time!”

“Hold on, Tom, I’m fine… right?”

The snail nodded doubtfully and moved aside a little to let Sykes see the guy sleeping soundly not far away.

The person was lying on the sofa, with both his feet propped up high.
A worn-out top hat covered his entire face, which was now rising and falling with its owner’s breathing.

Judging from his attire, he should be a down-and-out noble or something similar.
The material of his clothes was extremely exquisite, but the edges were already worn white and pilled.
Near the hem, there were a few holes, which had been sloppily sewn up with clumsy needlework.

“What race is he?” Sykes’s gaze rested on that person.

This was a very common question, but a difficult expression appeared on Tom’s face.
“You know, I told you before, this guy claims to have amnesia, so…”

“So he’s even forgotten how to transform into his original form?”

“Yes, completely forgotten.”

“Then what about his name?”

“Mr. Bei,” Tom knew the answer to this one, and his mouth quickly spat out the name.

Sykes was stunned.
“Are his runes really that amazing?”

He felt a little surprised.
Wasn’t Tom always one to hate the rules of honorifics?
How could he take the initiative to call the other “Mr.”?

Could it be that the other’s attainment had really reached…

“Emmmm, this question has stumped me. I haven’t had him make any runes yet. Why the sudden question?”

Tom turned his head to call the person a few times, but ended in failure.
He casually replied to his friend, then suddenly realized something was wrong—

“No, no, no, that’s not an honorific. I just haven’t corrected it after spending so much time with this guy!”

“This guy says his name is Bei, but he insists that others call him Mr. Bei! Who the hell knows what strange quirk that is!”

The snail angrily raised its antennae and complained to its old friend, “I don’t know how good he is, but he’s probably the only runemaster I can trick into going back with you.”

“You know, those runemasters all have their eyes on the top of their heads.
Who would be willing to leave the comfortable treatment of the big cities and run to such a remote place to teach a group of imaginative little cubs?”

“Anyway, even a beginner runemaster is enough to teach those domain citizens of yours.”

Tom had obviously been holding it in for a long time.
He started talking non-stop, as if he had opened some kind of floodgate.
Sykes listened patiently for a while, and it wasn’t until the other had gone from complaining about the runemaster’s amnesia to his clothing that he interrupted him.

“Tell me, you’re coming back soon, aren’t you?” the merman crossed his arms.

“Coming back? My god, Sikes, I’m so touched.
You actually used the word ‘coming back’ to me!
And not ‘get out’ like every other time!” Tom had once again missed the point.

He changed into his human form in a flash, and ‘sob sob sob’, took out a handkerchief from somewhere, and pretended to wipe the corners of his eyes.
“Even if I’m a sea snail, I still get hurt when I hear the words ‘get out’!”

Sykes’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as he quietly watched the other’s emotional performance.

Tom’s hand, wiping his tears, gradually stiffened.
Finally, he sighed.
“Sigh, you really are a fish with no sense of humor!
I’ll be there soon.
See you in about a day?”

The next second, what welcomed Tom was the magic mirror being mercilessly cut off.

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