Chapter Seventeen: Intrigue and Uncertainty

[You have been disconnected unexpectedly. Would you like to reconnect?]

“Yes.”

[Reconnecting…]

[Connection established. Loading character information.]

[Welcome back, Lawful Good Mo. Preparing to enter the Realm of Innocence. Good evening.]

When Mo Tan came to his senses, he realized he was not respawned randomly in some desolate wilderness by the system, but was lying on a clean, soft bed, surrounded by a faint, pleasant fragrance.

Of course, it wasn't that he had accidentally wandered into the boudoir of some maiden awaiting marriage. Although such clichéd scenarios frequently appear in novels, animations, and countless films—persistently spreading their mind-numbing stench—rest assured, such nonsense does not exist in the Realm of Innocence or the Quadripartite Rift (strike that).

“It seems this is not the battlefield from before,” Mo Tan muttered as he turned over and sat up, surveying the room. “Well, that was a sudden disconnection. Luckily, no one noticed at the time, or who knows what might have happened…”

Here’s what happened: not long ago, after Mo Tan and Futaba reached an agreement in the public space, he immediately logged off before she could react, going through great effort to forcibly switch his persona and quickly log in as Black Fan.

Though he was 90% confident he wouldn’t raise Futaba’s suspicions again, he was unwilling to take any extra risks. If Futaba still harbored doubts after their interaction and logged in only to find Black Fan absent, she might remain on alert.

Therefore, Mo Tan planned to log back in swiftly and return to camp. If he received any messages from Futaba, he would respond immediately—only then could he fully put her mind at ease.

In this game, players cannot see whether their friends are online. The only way to know if someone is playing is either meeting face-to-face or sending a message to confirm.

But Mo Tan had been overthinking. After receiving a friend request from the character Tan Mo, Futaba completely dismissed her earlier suspicions, thinking she had been overanalyzing the situation. She shifted her attention to Black, whom she had just met, and did not log back in again.

Mo Tan’s explanation—that she had been distracted by a sudden influx of false information online and investigated briefly—was flawless, successfully convincing Futaba that the subsequent events had nothing to do with the priest she met in-game.

At least for now, control was firmly in his hands.

Of course, what Futaba thought no longer mattered...

Everyone knows one wrong step leads to another.

After briefly confirming things back at camp, Mo Tan sent Futaba a message complaining about how boring it was to recharge the magic crystal lamp, along with some insights on magic and faith perception. When he confirmed she was offline, he greeted Ned and the others and left the base to visit the church and see what skills he could learn.

Then, on the way…

He relapsed.

And so, he disconnected again.

Logging back into the game, Lawful Good Mo made his shining return~

That pretty much sums up the entire process.

Of course, this was good news for Mo Tan (at least the current version), as he was genuinely concerned about the fate of the forest spirit caravan and the Ground Dragon mercenary group that had been their escort.

Though, the first half of that is obvious—no matter which persona he used to log in, the character matching his current disposition would undoubtedly be the one he most wanted to play.

So, madness can be a source of joy~~

“Since I can appear here, it must be ‘reasonable,’ so at least I don’t need to worry about danger for now,” Mo Tan said, sitting on the bed and resting his chin on his hand, pondering. After all, two days had passed. If his former comrades had met with misfortune, rushing over now would be futile. But if everyone was safe, there was no need to hurry.

As mentioned before, although Mo Tan was upright, kind, and responsible, Lawful Good Mo was not the kind to be blunt or thoughtless. Personality does not affect intelligence, so he did not rush into action. He even thought that perhaps the answer would soon present itself.

At the moment, Mo Tan was contemplating another matter.

One of utmost importance from every angle.

I am too weak!

Here, “I” does not refer to Lawful Good Mo but the real Mo Tan himself, regardless of which character he played…

Never mind comparing himself to NPCs; even among players, Mo Tan was comparatively weak—not because he played badly or lacked talent. On the contrary, every persona had great potential. But...

Time was too limited!

Other players could spend from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.—a full 24 hours in-game (the real-to-game time ratio was 1:2)—while Mo Tan averaged less than one-third of that. This severely impacted his ability to complete quests and level up, and that hardly needs elaboration.

Lawful Good Mo hadn’t logged in for an entire day yesterday—over ten chapters in the story—and that was only the beginning. As players’ total playtime increased, this disadvantage would grow exponentially, dragging him into a vicious cycle.

Granted, the Realm of Innocence differed from other games. Its extreme unpredictability might soften the consequences, but it still dealt a heavy blow to Mo Tan.

Moreover, Mo Tan’s dissociative identity disorder was not a skill he could control but a passive effect, which meant...

“No solution,” Mo Tan sighed, shaking his head. “At least, not for now.”

He wasn’t lamenting unfair treatment but simply wished to possess the strength to help others. In the same encounter, a lowly cannon fodder and a max-level hero soldier made worlds of difference.

Whether it was the Death Knight who, by worshipping “Brother Spring,” could revive both friend and foe with full buffs, or the White-Bearded Elder who, though weak, could teleport his comrades to safety when overwhelmed, either was more reliable than a mere SCV whose only skill was welding.

No matter the worldview, damage and salvation—those high-skill acts—required solid strength as a foundation.

At present, Mo Tan’s strength was probably even weaker than an SCV. At least the SCV had a welder!

Still, despite the great drawbacks of having multiple personas combined with his disorder, it wasn’t without some benefits, such as...

Bang!!

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the door being forcefully pushed open. A burly dwarf warrior, face flushed red, charged in and immediately enveloped Mo Tan in a bear hug.

“Uh! Ma…Mage!!” Mo Tan gasped, feeling the air squeezed from his lungs, blushing furiously and struggling, “Easy! I’m…dying!”

The bearded dwarf before him was none other than Mage, the squad leader of the Ground Dragon mercenary group. Who else could it be?

“Haha~” Mage, realizing he might have been a bit overenthusiastic, quickly released him and laughed. “I didn’t believe those green-skinned little fellows when they said you’d woken up just now. Didn’t expect it to be true!”

Mo Tan, a little dazed, asked, “Woken up? So I’ve been… unconscious all this time?”

“Yeah, unconscious for almost two days.” Mage nodded, plopping down beside Mo Tan’s bed and shrugging. “We were all worried about you. The mercenary group had someone guarding outside your room the whole time. Then those forest spirits told everyone you’d woken up just now. Geez, I hope they didn’t set up a magical array in the room just to spy on you. I’ve wanted to see Iron Hammer sister take a bath for ages!”

Judging by the name, that was likely a formidable dwarf woman. For the sake of his sanity, Mo Tan wisely chose not to dwell on Mage’s previous words to preserve his worldview.

“You’re imagining things, big beard,” a sharp voice rang nearby. Mo Tan and Mage turned to see a potted plant on the bedside table moving. The strange plant pulled out arm-like limbs from the soil, propping itself on the pot’s edge and struggling to free its lower half from the dirt.

Mo Tan guessed this little creature was one of the forest spirits, though it looked nothing like the “green-skinned little fellows” Mage mentioned—more like a walking bunch of chives…

“Keep your admiration to yourself. I already have a boyfriend,” the chive-like forest spirit said, shaking its leaves at Mo Tan, then transformed into a petite woman resembling a strict headmistress (whatever that meant) in a shimmering green light. She looked disdainfully at Mage and said, “I knew you woke up right away because I was watching all along. Task complete. You two can talk now.”

With that, she sashayed away…

Graceful and alluring.

“Don’t question your own taste,” Mage rolled his eyes and whispered to Mo Tan, “I swear, even among forest spirits, that one is the ugliest…”

The latter blinked, offering no comment, only smiling softly. “Good to know everyone’s okay. But honestly, I’m totally baffled right now…”

That was understandable. Setting aside everything else, Mage’s mention of “almost two days unconscious” puzzled Mo Tan. Normally, whether a player logs in or out, the process is a simple, low-key flash of white light—snap! The character appears or disappears.

Mo Tan had never heard of a character’s body remaining in the game world after logout…

Though the developers never detailed the login/logout mechanics beyond a vague promise of “relative reasonableness,” having a character unconscious in-game for nearly two days after logging off sounded downright fantastical.

If he didn’t get to the bottom of this, it would creep him out completely!

Consider this: a character in the game is basically the player’s other self—another version of themselves. Yet after logging off, this other self’s body remains in a world full of orcs, ogres, lizardfolk, magic, alchemy—an utterly chaotic fantasy realm.

Anyone would break out in a cold sweat!

“Thanks to you,” Mage patted Mo Tan’s shoulder. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it here intact without a single casualty. The Ground Dragon owes you one.”

“Thanks to me?” Mo Tan scratched his head, puzzled. “I just shouted for everyone to break through. Even without me, you professionals would have made the same choice, right?”

He didn’t believe the mercenaries and forest spirits were fools who would ignore that flaming path—it was the only way out.

At best, he’d just reacted a little faster…

“Forgot the rest?” Mage stared at Mo Tan for a while, then muttered, “Some side effect maybe? No one really knows what you did back then…”

“What did I do?” Mo Tan asked.

Mage smiled, pulling a small wine pouch from somewhere on his person, taking a long swig, then recalling, “What did you do? Well, just as we barely regrouped and formed our formation to break out, you suddenly let out a roar. Then all those countless sand goblins and mud fishmen just collapsed like wheat being cut. Some were coughing blood, some dying, some unconscious, but none got back up. Then after a while, you also collapsed, and we carried you here.”

Mo Tan spent about five seconds sorting through Mage’s words, then shrugged, indicating none of it made sense. “Could you be a bit more detailed?”

The somewhat simple-minded dwarf warrior readily agreed and proceeded to chatter for over half an hour…

In the end, Mo Tan summarized as follows:

After his shout, everyone prepared to break out, but by then he had already disconnected.

However, his in-game character didn’t vanish in a flash of white light but stood frozen, unresponsive even when called. Meanwhile, the ambushers regrouped, preparing for another fierce attack.

At that moment, “he” suddenly howled toward the sky. One second later, hordes of sand goblins and mud fishmen fell en masse like ripe wheat being harvested. Even the elusive archers ceased firing. The imminent crisis was bizarrely averted.

Yet the very character who caused this collapsed into unconsciousness.

The mercenaries couldn’t comprehend this phenomenon. Finally, an ancient forest spirit approached, examined Mo Tan for a long time, and concluded—somewhat vaguely—that he must have unleashed a forbidden ability, paying a heavy price to instantly kill a large number of enemies.

Then, due to overexertion, depletion, backlash, or some unknown cause, he fainted.

…

Mage somehow stretched this story out for half an hour!

After listening, Mo Tan was even more confused…

Chapter Seventeen: The End