I Run Away with the Earth to Save the World [Unlimited Flow] - Chapter 86

Chapter 86: A key character like the Prince is staying offline for so long

The March Hare left first, followed quickly by the Knight of Heart, who vanished down the rabbit hole without looking back.

As a result, what should have been a perilous eighth day ended with no fairy tale scenarios being triggered, since the key NPCs had disappeared entirely.

Back in the first-floor living room of the villa, Jing Qizhen and the others sat in silence for a while, unsure of what to say.

Angelina hesitantly asked, “So… does that mean the eighth day is safe?”

Jing Qizhen spread his hands.

For now, that seemed to be the case, but in an erosion area where anything abnormal could occur, who could guarantee that?

Noticing his expression, Angelina bit her lip and stayed silent.

As they talked, Jing Qizhen cast a deliberate glance at Yun Shuanghua.

That man had maintained a cold and expressionless demeanor the entire time, exuding a frosty aura, except when he was eating, only then would he occasionally show a more lively side.

It was precisely this glance that made Jing Qizhen suddenly realize something was off.

Yun Shuanghua was eating food that had just been taken from the oven in the kitchen, still slightly warm.

The crucial point? The dish had been laced with a near-colorless and odorless sedative that Tang Song had provided, intended to deal with the unpredictable Knight of Heart. Yet Yun Shuanghua had unknowingly eaten it…

Meanwhile, Caroline had somehow obtained a tablet and was busily poking at it with a stylus. Knowing that Lu Lingxi, Manman, and the others had plenty of photo materials, she eagerly approached them for information.

Lu Lingxi and Manman exchanged a puzzled glance but still shared some of their photos with her.

Jing Qizhen, however, remained fixated on Yun Shuanghua, who was peacefully eating as though nothing were amiss.

Si Jiayang had originally been by Manman’s side. After seeing Yun Shuanghua eating, he was momentarily confused.

Jing Qizhen gave him a subtle, unreadable glance.

Si Jiayang slowly restrained his expression of shock and bewilderment, and like Jing Qizhen earlier, his gaze fixed on the candy-colored baking tray in front of Yun Shuanghua. Whether the others were too preoccupied to have an appetite or had eaten too much already, that tray of food, which had been enhanced with extra ingredients, was completely devoured by Yun Shuanghua alone.

However, despite this, Yun Shuanghua seemed completely unaffected, as if nothing had happened at all.

Si Jiayang and Jing Qizhen exchanged a silent glance. Si Jiayang forced a smile but it was far from pleasant.

Jing Qizhen also fell silent.

Yun Shuanghua’s identity was becoming increasingly puzzling.

The high-purity anesthetic provided by Tang Song might have no effect on certain special organisms in the erosion area and they could understand the possibility. However, the fact that it had no effect on Yun Shuanghua, who was clearly a humanoid, raised some serious questions.

They had no doubt about Tang Song, so the only thing left to suspect was Yun Shuanghua whose origins were unknown.

As Yun Shuanghua quietly finished off the entire tray of enhanced food without any apparent effect on him, both Jing Qizhen and Si Jiayang could only remain silent.

After some time, Caroline, who had been busy with the tablet and notes, finally finished her task.

She handed the tablet to Jing Qizhen. “Here, this is it!”

Jing Qizhen glanced at the screen. Caroline had created a cover image for ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’ using a photo of the March Hare and some book images stored on the tablet.

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Well done.” He then handed the unfinished cover image to the others present.

Caroline crossed her arms and tilted her chin. “That book ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’, if it was still in the villa, should have already been burned to ashes by now.”

Jing Qizhen replied, “But we are still in this erosion area, so I suspect the book hasn’t been destroyed yet. And the fairy-tale kingdom connected to the rabbit hole might very well be the world that the ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’ has manifested.”

Manman asked, “What should we do? The only way to deal with an erosion area seems to be to destroy the erosion core, right?”

Upon hearing this, the group, who had previously experienced entering other erosion areas, fell silent.

It must be said that, from Yunhai Wancheng Department Store to the remote mountain village in Shennongjia, while they were the ones with the most experience in dealing with erosion areas, when it came to destroying the erosion core, their experience was not necessarily superior to that of foreigners who had entered erosion area for the first time.

Whether it was the female ghost, Miss Li, from Yunhai Wancheng Department Store or the two sisters, Xu Erya and Xu Siya, from the remote mountain village in Shennongjia, the cores of those two erosion areas had a tendency toward self-destruction. Once their wishes were fulfilled, they chose to end on their own.

But this place was clearly different.

In the real world, a fairy tale book titled ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’ could never have its own consciousness.

Burning a book without consciousness was a simple task. However, destroying a book that has materialized into a fully formed fairy tale kingdom was a much more complicated problem.

At that point, a few foreigners who had missed their opportunity to act showed surprising decisiveness.

Professor Jones said, “Maybe we need to burn the entire fairy tale kingdom? But we have no idea how big the kingdom connected to the rabbit hole is.”

McCain’s gaze instinctively turned to Lu Lingxi and Gu Leshan, who were clearly professionals. After a long pause, he suddenly asked, “You brought explosives or something, right?”

McCain mimed an explosion with his hands and added a ‘boom’ sound effect before saying, “Can we just blow up the fairy tale kingdom? That way, no matter how much the ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’ has materialized, the problem is solved, right?”

Jing Qizhen glanced at the group of foreigners who were, in some ways, quite ‘creative.’

As for Old Xiao and the others, when they looked at the foreigners again, it was with the same expression one might reserve for terrorists.

Burning a book wasn’t a problem for anyone. But to level an entire fairy tale kingdom, even if the beings inside weren’t real people, was still a shocking proposal.

Jing Qizhen didn’t immediately respond to McCain’s suggestion. Instead, he began a mental conversation with the Earth, “Babyball, what do you think?”

The Earth: “Huh? What do I think about what?”

Jing Qizhen: “The ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’… I’m inclined to believe that the book has already materialized into an incomplete fairy tale kingdom and is connected to the rabbit hole.”

The Earth replied with blunt honesty, “If you don’t go down there, I can’t see anything. I don’t even have a visual. How am I supposed to know?”

Jing Qizhen: “…” The complexity of human language is wasted on you, Babyball! You’ve only scratched the surface and completely missed the essence!

The Earth: “But I wouldn’t recommend going down there either.”

Jing Qizhen: “Hmm?”

The Earth: “How do I put this…? It just doesn’t feel right. According to your theory, the ‘Fairy Tale Anthology’ underwent a mutation in the erosion area and created a fairy tale kingdom. So when the Knight of Heart stepped out of the book, he appeared flesh and blood, but the moment he was set on fire, he reverted back to his original form. I’m worried that if you enter the rabbit hole, you’ll become part of the book yourself…”

The Earth didn’t elaborate further but Jing Qizhen understood its implication.

Jing Qizhen: “If we enter the book, we might have to follow the rules of the book? Just like when we entered the erosion area, many of the rules of the real world no longer applied here.”

The Earth: “The erosion area is at least a place where the real world and a parallel world intersect. It’s strange but still a similar kind of space. If you go into that rabbit hole, you might just ‘poof’ and get flattened into a paper person. Isn’t that terrifying?”

Jing Qizhen: “…Maybe.”

Jing Qizhen also felt fortunate that the Earth didn’t have a physical form. Otherwise, he’d probably be exchanging bewildered looks with the ball right now.

With nothing else happening for the moment, the foreigners, still shaken, chose to stay in the first-floor living room to keep an eye on one another, rather than retreating to their rooms.

Jing Qizhen and his group didn’t mind. There weren’t enough rooms in the villa anyway, so they left the living room and sofa for the foreigners. The group split into shifts, with some standing watch while the rest went to their rooms to rest.

Angelina, observing how Jing Qizhen’s group moved in perfect sync without needing any discussion, found herself wide-eyed in surprise.

Later, lying in bed, the Earth started muttering again to Jing Qizhen, “This is what happens when small problems aren’t solved early. They snowballed into bigger messes. If they’d just burned that fairy tale book right away, they might’ve already escaped that sealed-off villa.”

Jing Qizhen, eyes closed, replied, “I’m still thinking about the prince and princess fairy tale plot.”

The Earth, puzzled, asked, “What’s the problem there?”

Jing Qizhen: “Most fairy tales end with the prince and princess coming together. But in this erosion area, none of the three ‘princesses’ found the ‘missing prince.’ And the ‘missing prince’ never came to rescue the ‘princesses.’ So, all the ‘princesses’ died.”

The Earth: “Huh? Huh? Huh?”

Jing Qizhen: “So, I’m wondering if the way to avoid death is to take on the role of a ‘princess’ and find the ‘missing prince.’”

The Earth suddenly recalled how Yun Shuanghua had helped carry Jing Qizhen and the others out of the villa while they were unconscious.

The Earth: “Do you think Yun Shuanghua has the Prince’s role?”

Jing Qizhen: “There are two ways to avoid death; burn the book or find the Prince. Previously, the villa was sealed off and the Prince would rather wander around aimlessly carrying a baguette than care about his neighbors. That’s how things ended up in this state.”

The Earth: “…”

A key character like the Prince was staying offline for so long… Who were the foreigners supposed to complain to?

Jing Qizhen: “This question will have to wait until the March Hare returns to be verified.”