Chapter 174- A Weird Place

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They looked at the table as a map was spread open on top of it. The merchant put his finger on a small image of a town on the edge of the map and spoke. "This is our current location."

And dragged his finger to an image of a lake with a fish-like monster in it. "And this is the lake you are looking for."

"As you can see on the map, to get to the lake you have to pass a few villages and small towns. For us, such a distance is too far and too risky. However for you…"

The merchant smiled amicably. "I think it's just nothing more than a little inconvenience if your pet tiger is any indication."

"However, just like I have said earlier. The danger that's present in the lake is much greater than anything around here. I heard that the situation in the lake becomes much worse lately and due to the nature of my job, I also heard there are some rumors that even said that a demonic monstrosity is terrorizing the nearby villages." He spoke with a serious and worried tone.

"We thank you for your advice but regardless of the danger, we still have to go." Answered Liu Guanyi.

The merchant let out a sigh and rolled the map, before handing it to Liu Guanyi. "All right, I understand it if you still insist." He put on a smile on his face before wishing them luck. "Then good luck to your journey, dear customers."

"Wait, how much is it?" Adori spoke out.

"Hm? What is it, dear customer?" The merchant said with confusion.

"The map." She pointed at the skin parchment that Liu Guanyi held.

"Ah, just take it for free. Consider it as a parting gift from me for your visiting and generously spending your cash in my humble shop, dear customers."

"Ah, I almost forget it!" The merchant pounded his hands. "Here, it's yours. So take it back." He offered the E-ranked pocket back to them.

"No, we have given that to you. It doesn't cost much so just accept it." Adori shook her head and refused his offer.

"I don't mean nor do I intend to discredit your kindness but I can't really accept your item regardless of how sincere your intention, dear customer." The merchant insisted.

Looking at his smiling face that seemed to hold hidden meaning, Adori studied him for a good second before speaking. "Alright if you insist, fine by me." Adori took the pocket and threw it to Xin who stored it inside the lighthouse.

They turned back and walked away out of the shop. Before the managed to get out though, the merchant spoke to them for the last time.

"Whatever you have to deal with, I wish you safe travels… adventurers."

Adori almost stopped for a second as her eyes glanced back to the ever-smiling merchant as she heard his words—

But then continued to walk away without stopping.

Liu Guanyi noticed her slight hesitation but didn't say anything.

They quickly moved out of the small town, ignoring the odd looks they received again from the local residents. When they reached the gate, they saw that the guards were still frozen on the spot.

It seemed that the people still didn't realize that all of the guards were practically neutralized. Which meant that the gate wasn't used by anyone after they had passed through it a couple of hours ago when they entered the town.

Looking at their cold bodies and dead expression on their faces, Liu Guanyi could see that all of them were in pretty bad condition.

Some parts of their body appeared to be bluish like how people who were poisoned with cyanide as their hemoglobin lost its ability to bind oxygen, hence, the change in color.

Their muscles become stiff, extremely so, even stiffer than a corpse that was experiencing rigor mortis. Also, their hearts didn't seem to beat anymore as Liu Guanyi couldn't hear anything coming from their bodies despite his impeccable hearing.

It seemed that Reverse Shinsu Control really had a lethal impact if used on a living creature for an extended period of time, even capable of causing death.

Good to know.

They walked out of the gate and jumped on Little White's back as the tiger snorted, seemingly annoyed by the action. She was no carrier nor a horse, she was a mighty and beautiful tiger!

Liu Guanyi simply patted her head as Little White immediately softened and purred. On second thought though, the two hoomans were not cool but the other one was definitely cool.

Now, what Liu Guanyi had to do was to determine the general directions and then, continue to travel to the seemingly dangerous lake.

Since there was no sun or stars in the tower, determining the general directions by observing the sky was next to impossible.

Although there was daytime and nighttime in the tower, hence, there was a shadow in every single object in the daytime, determining the directions by observing shadows was also something impossible.

Liu Guanyi didn't know how it worked or how it was even possible in the first place but the daylight in the daytime wasn't coming from sun, stars, or any object that floated in the sky of each floor of the tower.

Instead, the daylight was just… daylight.

It didn't come from anything, it was just… there.

Whenever it was dawn, the sky, or more accurately, the ceiling of every single floor of the tower that looked like the sky would simply become brighter as it started to emit light rays.

The lights weren't too bright or intense and they were spread apart along the horizon so the brightness intensity was just at the right level like it was a real sun that was illuminating the floor, just like in his previous world.

And when it was almost night, the sky would turn dimmer as it emitted far lesser light rays compared to when it was in the daytime. The amount of light was just at the right intensity to make it as if it was a real night.

Whoever made this fake daytime and nighttime system incredibly realistic was certainly familiar with the real thing on the outside, Liu Guanyi was sure of that.

If not, this whole day and night wouldn't even come close at all.

It seemed that the creator of the tower, which was likely to exist according to what Liu Guanyi had seen so far, seemed to be coming outside of the tower just like him.

Would they be considered Irregular then?

Liu Guanyi didn't think so.

The term of Irregulars was only created by Zahard after the Red Tower killed the guardian of the 43rd floor and ruined the floor, making it to be named as the floor of death.