113: Chapter 113 A mountain so tall and vast that it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

Xiao Niao had ultimately outsmarted himself.

He had intended to accompany Hu Gualing on this trip to completely end his desire to leave the village together, but he hadn't expected that due to the System's reputation feature, he could leave the village without needing any challenge.

Now, he no longer had any excuse to shamelessly linger in the village...

However, he was actually quite interested in the game content outside the village; it was just that, being kind-hearted, he didn't want to fight to the death with unknown monsters, which is why he had thought about staying holed up in the Novice Village to develop.

But now that things had come to this, he might as well go out; after all, he would be with Gualing.

When the time came, just as Gualing had said, Gualing would be in front engaging in close-quarters combat with monsters while he hid in the back, firing off cold arrows; the risk factor should be quite low. Even if Gualing couldn't defeat the monsters and unfortunately fell on the front lines, he could still calmly retreat...

Thinking of this, Xiao Niao felt a pang of guilt and secretly glanced at Gualing:

"Hmm, Gualing has such a sturdy build and such a heroic aura, there's no way he'd fall so easily."

"Besides, this is a game, and death can be followed by Resurrection; it just costs a revival coin. At worst... once my Trading House develops and I have money, I'll buy Gualing hundreds of revival coins to keep on hand!"

Thinking of this, the little bit of guilt in Xiao Niao's heart vanished, replaced by pride in his own generosity and thoughtfulness towards his friend.

"Hmph, someone like me, even if I become rich in the future, will definitely be an excellent people's entrepreneur, not some detestable capitalist!"

Tang Yao suddenly realized something: "If you can both leave the village, won't I be the only player left in the village?"

Hu Gualing: "That's true... but you can also leave the village with us."

"Leave the village?" Tang Yao thought for a moment, "What's outside the village?"

Hu Gualing: "I don't know either, but since it's a game, there should be monsters outside—maybe wild beasts, or bandits and robbers. Regardless, they're all bad things, so you can't go wrong by fighting them when you see them."

"Besides monsters, there must be all sorts of scenery you can't see in the village, like tall and massive mountains that you can't see the end of at a glance, lots and lots of lush green trees and grass, or passing merchant caravans from very, very far away. I hear they bring all sorts of strange things; you might even be able to buy Internal Skill manuals!"

"In short... there must be lots and lots of things you can't see in the village!"

Hu Gualing had never left the village either and didn't know what was out there; he could only draw from the little bit of information he'd heard from Wang Dachui, combined with his own understanding of the game, and he described it all to Tang Yao with great enthusiasm, adding his own embellishments.

The reason he was working so hard, of course, was to lure Tang Yao into their party.

After all, in gaming terms, they were currently in the Early Stage of exploration, and an extra person meant extra strength.

Furthermore, Tang Yao was no ordinary player.

Although their previous conversations revealed that Tang Yao might never have played any role-playing online games before and was completely ignorant of many common gaming tropes, she already had a pet in the Novice Village. In terms of equipment, she had just equipped a blue-quality longsword, and even if she swung it randomly, it could deal decent damage. Moreover, from the way Hu Gualing saw her wield the longsword, it didn't seem like she was completely clueless about swordsmanship; at the very least, she had no issues with basic usage.

Besides combat power, Tang Yao had another point that was impossible to ignore.

That was her financial power!

Whether in reality or in the game, there was a very simple law: the one with money is the boss.

And this Fantasy Jianghu was exceptionally mysterious; there were no recharge channels to be found. This meant that no matter how rich future players were in reality, they couldn't rely on spending money to become the boss.

The only boss of Fantasy Jianghu could only be Tang Yao.

Looking at it this way, it was clear just how thick this thigh—this connection—was; it was so thick that Hu Gualing temporarily stopped caring about Tang Yao's oddities, wanting only to hug this thigh as quickly as possible.

Hu Gualing: "Anyway, there's nothing particularly fun for you alone in the village. Why not come out and explore with us? Even if you decide it's not fun outside the village, we can just accompany you back."

Tang Yao thought about it, and it really did make sense! She said, somewhat moved: "Then when do we set off? Right now?"

Hu Gualing was delighted; he hadn't expected Tang Yao to be so easy to persuade. However, he didn't agree immediately, instead looking up at the sky.

The sky overhead was already filled with brilliant red morning clouds, signaling that the sun was about to rise. Hu Gualing estimated that his and Xiao Niao's playtime for today was almost up.

So he shook his head and said: "Xiao Niao and I are going to log off soon. We should be logging back in at midnight tonight."

Hu Gualing paused, then quickly added: "Oh, I mean midnight in real-world time. Converted to game time, that should be..." He counted on his fingers for a good while, but ultimately had no clue, so he had to look at Xiao Niao for help.

Xiao Niao did a quick mental calculation and came up with the result: "That's three sunrises and sunsets."

Hu Gualing: "Right, right, right, that's three sunrises and sunsets! When we see the sun rise for the fourth time, that's when Xiao Niao and I will log back in."

"So one day in reality equals four sunrises and sunsets in the game..." Tang Yao mused.

She had long felt that a day in the game couldn't be equated to a day in reality, but since she was in the game all day, she lacked a sense of real-world time and couldn't know the exact difference. Hearing Hu Gualing and Xiao Niao say this, she finally had a concrete concept.

But... Gualing's words seemed a bit off, didn't they?

Seeing Tang Yao's expression, Hu Gualing realized that what he had just said was a bit inappropriate. To keep Tang Yao from overthinking, he quickly said: "Alright, in short, we're logging off soon. You can take advantage of the time we're offline to pass the village-leaving challenge, so when we log back in, we can go out and play together!"

Tang Yao: "Village-leaving challenge?"

Hu Gualing: "Yeah, we aren't like Xiao Niao, who is an honored guest leading Xiao Huang Village to prosperity; we definitely have to complete the village-leaving challenge to get out. But you don't need to worry given your strength. Even if you don't pass the challenge the first time, you'll definitely pass after a few more tries."

What Hu Gualing said was his honest opinion.

In his view, Tang Yao's [scorching sharp longsword] and his steel knuckle duster were both blue-quality equipment. In fact, Tang Yao's longsword might be even more powerful; relying on its sharpness and high attack, she should have a great advantage against the thick-skinned Miao Cuihua.