Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1100 - 1093: Urban Ramblings

Chapter 1100: Chapter 1093: Urban Ramblings

Luo’er had noticed that, apart from a few Night Elves, such as Talis and High Priest Falei, other Night Elves hardly ever looked at him directly.

Though Night Elves do not discriminate against other races much, there is still an inherent arrogance of the Elf Race within them. To them, other races are also categorized into different levels.

The first level includes the Human Race, including Aud people, Blaiqi people, Bobulu people, and people from the Ancient States. Night Elves do not have much prejudice against these groups and would even consider intermarriage with them.

The second level consists of other non-human and non-Wood Elf groups, including Dwarves, Sub-beastmen, and so on. It’s worth mentioning that Beastmen are ranked the lowest in this tier, practically indistinguishable from the third level. This also includes the Northern Aud people from the northwest of Odelanqi, whom the Night Elves believe to be descendants of Snow Elves.

The third level is the Wood Elves, the most despised and hostile enemies of the Night Elves. Wood Elves always like to claim themselves as the orthodox branch of the Elf Race, and throughout history, there have been more than a hundred wars of varying scales between Wood Elves and Night Elves. Thus, such discrimination and hostility are deeply entrenched.

As for Luo’er, he doesn’t even qualify for the third level, but is considered even lower. This is because he is of mixed Wood Elf heritage, which the Wood Elves, Human Race, and Night Elves alike look down upon.

However, Luo’er seems to have become accustomed to these prejudices, so he dismisses such discriminatory looks indifferently. Changing such prejudices is not something that can be achieved overnight, so getting angry now won’t change anything; it would only be impotent fury.

Indeed, Luo’er doesn’t care much for the Night Elves, and this lack of concern is mutual. After arriving on Xia Yue Island, he witnessed many realities that contradicted the rumors, which significantly reduced the Night Elves’ esteem in his eyes.

However, Luo’er’s indifference does not mean that others feel the same. There is a subtle phenomenon within the Advance Team: the issues Luo’er is indifferent toward are taken seriously by others.

When Luo’er ignores others’ discrimination against him, his team members take any sign of disrespect towards Luo’er very seriously. Whenever someone shows even a slight lack of respect for Luo’er, they become immediately agitated. This is true for Tangmo, Baiyue, and even Cheng Ziang, who serves as the team’s strategist.

During the years that Luo’er has been the Captain of the Advance Team, his conduct has been clear for all to see. He treats people with kindness, acts decisively; he is gentle yet cool-headed, cruel yet compassionate. This complex combination has deepened everyone’s personal adoration for Luo’er.

Admittedly, Luo’er isn’t perfect in everything he does; he has his flaws, such as being prone to impulsiveness, pulling everyone down with him. Sometimes he is too eager to seek alliances, letting go of enemies who clearly pose a threat to them.

But these shortcomings cannot overshadow his radiant personality; instead, they fill out his character, making his persona seem all the more full and rich.

Guided by Falei, the team wound their way through the streets of Antenisivia. Curious Night Elves along the way would bow their heads in respect when Falei approached.

Compared to the Night Elf nobles and soldiers, these civilian Night Elves wore much simpler head ornaments, lacking the elegant and refined designs of the nobility or soldiers, with some only donning a headband holding an unknown type of crystal between two pieces of metal.

Unlike the flowing elegance of Wood Elves, these Night Elves seemed to favor short tunics and knee-length skirts, revealing their smooth limbs.

Often, they would wear handmade accessories on their wrists and shoes wrapped up to their calves. Looking around, one would hardly see anyone in long robes, which applied to both women and men alike. Luo’er, however, was curious about how they managed to avoid mosquito bites in such an environment.

Cheng Ziang and Hu Daoke excitedly eyed the watching Night Elves. Due to fortunate circumstances, they had successively visited the cities of Wood Elves, Snow Elves, and now Night Elves.

Taking everything into account, one could only say that the three Elf Races each had their distinct beauty. Wood Elves possessed the most orthodox beauty of the Elf Race; as for what is considered orthodox, no one could clarify—it was entirely a matter of feeling.

Snow Elves, on the other hand, had a feeling of being untainted by the earthly world, like celestial maidens that only existed in the heavens, giving rise to doubt if they were heavenly fairies who had descended to the mortal realm. Yes, that’s right, Snow Elves gave off an impression akin to that of fairy maidens.

As for the Night Elves, they were quite the opposite of the Snow Elves, evoking a sense of being detached from the worldly dust. To put it less pleasantly, rather than calling them Night Elves, it might be more fitting to describe them as succubi.

Among the three main Elf Races, Night Elves were the most enchanting, and it was a kind of innate allure that radiated from their very bones.

Walking on the streets of the Night Elves, one felt a completely different atmosphere. Unlike the Snow Elves or Wood Elves, they were more willing to embrace outsiders, and apart from Luo’er, few encountered discriminatory looks from these Night Elves. Some even admired Hu Daoke, who was a Beastman hybrid.

However, for the Advance Team, discriminating against Luo’er was seen as discriminating against them. So, they ignored the gazes cast upon themselves but paid special attention to those directed at Luo’er, interpreting them as also being discriminatory towards themselves.

Perhaps due to their openness, the urban architectural style of the Night Elves was not much different from that of the Human Race. They did not, like Wood Elves, prefer to follow nature and build houses on trees. Instead, they were more inclined to construct stone houses on the ground.

However, there seemed to be one characteristic common to all Elf Races: they all placed a high importance on greening. The entire city of Antenisivia was lush with greenery, with many flowers, plants, and trees planted along the streets and in yards. Under the eaves, bees nested, with large hives occasionally buzzing with activity.

Although Antenisivia was a seaside city, most of the tree species used for greening within the city were inland evergreen broadleaf forest trees. There were seaside species as well, but in comparison, Night Elves seemed to have a preference for the evergreen broadleaf variety.

Falei walked at the front, her white robes trailing on the ground. The ground was fairly clean; despite the abundance of flowers and trees in the city, very few twigs or fallen leaves could be seen on the road.

Antenisivia was divided into two districts by a river, and the Night Elves had built a long stone bridge at the river’s narrowest point. The bridge spanned nearly five hundred meters, with nineteen arches in total. The width ranged between three to four meters, which, even by Earth’s standards, would be suitable for the passage of small vehicles.

It seemed to be the same as Holy Heart City, where the two districts had different functional layouts; the wharf side was the civilian district, while the opposite side was the noble district. Falei led the Advance Team onto the stone bridge, headed towards the opposite bank.

Walking on the stone bridge, the team could clearly take in the panoramic view of Antenisivia. In front of each bridge pier stood an armed Night Elf warrior carrying an SKS semi-automatic rifle. Considering that most Night Elf warriors were equipped with bolt-action rifles, these warriors on the bridge appeared to be among the elite.

The SKS, a semi-automatic rifle that fired intermediate cartridges, was very popular in Xia Yue Island, due to its much lighter recoil compared to bolt-action rifles.

In recent years, the Soviets had sent a large number of bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles to the Otherworld in order to capture the arms market, thus flooding the market and effectively squeezing out American and other brands from the southern markets. This infuriated the Western representatives at the United Nations General Assembly, who angrily threatened to withdraw from the Weapon Export Committee.

Incidentally, a certain country also profited from this market expansion. Their Type 56, which looked almost identical to the SKS but was made from slightly better materials, was regarded as a high-quality SKS by the people of the Otherworld, thus winning it rave reviews. While the reputation went to the Soviet weapons, all the gold ended up in their own pockets.

As they walked on the stone bridge, the river water flowed gently below, eventually emptying into the sea. The closer to the sea, the more placid the river became; however, the channel widened, so the Night Elves finding an appropriate location to construct the bridge was quite an accomplishment.

With the onset of the tides, seawater would backflow, sometimes submerging the piers by nearly a meter. From this point of view, Antenisivia resembled Venice from the Otherworld.