Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 372 - 365: Negotiation

Chapter 372: Chapter 365: Negotiation

"Just your style, isn’t it?" Murong said with a laugh.

Luo’er sighed and then asked with concern, "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, it was close, but we’re okay. Although we were shot a few times, our bulletproof vests took the hits. We just don’t know if there’s any internal injuries." Murong nodded, his gaze never leaving Luo’er.

"What are you staring at?" Luo’er rolled his eyes. Faced with Murong’s constant gaze, he felt somewhat awkward, so he let go of the door and walked straight into the living room.

When Murong entered the living room, Hu Daoke was lying on an armchair. Looking up, he asked upon seeing him, "So how’s it going, Murong? Getting used to it?"

"It’s alright," Murong said casually as he looked around, "There’s a sense of familiarity here, like being back on Earth. Only, there are no household appliances or AI here."

"What’s an appliance?" Hu Daoke asked knowingly.

"What’s AI?" Cheng Ziang chimed in from the side.

"We use magic crystal lamps here. They require a spell to activate. You can ask Tangmo later. She knows the spell," Luo’er offered helpfully.

"I see," Murong nodded, his gaze once again resting on Luo’er.

Noticing his stare, Luo’er walked over to the bedroom door, knocked, and said to the two people inside, "Open up, I need to change my clothes!"

"Luo’er," the door opened to reveal a small head. Tangmo’s face bore an apologetic expression, yet there was no remorse in her tone, "I washed your clothes..."

"You..." Luo’er was left speechless by her, only managing to mutter, "Fine, fine, you two scare me!"

In his moment of irritation, he failed to catch the loophole in Tangmo’s statement. Left without a choice, he had to continue wearing what he currently had on. Although it was a little embarrassing, he had to admit that it was quite comfortable and looked quite good on him.

When the news of the Advance Team’s failure reached the Headquarters, chaos ensued. However, the Advance Team managed to escape narrowly. Wang Xu hadn’t expected this fellow named Fu’en to be so formidable. He not only knew their plans but also baited himself to lay an ambush for the Advance Team.

If it weren’t for the superior numbers and firepower of the Advance Team, Luo’er’s squad would have definitely been defeated. The plan had indeed been a misstep, but appointing the Murong Squad to assist the Advance Team had been one of the few good decisions.

Wang Xu, furious, sought out the Church’s representative. In return for their assistance in saving Shariya, the Church had been providing continuous intelligence to the Advance Team, but they had not anticipated the enemy knowing about their informant and nearly ambushing the Advance Team.

The Church’s representative admitted their shortcoming, insisting it had not been intentional. The Church needed a reliable ally on Earth more than anything else. If the UN Security Council decided to attack Otherworld again, the Church’s defense of the Otherworld Gate would be under tremendous pressure.

While Earth was currently in an uproar, with everyone demanding to kill a hundred Otherworld inhabitants for each Earth soldier lost, as long as the resolution of the UN Security Council held, they would not be able to organize a united attack.

Politics always turned other’s bloodshed into self-advantage.

Wang Xu believed the Church’s representative because the Church had no reason to fall out with Headquarters. Their current isolation left them no choice but to cooperate with anyone from Earth who could help maintain their rule.

As mentioned earlier, the Church of Light was not a mere religious institution, but a massive political organization involved, directly or indirectly, in the political matters of the kingdoms under its rule.

This was why all the kingdoms held a certain level of resentment towards the Church. They both wished to be recognized as legitimate and had words about the Church’s meddling. All this while, secular powers had been struggling against the Church to secure their own interests.

Now, with the Church having offended the entire Earth, the ones to benefit most were the political powers in these kingdoms. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They could exploit this opportunity to cooperate with Earth and leverage their support to overthrow the Church’s rule.

The Pope was well aware that once these secular powers collaborated with Earth, even the formidable Church would find it hard to recover. This was exactly why the Church had sent soldiers to seal the Otherworld Gate, preventing these powers from contacting Earth.

The magic of Otherworld was formidable indeed, but it could not compete with Earth’s civilization. A piece of rune armor, from forging to rune ingraving, often required months, even over a year. In contrast, an Earth-made armored vehicle, with thousands being produced daily, would be enough to make these knights sweat.

While the Forbidden Curse Mages might be formidable, it would often take half a century to nurture one. Given Earth’s capabilities, they could effortlessly produce numerous weapons of mass destruction.

This was the gap between civilizations, the difference between an agricultural and industrial society. Despite the differences in physical laws and living conditions, the disparity was real, and it was demoralizing.

The Church might be conservative, but their decision-makers couldn’t possibly be unaware of the vast cultural differences between the two sides. Precisely due to this disparity, even if Earth people do not have military superiority in Otherworld, they are still able to take the initiative in the Otherworld.

Yazhi City belonged to the Earth people, but Ulysses City did not belong to Otherworld inhabitants.

At present, the Church is still investigating this matter and trying to retrace Fu’en’s whereabouts. Unlike the previous time, the Church has now decided to assist the Advance Team in arresting Fu’en, planning to present him as a gift to their Headquarters.

The Advance Team had been hiding in the dormitory building until the Academy became less crowded at nightfall, providing them with a chance to get some fresh air.

Luo’er was still wearing the same girl’s uniform, but he seemed largely indifferent to it now. To conceal his characteristics, Tangmo and others had provided him with light-colored long hair. Now his original appearance was unrecognizable, even the Advance Team members who had interacted with him for a long time wouldn’t be able to recognize him at first glance.

He sat quietly on a bench in the campus, lost in thought under the moonlight. Tangmo and the others had been called away by Shariya for a specialized magic class in the classroom.

This was not Shariya’s way of repaying their kindness, but a policy guideline set by the Church. The Church had agreed to the views of Wang Xu and the team, permitting the magicians from the Advance Team to receive some training in commonly used spells.

Although Earth’s academies do conduct systematic magic teaching, the types of magic are limited, and virtual machines are needed for actual battle training. Therefore, studying in Otherworld has become an indispensable step.

Hu Daoke and others took Murong and their squad to the Academy’s canteen, eating and drinking wildly, making it look like a food stall. Luo’er, who was not used to such situations, left the canteen alone, wandering in the familiar academy.

The virtual battlefield of Haiya Academy was modelled after the Sacred Heart Magic Academy, therefore Luo’er and the others were quite familiar with it. In addition, having completed a mission here a year ago, he was more than familiar with the place.

After a rest, he continued to wander around and reached a familiar place. This was where he had met Feliz, who had twisted her ankle and been carried by him to the bottom of the girls’ dormitory.

Thinking of Feliz, Luo’er thought of Daier. He wondered how she had been, more than a year later - was she still busy in the kitchen?

As he stepped forward, his foot crunched on the dried leaves on the ground. An alert voice came from a bench: "Who’s there?"

Luo’er was taken aback as he found the voice familiar. As he stepped closer, he saw Feliz, looking haggard, sitting on the bench.

"You..." Feliz squinted at him, after a long pause she hesitated and said, "Luo’er?"

"You actually recognize me? "Luo’er shrugged and approached her.

"I didn’t expect you to have this kind of hobby." Feliz looked him up and down, shook her head, and said.

"I didn’t want to either, it wasn’t my choice!" Luo’er said with an innocent expression.

"Are you roaming around late at night for no reason?" Feliz asked.

"Oh, just walking around when I have nothing to do. After all, I used to live here, didn’t I?" Luo’er answered.

Feliz didn’t respond, her nose huffed twice, giving neither approval nor disapproval. Luo’er watched her, then asked with concern. "What about you? You look upset."

"I’m just frustrated..." Feliz said listlessly.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Luo’er asked, moving naturally to sit next to her.

Feliz made no objection to Luo’er sitting next to her. she rested her chin on her hand, sighed, and said, "My parents disagree with me studying Earth magic, they think I should just honestly study magic here and become a fine magician."

"Didn’t you think the same way?" Luo’er asked.

"I don’t have the talent, that is something I was born without, it can’t be changed. Therefore, no matter how hard I try, I’m destined to be an ordinary mediocre magician. I don’t want this, I’d rather make some changes while I’m young instead of living an ordinary life."

"Learning Earth’s science is not an easy task, it’s different from everything you’ve touched in your past years and even the principles are different. If you want to learn it, you have to start from scratch, from fundamentally changing your way of thinking. Are you sure you can do it?" Luo’er asked.

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