Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 341 - 338: "Wishing you a smooth journey

Chapter 341: Chapter 338: "Wishing you a smooth journey

"Ding-dong!"

[Obtained S-rank temporary mission: Follow Sherrod and achieve the "happy ending for all" (Points reward given based on mission completion)]

[Mission description: Lele’s grandmother Gerald went missing in the evening, Knight of Light Sherrod seems to know hidden information, please follow him to witness the ending.]

[Activated sidetrack mission・Daytime Line]

...

The night was heavy.

Rows of bungalows lay silently in the darkness; the blonde knight moved through the silent night, stepping onto a small boat moored at the riverbank.

On the boat, a lamp hung outside the cabin, making the surrounding area very quiet, and an old lady wearing a fisherman’s hat sat inside the cabin.

Sherrod boarded in silence, followed closely by Su Ming’an, who looked inside and met the old lady’s somewhat cloudy gaze.

"...Young man?" The old lady was startled, apparently not expecting to see him at this time.

Su Ming’an took a photo out of his backpack and stuffed it into her hand.

"I regret it," he said, "This object, you should deliver it yourself tomorrow during daylight."

The old lady’s hand was forcefully stuffed with the photo; she was stunned for a moment and then tried to grab his hand to give the photo back to him.

Su Ming’an stood up abruptly, avoiding her, and walked to the front end of the boat.

The boat drifted along the river, faint sounds of skirmishing arose on both sides of the river.

In the midst of the night, the moonlight’s reflection on the lake’s surface, the boat cut through the moon’s image, like slicing through milky-white lotus.

Sherrod was rowing the boat quietly; his sword lay by the edge of the boat, coated in a layer of soft silver by the moonlight.

"Sherrod," Su Ming’an’s voice came from behind, "Explain to me why Gerald, a commoner, would go out at night, and why you deliberately distracted me?"

Sherrod remained silent.

The sound of flowing water splashed, and he rowed with the oar in his hand, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

"No answer? Then I’ll say it," Su Ming’an sat down next to him, "...You planned to secretly take her away during the night, to get her away from Pulaya."

Sherrod was slightly shocked.

He looked at Su Ming’an unconsciously.

"You originally wanted to secretly take Gerald away this afternoon, but you didn’t expect that I would be chatting with her all afternoon; you couldn’t find the opportunity," Su Ming’an said. "So, you thought of a way, you invited me to the barbecue restaurant, to create an opportunity for her to get on the boat. Then at night, you tried to convince me to go to sleep, so that you could successfully board the boat.

—However, there’s one thing you didn’t expect. You might have planned for contingencies, but you didn’t foresee that her granddaughter Lele would be so anxious that she’d rather run to the home of someone like me, an outsider, to ask for help in saving someone. Knowing that you couldn’t keep this from me, you decided to bring me along, hoping I’d become your ’accomplice,’ to prevent me from going directly to the Soul Hunt to ask questions, exposing your plan."

Faced with his words, Sherrod gave a bitter smile.

"I couldn’t keep it from the captain," he said quietly.

He shifted slightly to the left, avoiding Su Ming’an’s gaze.

The moonlight sprinkled on the placid river’s surface, making it seem as though the water merged with the sky.

"Splash splash—"

The boat moved along the river, as if flowing in a silver long river.

In the midst of the silent night, Sherrod, bathed in moonlight, spoke softly:

"...Then, captain," he said, "Would you be willing to be my accomplice?"

"Before this, I was guessing the reason you wanted to send Gerald away," said Su Ming’an. "Because Gerald is the child of a Soul Clan member and a human—Has the Soul Hunt finally run out of patience with her, is that it?"

He had already figured out the reason why Thirteenth Street, clearly devoid of the Soul Clan’s scent, still harbored members of their kind.

... Because Gerald was the same as him.

Both were children of the Soul Clan and humans, only carrying the scent of humans.

Thus, she belonged to the Soul Clan but lacked their scent, and the Detection Stone could not reveal her presence.

Sherrod fell silent for a moment.

"No," he finally spoke.

"... Not?" Su Ming’an had not expected to guess wrong.

"We’ve arrived."

At that moment, the small boat suddenly halted.

Su Ming’an looked up and saw that they were in front of a river mouth.

The surrounding streets were empty; it seemed to be an abandoned port.

Sherrod hopped off the boat and helped the elderly lady disembark.

"Grandma Gerald," Sherrod said to her, "follow this street and keep going straight. There’s a merchant ship planning to set sail tomorrow morning. Its destination is the Hetel Empire, a prosperous small country with a culture of respecting the elderly. You will have a good life there."

As he spoke, he pushed a boat ticket into her hand.

The old lady clenched the boat ticket tightly in her hand.

"Sherrod... thank you," she whispered softly.

"You saved me; if not for you, I would have frozen to death that winter. Repaying you is only right." Sherrod’s voice was deep, "Get on that ship and leave this place. Since the Soul Hunt has decided to issue a second sweep mission... they will not spare you. Leaving is the only way out."

The old woman reached out her hand.

Following her slow motion, Sherrod gently bent down.

Her hand, covered in thin calluses and stretched with thin skin, softly caressed Sherrod’s golden hair in an extremely gentle manner.

Moonlight spilled onto her hand, blending with the lustrous golden hair. Her hand lovingly touched his hair, and then moved to his forehead, as though stirring mottled moonlight.

This was the blessing ritual of Pulaya.

"Sherrod, good lad," her lips rubbed together, "...you are the most qualified Knight of Light I have ever seen."

She withdrew her hand, and the gentle moonlight rippled in her eyes.

"I sincerely bless you." Sherrod kissed the back of her hand, "I wish you a bon voyage."

After saying goodbye, the old lady turned away.

As she turned, she gave Su Ming’an a look filled with complex emotions, her gaze meticulously tracing his face as if reminiscing something.

Then she said nothing. Clutching the boat ticket and the family photo, she tottered off with her light luggage from the cabin into the darkness of the street.

Sherrod watched her enter the street and board that merchant ship before he returned his gaze.

He turned around, got back on the boat, and the boat began to move again.

During the journey, Sherrod explained that due to the confidentiality agreement of the Church Above the Clouds, he could not reveal why Gerald needed to escape, only asking Su Ming’an for understanding.

Sherrod’s journey was to voluntarily go to the Church Above the Clouds and accept punishment.

He had allowed Gerald to escape, hence he must accept punishment.

Su Ming’an had originally thought that last week Sherrod had been caught doing something wrong, which was why he was facing punishment; he had not expected that this man was voluntarily going to be punished.

"Captain, let me take you home first," Sherrod said.

"I’ll go with you," Su Ming’an responded.

He remembered that this night, a great fire had risen in the church, and he had to figure out what was going on.

He couldn’t afford to miss any accident in the instance, as he had to reduce the probability of error to the lowest point.

With the water gently parting, the boat slowly arrived at the Cloudtop Chapel.

The Cloudtop Chapel at night was significantly different from during the day.

...It was an exceedingly beautiful, resplendent church.

Like a dazzling Milky Way constructed with the firmament, the entire church was bathed in the glow of holy light, even the marble plaza in front emanated a layer of pearly white light.

Sherrod took the initiative to go inside, telling Su Ming’an that outsiders couldn’t enter the Cloudtop Chapel at night and asked him to wait at the entrance.

Just as well, Su Ming’an had no desire to wander inside the church to avoid meeting the Pope who conducted deity possessions.

He waited by the door of a building akin to a side hall, waiting for the night fire to light up.

Leaning against the wall, he suddenly felt his eyelids fighting each other.

The thick of night could easily stir up a desire to sleep.

He forced himself to stay alert and began to read the bullet screens.

The bullet screens were as lively as a world chat, and it seemed that the recent topics were about Christmas Eve and Christmas.

[Today is December 22, 2021, and after tonight, it’ll be the 23rd.]

[Right, I just realized Christmas is coming... Guys, I never imagined I’d be spending Christmas this year here. It’s like magical realism.]

[It’s a festive day, the Main God World must snow! Snow is an auspicious sign!]

[These past few days people have already started to put up Christmas trees and lights, I’ve seen some Christmas activities on the road. Still the same old commercial discounts.]

[...Poor those in instances, seems like they’ll only be celebrating amidst battles.]

[Haha, that’s why there are downsides to entering instances, can’t even enjoy Christmas Eve, tragic...]

[Wonder if the organizers will have any events. I heard that typical games usually have benefits during special festivals.]

[...]

The bullet screens were bustling with festivities, seemingly unaffected by the cold night of Pulaya.

Su Ming’an rubbed his eyes, yawned, and sat squinting for a while.

Leaning against the wall, he opened each item in his backpack and then closed each one again, checking his harvest thus far, using this method to prevent himself from falling asleep.

About half an hour had passed in this manner when he suddenly saw a bright light.

...No, that wasn’t just a bright light.

He looked up to see a swath of bright red. This vibrant color danced wildly as if it wanted to paint the dark skyline a blazing red.

That was fire.

He leapt to his feet and looked behind the building.

The flames seemed to burst from the back of the church, the bright moonlight appeared to be obscured by fire, the sky as bright as day.

...Here it came.

Su Ming’an immediately rushed in the direction of the blaze, bursting into the garden corridor behind the church, and saw the vivid red flames shooting up towards the sky from within the glass-domed structure.

What was odd was that despite being a conspicuous part of the church, there wasn’t a single knight or guard around.

Even though Sherrod had mentioned that the church was guarded by only a few knights at night, the scene of complete absence was too strange.

The garden was exceptionally silent, with only the "rustling" of Su Ming’an’s footsteps on the lawn.

He ran to the building that was on fire and forcefully pushed open the heavy door.

"Boom—"

The carved door moved to both sides.

Su Ming’an saw the flames burning in the hall.

But the fire didn’t start due to some accident.

...Because the flames were rising from people’s bodies.

At least a hundred visitors with light skin and various clothes stood in the hall, their bodies ablaze with vivid flames.

Their faces were completely charred, their flesh boiled and blackened, their bones slowly exposed, and their figures began to blur in the fire... But what was terrifying was that they remained silent throughout, as if they couldn’t feel the pain of the flames licking their skin.

The fire on their bodies collected into a larger mass, and this mass of flames gathered into a rising torrent of fire. The flames shot up, piercing through the dome of the church, ascending toward the sky as if to join with the horizon.

In the direction they were looking, in the center of the church, stood a young man in blood-red bishop robes, quietly standing there.

The flames wrapped around him, as if draping him in a layer of brilliant silk. He stood on the highest level of jade stairs, looking down at the burning crowd below with a smile in his emerald-like eyes.

In the bright light, he was at the very core of the radiance, resembling a deity descending from the firmament, as if he were about to extend his hand to the believers in the flames.

Behind him, whether sitting or standing, were four people dressed differently. They were dozing off, seemingly indifferent to the scene before them.

...This was the eerie scene Su Ming’an witnessed.

"Huh." Seeing the door open, the twin-tailed girl with a rifle raised her eyelids, "Why are people coming? Boris, didn’t you say you’ve cleared this area of people?"

"Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!" the parrot shrieked loudly.

The group was somewhat tense, but Pei Xue quickly raised her Ice Crystal Staff, "If someone comes, just kill them. Given the timing, it’s probably players running around everywhere. Just kill them. Boris is burning these NPCs to gather strength, and we can’t interrupt his ritual."

"Hold on, I think this player looks familiar..." The bald guy Alec rubbed his tired eyes.

He looked at the black-haired, golden-eyed player who was walking into the church, rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again...

He seemed to recall the facial features being described by someone in the channel chat...

Up ahead, Boris, standing on the white jade stairs, began to walk down with a smile on his face.

The red robes trailed behind him as he held the golden scepter in his hand, smiling elegantly surrounded by light.

"What a coincidence..." he said softly, "to run into you here... Number One Player."

As soon as he said that, the players who had been sprawling on the ground instantly scrambled to their feet.

They picked up their weapons, their lethargy swept away, readying themselves as if facing a formidable enemy.

"No way..." The twin-tailed girl dropped her lollipop on the ground, raising her rifle, "...Damn, to run into him at such a critical moment..."

Alec put on his Steel Knuckles, Pei Xue raised her Ice Crystal Staff, and Pearl... Pearl didn’t move, she was whispering to the parrot on her shoulder.

Amidst a field of vigilant gazes, Su Ming’an slowly approached.

"Don’t come any closer." Boris said.

Without stopping, Su Ming’an continued his approach.

"Don’t come any closer—Number One Player," Boris called out loudly, "I don’t want to be your enemy for now. Let’s settle our differences at the Maritime Banquet. I’ve heard your response to my story, so for today’s meeting, I prepared a new story for you, from my homeland—"

When Su Ming’an was only a short distance away from the group of burning people, he stopped:

"Are we familiar?"