Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong stared at the simple reply on the screen.

He told himself to stay calm, but his heart was inevitably a mess of jumbled thoughts—how had he been discovered? Fang Hong considered all sorts of possibilities, both absurd and logical, like a tangled ball of yarn with no end to be found—his communication ID had just been registered, and he had used Sicape’s community ID for the original post, even his communicator was brand new.

It had been purchased not long ago from a dwarf merchant.

”Could it still be an issue with the communicator?”

Fang Hong speculated aimlessly, but even to him, this theory seemed excessively paranoid. Not to mention how the dwarf merchant had recognized him, whether it was the Silver Forest Spear, the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, or someone else with the capability, at that time, at that place, to go to great lengths to sell him a problematic communicator.

Then why wouldn’t they have chosen a more direct method to deal with the issue?

He wracked his brain but couldn’t come up with a convincing reason, though his heart gradually cooled down.

After all, there was still a network between them, and even if they recognized him, they couldn’t do anything to him for the time being. Fang Hong then calmed his overly anxious emotions and realized that his current priority should be to quickly find out how these people had recognized him.

Otherwise, before figuring this out, he feared he would be in a state of constant unease.

After hesitating, he sent a reply: ”Who are you?”

Almost instantly, the ”response received” notification in the community began to flash. With a thought, a message popped up in his vision:

”Who I am is not important. Do you want to avenge the arrow of Morning Dawn Star?”

Fang Hong’s mind buzzed—

If previously he had his doubts, he was now completely certain—besides, who else would know of his relationship with Morning Dawn Star? Not even Miss Atira and the others knew of this matter.

But the reply from the other party somewhat puzzled him, why would they ask if he wanted to avenge the arrow of Morning Dawn Star? Was this some sort of test? It seemed unnecessary, or perhaps the person was not from the Silver Forest Spear or the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team?

But apart from these two, he couldn’t think of any other possibilities. Could it be the enemy of the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team and Silver Forest Spear?

Fang Hong shook his head, that seemed too numerous, almost too numerous to sort out. Besides, even if it was one of these two guilds’ enemies, it seemed unnecessary for them to pay attention to such an insignificant person like himself.

After thinking for a moment, he typed another line: ”Avenge whom?”

The speed of the other party’s reply was equally astonishing, as if they required no time to think—

”That’s not important. If you have this thought, add me as a friend.”

Following this reply was a friend request from the respondent named Shana.

Fang Hong faintly felt that something was off, but he couldn’t pinpoint the issue. After hesitating, he accepted the request—since the other party had already recognized his identity, there seemed to be no point in hiding, and the key issue was, by refusing, the conversation might end there.

He still hadn’t figured out the other party’s goal.

After accepting, the other party’s avatar appeared in his contacts. Fang Hong looked at the avatar—a somewhat cute cartoon image of a red-haired girl. A message history appeared on the avatar, with a system notification that the other party was sending a file, asking if he wanted to receive it.

Fang Hong assumed it was a video message, as video accounted for at least eighty percent of all file transfers in Eteliria. But when he opened the file, he was surprised to find it was an encrypted small-scale Starlight program.

At that moment, Shana sent another message: ”You know about Glow Material and the Summoners System, right? This is a small virtual system edited using Starlight with the same method. The Grand Guilds usually use it to train their trainees—”

”Because before we confirm your thoughts, we also need to verify your abilities, Mr. Ade. I hope you can understand. Please choose a professional training level that suits you in this virtual system, and after unlocking the first three levels, send the record back to us. We will give you one week to complete this challenge, good luck.”

After the message, Fang Hong saw the avatar dim down.

”Wait.”

”What does this mean?”

”Confirm what abilities?” He immediately sent several messages in a row, but it seemed like the other party had indeed gone offline and no more information came back.

Fang Hong looked at the Starlight program lying quietly within his system, muddled and confused—it was quiet and showed no sign of any abnormalities. Yet, before this, he had imagined countless ways the conversation could unfold, including the possibility that the other party might be from the military—but he had never anticipated an outcome like this.

Who exactly was the other party?

And how had they recognized him?

What did this confusing dialogue mean, and what abilities were they trying to confirm?

What was all this about?

Fang Hong was very annoyed, as if he had been the victim of a cruel joke, except the joke was so real, just like the extra object that had appeared in his system.