The Lost Land of Gold

The moment he boarded, Bai Liu fell into the ocean.

This seems to be an extremely deep sea, Bai Liu felt the huge pressure coming from his body, if it wasn't for the fact that his current panel quality was so high that it was inhuman, the moment he was transported into this sea, his body would have been crushed and burst due to the water pressure.

The depths are pitch black, but occasional waves tell Bai Liu that there must be some kind of large fish roaming around.

All in all a place not to stay for long.

Bai Liu turned his eyes to the only source of light in the depths of the ocean - a huge city sunk in the bottom of the sea.

Or to describe it as a city is not accurate enough, Bai Liu suspended in the bottom of the sea is very high, his entire bottom is this city, he can not even see the border, and even more strange, this city is wrapped in a semi-circular huge glass shield - this shield Bai Liu has a very familiar feeling, he was captured to the Heretic Treatment Bureau, the outside of the Heretic Treatment Bureau is this style of shield. This shield Bai Liu has a very familiar feeling, when he was arrested to the Heretic Treatment Bureau, the shield outside the Heretic Treatment Bureau is this style.

It was logical to be able to see inside through the shield of glass, but with the golden dust floating over the entire city, only a vague glimpse of the city's ornate buildings could be seen.

It looks like a once thriving city, but for some reason, it's been shrouded and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

From Bai Liu's perch above, the city glows with a warm, golden light, and the golden dust within it seems to float up and down like snow, making it look like an oversized snowy crystal ball with a fairytale quality.

--This should be that [Lost Country of Gold].

[System prompt: Player please enter (The Lost Land of Gold) to unlock the main quest.]

Bai Liu swam downward, and he soon touched the top of the shield, and in the moment of that touch he fell into the golden realm beneath the sea.

The golden dust in the sky instantly surged towards Bai Liu, he stabilized his body to fall down, and finally landed on the rooftop of a high-rise building, the rooftop was covered with peculiar golden dust, people would be a little slippery when stepping on it, Bai Liu looked down at the sky as if it were never-endingly fluttering with golden dust, and stretched out his hand to catch a little bit of the dust, and then siped it open.

The texture is so fine, it feels like you can breathe it in.

The ground is covered with this kind of fine gold dust, from the sky that the style of gorgeous and solemn dome palace buildings until the building in front of us, are covered in a layer of peculiar gold dust, the ground is also all gold dust, a golden piece, shaking people can not see, the whole city is quiet and incomparable, do not say that the sound of human voice, not even the birds can not be heard, so silent that you can only hear the sound of the falling dust.

[System prompt: Please ask player Bai Liu to find a fairy tale book that has been widely circulated in the Golden Country to understand the backstory of the copy and unlock the main quest].

Bai Liu jumped off the rooftop with a light movement, and after landing, he looked for an iconic building nearby and sent a message to his teammates to meet here, and in less than three or four minutes, all four members of the team had arrived.

"We didn't encounter any NPCs or monsters that blocked us on the way." Tang Er Fight received his gun behind his waist and frowned, "Nor did we encounter anyone from Golden Dawn."

"I had expected them to come in with a quick onslaught as soon as they entered the copy, but along the way I observed the dust on the ground and saw no footprints of anyone else's actions other than ours."

"Right." Mu Sicheng looked at the copy's bizarre surroundings and rubbed his goosebumps-ridden arms, "I was ready to run, but no one came after me."

"It might have something to do with the game setup of this copy." Liu Jiayi tilted her head and tapped her system panel, "Because the background explanation and main quests of this copy are different from the previous ones, instead of being given as soon as you come in, you have to explore it on your own, yes Fang Ke can be as ready as we are to unlock the main quests before taking action."

Mu Ke nods in agreement, "Not a bad thing for us overall though, it kind of gives us a cushion."

"I don't think so." Bai Liu shook his head in denial, "Golden Dawn wasn't originally a team that fought speed battles, playing speed stations was our countermeasure, they like to slow down the tempo, but slowing down the tempo is detrimental to us players whose skills will cd."

"The general idea is still the same as before, a quick fix."

Bai Liu glanced down at the gold dust that fell on each of them, his eyes narrowing slightly, "I always felt that this copy, itself, gave me a heavier sense of threat than the Golden Dawn."

"Let's find the fairy tales first."

"Yes!"

A group of people in Bai Liu's leadership, into the nearest building, the building is also full of floating gold dust, the front desk of the notice board has been gold dust paste can not be seen, Liu Jiayi crouched down, wiping off the notice board on the thick gold dust, only to see the contents of the above.

Liu Jiayi stared at the characters on it for a moment, then waved his hand, "Mu Ke, I can't read this kind of character."

"Here it is." Mu Ke walked over and stared at the notice on it for a moment, and after a few moments of contemplation spoke, "It's a very old little language, and I can't understand all of it, but I've taken an elective course in the modern language that evolved behind it, so I can still understand the general meaning."

"This notice says on it that this month's notice says that there are thirteen other households that have not paid their utility gas bills this month, and there is one household that is in serious arrears and owes about 500g in total utility bills ......"

"Gold?"

Mu Ke's tone was noticeably more hesitant when he saw the last phrase.

"Wow?!" Mu Sicheng squatted over with great interest, "A pound of gold for utilities, what did this family do at home? Raising goldfish?"

"What surprises me more than this is the rest of the place." Mu Ke flipped the notice board forward, the more he flipped the more strange his expression became, "This place's doesn't have its own issued currency in circulation, the general equivalent of their daily transactions is gold, the payment of utility bills is made in gold, the daily food purchases are also made in gold, three apples are 2g of gold, and a whole beef leg of smoked meat is 12g of gold."

"...... using gold for daily transactions?" Mu Sicheng was staggered by what he heard, and he silently converted it in his mind, "These prices are so ridiculously high, the people here are really rich."

"To be able to use gold as a currency of exchange and with prices this high, this should be a very economically advanced place, they did once have a lot of money." Mu Ke frowned, "But certainly not recently, the rent of this building has recently doubled four or five times, the unit cost of the various utilities supplied has doubled almost forty times, and food like this can basically be said to be sitting on the ground, a price a day."

"That's why there were previous residents who owed a pound of gold on their utility bills."

"All sorts of things are going up in price." Mu Sicheng asked hesitantly, "Shouldn't that mean that people in this place are getting richer?"

Mu Ke looks at Mu Sicheng: "Depends on what the price increase is."

"If the price increases are for non-essentials that were already at a serious premium, such as toys for the rich like luxury cars and watches, then it shows that everyone has money for enjoyment beyond the non-essentials, a situation that does manifest itself only in areas where the economy is getting better and better."

"But judging from the announcements in this building, some of the slightly higher-end foods, cheeses like this, are going down in price, and instead the price increases are all in necessities like smoked meats apples utilities and rentals, that can only mean that all the money, or gold, in the area is flowing into survival products, which means that the people of the area are having a very bad time, and that's what's causing them to panic and hoard large quantities of the necessities, causing the prices of necessities to double."

"What I've seen basically matches that as well." Mu Ke nodded at the bulletin board, "There's an increasing number of tenants in the building who can't pay their rent."

"But actually I find it hard to imagine that a place that uses gold as a circulating currency would have a necessity premium of this magnitude." Mu Ke spreads his hands, "As long as the place has a harbor and they're willing to use gold for foreign trade, I'm sure there are plenty of places in the world where 2g of gold would sell them four hundred apples, but I don't see any sign of foreign trade."

"A pound of gold, which is already several years' worth of living expenses for many families, is only a few months' worth of utilities for this building."

"The world is full of people madly thirsting for their gold, but they are cantoned here, unwilling to trade with the outside world, and allowing prices to rise wildly."

"Perhaps it is precisely because too many people want their gold that they don't?" Bai Liu crouched down on one knee and raised his eyes to Mu Ke who was baffled for a moment, "What is it you say about the small language of this place?"

"This is one of the things that makes me strange." Mu Ke ponders for a moment and replies, "I learned a very rare minor language that is spoken in very few countries in the real world, the origin of this minor language is a civilized language that exists only in legends."

"It is said that more than a thousand years ago, next to the Gu Luo Sea, an overseas sea, there used to be a very prosperous ancient country, although this country's land is not vast, it is just a small seaside country, but this country is very rich, so rich that almost even the ground of their palace is paved with gold, it is known as the [Country of Gold Favored by the Gods], and at that time, it was almost the world's economic The center of exchange, the surrounding small countries all aspired to this country, and they imitated the language of this country, which has been passed down to the present, and it is this small language that I am learning now."

"But everything about this country at the moment is inferred by everyone based on historical documents that exist in some neighboring countries, and there are no real relics or historical information that proves that this country really existed, nor is there anything that proves that the originating language of the language I learned really originated from this Golden Country."

"But now it seems." Mu Ke looked at the gold-dust-covered display next to the front desk, the radio, and a couple of very modern cell phones, "that this country really exists."

"And it also developed silently for a thousand years out of our sight until its demise."

Mu Sicheng listened with very mixed feelings, "...... How did you learn such a remote little language?"

"Because my father wanted me to learn that a son like me who can't inherit the family business can only be used as an external display card, and when I learn things that no one around me knows how to do, he feels honored by it, so I've learned a lot of things that I find useless but that he finds classy, and a small language is one of them." Mu Ke replied with a smirk, "You can interpret this as the boring vanity of the rich."

"But it's not all bad if it comes in handy now, is it?"

"So the system is asking us to explore why this country perished, right?" Liu Jiayi English said softly with an eyebrow, "[The Golden Country Favored by the Gods], it sounds like it has-"

She didn't continue, Bai Liu looked at each other, everything is in the words.

--Sounds very Bai Liu-ish.

"It's for us to find fairy tale books, right?" Tang Er hit seriously rummage through the front desk's address book, "Residents with children are more likely to have fairy tale books in their rooms, right?"

"There are three residents with children on the second floor, and on the third floor."

Tang Er hit holding the address book and turned his head to Bai Liu: "Let's go up and look for it?"

Bai Liu nods, "Let's go."

The search for the fairy tale book was not difficult, and as Tang Er pushed open the door to the second room, they were able to find a fairy tale book on the gold-dusted tabletop.

"This one is called [The Golden Land of the Gods' Favor]." Mu Ke took the book and read the words on it, then looked up at everyone, "This should be the one."

"You translate, we'll listen." Bai Liu sat down on the small bench sound next to him and assumed a posture of attentive listening.

"I don't always get all the flips right." Mu Ke took a deep breath, "But I'll try."

He turned the first page of the heavy fairy tale book that had fallen in gold dust.

"A long, long time ago, maybe as long as a thousand years, there was a beautiful seaside country called Gurolum, next to the Guro Sea."

Meanwhile, Georgia stood in the palace, his eyes downcast as he looked at this place he knew so well and yet so strangely - after ten years, he had once again set foot in the country of Gurrolon, which he had sunk to the bottom of the sea with his own hands, the largest and most expensive heresy he had guarded on the seashore for ten whole years, the only, unforgotten homeland he had ever known.

This palace, this gorgeous palace sprinkled with gold dust, is where he was born and raised, and he remembers when he was ten years old, and the nation celebrated his birthday, and the young man stood outside the palace's terrace, on his tiptoes looking down from beside the fence that was taller than he was, and the plaza was all filled with his people who cheered for his growth.

They set off fireworks, waved gold dust ground from gold, and called his name loudly and affectionately:

"Georgia!"

"Georgia!"

Gold dust and fireworks showered down on Georgia's shoulders, and the people's eyes reflected the finest gleam in the world as he held on to the railing in a daze, looking out over the bustle, and murmured softly, "Do I really deserve all this they're doing for me?"

His father, the King of Gurolum, held his shoulders with a loud laugh, "You are the Crown Prince of Gurolum."

"You are the king who will lead them to a brighter golden age in the future, who will protect them and uphold them."

"You certainly deserve all this!"

"But what if ......" Tiny Georgia hesitantly clenched her fists, "I can't do it right?"

"You won't do a bad job." The king lovingly stroked his forehead, "You are the best Wang Zi, I know it, you may look cold and harsh but you are actually a good boy with a strong sense of responsibility from the time you learned how to do it, and your greatest fear is to let down these people who are eagerly looking forward to you."

"And he who possesses such fear will surely make a good king."

"Hey." Seeing Georgia's constant frown, the King awkwardly stroked his brow away, "My boy, do you remember the fairy tale?"

"When the day comes when you really can't do it right, we are a golden nation favored by God, and we can still go to God for help."

"But what if God doesn't help us?" Georgia couldn't hide his worry, which made him look a little teenage, "No one is going to keep helping us for no reason, God helps us, and he's going to make us pay for it."

"How come?" The king laughed innocently, "God exists to make believers who believe in him happy!"

"Captain?" Kris inquired softly, "What happened to you?"

"The system prompted us to find the fairy tale book and you brought us all the way here, is this a place you know well?"

--The existence of Heretic 0073 is a top secret of the Triple Authority, and aside from Georgia and Lu Yizhan, almost no one knows what Heretic 0073 looks like.

Georgia closed his eyes as he gathered his thoughts, and when he opened them, he was the calm, dignified Captain of the Third Bureau again, "Yes."

"I remember a book of fairy tales here, but I forget exactly where it is, so go search elsewhere in the palace."

"Yes, Captain!"

After a few members of the team responded, they were trained to begin carpet searching the entire palace.

And Georgia, after a brief pause, headed for Wang Zi's chambers in the palace, walking with a steady, dignified gait, as if he were the Crown Prince on the day he became Crown Prince, past the high platform where he was cheered by the people, past the meadow where he learned the art of archery, past the flower beds where Armand had been knocked over a bit, and finally to his chambers.

Everything here was as stereotypically standard as it had been in the beginning, thirteen bows and arrows of various sizes in harnesses hung on the wall, and across the room the huge bookshelf was divided into various books, many of them pored over, with gold leaf bookmarks pinned to them - specially crafted for him by his father.

Most of these books are specialized books related to the governance of the country, read all obscure and difficult to understand, he would fall asleep when he was young, in order to force himself to read more, Georgia secretly hid an ice basin under the bed, read sleepy, barefoot on the ice basin to stand for a while, relying on the cold temperature to keep himself awake, hard to force himself to read some more.

When Armand finds out and reports it to his father, Georgia is punished by his angry father.

[The body is the root of governance.] His father sternly rebuked him, [You are so eager and utilitarian to learn things that you can't keep calm in such a peaceful environment, how can you make the people feel at ease to follow you?!

Georgia at that time was punished for not being allowed to read, and although he kneeled down to receive the punishment and was calm on his face, he had uncontrollable anxiety in his heart.

--as if this kingdom, favored by God's favor, would do great things without one minute less of his watchful eye.

In those days, the only book Georgia was allowed to read was the children's book, The Golden Land of the Gods' Favorites.

This book is a household name in the land of Guroron, a book of fairy tales.

But Georgia didn't like the children's book and he resisted reading it, but at that time he did anyway.

Georgia walked over to the bed, he slowly sat down on the bed covered in gold dust, on the bedside table next to the bed was a family portrait, he wiped it clean and saw Armand, who was only a few months old, and himself, who had a scowl on his face, but still had a vague smile in his eyes, his father, who smiled in a slightly silly way, and his mother, who was sitting in a chair, smiling brightly.

-- Armand was four years old when their mother died, and after that, their father was devastated and advanced the title of Crown Prince to himself.

So this was one of the few family photos they had, and one of his favorites, so it had been kept at the foot of his bed, but at the time of the sinking of Gurolum, the walk with the sleeping Armand on his back was so hasty that he didn't even have time to take this photo away.

I didn't expect to finally see it again after all this time.

Georgia was quiet for a moment, then he turned over his pillow and saw the book of fairy tales he'd hidden under it, and he turned to the second page:

"The people of the Ancient Loren Country are hardworking and kind, and although the country they possess is not vast and the land is not fertile, each of them lives a happy life relying on their own diligent and hard labor."

"It was a time when everyone was looking for gold, but there were no gold mines in the country of Gurolum, and they couldn't get it, so they ended up getting used to a smooth life, and prospered from one generation to the next."

"The people in the country of Guroron, though poor, lived so happily that this happiness attracted the attention of God, who descended upon the then King of Guroron, and smiled, and said, Will you make a bargain with me?"

"The king asked, God, we are a poor nation and have nothing to trade with you."

"God laughed and said that there is."

"-that is the joy that is in you."

"You deliver pleasure to me and pay for pain, and in return I give you untold and inexhaustible minerals of gold, enough to last you a thousand years."

"But after a thousand years, you will pay me for the pain."

"The king thought long and hard; he called the nation together and asked the opinion of every one of them, and the nation rejoiced; no one could hate gold, especially such as fell from the sky, and all agreed to God's deal."

Mu Ke turned to page six and continued reading softly:

"The country of Gurolen has changed forever."

"This originally gold-less land became a land of gold; farmers dug everywhere, and patches of gold appeared in the earth; fishermen fished out, and the fish in their nets spat out rocks that were gold, without even needing to be forged again; and soon Gurolum became the richest land in the world."

"But this riches attracted many kingdoms with ill intentions against Gurolon, and they wanted to wage war against Gurolon and rob it of its gold, and the resourceful king, in his desperation, found God again, and said to Him, O omnipotent God, hide us, and leave us with only a small opening through which the gold can be trafficked, and it will be done."

"God agreed, and he hid Guroron from the world, and no one will ever again be able to explore the country of Guroron."

"And so it was that Gurolum lived a thousand years in the midst of peace and plenty, and the time had come to pay the price."

Mu Ke turns another page and the fairy tale book is over.