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[Cheat] Chapter 96: Free Mondstadt
🕑 Added 2025-05-19 03:15:09 +0000 UTCLumine put her hands on her hips. “It’s fine, I forgive you.”
Paimon muttered, “It was your fault to begin with! They clearly told you to stop. Also, this ‘Strange Bird’—what is that?”
“The ‘Strange Bird’ is a repeat offender in Mondstadt. He always commits crimes using Wind Gliders, which earned him the nickname,” explained the knight.
Zephyr said, “Must look a lot like Paimon.”
Absolutely not!”
Amber asked, “Hmm… does that guy fly fast?”
“So far… we’ve never once caught up to him. This time, we planned to use a artifact from the cathedral as bait to lure him in and catch him.
But we didn’t expect him to just snatch the artifact and fly off with it...
Fortunately, the sisters had already marked it with elemental magic ahead of time!”
“Then go chase him already! Why are you wasting time with us?” Paimon snapped.
Otto rubbed his neck awkwardly. “Ahem… The guy flies way too fast. Even following the elemental trace, we couldn’t catch up. We just mistook you for him…”
Amber raised an eyebrow. “So, he’s a flight expert, huh? Sounds like a job only I, Amber, can handle. Which way did he go?”
“He escaped to the southeast…”
Suddenly, another knight rushed over and whispered something to Otto.
His face changed. “This is bad! The Strange Bird’s escaped the city—he’s headed southeast toward Springvale!”
Amber nodded seriously. “Leave this to me. Perfect timing—Traveler, let’s go together and bring that bird to justice!”
Zephyr hesitated. He vaguely remembered this part of the story, but reality wasn’t a game. Catching a person was one of the hardest tasks.
People weren’t stupid—they’d run.
“This is the Knights’ job. What’s it got to do with me…”
Amber narrowed her eyes. “Do you still want your flight license or not?”
Zephyr said righteously, “Amber! I didn’t expect this from you!”
Amber huffed. “So what if I’m this kind of person?”
Zephyr clenched his teeth. You’re gonna pay for this tonight!
…
“We’re almost at Springvale. There’s bound to be clues about the Strange Bird nearby. The artifact he stole is marked with wind elemental traces,” Amber explained.
Paimon said, “Then let’s open up Elemental Sight and carefully look around.”
“Paimon, I advise you to just turn yourself in now.”
“Paimon told you, Paimon is not the Strange Bird! Besides, that name is awful! Hmm… if it were called ‘Skybird,’ or ‘Bluebird,’ or maybe ‘Crimson Wing,’ Paimon might barely accept it.”
“Wow,” Zephyr muttered. “You really leaned into that.”
He thought for a moment. “Strange Bird… I vaguely remember it being hidden in some sort of ruin.”
But it was only a vague memory. He couldn’t recall the specifics. The guy was just a minor character, after all.
So he asked, “Amber, do you know if there are any ruins nearby?”
“Nearby? Not sure… wait, no—now that you mention it, someone from the Knights recently submitted a report. They found a small ruin near Springvale. Let me think… it should be in this direction.”
Zephyr followed her.
“Yeah, this should be the place.”
Amber looked around. “What a hidden spot!”
Under a cliff, tucked between rocks, there was a small teleportation portal—remote and discreet.
Most ruins were usually in plain sight, sometimes even with small shrine-like structures, like those used for farming artifacts.
But this one was tiny, hidden, and had nothing around it.
Paimon asked, “Is this a teleportation array?”
“Yep. It’ll take us straight into the ruin. Don’t worry—the Knights already verified it. It’s safe and it’s a two-way portal. You won’t get trapped inside.”
“Wait, that means someone has gotten trapped before, right?”
“Well… exploring ruins is dangerous. Things like that do happen from time to time.”
Paimon gulped. “Uhh, maybe we shouldn’t go in… Better yet, let’s find a giant rock and block the portal! That way the Strange Bird can’t get out. We’ll starve the villain to death inside!”
“Paimon, that’s way too cruel!”
Amber said, “If the Strange Bird is guilty, the law will punish him—not leave him to starve to death in a ruin.”
“She’s right,” Zephyr nodded.
“Uhh… Paimon was just joking…” Paimon mumbled.
This was Zephyr’s first time entering a ruin. Even though it was just a small one, it still felt way bigger than the massive ruins he’d seen in the game.
Solemn, majestic, desolate, dark, and eerie.
Fear.jpg—Paimon trembled all over. That was her first impression of a ruin.
“Hey! Traveler, why are you climbing walls again?!”
Zephyr was thrilled—this dungeon actually let him climb!
Back in the game, climbing inside dungeons wasn’t allowed—probably because the devs were worried players would get creative and mess around until they broke the game.
So now, being able to scale walls inside the dungeon? A rare novelty.
Amber called out, “Traveler, stop messing around. There’s only one path here—it looks like the Strange Bird is just up ahead.”
They were currently standing on a high platform. The next platform ahead was much lower, and a few hilichurls were scattered across it. No one knew how these guys managed to sneak into the dungeon.
“From the looks of it, the only way to catch up is to glide across,” Amber observed.
“But there are hilichurls over there,” Paimon said. “If we try to fly over, they’ll attack us!”
“If we want to get across, we’ll have to fly while taking them out. Oh, right—you haven’t taken the final part of your flight exam, have you?
Then let’s make this the third part of the test. Sound good?”
“Alright, but let me ask—if I catch the criminal, can I get extra credit?”
“Extra credit?”
“Yeah—bump my score from 12 points to 120 points.”
“No. Way. In hell!” Amber crossed her arms. “What are you even thinking? What would people say about me if I did that? At most, if you lose all your points, I might secretly add them back for you. But 120? That’s too much.”
“That’s still cheating!” Paimon protested.
“Thanks, Amber. Love you~” Zephyr said, giving her a finger heart.
“No need to say such cheesy stuff between us,” Amber replied. “By the way… this little one won’t go tattling, right? Maybe we should just…”
She made a snip-snip motion with her fingers.
“Wha—?!” Paimon shrieked.
“Kidding, I’m kidding,” Amber laughed.
Paimon was on the verge of tears. “Please don’t joke like that—it’s terrifying!”
“Seriously, ever since she met you, Amber’s been totally corrupted!” Paimon huffed.
Zephyr looked proud. “Heh.”
“That wasn’t a compliment!!”
Lumine looked up at the pitch-black ceiling and sighed. Great. She could already imagine what people in Mondstadt would call her from now on.
Forget Honorary Knight. More like Despicable Foreigner...
Really now, dear gods… why’d you pair me up with a player like this?
That’s what she thought. But despite it all, a faint smile tugged at her lips.
Amber asked, “Traveler, what are you thinking about?”
She never stuck to one way of addressing them—sometimes Zephyr, sometimes Lumine, sometimes just “Traveler.” It all depended on her mood.
“Here, take this,” Amber said, handing over something.
“What’s this?”
“Baron Bunny v2.0! I figured we might run into a situation like this, so I made over a hundred of these guys in advance. That should be enough to clear out the hilichurls here!”
A hundred?! You're not clearing them—you’re trying to wipe them out entirely!”
“Don’t exaggerate. It’s just a hundred. Klee made over two hundred Jumpy Dumpties last month alone.”
“Good grief… So this is what they mean by Free Mondstadt, huh…”
//END
