The Trembling World

---

Liu Gan gestured for the others to start walking.

"Aren\'t you afraid that I\'m a bad uncle, that I might kidnap you to sell? How can you just trust me like that?" Liu Gan started asking after he walked with Wan\'er for some distance.

"You do look like a bad uncle," Wan\'er laughed at Liu Gan\'s rhetorical question.

"I don\'t think I look like a bad uncle?" Liu Gan answered indifferently. He kept an eye out for Wan\'er. He was leading the way, but he couldn\'t lose this important NPC. All their efforts would be in vain if they lost sight of her now.

"It is because you are handsome!" Wan\'er giggled at Liu Gan.

"You are a young child, how do you know who is handsome or not?" Liu Gan was surprised by her answer.

"Young pervert!" Ana had a disdainful expression.

"Who would\'ve thought that our Lord Liu would have a gentle side!" Stratos interjected.

"Haven\'t you heard of the song lyric, \'even those with hearts of steel can be refined to become pliable\'? Do you understand what that means?" Ana started to hammer down on Stratos.

"What does that song lyric mean? I don\'t believe I\'ve heard of it before," Stratos shot back at Ana.

"You don\'t even understand that? Let me explain the technology behind the process of metal refinement in ancient China. Start with melting raw material in the furnace. Afterwards the melted material is called a bloom, the blacksmith would hammer the bloom into bars. This step of forging requires constant hammering and then immediate quenching in water. By heating and hammering out the impurities, the metal will become pliable and durable. Assassins can wrap their swords around their bodies. The most flexible sword could be wrapped around a finger. That is what it means to be pliable!" Ana started explaining.

"So that\'s what it means to be pliable? I thought you meant that moment when the man and the woman melt into each other\'s embrace," Stratos continued to jeer, nitpicking the words.

"Tch! Is that the only thing you can think of in that small brain of yours? So after I explained it to you, do you know the song\'s lyric now? It was about how a man\'s heart of steel can be refined through repeated obstacles and changes, until the heart becomes like a treasured sword, both flexible and durable. I definitely don\'t mean the general public like you. The man who has the heart of steel is definitely Lord Liu!" Ana finished her spiel. She glanced over at Liu Gan to see his reaction.

Men and women were not that different on how they handle love. Ana thought she was different from other women. As a strong-willed woman, she still had a crush on that type of bold man.

"Ah… even if you worship Lord Liu, no need to belittle us?" Stratos complained.

"Yeah! He\'s right!" Star Yu chimed in on the protest.

Liu Gan didn\'t lower his guard listening to this casual conversation. Beyond the loud voices nearby, Liu Gan\'s ear picked up a distinct rhythmic footstep. It was as faint as the first time he had heard it. It was charging in from the distance, but Liu Gan frowned at the unwelcome guest. It didn\'t take long for Star Yu to notice the Crocodile rushing in, and shout to alert the other two. It seems that there was only one Crocodile appearing in the park.

This Crocodile creature appeared at the most inappropriate times. Right as he was about to complete this side task of taking Wan\'er to the bathroom, it showed up and interrupted them.

Liu Gan figured that it was pointless to continue fighting against the Crocodile. There was no way to bring true death to the creature, so it was just a waste of stamina and aura energy. Yet Liu Gan had to kill it, so he could have more time. Except it wouldn\'t take even a minute for it to regenerate back to life after it had been killed. Liu Gan led Wan\'er closer to the bathroom destination. Once again, Liu Gan had to kill the creature.

"Forget this, you guys can continue with this side quest. I will be responsible for luring the Crocodile away!" Liu Gan ordered, before he charged into combat against the creature.

"Lord Liu, just relax and go in peace!" Ana shouted loudly enough for Liu Gan to hear.

"How could you say that? How could you tell him to go in peace? Is this how you bid farewell? Lord Liu won\'t be happy to hear that!" Stratos couldn\'t help but tease Ana.

"I\'m saying that for you to go in peace! You vulgar swine!" Ana kicked Stratos over onto the floor.

Star Yu was rejoicing over Stratos\' abuse, since he had been the one taking the brunt of all the mistreatment. With someone else playing the scapegoat, Star Yu didn\'t want to be in the spotlight. Surprisingly, Stratos didn\'t seemed to be mad after being beaten by Ana, since he continued to seek attention by provoking her.

Stratos\' original game play style in [The Trembling World] was similar to how Liu Gan was demonstrating now. Like a hero, upon this desolate land, he would be stand at the peak of all the corpses. With the wave of his hand, the horrors in this universe would be under his control...

Stratos declared while posing in a idiotic way. "Three thousand years of bowing down to the Demon Lord, I would rather be a mortal than a celestial being!" He imagined his voice resounding through the skies, that was the realm he wanted to achieve.

There was always a discrepancy with his ideal self and true self. The moment he laid his eyes on beautiful women, his despicable personality surfaced. It was evident in the way he pestered women. Even if they hit him to drive him off, he believed that he was making progress!

After the brief interlude, the three clowns remembered their assigned tasks. They quickly ran back to Wan\'er so they could lead her to the restroom, which was a short distance away.

Wan\'er was prancing around without any worries, as every young children should. In the end, she was an apparition that would only interact with whomever she pleased. So, regardless of what the three clowns did to attract her attention, Wan\'er wouldn\'t yield. Eventually, Wan\'er stopped to look around for Liu Gan. Without Liu Gan nearby, Wan\'er started heading back in the direction of the playground. Even if the three clowns stood in her way, she walked right through them.

In the meantime, Liu Gan had led the Crocodile in a huge detour several kilometers away from the location of the encounter. When he returned to the spot where he had left them, the group was nowhere to be seen. The natural assumption would be that Wan\'er and them had reached the restroom. So Liu Gan sprinted toward the restroom, only to find it empty.

Now this was strange. Where could they have gone? This doesn\'t make sense...

In the short time that he was away, could Wan\'er have gone to the bathroom and left for her mom? That seems a little bit of a stretch, right? How could they resolve it that fast?

Thinking hard on what his next course of action was, Liu Gan decided to backtrack his steps all the way to the padded playground. Just as expected, Wan\'er was back at the initial location, where she was prancing around without a care in the world. The other three players were trying their hardest to get her attention, but Wan\'er was minding her own business.

"Uncle, uncle!" Wan\'er shouted to Liu Gan. She voluntarily walked over to greet him.

"She won\'t respond to our requests to go to the bathroom. No matter what we say, she doesn\'t react to it. Seems like she can only respond to those who interact with her first," Stratos told Liu Gan.

"Wan\'er, why didn\'t you go with them to the bathroom? How come you came back to this area alone! You need to be more obedient!" Liu Gan scolded Wan\'er.

"But, uncle, you disappeared! I couldn\'t find you, so I walked back here to wait for you!" Wan\'er responded to Liu Gan.