Days of Rest in Avalon

Ultimately, on its opening day, Lin Gui's Avalon post office only officially accepted a single letter.

That was right—an entire morning.

Lin Gui had only taken Kyle's letter.

The entrance had been packed to the point where not a single drop of water could trickle through, but over ninety percent of the crowd was truly just there to watch the spectacle.

Among the remaining ten percent, there were indeed some who wanted to send letters.

Unfortunately, they were all politely turned away by Lin Gui.

His reasons for rejection were simple.

Some letters had destinations that were simply too far.

Even the closest one required traveling all the way to Dawn City in the center of the continent.

The furthest actually required crossing the entire continent to be delivered to the bitter cold lands of the far north.

What was even more absurd was a resident of the sea folk, with transparent fins growing on their ears, who timidly handed over a letter.

The delivery address was a remote, virtually unknown island far beyond the East Sea.

Lin Gui looked at the resident's scales, which appeared slightly dry outside of the water, and couldn't help but be momentarily dazed.

Avalon... actually has sea folk too?

Did this tiny city-state somehow gather every single race of the Akara Continent?

As for the other letters that couldn't be sent...

It was because of their contents.

For example, one letter used an extremely "rich" vocabulary to "greet" the family tree of a certain city-state's prison warden.

The sheer sarcasm in those words once made Lin Gui wonder if the sender was a fellow transmigrator from his old world.

【Dear Duke Carlos, I have heard that your family tree shows inbreeding for the past three generations. Is this true?】

【P.S. Your youngest son looks identical to your stable boy. I highly suggest you investigate this.】

Another letter used sharp irony to depict the various unsightly behaviors hidden beneath an inspector's sanctimonious facade.

There was even one that was simply a "public letter of condemnation" addressed to a certain high noble, with suppressed anger burning between the lines for many years.

Through these unsent letters, Lin Gui gained a clearer understanding of the composition of Avalon's residents.

Many of those gathered here were "outcasts" who had been marginalized, expelled, or even falsely accused and convicted by the outside world.

In truth, Lin Gui secretly wanted to deliver these letters.

He wanted to see what kind of spectacular expressions those people would make upon reading the contents.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

If he truly wanted to establish post offices across the continent and build a long-term, stable delivery network, he could not take on these "dangerous commissions" that would clearly offend those in power and potentially invite retaliation.

After filtering out the emotionally charged or geographically absurd letters, only thirteen letters barely met Lin Gui's standards for delivery in the end.

Thirteen letters.

This quantity was not even a fraction of the commission he had sent to Shield City.

Not to mention the scale of thousands of letters back in the Carter Royal Capital.

However, Lin Gui did not mind.

As long as he could meet the system's minimum signing requirements, he would receive mana rewards.

Furthermore, the destinations of these thirteen letters were all located in city-states along his return route.

It wouldn't require too much of a detour.

Over the next week, Lin Gui opened the post office almost every day.

Yet, the number of people coming to mail letters or make inquiries dwindled day by day.

Although the topic of the "post office" was still circulating among Avalon's residents, hardly anyone went out of their way anymore to catch a glimpse of the protagonist of the rumors.

Avalon gradually returned to its usual tranquility.

The front of the 7-Copper Post Office grew quiet and deserted once more.

After a busy week, the final count of letters Lin Gui collected stopped at twenty-one.

Though the number was small, it required him to travel to seven different city-states for delivery.

Fortunately, he now had a flying vessel for travel.

He no longer had to spend months on the road like he did when he first arrived.

Since no one else in Avalon was coming to send letters, logically, Lin Gui should end the system's search for letters and prepare to set off.

But he didn't.

He was waiting.

He was waiting for the true City Lord of Avalon.

For the return of Demon King Gusion.

He wanted to personally confirm that the city-state's greatest pillar of security was safe before he could leave with peace of mind.

Or...

he was waiting for Morpheus to take the initiative to seek him out.

So that he could lead the experts of Avalon through the Wailing Corridor to search for their missing City Lord.

If they truly had to go to the Voiceless Rift, the strength of Lin Gui's trio alone would be far from enough.

Because what they had to deal with was likely not just the demons within the Wall of Sighs, but more likely that other group of the Demon Race who made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Lin Gui had an intuition.

Gusion's departure was highly likely related to Jesse's group.

And Jesse's group had been tracking Gusion all along.

Capturing the Demon Hunter was their method of finding Gusion.

Rosa's warning during their conversation, along with Roger's subsequent actions of tracking her, all indicated to Lin Gui that the Demon Hunter Cass possessed a method to track down Gusion.

Regardless of whether Lin Gui wanted to be dragged into this unknown vortex, for the sake of Avalon, or more accurately, for the sake of Theia, who would live here for a long time, Lin Gui had to find Gusion.

To do this, he would need the help of Morpheus and the others.

Whether it was information or raw strength.

However, what Lin Gui absolutely did not expect was that before he could receive any news of Morpheus or the City Lord, he would first encounter an unexpected crisis right here in Avalon.

A major, life-altering crisis targeted directly at him.

The post office's daily routine had basically come to an end.

Lin Gui told Theia and Eve that he planned to stay in Avalon for a bit longer.

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but when he voiced this decision, the joy on Theia's face was plainly visible, almost overflowing.

As for Eve...

the look she cast toward Lin Gui was tinged with a very faint, almost bizarre trace of pity.

The days that followed were tranquil yet filled with a touch of vitality.

During the day, Theia would often drag Lin Gui and Eve along, following Winnie and a few young residents around.

They looked for fun within the limited boundaries of Avalon.

They helped harvest the last batch of late-season berries, watched the dwarves forge iron, and listened to old beastkin recount rugged adventure tales.

Or on afternoons when the sun was just right, they would lie on the grassy slopes in the center of the city, watching the clouds slowly drift past the barrier's dome.

At night, after Theia and Eve had fallen asleep, Lin Gui would quietly don his Shroud of the Gloomy Night and slip out of the post office alone.

Like a silent shadow, he roamed the rooftops and alleyways of Avalon, attempting to catch any snippet of information regarding Gusion or the Voiceless Rift near the residences of Morpheus and other high-ranking officials.

His gains were minimal, but he still went out every single night.

And so, time slipped away to the sixteenth day in this rhythm that was half-leisurely, half-undercurrent.

That night, Lin Gui returned from his usual scouting as always.

He deftly climbed up to the second floor of the post office. Just as his fingers brushed against the windowsill of his room, his movements suddenly froze.

A cold, abrupt, and entirely unheralded sense of crisis, like a venomous snake hidden in the darkness, suddenly reared its head and rushed straight at him from the crack of the window he had just pushed open.