That was correct.
This group of people was indeed a squad of field slaves under the slave owner Sherlock.
The so-called field slaves were those released into the world to act as Sherlock's eyes.
Whenever they encountered anything, they would investigate immediately and then report the gathered information back to Sherlock in the Abandoned Ruins.
This gave him time to prepare.
This was the fundamental reason why they had chosen to investigate Lan Qingyou's tent as soon as they saw it.
Under Sherlock's rule, this had become a mandatory way of thinking.
It could be said that ever since that battle involving tens of thousands of people, nearly the entire northwestern part of the Abandoned Land—including the Abandoned Lake, his place of origin—had become Sherlock's territory.
But it was precisely because of this that the captain now felt incredibly conflicted.
If it were anyone else, he wouldn't have hesitated to report them.
But a witch was a bit of a problem.
It wasn't that he was afraid of witches, but rather that witches were simply too famous.
During the last great battle, it was precisely the potions made by the Witch that had allowed Sherlock to win against superior numbers and establish a foothold in the Abandoned Land.
Of course, after that morning's battle, they had an even clearer understanding of just how powerful the Witch was.
A single owl and a single robot had made their squad of over a dozen people look pathetic. If there were more of them, they might even be able to kill that damn squidman Sherlock and reclaim their freedom.
As for whether they would be held responsible if the Witch failed to fight Sherlock or failed to kill him, the captain wasn't worried.
She was flying through the sky; wouldn't it be normal if they just didn't see her?
One could say that no matter what happened next, it would have nothing to do with them.
They just had to sit back and wait for it to end, or for it to have never happened at all.
It was a free win.
"Does anyone else know about this besides you?" the captain asked Skinny Monkey to be safe.
"Captain, are you thinking..."
The captain's question immediately made Skinny Monkey realize what he was planning.
"No, I only told you after I got back."
"Then treat today's events as if you saw nothing. To the outside world, just say the tent had already vanished when you went back. You didn't see any witch, and you didn't see anyone who could fly. Do you understand?"
The captain squinted at Skinny Monkey, his gaze filled with warning.
"Don't worry, Captain. Who would actually want to be a slave? Only a glutton for punishment would do that."
Skinny Monkey grinned.
Was he joking?
What did District 666 have the most of? Talents, of course!
Every single one of them was the kind of 'talent' who spoke very eloquently.
If they could, they wouldn't have even participated in the previous battle for the Abandoned Ruins.
But that kind of forced behavior right under the slave owner's nose was completely outside their personal control.
Previously, they had no choice because they had been tricked. Now that they knew the Witch's combat power, they had a second option. It was obvious what they would choose.
And so.
The matter was dropped between the captain and Skinny Monkey in a moment of unspoken understanding. Sherlock, naturally, remained unaware that a celebrity known throughout District 666—and even the entire Kalim continent—was approaching him.
Meanwhile, after flying for most of the day, Lan Qingyou finally spotted the ruins in the fading glow of the setting sun as evening approached.
After descending, she found a recessed area against a mountain and set up her tent.
According to her calculations, she had flown for a total of about ten hours over two days at second gear.
At 50 kilometers per hour, that was roughly 500 kilometers.
Although she had wanted to use third gear the whole way, the speed was unfortunately more than she could handle.
While the Extreme Deep Blue Witch Set ensured she didn't feel the cold even hundreds of meters in the air, the wind at third gear's 100 kilometers per hour was so strong she couldn't even keep her eyes open.
That was why she had settled for second gear.
Even so, covering a straight-line distance of over 500 kilometers made Lan Qingyou realize that the Abandoned Land—and the entire Kalim continent—seemed vast.
The Fool: "It is indeed huge. If it weren't for my talent, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish scouting the Abandoned Land so quickly."
When Lan Qingyou shared this observation in the group, The Fool, who had the most authority on the subject, immediately joined the conversation.
Justice: "Based on the area we've surveyed so far, although the size of each district varies, they generally range from 10,000 to 500,000 square kilometers."
Justice: "Looking at The Fool's map and the distance you just calculated, the size of your Abandoned Land should be around 300,000 to 400,000 square kilometers. It belongs to the category of large maps."
High Priestess: "Tsk, tsk. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers for only a hundred thousand or so people. Should we call this area large or extra-large?"
The Star: "Either way, 'big' covers it."
Chariot: "Exactly. Big is good, big is strong."
Justice: "So the Abandoned Land is a large map. Some small maps have 100,000 people crammed into 50,000 square kilometers. No matter how you look at it, that feels a bit crowded."
The Star: "That's still pretty big. Slightly smaller than Ningxia, but larger than Switzerland."
The Tower: "Uh... let's not talk about that for now. I just want to know, Justice, how did you guys survey your area?"
Justice: "The Fool's feet."
...
Lan Qingyou's mouth twitched.
She had been wondering how the Supreme Council surveyed areas without magic tents or similar items, since no one else could stay overnight in the wilderness like she could. Surveying should have been a difficult task.
And the answer was just 'The Fool's feet'?
Well, if it was that guy, there really wasn't much to say. After all, even the world map on the Villa Forum had been stepped out one footprint at a time.
Since they last met, he had uploaded two more maps. One was the Red Peak Rock Mountain to the north of the Abandoned Land, across the Abandoned Mountains, and the other was the Gravel Plateau to the right of the rock mountain.
One look at his route and it was clear he wanted to loop back to the map he hadn't finished drawing because the servers hadn't merged yet.
Perhaps this was The Fool's obsession.
No...
Perhaps it was the obsession of the organization behind The Fool.
In reality, just as The Fool had explained to Lan Qingyou before, the Tarot Villa was merely a loose, academic organization.
Aside from the rule that members could not attack or harm one another, there were truly no constraints.
Most members had other identities besides being part of the villa.
For instance, Justice, Chu Yuan, was a member of the Supreme Council, while The Fool, Hells Mo, belonged to a civilian organization called the Continental Mapmaking Alliance.
Supposedly, there were quite a few organizations like that.
Things like the Kalim Planting Research Society and the Anglers' Association.
Even an organization like the Tarot Villa, founded by a council member, was actually just a private, civilian salon.
They just chatted and ate together.
By the time 11:00 PM passed, Lan Qingyou looked up at the night sky outside.
Tonight, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. There was no wind, making it perfect for flying and searching for things from above.
Rate on N.U.
