Goblin Dependency-Chapter 709 - 355: 0.0003%
After Xia Nan shared his suspicions with the two members of the Black Wood Squad, the air inside the box instantly plunged into silence.
They were all experienced adventurers. Even if they hadn’t personally encountered such events, they had at least heard of them.
Hence, they clearly understood that if there truly existed something capable of subtly and silently influencing people’s minds and altering their perceptions, it would be a terrible and extremely dangerous scenario.
Xia Nan’s strength and character were highly acknowledged. They knew he wouldn’t speak without reason.
Margaret and Soldin hardly considered the possibility of Xia Nan deliberately deceiving them, and immediately began to devise countermeasures.
"If it’s really as you suspect, that the pink Jadestone in Horak’s possession has a special charm effect."
"I think there’s one thing that needs to be confirmed first and foremost."
Margaret crossed her arms over her chest, displaying a defensive posture, her expression stern. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
"Among the three of us... have we already been affected by the gemstone?"
The female knight’s reminder made Xia Nan’s heart skip a beat.
Their consideration was on point.
If things have reached the worst-case scenario, and even they as professionals have had their mental will controlled by the gemstone, then the situation is troublesome.
After all, to some extent, the two in the Black Wood Squad indeed made the decision to stay back with Horak to investigate the gemstone’s origin, and Xia Nan also didn’t choose to immediately leave after arriving at Sheep Horn Town, opting instead to leisurely prepare the needed supplies for the upcoming journey.
To put it bluntly, the behavior of the three in Sheep Horn Town could indeed encompass the range of influence by the gemstone, with the subconscious infatuation and desire for possession slowly fermenting, prompting them to linger longer in the town.
Fortunately, after careful reflection, Xia Nan felt a bit relieved.
Firstly, even if the gemstone has already influenced their perception, Xia Nan was able to detect the "peculiarities of the town residents and Horak," and proactively shared his discoveries with the Black Wood Squad duo, while Margaret and Soldin also didn’t intentionally overlook it but considered it seriously.
This implies that even if they have been subject to some kind of mental influence, it’s not too severe.
At least it has not reached the level where cognition is blocked, and thought and will are forcibly altered.
Secondly, regarding Xia Nan himself.
He is conscious of having full control over his actions and thoughts.
If he suddenly thinks of "leaving Sheep Horn Town immediately," there’s no internal resistance.
He can leave anytime he wants.
Whether to leave or not depends on him alone.
This also indicates the gemstone hasn’t had the same effect on him as it did on Horak.
Meanwhile, Margaret, who raised the issue, also realized this point as soon as she finished speaking.
Her tightly knit brows slightly relaxed.
"So what should we do?" Sitting beside them, Soldin’s expression is particularly stern.
Evidently, this straightforward dwarf man also realized the gravity of the situation.
"Should we abandon the mission and leave directly?"
"But judging by Horak’s attitude, he might not be willing."
One naturally wouldn’t have any qualms because of this wealthy businessman.
No matter how much wealth he has, he ultimately remains an ordinary person without extraordinary power—wealth itself has yet to reach a quantity sufficient to achieve qualitative change.
To put it bluntly, if it were a group of adventurers with relatively low morals, not only detecting the danger in Sheep Horn Town and sitting in the box discussing with teammates how to explain it to the employer, they might estimate half the task would involve robbing the other party clean, and then tossing the blame to some goblin or demon—who would be able to do anything?
If it really doesn’t work out, being an adventurer team without any familial constraints, one could just flee to some neighboring provinces, and who could catch them?
Although Soldin was seemingly asking how the two intended to account to Horak, he was actually trying to gauge Margaret and Xia Nan’s attitude towards the wealthy merchant.
In this regard, Xia Nan wouldn’t betray his principles.
At this moment, he’s contemplating more doubts he has discovered.
According to what Horak and his assistant A fu disclosed, rumors about a jade mine possibly existing around Sheep Horn Town had circulated in Neum as early as several months ago.
Considering the long distance between Sheep Horn Town and Neum, several towns along the way were surely informed too.
But the bizarre aspect is, despite the vast wealth represented by the jade mine, during these several months, over a hundred days, the only actual gemstone flowing out from Sheep Horn Town is the one in Horak’s possession.
Xia Nan finds it hard to believe those greedy adventurers and merchants would miss such an opportunity.
The only possibility is that the townspeople, when the first batch of "gold seekers" arrived in the town, had already been deeply infected by the pink Jadestone, exhibiting a reaction as paranoid and irritable as they do to Horak today, collectively concealing and circumventing related information.
This isolated batch after batch of coveters from the treasure.
Thinking of this, Xia Nan suddenly felt a subtle concern.
This kind of large-scale cognitive influence case seems to be something he... experienced firsthand once:
—The Sheep Deer Statue, Neum Evil God incident.
However, presently, the pink Jadestone is inferior to it both in scale and extent of influence.
Its confusion control ability seems to affect ordinary civilians only and is ineffective on professionals.
