"Boss, boss! Boss, do you think this looks good or not? This is for you!"

"Boss, try this! I heard this treat is only sold in this city across the whole continent, and they say it’s made with pure fruits!"

"Boss, let’s go watch the fireworks! There’s a nearby town that sets off fireworks every twenty days. They say it’s made by alchemists using alchemy by-products, and it’s really beautiful. I’ve never seen it before. How about we go tonight to watch the fireworks?"

"Boss, boss, can you stop pulling my ear? Pulling won’t make me grow taller anyway..."

The voice of this chattering little girl never quieted for even a minute the whole way, and it was so loud that even the passersby kept glancing over. What they saw was a loli who didn’t look older than ten, following a man closely, hopping and chattering nonstop to assert her presence. If one ignored her odd way of addressing, this could be seen as a little girl being taken out shopping by an adult, pestering about something she liked—though if anyone’s daughter was really like Lilina, I could only wish their ancestors from eight generations the best. This girl is really hard to control when she gets hyper.

"What’s gotten into her these past two days?" After chopping Lilina, who was trying to jump onto me, back down again, I looked at my sister with a headache, seeing this girl beside me overly excited at all times, constantly showing me all sorts of strange items. Of course, Lilina often got hyper like this before, but today she seems more severe than usual. Big Sister smiled kindly at Lilina, gently explained, "You know her personality, suddenly getting hyper is typical. Plus, she’s not seen you for so many days, she might be missing you."

"I think she’s just gone crazy playing in this world, can’t cool down," I curled my lips, then sighed softly, bent down to pick Lilina up and placed her on one side of my shoulder. At least this might quiet her down a bit, while on the other shoulder Mercury Lamp was already sitting. As soon as the little doll saw her arch-enemy put on the opposite side, she pressed her finger in the middle of my head and loudly warned: "Okay, see this boundary? This side is my territory, you’re not allowed to cross the line!"

Me: "..." What does this troublesome kid take me for!

Lilina’s goal of asserting her presence had been achieved, and smugly she refrained from quarreling with Mercury Lamp, swinging her feet instead, "Boss, this world is interesting, isn’t it? Everything is so mysterious all around."

I smacked my lips, "Indeed, it’s quite fascinating, though we spent two days on a deserted prairie, not much fun there. But you guys seem to have quite an exciting time in this world."

I glanced at Lilina sideways. The clothes she wore were evidently newly acquired in this world, appearing both ornate and intricate. It was a dress of blue and purple mingled with white embellishments, somewhat resembling a little princess’s gown, yet with two golden broad lines straight down the front, inexplicably adding a sense of majesty to the dress. The hem was adorned with f feather-like decorations, light and translucent, very pretty. However, Lilina’s nouveau riche antics completely destroyed the princess dress’s "noble, ornate, majestic" appeal:

Around her neck hung at least a dozen varieties of souvenir trinkets, their crude craftsmanship and pungent aromas unmistakably identifying them as cheap souvenirs bought on the street, originally meant to deceive tourists from afar. Her hands were wrapped in seven or eight bracelets, I even suspect this girl wouldn’t be out of place if she claimed to be a descendant of the Iron Wire Fist. Her ankles jingled as they moved, as she wore four anklets; astonishingly she tied three different colored belts, although she claimed two of them as traditional ornaments of the city. Beyond these, not mentioning small animal bones amulets, wooden swords, shining beads that emerged from her pockets, when Lilina first appeared in front of me, she was simply a walking display rack, covered in these sorts of cheap, obviously tourist-boosting items from scenic spots: she didn’t even stow them in her personal space, showcasing the mindset of a silly nouveau riche. Thankfully, Little Baobao later took away a lot of her glittering novelties, making Lilina’s appearance actually more normal now.

Little Crow and Vanilla’s clothing was also similar in style to Lilina’s, likely custom-made together, but the two weren’t as nouveau riche-like as Lilina, draping themselves with a bunch of clutter. The two identical little girls strolled the streets wearing beautiful princess dresses, filled with curiosity as they gazed at the passing scenery, like twin little angels attracting many glances. Behind them were Pandora and Visca, Bubbles and Little Baobao...

The number of pedestrians increased on both sides, possibly thinking we were having a twin parade, thankfully this wasn’t Earth, otherwise, at least a dozen people would have crowded over asking for a photo.

Big Sister was still wearing the ordinary Otherworld long dress she had on when departing, seemingly not joining the little girls’ crazy frenzy.

"These are souvenirs!" Lilina grabbed the pile of pendants around her neck, making her look like an old chieftain of a Central African country, "Of course, going out means going crazy with buying souvenirs, otherwise, what’s the point of going out. Look at this, it’s woven with the beard of the Black Sharp-Horned Sheep, can resist illness and three kinds of illness-related disasters. This amulet, polished from shining pebbles at Light Water River Beach, carries the blessing of the River God. If you can swim, you’ll have a chance not to drown if accidents happen..."

Me: "...I feel something is off."

"Anyway, it’s all for fun, everyone knows it’s a hoax," Lilina said proudly, waving her hand, then randomly selected a shiny crystal pendant and put it around my neck, "Picked especially for you, to greatly enhance your presence because it’s a female pendant."

I unhesitatingly tossed it into my personal space.

"Ah Jun, when are we eating?" Sandora pitifully rubbed her stomach as she approached, "Hungry, haven’t eaten anything since morning when we rushed here. Everything looks delicious all around..."

I hastily shook Lilina, who was on my shoulder: "Find a place to eat immediately! Before this city is destroyed!"

"Hey, I know a good place!" Lilina immediately puffed up with pride, pointing ahead, "Straight ahead is the central sculpture of this city, and a quarter of the square is full of places to eat. I reckon it’s the only place that can feed Sister Sandora."

Upon hearing this, Sandora immediately set off without further ado: "Let’s go, let’s go, let’s eat first! Haven’t had a decent meal in two days!"

We quickly found the central square Lilina mentioned, which was quite easy to locate. The plain where this city is situated is roughly circular and is divided into two halves. One half is an open area that serves as the projection point for the lost worlds converging with the Mother Continent during Miracle Day. The other half is the "Port" city of "Sen Tu," where we currently are. In the local language, "Sen Tu" means "port" or "passage." The central square is located at the very center of this crescent-shaped city, and three wide and smooth stone roads lead directly from the port square to the central square. You just follow the road straight ahead to find it.

The crescent-shaped city is reminiscent of the moon, and the central square has been designed to be crescent-shaped as well, matching the city’s contour. In the middle of this elongated "moon-shaped square," we saw the city’s most famous sculpture: the Explorer.

This is a figure sculpture, roughly estimated to be over ten meters high, sculpted entirely from heavy black stones. It depicts a robust man climbing a cliff, wearing tight leather clothing with a beast skin apron at his waist. He carries several tools on his back, whose purposes are unclear but seemingly not for combat, as he climbs a giant rock with exerted force. His muscles bulge, and veins stand out on his forehead. However, inexplicably, the protagonist of the sculpture has no face: it’s not weathered, but rather the sculpture has not depicted a face at all.

"This is a symbol of the city, Sen Tu Port is one of the oldest cities on this continent, tracing back to prehistoric times," Lilina played the role of our guide, explaining eloquently under the sculpture, "In the beginning, there occasionally appeared unknown zone projections all over the continent. People at that time were filled with confusion and fear, viewing these images as formidable threats and avoiding them at all costs. Such a situation arose because many brave people wanted to find out what these suddenly appearing zones were, but these time-sensitive zone projections could disappear at any moment, and it was never known when they would return. Without the current ’cycle calendar,’ ninety percent of those who entered the mysterious worlds never returned, and the rest came back scratched and insane. They recounted being sent into a forgotten world, containing huge ruins and ancient guardians that would kill any intruders. Over time, people no longer dared to touch these strange appearing regions and called them lost worlds."

At this point, Lilina paused, and I cooperatively put on a look of indifference, indicating she could talk or not, prompting Lilina to continue with a sense of resentment: "Later, an audacious guy came here carrying a heap of random luggage and enough food for half a month. At that time, there was no Sen Tu Port, not even a single soul. In the prehistoric era where transportation relied entirely on foot, he was the first to find this barren land. He entered one of the few absolutely safe lost worlds: the Ancient Garden. Unsurprisingly, he returned alive, except for almost catching a severe stomach illness from eating grass for half a month, he was otherwise fine. From that day on, people finally figured out that these lost worlds weren’t necessarily a death trap, and that brave soul brought back a bunch of plants never seen before on this continent from the Ancient Garden, with several proving to have alchemical value. Alchemy technology was still in its infancy then, and people were eager to use all kinds of strange materials. With the continent’s existing alchemical materials being limited, various herbs collected only from the Ancient Garden immediately made the lucky guy a big fortune. Following that, more and more explorers flocked to the Ancient Garden, forming the embryonic shape of Sen Tu Port. Eventually, the Ancient Garden couldn’t satisfy people, so more people formed well-equipped teams to challenge other lost worlds. A lot happened and many brave explorers sacrificed their lives, eventually leading to the advent of the cycle calendar.

The cycle calendar is one of the two most important calendars in this world. Initially, it was just a collection of fragmented experiences summarized by some exploration teams, later compiled into a complete calendar by a highly respected old explorer. It covers about eighty percent of the lost world’s appearance rules and basics. You could say the current structure of the world: humans coexisting with lost worlds, gathering resources and knowledge from them, various strange religious legends associated with otherworld fragments, and so on, were initially pioneered by explorers. Therefore, as the oldest port connecting to lost worlds, Sen Tu’s city symbol is the image of a striving explorer. The sculpture has no face, symbolizing explorers as a group rather than a specific individual."

"Sadly, time passes, and many things have changed." Lilina sighed at this point, "Hundreds of years ago, explorers enjoyed high status, but this profession is loosely structured, harboring good and bad alike, lacking stability from the start. As more lost worlds were thoroughly explored, even with permanent camps established, traveling to those worlds no longer required taking enormous risks. The value and status of explorers have plummeted. Think about it, under the escort of a professional army, even an old farmer can casually go to the lost world to dig up herbs, how many people still value explorers? Nowadays, ’explorer’ has nearly become a synonym for those with no skills or means of livelihood, only possessing a measure of courage, surviving by scavenging treasures in areas not fully controlled by humans. Many lost worlds have remnants from previous civilizations; scholars and alchemists need the relics inside. Also, the Ancient Garden, initially considered an important herbal source, has lost popularity since all the plant seeds brought from there have successfully been cultivated on the Mother Continent, sparing people from painstakingly waiting for the cycle to collect herbs in lost worlds, which is one reason why explorers gradually lost their status: many materials from lost worlds became worthless. Now, the Ancient Garden is just a picturesque waypoint; people set off from Sen Tu, stop briefly at the Ancient Garden, then transit to other lost worlds. Explorers go to dangerous places like the Ancient City, whereas travelers and merchants usually head next to the Hanging River or Sky Tower. This world is truly vast, even talking about it for a day wouldn’t cover it all; this planet, larger than Earth, is only a small part of what you can see, and all those fragmented lost worlds combined, I suspect might be dozens of times the size of the Mother Planet, who knows how they formed."

I didn’t expect Lilina to have learned so much about this world already. It should be noted that just two days ago, she, like us, was unaware of the "lost worlds." And in a mere two days, she managed to gather so much information, her activity level is truly astonishing. My sister noticed my amazement and smiled, whispering, "She’s been busy understanding the local customs of this world for the past two days just so she could boast to you all day today." I was taken aback for a moment, then smiled slightly: typical of this girl.

"Ah Jun, shall we go eat there?" Sandora didn’t care about the local customs of this world; such trivial matters couldn’t catch the eye of Her Majesty the Queen, who had a million things to manage. She just thought it was time to eat and shook my arm vigorously, pointing at a row of food vendors on the edge of the square, "It looks pretty tasty."

Lilina shook her head: "That’s selling vegetable porridge and gray cakes. The people here stew various vegetables with a kind of bean-like staple food and then use that bean to grind into flour to make cakes. It’s the most common food around here and quite tasty. Let’s go, it’s on me. I’m quite rich now, boss. I’ll tell you about our ventures here later. Little Bird is already half a guardian now..."

Although I was quite interested in Lilina’s story, feeding Sandora was still a priority. Very soon, we arrived at a relatively large food stall. All of us, whether imperial relatives or True Gods from heaven, were soaked in the small commodity market and roadside stalls since childhood, so we weren’t concerned about appearances. The whole group of us immediately took up half of the stall’s space. By then, it seemed we’d already passed lunchtime, and there weren’t many people eating here. The appearance of a large group of customers immediately made the stall owner beam with joy: he was a short, stout middle-aged man with exceptionally thick hair and beard. Lilina whispered to me that he was likely a hybrid of human and dwarf.

"Bring all the food you have left, we’ll take it all," I glanced at Sandora and said to the stall owner. Seeing his surprised expression, I added, "It’s okay, if we can’t finish it, we’ll take it away." Then I instructed Sandora, "Er, if it’s not enough, bear with it a bit. We’ll go to the next one, don’t eat up the entire stall."

Her Majesty the Queen pitifully murmured an ’oh,’ her expression already prepared for hunger and hardship...

Taking her out to eat is always like this, I’m used to it, so most of the time I let Sandora eat at home for convenience. At least we don’t have to move around to different restaurants to avoid causing a sensation. While the stall owner was preparing the food, I took a look at the tableware of this world. I noticed that except for the spoon, which was about the same as on Earth, the remaining two pieces looked quite odd. One was a sharp-edged rolling knife, and I learned that most main courses in this world were in cake form, so this was specifically for cutting. The other was a metal clip about a foot long, which was used for picking up food.

The handling was quite simple. I was glad I didn’t have to struggle like foreigners learning to use chopsticks. However, Qianqian was amazing; she unhesitatingly took out a pair of chopsticks from her personal space and giggled at me, "Just used to this!"

I figured she was right, so under Qianqian’s influence, everyone ditched the bizarre local tableware. Except for Vanilla, everyone pulled out chopsticks. Of course, most people didn’t have chopsticks in their personal spaces (like Pandora and the others), so they borrowed from Qianqian. When the stall owner came over, he looked at us blankly. I guess if you ran a restaurant and someone threw away the bowls and chopsticks and pulled out a chainsaw to eat, you’d have the same expression.

"Hehe, we are travelers from the East; this is the custom in our hometown," I chuckled and casually explained to the stall owner in a catch-all way. The stall owner looked more confused: "...This is the easternmost part of the continent; usually, the East refers to this place."

Me: "..." To hell with the universal mysterious eastern country bluff in web novels... (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes, monthly votes; your support is my greatest motivation.)