Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 173 Mission: 02-1 Gathering of Heroes
"I see, is this the realm gate?"

After passing through the gate, Nero looked back inside and could no longer see the scenery of the North District. The fiery red city walls and European-style buildings were far behind her, replaced by a long street of cherry blossoms in full bloom.

Between the white walls and red tiles, a gentle breeze carrying flower petals passes through the streets, as if in an instant we have arrived from late autumn to warm spring.

"Realm Gates" are special doors connecting the various outer doors of the small garden, allowing those living there to travel back and forth. However, unlike the spatial passages cut by Nero with his Yama Blade, Realm Gates, while connected, do not manipulate space to instantly transport people to other locations. Instead, they transform people or objects passing through them into "astral bodies," detaching from the material world and enabling superluminal long-distance travel.

After passing through the gate, Nero arrived at the 2105380 outer gate in the east area of ​​the box garden. This seemed to be the outer gate closest to the venue of the game "Flowers of a Thousand Rivers and Lakes" - the Tolly Tunis Falls at the end of the world.

"Come on, let's go for a walk."

Nero tugged at the chain in her hand, and the silver wolf San-Na followed her silently. It no longer maintained its massive size, now only half a man's height, and its expression seemed somewhat cold.

Since Nero showed up here with it, she had obviously signed up for the game. When Nero jumped off San Na's back, the faces of those who had seen her in the store before could almost be screenshotted and used as emoticons.

Several days had passed by then. After Nero went back to see Pest, he participated in a few small gift games and got the money to use the realm gate. Then he brought San Na to the east area of ​​the box garden.

The games were about to begin, and the streets here seemed quite lively. Nero had heard that Thousand Eyes was the ruling power of the East District, overseeing all five-, six-, and seven-digit Outer Gates within the district and charging fees for using the Realm Gates. The current grand occasion seemed to have made them quite a fortune.

By hosting the Gift Games, they attracted representatives from larger communities to participate. The actions of these larger communities attracted even more smaller communities to follow suit, leading to the hosting of even more Gift Games. As the region's popularity continued to rise, Thousand Eyes, as a commercial community alliance, not only secured more deals but also earned a substantial commission from the use of the Realm Gates, effectively achieving multiple goals at once.

Sure enough, this is what a large organization is. Once it's big enough, it can make money no matter what it does.

Nero sighed silently and began to stroll along the stone streets along the river.

The competition wouldn't start until the day after tomorrow, so Nero was currently quite free. She only needed to figure out how to stand out in the game, and Pest and the organization behind her would naturally handle the rest.

As long as you can enter the gift game of [Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Beasts], you should be able to find clues about the magic swordsman Sparda.

Although Nero didn't know what he could do with these clues, he believed that everyone should have a goal. Without a goal, it would be easy to feel empty and confused.

The clear river flowed slowly, and falling cherry blossoms drifted down the stream, creating a few ripples. However, this river, this water, and the flowers in it all belonged to the "territorial ruler." Taking them at will would be considered stealing.

Especially the fist-sized white flowers that bloomed in the river, floating on the surface. These were the "daffodil eggs," a specialty of the eastern part of the Hakoniwa district, mentioned in the Gift game. These flowers, without roots, absorb impurities in the water to grow, purifying it, hence their ornamental planting in rivers.

It was chosen as a collection item in the Gift Game precisely because of its important role in purifying water and its high value.

In other words, the narcissus eggs collected in the game will eventually be returned to [Thousand Eyes] through the "prize exchange" method, which is simply a free-for-all. However, considering that [Thousand Eyes] does offer some valuable items that cannot be bought with money, it is not surprising that this gift game has attracted many large communities.

Nero, holding Sanna's hand, walked through a shower of pink blossoms, looking elegant and casual. However, throughout the journey, Nero's seemingly aimless gaze was actually constantly focused on the crowd, searching for a potential competitor. It was due to a simple logic. The rules of "Flowers of a Thousand Rivers and Lakes" only prohibited "killing a competitor," which implicitly permitted fighting others for possession. Although both Pest and Sanna believed Nero had at least five-digit strength, five digits was still five digits, and there were still one, two, three, and four to go. Nero himself felt that this was not enough.

At least she believed she couldn't defeat Pest. Perhaps she could withstand Pest's death wind and avoid defeat, but victory was definitely out of her reach.

So, she felt that she had to investigate her opponents first.

"Anyone familiar or a community?"

Nero asked softly, naturally referring to San Na who was beside her.

"I'm sorry, my Lord."

San Na replied in a low voice: "I don't know anyone here. As for the community, I believe you can recognize those flags."

As it spoke, it turned its head and gestured for Nero to look at a shop on the street.

"[Scepter of Commerce], a commercial community under the Greek gods, with a headquarters in the five digits."

As Sanna had said, the flag depicted a caduceus with two snakes, a simple and easy-to-understand design. The flag and the community's name were identical, both referring to the caduceus of Hermes, one of the twelve Greek gods.

Nero certainly knew this community, and anyone with a basic understanding of Greek mythology would certainly recognize it.

"The Six Wounds of the Dragon Horned Eagle Lion belong to the strongest community alliance in the lower echelons of the Southern District. The Dragon Horned Eagle Lion was once ranked in the four digits. It is also a business community."

This one, however, was not so easy to spot. The Dragonhorn Griffin's flag was conspicuous, but based solely on that simple banner with six claw marks, it was hard to tell that this community had any significant background.

"And Perseus over there is one of the subordinate communities of the Thousand Eyes."

San-Na pointed out another banner to Nero. It had snakes and a demonic eye painted against the backdrop of the constellation Perseus, presumably a reference to Medusa's petrifying eye. "Just like the [Scepter of Commerce], it's in the five-digit range—"

Halfway through the conversation, San Na suddenly froze.

"Strange, where is their [Thousand Eyes] Alliance flag?"

(End of this chapter)