Chapter 17

After a thorough search, Lumian found quite a few gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins, totaling 197 fels and 25 kopps.

Among them, there were five gold louis.

As for paper money, he only found some疑似残骸.

In addition to the money, Lumian also found a small blue book.

The book had a gray-blue cover, was 16mo in size, and was widely available in the Intis countryside and towns.

It was based on a calendar, integrating almanac and religious doctrines of the two major churches, which played a significant role in guiding farmers and herders in farming, production, and herding, and enriching their spiritual lives.

Of course, even nearly two hundred years after Emperor Roselle advocated compulsory education, there were still a large number of farmers, herders, and workers who could not recognize a few words and were illiterate. They could only rely on the explanations of certain people around them to obtain the desired guidance from the small blue book.

Lumian casually flipped through a few pages and found that this small blue book was not much different from the one at home, except that it looked a bit older.

"Having the small blue book and so many fels, this family must be one of the better-off in the countryside. There wouldn't be more than five similar families in Cordu Village..." Lumian discarded the small blue book and sorted the gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins into different pockets—some were hidden deep in the inner pockets of his cotton jacket, some were placed in his trouser pockets, and some were casually stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket.

Although Lumian knew that he couldn't bring this money into reality, he couldn't help but collect and preserve it.

These small things, whether gold, silver, or copper, always made him unable to look away.

In his past life as a wanderer, even a single kopp or rik of copper coin was something he cherished, often fighting with others over it and taking risks to do certain things.

After a quick look around, Lumian picked up his axe and moved towards a collapsed building closer to the reddish-brown peak.

He gradually delved deeper, each time passing through the blank area in the middle of the ring, feeling nervous and afraid that dozens of monsters might suddenly surge out and surround him in an open area.

In the faint gray mist, Lumian bent his back and came to a half-collapsed stone wall, crouching there to hide his figure.

He cautiously poked his head out and looked ahead.

It was a narrow strip of land between two rows of destroyed buildings, with no trees or weeds, only rubble, cracks, and soil.

Suddenly, a figure caught Lumian's eye.

It stood inside the opposite building, seemingly gazing at something.

The figure wore a black robe with a hood, and its back showed no abnormalities, appearing like an ordinary human.

Lumian's heart tightened, becoming even more vigilant.

In such a dream wasteland, the appearance of a normal person was far more terrifying than the appearance of a monster!

As if sensing someone watching, the figure slowly turned around.

Lumian quickly glanced and hurriedly pulled his head back, leaning against the wall, not daring to move.

Just that one glance gave him the illusion that he might be in hell or the abyss.

The figure was indeed human, but it had three faces and six eyes!

The front face had murky eyes, sparse eyebrows, and numerous wrinkles, clearly that of an old man;

The left side had a sharp jawline, piercing blue eyes, and a thick, dark beard, like a burly man;

The right side had smooth, fine skin, like a peeled egg, with a pair of bright blue eyes that exuded obvious innocence and naivety, clearly not more than five years old.

"What kind of monster is this..." Lumian struggled to control his breathing, trying to keep his heart from racing.

Even in Aure's horror stories, such a monster had never appeared, only in the deepest, darkest, and most absurd nightmares.

Although judging by appearance is not good, just by this look, Lumian instinctively felt that the three-faced monster was far more powerful than the previous skinless monster!

Moreover, it likely possessed extraordinary powers.

"Eternal Sun, great father, please protect me from being discovered by it..." In this situation, the pantheist Lumian couldn't help but pray to the "Eternal Sun."

If not for the axe in his hand and the dangerous environment, he would have spread his arms in the "Praise the Sun" pose.

At this moment, time seemed to freeze, and Lumian thought he might be hallucinating:

It seemed that a gaze had penetrated the wall and landed on his back.

His back instantly stiffened, feeling a slight burning sensation.

After just a couple of seconds, the hallucination disappeared, and heavy footsteps moved away.

Lumian waited a while until the footsteps completely faded, then slowly straightened his knees, turned his body, and poked his head out to look ahead.

The monster was farther away, behind a building with intact sides but a collapsed middle, revealing half its body in the faint gray mist.

It still faced away from Lumian, as if turned to stone.

Lumian quietly sighed in relief.

Facing such a monster, he had no confidence at all.

"Directly delving deeper into the wasteland is definitely not feasible... Should I go around?

"Are there no similar monsters in other places?

"The closer to that peak, the more powerful the monsters that appear?"

Lumian withdrew his body, thought for a moment, and decided to end the night here.

He planned to ask the woman who gave him the tarot card the next morning if there were any ways to deal with the three-faced monster, and if not, consider going around.

He bent his back, left the wall, and headed back.

At this moment, he had an idea:

"If I fall asleep in this wasteland, will I also leave the dream?"

Considering the numerous monsters around, he temporarily suppressed the urge to try.

On the way back, he quickly searched each destroyed building he passed, but found no useful written materials, and only a few coins.

After retreating for a while, Lumian thought and decided to take a slight detour, approaching the first burned-down house from the side, where he had buried the skinless monster.

He wanted to observe whether the death of that monster would be noticed by its kind and whether it would cause any changes.

Finding the location and hiding his body, Lumian poked his head out from the side to look at the target area.

The next second, he saw another figure.

The figure was half-human, half-beast, with its legs folded forward, squatting there, examining the skinless monster's corpse.

It had already removed the stones and wood that Lumian had piled up.

It wore a dark jacket and relatively tight, muddy long pants, with messy, greasy black hair that reached its neck, and carried a hunting rifle on its back.

Hunting rifle!

Lumian quickly averted his gaze and pulled his head back.

"These monsters are really outrageous!

"Using hunting rifles..."

At that moment, Lumian felt a sense of absurdity, disillusionment, and disappointment, as if he were a hunter with weapons and companions going up the mountain to hunt, only to find that the rabbit on the other side was aiming at them with a water-cooled machine gun.

Time passed, and he patiently waited for the monster with the hunting rifle to leave.

Finally, he heard a slight noise that gradually moved away.

Lumian cautiously poked his head out again and looked at the half-human, half-beast monster.

It moved like a cat, heading to the back of the building.

Lumian first felt a weight lifted from his heart, then widened his eyes.

He realized that the path the monster took was exactly the same as the route he had taken when he delved deeper into the wasteland!

"It's tracking me!

"It has a very strong, beyond-normal tracking ability!"

Lumian instinctively made this judgment.

He was immensely relieved that he had the sudden idea to take a detour on his way back, otherwise, he would have surely encountered it head-on, or even been ambushed!

As soon as the monster's figure disappeared, Lumian quickly got up and ran home.

The red furnace fire reflected on the glass window of the ground floor of the house, like sunlight that could dispel the darkness.

Lumian ran all the way to the two-story building, pulled open the slightly ajar door, and rushed in.

After locking the door, he looked out the window at the wasteland.

In the distance, at the edge of the wasteland, a figure was vaguely standing, but it did not approach.

Phew, Lumian exhaled, preparing to extinguish the furnace fire, go upstairs to sleep, and leave the dream.

He glanced at the still burning furnace fire, feeling a bit puzzled:

"It will burn for a while...

"I can experiment to see if it continues to burn until it goes out, or if it freezes at the moment I leave the dream..."

Lumian had previously confirmed through the rain that the wasteland in the wilderness developed naturally, regardless of whether he was dreaming or not, but whether the so-called safe zone inside his house was the same still needed to be verified.

He decided to act on his thoughts, added a few more pieces of coal to the furnace, stirred it, and then took his axe and steel fork upstairs to his bedroom.

...

When Lumian woke up, it was just dawn.

He checked his shirt-like pajamas and, as expected, found the gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins had not followed him into reality.

He got up, stretched, and walked to the desk, reaching out to pull the curtains.

With a rustling sound, soft and clear light flowed in.

As the window opened, fresh air entered Lumian's nostrils, making him stretch lazily, feeling that sometimes getting up early was quite pleasant.

Of course, this also had to thank Emperor Roselle for strongly promoting the "Patriotic Health Campaign," which, although had a limited impact on the countryside, still brought some improvements, at least making feces a treasure instead of being everywhere, and later rulers for preserving it, just changing its name.

His gaze moved around, sometimes looking at the distant mountains and forests, sometimes gazing at the orange-red clouds on the horizon, and sometimes observing the weeds outside the house.

Suddenly, Lumian's gaze froze.

He saw a large bird perched on a nearby elm tree.

The bird had a sharp beak, a cat-like face, brown feathers with fine spots, and brownish-yellow whites with black pupils, making it look very alert.

It was an owl.

It seemed to be looking at Lumian.