After getting over the shock what Chao said, I explained to him, that this was an Outpost. I talked about the Shop, the Blacksmith, and the Alchemy Shop, and his eyes widened with each word. Of course I didn’t leave out the training grounds, or the walls that surrounded every building. It was his turn to be shocked at the news. We had been talking for a while, so I finally offered to let him rest but he said it was fine, as this was very important for him and his group.
Hm, we’ll get back to that.
“Chao, I apologize id this comes across as offensive, but what language are you speaking?”
I couldn’t hold back my curiosity any longer. His mouth was moving one way, but words sounded like perfectly clear English. It kind of reminded me of watching those terrible cam recorded bootleg movies, where the sound didn’t sync up with the video.
“I’m speaking Mandarin. I’m assuming you all are speaking English, right?”
“Yes, we are…but Mandarin? How are you speaking Mandarin?”
“Well, I’m Chinese. I was at home in China with my brother when all of this happened. And…based on your reaction, everyone in this Outpost pretty much speaks English right?
“Yes, we do.”
I knew everyone from the planet was transported to the Tutorial. It wasn’t like those shows or movies that had world ending crises, but the entire story was set in one city in America. No, the entire planet was affected by this. And even though I knew that, it still felt a little surreal to see someone was living on the complete other side of the world sitting here.
“That makes sense, we dealt with something similar during the first week or so. There are a lot of people from all over the world in my group. A lot of different languages were being spoken at the same time, but everyone only hears the language they are most familiar with. Even now as I communicate with you all. I am hearing Mandarin. It looks weird because your lips definitely aren’t moving according to what your saying due to the fact your speaking English, but I am hearing Mandarin.”
Now it was back to us being shocked again…
Again, I knew there was definitely some type of way, to speak the same language as someone else, because Greja is a whole different race from humans altogether, yet she appeared to speak perfect English. Well, her lips matched her words so maybe she was actually speaking English? I don’t know. Either way, this is amazing. With everyone being forcefully teleported to who knows where, to fight off monsters, it would probably really suck if you couldn’t understand the people you were teleported with.
Hopefully this isn’t something restricted to the Tutorial and this ability persists afterwards as well.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Anyway.
“Wow, that’s actually amazing, I’m sure that was really helpful for your group, but speaking of your group. How many of you are there?”
“I don’t know the exact number but by now there are probably a little under 100 of us. We weren’t always that big, but over the weeks, new people would pop up from time to time, and we would then have to wait until the merchant came back so that they can get tents. Until then new folks would have no choice but to sleep outside, or maybe be lucky enough that someone else wanted to share.”
Close to a 100 people…that’s a lot of people to just introduce to the Outpost all at once. A small part of me would rather not do that, but this was the whole point of turning on the Beacon.
“What about attacks? Was your group facing attacks every morning?”
“We have been attacked at least once a day for the last couple weeks. They’ve ramped up a bit recently but it’s kind of the norm for us. Thankfully we have a lot of good fighters now, and the brothers were strong. Two of them were 2nd Cycle, and the Eldest was 3rd Cycle. So, they are a big help in defending the group, and it was part of the reason everyone kind of accepted them as the leaders of the group.”
3rd Cycle huh…I see. Also, he said everyone accepted them. That kind of implies they weren’t being forced, which is a good thing. And once a day for the last couple of weeks. That doesn’t really sound like what we’ve been going through. Well, he said it ramped up a bit recently, so maybe that’s their version of the new stage.
“Now this merchant, what do they look like and how does it all work?”
“He kind of just shows up. He wears a mask and a cloak, but we can see his hands, and he is definitely green. We all initially thought he was a Goblin when we first showed up and attacked, but one casual swipe was of his was enough to knock as all down, but thankfully instead of pressing the issue, he just explained that he was a merchant here to provide goods to us.
“The only things he sold us were food pills, water, clothes, tutorial weapons, tents, and a basic cultivation manual. Reading that was quite the shock. I grew up hearing about Qi and other similar concepts, so it was a big surprise to read about it. Haha…my brother felt like all of China was destined for greatness and he worked to get stronger…sorry about that…I’ll continue. Ahem, the Merchant didn’t carry any goods with him, he just listed out the things we could buy, the cost, and the quantities we were allowed to purchase. Oh, and he exchanged the cores of Goblins for coins.
“Once we told him what we wanted, and provided the necessary payment, the items would simply appear and then he would vanish. That was it.”
So this merchant was likely of the same race as Greja and the others. Interesting. He also didn’t sell any potions, or most of the things from the shop, so these folks were cultivating without much help. I guess folks either adapt and survive or stay the same and die.
Though this was good overall. 26 Outpost were definitely not enough for the billions of people on earth, so its good that for others who weren’t able to make it to an Outpost to still get some support in the form of a merchant.
Now...what should we do next. I guess I should ask him how feels first. It’s probably not wise to assume they even want to move here.
“So, Chao, what do you plan to do from here?”
“…Well, I was hoping that you all would allow my group to move to this Outpost. Even if we aren’t given houses, we would be thankful even have the opportunity to move our tents inside the walls!”
Okay I guess it was dumb to assume they wouldn’t want to move here. Of course, Chao doesn’t speak for all of them, but I’m sure most of them probably feel the same way. My only worry would be the three brothers. I’ve heard it’s hard to give up leadership once you have it. Would they be alright with taking a backseat to Richard and myself?
I hope so.
For their sake.