Chapter 39 - ABOUT THE SILVER LOTUS (1/2)
THE next moment Luo Yan opened his eyes, he was already back at the bedroom of his small cottage. He stared blankly at the wooden ceiling. Then realization came. He really died. He died at a beginner level hidden event task! He suddenly became silly for a moment. He covered his face in shame and rolled around the wooden bed.
He'd been so proud of his experience as an old player and yet some plant just easily killed him. If everyone knew of his situation of being reborn and playing this game, then he would surely be the laughingstock of everyone. A player who once topped the PK rankings was killed by a plant without him even knowing it. If that's not laughable, then he didn't know what else was.
When Luo Yan finally calmed down from his shame, he sat up and reviewed all the things that just happened.
When he touched one of those glowing silver things, a gray smoke came out of it and enveloped him. Which in turn made him unable to move. No, it's not that he was unable to move. It's more accurate to say that his time was suspended. When he woke up after a long coma, the feeling of being unable to move had been engraved in him. It was not the same feeling he got after that gray smoke enveloped his body.
With that, he could tell that those silver lights had the ability to suspend the time of the things or objects they came in contact with. No, since those silver lights came from the silver lotus, it's more right to say that it was the silver lotus which had that ability.
Going by that conjecture and considering the state of the Silent Marsh, it's probably safe to say that the reason behind its 'quietness' was the Silver Lotus. He knew it couldn't just be because of the presence of the dragon. If it was, then he should have been able to at least hear his footsteps. But he couldn't. A big enough proof that the Silent Marsh, or at least some parts of it, was in a suspended state.
Filli probably also fell victim to those silver lights coming out of the silver lotus. He either fell on the lake or was dragged by the roots of the silver lotus. Seeing as Luo Yan died just a few moments later after those roots entangled him, it probably had the ability to absorb the vitality of any living things.
Then how about Filli? If Luo Yan died that fast, then Filli should also be dead. He was missing for a month, which meant that he had been entangled by those roots for that long. How could he be alive?
Luo Yan shook his head. No, if he's really dead then there's no point for this hidden event task to exist. He could only assume that Filli was still alive. The only explanation he could give why he died so fast while Filli didn't was because he's a player and Filli was an NPC.
So how should he go and save Filli from that silver lotus?
An idea immediately appeared in his head. Now that he knew what he's facing, the chace of his success just increased. This time he'd make sure that he wouldn't be careless.
But first, he should probably ask the Elder if he knew anything about that silver lotus.
Thinking of the Elder, he remembered all that talk about the dragon sleeping at the Silent Marsh. Now that he thought about it, the reason why he didn't think of that lotus as something dangerous was because of the conversation he had with the Elder. He thought that the only enemy he would face would be the dragon and subconciously didn't take the other things in the marsh seriously. Which resulted to him unexpectedly dying.
If he went with this logic, then wouldn't this mean that the Elder just pitted him? He talked about that dragon so enthusiastically, Luo Yan really expected that it had something to do with the hidden event task. Unknowingly, the Elder just became a big pig teammate.
But even if the Elder was a pig teammate, he was still the biggest source of information here. So Luo Yan stood up and walked out of his small cottage.
He went straight to the Elder's yurt.
”Noctis, have you decided the date of your coming-of-age ceremony?” the Elder asked as usual when he saw him.