I Live on the Land in Global Games

Chapter 445: 428 Searching for DracoChapter 445: Chapter 428 Searching for Draco

“Trialists are indeed enviable,” Aleksey said, settling down into his seat.

Mu Ying nodded and, without further pleasantries, got straight to the point, “Does the collaborative agreement on the Forum still stand?”

“Of course it does,” Aleksey replied. “I’m genuinely worried about Draco. After the apocalypse, our relatives were all gone, leaving just the two of us brothers. Although before the end of the world we had different interests and chose to develop in different places, we were always close brothers. But I know how hard it is to find someone in the wilderness. Regardless of whether you ultimately find him or not, the deal with the Transmission Array stands. As long as you’ve seriously looked for him, that’s enough.”

Aleksey feared he might be asking too much. With his younger brother’s terrible sense of direction, he could manage to get by in familiar places, and with a phone, he could follow the GPS to find his way even in unfamiliar places.

But without familiar sights and no phone navigation, no one knew where he might wander off to.

Moreover, it had been such a long while; searching was truly difficult, with no landmarks to reference in the wasteland.

The most critical issue was that his brother had been living outdoors for a long time, and Aleksey hadn’t the slightest clue how unkempt he had become, making recognizing him no easy feat. However, Aleksey wasn’t holding much hope. Thankfully, his little brother was strong, so there was no imminent threat to his life in the wilderness.

“Can you tell me more about Draco? Details like his appearance, personality, things like that would be great. If you have any items related to him, that would be even better. I can use a Detecting Spell to gauge his rough location,” Mu Ying didn’t reveal whether she was confident in finding him or not.

“A spell?” That was a method Aleksey hadn’t considered before. The hope of finding his brother suddenly grew. “Of course, that’s possible. In fact, I’ve prepared a portrait of him in advance. However, I don’t have any of his belongings. Everything from before the apocalypse is gone. Will these help with the spell?”

Mu Ying nodded, “It could increase the success rate of the spell and provide more current information about him.”

Aleksey quickly brought out the portrait. “I drew this based on my memories from before the apocalypse; there might be a little difference from his current appearance.”

Mu Ying took a look at the realistic sketch of a strong and masculine young man.

Aleksey then shared some stories about Draco, all from before the apocalypse.

It was evident that Aleksey really hoped her spell would work; he didn’t leave out even the detail of Draco wetting the bed as a kid and secretly washing his sheets.

She listened to him talk for several hours.

Finally, Mu Ying took a strand of Aleksey’s hair since he shared a blood relation with Draco. His hair wasn’t as good as Draco’s for the spell but still somewhat useful.

Mu Ying began the Detecting Spell in front of Aleksey, sharing the vision it revealed with him.

Draco’s level and Perception Attribute were not as high as hers, and unsurprisingly, the process of detection was much easier than when she had searched for Sharon. Even though she had never met Draco, with the information and spellcasting materials provided by Aleksey, she succeeded on her first attempt.

In the vision, there was a dimly lit narrow cave, illuminated by a miner’s lamp that emitted a steady glow without any flame.

On a bear skin rug spread out on the cave floor, a dark-skinned man sat leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, as if in meditation, next to a notch-damaged heavy axe.

His head was covered in dusty, dirty dreadlocks that fell to his chest and a full beard covered his face. He was wrapped in crudely made animal skin clothing, barefoot with feet covered in dirt and calluses.

Despite this man looking vastly different from the portrait, Aleksey still recognized him. Who else could it be if not his unlucky brother?

Before this, he had imagined countless times what his brother might look like, but the reality still stunned him; he looked no different from a wild man.

Luckily, his breathing was stable, otherwise Aleksey might have thought he was looking at a corpse covered in scabs.

“Can you see where he is now?” asked Aleksey. If he couldn’t bring him back, he wouldn’t even be able to use his weapons; what then?

And now it was winter. Wearing so little, even with his strength, mustn’t be comfortable!

Mu Ying remained silent; the Detecting Spell still had some power left, so she tried to shift the viewpoint to get a clearer image.

First, she got a clearer view of the entire cave.

The cave seemed to have no exit, except for a large stone slab on the ceiling. Traces of the hand-carved dirt were evident everywhere else.

A small crack next to the large stone allowed a faint glimpse of some withered grass, lightly dusted with white snow.

When the spell ended and the vision was lost, Mu Ying said, “That’s the limit. The vision can’t move too far away from the target of the probe. It seems he has dug himself a hole to hide in. We can see more once he comes out.”

Understanding dawned on Aleksey, who immediately opened the World Forum, crafted a post, and, after apologizing, went outside to get players from his territory to support his thread.

Mu Ying also opened the World Forum, curious about his post. After flipping through a couple of pages, she found the thread of moderate popularity.

The thread was titled: “Finding Draco—Where’s My Luckless Little Brother?”

The contents read: “My dear brother, stop hiding underground. Come out more; we’ve already started looking for you. If you don’t show up, we can’t see you—Your loving big brother, Aleksey.”

Mu Ying: “...”

Aleksey had his tact; he didn’t mention the specific details of her Detecting Spell. But still, could such a post not end up causing estrangement between the brothers?

Considering it was broad daylight, Mu Ying guessed that Draco was likely undertaking a Trial and wouldn’t wake for at least another hour.

Initially, Mu Ying thought that as a Trialist with Trial Worlds at his disposal, he could survive well enough even isolated from crowds. Now, it seemed his luck wasn’t so great. The physical conversion of resources in the first Trial World must have been rather mediocre.

Without even sufficient clothes to shield himself, still using a weapon with notches yet unchanged, probably lacking weapon conversions, adorned with no jewelry—his chances of having Space Equipment were slim. Only the ever-burning miner’s lamp seemed like it might be a physical conversion.

The thread began with a series of posts boosting its authenticity, likely paid for by Aleksey to prove its genuineness, followed by comments from bystander players.

“Hahaha, is that really his brother?”

“This can’t be a fake post, can it? What kind of brother would do that to his own? Still, he’s our pride as men, the second-in-command!”

“It’s a genuine post. No one fools around with so many bumps all claiming to be players from Canter Town. Clearly, the call came from their Lord himself.”

“How do you know he’s hiding underground if he hasn’t been found?”

“Mu Ying visited Canter Town today! She’s a Spellcaster; maybe she has some way to find people?”

...