NOVEL NEXT Chapter 456: The Road Ahead Gradually Becomes Clearer
Having asked everything he could, Ethan had gained a deeper understanding of this world.
Now, it was Betty's turn to question Ethan. She was curious why he hadn't become particularly violent, as she thought any intelligent being would become extremely agitated upon hearing they were puppets controlled by higher beings—and the safety rules distributed before the exam had also stated this.
Although in the eyes of Betty and other Empire citizens, the native inhabitants of this training ground were indeed lower life forms, they were still intelligent beings. There had long been a debate among the Empire's populace about whether it was right or wrong to use intelligent beings in this way, with many considering the practice inhumane and advocating for its prohibition.
However, the Empire's military had always treated such civilian groups as if they didn't exist. The thousands of military training grounds created by the Empire contained countless lower life forms. While initially bred using technology, many of the earlier-numbered training grounds had already self-propagated for several generations.
These training grounds were like miniature civilized planets, except their civilization level was artificially suppressed to a certain tier to better serve the military.
To better control these native inhabitants, students were generally not allowed to reveal the truth to them. Only when necessary could they seek help from the natives to escape difficulties, although the natives who helped students rarely had a good outcome, the most common fate was being destroyed by the military.
Betty was struggling with whether to reveal these things. She worried that if she did, Ethan, who was currently calm, would become angry. Helping out of kindness only to meet such an end? No one could tolerate that.
If she didn't say anything, she felt that if keeping it a secret ultimately led to Ethan's death, her conscience wouldn't be clear.
But if she did say it, would Ethan, in his anger, turn on her?
Betty's internal struggle was fully evident on her face. After all, she was just a student with limited experience and didn't know how to hide her true thoughts.
Ethan had been through many things in multiple worlds and could easily see such obvious distress.
"Is something bothering you?"
"Uh... it's nothing..."
Betty thought long and hard, but in the end, she didn't say it. Instead, she asked about the current situation outside.
Ethan glanced at Betty again, decided not to press further, and told her what he knew.
Betty seemed a bit surprised when she learned that many native adventurer groups had already reached the outermost sea area.
She felt relieved upon hearing that the adventurers were trapped in the outermost Sea of Miracles, unsure of which direction to go, thinking that this was how things should be.
When Ethan mentioned the Guild, Betty became even more relaxed. She found that the situation outside hadn't changed much from what she knew, only that the native inhabitants had slightly advanced their technology, allowing them to venture into the outermost sea area.
Betty lowered her head and thought for a while, then asked Ethan if he planned to brave the Sea of Storms to reach the Sea of Miracles.
"It's precisely because I was preparing to brave the Sea of Storms, and didn't use a compass to find an island, that I unexpectedly discovered this place."
Betty didn't understand Ethan's logic. If he was going to brave the Sea of Storms, wouldn't the correct approach be to stop at an island beforehand to resupply?
What kind of operation was this? Just heading straight into the Sea of Storms? She was starting to doubt whether this young captain could help her escape.
"My team is quite special and doesn't need any extra supplies."
Ethan simply explained briefly without saying too much. He looked at Betty, who seemed to have no more questions, and then at the setting sun, which was almost dipping below the horizon.
Turning on the portable lamp that was already in the shack, Ethan pointed to the bed made of leaves nearby. "You can rest here. If you need anything, you can find me by the campfire. I won't be resting tonight, I'll be there the whole time."
With a stranger present, especially one who might be hiding secrets, Ethan wouldn't let her roam freely without supervision.
The shacks built by Logan and the others were arranged in a fan shape, with the campfire located directly facing all of them. By watching the campfire, he could clearly see the situation in all the shacks. If Betty wanted to come out and do something, she couldn't escape Ethan's sight.
"If I need anything, I'll come find you there."
Ethan nodded and then walked out of the shack.
By this time, everyone had gathered around the campfire, processing the prey they had caught earlier. When Ethan returned, he saw an animal resembling a sheep and two animals similar to pheasants.
There were no professional chefs on the Prinz Eugen. Basically, whoever had free time helped out with the processing. As for the cooking, whoever had time was responsible, which was mostly Selene, Ada, and Annette.
Logan would occasionally help, but he wouldn't actively do these things if someone else was responsible. O'Connell was sometimes willing to help, but he couldn't cook at all.
The rest were unreliable. Currently, the most reliable cook on the ship was actually the very young Sherry—she learned by helping Annette cook and was clearly more talented than her mother. This was a truly speechless fact.
Seeing Ethan approach, Selene handed him a bowl of thick soup containing chunks of meat and fresh wild vegetables they had gathered.
Ethan took the bowl, inhaled the steaming aroma, and sat down directly by the campfire. Logan had chopped some trees from nearby, and these logs were placed around the fire, serving as stools so everyone didn't have to sit on the ground.
Having lived in this ocean for a while, everyone had become experts in wilderness survival, not only knowing how to survive but even learning how to make their lives more comfortable.
"What did you find out?"
While drinking the soup, Ethan told everyone the information he had gathered. They didn't have any strong reactions after hearing it, because none of them, except for Ethan, were native to this world.
If anyone had the right to feel upset, it was only Ethan, but Ethan had a soul from another world and wasn't that bothered by such things.
Besides, he had already evolved into a demigod through his own efforts, and in this situation, the concept of being a controlled low-level puppet felt severely unreal.
"From this information, we can infer one thing." Logan held a piece of fragrant grilled lamb leg in his hand. "If we want to leave this training ground, we might encounter some trouble."
Regardless of their true situation, in the eyes of the Empire people in this world, they were the local natives of this training ground, puppet creatures to be strictly controlled, who must do what they should do according to the life paths arranged for them.
Actions like trying to break free from control and escape the training ground would surely incur the displeasure of those people and would inevitably lead to violent suppression.
"Currently, our spaceship is still in the planning stage. Wouldn't that put us in a very passive position?"
Even if they didn't need space combat, being trapped within the opponent's sphere of influence would definitely put them in a passive position once combat began. However, there was no need to worry too much about this. If the situation turned bad, Ethan could take everyone to another world to hide for a while and then return to fight back after getting the spaceship.
Anyway, no matter how long they stayed in other worlds, only a moment would pass in this world. They had a sufficiently strong trump card for a counterattack.
"We don't need to worry too much either."
Ada sipped her soup in small mouthfuls. She wasn't eating little to maintain a perfect figure, she had already finished. The pile of bones on the ground by her feet showed that she hadn't eaten any less than the sturdy Logan.
"From Betty's experience... and the technological advancement of those local adventurers, it seems that the so-called Empire no longer has such strong control over this training ground."
"Not only that, but no matter what, a student sent out a distress signal, and yet over eight hundred years have passed, and there's no sign of a rescue team..."
Ethan shrugged. This didn't look like something a force that treated the training ground as its own backyard would do, unless Betty had offended someone powerful who wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of her, which was why no one came to rescue her.
But this possibility wasn't very likely either. Even if a rescue team didn't come, weren't there other students passing by here? No one discovered her hibernation pod for over eight hundred years?
This island wasn't particularly large, and while Betty's chosen spot was hidden, it wasn't difficult to find. Could she have been so unlucky that no one ever discovered it?
"Perhaps this island hasn't been visited for a long time."
If that were the case, then something might have happened to the so-called Empire, perhaps they had abandoned this training ground, which was why the native inhabitants here were able to start improving their civilization level and develop technology based on the use of magic stones.
Logan casually tossed the gnawed bone aside. "If that's the case, then no one will stop us from leaving this place, but it's best to be prepared to deal with potential enemies."
Ethan nodded. They couldn't just think positively, they had to be prepared for the worst possible scenario that might arise.
"The question now is, what role does the Guild play in all of this?"
No one present was foolish; they instantly realized what kind of organization the Guild was.
"What else could it be? Lackeys helping the Empire forces better control the local residents, of course." Laura's evaluation was blunt, and everyone felt it was very fitting.
The Guild almost monopolized all technology and magic stone transactions in this world and could even control what level of equipment could be used in each sea area. To say they weren't an organization established by the Empire, even a fool wouldn't believe it.
At this moment, Ethan was considering whether he could get more information from the Guild.
(To be continued.)