Victor is currently using his joystick to move the motorized wheelchair forward while drinking a cappuccino with his free hand, while Alice was walking behind him in her human form. The two didn't seem to be angry anymore, or have any negative feelings at each other at all.
They had settled down their grudges, which was something that made Luka smile once he saw them returning back. "Hello again! Is everything okay now?"
Victor nodded at him and replied. "It's fine now. Anyway, how much time do we have to wait before it's time to start the plan?"
"Oh, it should take around 4 more hours, a bit less than that. Do you also want to participate?"
Victor snorted at Luka's question. "Hah, fuck no! God, there is no way I will join you in this one. I simply want to know at which time I can prepare the popcorn."
"..." Luka sighed upon hearing his words, but he didn't say anything back and simply stretched his body. "I should go to practice swordplay too…"
"Hmph, at least you have the right attitude in this subject. Follow me." Alice told Luka before the two walked away from Victor, probably training on swordsmanship once again somewhere else.
Victor spun his wheelchair around and looked at Penny. Just like before, she was still playing with the other girls at her age. Maybe it was because of the possible harpy attack, but the remaining two boys in the village weren't anywhere to be seen, probably closed in their own houses.
A small yawn escaped from his mouth before he decided to go around a bit more. "Hey, Penny!"
The disguised Dog Girl stopped for a moment along with the other children as they turned at Victor's direction. Penny smiled at him and asked with her high-pitched cute voice. "Yes?"
"Don't get lost while I'm away, okay?"
"Okay!"
After saying that, Victor started to move away from the location. However, he didn't make it a couple of meters before he was surrounded by the same little girls that were playing with Penny, all of them staring at his wheelchair with a look filled with awe.
"What is this?"
"How do you move it?!"
"This is so cool, I want one too!"
"Hey, mister, can I ride on it?"
"Are you Penny's dad?"
Victor blanked out for a couple of seconds before he quickly silenced them with a small sentence. "Hold up, one at the time."
One of the girls started with her own question. "Who are you? Are you related to Penny? You have the same hair and eyes."
"Ah, my name is Victor, and no, I am not related to her by blood or otherwise; the hair and eyes are just a coincidence. We are only friends who travel together."
"So you are one of the Heroes that Mom said will save my big brother?" Judging by her words, she is one of the people who had her family kidnapped by the Harpies.
Victor nodded and replied. "That's right, my friends will bring back everyone that was taken away by the Harpies. Soon you will see your brothers and parents again."
"Awesome!" The girl shouted with an excited voice. "I missed playing with my big brother!"
After her, another little girl stepped forward. "Mister, what is that chair?"
With a pat on the armrest, Victor answered her question. "This is a motorized wheelchair. It is used for people that can't walk, and it can also move by itself."
"That's so cool! It's like magic!"
"...Sure." Victor didn't bother correcting her and looked at another girl, who was currently poking his right thigh. "Yes?"
"Can I ride you?"
"..." Victor blankly stared at her due to her ambiguous choice of words, but before he could answer, Penny jumped on his lap and retreated her back as close to his chest as possible. She pouted at the girl and said.
"This is my place!"
"Hahahahaha!" The other girls laughed at Penny's extreme childishness and petty jealousy, while the one who asked the question annoyingly pouted back at Penny.
"C'mon, it's not like I'm stealing your friend. I just want to know how it feels sitting on a moving chair!"
Victor sighed before he gently pushed Penny away. "Anyway, the answer will be 'no'. I'm feeling a bit tired now; maybe I'll play with you all the next time."
"Ok…" She stepped back with the others as Victor began to move forward. He glanced at Penny and told her. "You can keep playing with the others. We will be here until tomorrow, so use this time to make friends."
"Okay!" Penny enthusiastically answered with a nod while Victor wheeled away from the location. He merely wanted to look around the village for curiosity, and instead he found the place where Granberia and Eva were together.
To be fair, they were pretty loud, with their weapons clashing against each other like a pair of sticks against a drum. However, unlike the last time, they weren't even using a fraction of their strength, since the shockwaves born from each clash weren't there.
Even still, their figures were blurring out from one location to another, speaking volumes of how fast they were actually going if Victor couldn't even catch them moving between point A and point B with his own eyes.
Whether they were practicing or sparring, Victor was interested in the fight. Because of that, he stood on the side, trying to capture their movements with his eyes.
Soon, he got kind of annoyed at the fact that the only times he could see them was when they were clashing their weapons and when they retreated to a spot. It was as if he was watching two frames interchanging with each other.
For that reason, he decided to buy a seemingly pricey camera for professionists that was also surprisingly cheap, the Phantom v2511. Normally, this kind of video camera would go to around 150'000 dollars. However, the system offered it to him for a very cheap 7'029 Gold Coins, bringing his count back to 31'732 Gold Coins.
After buying the camera, he turned it on as he checked out its functions. After guessing how it worked, Victor placed it on his empty armrest facing the spar while he bought a novel from the store.
He will look at what is going on in their spar later. For now, it is time to re-read one of the few recent joys he had in his life, and fully enjoying it while determining hidden messages that might have previously escaped his first read… Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.
It is the third chinese novel he had truly enjoyed when he had read it, with the other novels being Tales of Demons and Gods, and Against the Gods. However, Nine Star Hegemon Body Art is the absolute best one of all of them, no caps.
Although he was stuck around the chapter 1800 back when he still had the internet, due to the translation speed, he can read the entire novel in english thanks to his system, although he has to buy the novel in separate volumes.
Later on, just as Victor was in the middle of reading the 39th chapter, distracted by the events happening outside, a hand reached for his shoulder and lightly patted it. Victor pulled his eyes away from the page he was reading and raised his face to meet up with Eva's.
"Hey, Victor."
"Hello." They casually greeted each other as Victor closed the book on his hands. He momentarily glanced around, seeing that Granberia was also standing at their side in silence. It felt like a lot of time had passed for him, but neither of the girls seemed remotely tired after the spar; not even a drop of sweat fell over their foreheads, as if they had just come out to eat together at a fast food place and have a small chat.
"I came here out of boredom, I hope I didn't disturb you two." Victor spoke with a calm tone, and Eva shook her head. "There's no way that's the case, we simply decided to end our practice for now. By the way, did you know that Alice has apparently left the group?"
"I already brought her back myself." Victor replied, surprising both Eva and Granberia.
"You?" The disguised dragonkin asked with a raised eyebrow. "If I remember correctly, you two weren't on the best terms."
"It was just a small quarrel, nothing that a tiny offer of peace can offer… Speaking of relationships, should we keep calling you by your real name when you are under a disguise? You know, to not give away your identity…?" Victor asked her back after casually shrugging off her doubts.
Granberia simply hummed for some seconds and shrugged. "As long as they are not people like her-" She pointed a thumb at Eva, referring to her mystical abilities as an 'awakened' Heroine. "-or monsters, then no one will be able to connect the dots, even if I told them my name. They would never think that one of the 'Heavenly Knights' would disguise as a Human and walk in their town."
"Sounds legit." Victor nodded in agreement before he paused and murmured. "...I really need a watch."
After saying that, he quickly went through the shop and bought a wrist watch with the clock matching the current time, which pointed its arrows to 5:23 PM. Apparently, it had been around an hour since he woke up. "Well, there is still 3 hours before the plan will begin. I should be checking on Penny now…"
"What is this book?" Eva curiously asked as she looked at the novel on Victor's lap. "And what language is that? I have never seen something like that."
"This?" Victor patted the book's cover. "This is one of my favorite readings, Nine Star Hegemon Body Art."
"Nine Star Hegemon Body Art?"
"Hmm." Victor nodded as he picked the book with one hand. "This is a novel I really liked to read at home. I was trying to see if I could look at the fight, but you two were going so fast that I could barely see anything. So, I got this book back from my shop and started to read it to kill time."
Eva nodded in understanding and asked. "I see… What does the title mean? I have never heard of a novel like this."
"The novel is about an entirely fictional setting with a new system of power called Cultivation. Long story short, it's a kind of story about a world filled with cultivators, unique types of martial artists, trying to become immortals. The Nine Star Hegemon Body Art is a unique martial art of unknown origins that the main character possesses and utilizes at his leisure, hence the name of the novel."
Surprisingly, and yet unsurprisingly at the same time, Granberia seemed to have taken an interest out of it and asked. "A novel about martial artists? What is the synopsis here?"
"It's the story about a guy named Long Chen, a boy from a noble family that started going bad in his times, and by some lucky coincidence, he received a set of memories from a powerful person, which also contained the aforementioned technique. From there, he is trying to grow up and become as strong as possible to fight against any odds not only for his family, but also for his friends and lovers." Victor gave a short introduction of the novel before he bought another copy from the store, translated for the people in this place.
He handed a book translated with this world's written language to Granberia and told her. "If you want to read it, knock yourself out. Just ask me if you want to read the second volume, or have any doubt that you don't understand."
Granberia simply held the book in her hands and looked at Victor who was moving away from her, heading back to the central part of Happiness Village.
While he was moving in his wheelchair, he stopped the recording of his camera and turned it off, before putting it within his inventory. Since there was the opportunity, he bought 3 more slots, reaching a total of 15, where 8 of them had been filled out with the camera, the car, the crutch, the honey-filled honeycomb, and a new set of clothes. As for his coins, they had fallen from 41'768 to 40'568.
...Well, since the assault at the Harpy Village will happen 3 hours later, he could use some coins to update his hourly production. He will get more than 30'000 Gold Coins by that time in the case there is an emergency, after all.
For now, he decided to buy the last super upgrader, unlocking yet another row of upgraders beyond this tier.
[Current Production: 14'865 Gold/Hour]
[Basic Production: 7'623 Gold/Hour]
[Current Multiplier: 1.95x]
[Automatic Wood Cutter: (1 Gold/Hour)]
[Automatic Stone Retriever: (2 Gold/Hour)]
[Coal Mine: (5 Gold/Hour)]
[Copper Mine: (10 Gold/Hour)]
[Iron Mine: (15 Gold/Hour)]
[Steel Mine: (30 Gold/Hour)]
[Silver Mine: (1 Gold/Minute)]
[Gold Mine: (5 Gold/Minute)]
[Platinum Mine: (10 Gold/Minute)]
[Sapphire Mine: (50 Gold/Minute)]
[Cobalt Mine: (1 Gold/Second)]
[Ruby Mine: 30'000 Gold]
[Emerald Mine: 50'000 Gold]
[Pure Crystal Mine: 100'000 Gold]
[Diamond Mine: 500'000 Gold]
[Cleaner: (+0,05x multiplier)]
[Purifier: (+0,05x multiplier)]
[Polisher: (+0,05x multiplier)]
[Refiner: (+0,1x multiplier)]
[Super Purifier: (+0,2x multiplier)]
[Super Refiner: (+0,5x multiplier)]
[Magical Enhancer: 100'000 Gold]
[Magical Rune Enhancer: 2'500'000 Gold]
Well, the next one will be the Ruby Mine, which will probably make his hourly production skyrocket once again. Ah, how good it feels to have this much money… But how bad it feels to never have enough of it in the right moment.
He is still in Ilias Continent, so there shouldn't be any power jump anytime soon… Hopefully.
At this point, Victor also began to doubt his own confidence in knowing the plot. It was as if God had it against him for everything that's happening now… It was only 3 days since he left Iliasville, but a long series of unfortunate events happened one after another.
Well, this time, the matter can be solved in a much easier way compared to other times. Luka already has the good attitude necessary for this, he simply has to let him fight the Queen Harpy and everything is going uphill from there!
Victor doesn't need to do anything at all for once! As long as nothing goes wrong-
"Caught you!" An unfamiliar voice snapped Victor out of his thoughts with a great deal of surprise before two 'hooks' grabbed him from his shoulders and passed under his armpits.
"Fucking whaaaaAAAA!!" Just as Victor was cursing out of shock, he was being pulled out of his wheelchair and immediately reached dangerous heights up in the sky. His loud scream attracted some attention from the villagers who were still out of their homes and began to shout in surprise and fear once they found Victor flying in the sky… No, they didn't seem to be shouting at him, but at the person above him.
Victor took deep breaths to calm down his quick heartbeat and looked upwards, seeing the culprit of his unexpected kidnapping. Of course, it was a Harpy…
Her brown-winged arms rhythmically flapped as the Harpy with blue hair and feathered ears carried him with her strong talons.
"What the fuck, woman?! Are you insane?!" Victor shouted at the Harpy. She merely looked down on him with a raised eyebrow and asked. "What? I just got my own husband, I don't see anything wrong with that."
Oh, right. Maybe Victor didn't explain it before, but the actual reason why the men were getting kidnapped one after another was because the population of Harpy Village was also at a serious minimal level, and the Harpies needed to reproduce as soon as possible to acquire more children using the men in the nearby Happiness Village. There was no malevolent reason behind this, just a badly-thought approach.
Still, wasn't this too quick? "There are so many things I can point out about that, but can you first put me down, please?" Victor asked with a polite tone.
"Have a bit of patience, sweetie. We will soon reach my home, and we can talk as much as you want over there after mating with me!" The Harpy replied with an excited voice, looking forward for having sex with Victor.
If it was the previous Victor, he would have taken up to her offer without saying anything else. After all, he is just an average guy back on Earth, and many girls had standards that were out of his league. So, getting asked by a beautiful girl who looked to be around his age to have sex and getting married in a situation where he wouldn't have to worry about money, that was the peak of what could happen in his life!
He doesn't have to work because he can generate an infinite amount of money from nowhere, and he could even feed his children with whatever they like to eat at the moment. He doesn't have to worry about age, because he could buy his own immortality elixir or whatever while the Harpy would live for a long time before her lifespan expires. And he doesn't have to worry about his own three pleasures: Food, Sleep, and Sex; because he has already covered up the first while the Harpy can give him the other two as much as he wants, and even more.
However, right now, he was so tired both in his body and his mind that he didn't even feel like struggling; meanwhile, he wasn't in the mood of having sex after he got milked by the Earthworm Girl and sucked off by Honey. Maybe he could fuel his 'fire' late in the evening, but he didn't feel like having sex now.
Besides, the fact that the Harpy would most likely have sex with other men along with him due to the quick and varied breeding was a huge turn-off for him, although he will have to adapt to that one in this world where sex is on the same level of importance as a basic fanfiction author is for Webnovel.
"Yeah, that's okay and all, but I'd like for you to put me down where I was sitting before, you know? We even barely know each other and you immediately want to jump on marriage, even a newbie in love like me knows that it is too fast."
"At least let me mate with you a few times before you can go back. I swear that it will be quick!"
"...I don't know if I should be grateful for you to be polite enough to let me free after sex or be offended because you assumed I am a quick-shot." Victor muttered under his breath and sighed. "Fine, whatever. Just be careful when you land, I got a broken leg."
"Huh?! Really?!" The Harpy looked down on Victor's lower body with surprise and noticed the bandages covering his left leg. Upon seeing that, she immediately looked worried and apologized. "Oh my Founder! I'm so sorry! I didn't see that you were injured before and I assumed you were just relaxing in the open!"
"Don't worry, it's not like you were the one breaking my leg." Although Victor said that, the Harpy felt a bit guilty for disturbing a cripple and proceeded to go to the east in silence, towards the Harpy Village.
Meanwhile, Eva was returning to the village, leaving behind Granberia who was more interested in the main character of the novel that Victor had used as some kind of nickname towards her after the fight with the Earthworm Girls. The concepts Granberia was introduced to were completely new, so she was focusing on the book back in the outskirts of the village to comprehend everything necessary.
As for Eva, just as she was returning to the village to spend her free time around, she had noticed screams coming from the center of the village. Eva hastily approached the location and saw Victor's wheelchair surrounded by the villagers and their children.
Upon seeing Eva approaching, one of the villagers quickly rushed over to her and told her. "It's terrible, miss!"
"What happened?" Eva asked with a curious expression.
"Your friend on the wheelchair has just been kidnapped by a Harpy! She flew into the village and immediately picked him away, we couldn't react until we saw her leaving from here with the man!"
"What?!" Eva screeched out in shock. Victor had been kidnapped just like that? How unlucky is that poor guy?! This is the fourth time he is messing with monsters, although the third one was done voluntarily.
The Worms, Bears, Bees, and now Birds… Everyone on the same day.
She should be watching over him rather than Granberia and Alice, that guy got some kind of unlucky star hanging over his head!
…
Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Harpy(Subspecies)
This chapter is not about the Harpies in general, but it's about the 'default' subspecies; please do not confuse the two versions.
The 'Natural Harpy', commonly called 'Harpy', is the most average kind of Harpy that you can find in the world. Their wings aren't too big or too small, their feathers' color are usually brown, and their bodies are as big as a teenager… They are as default as they can get.
These kinds of Harpies also have an average strength: they are not as strong as greater species such as Wing Harpies or Avis, but they are not as weak as inferior species such as Sparrow Girls. Just like their appearance, their overall strength is also in the middle of the spectrum.
However, there is one advantage that they have compared to specialized Harpies, and that is the number of mutations.
According to history, every elite Harpy, also referred to as 'Queen-class' by the populace, came from the mating of a Natural Harpy and a human man. Take a sheet of paper as an example: Avis, Phoenixes, Garudas, Wing Harpies, and so on, have all their own special characteristics ranging from bestial lineage up to a unique ability of theirs.
However, Natural Harpies are like blank sheets of paper. Although they cannot be changed after they are born, it is possible for them to show mutations during birth because they have nothing to begin with.
In general, mutations are shown between a Natural Harpy and an outstanding member of the human race. However, there are also chances that these kinds of mutations appear between a completely average couple, although at a lesser rate.
Basically, depending on luck, they are either born as the average Harpy you can see everywhere in Ilias Continent, or they are born as powerful Harpies that could easily defeat special kinds of Monsters like Behemoths and Kirins.
There is a clear line between monsters and Queen-class Monsters, no matter which kind of monsters are used for comparison. As an example, Dragons can easily annihilate groups over groups of Slimes with a single tail sweep. However, a Queen Slime can, just as easily, devour the Dragon in question.
Anyway, with a simple balance of Luck, the Harpy can shift between the average and the super overpowered kind of Queen Harpy.