Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Vivian’s Search
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, March 14th, Claude has disappeared again, ugh... Really, is he fishing or mining somewhere again? What’s so fun about those things, am I not more fun?]
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, March 15th, Claude hasn’t returned yet, I miss him...]
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, March 16th, they say, Claude might be wandering and forgot to come back. Impossible, no matter how busy he is, Claude would never forget to bring me gifts. Could something have happened to him...]
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, March 17th, Claude still hasn’t returned. On my way to find him, I ran into a few fools trying to resurrect Thunder, I sent them to meet Thunder.]
...
[In a hidden cave, you are flipping through a diary found in the crevices of enormous rocks, the texture of the parchment brings back memories of the past.]
[You rubbed the writing on the diary’s cover, Vivian’s beautiful face seemed to appear right in front of you.]
[’Claude is not allowed to peek,’ warns Vivian playfully on the very first page of the diary.]
[In the cave, Alice and Anna are cautiously exploring, surrounded by a mysterious and complex magic array. Though it has been a thousand years, and the magic array has long lost its effectiveness due to lack of maintenance, Andori keeps reminding them not to touch anything recklessly.]
[Alice is someone who listens to advice; her instincts tell her that everything here is extremely important to Claude, and she carefully searches for useful clues to help him.]
[This place also seems to have once been Vivian’s home, but compared to the complex and mysterious magic array, her bedroom has long become indistinguishable by the passage of time, making relevant clues difficult to find.]
Shen Sui shifts his gaze from Alice back to Vivian’s diary.
This diary seems to be a new one that Vivian deliberately started, showing signs of transcription on the first few pages.
March 14th of the Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, is the day when Shen Sui got his archive erased in reality.
Vivian waited a total of fifteen days from that day.
Even in games, it’s uncommon for players to leave the main city for fifteen days, especially for those who have forged relationships with multiple female characters. In the game’s setting, if a player doesn’t interact or gift their lover for a long time, the lover’s affection will decrease, though it won’t drop below a 100, but for many players, this drop in affection is unacceptable.
So, no matter how much fun they have outside, players would periodically return to the main city to interact with all characters and hand out gifts.
During Shen Sui’s first playthrough, this task alone would take him half a day because the characters he pursued were scattered across the entire city — some slumbering in palaces, some pondering in towers, some hiding in alleys, and some reclusing in underground pipelines...
The second playthrough was much simpler, as Vivian was the only truly completed romance; Shen Sui just needed to gift Vivian every few days.
After Claude had been missing for fifteen days, Vivian finally confirmed that something had happened to him.
From the diary, it’s clear that Vivian had already started searching for Claude, personally visiting the fishing and mining spots he frequented. This is also why Vivian’s Matchbox was found in Lake Paiyiga — she always liked to leave her mark in places she visited, as proof she was here.
Fifteen days later, Vivian began visiting Claude’s friends across the Dawn Continent.
In the game, only characters who have exchanged tokens will appear in the main city; if a character’s affection is maxed but no marriage contract is formed, they will be active in their respective areas.
Thus, Shen Sui saw a long list of visitation records in Vivian’s diary.
Ah, this... I didn’t intentionally strengthen my relationships, so why are there still so many characters who have a good relationship with me...
Shen Sui thought somewhat guiltily.
However, as he read further, he couldn’t afford to feel guilty any longer.
Vivian recorded every point and detail she encountered along her journey in the diary.
After she and Claude ended the gods’ reign, the Dawn Continent did not proceed towards a better future; its people fell into confusion.
In the past, they lived for the gods, worked for the gods, offering all their harvests devoutly to the church.
But now, the gods were gone, the church disappeared.
The confused people roamed the streets, as if losing their goal to strive for.
Vivian did not understand.
Clearly, without the church’s oppression, without the gods’ exploitation, their lives should have improved.
Yet, after all this, she did not see the change she wanted on the continent. Instead, her former comrades who fought alongside her revealed greedy faces after twilight.
They occupied the houses that the previous Popes used to own, as if becoming new Popes themselves.
They stood on the places where the divine statues once stood, as if becoming new gods themselves.
Everything changed, yet everything seemed unchanged.
Amidst this frantic power struggle, Vivian became an outcast.
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, October 9th, Claude still hasn’t returned, I miss him... He might be able to tell me why things turned out this way. I passed my duties to Baris; she’s the only one still holding her post, while everyone else has gone mad. I need you, Claude.]
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, October 11th, Marico proclaimed himself the new God of Harvest in Dolophen City. Why did he do that? He clearly told me before how much he detested such ugly deities.]
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, October 12th, I went seeking materials for the summoning ritual, and along the way, I killed Marico. He cursed me, calling me a madwoman before he died. I can’t quite understand, Divine Position is both a shackle and a cage, why do they all want to stand on it?]
...
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, October 20th, I killed Alting because he wanted to become the new Sea God. The summoning ritual failed and Andori fell into a deep slumber. I’m not in a good mood, and I might have hit too hard.]
...
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, October 30th, I killed Jihad. Claude, where are you? Why are they acting this way, have they forgotten their former oaths?]
...
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 922, November 11th, I stood before Freymia, she is beautiful, I understand why you always circled around her. She wanted to become the new Goddess of Nature, she said she didn’t want to, but the Elves need a Nature Goddess. I didn’t kill her because it would upset you. I sealed Freymia, hoping you would return to properly reprimand your friend, Claude.]
...
Every name in the diary, Shen Sui was extremely familiar with, as they were all significant characters in the game, many among them the top warriors of the Dawn Continent.
Each word in the diary reveals Vivian’s confusion, as within a short year, she wandered across the continent, seeking materials to summon Claude while eliminating former comrades who intended to become gods.
[Why are they so selfish? Without gods, everyone can ascend to the fifteenth tier. Yet they all insist on climbing to the Divine Position, removing the ladder for others to reach the top.]
[Silver Moon Calendar, Year 923, April 1st, this is Claude’s birthday; Baris sent a message saying she found a way to bring Claude back and asked me to visit Modena City.]
[I suppose I can trust you, Baris.]