[Immortal]

Cold moonlight spilled over the jagged rocks.

An eerie silence hung in the air.

After the two bizarre “adventurers” vanished in a flash of white light, leaving nothing but stillness, the dark-skinned patrol soldiers felt chills crawl up their spines.

“Captain, what the hell just happened?”

A young soldier swallowed hard, staring at the empty ground, voice trembling.

“People… just gone? Not even a trace of mana dissipation…”

“Are we dealing with those legendary ghost adventurers?”

The seasoned patrol captain’s brows knitted into a deep frown.

He didn’t answer.

Instead he stepped forward grimly and nudged the metal device with his boot.

Cold.

Silent.

Its surface was etched with geometric patterns neither rune nor magic glyph.

No mana fluctuation whatsoever.

The material and craftsmanship were utterly alien to anything known in the demon or human realms.

It lay there, radiating an unsettling, out-of-place aura.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

“Don’t jump to conclusions.”

His voice was low.

“Bag this thing. Resume patrol.”

“No one breathes a word of tonight until I report to Head Maid Aria.”

He carefully wrapped the device in cloth.

By the next morning, a report labeled “Urgent Anomaly” landed on Aria’s desk.

She had barely finished reading when Lucia walked in with a stack of infrastructure reports.

Seeing Aria’s grave expression, she asked curiously.

“What’s wrong? Border trouble again?”

“Worse than border skirmishes.”

Aria handed over the report.

“Take a look.”

“Last night a patrol encountered two strange adventurers. They vanished in white light after capture and left behind a device we can’t understand.”

Lucia skimmed it quickly, her ice-blue brows furrowing.

“Vanished in white light? Talking about ‘switching quests’?”

“That’s no normal demon or human ability…”

“We need to inform Lord Demon Lord at once.”

The two exchanged a glance—same thought—and hurried to the council hall.

Aria decided to bring Karina along as well.

At that moment, Vivian was frowning at the latest material test data.

Elder Green’s team had tried three overnight runs mixing black ironstone and crystal dust.

Either hardness was insufficient or mana conductivity fell short—never meeting expectations.

When Aria and Lucia delivered their report, Vivian’s pen clattered onto the desk.

Her expression turned unprecedentedly grave.

“White light disappearance… ‘quest’… ‘NPC’…”

She repeated the keywords under her breath, fingers drumming the tabletop.

“As expected—players.”

“They’ve already reached the border?”

“Players?”

Aria and Lucia exchanged confused looks.

“Some new demon race?”

Vivian took a deep breath and shook her head.

“Not demons. Not ordinary humans either.”

“Think of them as… undying visitors from another world.”

“They can resurrect endlessly, act for bizarre reasons, and use terms you won’t understand.”

“Now that I think about it, some of the earlier spy incidents might involve them too.”

Neither noticed Vivian had said “you” instead of “we.”

Aria instantly grew alert, already calculating countermeasures.

“Should we send the new army to hunt them down? If they sabotage us, the consequences could be disastrous!”

“No.”

Vivian shook her head—she knew conventional methods were useless against players.

“Killing them does nothing but alert the rest.”

“And right now our priority is breaking the trade embargo. We can’t afford distractions.”

Decision made, she stood, tone resolute.

“Aria, this is your responsibility.”

“Create a dedicated file on anomalous adventurers.”

“Record every encounter—soldiers, villagers, anyone. Appearance, behavior, exact words. The more detail, the better.”

“Then issue internal guidelines to the army and administration: upon sighting these undying ones, prioritize containment and reporting, not combat.”

“Focus on protecting mines, workshops, and farmland.”

“Also have As intensify Shadowmoon Wolf patrols along the border and core areas. These intruders excel at stealth—we’ll need the wolves’ noses.”

“Understood!”

Aria saluted and left to execute the orders at once.

Though she didn’t fully grasp what “players” were, Vivian’s expression told her this threat outweighed even Rem’s embargo.

Once Aria and Lucia departed, Vivian walked slowly to the window.

She gazed at the expanding mana-crystal workshops in the distance and murmured.

“Players at the border already…”

“From now on Evernight has to fend off not just conservative Demon Lords, but these otherworldly visitors too…”

“Talk about fixing one problem only for another to pop up.”

“I swear being Demon Lord is the hardest job in the world.”

She grumbled, but quickly pulled herself together and picked up the test data again.

No time for complaints.

The trade embargo wasn’t solved yet.

If players started real sabotage, all infrastructure progress would grind to a halt.

Rubbing her temples, she wondered if she should visit the smithy today—maybe she could offer Elder Green some fresh smelting ideas.

Meanwhile, in Graystone Village to the south, freshly after its residents’ committee election, a strange atmosphere hung heavy.

The newly elected village chief, Karen, was a sturdy middle-aged demon and former s*ave.

Dark-skinned, callused hands, honest and dependable as the fields he tilled.

His diligence, fairness, and willingness to speak for the villagers had earned him overwhelming trust in the election.

These past few days he had been enthusiastically organizing land remeasurement and preparing the three-field system that would restore soil fertility.

But trouble found him.

A handful of demons in worn yet clearly finer clothes than most villagers loitered at the village entrance and field edges, spreading venomous rumors.

“Chief Karen, stop wasting your strength!”

One shouted at the village gate, drawing a crowd.

“Working yourself to death for that delusional she-Demon Lord won’t end well!”

“Her flashy new policies won’t last!”

“First she tricks us with elections to seize our land, then abolishes useful slaves.”

“Next come crushing taxes!”

“All the grain we sweat for will vanish into her bottomless construction pit!”

“We’ll starve!”

Another fat one rubbed his hands, feigning worry.

“Look at the next village—messing with bean rotation, now weeds grow taller than crops!”

“Harvest halved!”

“That’s what happens when you ignore the old ways!”

“The ancestors’ farming methods were never wrong!”

“Lies!”

Karen shot back angrily.

“Lord Demon Lord introduced the three-field system to let the land rest and stay fertile for years to come!”

“Abolishing slavery means everyone works for themselves and lives with dignity!”

“How could Lord Demon Lord let us starve?”

“What are you scheming, spreading such poisonous lies?!”

“Can dignity feed you?”

The agitator sneered.

“When there’s no more magitech alloy for tools or mana-crystal fertilizer for crops, will you conjure grain out of thin air, Chief Karen?”

The villagers listening began to waver, faces clouded with hesitation and fear.

They trusted honest, hardworking Karen.

But the threats sounded plausible.

The new policies were wonderful, but if the trade blockade truly starved them of supplies, the ones who suffered most would be the farmers at the bottom.

Karen was no match for their silver tongues.

He knew these agitators were sent by the old nobles, but he was a poor speaker and currently alone—no administrators from Evernight City remained after overseeing the election; they had moved to more urgent villages.

The troublemakers had chosen this exact moment because Graystone Village was temporarily unguarded.

If this continued, fear would derail the entire land-redivision plan.

“I can’t let this happen.”

Karen clenched his teeth.

“I have to see Lord Demon Lord herself!”

“Only she can explain the benefits clearly and stop the lies!”

That very afternoon, Karen packed a simple bag, tucked a few rye breads inside, and set off on foot for Evernight City.