"This one?" Fang Chen asked Mo Yan, showing him the vial in his hand as they sat inside a small cave made of a giant tree's roots.
They had crossed the snow region and had entered the forest.
For now, they were sitting under the roots. But later, they planned to climb and hide among the branches of the trees around them so that they could run at a moment's notice.
Although that was still risky, it still was much better than staying in the roots below, where they would have no place to run.
After having settled, Fang Chen immediately started looking through the things he had on him—trying to find the antidote that Mo Yan was talking about.
But… he didn't know which of them was the antidote.
"No, not this one," Mo Yan shook his head. For some reason, Fang Chen found it a bit confusing that this guy hadn't caught up with the fact that he was not the person he was addressing as 'Young Master'.
Especially since Fang Chen was acting clueless about everything going on, how could Mo Yan not get frustrated and ask questions about why he was like this?
'Does he… know why, and how I am here?'
Fang Chen was tempted to ask, but he chose not to.
"That one!" Mo Yan's sudden exclamation brought him out of his reverie. He moved his gaze at the vial that Mo Yan was pointing at.
As Fang Chen handed it over to him, Mo Yan immediately uncapped it and chugged it down his throat.
"I should recover in some time. After that, let's climb up on the trees," Mo Yan spoke after exhaling a long breath.
Fang Chen nodded and quietly sat down as he tried thinking of the right way to ask questions without seeming suspicious.
He had witnessed Mo Yan kill that assassin without a moment of hesitation. The scene of the assassin twitching while clutching his neck was still fresh in his mind.
Mo Yan was not someone he could mess with right now.
"What's wrong with you?" Mo Yan suddenly asked, "Are you still under that poison's aftereffect?"
"Huh?" Fang Chen raised his head and cleared his throat, "Poison?"
"Oh… it's getting worse."
"What's getting worse?"
"Your memory."
"My memory?"
"Yes. That poison, or should I say, Ivory Venom, is a lethal poison which attacks a person's nerve system. But don't worry, you will recover once we get the antidote from the Avalon Academy."
"..." Fang Chen remained silent at this convenient development. He was still processing the words he had just heard. Ivory Venom… Poison… Avalon Academy… Fang Chen…
All these were familiar words in his mind. How could he not remember them? After all, they were from the game he had focused more than half a decade on creating - The World Of Martial Arts.
'Am I really in the game?' Fang Chen couldn't help but wonder, 'And as Fang Chen…?'
As unrealistic as it sounded, he couldn't think of any other possibility at this moment.
Also, even if he was in the world of the game, there was a chance that he could be some other Fang Chen, not the one he himself had put at risk.
"Am I part of the Prime Minister Fang's family?" Fang Chen suddenly asked.
He had already understood that Mo Yan seemed to be thinking that he was going through amnesia. Therefore, this was a perfect opportunity for him to understand the situation without sounding suspicious.
"You wish," Mo Yan rolled his eyes, "The Prime Minister's Fang Family is way beyond our reach. It was only due to luck that you and Young Master Fang Yuan of the Fang Clan crossed paths, and he gave you a chance to enter the Avalon Academy."
"Hm? I am not part of the Fang Family‽" Fang Chen frowned.
As per the game script, Fang Chen was supposed to be the son of Prime Minister Fang Wen. One of the most notorious young masters of the capital—who would then be sent to the Avalon Academy to become an accomplished martial artist to follow the Martial Path. Meanwhile, his little brother Fang Yuan would succeed his father Fang Wen.
However, now Fang Chen was not even part of the Fang Family?
'Why would he not be a part of the family?' Fang Chen wondered. Just then, the scene of him deleting the game data flashed in his mind.
'Sh!t…'
He suddenly recalled that he had deleted the background of Fang Chen out of spite. And now... as if fate was playing a cruel joke on him, he was transmigrated into the body of Fang Chen!
'What else did I delete?' Just as Fang Chen started recalling, the name Mo Yan flashed in his mind.
The key to Fang Chen's death—his loyal friend and servant, Mo Yan.
Fang Chen stared at the young man in front of him, and after a moment of hesitation, he called out the name.
"...Mo Yan!"
"Yes, Young Master?" Mo Yan immediately turned around and was suddenly taken aback, "Wait a minute! You remembered me..?"
Fang Chen didn't say anything, but he suddenly felt a sinking feeling in his heart.
He had clearly deleted Mo Yan, so why was the latter still alive? Even his background had been removed and turned into nothing. Yet Mo Yan was still kicking alive.
Clearly, there were only two options here: Either not everything he removed had applied to this world. OR... Mo Yan's time hadn't come yet.
In other words, there was a chance that in the coming days, Mo Yan would die.
Fang Chen pursed his lips at this thought.
It hadn't even been half a day since he met this young man, but the latter had done his best to save both of their lives and even killed one of the assassins that were after Fang Chen.
Not to forget, Mo Yan was an important character in the game as a whole. His importance was based on how long he was alive. The longer he lives, the lower the chances of Fang Chen's death are.
And if Mo Yan is killed by the players at the beginning stage of the game, the game would take a different route, and Fang Chen, who was supposed to be the mini-boss of the whole game, would die before he even has a chance to grow as a villain.
'I must keep him alive,' This was Fang Chen's first thought.
With his background removed, he found it hard to guess how much Mo Yan could even help him. Still, it can't be denied that Mo Yan was important for him to get into the Academy. Thus, the latter must remain alive as long as possible.
'Fang Chen's character debuted in the game at the Academy Arc, and there was no story of him being chased by Assassins. Though there was indeed an instance of his little brother sending assassins to eliminate Fang Chen in a scheme to become the sole heir of the Fang Clan.'
'But this time, Fang Yuan doesn't need to worry about this. I am not his elder brother, and as per Mo Yan, it was Fang Yuan who invited us to the Avalon Academy. Why would he invite us to the Academy if he planned to kill me?'
'Does he want the entrance exam token back…?'
It was hard to believe that a person from a prominent background would act for something like that.
'I clearly remember that the top clans have almost unlimited access to the number of tokens. The token he gave us should be of no significance to him.'
'Maybe he wanted to silence us? But why? What could be the motive behind it?' Fang Chen pondered.
"Tell me," Just then, Mo Yan, who had finished bandaging his right arm, raised his head and stared at Fang Chen as he asked, "How did you escape the Avalanche? I have never heard of anyone coming out of this tsunami of snow. We can't even feel which side is up and which is down? Which direction to go? And because of the snow all around us, it's also harder to breathe for long. How did you escape? Were you able to get out… or were you lucky enough to not get drowned in the incoming snow?"
Fang Chen remained silent at the question. Not that he couldn't reply, but because he needed to change the flow of the conversation. In the whole situation, it was he who was the more clueless, not the other guy.
"First," Fang Chen began to say, "Tell me, who are you? Where are we? And… who am I?"
"..." Mo Yan frowned, "You really don't remember anything…?"
"Whenever I try to remember… my head begins to hurt," said Fang Chen as he rubbed his temple, acting as if it had started hurting again.
Mo Yan nodded, "That's natural. But I didn't know they would use such potent Ivory Venom. I guess they really planned to kidnap us."
After a slight pause, Mo Yan added, "As for your questions, you would remember everything once we get the antidote, so don't worry. You can trust me. We have known each other for years now."
Fang Chen shook his head, "We may have known each other, but only you remember that. That's why I really want to know. I want to figure out my situation. Also, how were you able to run so fast…? And do you know who these assassins were and why they wanted to kidnap us?"
Mo Yan pursed his lips, "These are a lot of questions. But anyway, since we can't do anything until my arm recovers, let me answer your questions."
It should be noted that they were practically whispering to each other. Although they had escaped from the enemies, that didn't mean the enemies won't be able to find them.
Leaning forward a bit more, the young man began to slowly answer Fang Chen's questions.
"I am Mo Yan, and you're Fang Chen. I am the heir of the Mo Clan in Silver Ridge City. As for you, you're the son of my father's friend. Your parents… well, I don't know who they are, nor have any of us met them. The only information we have is that our parents were friends. About ten years ago, my parents adopted you. Don't ask me why I have to call you Young Master as it was an order by my father. He never gave a straight answer even after asking multiple times."
"Now, about where we are: this place is Avalon Mountain Range, the region where the Avalon Academy of Martial Arts was founded by the Great Heroes."
"Our destination is Avalon Academy. And because we're being chased and are on foot, it will take at least one whole day before we can reach the Academy."
"Now, about the people who are after us. Well, to be honest, even I have no idea. The carriage we had hired was attacked by enemies, which we initially thought were bandits. Those bandits killed everyone but us and gave you a pill, which led to your current state."
"But because of some luck, we managed to escape their captivity by jumping from the mountain edge," He scratched his head as he said, "I still can't wrap my head around how the assassins could be so careless."
"Anyway, we ran as much as we could, but your state was getting worse and eventually, you fainted. So I carried you for some time before the sudden Avalanche woke you up, and now we're sitting here.
"As for how I was able to run fast… well, that's obviously because I am a Martial Warrior, a Level Three Martial Warrior, to be specific."
Fang Chen slowly processed all the information, and after a moment of thought, he asked, "Am I... not a Martial Warrior?"
"You are. In fact, you're even more powerful than me. A Fifth Level Martial Warrior, to be exact," Mo Yan nodded with a frown, "But I don't know why you have lost your strength. I am sure the poison they gave you was Ivory Venom, and it doesn't seal the energy flow."
Fang Chen closed his eyes and tried to feel something... anything.
But everything was 'normal'. He couldn't tell the difference between his current state and the one when he was sitting in the metro some time ago.
'So… I don't have strength either?'
'Did I delete that too?'