Watching the expressions of the young girls in his memory, some worried, some laughing, Lin Da felt a warm current flow through his heart.
This was the Snow Goose Adventure Team he was willing to stay with.
The gentle and considerate Aiko, the quirky Klrona who also called him brother.
Biting her lip as if she was preparing to apologize for rashly entering the heartland of the Magical Creatures, it was Lia.
His own sister, Lin Xi, was still there as well.
The members of the adventure team really felt like family.
Back then, Lin Da deeply believed that establishing the Snow Goose Adventure Team was the right choice.
If only the team hadn't become famous, it would have been fine for it to remain ordinary.
This thought flashed through Lin Da's mind.
Suddenly, 'Lia' across the round table stood up.
With pursed lips, head slightly bowed, and fists clenched tight, it seemed she was ready to say something.
Everyone looked over in surprise.
Lin Da's expression hardened; it was here that Lia entrusted herself to him.
"Today's failure was my fault. I shouldn't have risked going into the Giant Water Serpent's heartland. Because everyone tried to save me, it nearly led to our team's annihilation!"
Aiko hugged the trembling Lia and whispered softly, "Captain, don't blame yourself, we are teammates, and we still need you to lead us to overcome higher levels."
"But, but!"
"Sister Lia, neither brother nor I will blame you, okay?"
"No, I know you're all just trying to comfort me!"
Lia wiped her swollen eyes and looked at the silent Lin Da sitting across the round table. She bit her lip and said, "If we had just listened to Lin Da and retreated, it wouldn't have..."
"Take this as a lesson. From now on, be more cautious. Only venture into the World Tree when certain of victory."
Hearing Lin Da say this, the self-reproach on Lia's face visibly lessened.
But she didn't sit down and suddenly bowed deeply.
Her voice was loud as she earnestly requested, "Lin Da, please help the Snow Goose Adventure Team take everyone, without a single person left behind, through the World Tree Secret Realm!"
Lin Da remembered clearly, from that day onward, the level of detail in his strategy planning had multiplied many times, and so had the time spent.
He envisioned all sorts of scenarios in defeating Magical Creatures, and as long as the adventurers met the level requirements and adhered strictly to the strategy, they could pass without injury.
"This kettle is broken, but it still works—really bails us out."
An incongruous voice suddenly emerged within the memory illusion.
The scenes around him shattered like glass, and Lin Da dumbly returned to the musty, cold rental space.
The round table was much shabbier than in his memories, and the straightforward, red-haired girl who had sat across from him had disappeared.
Lin Da looked at the person who had pulled him out of his memories, Kafni, who used an old kettle to boil water and placed it with a clatter on the table, "Want some?"
"Hmm."
Lin Da opened the cup he carried along with the Magic Potion and filled it with hot water.
He saw that Kafni was using a pink mug with a Fire Dragon pattern.
"This cup is still here, surprisingly not thrown out by the landlady."
Lin Da was a bit surprised; this was the cup Lia used to use when they lived here.
He walked over to the small washroom to check, in front of a mirror held together with tape was a wooden basket for washing items, and several differently colored cups were covered with a thick layer of dust.
Lin Da then turned towards the wall to the right of the mirror, where the crooked lettering was indeed still there.
Time had passed too long, the letters were yellowed, some too blurry to make out, looking like random scribbles.
'Become the number one adventure team in White Dove City.'
'Cure the legs and open a lingerie store in Imperial Capital.'
"Buy all the toys, order rabbit armor!"
"Stay with brother forever!"
And at the bottom, squeezed into the corner with gigantic fonts, was a line written in minuscule letters like a mosquito's buzz: "Hope to safely reach the top of the World Tree."
Seeing these words, Lin Da rubbed his brow and sighed.
Of the original five members who established the Snow Goose Adventure Team, two had already left, which inevitably brought a sense of change and loss.
Lia's dream hadn't changed at all, but she herself had changed too much.
Entering the living room, Lin Da sat on a couch with cotton showing through, staring blankly at the dark ceiling.
"What about dinner?" Kafni asked, clutching her belly and looking distressed.
"Let's just go to bed early and eat tomorrow," Lin Da said.
"Huh?" Kafni's face was full of astonishment.
Lin Da, however, had no appetite. Kafni had taken a silver coin from him and when she asked if he was going to eat while leaving, he declined.
His mind was in disarray; after recalling those memories, he felt a strange sense of anticipation about meeting Lia tomorrow.
How could the 'Bursting Flames' Lia from the game have turned into what she is now?
When Lin Da agreed to form the team, it wasn't solely because of a common purpose.
It was also because, at first glance at that red-haired girl, he recognized her.
She was a popular NPC from the Mystic Continent game, 'Bursting Flames' Lia!
In the version 1.1 Blood Moon event, Lia was level 40 and the leader of the Sunrise Level Adventure Group.
Mature and steady, with a strong sense of responsibility, her greatsword wrapped in flames had captured the hearts of many players.
But the Lia Lin Da met was completely different in character from the 'Bursting Flames' Lia of the game, despite their identical looks.
The latter was mature and steady, beloved by people.
The other was willful and petulant, only good at shifting the blame.
"Is it that reality differs from the game, or has my arrival caused a 'butterfly effect,' altering the story?"
Upon careful consideration, Lin Da realized that ever since he joined the Snow Goose Adventure Team, he had been assigned to cook, strategize for the Mystic Realm, prepare supplies, calculate the value of the spoils, distribute rewards—everything was done by him...
These tasks, which should have been mostly the responsibility of the team leader Lia, were taken on by Lin Da to let Lia focus on her training and leveling up, after accepting her request.
"Could it be...that I caused the mature and steady Lia from the game to disappear?"
Lin Da was stunned at his own thoughts.
Kafni had mentioned before that he was spoiling the members of the Snow Goose Adventure Team too much, and he hadn't taken it seriously. But now, he thought there might be some truth to it.
Lin Da could not help but sigh.
To think of remedying the situation now was pointless.
He had already become a hero, accompanied by a useless Goddess, and was destined to establish his own team.
So even if Lia truly reverted to her original personality, he couldn't possibly rejoin the Snow Goose Adventure Team.
With the moonlight shining through the window, Lin Da took out paper and ink and began drafting his resignation from the team at the table.
The room echoed with the sound of the quill scratching against the paper.
After a moment.
Lin Da set down his pen, tucking the completed document into his chest.
When he finished writing the resignation, the uncomfortable feeling that had faintly troubled him vanished, leaving him completely calm.
He took one last look back and truly had no regrets.
Although he hadn't yet registered his official departure with the Adventurer's Guild, Lin Da felt in his heart that he was already a 'free man,' unaffiliated with any team.