Logan ultimately did not guess. Ethan vaguely saw through some of it, but since Ada liked being mysterious, he played along.
Sometimes, being too straightforward only makes you lose friends.
After the three of them casually chatted and "packed up" the entire Evil God, they did not leave immediately. There were actually quite a few other things they could still "pick up" in this area.
The monsters released by the Evil God were not particularly strong, but some had rather special bloodlines, including even a unicorn.
Ethan's battle with the Evil God had not lasted too long, but many monsters were affected. Especially when the Evil God emerged, it almost completely destroyed the "cells" holding that group of monsters. The monsters inside either died directly in that initial impact or ran out and died in the aftermath of the battle.
A small number of monsters survived. Ethan planned to wander around the area a bit more to completely clear out these monsters and, while he was at it, collect some bloodlines that interested him.
Even if they were not useful now, it did not mean they would not be useful in the future.
For example, the small island had too few creatures. If Ethan wanted to raise some special creatures in the future to make the island livelier, a unicorn would be a good choice.
The three of them spent several days traversing a large area of mountain forest, clearing out the monsters once again, and finally returned to the cabin.
Standing beside the enormous deep pit where nothing could be seen clearly below, Ethan performed one last good deed for this world.
He completely sealed off the sub-plane beneath so that some monsters living in that dimension would not come to this world through the rift.
With the Evil God destroyed and the scattered monsters cleared out, Ethan felt like he was a great hero who had saved the world.
Unfortunately, there were no flowers, no applause, and no gratitude from the world granting him special abilities or laws. Besides the slightly cool mountain wind, there was nothing else.
"Is the problem completely solved?"
"Should be."
Ethan rubbed his chin. He suddenly remembered that this was not the only place in this world where sacrificial rituals for the Evil God were performed. Every year around this time, countless countries were busy with sacrifices. Of course, as long as one country succeeded, the Evil God would not come out to cause trouble.
So it could be understood that the object of sacrifice for these countries was the same Evil God, and this guy had already been dismantled into pieces by Ethan, so he no longer needed to be considered.
What he was thinking about was that besides this place, there were countless other dedicated areas for sacrifice, and beneath these areas, hidden underground bases were concealed.
Of course, that was not the main point either.
The main point was that these bases contained many monsters that the Evil God had given to humans for sacrificial rituals.
Even if Ethan had cleared out the monsters in this place, it did not mean those monsters no longer existed in this world. However, whether those monsters would cause any crisis for the world, Ethan was too lazy to consider.
He was not the guardian deity of this world, nor was he its creator. He had already helped them eliminate the biggest crisis, the Evil God. Was he really expected to clean up the Evil God's lackeys too?
Considering that those monsters were confined in dedicated cells, as long as humans put their minds to it, they could slowly research methods to kill them. In fact, the power they currently possessed was sufficient to kill most, if not all, of the monsters.
However, based on Ethan's understanding of certain people, someone would definitely perform experiments. That would be trouble they brought upon themselves, and he was even lazier to bother with it.
"So, this journey is over."
"Are we finally going back?"
The first two days had been interesting, and Ada had taken the opportunity to test her strength. But the last two days were relatively boring, just following Ethan around the mountains. The monsters they occasionally encountered posed no threat and could be easily eliminated by either Ada or Logan. Although Ada was interested in improving her strength, she was not too fond of combat itself.
The only thing that was somewhat interesting was the unicorn.
Such a legendary creature was quite intriguing. Unfortunately, this unicorn did not have a good temperament. Its first reaction upon seeing everyone was to try and impale them all with its horn.
Then, the unicorn was impaled and killed by Logan's claw. After Ethan confirmed it was harmless, the unicorn's meat became dinner for the three of them, and a remaining portion was put into storage to be taken back for everyone to try.
"Yes, is there anything else you want to do?"
"No, let's go back!"
Logan also nodded. Seeing that everyone was ready, Ethan immediately activated the teleportation magic.
As for the large number of troops that arrived in the area immediately after they left, that had nothing to do with him. Anyway, Ethan was not planning to return here. There was nothing left in this world that attracted him.
After returning to the teleportation room, Ethan did not rush to leave.
It was not because he was carrying any microorganisms that needed sterilization. Instead, he sensed fluctuations from Laura's side, indicating that the young people were also about to return.
"What a coincidence."
Ethan and the others had stayed in the cabin in the woods for a few days. Correspondingly, Laura had also stayed in the Left 4 Dead world for a few days. Considering that world originally did not have anything particularly special, just a world full of monsters requiring constant fighting and escaping, Laura and the others should not have stayed for too many days.
Perhaps Laura and the others had even stayed for a shorter time than Ethan in the cabin world, but due to a special "time difference," both sides returned to the Prinz Eugen almost at the same time.
The light of the teleportation magic flashed before his eyes. Standing by and watching rather than being inside it himself was not a common experience. Ethan took the opportunity to observe the inter-plane teleportation circle from a bystander's perspective.
The light dissipated, and Laura and the other young people appeared before Ethan.
"Oh?"
Looking at their current state, Ethan was a bit surprised.
"How did you get yourselves into such a mess?"
Their hair was messy like bird's nests. Mordred's beautiful blonde hair had lost its usual shine and was matted with something sticky.
Sherry was much the same. Her blonde hair, which had reached shoulder length, was gone, replaced by a refreshing buzz cut that made her look like a tomboy.
From her displeased expression, it was clear her hair had definitely not been cut willingly. Not to mention Ethan noticed some scorch marks on the side of her head.
Among the young people, the cleanest and tidiest thing was surprisingly Galahad's shield.
This was not surprising. Ethan had integrated special magic into the shield, so nothing would stick to it as long as magic power was channeled.
As for Galahad, who was holding the shield, he did not look too good either. His clothes were torn and ragged, but thankfully, his spirits seemed fine, and one could faintly sense that his magic level had improved significantly.
"Hmph!"
Sherry was still angry. She snorted and turned her head away, showing she did not want to talk.
Laura also seemed a bit unhappy, glaring at Mordred beside her.
Mordred looked completely embarrassed, then eased the awkward atmosphere with a silly grin.
"Virus residue detected. Sterilization procedure will be performed. Please close your eyes."
No one spoke further. The sterilization procedure was not a suitable time for chatting. As a cool liquid drenched everyone, it was followed by a warm light that semi-dried their clothes.
The two procedures were a special agent and Holy Light infused with purification magic.
Normally, any viruses carried on the body would be completely eliminated by these two sterilization processes, leaving no residue.
However, after the two sterilization procedures, everyone's appearance was not great. Ethan and the others were not affected too much, but the young people looked even more disheveled.
Ethan looked at their state and told them to go back and tidy themselves up first. They were to gather in the conference room in an hour.
He wanted to hear about the young people's experiences properly, considering it a report to him as the captain.
The purpose of the report was to help them mentally organize their experiences, understand why they had ended up in such a mess, and avoid making the same mistakes next time. With their strength, in a world like Left 4 Dead, if they did not do anything foolish, they should not even get injured and probably would not even need to get their clothes dirty to "clear" it.
Ending up in their current disheveled state clearly meant they had made mistakes, and more than once.
He was not worried about not hearing a truthful report because Galahad was in the team. This most noble and upright young man among the Knights of the Round Table would never lie.
As long as Ethan asked, he would recount the truth exactly as it happened.
However, Ethan would not let Galahad speak first. He wanted to see if these young girls could face their own problems.
As expected, the young people all blamed their companions, feeling that their "embarrassment" was entirely the fault of others and that they had ended up miserable because they were dragged down.
Only Mordred showed a slight hint of embarrassment because she had made too many mistakes, so many that she was too ashamed to hide them. From this perspective, Sherry and Laura's strong resentment toward her was not unwarranted.
As for whether the actual situation was like that, Ethan soon learned from Galahad.
"As for the actual situation..."
Galahad did not hide anything and did not mix in any personal emotions. He simply recounted what he had seen, heard, and experienced very objectively.
The other crew members who had also come to "listen in," after hearing the girls complain about each other for a while, finally heard a "normal version" of the story.
Then, everyone felt incredibly speechless.
(To be continued.)
***
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