In this world, there are countless things that attract us, tempt us, and make us fascinated by them, persevering in pursuit and exploration, and one of the most mysterious, seductive and confusing is an ethereal name, it is called "future".

For the vast majority of us, the "future" is a thing that can only be imagined and cannot be seen with our own eyes, when we really see it, it has become "now" and even "past", and the newer and more imaginative "future" has stood in the unreachable distance, let you look at it, will not let you look carefully.

Regardless of whether they can or can't, it seems that most people want to see the future, they don't necessarily want to grasp what to gain, many times they just want to know what kind of clue lurks in the unreachable timeline after the end of their lives, what kind of story is hidden. The innate curiosity and desire to learn of intelligent beings drives and torments them, making them want to know but not to get it.

But I know that there are still a small number of people who do not want to see the future, they are silent, vigilant and even resistant to fear of the future, they are afraid of the unknown and what will eventually happen, they think that the color of life lies in these complex unknowns, and when the unknown becomes known, life will lose the meaning of its existence, development and reproduction.

What does the future hold for us? It's a question I ask myself from time to time. I crave answers, but sometimes I dread them. Or: I crave the answer to this question, but I'm afraid that there is no answer to this question – yes, no answer, no future, no hope. I am living in an age that is too vast and too cruel, and it has squeezed out almost all the life force in this world, and seems to want to fill the valley with all its blood and soul, leaving no chance for a civilized world.

Will the world be ruined by war? This is perhaps the question that many people ask themselves at night in the midst of war. Tragically, however, when the sun rises again, steel and steel collide with each other, and the melody of fighting is played, everyone's question becomes "Will I be destroyed in war", so people have to take up arms again, gamble with their lives, throw the dice of fate, and decide the victory and defeat between the backhand, but ignore that they have become one of the reasons why this world is being destroyed.

It's a world of guilt, and we're a bunch of creatures that disgust us.

Will we have a future?

Can anyone answer this question?

……

In the midst of this great change that the earth has torn apart, a special area has been formed in the middle of the distant Broken Sea, which is called the "Star Vortex". Despite its name, it is actually located in an archipelago called "Reef Fort". This was originally a level 30 dungeon area, and this dungeon also disappeared in this world upheaval. In the original location of this dungeon, a new dungeon area has reappeared.

Oh, what an incredible coincidence.

The Continental Alliance's naval command has detected an abnormal magic fluctuation in this area, and they are very worried about whether there is an unknown doomsday emperor ** sea force hidden in this area, or if the emperor ** is conducting some evil and dangerous magic experiments here. However, due to the tension on the front, the Union Navy was unable to send a fleet to reconnoiter the area, so they recruited a number of civilian adventurous groups like ours in the hope that we could help them in this glorious but difficult mission in this time of crisis.

"The pay for the mission is not bad." This is how our Elder Princess, says about this task.

"Why don't you go if you have a dungeon?" The violent dwarven priest said with a bow and a red eye.

"I've heard this copy is fun." The dwarf bard is eager to try its hand at Nocturne in B flat minor.

"It's all ...... Monsters of the opposite sex? The Elven Beast Tamer Yan Array hesitated for a moment, then agreed.

"If the geese go, I'll go." The elven marksman, String Geya, replied without thinking - if it weren't enough to say that men in love are fools, he had no idea how long he would regret this hasty decision later.

……

Well, forget the phrase "glorious and arduous mission", these guys are here to make money, to kill people, to take vacations, to talk about love and have fun, but want these free and loose guys to sincerely give birth to some consciousness to contribute to the cause of freedom and liberation of the Falvi continent? Forget it, that's completely hopeless.

Very different from the dungeon areas we have encountered before, the number of adventurers who can enter the "Star Vortex" area is no longer limited to five, but ten. That's why we haven't organized this quest until now - our Dark Elf Assassin Red Wolf has just turned level sixty-five, and he happens to be the tenth member of our guild to reach level sixty-five.

In fact, it is not easy to reach the sea where the "Star Vortex" is located, and the warships of the Alliance Navy have too deep a draft to enter this dangerous sea area with complex terrain and changeable climate, so they specially hired a pirate ship called the "Golden Rose". It's a ship that claims to have been specially adapted to withstand the harshest maritime climates – well, that's what the Navy Liaison Officer told us.

But when I actually saw the boat with my own eyes, it was almost fainting in its dilapidated appearance. I can describe this ship with a very apt comparison: it's hard for me to tell you which one is more dilapidated than the dilapidated little building of the guild headquarters before we renovated it. I think it's more appropriate to say that it has "experienced all kinds of extreme sea climates and just hasn't sunk" rather than that it "can adapt to all kinds of extremely harsh maritime climates". Frankly, I have no doubt that it will be able to carry us across the ocean: it certainly won't. I even suspect that it will sink as soon as it leaves the harbor, and if I had to get on that boat, I'd rather be closer to the tall mainmast in the middle of the ship, which I believe will be in high demand when the ship sinks.

I was probably not the only one who was equally worried, at least I saw String Goyayi climb onto the boat on his swimming turtle.

The only difference between this broken sailboat and a ghost ship is that, thankfully, it has some crew members alive. These brave men who begged for a living in the wind and waves seemed to have an incurable Lotte madness, and these guys who lived on this pile of broken planks that could fall apart at any moment, and were about to go to a dangerous sea like never before, and they could still indulge in songs, and they sang the song "The girl in the bakery is white and fat, and her round ass is dangling back and forth" in a hoarse voice that always gives birth to a gentle warmth in my heart.

Surprisingly, the captain of this pirate ship is not a burly and majestic giant, but a young and beautiful woman. Her name is "Kelsey?" Captain Rag, dressed in a sleek sailor's suit, with a thin sword hanging from his waist, his blonde hair wrapped in a red turban, like a cloud of morning glow erupting from the sea. When we saw her, she was standing on the foredeck, yelling at the busy crew. It was a little confusing that even though she was reprimanding loudly with the most brutal emphasis, I still sounded kind and tender, like a neighbor's sister whispering to the clumsy children.

"So, you're the fools sent to death by those guys in the Navy?" The pretty captain, with a straw stick in his mouth, glanced at us with slanted eyes, and a somewhat disdainful smile appeared on his face.

President Fei Yin nodded angrily, and then gritted her teeth and said to us: "I hate the guy who wrote the lines, this question is obviously only half right, we were sent by the navy, but we are not fools sent to death, but I can only choose 'yes' and 'no' two answers, it's too much of a loss."

Madam Captain didn't care about our disgust with her question, she turned her head, motioned for us to get on the boat, and then said to us: "Honestly, we don't have a good feeling for those idiots in the Navy, you don't think they can do whatever they want on my ship for money...... To be honest, I don't even dare touch the railing of this broken ship, let alone "do whatever you want" or something,

“…… We accepted this mission partly because we thought it would be fun for pirates to accept a request from the Navy, and partly because that damn maelstrom was on the reef fort, which was supposed to be a free harbor for our pirates......"

“…… It spawned in the midst of this upheaval, right in the middle of the reef fort. Many of my friends were sucked into this whirlpool and no one ever saw them come out again. That damn vortex was like an entrance to hell, a red patch that devoured all life that came its way. Sometimes, strange rays of light come out of it, blowing everything you come across......"

“…… I know the Navy wants you to investigate if there's any scumbag from the Apocalyptic Empire there, and I can tell you for sure, I can smell the scumbag of idiots without it, even if I'm on the upper hand. The problem there is that maelstrom. I don't care what the Navy will pay you, but if you succeed in closing the maelstrom, I can pay you privately, and I promise you a generos......ity that I can't get from the Navy."

I'd love to get more information about the maelstrom from Captain Kelsey, but our Lord Grower didn't wait for her to finish the task - in fact, if you look closely, most of these Skywaders are uneducated, irascible creatures, and I really don't see them listening to anyone else finish their quests.

The captain's words piqued my interest. If she's right, the quest we're about to explore is probably completely different from all the dungeon zones we've ever experienced before. You know, all the dungeon entrances we've seen before are shrouded in a thin layer of magic vortex, although it looks magical and mysterious, but that layer of magic vortex is always thin and transparent, never mixed with other colors; Moreover, those magic vortices are stable and calm when you are not in contact with them, and it is impossible to shoot any "strange light", let alone cause any violent explosions. As she says, the "Star Vortex" on Reef Fortress will be a more dangerous dungeon area than ever before, and everything that happens there may be different from our previous adventures.

Along the way, I tried to talk to our captain's lady a little more, hoping to get more and more detailed information from her. Sadly, after we accepted her assignment, she seemed to be less interested in talking about the whirlpool, yelling "Damn hook, if you doze off on the lookout again, I'll tie you up and throw you into the sea to feed the sharks", or yelling at the crew, "You should clean up my overtime", or threatening us "don't get too close to the railings, I don't guarantee that every one of them is strong".

In fact, I doubt that any of the broken wooden railings that creak in the waves are simply "not a single one of them sturdy"......

After about five minutes, we sailed into a treacherous sea. The sky was full of dark clouds, the rain poured down from the air, and the lightning bolts thicker than the mouth of the bowl kept scurrying in the air, illuminating the dim world dazzlingly. Ahead, a large circular archipelago gradually revealed, standing silently but calmly in the sea. The farther our boat went, the more lightning and torrential rain became, as if something dangerous was attracting them.

Soon, we saw the destination of the trip. Of the archipelago, the middle and largest island has been revealed. In the middle of the island, we saw a large disc-shaped red vortex spinning incessantly, which I believe was the entrance to the "Star Vortex" copy. I've never seen such large quest entrances, usually about the size of a castle gate or the entrance to a cave, but the large, bloody red turbine in front of me is almost the size of a small mountain. Behind it, we can't see the area of the quest normally seen at the entrance of the quest, such as a castle or a temple - it appears out of thin air, flanked by just plain island scenery and nothing else.

As Captain Kelsey said, sometimes, strange pillars of light shoot out of the whirlpool. They seem to contain some immeasurable magical power, and whenever they touch the rock, they make a loud noise and cause a violent explosion. I've never seen a pillar of light like a normal magician, it's not a natural scatter like a spell cast by a normal magician, but rather a condensation, like a straight stick, sometimes green, sometimes red.

Captain Kelsey skilfully docked the ship in the harbor and led us to the great red whirlpool.

"This is it, my honored guests......" she said to us, pointing to the entrance of the whirlpool, "...... I'm sorry I can't stay with you anymore, but I'll be here for three days. After three days, even if you manage to escape the whirlpool, you will probably have to swim back. Don't worry about us, although this thing often emits some dangerous rays, as long as you don't get close to it, there is no other danger. ”

From the first step I stepped into the maelstrom, I realized that this was a completely different area from the dungeon areas we had ever encountered. In the past, we didn't feel the transparent magic vortex when we entered the dungeon, and to the people who entered the dungeon, it was as if it didn't exist, and it stepped in as soon as it raised its legs.

However, this copy is anything but the case: as I stepped into the whirlpool, I suddenly felt like my whole body was stretched out, spinning along the outer reaches of the whirlpool. I'm not alone, it's all of us. In the process of spinning, this vortex, which was originally just a plane, turned into a huge channel, and we rotated in this channel and flew forward. Soon Zhou was no longer a dazzling red, but emitted a colorful dazzling light. When this light suddenly burst out, I felt a pain in my eyes and hurriedly closed it.

By the time I opened my eyes, Zhou had completely changed his vision.

We are in the midst of an unimaginably vast ruin, a city that may have once been, but unlike anything we've ever seen. To our left-hand side, a broken tall building was abandoned, but even if it was broken in two, it was taller than I had ever seen before—the part of it still standing there was at least thirty stories high, and the other half of the ruined building at its feet was at least that tall. To my astonishment, as an alchemist who had seen a wide range of materials, I couldn't tell what material this tall building was made of. It had a smooth, bright and solid surface, somewhat similar to the glass I used to polish my glasses, but larger, thicker, shinier, and a dark brown close to black. Believe me, if this thing were "glass", then the two lenses I had ground by hand would be rough gravel.

It's not the only sky-high building we've seen, in fact, almost every building in the city isn't lower than it is as far as the eye can see. On either side of the road that is so wide that it is a deep waste, strange metal machinery is parked, some burning, others charred black. There is generally a space in the middle of them, with a few chairs in it, which look like they are for people to ride, some of them have round wheels underneath, and some of them look more like some kind of ** device.

They may be some kind of magical vehicle, but sadly, the horses pulling the cart are now gone.

As I stood in a daze, there was a loud bang ahead, and the dark clouds created by the explosion rose in the distance, which was terrifying. We were just about to take a step forward when suddenly there was a roar from the road ahead, and then I saw a monster wrapped in iron armor roaring towards us. I didn't see its head, it didn't seem to have limbs, but six blue flames of light came out from below, supporting it and levitating in the air. A thick, round tube protruded from its top, and although I didn't know which organ it belonged to, I instinctively felt that it was constantly exuding an aura of extreme danger.

Just as I couldn't hold it back and was about to rush forward to stop it, the monster stopped. The light beneath it stopped**, and its entire body descended to the ground.

Then, on its left and right sides, two pieces that looked like ears – but much larger than the ears we've usually seen.

Maybe there's no malice in it—I thought.

While I was thinking about it, two figures suddenly stepped out of the two open "ears" - and that's when I realized that this guy was not some living giant, but some kind of vehicle powered by special magic. Aren't those two huge "ears" similar to the doors of a stagecoach carriage?

So I decided to call this thing a "car"

The two guys who got out of the car looked strangely dressed, and their bodies were wrapped in a special metal armor with some red and blue dots of light flashing on the armor. Their heads were wrapped in a very transparent helmet, and they didn't look very sturdy - but not necessarily.

They were tall and burly, and looked like two warriors, but what they held in their hands didn't look much like weapons. It was two long cylindrical tubes, one thick and one thin, with the front mounted on them. In a way, they look a little similar to the powerful firearms of the Wild Goose Circle, but they are much smaller and more delicate, not at all like a murder weapon and more like a peculiar shamanic totem pole.

"Is that the one who just crossed the rift in time and space is you?" One of them asked loudly as to which device he was holding up, pointing at us with the perforated segment. He didn't seem friendly at all, partly because he was pointing the stick at us a little guarded and guarded, and partly because of his race—no doubt the crimson guy with a bright red head and two short spiral horns on top of his head was a pure-blooded demon.

The reason I didn't immediately rush forward and kill him was because of some guy next to him: he was fair-skinned, tall, with two thin ears on either side of his head—no doubt an elf.

Well, I think my mind is a bit messy: an elf and a demon can sit in the same car with two weapons in their hands—this doesn't seem to be the world I'm familiar with.

The elf was obviously more friendly to me. He reached out and pressed down on the demon soldier's weapon, and said, "Don't be too nervous, my friends...... Hmm, or rather...... My ancestors? I think you probably need to rethink the place you are in - oh, actually, you don't need to dwell on the 'where' it is, but you should rethink the 'when'. You are now in your time, about 7,000 years later, and behind you is the rift in time and space caused by an accident in this war. We have read about your experiences in the history books, so we believe that you are a vital part of this war. Command has sent us to monitor this rift day and night so that we can find you in the first place. Please don't pay too much attention to the attitude of my comrade-in-arms, he is not unfriendly, but he just doesn't know how to express his friendliness. If you don't mind, I'll be honored to be able to get you on board and I'll take you to our headquarters, where I'm sure the historians who are already waiting there will be able to receive you better. ”

With that, he got back into the ironclad car. The ironclad floated in the air, spun in a circle, and aimed its butt at us. While I was still wondering how we could remove the thick layer of steel armor and squeeze into the car, a door suddenly opened in the back of the car, and a metal gangway popped out of the car, allowing us to safely enter the very spacious compartment.

The change was so big and so abrupt that I was overwhelmed. I looked around at my friends, but they all showed excited expressions and walked eagerly towards the car.

"So......" Fei Yin said a puzzling sentence as she walked and looked at the surrounding scenery:

“…… It seems that we have crossed the ......".