World's First Demon Lord 58 Quick Travel

April 24, 8:30 am BT – 6:30 am UT, Somewhere in Xinjiang

Irade's stomach growled, and she cursed her unpreparedness.

She had woken up in the darkness a couple of hours ago, as the road started to get rough. Irade used the [Monster Map] to check on where she was, but all there was around her was a vast expanse of nothing. Ahead and on her left was a large mountain range, while on her right seemed to be a lot of houses. She guessed that they had entered a prefecture of some sort.

Of course, Irade had prepared food for when she traveled. She had stocked up on all sorts of food that should last for a day trip to Kashgar (even though the plan had been Urumqi).

The problem was that she had eaten too many grapes from the crates. She couldn't help herself; they were famous for a reason.

And now she needed to use the bathroom. Badly.

As she cursed her current situation, she felt the truck start to slow down. Curious, and looking for any source of distraction from her woes of her bladder, Irade used [Monster Map] to see what was going on.

Oh no.

It looked like they were coming up to a checkpoint of some sort, or a toll stop. From what Irade could make out, there were a bunch of people all decked out in firearms of all sorts, waiting up ahead.

Irade did her best to sit silently as the truck came to a stop. She watched the silhouettes of armed people coming up to the truck. They seemed to speak with the driver. A couple of people broke off from the group, and headed towards the back of the truck.

Irade made sure to hide behind the crates of grapes as the doors opened up. She squinted as her eyes adjusted to the light.

"Alright, this time we do it properly, okay?" said one of the officers. His accent in Mandarin was a little funny, but still definitely Chinese.

The other man simply grunted, and they started checking the crates. Irade watched them through the [Monster Map].

Unfortunately for her, it seemed like they were going to be quite thorough with their search. They searched each crate slowly and carefully, as if they were actually expecting to find something hidden in there. Which meant Irade would need to sit still for minutes on end and hope they didn't go as far back as Irade was hiding, or she would need to escape and run for her life.

If she had properly prepared, she wouldn't have minded waiting for a while to see if the officers would get to her. However…

She really needed to go. And needing to sit still really didn't help at all.

Five minutes later, Irade felt like she was ready to burst. She couldn't wait any longer.

"GET ON WITH IT YOU LAZY b.u.mS!" she yelled, jumping out of her hiding place.

The guards looked up in sheer shock as something zoomed past them at inhuman speeds. By the time they realized what had happened, Irade was already shrinking in the distance, heading towards the mountains.

One of the guards tentatively raised their gun, then lowered it.

"What...was that?" he asked his partner, still watching the figure of the young woman getting smaller in the distance.

"We didn't see anything," said his partner. The guards both nodded, then went back to searching.

Meanwhile, once Irade was sufficiently far from the truck and the guards, she took care of her business. Luckily, it was quite wooded near the mountains, and so she was able to find a nice, private place.

The troubles started when she tried to find out which way to go.

Irade didn't wan to head back to the main road; that would just be asking for trouble. But without it, she wouldn't know which way to go either.

She tried to see if maybe the [Monster Map] could help with this, as it usually showed her were important things were. At least it did that one time in the Monster Nest. But no, it was useless.

Figures. For the past few weeks it had been completely silent; the only time it ever bothered to chime is was when she landed a critical hit, or leveled up. She was still stuck on the same Mission: [A Coward's Fight]. But it didn't show her what the objectives were, or how she was supposed to complete it.

Okay, focus. What tools did Irade have?

In the end, she simply flew up high enough to see the road from the sky. She was nervous the entire time she went up, watching her MP tick down slowly as the air around her got thinner. Her breathing got harder as it got colder, to the point where Irade started s.h.i.+vering.

There! The land below her unfolded like a map, until it looked like something Irade could recognize. She fumbled with her pack, almost dropping it, before taking out a map. She looked down at the Earth below her, then back at the map, and realized the direction she needed to move in.

Slowly, she floated back down, trying to find landmarks or something to show which way she needed to go. In the end, she focused on one of the snow-capped mountains in the distance. It was in the general direction she needed to get to. That would be her next goal.

Irade actually fell the last four hundred meters to the Earth; her MP had run out.

"Be quicker next time," she muttered. "Noted."

With that, Irade set off.

***

Irade

April 24, 1:16 pm BT – 11:16 am UT, Somewhere near the Tian Shan Mountain Range, China

The sun sat high above in the sky, s.h.i.+ning mercilessly on the Earth. Luckily for Irade, the mountains had all sorts of rocky outcrops of shade. Unfortunately, that did nothing for the heat. And Irade was running out of water.

It couldn't be helped. She had only packed enough for a truck ride to Urumqi. She didn't know she was going to have to slum it in the mountains for a while.

But Irade wasn't too worried about that. With the help of the HUD and her stats, she should be able to find some game to kill and eat. And she had a small cigarette lighter in her rucksack, so she should be able to cook it too.

The problem was the people.

Irade had only noticed about ten minutes ago, while she was climbing up an unusually smooth path up the mountains. It was almost as if it was a maintained road, except it couldn't be. No one lived out here.

Did they?

It was only once she reached a clearing and saw the large, old-fas.h.i.+oned gate that Irade realized what was going on.

She had arrived at a tourist attraction.

The gate itself was quite old-looking; with a paG.o.da roof over a white brick arch blocking off the road. Above the arch was a sign that read "Iron Gate Pa.s.s." There were a couple cars, and one small bus parked near this entrance, with a group of people exiting the bus. They were mostly Han Chinese, but Irade thought she spotted a couple of Uyghurs in that group of tourists too, talking excitedly.

Irade made a quick decision. She hurriedly joined the bunch of tourists as they made their way through the gate.

"This, is the Iron Gate Pa.s.s," said a well-dressed woman with a slightly too-fake smile. "It is a path that was used as a bottle-neck for the ancient Silk Road, and was used as a military checkpoint back in the Tang Dynasty."

The tourists all murmured as they shuffled along, looking around.

Past the gate was a surprising amount of green. The path opened up to a small clearing where there were a few statues of people, as well as another, more Sinified gate to the east.

The tour guide began explaining the history of this place as the group moved along, slowly seeing the sights. To be honest, Irade didn't really care about any of this. All she wanted was to get to the other side of the gate without any suspicion. But now that she was with the group, Irade could feel a set of eyes watching her. Discreetly checking around, she realized that they were being watched by a guard in the distance.

If she made a move now, she would be discovered. Better to wait a while.

The group moved along slowly, admiring the sights. Irade had to admit that the place was quite beautiful. There was a strange disharmony between the sandy lifelessness of the rock contrasting with the beautiful green trees that seemed to spring out of the dead ground. That, coupled with the large rocks engraved with Chinese writing made this place feel like the setting of some old Xianxia novel, waiting to come to life.

The group pa.s.sed by all sorts of areas, over a river, past some more greenery, until eventually they climbed up some stairs, reaching the peak of a large gorge. There was a small, Uyghur-style gazebo at the top, overlooking the dangerous rocky path below. The sound of rus.h.i.+ng water could also be heard down there.

"And this, is the gorge where Princess Zuhre and her lover, Tahir the Herdsman fell to their deaths," said the guide, showing off the gorge with a flourish.

"For those who aren't familiar, Princess Zuhre and Tahir the Herdsman fell in love," said the guide, recounting the story. "However, their love was forbidden by the royal court."

"After much convincing by Minister Karehan, the King decided to have Tahir killed. Hearing of this plot, the princess tried to save Tahir from his fate at this gorge, but they both fell to their deaths."

"As you may remember, the tumulus, or mound, opposite the gate was there to commemorate this place as their final resting place."

One of the women in the group sniffed loudly.

"It's such a sad story," she whispered.

Irade didn't care. She had other things to worry about. Like the fact that for the first time in a long time…

Ding!

[DANGER! DO NOT ENTER THE GORGE!]

Irade frowned. This was the first time in ages that the HUD had responded to anything. And now it was responding to this gorge?

Saying it was dangerous?

And not to go inside?

Irade felt a flash of annoyance.

First, you go call me a coward. Then you don't make any sort of noise for practically a month, and now you're warning me of danger?

You could've warned me of the danger back at the hotel, but instead you warn me about some hold in the ground?

Irade was irritated, to say the least, but she calmed herself. This was not the time to lose her cool.

Once she was calm, however…

What could be so dangerous in a gorge that the HUD would warn her about it?

Apparently, something more dangerous than a whole SWAT team coming to beat her up, Irade thought ruefully.

She looked around. The sun was still unbearably hot up here, but there was a cool breeze that made it sufferable. She looked down at the gorge once more. It was a long way down, and it was incredibly rocky. But it looked like there was a small, flat bit of land down there by the running water. Probably.

All she had to do to find out was lean over a little more…

Irade sighed. She pulled back, not wanting to tempt herself. If the HUD said it was dangerous, then it probably was.

…

Or was it?

Irade suddenly remembered her doubts about the HUD. Where had it come from? What was its purpose? What did it want from her?

Why was it activating now?

Was it trying to protect her from something?

Or was it trying to protect itself from something? Something that could be beneficial to Irade, but dangerous to the HUD?

Did something like that even exist?

Now that the question was in her head, Irade couldn't get it out. She bit her lip, curiosity growing.

Just what was down there?

But no, she couldn't. Irade backed away reluctantly from the edge. If she jumped off, everyone would notice. They'd probably send a search party for her, and people would start looking for her.

Or would they?

Irade realized that the guards weren't looking at just her, they had an eye on the entire group. If she timed everything right…

But did she really want to go down there?

"Alright, we'll be moving on down to the fields next, for a little bit more greenery," the guide joked. The group laughed as they started to follow her.

Now or never. Just as the group started leaving. Irade made her choice. She hung back a little, just enough that people would feel like she was there, walking backwards to the edge. She felt her back hit the guardrail.

No one was watching her. Everyone had their eyes on the road ahead.

Before anyone could miss her, Irade flung herself backwards, over the ledge.

One tourist turned around, just in time to see…

Nothing.

"You okay there?" his companion asked him.

"I thought...no, that's impossible," he said.

"What?"

"Well..." the tourist hesitated for a moment, before deciding to trust his friend.

"I thought I just saw the ghost of someone floating over the gorge," he admitted.

His friend just stared at him, before bursting out into laughter.

"Hey, everyone! Abdukerim thinks he saw the ghost of Princess Zuhre at the gorge!" he started shouting, pointing at his friend.

Abdukerim sighed. He knew he should've kept his mouth shut.