Chapter 965: The Author’s Near Miss
’How do the people who live here not get lost?!’
Arthur genuinely wanted to grab one of the citizens of Chongqing and ask them that question, given how complex the city was.
They had somehow managed to build a 5D city inside a 3D space, where someone could enter the 3rd floor of one building, take an elevator down, and emerge on the 15th floor of another building.
’How does that even work when it’s all just technology and no spatial manipulation?!’
The thought of it left Arthur completely baffled during the hours he spent there.
He made sure not to return there as he continued down the continent, spotting another city that looked familiar.
’Hong Kong? Ah, so that’s where Webnovel HQ is, right?’
He kept moving to different locations on his world map, eventually reaching the island country where Rishia got her naginata, Yamigetsu, but passing by it without realising.
"According to this history book, this island country used to have more territory during some World War time..."
[Master, that’s a comic, not a history book,] Celestia remarked.
"Well, it’s one based on this world’s real history, so it counts as a history book," Arthur replied, pointing at the cover of the magazine he was holding and correcting, "Also, they call it ’Manga’. Not ’Comics’. There’s a difference, apparently."
He put down the Jump magazine and stepped out of the store, opening his world map and scanning it for another location to explore.
"Time to cross the ocean."
With that, he flew over the ocean, passing a place called ’Point Nemo’, and landed on a continent in the southern part of the planet.
"We’re in a place called ’Brazil’, and there’s a festival going on, so we might as well join in."
While there, he saw people gathering to watch a football match and joined them for the experience, even though he didn’t really know much about the sport. By the time the match ended, Arthur had somehow become even more of a fan of the winning country than the locals from that country.
This piqued his interest in football, so he asked about other countries known for skilled players and ended up travelling across the planet again, moving through countries and borders without restriction.
"That Germany place, the one called Argentina, Spain, and even the country where that London place Quinn brought me to, are apparently all countries with a long history of strong footballers."
[Master, are you really going to spend the rest of your time here watching people kick a ball across grass?]
"Celestia, never say that kind of thing outside. Ever."
That brief exchange between Arthur and Celestia happened shortly before Arthur, while searching for more countries with notable footballers, discovered that one of his target nations had a massive tower, a monument on the same level as the giant clock in London and the statue of the torch-holding woman in New York.
"Eiffel Tower? I wanna see!"
Putting his search for footballers aside, Arthur headed toward the capital city of that nation to see the Tower.
"Can I climb this thing?" Arthur muttered, about to teleport to the top, when a passing man who heard him immediately spoke up.
"That’s Illegal."
Arthur turned to the man, scanned his uniform with the bold letters ’Police’ printed on it, and nodded before responding, "Got it."
Having seen the tower he was curious about, he took Celestia and teleported to another country, this time choosing a destination at random.
When he arrived, he found himself in a stadium surrounded by stalls and cubicles on the tracks encircling the pitch, with people moving around buying food and other items.
"Is this some kind of trade fair?"
[Master, look up,] Celestia said, pointing at something above him.
Arthur followed her direction and saw a large signboard with the words ’Bole Festival’ printed boldly.
"So it’s another festival? And what’s Bole? What country am I even in anyway?"
He and Celestia walked around a bit, and when someone passed them a flyer, he read the address of the business it was advertising and saw the name of the country written at the bottom.
"Nigeria? That sounds similar to the name of the river in that country with the pyramids."
[That river was called the Nile,] Celestia corrected, holding up the paper map and pointing at the labelled river. [The river this one sounds similar to is called the Niger. It runs through this country, apparently. Maybe that’s where their name came from.]
"Is that so?"
Arthur put his hands in his pockets and pulled out several paper bills he’d collected from the other countries he’d visited, holding them out to Celestia as he asked, "You think they accept any of these currencies here?"
[Not sure. They seem to all be using different bills from any of the ones we have,] Celestia responded, folding the map and glancing at the hands of the people buying and selling goods around them.
"Great. We gotta change money again."
Arthur grumbled, sighing as he stopped someone passing by to ask for the nearest bank.
After resolving the currency problem, he and Celestia were finally able to enjoy the festival for a while.
However, after going around a few times, Arthur grew bored and initiated another random teleportation.
The two of them reappeared on a beach, and just as Arthur was about to ask which nation they had arrived in, he froze in his tracks.
Emerging from the water was a spider about a foot tall, its eight hairy, crab-like legs digging into the wet sand as it moved.
The spider froze when it spotted Arthur, and the two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before it turned and scrambled back into the water.
"...Celestia...why the fuck was that spider so huge!?"
[Master, why are you asking that instead of instantly teleporting us out of here?]
Celestia didn’t hesitate to pull Arthur away from the beach into the nearby city, but as they casually walked along a residential street, another spider appeared. It was smaller, yet still enormous compared to what Arthur would expect from normal, non-monster creatures.
It was the size of his palm.
"...my palm is 6 inches long, Celestia. 6 inches! And why is it so fast?!"
[Again, Master, why haven’t you teleported us away?? Look, they have penguins on this ice continent. Let’s go see the penguins!]
Celestia’s persuasion got Arthur to warp them further south to the icy continent filled with penguins.
While there were no foot-tall spiders, this place had its own issues, and no, it wasn’t the cold.
[This place stinks.]
"There’s penguin shit everywhere. I’m out."
With that, Arthur returned them to their previous location, the one with the Bole Festival, and after leaving Celestia with some money, he decided to move around and try to find someone who may or may not be here.
"If Webnovel is in Hong Kong, then the Author has to be somewhere in this country, right?"
Unfortunately, Day 2 of his exploration on the Original Earth ended without Arthur finding the Author.
Little did he know, the Author was at the festival where he had left Celestia before heading out to search for him.
It was an unfortunate near miss, so he returned to Celestia and then set off for another country.
Their next destination was the island nation far to the east of the planet, the same one where Rishia’s Yamigetsu had come from.
"I want to read more of that manga stuff. The one I saw earlier looked interesting."
Arthur was about to head straight to the store where he had seen the Jump magazine, but Celestia took his arm and pointed at a building he had almost walked past.
[This place seems to be called a ’Manga Café’, so I’m pretty sure they have both the manga and food too.]
They had tried a variety of food from across the planet in the one and a half days they’d spent exploring, but when they were last in this country, they hadn’t sampled any of the local cuisine because Arthur had spent all his time reading Jump magazines.
Now, before them was a place where they could get both food and manga. What better way to kill two birds with one stone than this?
Arthur and Celestia entered the café and quickly reserved a booth. When they reached it, they saw the small, cosy space with floor couches and shelves filled with various manga, along with a tablet that allowed them to read some of them online.
