Chapter 72: Meeting Parents Again

"Is there a problem? Or you don't exchange for foreigners?"

I felt a bit nervous and my heart skipped a beat. I thought the shopkeeper had found something fishy.

Or maybe gold from different worlds was very different?

"Exchange, of course we exchange! We H-country people never look down on foreigners!"

Luckily I was just thinking too much. When he heard this, the shopkeeper's face changed and he smiled, saying it was no problem. But he didn't seem totally sure. After I agreed, he brought out a fire gun to do a melting test!

"Of course it's real, and the quality is very good too!"

I secretly felt relieved. Real gold isn't afraid of fire! The shopkeeper finally accepted our five "Eastern Spain commemorative gold coins" and bought them for the cheap price of 2000 H-country dollars.

Just 2000?

I felt a bit disappointed hearing this price. In Eldoria Continent, five Continental gold coins could buy quite a lot. But this was Earth, and the gold price was what it was. Plus, private exchanges always gave lower rates! To avoid trouble, I had to accept it.

"You don't even have phones? How is that possible in this day!"

But when it was time to pay, we had a small argument. The shopkeeper had no cash and insisted on online transfer. But how could Adrian and I have accounts? This made the shopkeeper suspicious!

Nowadays, H-country society mostly uses digital payments. It's hard to find people who insist on cash. And Adrian and I didn't look like seniors who couldn't use phones.

"Phone? I think I have one! Is this okay?"

Though Adrian didn't understand H-country language well, he could remember some special words he'd heard many times. So he quickly took out his phone.

It was actually a gift Wayne Peng and others gave out when they went to the light elf village. I thought it was too crappy and didn't want one, but Adrian found it very special, so he kept one for himself.

"An old-style phone? It's not a smartphone, so I can't transfer money to you online!"

The shopkeeper shook his head, but this gave me a good idea for an excuse. I quickly explained:

"We can't help it, as you can see! We just got off the plane and met thieves who stole everything. We only have this old phone left. If we weren't in a hurry for money after just arriving in H-country, who would sell family heirloom commemorative coins?"

It made sense that foreigners might not have H-country accounts yet. And Eastern Spain's economy had fallen badly after nuclear war and rising sea levels, so it was understandable they might be short on money.

"If your phones were stolen, you can go to the police! They'll find them quickly..."

Though he said this, the shopkeeper clearly bought my story. No matter what, he was making good money on this deal and didn't want to let it go. So he quickly went to the bank ATM to get 2000 in cash for us.

"Let's go, I'll treat you to a meal!"

Though it took some effort, we finally got the money! Feeling the big stack of bills in my pocket, I happily pulled Adrian straight to a restaurant.

Since we didn't have much money, we couldn't choose any fancy places. Thinking we still needed to save money to buy a smartphone, I just picked a very common, ordinary noodle shop!

"It tastes a lot like what you make, but the actual taste is far worse!"

Adrian didn't seem used to the real H-country food here, but that wasn't the main point. From the TV shows playing in the restaurant and other customers' talk, I finally learned some important information.

First was the time.

The current time on Earth was about one year after our class reunion crossing, which matched the time I spent in the other world! As for the class reunion that caused our crossing, from this world's view, it was a pretty strange accident.

"You mean that gas poisoning accident at Aurora Entertainment?"

When I asked about what happened, pretending to be a foreigner who just arrived in H-country, the restaurant owner answered like this.

"That thing was said to be really weird, because it was truly strange - over ten people in a KTV room suddenly all fell unconscious, for no clear reason! The official final investigation result suspected group gas poisoning. But the weird thing was, only that one room had a problem, other rooms weren't affected at all. Logically the illness should have been light, but in the end not one person was saved! A few days later, those victims' conditions got worse one by one, and they died in the hospital one after another."

"What gas poisoning! How would KTV rooms have gas? I say it was ghosts! The officials just won't admit it."

Hearing us discuss this topic, a nosy person eating noodles at a nearby table jumped in, confidently complaining:

"And that incident last month is proof! Months later, again at Aurora Entertainment, at the same place, there was a bad incident of violent people hurting others with knives! Though the armed police quickly controlled it, some people who escaped from inside said that at first, that KTV in Aurora Entertainment was wrapped in a black ball, and the so-called violent people actually ran out from the black ball later! What's more, many people saw with their own eyes that the attackers wore very strange clothes, all in ancient armor. If this isn't ghosts, what is it? It's just like the legendary ghost army passing through!"

Sure enough! The military kept the news very secret, but lots of rumors still spread privately.

Of course, the H-country officials wouldn't admit any "ghost army passing through" talk. They only announced that the violent incident was caused by two criminal groups fighting each other, and the military took over the Aurora Entertainment area later to focus on surrounding and destroying Aurora Entertainment as the underground base of these criminal forces.

But this explanation had many holes and made many people doubt it. After all, how could catching criminals need so much military force? But since the officials insisted on their story, no one could do anything. Any talk different from the official explanation was cruelly blocked. Plus, the later compensation and moving work went on quickly, and some people who got benefits didn't want to ask questions anymore.

Soon we finished the noodles. Though the taste was just okay, this meal was definitely worth it for Adrian and me.

But when we walked out of the restaurant feeling satisfied, we found that where to stay was the biggest problem now. Since we had no ID cards, it was basically impossible to stay at hotels! Did we really have to sleep on the street?

"This city really makes me feel nostalgic! It must be the model for your spirit world, right?"

Walking helplessly on the late night street, I was thinking about maybe finding an underground internet cafe to spend the night, when I heard Adrian looking at the tall buildings around and saying to me with deep feeling.

"Uh... yes!"

I felt very awkward, not knowing how to answer. Though I had prepared myself mentally to bring him to this world, when it was time to tell the truth, I found it was still hard to say.

Thinking about it, Adrian must have spent quite a long time alone in my spirit world! Though the spirit world was just a shadow built from my memories by the Light God, and the area to move around in was much smaller than the real Shine Metropolitan, Adrian was still pretty familiar with this city's environment in some ways! No wonder he adapted to the atmosphere around so quickly, not showing any unfamiliarity at all.

Thinking this way, maybe he had already guessed my gender on Earth long ago? But why did he never mention it?

Thinking that with Adrian's intelligence, he must have figured it out by now! I was just about to ask him directly when I noticed he seemed to see something, his eyes fixed on the other side of the street, not moving away for a long time.

"Huh? That's..."

Of course he wasn't looking at pretty girls! The street was very busy now, with cars and people everywhere. It took me some effort to follow Adrian's gaze and find what he was looking at.

It was two middle-aged people, to be exact a man and a woman, very familiar figures walking one after the other.

"It's them!"

Just from their backs I knew these two were my parents, I couldn't be more sure!

This scene wasn't really that surprising. After all, I landed in the area where I used to live, not far from my old home. I just didn't expect to meet them so soon after just getting back to Earth. It was a bit unexpected!

"Do you want to follow them?"

Adrian clearly recognized them too, but unlike in the spirit world, this was the real world, so my parents weren't virtual personalities controlled by the Light God, but real living people! So Adrian didn't act rashly, just watching and asking for my opinion.

"...Okay!"

I hesitated for a bit, but finally nodded to agree. To be honest, though I felt I'd grown a lot after adventures in another world, that uneasy feeling about seeing family hadn't gone away.

But this trip back to Earth might be my only chance to return to this world, and I still couldn't let go in my heart. Adrian naturally saw this too, so we decided to follow behind my parents first and see how things went.