My Computer Leads to an Instance Dungeon-Chapter 38: ’He’s Lying!

Fang Zhen walked to the town’s entrance.

Several children and residents of the town were gathered here.

Fang Zhen slowed his pace, observing the residents.

His gaze fell on the man closest to him.

The man was about 1.54 meters tall, perhaps even a little shorter, with a rather stocky build. He wore a shirt woven from linen, which was relatively clean, though patches were visible on the elbows. Below, he wore a pair of brown trousers that were somewhat dirty and unstarched.

The man’s skin tone seemed to be somewhere between that of an East Asian and a Caucasian, leaning closer to the former. He had black hair and dark brown eyes. His facial features were a bit more defined than the East Asians Fang Zhen was familiar with, but not as prominent as a Westerner’s. To make a comparison, he somewhat resembled the people from the Southern Border of the Xia Country.

At this moment, the man was looking at Fang Zhen with fear in his expression, yet his eyes also betrayed a hint of curiosity. He wanted to observe Fang Zhen but didn’t dare to approach.

The other people in the town had much the same attitude. They showed a mixture of fear and curiosity toward the newcomer, watching from a distance of over ten meters but not daring to come closer.

Among the onlookers were men, middle-aged women, and a few children around ten years old. Their skin tone and anthropological features were similar to the man Fang Zhen had been carefully observing, and their average height did not exceed 1.6 meters.

Seeing their appearances, Fang Zhen suddenly felt a little more relaxed.

He always found a certain sense of security in familiarity.

The people in the town were all strangers, but seeing their black hair and dark brown eyes gave Fang Zhen a slight feeling of kinship. It was certainly more comforting than encountering elves, dwarves, or some kind of Three-Eyed People.

Besides, at his height, Fang Zhen stood out like a crane among chickens in this town, practically a giant of a man.

’The people in this town aren’t very tall. But that makes sense. Judging by the environment and what the residents are wearing, their production capacity is about that of the medieval period. Overall productivity is low, so people probably don’t get much good food during their formative years. It’s understandable that they’d be shorter.’

He walked into the town and found it to be reasonably lively, with a fair number of people. Before long, a crowd of more than twenty had gathered, all watching him from a distance. When Fang Zhen moved forward, they would either follow or move aside to keep their distance, still curious but afraid to approach.

Seeing this, Fang Zhen thought, ’This won’t do.’

An idea popped into his head.

Fang Zhen felt his pants pocket and pulled out a Copper Coin.

He had quite a few Copper Coins in his pouch. He had accumulated so many after wiping out the Goblin Camp that his pouch couldn’t hold them all, so he had stuffed a dozen or so into his pants pocket.

Fang Zhen tossed the Copper Coin in his hand. He spotted a boy of thirteen or fourteen with a freckled face watching from nearby, so he reached out and pointed at him.

’Time to use a little ’cash power’.’

"You, come here," Fang Zhen said, keeping his voice calm.

As Fang Zhen spoke, something miraculous happened.

He had intended to speak Chinese, but as he vocalized the words, his intent was for the boy to understand him.

As a result, when Fang Zhen opened his mouth, what came out was a strange language he had never heard before.

Even more miraculously, although the language was completely unfamiliar, Fang Zhen understood its meaning: he was telling the boy to come over.

"Me? You mean me?" The boy from this Otherworld, singled out by Fang Zhen, hesitated and pointed to his own chest.

The question was also in that strange language, but Fang Zhen understood it perfectly.

’This must be the language talent ability I acquired, right?’ Fang Zhen immediately realized what was happening.

The feeling was bizarre. It was as if he had suddenly mastered a foreign language. He was actually thinking and understanding in Chinese, but when he spoke, it transformed into another language that he could still comprehend.

Fang Zhen thought about it for a moment and decided not to dwell on it.

’The ’Dungeon Life Game’ detected a preset talent for language and semiotics, and it’s a mystical ability at that. No point trying to reason it out with science.’

’Trying to explain a mystical ability with science is unscientific in itself.’

The boy before him hesitated for a moment but still walked over to Fang Zhen.

Fang Zhen flicked his left hand, sending the Copper Coin flying toward the boy.

The boy fumbled to catch the Copper Coin.

"This coin is for you. Go and bring the Town Mayor, or whoever else is in charge here, to see me," Fang Zhen said.

He looked at the boy, his gaze firm, his tone calm and confident.

After catching the coin, the boy’s face lit up with joy, and he no longer seemed as frightened.

"Okay, I’ll go right away," the boy said and turned to leave.

The boy had only taken two steps when he suddenly turned back and gave Fang Zhen a slight bow.

"Thank you, sir. This coin is enough for me to buy the cheapest little bran bread for my sister. It’ll be enough for one meal for her."

The boy bowed slightly again, then turned and ran into the town.

’Heh,’ Fang Zhen chuckled to himself.

’Even a seemingly poor boy from the town is so polite. It seems this isn’t a malicious place.’

’Of course, I can’t just assume the town is friendly and safe based on this, but it’s a good sign nonetheless,’ Fang Zhen thought, his mood improving slightly.

Leaning on the shaft of his long spear with his right hand, Fang Zhen stood and waited.

Before long, the boy who had taken Fang Zhen’s Copper Coin returned, leading a man who looked to be in his fifties. The man walked quickly and soon came to a stop in front of Fang Zhen.

Fang Zhen sized up the man before him.

The man was in his fifties, with a buzz cut, and was also just over 1.5 meters tall. He had a sturdy build, and his eyes seemed a little deeper than the other townspeople’s, as if he had seen something of the world and had some experience.

His hair was mostly black with some streaks of white. His clothes were different from the others; they appeared to be made of cotton, dyed a rather bright yellow, and his trousers were chestnut brown. They were cleaner and tidier than what others wore, giving him a more respectable appearance.

The man came before Fang Zhen, sized him up for a moment, and then showed a hint of surprise.

"I am Ande, the Town Mayor here. Forgive my presumption, but are you a Wandering Knight, esteemed lord?" Ande’s attitude was very respectful. He bowed slightly, adopting the posture of a subordinate, lower than Fang Zhen, as he asked.

Ande even used honorifics.

Listening to Ande speak, Fang Zhen picked up on something.

Fang Zhen could clearly tell that, compared to the whispers of the townspeople, Town Mayor Ande’s vocabulary seemed larger. His word choice was more advanced, and he even used some sophisticated modifiers.

All of this could be perceived through Fang Zhen’s mystical language talent.

’This Town Mayor must be worldly and educated.’

’Back when I was studying foreign languages, my teacher talked about Old English. He said its characteristics were that it was ’simple and low’—in other words, basic and unsophisticated. It lacked advanced abstract concepts and was full of simple, concrete nouns related to real things like ’horseshoe,’ ’barrel,’ and ’meat.’ The more advanced emotional, abstract, and academic vocabulary was all borrowed from French, Greek, and Latin.’

’The evolution of Old English into Modern English was a bit like that ’Energy-Absorbing Art’—if there was something good from the outside, it was absorbed and integrated.’

’Listening to this Town Mayor speak now, he’s clearly using some slightly more advanced vocabulary and more sophisticated applications of basic words. I can’t quite make out the specific grammatical rules, but that’s the general gist.’

’Interesting.’

Fang Zhen felt quite intrigued.

He hadn’t forgotten the persona he wanted to establish, so he didn’t act too enthusiastic. In a calm voice, he said, "I don’t know what you mean by ’Wandering Knight’."

"I am merely a Martial Artist who roams the world."

"I came to your town to rest for a while, and also to see if there are any evil creatures here that can serve as a whetstone to temper my Martial Arts."

After Fang Zhen finished speaking, Town Mayor Ande, far from looking down on him, showed surprise and became even more respectful.

"Your words alone tell me that you must be a well-educated lord. However, ’Martial Artist’? What does that mean? Are you saying you are a nobleman who has not inherited a title? Please forgive me, there are a few words you used that I cannot understand."

"Also, where did you come from? I mean, from which direction? Was it from the direction of the Dark Forest?"

"There’s a band of goblin bandits in the Dark Forest on the mountain blocking the path. Have you seen them? How did you get past their blockade?" Ande asked.

"Those goblins? If you go up there now, their corpses probably haven’t started to stink yet," Fang Zhen said. "I killed them all."

Fang Zhen said this in a calm tone.

"You killed all the goblins?" Disbelief instantly filled Ande’s eyes. "That’s impossible!"

"He’s lying!" a sharp voice shouted from behind Town Mayor Ande.

The crowd of townspeople erupted in an uproar, and murmurs began to spread among them.

Instantly, Fang Zhen keenly sensed that the atmosphere had taken a turn.

Fang Zhen’s brow twitched.

He glanced sideways, looking toward the source of the sharp cry.