"It doesn't look like there's much of a difference." Zenith looked around at the identical terrain and breathed in the identical air. "Maybe the vegetation is a bit denser?"
"It's only been eighty-odd years, after all."
Serie curled her lip. *Still too young.* Once he lived for another thousand or eight hundred years, he wouldn't get so sentimental over such trivial things.
Zenith wondered if the satellite phones still worked. After so much time had passed, that kind of old equipment was probably on the verge of breaking down. It'd be a miracle if even one in ten still functioned.
"Alright, they're all scrapped. I don't even know how these things work anyway." Zenith scratched his head. When it came to technology, he was completely clueless; at this point, his knowledge of magic was far more solid.
"Who are you trying to contact?"
Serie possessed a long-distance telepathy magic. While its range wasn't overly exaggerated, it was more than enough for normal circumstances.
"South Hero, and Himmel. Contacting those two will be enough."
Not everyone was interested in a long lifespan, so Zenith had left the choice up to them.
The key to the secret room in the Sky City was kept by South Hero. Inside was a stack of Golden Apples. Their effects weren't as exaggerated as Enchanted Golden Apples, but they could still extend a human's lifespan by about five hundred years.
To Zenith's surprise, South Hero and Himmel were actually living together. After establishing contact, Serie directly teleported them over.
It was ordinary—just a small, rustic countryside village with barely any people around. The youthful Himmel and South Hero were currently lying in rocking chairs, soaking up the sun. When they saw Zenith arrive, they practically wept tears of joy.
"Eighty years! Do you have any idea how I've survived these past eighty years?!"
They had to put on makeup every single day before going out, and to avoid blowing their cover, the two had even deliberately shaved their heads bald. Elves were an immortal species, and dwarves were a long-lived one; it was common knowledge that both races produced many powerhouses.
But for humans, it was completely unheard of for anyone to live for one or two hundred years.
If Himmel and the others had strutted around the streets looking young for seventy or eighty years, what awaited them wouldn't be fame and authorship, but people desperately trying to extract the secret of their youth. One should never underestimate humanity's fear of death, especially among those in power.
After listening to South Hero and Himmel's complaints, Zenith slapped his forehead. "So it's currently Year 23 of the Post-Hero Era? Let me calculate the time... Did Heiter adopt a little girl?"
"Yeah, and Eisen and Orcini both took in young disciples too."
"Orcini? Has he managed to rein in his Seven Curses to that extent? I can't believe someone is actually willing to train under him."
It couldn't be helped, after all; taking in a disciple was the absolute limit of what he could manage. Himmel gossiped with Zenith, sharing a little rumor: supposedly, on Orcini's wedding night, his bride had beaten him right out of the bridal chamber.
After years of close contact, the couple had originally thought they were used to the presence of the Seven Curses and could suppress them.
But making a baby was, after all, an activity that required negative-distance contact. Orcini claimed that it was the closest he had ever been to death in his entire life, and also his most despair-inducing moment.
It had to be said, the timing was chosen perfectly. Fern and Stark were already in place, plus an unknown extra disciple, and the actor Himmel was ready to join the "dead husband's memoir" cast.
Not counting the kids, the only person completely in the dark was Frieren herself. It was shaping up to be an epic, reality-show-level performance.
"Isn't this a bit too cruel to Frieren?" Himmel asked.
"Who told her to be so stubbornly insistent on calling me a baboon brain? Besides, didn't you agree to this back then? Otherwise, why would you have been living incognito here for over twenty years?"
South Hero expressed that he didn't want to get involved in these matters; he was very satisfied with his leisurely pastoral life right now. Without the Demon King, even though there were still demons active, they were no longer a major threat.
Humanity needed this kind of external pressure to keep from falling into endless civil war. If the demons were truly wiped out, the humans, elves, and dwarves would probably just start fighting among themselves.
"Everything we saw and heard over those ten years is in here, along with the footage of when we finally defeated the Demon King."
South Hero took out a treasured memory card. Watching the videos of their past adventures over and over again was a regular entertainment activity for him and Himmel.
"It's truly unbelievable. To think that the magic that ultimately defeated the Demon King was the spell that creates a field of flowers."
It perfectly matched the heartwarming and healing tone of this world. Defeating the Demon King with a gentle magic—who could say that wasn't a perfect ending?
Zenith inserted the memory card into the camera and played back the recording. He watched as Frieren waved her staff, and the area around the Demon King was instantly overgrown with countless functional flowers from the Botania plant magic mod.
Poison Hyacinths, Dreadthorns, Bellethorns, Tangleberries, Petro-petunias... *The art style has completely changed, hey! The magic you loved most for bringing people joy has completely changed its vibe, hey!*
"Anyway, at least you beat him." Zenith tried his best to scrub that image from his brain, then started figuring out a way to apply makeup to Himmel.
Ordinary disguises and magic were easily seen through. After thinking it over, he decided it would be better to just use his custom Steve avatar.
To put it bluntly, this was just Minecraft's skin system. By slapping a layer over Himmel, not even Notch himself would be able to tell the difference.
He casually sculpted a generic NPC face for Himmel, altered his personal aura, and then added a teardrop mole in the exact same spot. Done and dusted.
"Let's go see Heiter, and check on Fern and Frieren while we're at it. Teaching one is the same as teaching two. It's time I made good on my promise to teach her plant magic."
Serie was incredibly useful. The grand mage had transformed into a ruthless humanoid portal, allowing for one-second scene transitions and worry-free travel.
"So this is the daughter Heiter adopted? She's practicing her magic very diligently."
The purple-haired Fern was incredibly cute. She was adept at hiding her mana; even a master like Frieren would inadvertently overlook her.
The little girl, holding a wooden staff much taller than herself, turned her head to look over. Their undisguised conversation had caught Fern's attention.
"Excuse me, are you lost? This is a dead end. The main road is to the north."
*Too cute.* Even though she was still so tiny, she acted exactly like a little adult.
"You must be Fern. We're here to see Frieren and Heiter."
Fern stared at Serie's pointed elf ears for a moment, then nodded. "Then follow me."
They said Heiter had adopted Fern, but by now, it was the little girl taking care of him. This corrupt, meat-eating, alcohol-drinking priest perhaps truly wanted to go to Heaven to see the Goddess he worshipped, as he still hadn't eaten a Golden Apple to this day.
It would probably be soon. He didn't have much of his lifespan left; he likely only had a year or two remaining.
Zenith planned to find some time to let him meet the Goddess. Once his wish was fulfilled, he definitely wouldn't want to leave this world—after all, his friends and his adopted daughter were all still here.
"Lord Heiter, Lady Frieren, I'm back. We have guests."
The elderly, frail Heiter leaned on his cane. His gaze swept past Serie and Zenith, ultimately locking onto Himmel's teardrop mole.
*No doubt about it, that's definitely Himmel.* He nodded in understanding. It seemed Zenith's reality show plan was about to begin. Eighty years... what a long time it had been.
Frieren walked out of the study. Looking at Zenith, she subconsciously gulped. "I can't learn it! I definitely can't learn it! Plant magic is way too hard for you!"
...
The reality show plan had to happen! It was going to be a massive production!
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