Chapter 3: I'm Begging You Guys Are Minotaurs

  To put it in someone's words, life is too thrilling with its ups and downs!

  Two hours ago, Lin Taiping was just fired, only because when his female supervisor was discussing life and ideals with a female employee, he "happened" to kick the office door open with one foot... By the way, the supervisor is also a woman.

  Two hours later, he was surrounded by a large group of Minotaurs, marching grandly on the Devil's Island. The ferocious atmosphere of eating whatever they saw made the seagulls that met along the way scream and fly away immediately.

  "Alright, I'm starting to like this feeling of going out and collecting protection fees." Lin Taiping couldn't help but admit that he was indeed enjoying this life, not having to curry favor with others, not having to work desperately, and being able to breathe in the fresh air freely.

  In fact, if there hadn't been a cow making noise beside him, he who was originally without any support or reliance on the other side of the strait had even thought about settling down on this island.

  Unfortunately, after sharing food and cigarettes and initially establishing a friendship, the originally fierce-looking Bull Head tribe's leader, Tululu, has fully revealed his gluttonous nature.

  "Lin, since the roots of bamboo can be eaten, shouldn't the roots of other plants also be edible? I just saw a huge pine tree over there, do you think we should dig up its roots too?"

  "Lin, this flower's color is quite strange. Do you want to try its taste? I just ate a few of them and now my tongue feels a bit numb."

  "Lin, have you ever tried eating rocks? Maybe we can use them to make a stew. Last time I ate a shiny rock with a butterfly embedded in it, and it was so hard that it almost knocked out my teeth."

  "Forest... Forest... Forest... Forest..."

  For goodness' sake, who can help me get rid of this nagging glutton? Lin Taiping felt dizzy and nauseous, as if tens of thousands of flies were flying around his ears. He even began to suspect that the cow next to him was a hybrid of a goblin and a parrot, with a stomach that could digest anything.

  However, it was precisely because of Tulu's nagging that Lin Taiping gradually came to understand what kind of world he had crossed over into.

  As he had expected, this magical world called Constance was indeed a Western fantasy world where multiple races coexisted. However, what was interesting was that there were no vast continents here, but rather countless islands and archipelagos scattered across the boundless ocean.

  As for where he is now, it's in a remote devil island located in the Horned Sea Domain. Since the Light and Dark War a thousand years ago, many dark races have fled from those resource-rich large islands. The Minotaur tribe of Toru and another branch of dark elves also arrived here unintentionally through one-way transmission gates at that time and settled down.

  Unfortunately, due to the barren resources of Devil Island itself and its remote location at sea, both the dark elf tribe on the north side of the island and the Minotaur tribe on the south side have a very hard time.

  What's worse, it's now the harsh winter season, plants withered and monsters hiding, even the nearby river has thick ice on it. The poor Turo people have been reduced to gnawing at grass roots and eating tree bark after they finished their stored food... What? Fishing in the sea? Have you ever seen a Minotaur build a boat or swim?

  "Alright, I somewhat understand your situation now." Lin Taiping let out a sympathetic sigh, suddenly feeling that he was indeed quite unlucky. When others transmigrated, they all brought a golden finger with them, but why when it was his turn, did he not have anything except for the ring he dug up earlier while digging a hole?

  Mentioning the ring, he subconsciously raised his left hand and looked at the ring already on his index finger. The ruby was faintly shining in the sunset: "Cough cough, it shouldn't be... uh? There's also an old man living inside this thing......?"

  Okay, there's no old man, but there are other things!

  In fact, at the moment he launched his idea, the gemstone ring suddenly emitted a red light, and a fireball about the size of a human head burst out, almost brushing against Turo's head and flying past, heavily hitting that crooked-necked jujube tree hundreds of meters away.

  "Good grief! Poor Toru was stunned, first looking at the jujube tree behind him that had turned into a torch, then touching his head which was still emitting black smoke. Suddenly, he couldn't help but let out a miserable cry: 'Lin, I thought we were already friends.'"

  "Please, we've always been friends, okay?" Lin Taiping could only apologize helplessly, but his face was full of weirdness as he lowered his head to look at the gemstone ring that still felt a bit warm, "This thing, is it really the legendary magical artifact?"

  "That's right, but it's a low-level magic tool." Turu came over curiously, "I swear on my beloved cow horn, I've seen a similar ring before, which can cast six small fireballs every day, and the magic can even be automatically replenished."

  Is this for real? Lin Taiping looked at the ring on his hand and suddenly felt great.

  "Okay, although this thing isn't exactly a golden finger and is said to be of a very low level, for an ordinary person who has watched many fantasy movies, being able to use magic personally is also a kind of fun. However, the problem now is..."

  "It's all yours!" Toru said with a flourish of his hooves, as if he knew what the other was thinking. "We Minotaurs hate magic the most. We only believe in our own strength and totems. But I have to say, you're really lucky to find that magic ring in the pit, even if it's just a low-level magic tool."

  "No choice, I've always had a good character." Lin Taiping happily accepted the praise and then decided to change the subject, "By the way, we've been walking for an hour now, how come we still haven't seen your tribe?"

  "It's just up ahead." Turu gestured with a pair of cow horns and stamped his feet on the frozen river, "See that place over there on the other side where there's smoke rising? That's our Bull Head tribe's settlement."

  And indeed, just as they were chatting, a vague outline appeared on the other side of the river. Lin Taiping tiptoed forward and gazed into the distance, seeing a wisp of smoke rising faintly: "Hmmm, is that your... uh?"

  At this moment, when he saw the Minotaur tribe in front of him clearly, he suddenly burst into tears and directly turned to wind, fire, and stone.

  Under the dim yellow sunset, a few crows flew over with a loud "caw", on the desolate riverbank overgrown with wild grass, a circle of broken stone walls surrounded more than ten dilapidated thatched cottages.

  In front of the wall, there were two creaky wooden doors that seemed to be on the verge of collapse at any moment. On the door, someone had written a line in red ink: "Pay back debts, pay for lives!"

  "Is this a tribe? Are you sure?" Lin Taiping was drenched in cold sweat, he suddenly felt like he had entered an African refugee camp or one that had just experienced a fire plus earthquake plus mudslide.

  "What's that, the dark elf from the north of the island, has some grudges with us, so often comes... " Turo's face also turned a bit red, while exchanging glances with the cow-headed person next to him, he said awkwardly: "Cough, actually, although it looks a bit miserable outside, but inside it's not that miserable."

  This is true, after more than ten minutes, when Lin Taiping boarded the riverbank, he found that Turo was indeed very honest. This legendary Ox-Headed People's tribe, although it looked miserable on the outside, but inside, it really wasn't that miserable... because, it couldn't be described as miserable anymore.

  A dozen or so dilapidated thatched cottages, a dark and neglected temple, and a warehouse so clean that even the rats would starve to death - in short, this tribe was completely empty, everything that could be taken away to pay off debts had been thoroughly cleaned out, leaving only a scrawny cow tied to a crooked-necked pine tree by the roadside, desperately gnawing at the bark.

  Is this also a tribe? Is this also the Dark Nation? Lin Taiping looked at it with tears streaming down, and couldn't help but raise his hand: "Excuse me, may I ask, what else is left in your tribe?"

  Good question, dozens of Minotaurs stared at each other in silence for half a day before Tulou finally bit the bullet and said hesitantly: "If I'm not mistaken, there's still a totem pole in our tribe's Dark Temple, it's a divine artifact that has been passed down for hundreds of years!"

  Really? Lin Taiping reluctantly held on to his last bit of hope, waiting for the appearance of that Totem Wooden Pillar.

  A moment later, amidst the hee-hawing of several Minotaurs, the totem pole was indeed carried out - on the nearly six-meter-high pillar, dense totem patterns were carved, emitting a black glow, and even the mushrooms growing at the top of the pillar seemed... wait, mushrooms?

  Lin Taiping could only seriously tell himself to calm down, but the next moment, Tulou suddenly shouted in surprise and said with a face full of excitement: "Wow! Mushrooms! Thank goodness, thank goodness, finally something to eat tonight!"

  Pfft! And so, Lin Taiping, who had just expressed his desire to remain calm, suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to dash his head against the wooden pillar.

  Very good, very powerful, dozens of starving Tauren, a tribe that is so poor they can't even find overnight rations, warming up basically by shaking, transportation basically on foot, eating basically porridge... Please, you are also a dark race, and still the mighty Tauren, how can this make World of Warcraft players feel?

  But the thing is, no matter how he scolded, the fact was already in front of him. In the chaotic camp, dozens of cow-headed people were rubbing their bellies with worried faces, looking at him pitifully. Their dull cow eyes widened to the extreme, not even blinking once.

  "Alright, I'm afraid of you guys." Defeated by this collective act of cuteness, Lin Taiping could only raise his hands in surrender, furrowing his brow in thought. "So, let me think... what else is there that can... hmm? What's that?"

  In an instant, he suddenly became aware of a faint, cold light in the distance. He almost subconsciously stood up, and at almost the same time, noticed his strange expression, Turu couldn't help but turn his head to look over there.

  In an instant, the Minotaur's face was filled with astonishment, but his pupils suddenly dilated: "Damn it! That is..."

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  Here are a few lines to explain, although the story originally took place on an island, and the setting also mentions that this world has many islands, but the entire plot including farming battles is still mainly conducted on land, the ocean is just a supplement, in order to add some new elements, don't worry about it, I won't write it into a maritime era.

  After more than two years, Shui Shui is back. Seeing everyone's comments, votes and rewards, I'm truly moved to tears. It turns out that everyone has always been here, it was just me who left... No need to say anything else, I'll work hard on writing, striving to bring happiness to everyone.