Two wanted posters were displayed at the entrance of the Government Office and beneath the city gate towers, featuring crude yet strikingly accurate depictions of two players: Crispy Rice and Sticky Rice. Their names were clearly written on the posters.
This was retaliation from Jade Cat, a player whose account had been deleted while imprisoned. We're all players, Jade Cat must have thought, so if you can screw me over, why can't I do the same to you?
The Government Office's reaction to the jailbreak had been exceptionally swift, operating under the principle of "better to apprehend an innocent person than to let a guilty one escape." After all, the Government Office's reputation was at stake.
Under the cloak of the hazy night, Crispy Rice and Sticky Rice mingled with the crowd, staring at the wanted posters on the wall. They finally understood why they had been hunted the moment they logged in.
"We're red-named now?" Sticky Rice asked in astonishment.
"It seems so," Crispy Rice replied, a look of helplessness on his face.
"We didn't even do anything, and now we're red-named! This is completely unfair!" Sticky Rice felt deeply wronged. "What kind of judgment mechanism does this game have? I'm going to file a complaint!"
"Reality. The judgment mechanism is reality. Being framed, set up—these things happen in the real world too," Crispy Rice said after a moment of silence, then added, "Besides, it's not like we did *nothing*. I did recruit a little brother."
"..." Sticky Rice gritted her teeth. "We wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for him! With these wanted posters, finding work is impossible. What do we do now?"
"The simplest solution is to delete our accounts and start over with new appearances," Crispy Rice suggested. "The game has just launched, so we haven't lost much anyway."
"That's hardly a solution!" Sticky Rice glared at Crispy Rice, then looked back at the wanted poster and fell silent. After a moment, she turned to him again. "Old Crispy, there's no love without reason, nor hate without cause. I don't think an NPC would target us for no reason. There must be a follow-up. If we delete our accounts and start over, we'll definitely lose the story quest…"
"My thoughts exactly," Crispy Rice said. "A difficult start isn't necessarily a bad thing. Didn't that one NPC say, 'The Man of Heaven's retribution, must first suffer in the will'? Isn't this the stage where our wills are being tested? My little brother is definitely no ordinary person. I believe the harder the start, the greater the rewards later on."
"Hmm," Sticky Rice nodded. "What's our next move?"
"How many copper coins do you have left?" Crispy Rice asked.
"One hundred sixty," Sticky Rice replied.
"I have about the same," Crispy Rice said. "We don't need sleep; when we're exhausted to our limit, we can recover just by resting a bit. If it's just eating, we should be able to last three days without issue. Within these three days, let's do our utmost to find my good little brother. He must have a follow-up quest for us."
"But with wanted posters plastered everywhere, we'll be hunted the moment we show our faces! We can't move around during the day either!" Sticky Rice pointed out.
Crispy Rice grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground, smeared it on his face, and then rolled around on the ground. His clothes were already torn from when the townspeople had chased him. The game didn't repair outerwear, only the indestructible newbie underwear, so torn clothes stayed torn.
Dressed in ragged, filthy clothes, Crispy Rice's appearance plummeted. He looked nothing like the refined newbie he once was, resembling a beggar instead.
After completing his transformation, Crispy Rice said proudly, "I've observed that there are beggars in the city. Disguised like this, we definitely won't arouse suspicion. If it weren't for the fact that our Physical Constitutions will slowly recover, I'd have considered disfiguring myself to really look the part. Plus, there's an advantage to looking like a beggar—we might even save money on food…"
"…" Sticky Rice's eye twitched violently. "Are we really doing this? I think we could log off and hide for a couple of days, post on the forums, and offer a bounty for other players to help us find him…"
"That's not the way to think about it," Crispy Rice said, looking at Sticky Rice earnestly. "Remember, 'The Man of Heaven's retribution, must first suffer in the will.' What if someone else snatches the quest if we post it on the forums? What if it's not an exclusive quest? Sticky, this is our chance. We might never get another if we miss it. If you're not willing to endure this, I'll do it myself. You can stay offline for a couple of days and wait for my message."
Sticky Rice glanced at him and said, "It's just a game, after all. Let's go all out! Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? That NPC said we're both exceptional individuals who stand out among others. Don't even think about ditching me to go solo!"
「…」
The land deed was transferred to Lin Bai's name; he finally had his own place in Jiamucheng.
During the day, the shop's renovation was in full swing.
But as soon as dusk began to fall, the craftsmen and the apprentices doing odd jobs were unwilling to stay a moment longer, all scurrying away as quickly as possible.
It wasn't because Jiamucheng had any labor laws, but because this particular shop was, quite simply, a Dreadful Mansion.
That's right. The shop Lin Bai had acquired due to his tight budget was haunted by ghosts.
Upon discovering the issue with the shop, Lin Bai strolled around the street and easily found out its inside story.
「Three years ago.」
On Qingyu Street in Jiamucheng, a tall poplar tree was struck by lightning one night and caught fire. The blaze spread, burning everything within a five-hundred-meter radius to cinders.
The smoke was suffocating, but most people managed to escape.
The shop Lin Bai had bought was, at the time, a cotton cloth shop. The family of three living there all perished, none escaping the disaster.
Strangely, while the surroundings were reduced to ruins by the fire and the family had suffocated from the dense smoke, the shop itself remained largely undamaged.
This became a bizarre tale at the time.
What followed this bizarre tale was terror.
People passing by Qingyu Street late at night often heard strange noises from the shop—sounds like crying or calls for help, unsettling everyone.
Because of this, the Li Zheng (local headman) of Qingyu Street invited a Taoist priest to perform an exorcism.
However, after completing his rituals, the Taoist priest merely informed the Li Zheng that his abilities were limited. He hadn't been able to completely eliminate the ghostly entities but had managed to confine them within the rooms.
He explained that after ten years, once their malevolent energy was depleted and they no longer clung to the mortal world, they would dissipate completely.
During this period, as long as no one entered the shop at night, everyone would be safe.
From then on, the strange nocturnal sounds indeed ceased.
Yet, even though the Taoist priest guaranteed the ghosts wouldn't leave the building, the Dreadful Mansion's reputation spread, and the surrounding area became deserted.
Better safe than sorry.
No one wanted to live next door to a whole family of ghosts.
Later, Tooth Line, by some unknown means, acquired the deed to the cotton cloth shop. However, it ended up being stuck with them for over two years, a hot potato they couldn't offload… until they met Lin Bai.
「…」
Ghosts? Doesn't my Luck Value do anything against them?
At dusk, Lin Bai stood at the entrance of his new shop, gnawing on a baked flatbread, lost in thought.
He had considered various reasons for the area's desolation: perhaps local ruffians, or maybe geological problems, or issues with the building's quality. The one thing he hadn't considered was that it was because there were ghosts in the shop.
He had fallen into a cognitive trap.
On Earth, things like ghosts only existed in movies and TV shows, and eventually, they disappeared even from those.
When had such things ever existed in reality?
MBD!
As an aspiring young man indoctrinated with materialism since childhood, Lin Bai had no idea if his meager physique could survive an encounter with ghosts!
He had absolutely no confidence!
Was all that money spent for nothing? Lin Bai frowned, pondering a solution.
More than half his assets were sunk into this dump. Tooth Line had finally managed to palm off this hot potato onto him; a refund was definitely out of the question.
But to give up the home he had worked so hard to acquire, all because of some unseen ghosts, felt like too much of a loss!
However, he had been in and out with the craftsmen during the day, which proved the ghosts didn't appear in daylight. So, technically, he still owned half the property rights. Calculated by market value, it wasn't actually a loss…
But owning a house and not being able to sleep in it at night… no matter how he thought about it, it was an unbearable grievance!
「…」
During the shop's renovation, Lin Bai had made the craftsmen experience the beauty of imperfection, thereby completing the initial quest for the 'Everything Has Shortcomings' System and receiving the flawed reward: the "Nine-Days True Scripture."
Fortunately, the System functioned like in games: cultivation manuals were plug-and-play, only requiring an increase in proficiency, with no bottlenecks or thresholds.
He tried practicing the "Nine-Days True Scripture." This damned incomplete manual! Cultivating it on his own was progressing at a snail's pace.
Lin Bai estimated that to reach the Grand Completion Realm would take at least seventy or eighty years!
Seventy or eighty years! By then, a young maiden would have cobwebs growing on her!
It was far less satisfying than completing quests.
As for his current quests:
The restaurant's signboard wasn't up yet, so the Cooking God System's quest was still ongoing.
The new 'big brother' he'd acknowledged had vanished, so the follow-up quest to have him supervise Lin Bai in learning a specialty couldn't proceed.
After completing the Emotional System's quest to collect negative emotions, it issued a follow-up: [Overstimulation of negative emotions leads to a difficult life. Enemies spur you to improve; friends help you develop. Please collect one instance of positive emotion elicited by you. Reward: Charisma +1.]
The negative emotion collection quest was temporarily unavailable, and the reward had also changed from Spirit to Charisma.
This made Lin Bai feel a bit regretful.
To collect negative emotions, he had nearly offended everyone around him. Forcing a reversal was difficult, and he couldn't find a suitable method, so he had to shelve the quest for now.
The 'Everything Has Shortcomings' System also issued a follow-up quest: [Ambassador of Imperfection: Cause more than fifty people to deeply appreciate the profundity of imperfection... Reward: 4.9 years of internal force].
Profundity or hidden meaning? Lin Bai couldn't be bothered to guess anymore.
He focused on the quest itself. Making fifty people appreciate imperfection could easily net him nearly five years of internal force.
This quest was clearly a top priority.
But whether Inner Strength could fight ghosts, Lin Bai had no clue.
Under the moonlight, the dark doorway appeared hazy. An occasional, eerie breeze drifted out, and Lin Bai constantly felt as if someone was peering out from within. He wondered if it was just his imagination…
Lin Bai shifted two steps to the side, avoiding the main entrance, and sat on a nearby stone stool, chin in hand, contemplating solutions.
The only building that didn't burn down in the great fire, with ghosts trapped inside... he muttered. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind. This has to be a freaking dungeon instance! If it's a dungeon, the ghosts inside must have health bars! If they have health bars, then this will be easy!