Almost the same time the mail came crashing down, Su Shu leaped backward sharply—
Even though it was a full-holographic game, it was still different from real life after all. Su Shu originally thought she had adapted to it through yesterday and just now—
Yet she ended up buried right under an endless pile of letters.
By the time she finally managed to crawl out from the pile of letters, her health bar was squeezed down to just a sliver of skin.
The young lady cosplaying a pigeon was exceedingly noble, icy, and glamorous: “Did you think you could dodge that with your tiny bit of Agility?”
Su Shu: “…”
She felt she could have dodged it; it was just that carrying those extra weapons on her person had hindered her performance.
The courier station lady looked at Su Shu with eyes as if looking at a piece of garbage: “I am a Level 90 wild world boss.”
Su Shu: “…” Excuse my ignorance.
When one is under another’s roof, one must bow one’s head, let alone when one cannot win in a fight.
With a wave of the pigeon spirit’s hand, the letters that had buried Su Shu were neatly stacked into several piles beside her, each pile taller than Su Shu herself.
The pigeon spirit said: “Take them away, they are all your letters.”
Su Shu: “…”
She had just arrived yesterday, how could there be so many letters looking for her?
The pigeon spirit stood up with hands on her hips, pointing her slender jade finger directly at Su Shu’s face: “Tell me, as a newcomer, how can you cause so much trouble?”
“I fought so hard to win against those bastards who wanted to slack off just to come to the Novice Village as an NPC, wasn’t it just for some peace and quiet?”
“Do you know how much workload you added for me the moment you arrived?”
“And these written letters are only what’s left after the system filtered out banned words!”
“Let me tell you, don’t think I won’t dare beat you up just because you’re a newcomer! Just wait until the day you leave this map…”
“If I don’t drop-kill you back to the Novice Village, I’m not a pigeon spirit!”
Su Shu: “…”
Were all the NPCs in this game so shrewd, capable, unconventional, noble, and icy?
Seeing Su Shu remaining silent for a long time, the pigeon spirit poked Su Shu’s temple with a finger: “Are you refusing to accept this?”
Su Shu thought of her identity as a Level 90 boss and held back: “I wouldn’t dare.”
“I thought as much.” The pigeon spirit let out a cold snort, her body flashing as she returned to her seat.
Playing with her own nails, the pigeon spirit looked up at Su Shu: “Just from organizing these letters of yours, the polish on my nails has faded.”
“How about this, I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.” The pigeon spirit looked at Su Shu and narrowed her eyes, “Didn’t you agree to go to the hilltop for the Village Chief to catch little yellow chicks? There are freshly bloomed balsam flowers on that mountain. Go pick 20 blossoms for me, I want to dye my nails.”
Su Shu: “…”
She had always known that one of the selling points of this game was “every single one is an NPC with a soul”, but she never imagined that these NPCs with souls would be so casual when handing out quests.
Su Shu remained speechless in shock for a long time, but the pigeon spirit grew a bit anxious: “Rest assured, if you do things for me, I won’t treat you poorly.”
“Here, your deposit first.”
A notification chime sounded by Su Shu’s ear—
[System Notification] Player Huai Shuo has successfully completed the side quest “Touring Dao Hua Village”, receiving consumable item Yi Qi Powder × 20, Xiao Jin Pill × 20.
[System Notification] Player Huai Shuo has successfully accepted the commission “Help the Courier Station Pigeon Attendant Find Balsam Flowers”, receiving quest rewards Yi Qi Powder × 20, Xiao Jin Pill × 20, completion progress 0/20.
Having never heard the names of the medicine, Su Shu opened her pack to take a look.
[Yi Qi Powder] Effect: Continuously restores 400 Health Points over a duration of 3 seconds. Usage Level: Level 5.
[Xiao Jin Pill] Effect: Continuously restores 700 Mana Points over a duration of 3 seconds. Usage Level: Level 5.
This medicine suited her level just right, and it seemed somewhat better than the ones she bought at the pharmacy.
The pigeon spirit was, after all, an intelligent NPC who hadn’t dealt with players in a proper manner very often. Seeing Su Shu expressionlessly rummaging through her pack in place, she couldn’t help saying: “Stop flipping through it, this medicine is much better than what you buy at the pharmacy, it was made using life skills.”
The deposit was sent directly into her pack, which proved that although the pigeon spirit used a questioning tone when giving the quest, it could not be rejected.
Su Shu let out a crisp “Oh”, turned her head, and left.
The pigeon spirit: “…”
Did this generation of players all have such strong personalities?
With the extra medicine given by the pigeon spirit, Su Shu clearly felt her walking had become much more sluggish. Su Shu pulled out her pack again and laid the weapons she had picked earlier back onto the ground.
Although the original host took the exam for the Imperial University Military Academy, it wasn’t the combat department, so her physical skills weren’t exceptionally great to begin with. Before transmigrating over, Su Shu had learned close-quarters melee combat for a period out of interest, but she was not very familiar with cold weapons like these either—
However, Su Shu had a bold idea when choosing her class from the start, so the four items she picked earlier at the blacksmith shop all belonged to ancient Chinese cold weapons.
Su Shu squatted on the ground, staring at the neatly arranged long umbrella, dagger, sword, and a pair of large copper hammers on the ground, falling into deep thought.
In the end, she stuffed the long umbrella into her backpack, tucked the dagger behind her waist, and walked toward the hilltop on the map without looking back.
As for the copper hammers and long sword left behind, after a short while, they disappeared from where they lay.
Logically speaking, there weren’t many quests in the Novice Village, but Su Shu happened to arrive at a good time. The Novice Village temporarily altered quests, and the planners came up with whimsical ideas to give NPCs quests that fit their personas better—
Of course, whether players could get the NPCs to hand over these strange quests depended on the players’ own capabilities.
Therefore, on Su Shu’s way to the hilltop that had been burned half-bare by players, she could still encounter some people at first who were handling the aftermath of the fire on the bald mountain—
However, walking deeper in, no people could be seen anymore.
Su Shu: “…”
She knew it; how could a bald, barren hilltop have any little yellow chicks or balsam flowers?
After walking for a good while, under the calling of the game’s settings, it wasn’t long before Su Shu felt a rumbling sensation of hunger.
She pulled an oiled paper packet from her bag, inside of which were buns bought from the village snack stall.
Su Shu took a bite; the skin was thick and the filling was tiny, choking the throat upon entering the mouth. Rounding it off, this bun was probably a mantou in its past life.
Su Shu chewed twice and found it truly hard to swallow, so she simply looked for a shady spot and sat down.
Everything was scarce on the mountain, but firewood was never in short supply.
This forest had grown for many years, and not far from Su Shu was a withered old tree.
With a flick of Su Shu’s right hand, the long umbrella was held in her grip—
She swung it with sudden force!
——Paa!
The entire old tree fell at the sound!
It broke into two halves.
The old tree had already been hollowed out by bugs, and the moment it hit the ground, many small animals hiding in the hollow came out at the sound—
Su Shu waited a moment, waiting until the things inside the tree hollow had all run out, before slowly stepping forward. Dragging the withered but still substantial tree crown with one hand, she walked down beneath the tree.
There were quite a few stones in the forest. Su Shu simply stacked up an earthen stove, stomped the chopped firewood into short pieces, pulled out a flint from her bag to light it, broke off a few relatively sturdy branches from the dry tree crown, and pulled out the remaining buns.
Roasting the dagger over the fire twice to serve as disinfection, Su Shu sliced all the buns into pieces and skewer them onto the branches.
Su Shu possessed good knife skills; every piece of mantou was uniform in thickness, and her angle was well chosen, with every piece carrying a tiny bit of filling.
Although the filling on the bun slices wasn’t enough to satisfy an appetite, under the slow roasting of the small fire, oil gradually seeped out—
Accompanied by the slightly charred fragrance of roasted flour, Su Shu, who had consumed nutrient fluid for half a month, couldn’t help swallowing her saliva.
Her bag still held seasonings bought from the general store earlier. Su Shu originally planned to add some oil, but after a thought, she only brought out a bit of chili powder and coarse salt grains—
The red-and-white powder fell onto the slightly golden roasted bun slices. The unique fragrance of chili powder meeting animal fat was triggered, gradually spreading through this patch of forest.
Su Shu slowly rotated her wrist until every slice of bun was evenly heated before removing the bun slices from the fire.
Su Shu placed the roasted bun slice under her nose, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath—
She truly had not expected that coming into the game just to make some money, she could smell a aroma identical to real food.
If the taste was the same as real food…
Su Shu parted her lips into a smile and bit down fiercely!
——She bit air.
Su Shu snapped her eyes open.
A small rabbit was blinking its crimson eyes, revealing a mouth full of fangs, munching on her bun slices in large bites.
Su Shu: “…”
The little rabbit with a mouth full of fangs ate up every single slice in her hand in a matter of moments, and then spoke human words: “Stupid human.”
Su Shu smiled.
The little rabbit felt quite bored, threw away the wooden skewer in its hand, turned around hopping and leaping, and was about to burrow into its hole in just a moment—
Su Shu took advantage of the momentum to leap forward!
The long umbrella that had just been stowed back into her pack appeared out of thin air in her hand, and she threw it with force—
——Clang!
The long umbrella hit the ground and unfurled, blocking right at the entrance of the rabbit hole!
Caught off guard, the rabbit was blocked straight on by Su Shu’s long umbrella—
It crashed into it head-first!
Su Shu extended her leg, hooked, and flipped; the long umbrella was back in her hands—
On the tip of the umbrella was impaled the dizzy, utterly bewildered rabbit from the impact.
Su Shu reached out, grabbed the rabbit’s tail, and mocked: “I thought the rabbit in ‘waiting by the stump for a rabbit’ was stupid enough, but I didn’t expect there to be an even dumber one here.”
The rabbit: “…”
Su Shu said no more, tapping the umbrella a few times at the spot where the rabbit was about to burrow into earlier, then thrusting it inside a few times—
With a turn of her wrist, the tunnel of the rabbit’s den collapsed, revealing the appearance inside the hole.
The rabbit hole was not large; inside were piles of button mushrooms and a stack of shiny things.
Su Shu wasn’t polite at all; squatting down, she scooped everything inside into her backpack.
When the rabbit woke up, it happened to be when Su Shu was packing the last handful of small mushrooms from the rabbit hole into her bag.
The rabbit: “…”
It shrieked: “I won’t let you off!”
Su Shu was fearless: “Are you an NPC or a mob?”
The rabbit suddenly clutched the fur on its chest, looking vigilant: “What do you want to do?”
“I want to eat stewed chicken with mushrooms.” Su Shu had just dug out a pile of cookware from the rabbit hole, all of which were currently in her bag. The Village Chief told her to come catch little yellow chicks, “But I didn’t get to eat little yellow chicks…”
Su Shu smiled ominously: “Then stewed silly rabbit with mushrooms it is.”
The world she transmigrated to had a type of mushroom soup pot: first toss in a handful of green Sichuan peppercorns and fry them in oil until cooked to release the numbing fragrance, then add water and put in the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are half-cooked, put the sliced rabbit meat into the pot.
The rabbit meat put into the pot doesn’t need to be cooked for long; scalding it in the mushroom soup until it turns white and slightly curled makes it just right for eating—
Dip it in a bowl of dipping sauce with chopped millet chili to taste the savory, spicy, numbing, fresh, fragrant, and tender essence of Sichuan cuisine…
Then take a sip of the milky-white soup…
It could bring tears of craving even to the rabbit itself.
Su Shu’s yearning expression made the rabbit almost cry for real.
To think that it, a dignified overlord of a mountain, had now ended up in such a state—
With a mournful face, it strived for lenient treatment: “The little yellow chicks are at the east side of the mountain.”
“I’ve grown here for seven or eight years, my meat is tough… The old hen at the east side of the mountain lays eggs and hatches them every day, they are extraordinarily tender!”
The rabbit sounded mournful at first, but toward the end, its eyes lit up: “I can lead you there! You just need to share a sip of soup with me!”
Su Shu blinked her eyes, as if in thought.
The rabbit’s eyes grew even brighter: “I am the overlord of this hilltop; with me leading the way, you can catch as many as you want!”
The rabbit enticed her: “Think about it: crispy chicken, Kung Pao chicken, spicy chicken, and stewed chicken with mushrooms…”
Su Shu seemed to be moved by the rabbit’s words, the smile on her face gradually expanding.
The rabbit quietly released its hands clutching its chest—
Su Shu said delightfully: “But I still want to eat spicy rabbit legs.”
——This was the last sentence the rabbit heard.
Su Shu tied up the rabbit she had knocked unconscious with a rope and tossed it into her backpack—
Even the overlord of this hilltop possessed such a stupid virtue; the other little yellow chicks were likely nothing to be feared either.
Furthermore, Su Shu glanced at the rabbit in her hand. A wild mob that could survive in this game for so long…
Who knew if it might be some kind of rare commodity?
Su Shu looked up at the sun, no longer having the inclination to roast buns. She pulled out the remaining buns, took a few casual bites, and walked toward the east mentioned by the rabbit.
The further east, the further away from the village, but the scenery became better, and the more small mobs Su Shu encountered along the way.
However, because it was the Novice Village, the small mobs would not actively attack Su Shu.
Before transmigrating into the book, Su Shu lived in a big city. Upon transmigrating to this highly developed interstellar era, she had never seen natural scenery again—
Natural scenery in the interstellar era actually existed, but most were extremely dangerous, undeveloped planets. The Empire had not opened flight routes, and the Empire also did not allow private individuals to travel there by flying vehicles.
Therefore, seeing such natural scenery all of a sudden made Su Shu feel even more comfortable and at ease.
Especially with rustling sounds of crawling creatures slithering continually coming from the dense forest—
Su Shu couldn’t help thinking of a famous Cantonese dish—
Dragon and Phoenix Stew.
She swallowed her saliva.
Fortunately, the clucking of chickens coming from the distance called her sanity back.
She was here to do a quest, not to look for a menu.
Su Shu thought, she heard that the wild world bosses on high-level maps had dragons and phoenixes—
If she worked hard to level up, maybe she really could have dragon liver and phoenix marrow to eat?
Recalling the comfortable days ahead, a big smile surfaced on Su Shu’s face—
She turned around a mountain path, and the scenery before her eyes suddenly opened up.