After finishing lunch and setting an alarm, Su Wenqi took a short nap.
Waking up a little past two in the afternoon, he logged back into the game. Since he had already agreed with Yitian Chi Shitong and the others before logging off in the morning to fix monster-grinding sessions starting at 9:00 AM daily, his afternoon schedule was completely free.
First, he spent two hours preparing the food required by the guild for the week. Naturally, he wore his special title this time as well. Combined with his exceptional luck, a mere two or three dishes were generally enough to trigger double drops, allowing him to finish ahead of his anticipated progress.
Aside from preparing the dishes requested by the guild, he also cooked extra portions for a few other individuals. After stowing all the prepared food into his backpack, he headed over to the post messenger to mail the items out.
Taking out an anonymity talisman and an invisibility cloak, he concealed his player name and blurred his physical silhouette before leaving his homestead with peace of mind.
He first arrived at the post messenger’s location and mailed two portions of snacks each to Xianyuan, Feng Qian, and the couple Yitian Chi Shitong and Batian Chi Shitong, leaving messages for each of them to remind them to collect their mail.
Private Chat [Chun Ri Ci]: I mailed some things to you guys. You will receive the letters in half an hour, remember to go pick them up.
Private Chat [Yitian Chi Shitong]: Alright, alright, thanks Chun Ri! What kind of things did you mail over, though-
Private Chat [Chun Ri Ci]: Just some snacks I made earlier. I sent some to both you and Batian, so could you help me let her know?
Private Chat [Yitian Chi Shitong]:Got it! I will definitely remind her! Hehe~ Thanks Chun Ri~
Since Xianyuan and Feng Qian were offline, he simply left messages for the two of them and stopped checking his friends list.
Yitian Chi Shitong and Batian Chi Shitong were practically glued together every day, so she naturally noticed the beaming, undulating expression on her partner’s face.
“Why are you smiling like that?” she asked, looking at him in confusion.
Yitian Chi Shitong answered blissfully, “Chun Ri mailed us food! I’m going to wait by the post messenger so I can get the items the second time’s up!”
Only then did she realize that he had sent her things as well. Recalling the food she had tasted that morning, a memory of the crispy and fragrant potato pancakes naturally resurfaced in her mind, and a sense of eager anticipation welled up in her heart.
The two of them exchanged a glance and headed together to wait by the messenger.
In “Hua Xia,” the post messenger could be used to ship any non-bound items and currency. Once the sender dispatched a letter, it took a half-hour waiting period before it could be claimed at the messenger.
Thus, the pair stood guard by the messenger stationed at the entrance of the guild territory. As guild members walked in and out of the territory, they all noticed the two of them standing stock-still like statues of faithful wives waiting for their husbands, staring intently at the messenger.
Nearby [Moonlit Autumn Thought]: What are you two guarding here for?
Nearby [Yitian Chi Shitong]: Waiting for mail!
Nearby [Moonlit Autumn Thought]: Wouldn’t it be easier if you just came back after half an hour, or did a face-to-face trade with the person? Wouldn’t that get you the items faster? What on earth did he mail you to make both of you just wait here like this?
Nearby [Yitian Chi Shitong]: I wanted to, but Chun Ri only told me after he finished mailing the stuff. If I had known earlier, I would have just used a God-Traveling Talisman to teleport right over to him instead of suffering through this agonizing wait!
Nearby [Batian Chi Shitong]: The things he sent are food he cooked himself.
Yitian Chi Shitong let out a dramatic wail, but upon realizing what they were waiting for, the guild member understood, after all, everyone in the guild knew what a foodie he was. Having satisfied their curiosity, the player walked away.
Su Wenqi then noticed that he also had an unread message. Opening it, he found an automated system notification containing the dividends distributed to every guild member from the gold earned through auctioning the chests from that morning’s field boss. Although Su Wenqi had only joined the guild a couple of days ago, he received a share as well.
On top of that, he had received an extra 1,000 gold coins, accompanied by a note from Guild Master Xianyuan: Because he, along with Yitian Chi Shitong and Batian Chi Shitong, were the first to discover the wild boss, each was awarded a bonus of 1,000 gold. The sum wasn’t massive, but it represented the guild’s heartfelt appreciation.
Su Wenqi fell silent as he looked at the money inside the letter. Just two days ago, when he first arrived in this world, he had been fretting over how to make money to support himself. Yet, after stepping into this game, not only had he managed to buy a house in the blink of an eye, but he had also accumulated a considerable amount of savings.
Is making money in the interstellar world really this easy? The thought drifted vaguely through his mind.
Giving his head a shake to pull back his wandering thoughts, he turned and walked toward the Lin Family Blacksmith Shop. Following the map’s guidance for about ten minutes, the rhythmic clanging of metalwork drifted into his ears from afar.
As he drew closer to the blacksmith shop, a wave of heat washed over him. After briefly adjusting to the temperature, Su Wenqi stepped straight inside.
“Traveler, what can I do for you?” As soon as he entered, a shop assistant stepped forward to greet him.
Glancing around the interior, he didn’t spot anyone who looked like the shop owner, so he answered the assistant’s question: “Hello, I am looking for Lin Feng. I was entrusted by his older brother to bring him a letter. Is he in the shop today?”
Before the assistant could reply, a hearty laugh burst out from behind a doorway curtain, and a tall man with a broad, kind face stepped out.
“Hahaha, little brother, I hear you are looking for me?” The person approaching was none other than Lin Feng. He had already overheard Su Wenqi’s words from behind the curtain, though for some reason he had chosen to make the assistant ask him again.
At that moment, the quest marker lit up. Aside from beginner village quests that directly guided players to NPCs, most other quests only lit up their tracking pointers once the player actually met the NPC.
Now, a large golden arrow directly pointed out the newcomer’s identity. Seeing this, Su Wenqi took out the letter given to him by Village Chief Lin Wei of Linlan Village from his backpack and handed it to Lin Feng. Lin Feng took the letter and immediately unfolded it to read.
“Ding! Congratulations on completing the quest [Letter from Home]!”
Seeing the thick stack of letters in Lin Feng’s hands, Su Wenqi figured it would take the man a while to finish reading, so he began browsing the blacksmith shop’s shelves under the guidance of the assistant.
The shelves were packed with an eye-watering array of equipment, ranging from the lowest-tier white gear all the way up to purple equipment. In Hua Xia, the tier hierarchy of equipment ran White – Blue – Purple – Gold – Orange. Most of the gear in Su Wenqi’s backpack was purple, with the occasional blue piece mixed in clear proof of his exceptional luck.
After taking a full circle around the shop, he decided to purchase some equipment suitable for his current level. Calculating the missing experience points, he figured he would likely reach level 50 by the end of the day. By the time Lin Feng finished reading his brother’s letter, Su Wenqi had already selected a few pieces of equipment and paid for them.
From his brother’s letter, Lin Feng had learned about recent events in the village, especially regarding Granny Wang finding a successor. He cast another careful look at Su Wenqi, as if examining what made the person before him stand out.
Su Wenqi stood in place, letting the man inspect him with a calm and undisturbed expression.
“In recent years, many martial artists have come to the city, and the demand for weapons and equipment far exceeds supply, which is why I haven’t been able to return home to visit my family. Tomorrow, I plan to head back to the village for a visit. Would it trouble you, martial artist, to help me purchase some specialties of Yuyun City?” Lin Feng retracted his gaze and initiated a new quest for Su Wenqi.
“Ding! Do you wish to accept the quest [Purchase Local Specialties]?”
Upon accepting the quest from Lin Feng, Su Wenqi was handed a gift checklist. He began making his rounds from the east side of Yuyun City to the west according to the list’s requirements, purchasing items shop by shop. Not only did he buy a set for Lin Feng, but he also bought an extra set for himself to give out as gifts when he returned to the village tomorrow.
The gift list spanned locations all across Yuyun City, taking him nearly an hour to collect everything. Once finished, he hurried back to the blacksmith shop to turn in the quest.
“Many thanks, martial artist, this has been a tremendous help to me. Are you free to accompany me back to the village to visit my family tomorrow?” The NPC issued a follow-up quest, which Su Wenqi naturally accepted. He indeed planned to return to the village tomorrow anyway, as tomorrow happened to be the day of Granny Wang’s evaluation.
“I am free. When do we set off tomorrow?” He estimated they would likely leave in the morning, since visits home generally took place in the early part of the day. However, this meant he would have to reschedule with Yitian and Batian.
“We will depart tomorrow morning at the hour of Chen [7:00 AM – 9:00 AM]. If we hit the road early, we can arrive earlier.” Just as expected, it was indeed in the morning.
After accepting the quest, Su Wenqi departed and opened his friends list to inform the couple of the change.
As soon as he opened the friends list, messages from Yitian Chi Shitong began popping up like a flurry, nearly thirty messages in total, interspersed with a few from Batian Chi Shitong as well.
He gave them a quick skim; they were mostly expressions of amazement over how delicious the food he had mailed was, with the timestamps all set half an hour prior.
Su Wenqi had previously blocked stranger friend requests, and at the same time, he had turned off message notification sounds. At that moment, he felt deeply grateful for having muted the audio; otherwise, given the frantic frequency of Yitian Chi Shitong’s messaging, he surely would have developed a headache.
Private Chat [Chun Ri Ci]: As long as you enjoyed it. Tell me when you finish eating, and I’ll send you some more.
Private Chat [Yitian Chi Shitong]: Hehe, my wife and I only ate one dish so far, but the stuff you sent turned out to be of Golden quality, and the stats are amazing too, it must have been really hard to make. We aren’t the type to take advantage of people. Why don’t you name a price and I’ll mail the money to you?
Private Chat [Chun Ri Ci]: No need to send me money. Aren’t we friends? Would you pay money when eating a friend’s cooking? Besides, I should be thanking you and Batian for carrying me through leveling up. But if you feel uncomfortable about it, I’ll send you Purple-quality ones next time. Though the stats will be a bit lower, the taste will be exactly the same.
Private Chat [Yitian Chi Shitong]: Deal! Just send us the lower-quality ones next time. Hehe, I’m mostly just a glutton who loves eating good food, but since the high-quality ones have such great stats, I felt bad just wolfing them down directly.
Private Chat [Chun Ri Ci]: Alright, I’ll send you Purple ones next time then. I have a quest tomorrow morning that requires me to return to the beginner village, so I won’t have time to grind monsters in the morning. How about we move the time to the afternoon?
Private Chat [Yitian Chi Shitong]: No problem! Both of us have plenty of free time lately, any time works.
Private Chat [Chun Ri Ci]: Great, let’s make it 2:00 PM then.
Private Chat [Yitian Chi Shitong]: Sounds good, I’ll let my wife know.
Wrapping up the conversation, Su Wenqi prepared to move on to his next quest: visiting the middle-aged woman surnamed Li in the artisan district.