Right before Bai Fuling’s eyes, not only did the man in the wheelchair stand up and create a medical miracle…
He also ran astonishingly fast.
Within moments, he disappeared completely around the street corner ahead.
Bai Fuling slowly came to a stop, thoroughly shaken.
“If he can walk, then why was he sitting in a wheelchair?”
The bespectacled NPC blurted out exactly the same sentence.
“If he can walk, then why was he sitting in a wheelchair?”
“…”
Silence settled over the street for several seconds.
The two stared blankly at one another.
The bespectacled NPC finally shifted his gaze back onto Bai Fuling.
After the unexpected interruption just now, much of his previous nervousness had disappeared.
Then recognition dawned on him.
“…Oh… oh, it’s you.”
“You still remember me? I remember you too.”
Bai Fuling looked around.
“By the way… where’s your bicycle?”
____
After unsuccessfully trying to summon the gray wolf earlier, Bai Fuling had rediscovered the advantages of traditional transportation.
At the very least, bicycles didn’t sleep.
Nor did they consume mana.
Whenever you wanted to ride one, you simply got on and pedaled away.
“I didn’t bring my bicycle tonight.”
The bespectacled NPC shook his head.
“I was supposed to push the wheelchair and escort Mr. Chen home.”
“Was that person your relative?”
Bai Fuling immediately asked.
He genuinely wanted to know whether that really had been a medical miracle.
“What happened to his legs?”
“No, we’re not related.”
The scholarly looking NPC adjusted his glasses.
“Mr. Chen has been a frequent visitor to the library recently. Last time, while I was moving a bookshelf, I failed to support it properly and accidentally injured his leg.”
When he reached this part, guilt appeared across his face.
“I compensated him for his medical expenses and also promised to escort him to and from home during this period.”
“Fortunately, Mr. Chen doesn’t live very far away.”
Wasn’t paying the medical expenses enough?
Why was there an additional chauffeur service afterward?
Besides…
That man clearly hadn’t broken his leg at all.
Bai Fuling frowned.
Confused, he asked,
“Was that required by the police.. or by your library?”
“Hm?”
The bookish NPC lightly pushed up his glasses.
“It was Mr. Chen’s request.”
Bai Fuling: “…”
What an incredibly easy NPC to extort.
He simply agreed to whatever the other party demanded.
His temper was far too gentle.
Bai Fuling looked thoughtfully at the bespectacled NPC.
After a brief moment of consideration, he decisively stuffed the axe back beneath his raincoat and into his backpack.
Then he controlled his little character to lie flat on the ground before rolling himself directly beside the wheelchair.
“Oww… You hit me…”
“I can’t get up anymore.”
“Unless you give me 9,999 yuan, I won’t be able to stand up.”
“Owww…”
Only a fool failed to take advantage of an opportunity.
Players naturally seized upon every NPC trait they discovered in order to maximize their profits.
Just like how he had assigned endless work to the hardworking Pang Chengyu earlier.
“…”
The bespectacled NPC was startled by Bai Fuling’s smooth, practiced motion of collapsing onto the ground and expertly rolling himself in front of the wheelchair.
A large exclamation mark appeared above his head.
“What are you doing?!”
Sprawled flat in the shape of a starfish, Bai Fuling declared,
“I’ve been injured because you hit me.”
“I can’t stand up.”
“Unless you compensate me with 9,999 yuan…”
“And escort me to and from school every day.”
The bespectacled NPC fell silent for two seconds.
“…Isn’t this extortion?”
Bai Fuling immediately lifted his head.
“You actually figured out this is extortion?!”
What outrageous injustice from the game system!
The NPC named Mr. Chen had successfully extorted someone.
Yet when the player merely copied the exact same method, he was exposed immediately.
Bai Fuling felt thoroughly indignant.
NPCs and players deserved equal treatment.
If NPCs could extort people…
Players should be allowed to extort people too.
The bespectacled NPC: “…”
“You should get up first.”
He let out a quiet sigh before stepping forward and helping Bai Fuling back onto his feet.
“I understand what you’re trying to say.”
“Thank you for reminding me.. and for your concern.”
Bai Fuling: ?
Huh?
Looking completely bewildered, Bai Fuling allowed the NPC to pull him upright.
He had only been testing whether extortion was a viable money making strategy.
“In truth…”
The bespectacled NPC crouched down and began picking up the belongings that had spilled from his canvas bag while speaking softly.
“I know Mr. Chen’s requests have gone beyond what anyone would consider reasonable.”
“Just as you demonstrated…”
“They’re much closer to extortion.”
“I simply agreed because I wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble.”
He lowered his head as he continued gathering his belongings.
“Mr. Chen has been deliberately causing problems during this period.”
“My coworkers have all been exhausted by it.”
“If my compliance can spare everyone else the trouble…”
“Then perhaps it’s worth something.”
Bai Fuling finally understood.
“He’s harassing you?”
The NPC adjusted his glasses again, looking rather helpless.
“I suppose you could say that.”
“Although he occasionally gets a little handsy…”
“Nothing truly serious has happened.”
“So I just let it go.”
Bai Fuling contemplated the situation for a moment.
His eyes slowly traveled up and down the bespectacled NPC before suspicion crept across his face.
“…Are you a woman?”
“Or is Mr. Chen a woman?”
“I honestly couldn’t tell.”
“Of course not.”
The bespectacled NPC laughed softly.
“We’re both men.”
Bai Fuling paused.
Paused again.
Then paused one more time.
Finally,
Realization struck him.
Holy crap!
They’re gay!!!
Of course, players didn’t discriminate against gay people.
It was simply extremely rare for a game’s default setting to include gay NPCs.
Generally speaking, unless players specifically configured otherwise before starting an RPG, the game’s NPCs were almost always heterosexual by default.
Encountering a same sex relationship as the default setting caught Bai Fuling by surprise for a brief moment.
Then enlightenment dawned upon him.
He finally understood the game developers’ painstaking intentions.
Boys needed to protect themselves when they were out in the world too.
With that thought in mind, Bai Fuling attempted to accept the quest.
“So…”
“You need help?”
“It’s alright.”
The bespectacled NPC gently shook his head.
“There’s no need.”
“Let’s just leave things as they are.”
“How can we just leave it at that?”
Bai Fuling’s eyes widened.
How could a quest simply poke its head out and then disappear?
The setup was already there. Naturally, the story should continue from this point.
Otherwise, wouldn’t this entire conversation have been for nothing?
So, while bending down to help pick up the scattered belongings, though casually slipping them into his own backpack as he did so, Bai Fuling confidently declared,
“It’s alright. I can help you solve this perfectly.”
The bespectacled NPC rubbed his eyes.
For some reason, ever since Bai Fuling had started helping pick things up…
There seemed to be fewer and fewer things left on the ground.
At that moment, hearing Bai Fuling’s confident statement, he shifted his attention away from the missing belongings, smiled faintly and casually asked,
“Oh? And how are you planning to solve it, my young friend?”
Bai Fuling answered without hesitation,
“Have Mr. Chen drink some traditional Chinese medicine and let it regulate his body.”
The bespectacled NPC: ?
“Just kidding.”
Bai Fuling had only thrown that out as a passing joke.
He knew the game probably hadn’t programmed something like that into its dialogue.
Blinking innocently, he continued,
“I can solve it physically.”
“…Physically?”
With complete seriousness, Bai Fuling replied,
“I’ll chop him down.”
“Then he won’t come back to harass you anymore.”
The bespectacled NPC: ?
“Chop him down?”
“I mean kill him.”
Bai Fuling spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“If I empty his HP bar, he shouldn’t appear again.”
“Unless he’s one of those daily respawning monsters.”
“But that’s okay.”
“When I’m not busy, I can come over every day and chop him down for you.”
If every kill rewarded the player with loot or experience, then naturally players wouldn’t mind farming the same monster over and over again.
The bespectacled NPC: …
He had somehow managed to say something both completely incomprehensible…
…and utterly terrifying…
An awkward silence descended.
A moment later, the bespectacled NPC’s eyes curved into crescents as he laughed.
“Haha… you really do like making jokes.”
Bai Fuling said nothing.
He merely looked back at him in silence.
He was trying to skip all the unnecessary dialogue options and proceed directly to accepting the quest.
The two looked at one another for several moments.
The bespectacled NPC’s expression gradually changed.
“…You’re joking…”
“…Right?”
Bai Fuling continued gazing at him with those lively, watery black eyes.
“…Oh…”
“…Right.”
“I suppose you are joking.”
“Thank you for being so enthusiastic.”
“But it’s really alright.”
Turning his gaze aside, the bespectacled NPC spoke quietly,
“There’s no need to resort to violence.”
“If I endure it…”
“It will eventually pass.”
“…Or perhaps there’s another peaceful way to resolve it.”
What a wonderfully good tempered NPC.
The kind who endured once…
…and then kept enduring forever.
Bai Fuling sighed inwardly.
He felt like the type who, even if he became angry, would simply fluff up like a little animal, quietly walk away and smooth out his own fur afterward.
Since that was the case,
Bai Fuling decided to test the game’s system judgment once more.
He controlled his little character to collapse sideways in front of the wheelchair, repeating exactly what he had said before.
“Oww…”
“You bumped into me.”
“I can’t get up anymore.”
“Unless you give me 9,999 yuan…”
“I just can’t get up.”
Please…
Just let me fleece the system NPC already.
I’ve figured out his character settings perfectly!
The bespectacled NPC: …
He quietly fell silent for two seconds.
Then, once again, he repeated exactly what he had done before.
He helped Bai Fuling up from the ground.
Only this time…
He helped him directly into the wheelchair.
“The ground is cold at night.”
“If you really want to lie down or sit somewhere…”
“Then just sit here.”
He spoke with his usual gentle patience.
“I don’t have that much money.”
“But I can take you home.”
“This wheelchair belonged to Mr. Chen?”
Bai Fuling controlled his character to pat the wheelchair curiously, attempting to locate a [Tame Wheelchair] option just like when he had recruited the wild wolf as a mount.
“No.”
The bespectacled NPC shook his head.
“It’s mine.”
“I bought it.”
Bai Fuling answered instantly.
“I’m a student.”
“Give it to me.”
The bespectacled NPC: ?
Watching the question mark appear above the pixel NPC’s head without any new interaction options popping up, Bai Fuling immediately understood.
There was no way to obtain the wheelchair as a free gift from this NPC.
Most likely…
His affection level simply wasn’t high enough yet.
Speaking of affection…
He suddenly realized that despite meeting each other so many times already…
They had never actually exchanged names.
“Hello.”
Bai Fuling said brightly,
“What’s your name?”
“I’m a Farmer Detective!”
“Baicai Shuilingling.”
The bespectacled NPC froze briefly before laughing.
“Is that your nickname?”
“It’s very interesting.”
“My name is Luo Qingyue.”
“I work at the town library.”
He continued,
“If you’re a student, you can apply for a student library card.”
“The borrowing period is two weeks longer than with a regular library card.”
Bai Fuling immediately committed that piece of information to memory.
That was an NPC hint!
【Character Unlocked, Luo Qingyue】
He watched the notification appear across the screen before casually opening the newly unlocked profile.
○ Pink Heart (17%): [Luo Qingyue] thinks you’re an enthusiastic but rather strange student.
○ Pink Heart (1%): His interest in you is slightly greater than it would be toward a complete stranger.
○ Purple Triangle (0%): *** (Hidden)
○ Gray Gift Box (?%): Not Unlocked & In Progress?
Looking at the status panel, Bai Fuling paused slightly.
…Why were there two identical pink hearts?
Two separate affection meters?
It didn’t look like a bug either.
And the gift box at the bottom seemed particularly strange.
“You should be a student at Perland Academy.”
Luo Qingyue began pushing Bai Fuling forward in the wheelchair.
“I’ll take you back first.”
“It’s best not to stay outside too late.”
“Because…”
“…Well.”
“You know.”
His voice unconsciously softened.
“There are hardly any people left on the streets now.”
At first, Bai Fuling didn’t understand.
Only after raising his head and seeing the slender pixel crescent moon hanging in the sky did he suddenly grasp the important clue.
The crescent moon.
Recently, it was Crescent Moon Day.
Which also meant…
This was the period during which the Crescent Moon Sickle Murder Case might occur.
No wonder it clearly wasn’t that late yet the streets were so eerily deserted.
The city looked as empty as though it were the middle of the night.
Not a trace of human activity remained.
Ordinarily, this would have been the sort of atmosphere that sent chills down one’s spine.
Yet Bai Fuling only felt excited.
For a player…
An incident simply meant life had become more interesting.
“I imagine you already knew that.”
“That’s why you brought an axe with you…”
Luo Qingyue was still speaking when,
Whoosh!
Bai Fuling suddenly launched himself straight out of the wheelchair.
“Wait!”
he shouted loudly.
“I almost forgot!”
He had taken the axe out because he intended to search for hidden treasure.
And tonight he had also planned to visit Warm Home Residential Community to investigate Guan Jiayue’s house.
He had nearly forgotten both objectives because of his interactions with this new NPC.
After all…
Players were notoriously distractible.
They often accepted one quest, completed half of it…
Then became fascinated by something completely unrelated halfway there.
Luo Qingyue stared blankly as the black haired young man reached beneath his raincoat and somehow produced an axe.
Seriously…
Just how many things could that raincoat possibly be hiding?
Then he watched Bai Fuling sprint straight toward the brick wall from earlier.
Standing before it once again, Bai Fuling realized he couldn’t quite remember where the black tentacles had disappeared.
Every section of the pixelated brick wall looked exactly the same.
There wasn’t the slightest difference between any of them.
Well then.
Bai Fuling thought.
If that’s the case…
Then there’s only one solution.
The player’s greatest weapon,
Persistence.
He would simply conduct a full carpet search.
Just like testing every item one by one before.
The brute force method never went out of style.
Eventually…
It always worked.
Luo Qingyue followed after him, looking somewhat uneasy.
He watched Bai Fuling stand silently before the wall for one second.
Then…
Raise the axe.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
“…Wait!”
“What are you doing?!”
“I’m busy.”
“It’s fine.”
“It won’t affect anything.”
“We can keep talking.”
Bai Fuling continued hacking away at the wall.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Then he suddenly paused.
“Oh, right.”
“Am I making too much noise?”
“Will this attract the Crescent Moon Sickle murderer?”
“Will the killer come?”
When he mentioned the murderer…
He actually sounded rather excited.
Luo Qingyue silently took two steps sideways.
Flying stone fragments narrowly missed his cheek.
“…No.”
“I don’t think the murderer would come while you’re demolishing a wall.”
To be more precise…
No normal person would approach this scene.
Someone standing beneath the moon hacking apart a brick wall with an axe looked exactly like something straight out of a horror film.
So the murderer wouldn’t interrupt people while they were working.
The game’s programming was surprisingly considerate.
Bai Fuling felt strangely touched after hearing that.
He remembered Luo Qingyue seemed quite frightened of the murderer and had been rather nervous about the whole situation.
So he reached beneath his raincoat and produced his hoe before handing it over.
“Come on.”
“Let’s work.”
“We’ll smash this wall together.”
“Then tonight will become a peaceful night.”
Author’s Note:
Bai Fuling: Wow, this game has gay people!
↓
Bai Fuling: Huh… this is a gay game!
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The translator has survived another chapter. Please reward them with coffee. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Escape game freezesChapter 2 · Players aren’t allowed to use the main entranceChapter 3 · Players have created a medical miracle!Chapter 4 · If I hit the NPC more, will the NPC drop gold coins?Chapter 5 · Players earn the title of “bus weirdo”Chapter 6 · Players get a prison experienceChapter 7 · So the red bar isn’t for favorability, it’s for anger!Chapter 8 · The player is a nimble catChapter 9 · The player is a “law-abiding” good studentChapter 10 · Players have no morals and are fearlessChapter 11 · Player: What’s wrong? It’s called “Cai Cai Shui Ling LingChapter 12 · The player is the famous Farmer Detective!Chapter 13 · The player raised a new petChapter 14 · The player is a genius dog-riding boyChapter 15 · The player is a sticky, helpful, and kind comradeChapter 16 · It turns out that players aren’t considered human by NPCsChapter 17 · Players are like angels descending upon my side!Chapter 18 · Player: There’s only one truth!Chapter 19 · Why are players farming at the school?!Chapter 20 · Players came to the cafeteria to buy suppliesChapter 21 · Are NPCs model workers?Chapter 22 · If you’re a gay manChapter 23 · Player: Wheelchairs are a useful mode of transportation!Chapter 24 · So the player is actually part of Cat Returns (?)Chapter 25 · Liao Zhi Qiu, a large pet belonging to the playerChapter 26 · Player: Hello, I picked up this corpse.Chapter 27 · Bai Fuling: Players will never dieChapter 28 · Has the murderer been caught?Chapter 29 · Player: Visiting the mental hospital felt as familiar as coming homeChapter 30 · Players’ Adventure in the Mental Hospital: Round 1Chapter 31 · Player: Kid, fly!Chapter 32 · The player who does good deeds every day is truly a good personChapter 33 · The kitten brought back some local specialtiesChapter 34 · Let this adorable kitten stay forever?Chapter 35 · Players, don’t give up on being human!Chapter 36 · A kitten is just a kitten, isn’t it?Chapter 37 · Players want it, players get itChapter 38 · Angel Player and Unlucky Bear NPCChapter 39 · In short, players choose to throw at NPCsChapter 40 · The player just flew away!Chapter 41 · Player: You need to thoroughly understand the bookChapter 42 · Players love to tease honest NPCs.Chapter 43 · He said he was a little hungry.Chapter 44 · Even if cotton essence mutatesChapter 45 · Pure Love TentaclesChapter 46 · Choose to be a kitten?Chapter 47 · Players’ tears are weaponsChapter 48 · Players do not need to breatheChapter 49 · It’s on fire!Chapter 50 · The player is a top-tier rescue masterChapter 51 · How did the player manage to resurrect after killing themselves?!Chapter 52 · Call the player “Little Cat King”!Chapter 53 · What are the consequences of raising the cat-like alienation