Xia Qiu’s heart rose, fell, and rose again. The back-and-forth emotional rollercoaster sent her blood pressure soaring.
[Find Something to Do: Successfully unlocked a profession and identity, possessing the capital to establish a foothold on the Desolate Continent (Click to claim achievement reward)]
[I Seem Terrifyingly Strong: Dear hero, it seems you know how to do everything? Then try everything! Walking the Desolate Continent without a specific identity is fraught with danger, so be extremely careful! (Limited achievement, unlocked by obtaining the server’s unique profession "Vagrant") (Click to claim achievement reward)]
Looking at the descriptions of the two achievements, Xia Qiu almost laughed out of sheer anger. She really wanted to drag the system out and make it see for itself whether these descriptions contradicted each other.
Opening her personal information tab, she saw a new profession section right below her title.
[Profession: Vagrant]
Poking at it revealed an option to hide it. She decisively hid the freshly minted profession information. What a joke—she couldn’t afford to lose face like this. Only after confirming it was properly hidden did Xia Qiu somewhat irritably click to claim the rewards for her two new achievements.
[Obtained: Free Stat Point +1 Card * 1]
[Free Stat Point +1 Card: Enhances one of your attributes. Please consider carefully before use.]
[Obtained: Eye of Truth * 1]
[Eye of Truth: An eye that can see through all disguises. When worn, it allows you to temporarily mimic someone else’s identity and profession. The higher the tier of the identity or profession, the shorter the mimicry duration. Initial mimicry duration is 1 hour (Upgradeable) (Special profession item, bound, untradable)]
Xia Qiu, whose mood had been heavy, finally perked up a bit upon seeing this special item. The Eye of Truth was a flat, round brooch resembling an eyeball. Staring at it would cause one’s mind to go entirely blank.
If it could mimic another person’s identity and profession, that meant she could unlock other "identities" in addition to her profession. Although one hour sounded quite short, it could very well save her life in an emergency. Moreover, the word "upgradeable" gave her some peace of mind. The system couldn’t possibly doom a player to a guaranteed death right from the start. Since the "Vagrant" profession existed, there naturally had to be a way to survive with it. It was just that players who took unconventional paths usually ended up with one of two outcomes: standing at the very top, or making a hasty exit. In this survival game, exiting most likely corresponded to death. Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
She thought, "I just have to give it my all!"
Suddenly fired up, Xia Qiu excitedly opened her personal information panel, pondering which stat to apply her precious free stat point card to. She was currently in an unfamiliar environment and didn’t know what kind of dangerous challenges she would face. With her weak body, which was entirely used to sitting in an office, she couldn’t even catch a rabbit. If she really encountered a dangerous animal, she would be completely helpless. Furthermore, out of all the things she had picked up today, apart from the mushrooms—which she didn’t know were poisonous or not but could barely be considered related to food—only the pine nuts were actually edible. As for future food, she would either have to trade forest resources with others or actually figure out how to catch a rabbit.
Ultimately, Xia Qiu decided to use the stat point card on the "Strength" attribute.
[Player: Xia Qiu (#741888) (Can be renamed, remaining renames (1/1))]
[Title: Pinecone Thief (Hidden)]
[Profession: Vagrant (Hidden)]
[Status: None]
[Health: 120/120]
[Hunger: 75/120]
[Charm: 3 (An unremarkable, ordinary person)]
[Luck: 3 (Sometimes good, sometimes bad)]
[Strength: 4 (Cannot attempt dangerous sports)]
She thought, "Increasing strength actually raises the maximum limits for Health, Hunger, and Spirit Value? What a steal!" If she received more cards in the future, she would keep adding them to strength. She had to survive first before she could afford to think about anything else.
After making peace with her Vagrant identity, Xia Qiu finally turned her attention back to the remaining rewards. Her inventory had no empty slots left, so she didn’t immediately open the building materials gift pack. Although she hadn’t obtained any other storage items from her Hero’s Box, she did receive a waterskin, which wasn’t too bad. One portion of dry rations could restore 100 hunger points. With the five portions provided by the system, she wouldn’t have to worry about food for at least two or three days.
Time slipped by, and it was soon past eleven o’clock at night.
With ten minutes left until midnight, the system prompt that could be heard across the entire server chimed once more.
[Friendly Reminder: There are 10 minutes left until midnight. Players, please prepare yourselves to face the call of the abyss.]
[At midnight every night, a call from ancient times will echo throughout the entire Desolate Continent.]
[Heroes from the Otherworld, please be wary of any voices that might lead you into ruin.]
Xia Qiu looked up and glanced around. The empty meadow seemed to be steeped in and enveloped by thick ink; her small firelight could only illuminate a tiny patch of ground around her.