Xia Qiu squeezed her eyes shut and scrambled away with her hands over her head, smashing through more than half of the bar counter as she dashed out. Fortunately, the counter was already rotten and brittle. Otherwise, the sheer force of the collision would have bounced her right back into the cabinet.
After sprinting for over a dozen meters in a single breath, Xia Qiu finally glanced back in a panic. Dust billowed inside the building, but the monsters she expected didn’t come charging out from the cloud. Panting heavily, she looked around. Despite the massive commotion she had just caused, her surroundings remained dead silent. Aside from the faint rustling of the wind, the only sound was her own breathing.
Feeling something on her head, Xia Qiu raised a hand and patted her hair. A white object fell to the ground. It looked like... a bone? She crouched down and picked it up. A system description materialized before her eyes:
[Shattered Remains of an Old City Resident: A resident who once lived in the old city, now reduced to a set of ruined, dry bones. Some unlucky individuals have even had their remains shattered into pieces.]
"..."
She thought, "I really didn’t do it on purpose! Who would have thought someone would hide in a cabinet and end up dying in there?"
Time was tight, and Xia Qiu wanted to turn and leave, but the bone fragment in her hand seemed to torture her conscience. She just couldn’t bring herself to take a step away. She opened her interface and glanced at the time. There was still one hour until the novice period ended...
She thought, "Forget it. I’m the one who disturbed their rest in the first place."
Clutching the bone fragment, Xia Qiu walked back toward the building. The dust had settled. The skeleton from the cabinet was now scattered across the floor, shattered into fragments and powder. There was no telling how long the skeleton had been stored here. Even the wooden cabinet hadn’t completely crumbled to dust, yet the bones had shattered so easily upon falling.
Since she didn’t have any handy tools, Xia Qiu rummaged through her backpack’s existing supplies and took out two large leaves. She used one as a makeshift shovel and the other as a wrapper. Carefully, she gathered up the remaining bone fragments and powder, bundled them together, and respectfully placed them back inside the cabinet.
After gently closing the brittle cabinet door, Xia Qiu decided to stop exploring for now. With the novice period ending soon, she needed to hurry back to her territory and ensure nothing unexpected happened before making her next move. Get faster updates on novelping.com.
The moment she stepped out of the building, system notifications flooded her vision in rapid succession.
[The warmth of kindness will be a guiding light as you walk through this world. Your warmth has touched this city, which is about to fade into the long river of history. Listen with your heart, and it will guide your way forward.]
[Congratulations to Player Xia Qiu for unlocking the achievement: "Rest in Peace, Old Friend."]
[Congratulations to Player Xia Qiu for obtaining: "Blessing of the Ancient City."]
Usually, item acquisition notifications wouldn’t specifically include a player’s ID. Xia Qiu stared at the two lines of congratulations in a daze before immediately opening her interface to check. There was a red notification dot not only on her achievement and personal info pages but also on the side quest tab.
[Rest in Peace, Old Friend: This skeleton was once a vibrant life within this city. It perished along with the ancient city and gradually decayed. Gentle hero, you collected the damaged bones and gave them a peaceful rest once more. Kindness will be your best passport. (Click to claim achievement reward.)]
She wondered, "Do I actually get a reward for making amends for a mistake?"
Suddenly, Xia Qiu felt that this system might not be as unfeeling as it seemed. Looking at her personal information, a new status had appeared in her status bar.
[Status: Blessing of the Ancient City (You have received the acknowledgment of the ancient city’s will. When entering any fog map, you will no longer be disturbed by the fog and will not lose your direction. This status persists even when hidden.)]
She thought in disbelief, "It’s actually a permanent, hideable status! I’ll never get lost in the fog again!"
Despite her pleasant surprise, Xia Qiu quickly calmed down. Her interface map had functioned normally in the fog just now, but the detailed description of this status hinted that there might be fog maps in the future where guidance systems wouldn’t work. There might even be other crises similar to fog coverage. Although this status didn’t seem incredibly useful at the moment, there would definitely come a time when it would shine!
She clicked on the side quest page and found that the quest description had updated. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
[Echoes of the Ancient City: Desolation...]
[Quest Difficulty: ?]
[Quest Time Limit: ?]
[Quest Objective: 1. Explore the secret of the ancient city’s demise.]
She wondered, "Are there going to be objectives two, three, four, five, and six?"
With no more useful information available, Xia Qiu decided to claim her achievement reward first.
[Obtained: Lost Treasure Chest x1]
[Lost Treasure Chest: A gift left behind by a certain civilization.]
She clicked to open the chest, and the bronze-colored box slowly creaked open.
[Obtained: Unidentified Blueprint (Blue) x1, Ring of Sighs x1, Magical Seed Bag x1, Two-Eared Clay Pot x1]
She exclaimed in her mind, "A blue blueprint! And a pot!"
Struck dizzy by this sudden windfall, Xia Qiu could hardly believe the gods of luck were favoring her so heavily.