In the twelfth lunar month, Jingning Town was adorned with red lanterns, already filled with the atmosphere of the New Year. The town’s residents were all stocking up on New Year’s goods, and the street-side shops were bustling with business. At the end of the street, the Incense Shop had just seen off a group of customers and was gradually growing quiet.
A winter drizzle was falling outside. Inside the Incense Shop, Xi Mufu was tallying up the day’s earnings.
Her grandfather had always run this shop. Half a year ago, her grandfather passed away, and since she had just graduated from university, she returned to her hometown to take over his old trade.
“Hello, excuse me, is this… huh, an Incense Shop?” a young woman’s voice suddenly rang out.
Xi Mufu looked up and saw two young women hesitating at the shop’s entrance. Their faces were unfamiliar; they didn’t look like residents of Jingning Town.
“Yes, it’s an Incense Shop,” she replied, asking curiously, “Are you here as tourists? Did you get lost?”
Jingning Town was a well-known ancient town in the region. Many tourists from within the province came to visit on weekends. Today happened to be a Saturday, and although the weather was cold and it was raining outside, there were still quite a few tourists. However, tourists usually gathered in the lively areas on the main street. Very few came to the end of the street, let alone entered an Incense Shop, so Xi Mufu guessed the two girls must be lost.
Kong Yu and Xu Wenzi exchanged a look, shock evident in their eyes.
They were players from the Infinite World and had just entered an instance called Guangming Primary School. Before entering this instance, they had learned that players were not supposed to be able to leave the school. But as they were searching for clues on campus, they discovered a shop at the school gate. The warm light shining from within dispelled the surrounding gloom and cold, unconsciously drawing them closer. Even more miraculously, they were actually able to walk out of the school and into this shop!
At first, they thought it was a convenience store, but they never expected it to be an Incense Shop… This was too bizarre!
Why would there be an Incense Shop outside a primary school?!
“We… we’re just looking around…” Kong Yu cautiously sized up Xi Mufu. The owner before her looked very young and gentle, but as everyone knew, NPCs in the Infinite World were terrifying. The more peaceful they appeared on the surface, the higher their damage value might be. Thus, she secretly raised her guard, even preparing for battle.
Hearing this, Xi Mufu became even more certain that they were tourists. She said with an amused smile, “What’s there to see in an Incense Shop? You can go to the main street. It’s very lively over there, and there’s even a bonfire dance at night.”
Seeing the owner letting them go, Kong Yu was overjoyed and pulled Xu Wenzi to run outside.
But just as they reached the doorway, their panels flashed three consecutive warnings in bold, capitalized red text—
【TRANSACT WITH THE INCENSE SHOP IMMEDIATELY!】
【TRANSACT WITH THE INCENSE SHOP IMMEDIATELY!】
【TRANSACT WITH THE INCENSE SHOP IMMEDIATELY!】
Kong Yu: !
Xu Wenzi: !
After a long moment, the two turned back with some stiffness to look at Xi Mufu behind the counter.
“What’s wrong? Do you need me to give you directions?” Xi Mufu asked enthusiastically.
It was clearly a gentle and beautiful face, and her voice was very soft, yet it filled Kong Yu and Xu Wenzi with extreme fear. The owner’s pitch-black eyes, in particular, were just like the bold, capitalized red text on their panels, exuding an eerie and oppressive feeling.
“We… we’d like to buy some Incense Paper Money…” Kong Yu bit her lip, desperately suppressing the panic in her heart as she feigned composure.
Xi Mufu’s face lit up with understanding. “You want to go pay respects at the Earth God Temple on the main street, right?” She skillfully packed two portions and handed them over. “It’s 10 yuan a portion, so 20 yuan in total.”
Occasionally, tourists who wanted to visit the town’s Earth God Temple would come to her shop to buy Incense Paper Money. She was already used to it.
Seeing the NPC hand over the Incense Paper Money so proficiently, Kong Yu figured she must have transacted with many players. Yet, she had never heard any veteran players mention this, nor was there any information about it on the player forums… Could it be that all the players who knew had disappeared?
For a moment, Kong Yu grew even more terrified. She tremblingly accepted the Incense Paper Money, preparing to pay with points—the Infinite World had no universal currency, and players basically used points for transactions. Both she and Xu Wenzi were novice players who had only been through two instances, with less than 100 points. A portion of Incense Paper Money for 10 yuan was probably equivalent to 10 points.
Just then, another prompt popped up on her panel—
【Points cannot be used.】
【Item or Skill】
Kong Yu’s eyes widened.
In other words, they could only trade with items or skills?!
As novice players, they had few points, and even fewer items and skills! She had worked so hard to clear two instances just to get two items. If she traded one away this time, she would only have one left! Yet, skills and items were the most important things in the Infinite World; they could save your life at a critical moment. No player would give them up easily!
This was a complete rip-off!
But… the NPC behind the counter was beaming at them. That smile, no matter how she looked at it, seemed to be warning them to pay up quickly, or they wouldn’t leave the Incense Shop alive.
Kong Yu gritted her teeth and ultimately chose to trade the item [Object Retrieval].
Of her two items, one was [Object Retrieval] and the other was [Lucky Bracelet]. Comparatively, the luck-based item was of course more important, as it could provide a luck buff and increase her chances of survival.
Xu Wenzi had also seen the panel’s prompt. She had one item, [Special Dagger], and one skill, [Talisman-making]. She didn’t know how to draw talismans, so to her, this skill was completely useless. She wouldn’t feel bad about trading it away, so she made her choice immediately.
·
Two minutes later, Kong Yu and Xu Wenzi walked out of the Incense Shop in a daze.
“This stuff…” Xu Wenzi glanced at the Incense Paper Money in her hand, then looked back with lingering fear at the small, still-lit shop, asking Kong Yu with her eyes if they should throw it away.
“Shh!” Kong Yu whispered. “We’ll talk when we get back!”
Even if they were going to throw it away, they had to do it out of the Incense Shop owner’s sight to avoid her finding out and causing trouble.
Xu Wenzi nodded, unconsciously quickening her pace back to the school.
The two walked through the school gate, looking for a trash can to dispose of the items.
“You two went out?” The security guard NPC’s gloomy voice suddenly came from above their heads. “Leaving is forbidden during this special period. You two have violated school regulations and must be punished!”
Kong Yu and Xu Wenzi froze.
The plot of this Guangming Primary School instance was that a little girl had fallen to her death from a building, which was then staged as a suicide. The players’ mission was to identify the murderer—who could be a classmate, a teacher, the principal, or the security guard. The key was to find evidence.
Earlier, Kong Yu and Xu Wenzi had been wandering the campus to secretly investigate the security guard’s secrets. They never expected to be caught by him directly.
Meeting the guard’s pupil-less eyes, Xu Wenzi was so scared her limbs went weak, and she nearly fell to the ground.
Kong Yu was also panicked, but she managed to maintain her composure with great difficulty. “Sorry, we’re new here. We didn’t know about that rule.”
The security guard was not buying it, repeating with a cold face, “You violated the regulations and must be punished!”
The faces of Kong Yu and Xu Wenzi instantly turned pale.
According to the experience summarized by veteran players, the NPCs in deduction-type instances all had a set of logical rules. As long as players acted within those rules, the NPCs usually wouldn’t actively attack them. But if an NPC determined that a player had broken a rule, it would proceed with “life elimination.” At that point, the player would need powerful abilities to evade the NPC’s pursuit, or simply kill the NPC in return.
“I’ll hold it off, you run first!” Kong Yu secretly gestured to Xu Wenzi. She had the [Lucky Bracelet], which could be used once per instance to increase her luck value by 20%. Perhaps she could escape this time.
Although Xu Wenzi was timid, she couldn’t bring herself to abandon her companion and flee alone. Her voice trembled, but she said firmly, “We run together!”
As she spoke, she threw out her item, the [Special Dagger], aiming for the guard’s heart. This dagger had a high damage value and a chance for a one-hit kill.
Unfortunately, the guard’s power was far greater than they had imagined. The dagger only pierced the guard’s shoulder. This amount of damage was negligible to the guard, who could even swing his rubber baton at them with ease.
This might be a major boss, perhaps even the true culprit of the instance!
Kong Yu’s and Xu Wenzi’s pupils trembled. They were novice players with little experience and few items. Who would have thought they would encounter a major boss on their very first day in the instance?
A bizarre Incense Shop in front, a suspected major boss behind—their luck was simply terrible!
Seeing the guard about to catch up, Xu Wenzi, in a moment of desperation, threw the Incense Paper Money in her hand. It happened to hit the guard, who caught it with one hand.
The next second, the originally ferocious guard froze in place. Then, he lowered his baton and began to study the Incense Paper Money.
Xu Wenzi: ?
Kong Yu: ?
Both of them were stunned.
But this was a good chance to escape. They exchanged a look and ran for it.
The guard didn’t even raise his head. He just slowly brought the Incense Paper Money to his nose and took a deep breath. “It smells so good—”