Confirm Synthesis
Not Now
The two choices surfaced clearly in Zhang Yang’s mind.
This was the first time she had encountered a situation like this.
In the past, she’d only received this kind of system prompt when she disguised herself as a player, joined a raid, and went dungeon-crawling to collect loot fragments that could be synthesized.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Zhang Yang made her choice as soon as the thought crossed her mind: the first option.
A few breaths later, she felt something writhing rapidly in the gap where her limb had been severed, as if countless insects were crawling over it.
Then an indescribable itch and burning sensation shot to her brain, making her frown in discomfort.
At first, she could bear it, until—
“Hiss—”
A clear, sharp pain came from the stitched-up area.
Zhang Yang instinctively reached out and clamped a hand around Passerby A’s wrist.
“Stop!”
Passerby A’s pulse pounded beneath her fingertips, and his muscles stiffened for an instant.
After a brief standoff, Passerby A let the tension drain from his arm and released the needle.
Zhang Yang grabbed the thread and pulled the needle out of her flesh.
In an instant, warm, crimson blood welled from the pinprick and trickled down her slender neck like a winding little red snake.
Zhang Yang touched the spot where she could feel the sharp pain, and her palm came away smeared with sticky blood.
She held her palm before her eyes and stared at it for a long while.
“It’s real blood…”
Then she raised her arm.
It had originally been divided into three pieces:
from the wrist to the fingertips, from the elbow to the wrist, and from the upper arm to the elbow.
Zhang Yang had struggled quite a bit when stitching them together, but now, apart from three faint pink lines and the blood smeared across the skin, you could hardly tell this arm had once been sold off in pieces.
It moved just as freely as the body she was used to.
She blinked and let out an envious sigh.
“So this is how well Players have it.”
Players couldn’t die.
No matter how grievous their injuries, whether they were ground into dumpling filling by a dungeon’s mechanical BOSS or locked in a massive, life-or-death brawl with other Players, they could revive after a dozen or so breaths, at the cost of half their health.
Even that lost health would naturally recover over time.
If a Player didn’t want to waste time, they could take medicine.
As an NPC, Zhang Yang had never had that kind of perk.
So why did she have it now?
She fell into thought.
Muttering, “…Is it because this is a Homestead?”
It wasn’t impossible.
The human subjects Zhang Yang had chosen to observe had mentioned that when the game’s developers introduced the Homestead system, they used slogans like “This land is yours to command; this world is yours to reshape” and “My Homestead, my world.” Zhang Yang had saved up for years, working tirelessly, robbing BOSSes in dungeons and Players out in the wild, until she finally had enough money to buy a Homestead and got her hands on the deed.
Although she hadn’t had time to register it officially yet, the deed was already in her hands.
And the name on it was Zhang Yang’s.
Once she entered the Homestead branch, this place was her home, her domain, her world.
Of course she had privileges!
So what if she’d gained a resurrection skill that every Player had?
Thinking of it that way, everything suddenly made sense.
A thought occurred to Zhang Yang.
To test her theory, she beamed a brilliant smile with her face still smeared in blood and mud.
Under the horrified gaze of Mysterious Rainy Night Passerby A, she chopped off her left hand with the edge of her palm.
It hit the muddy ground, kicking up a ring of dust, and blood spattered across Passerby A’s instep.
The person who’d just committed this insane act bent down to pick up her severed hand, grinned, and said, “Want to try again?”
“T-try again?”
Zhang Yang urged him on.
“Obviously, stitch it back on. Come on.”
Passerby A: “…”
Zhang Yang watched with great interest as the name above his head rapidly changed colors.
Unfortunately, it eventually settled on yellow, the color of neutrality.
His expression blank, he did as she asked, sewing the severed hand back on with two stitches.
Just as Zhang Yang had hoped, a ding sounded in her ear:
“Missing Hand” detected.
Combine?
Confirm Combine
Zhang Yang looked at her hand, restored to its original state, and was extremely pleased.
“Players really do get treated well.” If she’d known that spending a fortune on the official Homestead would let her enjoy the same treatment as a player, she would’ve found a way to squeeze more out of them long ago.
Then she wouldn’t have had to tiptoe around for so long.
Only as she spoke did she remember there was still a random passerby here.
She prepared to pull a hamster out of her game inventory.
Pull—
Zhang Yang’s face grew awkward.
Only then did she remember she’d already sold off all the hamsters she’d bought at the market.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have had enough to pay for the exorbitantly expensive deed to the Homestead.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a big problem.
“Stay right here and don’t wander off. I’ll go catch one for you.”
The passerby stared at her blankly without saying a word.
Zhang Yang was already used to this.
NPCs like her, who had awakened self-awareness, were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
It was only natural for the rest of her kind to be a little dull.
The game’s developers probably didn’t have the time to add flexible dialogue code to ordinary NPCs who were everywhere.
Zhang Yang prepared to exit the Homestead side quest.
Under the gaze of the Mysterious Rainy Night Passerby A, she searched the shabby little house for ages, flipping over tables and smashing chairs, climbing the walls and roof beams.
She didn’t miss a single corner, yet somehow still couldn’t find the exit portal.
Even after bringing up the system panel, she couldn’t see a single prompt telling her how to leave.
“Strange, where’s the exit?”
Muttering to herself, she searched the entire ruined house.
She didn’t find an exit, but she did find plenty of clothing scraps.
System notifications kept popping up, too.
You obtained Clothing Scrap +1
You obtained Large Clothing Scrap +1
Out of habit, Zhang Yang stuffed everything she picked up into her game inventory.
It was one of the player habits she’d noticed after observing countless players: if it could be picked up and carried away, it went in the inventory!
Even trash was no exception!
Combine into “A Bloodstained Garment”?
Zhang Yang stared at the prompt that popped up, momentarily stunned.
This time, she chose Not for now.
She suddenly realized that the clothing scraps she’d gathered inside the house were made of the same material as the rags hanging off her right now.
At last, Mysterious Rainy Night Passerby A couldn’t hold back any longer.
“If you don’t mind, you can borrow one of my clothes.”
Passerby A took off his outer garment and handed it to Zhang Yang.
With lightning flashing frequently, the dim, ruined house was lit up every so often.
After forcing himself to calm down, Passerby A noticed Zhang Yang’s rather indecent appearance.
“Cover yourself up a little.”
“Cover yourself? Cover what?” Zhang Yang looked down at her own body in confusion.
Bloodstained strips of cloth still hung over several key areas.
She looked pretty wild, but compared with the Players who ran all over the streets in swimsuits and trunks, she was actually rather conservative.
Passerby A: “…”
“But I guess that works. It’s the thought that counts, after all.”
Kindness from one’s own kind always warmed the heart.
After wrapping herself in clothes, Zhang Yang poked her head out the window, rested her chin against the earthen wall, and sighed.
“When will this rain ever stop?”
Then she could go out and look for the exit.
Since she’d never visited anyone else’s Home branch and couldn’t access the Players’ game forum, everything she knew about how the Home branch worked came from the in-game newspaper and her few human subjects of observation.
But they wouldn’t bring up something as basic as “Where’s the Home exit?” So she’d just have to find it herself.
“Have you forgotten what happened before?”
Passerby A’s hesitant voice came from behind her.
Zhang Yang saw a blurry figure reflected in the puddles.
The name above the figure’s head was now a vivid scarlet.