Looking at her intelligence points suddenly dropping to 9.5, Wen Qian felt her vision darken.
So it turned out that out of her pitiful initial 2 intelligence points, 1 point was actually from the school uniform bonus!
She was almost laughing with frustration.
Wen Qian wore a stern expression as she walked into the bathroom, which was fully stocked with bathing supplies. A cream-yellow bathrobe hung on the wall.
【Obtained Bathrobe [Appearance]】
She shoved her discarded school uniform all into the washing machine, which automatically started, displaying a one-minute countdown progress bar.
After showering, Wen Qian sat on the edge of her bed wearing the bathrobe and took her empty schoolbag over. Like the school uniform, the schoolbag was special equipment — while carrying it, her system backpack automatically expanded from the initial 10 slots to 15.
However, this was of little use to Wen Qian for now, since her backpack contained only a pitiful bowl of beef noodles and a small blue trolley.
Nothing else.
Players in this game were resource-strapped during the newbie period, so having managed to stock two items on the very first day was a pleasant surprise.
Looking at her single-digit balance, Wen Qian sighed. She needed to speed things up and quickly reach level 5 to unlock the pre-profession panel.
She didn’t want to faint from zero stamina in the middle of the academy just because she couldn’t afford food.
Stepping out of the house, Wen Qian looked at her single-digit balance again, then glanced at her relatively abundant stamina, gritted her teeth, and decided to walk to school.
The scene at the gates of Saint Thorn Royal Academy was very different from the first time Wen Qian arrived.
Fast-moving vehicles and the proud, laughing voices of young men made her sigh inwardly.
When playing this game, she never watched the story. Every time the school opening animation played, she just pressed the spacebar repeatedly without expression to skip it.
So she knew almost nothing about the game’s background setting — at most, she only knew the player attended a noble academy.
Before entering the school gate, Wen Qian was worried about where to check in — there should be a new student registration, right?
The moment she saw the campus scene clearly, she threw those worries out of her mind.
Sure enough, she was overthinking it. How could the game not have a guidance segment?
Before her eyes was a magnificent complex of buildings, with only the high-rise labeled [Teaching Building] lit up; all other buildings were dim gray, not yet unlocked.
Among the passing crowd, compared to the ladies standing straight and escorted by butlers holding umbrellas, or the flamboyant young masters surrounded by admirers at the center, Wen Qian’s entrance was extremely ordinary.
Yet she was so special.
The protagonist, observed with strange looks, stood in the middle of the road, completely indifferent to the darkly mocking gazes cast at her.
As if she wasn’t the odd one out here but the owner of this academy.
“Who’s that?” a girl playing with her nails glanced lightly at Wen Qian.
The curly-haired girl beside her exchanged a hesitant look with her companion, then said, “Looks like this year’s new poor but excellent student.”
“Poor but excellent student again?” The first girl withdrew her gaze with a hint of annoyance. “So annoying. Why does the academy have to admit those people?”
The curly-haired girl lowered her head, not daring to respond.
The student council had made the decision to admit poor but excellent students; this girl dared to complain because of her family background, while ordinary students like them wouldn’t dare to support her on such matters.
After all, these students, already from relatively privileged backgrounds outside, were nothing but companions to the young masters and ladies here.
Standing upstairs, a girl overlooking the scene below withdrew her gaze with boredom. Just as she was about to leave, her steps paused and she glanced back at the poor but excellent student.
But this time, her attention shifted to someone else.
“…Loren?”
Loren spotted the uniquely acting girl in the crowd immediately. His ever-present smile deepened when he saw the surprised expression she gave him as she looked back.
He walked slowly toward her, casually thinking about how to greet her.
Would she be surprised to meet him here, or like before, treat him as a stranger and “ask for help”?
The girl, her face showing excitement, hurried toward him, almost running.
“Meeting again—” Before he could finish, the girl’s quick pace and the breeze she stirred cut him off.
She brushed past him, throwing a puzzled glance as if wondering why he was blocking her way.
That confusion was quickly withdrawn. She completely ignored him and focused on her goal.
“Classmate!”
Wen Qian dodged the obstructing passerby and quickly approached the pretty female classmate.
“Classmate, you look troubled. May I ask what’s the matter?”
Troubled or not, it was all an excuse.
Wen Qian’s eyes locked tightly on the 【!】 icon above the other’s head, casually pulling out a conversation starter.
She hadn’t expected such luck — just entering the school and she had already encountered a mission.
The conspicuous exclamation mark instantly captured all her attention; registration and everything else came second in front of a mission!
The female classmate didn’t seem surprised by Wen Qian’s sudden greeting and question.
She sighed and said with a worried face, “Actually, I’ve always had a secret crush on someone…”
It was really strange to talk about these things on a first meeting, but the person being confided in didn’t mind at all.
That’s how missions usually go.
Wen Qian listened as the other person recounted their secret crush story from the start of their first year in high school, nodding repeatedly.
But if you looked closely, you’d see that her eyes were blank, her mind filled only with thoughts about whether the mission’s backstory was a bit too long.
“…So, I wrote a love letter, but I’m too embarrassed to give it to him.”
Hearing this key point, Wen Qian immediately snapped back to attention and reflexively replied, “Give it to me!”
【Quest Accepted — The Girl’s Love Letter①】
【Quest Reward: Experience +20, Reputation +1】
Taking the quest item [Love Letter], Wen Qian was surprised to see the system notification—what was this “reputation” thing?
She had only focused on the profession panel while playing this game and hadn’t really paid attention to the school panel missions.
To her, the school panel was just a place to grind stat points: randomly pick a few classes before logging off, toss the character into school, and the next day when logging back in, collect some stat points.
Forget it. Whatever this reputation is, she’d take it first!
Loren’s appearance caused a slight stir; passing students cautiously sized up the rarely seen young master at school.
Seeing Wen Qian almost bump into him as they passed, many cast looks mixed with a bit of pity.
A newbie, huh?
People who knew Loren subconsciously walked toward him, but stopped upon seeing his half-smile — Loren’s temper was the best among the young masters, but only compared to the others.
That gentle expression masked a fundamental indifference to others; even his smile was like looking through a fog, blurry and unclear.
Having accepted the mission, Wen Qian returned to her slow exploration of the map.
As long as it wasn’t a timed quest, normal missions could take an indefinitely long time to complete.
Even if she finished a quest after ten days or half a month, the NPC would still praise her as “right on time” when handing it in.
Wen Qian frowned looking at the name on the envelope—just one name, how far across the map would she have to run to find the person?
She looked despondent. Why didn’t this mission have a navigation feature? Wasn’t this a trap for players?
Looking at the envelope in her hand, Wen Qian decided to report in first; after the class assignments came out, she would ask her classmates if they knew this person.
A slender, well-proportioned hand landed on the envelope, interrupting Wen Qian’s thoughts.
“Chu Lingyu?” Loren glanced at the name on the envelope, then slightly leaned forward to look at the girl before him. “He’s not a very good-tempered person.”
The stranger’s overly familiar approach didn’t annoy Wen Qian; she replied naturally, “No wonder she didn’t dare to deliver the letter. Do you know this person?”
Looking at the finely featured young man, Wen Qian wondered if this was the game’s quest hint.
But… she looked at him several more times—why did he seem a bit familiar?
“I know him.” Loren looked Wen Qian over with interest. “I can help you, but you have to tell me why you want to help that person just now.”
He had witnessed the entire conversation between Wen Qian and that student, and no matter how he looked at it, it was strange.
It was her first time at school; that person shouldn’t be someone she knew — their conversation confirmed this.
And that person seemed unbothered by her abrupt words and even directly asked her to help deliver the love letter.
Very interesting.
Wen Qian gave him a puzzled look. Did an NPC really have to pry into this?
She casually replied, “Because she needs help. I’m always happy to help others.”
“Is that so?” Loren nodded as if he understood, then said cheerfully, “Then why didn’t you want to help me yesterday?”
Yesterday?
Wen Qian took a step back, looked Loren up and down a few times, then suddenly realized who he was and exclaimed, “It’s you!”
Isn’t he that NPC who wanted her to help but never gave her a mission?
“Yesterday was an accident. Do you have anything you need help with now?” Wen Qian thought for a moment before asking.
She felt this NPC wasn’t simple; she wanted to see if she could trigger a mission with him!
“Now?” Loren said casually, “When you deliver the letter, please help me deliver a message to Chu Lingyu.”
“Can I?”
Looking at the empty icon above the NPC’s head, the player subtly felt she was being fooled again: “…Oh, no, I can’t.”
Loren’s smile faltered slightly, but the amusement never reached his eyes.
Before Wen Qian could complain about the system’s quest mechanics, she suddenly saw a very obvious quest marker appear on the NPC in front of her.
The player who had just refused the NPC a second ago: …?
“Ahem, but well, to put it another way…”