At the apothecary's door, several miners were whispering among themselves.
They looked a little different from the miners here, though. Their skin was fair and delicate — one of them was even a woman.
"I kept telling you not to enter 「Divine Realm」, but none of you would listen! Well, look at us now — I'm afraid we're just like that last batch of poor wretches. We can't get back out!"
"Who knew it was actually real? Now's not the time for this — we need to find a way to survive, don't we?"
"The news said over thirty thousand people have gone missing in our country for no reason. They've probably all ended up in 「Divine Realm」 like us. No telling if they're even still alive..."
"No... I don't want to be a missing person. I miss my mom and dad, wuwuwu..."
The woman began to sob quietly.
Yang Ling's expression shifted again and again.
Missing persons?
So after he entered Divine Realm, his body had come in along with him?
"And here I thought the modeling was just really good..."
The thought flashed past, and Yang Ling's mood grew heavier.
He'd finally confirmed one thing.
Since the body was his own, dying in 「Divine Realm」 meant really dying!
A cold chill instantly drowned him.
"Just what kind of eerie thing is this 「Divine Realm」..."
"From what they said, over thirty thousand have gone missing in this country alone, which means over thirty thousand players are in 「Divine Realm」. Counting other countries..."
Yang Ling shivered and didn't dare think further.
If all these people died inside, wouldn't the outside world descend into chaos?
"Mengmeng, don't worry. The country will surely deal with this — they'd never just leave it be!"
The handsome young man gently comforted the sobbing girl.
Another, plain-looking man was glancing around in every direction.
Yang Ling checked the attributes of all three.
Like Zhang Wei, there was nothing remarkable about them.
Strength and Agility both around two or three points.
Spirit only 1, or 2.
"Counting Zhang Wei, of the four players I've seen so far, all have very low Spirit, while I have 10... Spirit is probably very important."
Yang Ling's mind stirred.
"Th-this brother — could you lend me a little money?"
Suddenly, the one who'd been looking around walked up to Yang Ling and stammered.
He seemed to be trying his best to blend his tone into the style of this world.
"Who are you, asking to borrow money out of nowhere?"
Yang Ling rolled his eyes.
The man was obviously like him — when he'd first come to 「Divine Realm」, he'd taken all the NPCs for fools.
"You must be a miner too, brother? So are we. Let's get acquainted — could you lend us a bit of money? We've been starving a whole day and want to buy some steamed buns."
Chen Xu hurried on: "My name's Chen Xu. He's Lin Guoliang, and that's his girlfriend, Wu Meng."
Seeing Chen Xu strike up a conversation with an 'NPC,' Lin Guoliang and Wu Meng looked up at once.
"You've been starving a whole day?"
Yang Ling looked the three of them over.
Chen Xu nodded quickly:
"Yes, we're about to starve to death..."
"NPCs won't lend us money. Don't waste your time."
Lin Guoliang suddenly shook his head.
"What NPC?"
Yang Ling asked suddenly.
Chen Xu's face changed slightly. He shot Lin Guoliang a hard glare and said in a low voice:
"Didn't I tell you not to run your mouth?!"
The NPCs here were nothing like what they'd imagined.
That was the first key thing they'd discovered after coming to 「Divine Realm」!
Sometimes, a single ill-chosen word could bring a fatal disaster!
"Friend, don't hold it against him. My buddy here isn't quite right in the head — he's got problems."
Chen Xu said with an awkward laugh.
"Steamed buns in the miners' village are one copper each."
Yang Ling handed Chen Xu three coppers:
"Buy three buns first. There's hardly any meat filling, just a bit of minced meat, but they'll fill you up."
"We're all vagrants — we came to the vein just to survive, to earn money for an identity."
"Once your bellies are full, go find Steward Niu to claim a pick, then get to mining."
With that, he went into the apothecary.
Lin Guoliang led Wu Meng forward, a little shocked:
"He actually lent us money? Could this guy be a player like us?"
Chen Xu shook his head lightly: "He didn't understand what 'NPC' means, which means he isn't a player — he's a native."
Then he looked at Lin Guoliang and said seriously:
"Guoliang, we already agreed — until we find a way out, we survive here first. If we die here, we might really die. This game isn't right; we can't treat it with our old habits. From now on, don't say things you shouldn't, or you'll doom us all."
A flicker of displeasure crossed Lin Guoliang's eyes, but he still nodded:
"I get it. Let's buy the buns first."
***
The apothecary's shop hand saw Yang Ling and asked offhandedly:
"What medicine do you want?"
"I'd like ten bottles of wound salve."
Yang Ling said.
One bottle of wound salve restored 10 HP; ten bottles could handle all kinds of danger.
Unfortunately this apothecary was too low-grade to carry anything better.
"You're not a vein guard — what do you want with so much wound salve?"
The shop hand paused, muttering under his breath, but still fetched Yang Ling ten bottles.
「Wound Salve (Defective) — restores 10 HP」
"That'll be fifty coppers."
"Here."
Yang Ling paid, and put the wound salve into the other cloth pouch at his waist — the one he'd prepared specially for going into the caves.
"Right, does the apothecary have any antidote for mine worms?"
Yang Ling asked, his eyes roaming.
"Mine worm? Has a mine worm come out of the caves?"
The shop hand looked puzzled.
"Someone claimed to see one a few days back. Best to be safe — one's life matters, after all."
Yang Ling said.
The shop hand rummaged through the cabinet and drew out a porcelain vial:
"These are the antidote pills Overseer Wu set out here for sale. If a mine worm bites you, they'll cure the venom. But they don't work on every mine worm's venom. Fifty coppers a vial — will you take it?"
「Antidote Pills x5」
Yang Ling nodded: "I'll take one vial."
Leaving the apothecary, his pouch now held ten bottles of wound salve and one vial of antidote pills.
He had forty-seven coppers left.
Yang Ling then went to a dry-goods stall he knew well.
The flatbread it sold was very hard, but it could keep for ten-odd days without spoiling.
"My strength has grown now, and my appetite's grown with it."
"Ten flatbreads a day is just right."
"Overseer Wu wants me to take part in the miners' skill contest in a month..."
"In the meantime, I can actually come out once every four or five days to grind more attribute points."
At that thought, Yang Ling walked into the dry-goods stall.
He traded all his remaining coppers for flatbread.
Only when all this was done did he head toward the vein.
***
"These buns taste pretty good. Finally, a decent meal — I'm about seventy percent full."
Lin Guoliang and the other two were content.
"Next we have to go mine in the vein. That guy said only mining earns money to keep ourselves alive."
Chen Xu mused.
"Chen Xu, don't you think that guy was just like a quest-giving NPC?"
Lin Guoliang's mind stirred:
"He even told us we have to spend money to buy an identity. That might be 「Divine Realm」's rookie quest."
"It was because of our vagrant status that we got dragged here to mine. In Divine Realm, having a normal identity is probably important."
Chen Xu nodded slowly.
"Ah, we still don't even know his name. There are so many miners in this village — how will we find him later?"
Lin Guoliang realized.
The three exchanged a glance, their expressions a little odd.
"Never mind. Let's go into the vein and see how things are first."
Chen Xu said: "We can ask about that Steward Niu he mentioned when we get there."