After entering the city gate, the tiny bit of romantic fantasy that Otto originally held toward this legendary ancient castle was shattered by reality in less than three seconds.
There were no flat flagstone roads, no streets adorned with flowers, and certainly no beautiful girls.
What came into view were muddy dirt roads, low stone houses piled up haphazardly, and poultry running amok everywhere.
The most lethal part was the smell.
Because this era completely lacked cross-era infrastructure like sewers, and the concept of public toilets did not exist among the common folk, the quality of most residents still lingered in the wild stage of “relieving themselves anywhere”.
This resulted in the environment inside the entire Tintagel Castle being worlds apart from the fresh nature outside the city walls.
“This place…
is comparable to a large open-air public toilet.”
Otto forcibly suppressed the urge to pinch his nose, took a tiny breath of air, and his brows instantly furrowed so deeply they could crush a fly to death.
Fortunately, what permeated here was mainly a strong stench of urine, not mixed with that kind of over-fermented biochemical stench.
For Otto, this could already be considered a piece of earth-shattering good news.
Philin, walking beside him, truly lived up to being an old fox with frighteningly high emotional intelligence; he only glanced out of the corner of his eye at Otto’s slightly twitching eye corners and immediately understood.
“Lord Otto, the environment in this city is indeed vulgar and unbearable, offending your eyes and nose.” Philin bent his waist slightly, leaned a bit closer, and said in a low voice, “Why don’t you return to the carriage to rest for a moment first?
I will go to the security office ahead to exchange those few heads for the bounty, and come report to you once everything is properly handled.”
Otto went with the flow and nodded: “Mm, then I will trouble you, Mr.
Philin.”
I have to say, dealing with someone who has such good tact is really comfortable.
Otto currently happened to be clutching six hundred and forty gold coins in his pocket and was worrying about not having a deserted place to properly pull a few rounds; Philin’s proposal was simply sending a pillow right when he felt sleepy.
Watching Philin lead a few helpers carrying those coarse cloth bags exuding a bloody smell toward a place in the distance, Otto turned around and boarded the spacious long carriage, casually letting down the thick coarse cloth curtain.
Although it was somewhat dim inside the carriage, it at least isolated some of the odors.
Sitting cross-legged on the animal-skin-paved cushion, Otto took a deep breath and summoned the translucent system panel that only he could see.
Otto glanced around again, and after confirming that there were only two standing NPC guards outside the carriage, he deliberately lowered his voice and recited that classic line in a mosquito-like humming sound that only he could hear:
“My turn, card draw.”
A finger tapped gently in the void.
A pale meteor streaked across the light screen and smashed into the center of the screen without the slightest suspense.
[Obtained Item: A Pack of Salt]
[Introduction: Freshly produced refined table salt, which holds a very high value in the Middle Ages; it is an essential goodie for staying at home, traveling, committing murder and looting, and barbecue seasoning.]
With a flash of white light, a pack of salt landed in Otto’s arms.
Otto took a look inside, where the salt grains were as pure white and delicate as snowflakes.
“Not bad, at least it’s not some completely useless waste.” Otto comforted himself.
After all, in modern society, this pack of salt was worth at most two yuan and fifty cents, but in the fifth century AD where even nobles could only eat bitter coarse salt, this pack of pure white and flawless fine salt was definitely comparable in value to gold of the same weight.
Otto properly put the salt bag into the inner pocket of his coat and started the second card draw.
“Come again!”
Another pale meteor streaked across.
[Obtained Item: Bread Worth 500,000 Marks]
[Introduction: A specialty from the Weimar Republic era, bread worth 500,000 marks should be quite delicious; please savor the taste of inflation carefully.]
A rock-hard, dark-brown rye bread dropped onto the wooden board of the carriage with a plop.
Otto looked at this bread comparable to a brick, and his eye corners couldn’t help twitching wildly.
“System, what kind of messy things have you stuffed into this prize pool!
Buying a bread for 500,000 marks…
why don’t you also send me Zimbabwean dollars?”
Looking at this bread carrying thick historical dark humor, Otto felt extremely speechless.
However, ever since he time-traveled from yesterday until now, his stomach really had nothing in it except for drinking a little water, so he still bent down and picked up that piece of bread.
He forcefully broke off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth.
“Hiss…
This texture, I would believe it if you said it was sawdust mixed with sand.” Otto chewed with difficulty while unable to help complaining, “Eating this stuff for 500,000 marks?
No wonder that place later produced a failed art student.”
After spending a long time swallowing that exorbitantly priced bread, Otto ushered in the third card draw.
It was still the low-voiced call, still the familiar white light.
[Obtained Item: A Beautiful Girl’s Arcade Coin]
[Introduction: It seems to be an arcade coin frequently used by a beautiful girl who can shoot a railgun with her fingertips.]
With a crisp sound, a metal arcade coin printed with an unknown arcade’s logo fell into Otto’s palm.
“…”
What on earth are all these!
Otto helplessly tossed the arcade coin into midair and caught it again.
If he had the ability to discharge electricity, this thing could still serve as a preparatory item for an ultimate move, but he didn’t have this ability.
What was the use of taking this coin?
Insert it to play arcade games?
“Forget it, at least it’s a two-dimensional holy relic.
Keeping it as a souvenir coin is not bad either.” Otto sighed and tucked the coin into his pants pocket.
Looking at the remaining one hundred and sixty gold coins on the system panel, Otto understood that this was the last chance.
He took a deep breath, and after praying piously in his heart,
“Draw cards!”
As soon as his voice fell, the despair-inducing white light did not appear on the light screen; instead, it was replaced by a deep and mysterious purple!
“Purple dropped?
Is there still a pity system!”
The purple light circled in midair and finally turned into a pure black leather glove, quietly suspended in front of Otto.
[Obtained Item: false face gloves]
[Introduction: This is a magical item.
When wearing it, you can change your appearance.
You can snap your fingers to fire air bullets (issuing invisible attacks with damage equivalent to a steam rifle, and damage can be increased by injecting magic power), manipulate flames (can only manipulate existing flames within a twenty-meter radius around the body, unable to generate fire out of thin air), and get danger intuition (ever watched Spider-Man?).
You will become more agile.]
[Side effect: That hand will feel very numb after wearing it for a long time; moderate rest is recommended.]
Looking at this long string of introduction, Otto’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.
But was he sure this thing wasn’t a magical item from some mystical world?
But as long as it worked well, it was fine.
Moreover, with these abilities, under this medieval background, it was simply a sharp weapon for playing a small alt character and showing off outside!
Otto couldn’t wait to put this pure black glove on his left hand.
The material of the glove was very soft.
Putting it on fit like a second skin, except that the leather on the back of the hand occasionally rippled slightly as if there were bugs wriggling underneath.
“The abilities are good, but isn’t this special effect of wriggling from time to time too horrifying?
It would be great if this visual effect of a bug crawling could be changed.” Otto looked at his left hand and muttered softly.
He eagerly wanted to test the abilities of this magical glove.
Otto first raised his hand, rested his thumb on his middle finger, and prepared to snap his fingers to try out the air bullets.
But just as his fingers were about to exert force, he stopped again.
Although this air bullet was invisible, the gunshot sound must not be small.
Firing one shot inside this quiet carriage, the NPC guards outside would probably immediately draw their swords and rush in.
“The air bullet makes too much noise, PASS.”
Otto turned his head to look around, wanting to try manipulating flames, but there wasn’t even a single candle in the carriage, let alone a fire source.
“No fire, PASS.”
As for danger intuition, where would danger come from?
And as for changing appearance, sorry, even a reflective bronze mirror couldn’t be found inside the carriage.
Even if he changed it, he couldn’t see whether the face he sculpted was handsome or not.
And agility enhancement was even harder to display in this cramped carriage cabin.
He couldn’t possibly perform a backflip on the cushion, right?
“Sigh…”
Otto helplessly shook his head, abandoning the idea of tossing about inside the carriage.
He leaned against the cabin board, fished out the remaining half-piece of 500,000-mark bread, and nibbled it bit by bit with that bitter texture, treating it as replenishing physical strength.
Just as Otto finished eating the bread and pulled off the glove to stuff it into his pocket, the carriage curtain was lifted.
Philin crawled up with a face full of smiles.
Although the corner of his eye caught sight of Otto stuffing a pure black glove into his pocket, as a smart merchant, he knew very well what should be asked and what should not be asked.
“Lord Otto, the bounty has been exchanged.”
Philin respectfully handed over a small coin pouch, inside of which came the crisp sound of metal colliding.
“These are sixty silver coins exchanged for six barbarian heads.
Please keep them safe.”
Otto took the coin pouch and weighed it in his hand.
That heavy weight made people feel an inexplicable sense of security, and he casually stuffed these heavy sixty silver coins into his pants pocket.
“Mm, thank you for the trouble.” Otto tidied up the hem of his clothes, smiled slightly at Philin, “Next, I plan to get out of the carriage, wander around inside this fortress at will, and experience the local customs and practices of Cornwall.”
Philin hurriedly nodded and stepped aside: “Alright, Lord Otto.
If you have any needs, you can come to the caravan’s station to find me at any time.
We will rest and recuperate for two days at the Windmill Inn in the city.”
Otto responded with a smile, lifted the curtain, and stepped into the medieval castle street full of hustle, bustle, and the stench of urine.