A string of numbers gave Chi Ling a headache, but he still managed to catch those two words: “Traveler.”
The word rolled around in Chi Ling’s mouth for a moment before he tapped on the detailed introduction section beside it.
Talent Name: Traveler
Talent Introduction: Travelers can shuttle through known or unknown time and space, and even rewrite destiny. Want to go on a time-and-space trip anytime and anywhere? (Warning: Do not get lost in the journey of time and space.)
Talent Level: Level 1
Cooldown Duration: 48 hours
[Note: Player S0112103, given that your stellar performance in the newbie instance surpassed ninety-nine percent of players, your talent enjoys priority among the ninety-nine percent of players who also possess time-type talents. (Remember to watch out for that remaining one percent, though!) Use your talent with caution, and look forward to the day you truly step toward eternity.]
Turns out there was a priority system after all.
It seems the newbie instance really is crucial.
“Cough, cough!” Inside the instance, his highly concentrated mental state allowed Chi Ling to barely feel any other physical pain, but now that he had relaxed, every part of his body felt miserable.
His lower back and legs ached, his head spun with tinnitus, and his throat felt as though it had been sliced by a knife.
“System, how do I recover my body?” Chi Ling asked with a raspy voice.
[Injuries sustained by players in instances will automatically recover upon leaving the instance. HP, Sanity, and Stamina can only be restored while the player is in a hotel or residence, or the player can choose to purchase recovery potions.]
Chi Ling opened the Eternal World app and logged into the player forum. A casual scroll revealed that most hotels were priced between 3,000 to 8,000 points per day.
Chi Ling exited the forum and headed to the shop, only to find that a single recovery potion cost over ten thousand points, causing him to abandon the idea entirely.
“What’s the price for a residence?”
[Newbie players enjoy a discount, costing only twenty thousand points per square meter. Additional points can be added later to expand and modify it independently.]
Chi Ling silently looked at the points in his account. Originally, he thought his points were quite a lot, but now they seemed pitifully few.
If he was in this state, what must those newbies who had just emerged from instances be like?
Chi Ling cast one last reluctant glance at his account balance.
“Purchase a four-square-meter residence.”
The next second, his points began to plummet sharply, and simultaneously, Chi Ling found himself inside a small room.
The room was monotonous, with four white walls, a tiny window, and a single door. The only furnishings provided inside were a small bed and a simple wardrobe.
It truly was barebones.
Chi Ling took two steps forward, pushed open the door, and saw that all the surrounding dwellings were similarly small houses.
The closer dwellings were larger, while further away stood many towering, majestic skyscrapers that looked imposing and magnificent.
Chi Ling gazed at the distant skyscrapers, then turned back to look at the tiny house behind him.
Chi Ling: “::”
Feeling a bit depressed, he prepared to close the door and go back inside.
However, another house suddenly appeared on his right, looking only half the size of his own.
Chi Ling felt a little better inside. Unable to resist taking a few extra glances, he found himself making direct eye contact with someone who had just pushed their door open and stepped out.
That person had blonde hair and chubby cheeks, resembling a porcelain doll.
Looking quite young, the moment he spotted Chi Ling, he lit up like he had finally found his organization, grinning broadly: “Brother, are you a newbie too?”
Chi Ling gave a reluctant nod. Seeing Chi Ling respond, the other person grew even more excited.
“You just came out of an instance too, right? Do you want to get acquainted? My name is Ji Qing.”
“Chi Ling.”
Chi Ling was concise and to the point, wanting to push the door shut and go back to rest as soon as he answered.
“So you’re Brother Chi! Seeing your house is so big, you must be really strong! These residences are way too expensive, ten thousand per square meter. I dumped all my points in and could only buy two square meters. That room is so small I don’t even want to step inside. Why don’t we go out and look around together…”
Once Ji Qing opened the floodgates of conversation, he couldn’t shut them, but Chi Ling frowned as he listened.
“Hold on, how much did you say the residence cost per square meter?”
“Ten thousand! What’s wrong?”
“N O T H I N G.” Chi Ling forced a smile, speaking each word distinctly as he clenched his fists.
Damn system, talking about a newbie discount, what a fine piece of reverse discounting!
He silently mourned his departed points.
“Brother Chi? Brother Chi? Why don’t we go out and look around together?” Ji Qing waved a hand in front of the dazed Chi Ling.
“Sure.”
Chi Ling had zero desire to look at this residence right now, so he nodded in agreement.
“How old are you?” Chi Ling asked, finding it a headache to be called “older brother” by this guy every other sentence.
“Twenty-five,” Ji Qing answered honestly.
Chi Ling raised an eyebrow; despite looking so youthful, this guy was actually older than him.
“I’m twenty-three this year. You don’t need to call me brother; just call me Chi Ling.”
Realizing he had made a blunder, Ji Qing scratched his head: “Oh, alright.”
Watching Ji Qing’s fluffy blonde hair, Chi Ling felt his fingers itch slightly and averted his gaze.
They walked all the way forward, and while the houses they passed gradually grew larger, the towering skyscrapers right in the center remained forever out of reach, visible yet untouchable, like a mirage.
“Bro, why have we walked so far and still haven’t reached over there yet!” Ji Qing panted heavily, bending over with his hands supporting his knees to catch his breath.
Chi Ling was exhausted too, and too lazy to correct Ji Qing’s address anymore.
Feeling that something was odd, he opened his status panel and instantly felt like an idiot.
With an air of breezy nonchalance, he said, “We can just teleport directly to the central district.”
Ji Qing immediately started wailing over all the walking he had done for nothing.
Chi Ling pressed his lips together. He hadn’t checked his status panel this entire time; why did it feel like his IQ had gone offline? He glanced at Ji Qing and took a stealthy step back.
The two of them teleported to the central hall district, which was an absolute sea of humanity where you couldn’t even tell whose toes you were stepping on.
Several skyscrapers stood before them. Right in the middle was the central hall of the game lobby, flanked on the left and right by two slightly shorter sub-halls.
Aside from these three, there were ten other skyscrapers housing the top-tier guilds. Only the top one hundred guilds were permitted entry into the central hall district, with higher rankings located closer to the center.
Compared to these, the other buildings didn’t look quite as towering.
The screens outside the central hall displayed the current hottest livestream room. Many people who couldn’t squeeze into the central hall stood outside to watch, as this angle allowed everyone a clear view.
With people packed tightly shoulder-to-shoulder outside the hall, Chi Ling felt deeply irritable. Raising his voice over the noise, he said to Ji Qing beside him, “There are too many people. Let’s head back to our residences first!”
Ji Qing’s blonde hair stood out conspicuously in the crowd as he nodded in agreement.
Chi Ling opened his panel and teleported straight back to E-District.
Having just added Ji Qing as a friend, Chi Ling sent him a message saying he was going back to rest first.
Lying on his bed and scrolling through the mobile forum, Chi Ling gained a preliminary understanding of this world.
The world was divided into seven districts: the Central Hall District, the Commercial & Entertainment District, and Districts A through E.
Districts A through E were categorized based on player points, with newbies starting out in E-District. Accumulating over 100,000 points and clearing any D-rank instance allowed a player to upgrade to D-District; over 1,000,000 points and clearing any C-rank instance upgraded them to C-District; over 5,000,000 points and clearing any B-rank instance upgraded them to B-District.
To become an A-rank player, one needed at least 10,000,000 points and had to clear a fixed A-rank instance.
Chi Ling looked at the 40,000-plus points in his account.
Sigh!
The Central Hall District contained the game lobby and major guilds. The Commercial & Entertainment District housed the largest casino, chain hotels, bars, restaurants, and various leisure facilities.
At the end of every year, the major guilds would challenge each other based on their point rankings, and the guild ranked first would earn the qualification to make a wish to the Eternal World.
September had already arrived, leaving only three months until the year-end challenges.
Each guild could have a maximum of ten members, and only players ranked B-rank and above were qualified to establish a guild.
Therefore, he didn’t even have the qualifications to found a guild yet, and finding a suitable existing guild to join wouldn’t be easy either.
What a hassle!
Lying on his side, Chi Ling watched the darkening sky outside the window and closed his eyes.
It felt as though he had returned to Liujiaba once more, witnessing the joys and sorrows in the lives of everyone there.
It was that same Earth God shrine; the wax dripping from the incense candles looked like tears shed by a deity.
Chi Ling seemed to have transformed into the Earth God, watching his believers gradually drift away, watching the evil ghosts harm the villagers in the name of the ancestors.
A remote mountain village, originally blessed with clear waters, lush mountains, and honest folk, yet during the 1960s and 1970s, the gender ratio became severely imbalanced. Because the village was geographically isolated and the overall quality of its males wasn’t high, no young women were willing to marry into it.
The villagers grew anxious, and right at that moment, the “ancestors” appeared in a dream to guide them.
They learned that trafficking women could solve this problem.
Once a manifestation occurred, a second would follow, and the Earth God could only watch as the villagers here transformed from humans into evil ghosts.
There were also young women who married in willingly, such as Wang Huashu, but she was unhappy; her husband favored sons over daughters and constantly beat or scolded her and their daughters, and both of her children were buried in this village.
“Grandmother” was unhappy too; Grandfather loved her, but didn’t understand her. Fortunately, however, several of her children were able to pursue a better future.
Liu Fang was unhappy, watching her childhood friends pass away while feeling utterly powerless against this village.
Liu Xizhao had clearly gotten into university, yet her father wanted to sell her off. She resisted fiercely, only to be wrongfully killed, while her mother went to her grave believing she had been sold away.
Countless trafficked girls lived lives of bitter suffering.
Countless families who lost their children suffered lifelong grief.
The deity shed drop after drop of tears, not for its gradually decaying temple, but for these children it had watched grow up.
Until once more, a child it watched grow up fell into the lake. It couldn’t help saving that child, but the alienation began.
The deity dissipated, the youth slumbered deep within the lake, and the village degraded into a game trial ground.
Fortunately, at the end of the story, the police rescued that group of girls, the murdered victims had their names cleared and injustices redressed, and the guilty parties received their punishment.
Chi Ling could see the crystal-clear tears at Auntie’s eye corners. With a gentle wave of his hand, a gust of wind swept by, carrying the teardrops away.
His cousin could attend school cleanly in the city, and the next generation, having done no wrong, could also look up and see the sunlight.
The long-dissipated deity opened its eyes anew, guarding this tract of land.
Chi Ling’s consciousness gradually drifted away, everything around him dissolving into distant points of light as he sank into an even deeper dream.
In his dream, someone softly whispered a word of gratitude to him.
“Thank you.”