Chapter 78
Escort Agency Qiao Qiao: Good night and sweet dreams.
Writer Yu Qian: Yeah, good night Qiao Qiao!
Having just finished practicing her internal energy, Bei Qiao was a bit overwhelmed and it took her a while to fall asleep. The next morning, even though she hadn't slept very long, she still felt incredibly energetic.
Over the next few days, Bei Qiao explored the outer city thoroughly, picking up a bunch of gadgets he thought were reasonably priced, ready to test the waters on his way back. Aside from the rattle he'd bought to cover the purchase price, the other items were things Bei Qiao could find a way to use even if he didn't need them. Even if he couldn't sell them later, they wouldn't go to waste.
"I feel a bit like a rag collector." After placing the things he bought on the table, Bei Qiao looked at the piled-up table, went downstairs to find a piece of canvas in the carriage, sewed a backpack of another world version with many pockets, and put the things he bought into it according to categories: It looks much better now.
Bei Qiao stayed in the capital for a few days, sometimes riding a horse, sometimes riding a donkey. Every time he changed his mount, he would change his vest, and he became more and more proficient in role-playing.
After wandering the streets during the day, Bei Qiao would spend some time in the basement of the Chamber of Commerce at night, picking up quests and gradually interacting with other players. Even if he wasn't doing quests or looking for teammates, he would still stay in the basement for a while before leaving.
Players in the basement were traditionally quiet. Aside from calling out quest numbers to teammates, they rarely spoke. All communication took place in the Guild Forum. After forming teams a few times, Bei Qiao slowly made some friends, joined a few groups, and even created a small group with a few compatible friends, where they would occasionally chat.
The Outer City was huge, and they rarely ran into each other outside. Instead, they had more chances to meet at the Chamber of Commerce. Even when they did meet, they still chose to chat privately in the group chat because the basement was so quiet that even whispering would sound noisy.
Bei Qiao had three friends in his group. The youngest was a teenager named Hai Wei, who reportedly had just turned eighteen this year and had recently returned from a three-month vacation to enroll as a freshman. Today, he'd just finished military training and was sprawled out on his dorm bed, like a dead dog, playing "Issue Martial Arts."
Sitting next to Hai Wei was Dan Ruo, a girl about Bei Qiao's age. A player from further north, she had spent most of her time at the Chamber of Commerce completing quests. Since she didn't want to sleep in a dorm and didn't have much money, she'd been sleeping in the basement.
Dan Ruo: In a couple of days, I'm going to head further south to find a city with lower prices. The stool in the basement is too hard. If I sleep on it any longer, I'll have to go to the doctor for acupuncture.
Dan Ruo: Let me say goodbye to you in advance.
Haiwei: You're not going back to the Novice Village? Accommodation in the Novice Village is free.
Dan Ruo: Uh...it's not that I don't want to go back, it's just that I can't find the Novice Village.
Dan Ruo: The houses in our Novice Village are all yurts. Last time I was away from the village for too long, and when I came back, the Novice Village had already moved away. I can’t send maps in private chats, and the long list of east, south, west and north makes me dizzy.
Hai Wei: ...
The living conditions in the Novice Village where players land are directly tied to the local environment and climate, resulting in different facilities. Besides their common characteristic of being relatively remote, Novice Villages in various locations each have their own unique style, with the Mongolian Yurt being one such example.
Wen Xiang: The yurts are okay, at least you have flat land there. Our Novice Village is in the mountains, and basically none of the villagers who have the ability to leave want to go back.
Wen Xiang: If we want to go back to our nest to sleep, we have to climb a mountain thousands of meters high first. Any animal in the mountains can get home faster than us. No one can stand this.
Wen Xiang is older than the other three. She is a woman with a plump figure and strong arms. She is enthusiastic and eloquent. She is nicknamed Aunt Xiangxiang in the group.
Dan Ruo: Aunt Xiangxiang, what do you do?
Wen Xiang: I'm a cook, I cook for the sect. If I hadn't been banned from the kitchen during the mission last time, I would have prepared some delicious dishes for you to try.
Dan Ruo: Wow, which sect is this? What are the benefits for outer disciples? Can I join?
Wen Xiang: Given our relationship, I don't recommend you join. If you don't have anyone to support you in the sect, you'll just be sent to guard the sect's headquarters, unable to leave the house all day, and you won't have any free time of your own.
Qiao Qiao: What happened to the sect's headquarters? Are the conditions there very poor?
Wen Xiang: Let me think about how to say it.
Wen Xiang: The scenery is nice, but the place is very remote. Apart from the basic necessities of life, there is nothing else you need.
Dan Ruo: Isn't this just seclusion? That sounds great!
Wen Xiang: Don’t get too excited, think about it carefully. The sect is not a novice village, so its place of reincarnation of grains... Anyway, even if it’s just a pretense, I don’t want to go there.
Dan Ruo: Uh...
Wen Xiang: To put it nicely, that place is easy to defend but difficult to attack. To put it more politely, it is difficult to go back or go out, as difficult as climbing to the sky.
Wen Xiang: It is said to be the sect’s headquarters, but no disciples with any connections will go there.
Wen Xiang didn't tell them that she was actually the Demon Cult's cook. Because when she told them, the players would say they didn't mind, but they would actually be wary of her. Later, she applied for a civil servant position and temporarily gave up on leaving the Demon Cult. If nothing else, at least her Demon Cult's capital city branch hadn't experienced any unprovoked murders.
Because she primarily spent time in the kitchen, she had no idea what the Demon Cult actually did, or why it was called that. She had also never met the Demon Cult leader and his two guardians, who were often portrayed as key figures in the storybooks. Her claim that the sect's headquarters was remote wasn't a lie, as it was located near her novice village, where only disciples who had committed misdeeds were assigned to take turns guarding it. In the past, even disciples without internal energy would fall from the sky near the village, lying unconscious on the side of the road, unmoved, and no one cared.
Wen Xiang: Even dogs won’t pick up men on the street!
After a few more small talk, they began to complete the Guild of Commerce quests. Dan Ruo had been completing quests to save up for travel expenses these days, and she was more active than anyone else in accepting quests, but her failure rate was a bit high, and she was sometimes rejected by the person who issued the quest.
Hai Wei didn't do any quests, and only sat for a short while before logging off. Although his body didn't feel tired in the game, his mind told him that he was exhausted. If he didn't log off, his heart would rest in front of him.
Wen Xiang was the one who had the least shortage of tasks among the group. After receiving a task to help someone else in the kitchen, she enthusiastically asked Dan Ruo, who had no other tasks, to help her, and also wanted to call Bei Qiao to go along.
Bei Qiao looked at the time, declined Wen Xiang's invitation to join a team, and returned to the inn alone.
After encouraging Yu Qian, a future employee who was working hard to exercise, Bei Qiao learned about the situation of the escort agency from Li Qingqing and Zhong Tian, and chatted with other people, he looked at the time and logged off early to go to bed.
The next day, Bei Qiao went online and found the private message Dan Ruo sent her, which was full of complaints.
Last night, after accepting the quest, they followed the player who posted it to a local family's home to help with an engagement party. However, halfway through preparing the ingredients, the newlyweds encountered a problem, and the engagement party was canceled. The player was busy negotiating compensation with the locals, and only 30% of the quest reward was given to them as compensation.
Dan Ruo: The worst part is, we had to walk back! The player who sent us to cook was arguing with someone else the whole time and had no time to bother with us, ahhh!
After writing a letter to comfort Dan Ruo, Bei Qiao drove to the suburbs and exchanged small toys with children running around on the street for some seeds and a few vegetable seedlings. He planned to go back and try planting them in the yard of Yuanshan Village.
Since there were no flower pots on hand, Bei Qiao made some makeshift pots out of canvas and wood and planted the vegetable seedlings he had exchanged for. The seedlings were a little wilted when they were just moved, but they looked very lush and green.
"Let's take a stroll in the inner city in the afternoon, and then run a distance to the north tomorrow." Bei Qiao took out a windmill from his canvas bag and stuck it on the car: "Let's not go anywhere farther for now." Traveling can allow you to meet many people and things, but as a player who is currently fighting alone, going far away means that you have to log in to the game on time every day, which is still a bit tiring after a long time.
When leaving the city, Bei Qiao used a donkey to pull the cart. After returning to the city, she simply did not change her mount. She just put the things she bought in the suburbs in the room of the inn, and then drove the donkey cart directly to the inner city.
Without his obviously expensive attire, the guards' attitude visibly deteriorated. Bei Qiao's Huihui was not troubled by anyone, but the carriage containing the wooden flowerpot suffered the most. The soldiers took turns rummaging through it, pulling out all the dirt from the pot.
Pluck feathers from a passing goose... Bei Qiao watched as one of the soldiers expertly plucked the vegetable seedlings from a wooden pot, stuffed the whole seedling into his mouth, and began to eat it. His face expressionless, he internally complained: "You have such good teeth! I didn't even know these seedlings were edible..."
Touching her unmasked face, Bei Qiao tidied up the messed-up wooden flowerpot and drove towards the inner city. Ahead of her was another donkey cart, with several baskets of vegetables in the back, and a little girl with two small pigtails sitting in the middle of the baskets.
"Hehe!" Noticing that Beiqiao was looking at her, the little girl raised her hand and waved at Beiqiao with a smile, her eyes instantly turning into crescents.
Bei Qiao smiled back at her, took the windmill off the carriage, and waved it at the little girl. The little girl blinked, pulled her parents who were driving in front, and pointed at the windmill with a longing expression.
The pinwheel in Beiqiao's hand was a simple one, made of colorful paper, very attractive to children. The girl's parents looked at the pinwheel and took a few radishes from the basket and offered to trade them with Beiqiao. Beiqiao gladly accepted them and decided to give them to Huihui and Honghong as a snack when he got home.
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