Chapter 15
The steamer was opened, and steam rose from the air. The first steamed buns were finished near noon, a first for the bun shop in over a decade.
An Rou picked up a piece of oil paper, thought about it, and put it down again. She simply stuffed all the big fat buns in the steamer into the cloth bag.
An Younian was worried: "Rou Rou, are you really going? There's no water or food there, and cooking is difficult..."
"That's why I brought more buns." An Rou said, packing another tray of steamed buns.
"But Daddy is worried about you, a girl, running so far away."
After An Rou finished packing, she turned around and held An Younian's hand: "Dad, I'm not a little girl anymore. I can take care of myself. Look, I said I would help you with the flour price increase, and now I've done it, right?"
An Younian glanced at the flour bags piled high against the wall.
An Rou returned with a clerk from the grain store. The clerk, pushing a cart, wasn't there to pick up the flour he'd been buying on credit, but to deliver another half-month supply. He said it would be the same as usual, and they would just settle the bill every other month.
The news of Meiqian's accident spread quickly, and An Younian also heard about it. The coincidence of the timing made him think about many things, but looking at his delicate daughter, he felt that this matter could not be related to Anrou.
"Dad, you've seen what happened these past two days. I'm feeling really down, and I want to go out and relax. Besides," An Rou changed the subject, "we can't just leave the farm left by grandpa to waste forever."
"But that land..."
An Rou pouted, and An Younian had to shut up.
The family had a suitcase for carrying things outside, but An Rou didn't use it because it would attract too much attention. She went out with a few dusty cloth bags.
An oxcart loaded with hay stopped at the entrance of Wuyan Lane. The driver was a dark, thin old farmer. When he saw An Rou coming, he smiled ingratiatingly and made room for her.
An Rou felt that the wood was too uncomfortable, so she simply climbed up to the back and used the hay to cover the bags.
The ox cart set off, and the wooden wheels made a hard sound on the bluestone slabs.
An Rou subconsciously glanced towards the hair salon.
We were more than ten meters away and separated by a bead curtain, so naturally we couldn't see what was going on inside.
The hair salon was temporarily closed, and Sister Hong huddled behind the door. She only had two steps to reach the mahogany sofa, but she didn't even have the strength to do that.
Meiqian is dead...
The more vividly the onlookers described the incident, the deeper the fear that gripped her heart grew.
Qiaojie had never seen her usually strong cousin so distraught, so she squatted aside to comfort her.
"Life is unpredictable. In this world, the murderer is destined by fate. It all depends on whether the mayor is sympathetic. Cousin, don't be too sad." She wiped her tears.
Sister Hong suddenly grabbed her hand and said, "Cousin, tell me, should I sell the shop? I'm not eligible to go to Central City, but the Level 1 Safe Zone is always fine."
Qiao Jie was stunned for a moment before she quietly replied, "Level 1, Central City. The further you go in, the more Chosen Ones there are."
*
Most of the players on the street had vanished, and the remaining ones mostly wore the Oli Guild emblem. A few non-Oli members were visible, all scurrying westward, presumably heading for the teleportation array in the town square.
As expected, the Zhongsu branch of the Orli Guild followed Chiqian Yiming's words and drove away the players who came here to watch the fun and try their luck.
But this does not mean that things have calmed down. On the contrary, things have escalated.
I was afraid that if Chiqian Yiming lingered, Ouli would intensify his search for suspicious targets in the town. This was why Anrou decided to leave the town to avoid the limelight.
NPCs are programmed to not lie, nor have the desire to do so. An Rou exploits this weakness to force Boss Lin to promise not to raise the price of flour supplied to the bun shop and not to retaliate against An Younian in any way.
But conversely, players can also, or rather have been exploiting this weakness, to find clues to the mission. The longer you spend with An Younian, the higher the risk of being exposed.
An Rou suddenly buried her head in the hay.
She saw Jianqing.
"Is everything in place?"
"We've already notified all branch members offline to urgently go online. The borders to the north, south, and west have all been sealed..."
Only when she could no longer hear the sound did An Rou raise her head and look back.
Jianqing and the Ouli member had already walked away.
Fortunately, the town blockade was a unilateral decision made by Oli. Gangs are the underworld, and the mayor is the official. Without the mayor's consent, the only ones who are hindered are the players.
An Rou walked out of the town smoothly. After walking another two miles, she asked the ox cart to stop.
The driver got out of the car and raised his hands.
An Rou's hand hovered above him, and gold coins flowed out of her palm and fell into the driver's account.
2,000 gold, including the oxen and hay, bought this ox cart. Not counting the corpse in the hay, the driver made a profit. Including the corpse, An Rou naturally made a profit.
"Don't forget what we agreed to do tomorrow."
"Hey, don't worry, miss, the old man will be there on time!"
The driver turned around happily and walked back to the town. He was not one to show off his wealth, so as he approached the town, he hid his joy.
An Rou whipped the cow lightly on the buttocks and said, "Go."
The Soul Realm ox was also very smart and moved quickly. Its speed was slower than that of a human-powered tricycle, and after an hour of bumpy ride, it finally brought An Rou to her destination.
High walls blocked the sunlight, shrouding the abandoned farm in shadow. In the distance, lush green fields surrounded the wasteland, while nearby, yellowed, overgrown weeds enveloped the thatched huts, duck sheds, and chicken coops, a scene quite fitting for Anrou's refugee situation.
However, although she was trying to avoid the limelight, An Rou was actually looking forward to this trip. After all, reopening the abandoned farm was her goal.
The salty taste of iron in her mouth had not yet dissipated. Mei Qian's death made An Rou clearly realize that even in the end times, even if the Chosen One was the patron saint of ghouls in the eyes of NPCs, if she wanted to live a peaceful life, she must stay away from the Chosen One.
And all NPCs who could expose her identity, except An Younian, of course.
These eight acres of land will be the home for her and An Younian.
With a slight bang, the rich man suddenly jumped out from under the soil, and grass debris flew everywhere.
An Rou stood on tiptoe, stretched out her hand and then put it down: "Lie down."
Baofu growled, seemingly unwilling to do so, but he eventually bent his limbs and crouched on the ground. The bone blades beneath him transformed into a dozen small legs, like a centipede.
Only then did An Rou touch its frightened face.
After eating the souls of two players in succession, its body had obviously grown a little bigger, and An Rou had to stand on tiptoe to touch its head.
"Baobao, can't you just turn your face right? Every time I see you, I feel like I'm standing upside down. Aren't you afraid of a brain hemorrhage?"
An Rou suddenly had a mischievous idea, and covered Bao Fu's head with her other hand, exerting force with both hands.
With a click.
His neck was broken, and his face turned straight with fear. Bao Fu seemed dazed, his small eyeballs rolling around in his big eye sockets, and he and An Rou looked at each other in bewilderment.
An Rou suddenly realized that this was an act of aggression. After all, a soft neck could be a weakness for someone who has suddenly become rich.
The hanging hand could not help but retract into the sleeve and grasp the Seven Souls Sword.
Unexpectedly, after the man and the ghost looked at each other for a few seconds, there was a continuous crackling sound in Bao Fu's neck again, and his frightened face turned upside down and returned to its original position.
And he roared at An Rou unhappily.
An Rou covered its mouth with one hand and pointed at the high wall in the distance with her other hand: "I told you there was a Chosen One up there. Your memory is so bad? Do you want me to help you with your brain?"
"Hungry, so hungry..."
An Rou received the voice of getting rich quickly.
Speechless, she wanted to give Baofu a slap, but his chin was tilted upwards. She could have hit him from below, but it wasn't easy. Finally, her bent index finger knuckle struck Baofu's pale forehead.
"Don't yell at me! You have too many forehead wrinkles. Let me rub them for you!" An Rou scolded, "You just ate two people yesterday, and you're already hungry? Do you think I run a human meat farm and I can eat as much as you want?!"
"Go, get the body out of the car."
In the game's setting, non-human livestock are soulless. The rich man showed no interest in the old ox, and the old ox was surprisingly not afraid of this alien creature. One raised its forelimbs to dig through the haystack, while the other lowered its head to eat the falling grass scraps.
Close cooperation.
An Rou stared at the scene for a while, then pointed at the old ox and said, "You're quite picky about food. You don't want to eat the weeds on the ground, but you insist on eating hay? I was planning to use it to mend the roof and start a fire!"
The old ox mooed and went on doing what it wanted.
A severed hand suddenly landed at An Rou's feet. She was startled and started to curse the other one.
"I told you to be gentle, but don't you know how sharp your claws are? You're not going to stop until you've chopped the tree into pieces, are you?"
Bao Fu also growled in dissatisfaction, bent his bone knife, and used the joints of his forelimbs to push the corpse onto his back.
That's a good brother.
His initial fatal wound was in his chest, where Jianqing and the others had stabbed him several times. Now there was another wound between his eyebrows, a small vertical wound with two pointed ends, like a third eye.
The masterpiece of the Seven Souls Sword.
After leaving Boss Lin's house, An Rou didn't return to the bun shop immediately, but went to the dead end alley first. Her good brother's body lay quietly in the corner. Although there was a busy alley just a few meters away, passersby ignored him.
It seems that except for An Rou, other NPCs cannot see the player's corpse.
That's right. If an NPC still has a conscience and buries the player's body properly, it will delay the player's resurrection. The game won't do such a mindless setting. It's simpler and easier to make the NPC not see the body.
As luck would have it, when An Rou approached, her good brother had resurrected. Perhaps he felt that after waiting for an hour, the three Oli players should have left, so he was willing to use the resurrection card.
Unexpectedly, An Rou came.
Before he opened his eyes, the Seven Souls Sword pierced into his forehead like cutting tofu.
Maybe he still believes that it was those three Oli players who helped him score twice.
This is a good thing, so that he doesn't have to go to the forum and complain about encountering an "abnormal NPC" like the king did.
After Baofu dug the hole, Anrou changed her mind and ordered it to dig out the old king who was buried next to it.
"Aren't you hungry? Just guard them and eat whoever resurrects first. But—" An Rou shook her index finger, "You can only eat half a soul per person, so together they make one. Is that enough to feed you?"
An Rou waited until dark, eating steamed buns when she was hungry. Luckily, An Younian chased her out and gave her a thermos before she left, otherwise she would have forgotten to bring water.
She had no idea how long it would take for a player to naturally resurrect, since there was no game panel and no one to explain. Fortunately, a street player had told her that regardless of the player's level, it would take 12 hours to naturally resurrect.
So An Rou estimated that if neither of them used the resurrection card, the time it took for the two of them to be resurrected would be about the same.
Both were bronze, and the good brother's last death was this morning. When the king was dug out, he had over two thousand gold coins scattered on him. He must have been suffocated to death during the day.
Sure enough, when the good brother took a quick breath, the king also moved.
Before they opened their eyes, An Rou urged, "Bao Bao!"
The bone knives at the ends of Baofu's two forelimbs pierced through the heads of the two men at the same time. The faint whitish soul light went up along the bone knives and was absorbed into Baofu's body.
"Enough, enough, pull out the tube!" An Rou stood on tiptoe and knocked on its head.
Bao Fu reluctantly pulled out the bone knife.
The king and his good brother both held their heads and groaned intermittently. The sound was not loud, but the pain was evident.
That is a sign of ghoul differentiation.
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