Chapter 3
Soul-Guiding Song is a holographic game set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Players obtain system rewards by strangling ghouls, while NPCs make money from players by selling various supplies, such as An Younian selling buns.
As an NPC, An Rou has no chance of killing a ghoul. She has no weapons or skills. Even if she finds clues about the ghoul, she will just die.
Selling buns? An Younian alone is enough, and besides, he can't make a profit of 3,000 gold coins in two days.
An Rou rode the rickshaw, lost in thought, back to the entrance of Wuyan Alley. The round trip, over twenty miles, was not cheap, a full twenty gold coins.
After paying, An Rou walked towards the bun shop. When she passed the hair salon, she took a look inside.
There was no sign of Sister Hong.
She must have been frightened and embarrassed in public yesterday, so she was too embarrassed to go out for a while. But that didn't stop her from sending someone over early in the morning to sternly demand the rent from An Younian.
An Younian also said that even the mayor has no control over whether the rent is raised or not. Instead, if the tenants refuse to pay, they will be arrested by the security guards.
In a word, apart from the players, the world of NPCs is also all about money.
Playing mahjong is a good choice. Sister Hong and the Shuangmei sisters probably don't dare to come, but she can find someone else...
An Rou was thinking when a voice came into her ears.
"Hey, bro, watch this. I'll teach you how to improve your NPC's favorability."
Two men stood in front of their bun shop. They were both tall, and from the side, they were both handsome. An Rou had been in the mood to admire them yesterday, but now she had seen them so many times that she no longer felt any interest in them.
They each had a light screen above their heads, [King Lv28 (Bronze)] [Rich Lv1 (Iron)] - one of them was a level 1 new player.
An Rou stopped and looked at what they were going to do.
"Boss, a meat bun." The king raised his hand and five gold coins appeared on it.
An Younian took it with a smile, wrapped the bun in oil paper and handed it over.
The King didn't take it, and another handful of gold coins appeared in his palm: "Five more."
"Ah!" An Younian laughed so hard that his eyes disappeared.
Others couldn't see it, but An Rou saw it clearly. A light screen popped up in front of the King, with the words: [Bun Shop Owner's Favorability +10%, Current Favorability 60%, Friendly.]
The king clicked a button in the upper left corner of the light screen, and the light screen became visible. The new player named Baofu said "Oh" and his face was full of enlightenment.
"Do you understand? This is a pay-to-win game. NPCs are greedy for money. As long as you find the right way to spend money and increase their favorability, you will naturally get clues to the mission." said the King.
He still didn't take the oil-paper bag that An Younian handed him. Instead, he produced another handful of gold coins. There were so many that many of them rolled to the ground. He simply flipped his hand, letting all the gold coins scatter to the ground.
An Younian was puzzled, but he only heard the king laugh and say, "One hundred meat buns."
A new notification popped up on the screen in front of him: [Steamed Bun Shop Owner's Favorability +30%, Current Favorability 90%, Infatuated.]
"Kneel down and crawl like a dog for me to see." The king looked at An Younian with a smile.
An Younian's eyes widened as he stepped out from behind the hill-like steamer, his knees dropping involuntarily. But he saw An Rou, whose chubby body remained bent and hunched, and made no further movement.
"Not enough?" The King scoffed, and gold coins fell from his palm again, continuously, making a pleasant sound on the bluestone slabs. "You idiot, how much money do you pick up, I will buy you that many buns."
On the light screen, the favorability level did not change, but An Younian's stiff body recovered and his hands, feet and knees fell to the ground.
His face was covered with a deeper smile, his eyes were squeezed out, and he raised his short neck while picking up the money: "Thank you, sir, thank you, sir."
The King looked at Baofu proudly and said, "Do you understand?"
"Brother Wang, isn't this a bit too hurtful to my self-esteem..." Baofu hesitated. The newcomer to the game saw the NPC who looked exactly like a real person and couldn't adjust his mentality for a while.
"It's just a bunch of data, where does your self-esteem come from?" The king patted his shoulder, didn't ask for the buns, and turned away.
The farce ended there, and An Rou watched the whole thing with a cold eye. After An Younian had picked up all the gold coins, she walked towards the store.
"Rou Rou, you're back?" An Younian followed in, wiping his hands on his apron. "How's it going? Did you sell it?"
An Rou took a deep breath silently and said nothing.
An Younian just thought she hadn't sold it, so he hurried to comfort her, took out all the gold coins he had just picked up from his balance and put them on the table.
"It's normal that the land can't be sold. It's okay. Look, Rourou, that wealthy gentleman just bought so many buns in one go, more than 500 gold. If we have a few more customers like him in the next two days, we can cover the rent and maybe even buy Rourou some new clothes."
An Rou's heart was stabbed again.
She tried her best to convince herself that An Younian was just an NPC and not her so-called "father" at all.
But reason is just reason after all.
An Rou suddenly looked up: "How many more times do you want to learn to doggy style?"
The complex emotions turned into a sarcastic remark. In fact, there was a question following it, but An Rou couldn't say it.
The moment her eyes met An Younian's, her consciousness seemed to pass through a brief dark tunnel and enter a world of black and white.
"It's so cold, so cold..."
Someone was moaning. It was An Younian's voice, no longer honest and kind, but empty and dead.
But the black and white picture and sound have nothing to do with it.
A wooden door against a white wall, a rotten wooden sign beside it. The door opened to a gap the size of a palm, revealing a face as pale as a limestone sculpture. Its eyebrows were splayed, almost parallel to the corners of its drooping mouth. Its eyes were wide open, making the pupils appear very small.
The pair of eyes suddenly turned and looked over intently.
An Rou vaguely heard a gurgling sound of someone swallowing saliva.
"Meat, meat?"
An Rou came back to her senses and colors began to spread again in her vision.
An Younian held her shoulders, and the concerned look on his fat face made An Rou almost think that she had not actually said the sarcastic remark.
An Rou pushed his hand away, frowned and shook her head slightly. The picture stayed in her mind and could not be shaken off.
"Rou Rou..." An Younian's tone was filled with helplessness.
Sure enough, she said that.
For some reason, An Rou subconsciously interrupted him and asked, "Did you go out this morning?"
"...I did go out and forgot to buy honeycomb coal yesterday." An Younian didn't know why his daughter asked this.
An Rou recalled the words on the sign: "Xiao Zhang Coal Shop?"
"No, we always buy coal from the Huang family coal shop. Xiao Zhang... does stop by sometimes. What's up, Rourou?"
An Rou thought for a moment: "I'll go out for a while."
"Let's have lunch first, Rourou, Rourou?" An Younian hurriedly followed.
*
Beyond Wuyan Lane is Baihua Street, named after the Baihua Tower at its entrance. It's noon, and the Baihua Tower is bustling with activity; even the pavilion outside is filled with diners.
Coincidentally, Ye Wang and Bao Fu were also sitting there, and it seemed that they were tasting Baihualou's signature dish, Baihua Roast Chicken.
An Rou lowered her eyes and casually threw the bun An Younian had stuffed into her hands to a beggar on the street. The beggar watched her walk away with a slightly surprised look in his eyes. He stopped in front of Baihua Tower, lowered his head and looked around, occasionally stamping his feet.
"What should I do, what should I do..." After hesitating for a while, An Rou's anxious whisper finally caught Bao Fu's attention.
Baofu's eyes widened as he muttered, "NPC?"
The King glanced over, his interest growing. He said casually, "It's so beautiful, it must be. How about putting your knowledge into practice, brother?"
It took Baofu a few seconds to react: "Brother Wang, are you talking about favorability?"
The king gave him a look that said "what else?"
The two stood up and left the table. Ye Wang followed Bao Fu with his hands behind his back, looking like a senior. Bao Fu looked back at him, hesitated, and finally couldn't resist the attraction of beauty and walked up to An Rou.
"Miss... did you lose anything?" Compared to the King's previous behavior, Baofu's attitude was truly gentlemanly. "How about you tell me what you lost and I'll help you find it?"
An Rou was startled, and her timid eyes stayed on his chest for a moment, then moved to his face.
Baofu's attention was drawn to a light screen that popped up in front of him: [Unnamed NPC's favorability +10%, current favorability 50%, no favorability.]
Even though his favorability had clearly increased, he felt as if a cold shower had been poured over him, and his vague lustful thoughts cooled. A 10% increase before it reached zero, didn't that mean the beautiful NPC was initially repulsed by him?
Just as I was feeling depressed, a new notification popped up on the screen: [Unnamed NPC's favorability +10%, current favorability 60%, friendly.]
At the same time, An Rou suddenly grabbed his arm and said, "My purse is lost. What should I do? The money I need to buy coal is in it!"
The spirit of sudden wealth was lifted: "How much money, and what kind of money bag?"
"It's a cotton purse, the same color... as my clothes, white." An Rou said, "There are five hundred gold in it. If my parents knew about it, they would definitely scold me to death!"
There was already mist in her almond eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll help you find it."
The King took a step forward, standing between the two of them, and narrowed his eyes. "Money bag? What a joke! Does this game require a money bag?"
Baofu was puzzled: "Brother Wang, what do you mean?"
"Stupid! NPCs also have balance accounts. This is the only thing they have that can be considered an item." The King cursed, "It's obvious that this player is using fake cards to trick people."
"That's impossible, Brother Wang. How can a player develop a favorable impression of another player?"
Baofu showed him the notification on the light screen.
In the game, players are considered the chosen ones by NPCs. They openly mention words like "game" and "props" in front of NPCs, but once they reach the NPC's ears, they are automatically erased by the system. Similarly, a light screen in visible mode is still a mass of air to the NPC.
Except An Rou.
An Rou's mind moved slightly, and the King also received a notification on the light screen that the favorability of the NPC Weiming had dropped by 10%, reaching a state of rejection.
An Rou's tearful expression carried a hint of dissatisfaction at being questioned. "I'm telling the truth! I just went to buy coal and got scared by the clerk. I ran here and realized my wallet was missing. If you don't believe me, forget it. I'll find it myself!"
Before he finished speaking, the two people opposite each received a light screen notification.
【Quest clue: Buddy.】
[Related quest: The ghoul hidden in Zhongsu Town, correlation level 5%.]
An Rou stood behind a translucent light screen. It was a little difficult for her to read it in reverse, but she could see everything clearly.
Very good, both the favorability and task clues tests were successful.
Baofu looked at Yewang: "Brother Wang, what is this?"
"A clue? Still asking!" The king slapped him on the back of the head with a look of joy, but when he looked up he found that An Rou had already walked away.
He hurried to catch up, but someone else got there first. It was a fellow diner at the Baihua Pavilion, who jumped over the railing and landed right in front of An Rou, frightening her so much that she took two steps back.
"Little sister, where did you get scared? Tell me in detail," the player with the ID [Long-lived] said with a smile. He reached out and swept the ground, leaving a pile of golden coins. "Tell me clearly, brother. These 500 gold coins are for you, little sister."
Before she finished speaking, a spear shot out from An Rou's side, heading straight for Gou Mingchang's throat. Gou Mingchang reacted quickly, dodging it with a tap of his toes, and also had another weapon in his hand.
The spear missed, but the King had already rushed behind An Rou and reached out to grab the butt of the spear. The spear trembled and hummed.
"You're tired of stealing missions from me on Ouli's territory, aren't you?"
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