Harvest

Zhao Ke gently opened the package. The moment it opened, the seven-point stamp on top instantly caught fire, turning into a wisp of black smoke that slipped into his Post Album. At the same time, a message appeared in Zhao Ke's mind.

"Congratulations on completing your internship mission and becoming a low-rank postman."

"Your base reward of 7 Post Points for this internship mission has been credited to your Post Album. Continue opening the package to claim your gains from this horror space."

Hearing the prompt, Zhao Ke's eyes lit up. He continued unwrapping the package, and once it was fully opened, a black wooden box appeared before him.

The purple-black box was three feet long and two feet tall by hand measurement. Four small snakes were carved at its corners, coiling around the box. Every detail was lifelike; at a glance, one might have thought four venomous snakes were wrapped around it.

As for the box itself, Zhao Ke ran his hand over it. The wood was smooth and delicate, carrying a faint fragrance. It was premium rosewood.

This box alone would probably fetch a handsome price at an antiques market.

Zhao Ke opened the box and leaned over to look inside. It was pitch-black, as if covered by a membrane. He could see nothing.

He reached in and grabbed downward, pulling out a stamp. Zhao Ke looked at it. It was quite ordinary, no different from a normal stamp at first glance, except for the three-point denomination written in its upper-left corner.

But that was not what caught Zhao Ke's attention. What truly concerned him was that the stamp depicted a person—and someone Zhao Ke knew very well: the old woman from Xiong Er's home.

Seeing this, Zhao Ke continued feeling around inside. Before long, a second stamp appeared. His heart tightened as he thought, Just as I suspected.

The second stamp depicted Wang Xiaochang, the hunter they had killed. Its Post Point value was much higher than the old woman's, worth a full five points.

He continued searching and soon pulled out stamps of Xiong Er and Zhou Shun as well.

Unexpectedly, Xiong Er's stamp was not worth Post Points, but was instead a special stamp. It had black-and-white edging and depicted a bear hidden in the grass. Unless one looked closely, one might not even notice there was a bear on the stamp.

Special Stamp: Breath of Nature

Collecting this stamp increases your running speed by 30% in forests and grasslands.

Special Effect: Breath of Nature

Consume 1 Post Point to conceal yourself within the surrounding grass for 5 minutes.

Cooldown: 30 minutes

(Note: Breath of Nature can only be activated in mountains, forests, or the wilderness.)

Compared to Xiong Er's stamp, Zhou Shun's was laughably pathetic. It was worth only one point.

Judging from the Post Points, Zhao Ke thought it over. Xiong Er had been the main storyline and the hardest opponent, so he had yielded the greatest reward. Xiong Er's mother had offered slightly less.

But Wang Xiaochang had given even more than Xiong Er's mother, which was interesting. After pondering for a while, Zhao Ke boldly came to a conclusion: Wang Xiaochang might actually have been someone they could cooperate with.

Or rather, if they had encountered Wang Xiaochang earlier and worked with him, perhaps the mission's difficulty would have dropped by several levels at once.

Thinking about it now, Zhao Ke could only say that they had been unlucky.

As for Zhou Shun, he was no longer worth considering.

Perhaps Zhou Shun's extended mission might have brought him greater gains, but taking Zhou Shun down the mountain had always left Zhao Ke with an unpleasant feeling. It was better to kill him and be done with it. He had not been a good person anyway.

Now that he thought about it, his only regret was not killing enough. He should have turned back and killed Xiong Da too.

Still, looking at the stamps in his hands, Zhao Ke felt pretty good overall. Whether they were Post Points or stamps, opening them felt like saving up a pile of red envelopes over the New Year and opening them one by one.

No matter how much money was inside, each one brought him a sense of surprise he had not experienced in a long time.

After placing the stamps into his Post Album, all the stamps containing Post Points, apart from Xiong Er's Breath of Nature stamp, turned directly into Post Point records once absorbed into the album.

Looking at the upper-left corner of the Post Album again, he saw a line showing that he had a total of sixteen Post Points.

"Eh? This is..."

Zhao Ke turned back toward the box. At some point, the black mist inside had dispersed. Looking again, he found two small booklets inside.

One booklet bore the words "Postman's Code" on its cover. Inside were the essential rules a postman had to follow.

It also specifically introduced the basics of horror spaces. It was very brief, only three lines long.

Zhao Ke skimmed through it rapidly, and a sense of understanding dawned on him.

Rather than rules, they were more like restrictions. As a postman, he could not casually reveal his abilities in front of ordinary people—unless he silenced them permanently.

If he used his abilities and caused a great disturbance, he would incur heavy karma. As punishment, that karma would manifest in the next horror space.

Although it did not specifically explain what form karmic punishment would take, Zhao Ke could guess with his toes that it would be nothing good.

Compared to the punishment for causing disturbances with his abilities, Zhao Ke cared more about the information on horror spaces.

According to the booklet, horror spaces belonged to another layer of shadow worlds. If their current reality was three-dimensional space, then horror spaces were four-dimensional, perhaps even higher-dimensional spaces.

Most living beings in horror spaces were projections of a certain period in reality. They were not real, though most projections were no different from normal people. Only a small number were distorted and transformed into something else.

Like the snake woman in Zhuangyuan Tower, and Xiong Er's family. As for why... the booklet did not say.

This booklet gave Zhao Ke a rough understanding of horror spaces. He casually picked up the other booklet. Once opened, it contained detailed explanations of some of the Post Album's functions.

Zhao Ke read this one very carefully. The information he had previously received about the Post Album had been incomplete and only covered the basics, while this booklet was extremely detailed.

After carefully finishing it, Zhao Ke summoned the Post Album again and flipped to its last page. A list of information slowly appeared there.

Seeing the items on the list, Zhao Ke's expression grew solemn. Just as the scar-faced man had said before, Post Points could be exchanged for anything one wanted.

The items on the list even surprised Zhao Ke. Strange stamps were displayed one after another, each marked with notes along the side.

For example, there was a stamp called Ghost Infant. After exchanging for it, one could use the Ghost Infant to suck other people's blood for cultivation.

Some stamps contained books, including secret feng shui arts and cultivation mantras. Zhao Ke even saw a particularly unusual stamp that would allow one to invite an immortal spirit to possess one's body after exchanging for it.

This immortal was not a celestial deity, but a lowly folk spirit like a fox immortal or horse immortal. Even so, it was enough to defy belief.

Of course, the prices... made Zhao Ke's heart ache. He had just felt as though he were opening red envelopes, but upon seeing those prices, he suddenly felt as if he would have to hand over every red envelope he had opened.

They were too expensive.

Even slightly decent stamps cost thirty Post Points, while lesser ones could not be bought for under ten.

By comparison, some stamps were much cheaper to exchange for. For example, most medicinal agents that ordinary people could not access in reality were sold in bundles for one point.

Some fast-acting life-saving synthetic medicines cost only three or four Post Points at most. But after Zhao Ke looked at their effects, he was immediately tempted. After all, they were things that could save lives.

After looking for a while, Zhao Ke ultimately could not bring himself to buy anything. He had earned these Post Points by risking his life, so he needed to maximize his benefits.

With a wave of his hand, he put away the Post Album and stood up. His stomach was already growling. Although he had eaten not long ago in reality, he had rarely eaten his fill in the horror space.

Especially at Zhuangyuan Tower. Because he had remained wary, he had not touched any of the food on the table. Thinking about it now, Zhao Ke could not help feeling lucky.

He remembered that after regaining consciousness, there had been no lavish feast before him. Instead, there had been rocks and insects. If he had actually eaten them, who knew whether he would have ended up with an upset stomach?

"Top-quality stuff."

Zhao Ke had not forgotten the pair of Xiong Er's bear paws. He had not touched them in the horror space because the seasonings there had been incomplete, and he could not bring out the bear paws' flavor to the fullest.

He had endured until now, but he could no longer hold himself back. Taking out the bear paws and looking at the basin-sized paws before him, Zhao Ke could not help running his fingers over every inch of fur. More than a dozen cooking methods had already come to mind.

For a chef, the temptation of such ingredients was no less than that of a starving man encountering a peerless beauty.

Besides, he was truly starving.

So he immediately began preparing the meal.

Naturally, he could not handle them as simply as before. The bear paws he had prepared in the horror space had only been roughly processed, with filling his stomach as the sole goal.

Their flavor had indeed been mediocre.

But now that he was in his own kitchen, things were completely different.

First, he removed the fur from the paws, then carefully stripped away the connective tissue. It was a troublesome process, but to him, it was more like carving a work of art.

Only by calming down and enjoying the process could one achieve the final delicacy.

His master had taught him that saying.

It was also the creed he regarded as an absolute truth.

Next came deboning, removing the tendons, stuffing the filling—each movement flowed into the next in one smooth sequence.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."

Steam rose from the wok. Once the bear paws developed a golden, crisp exterior, Zhao Ke quickly lifted them out. He placed a piece of comb honey atop each paw, then put them into the steamer together.

As time passed, a unique meaty fragrance began to fill the room.

Zhao Ke watched the time. Only when he was sure it was about right did he lift the steamer lid.

The comb honey atop the bear paws had already melted into a sauce, drizzling over their golden crisp skin. Zhao Ke picked up his chopsticks and lightly poked the surface.

"Pop!"

With a crisp sound, the outer skin gradually split apart, exposing the translucent, reddish meat underneath.

"Finally!"

The finished dish he had waited so long for was ready. He could not wait any longer. Picking up a spoon, he scooped down, and the bear meat beneath was as soft as tofu.

Zhao Ke stuffed it into his mouth in one bite.

The moment the meat entered his mouth, Zhao Ke's eyes lit up. He nearly wanted to swallow his own tongue.

Tender, rich, and fragrant—those were secondary. What mattered most was its deep yet non-greasy aroma, springy texture, and lack of excessive fat.

Holding a bite in one's mouth gave the illusion of being kissed by a tongue.

More importantly, this kind of ingredient was far too rare. Even an ordinary tycoon would have a difficult time obtaining it.

As for ordinary people, they would probably only ever see photographs of it online for the rest of their lives.

They would have no chance of ever tasting it. And with top-tier ingredients paired with top-tier skill, such a delicacy was not something ordinary people had any opportunity to enjoy.

After stuffing himself senseless, Zhao Ke finally cooked a serving of noodles and poured the sauce over them. Only after eating until his stomach was round did he climb contentedly up to the attic.

He went upstairs and opened his bedroom door. Strangely, there was no bed in the room. Instead, a coffin sat right in front of him.

This had been his psychologist's suggestion: sleeping in a coffin to lessen the onset of his dissociative disorder.

He did not know the exact principle behind it, but it was indeed effective.

Zhao Ke pulled open the coffin and lay down inside. Perhaps because he was too tired, he did not even bother closing the lid. He shut his eyes, and before long, faint snores sounded from within the coffin.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

In the dim room, the hands of the clock ticked onward.

"Buzz..."

At that moment, a slender finger gently pulled open the drawer beneath the dressing table. Numerous tiny knife scars could be seen on the finger.

The gaunt face in the mirror opened its mouth.

It seemed to be murmuring something quietly, but no sound emerged. He raised his head to look into the mirror, and suddenly, a strange smile spread across his face. He casually took a lipstick from the drawer and applied it to his lips.

Sorry for being late. A reader asked whether I could set a fixed update time... Uh, I'm ashamed to say I can only promise not to stop updating. 5555. This author without any saved chapters is crying herself unconscious in the bathroom.