Although the house was old, it was spotless. Its original owner had kept it very clean--
Su Fei raised his head and saw the half of the Skeleton Frame he had pushed over earlier, lying on the floor. A pile of white bones lay scattered there in silence. Brando's final counterattack had caused the only casualties among these Undead Scouts. Su Fei knew that Skeleton Soldiers truly lacked intelligence, but those controlled by a Lich were an entirely different matter. The misjudgment actually had nothing to do with the young man, because Brando had known nothing about any of this,
In an age of peace, very few people knew about it.
The oil painting, cut cleanly in half, lay flat on the floor. The Skeleton Soldier's frost-covered longsword had fallen nearby, making Su Fei's gaze recoil slightly--Madara had apparently planned to launch an attack the moment the scout withdrew, without even bothering to clean up the battlefield.
But that was consistent with his memories of history.
Huh?
Su Fei suddenly raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze fixed on the severed oil painting. He had not seen wrong. There was clearly a compartment in the cut surface of the frame.
Wait, an inherited oil painting? Su Fei suddenly remembered. Could this be the famous Butch's Oil Painting?
He immediately supported himself on the railing and walked over with difficulty, listening warily to the sounds around him. Su Fei knew that the one who had killed Brando should be a low-level Lich at most--although it was the lowest level, it was still more than enough to deal with ordinary people.
In the "game," low-level Liches could cast several low-level dark spells and awaken Skeletons and Zombies from graveyards in nearby areas. They were naturally cunning and accustomed to ambushes, making them a huge threat to anyone unfamiliar with them.
But Su Fei was different, because he probably understood them better than they understood themselves--
He crouched down and tore open the frame of the oil painting with both hands. With a ding, a ring rolled out from inside. At that moment, he could not help inhaling softly. He was far too familiar with the ring's design: the silver ring glowed faintly in the darkness. Aside from its ordinary circular shape, it bore the Saint Rune of the Wind Empress on its central surface.
Such a pattern was uncommon in southern Eluin.
This was the national emblem of northern Saint Orso--
Su Fei carefully rubbed the ring with his thumb. This was the famous Ring of the Wind Empress, the reward for the "Butch's Oil Painting" quest. However, the quest disappeared in the next version, and only a handful of people ultimately learned of and completed it.
Su Fei was not one of them. He had merely heard the story. Legend said that the ring was a replica of the token of Dilute, one of the Four Saints. But how had Brando's grandfather come to possess it?
The Ring of the Wind Empress granted +1 Agility in the game and could consume energy to fire a Wind Bullet at enemies ahead. In the game, it absorbed one point of energy every ten minutes. He simply did not know whether it worked the same way here.
He stared at the ring, his heart pounding uncontrollably for a moment, and even forgot the danger around him. The ring's appearance indirectly proved his guess: this was indeed the world he was familiar with.
Su Fei could not help letting out a long breath. His feelings were complicated, but after hesitating, he still slowly slipped the ring onto his index finger--magic rings only took effect when worn on the index finger or thumb. In Vonder, the area between the index finger and thumb was called the "Mystic Domain" by the Witches of Talan. They believed it was the center where the body's magical power gathered, and most spell gestures had evolved from this point of origin.
But to Su Fei, this was merely an unconscious action dictated by the game's rules. Nothing more.
"Clang--!"
He was testing whether the ring would actually take effect when a loud crash from the first floor suddenly made him turn his head.
Su Fei's heart jolted, and he immediately became alert. It might have been a sound made by the undead--but even if it was not, it could still attract enemies outside. He immediately dropped the oil painting, backed away instinctively until his back touched the wall, and carefully watched the hall below.
He soon saw a furtive figure.
A girl in a simple leather dress cautiously crept out from below. She looked left and right, seeming slightly nervous--but she failed to notice what was directly above her. The girl gripped a mason's hammer tightly in both hands. It looked rather strenuous, but judging by her appearance, she seemed to be searching for something.
Su Fei could not help sighing.
He coughed. The sound was not loud, but in the empty house, it rang out with unusual clarity--
The girl was obviously startled. She spun around abruptly, her little face deathly pale. But in all fairness, the girl could be considered quite beautiful. Her chestnut-colored hair was coiled at the back of her head, giving her a dignified air, yet the slender eyes beneath her smooth, jade-like forehead always made her seem alluring. Her brows were tilted slightly upward, and her eyes were both clear and flustered. Her nose was straight and prominent, making it obvious at a glance that she was an extremely independent person.
She had a unique air about her, but she was absolutely not a lady. At least, after seeing a girl clutching a mason's hammer in both hands, with a leather skirt and a cowhide bag resembling those carried by merchants from the south hanging from it, it would be difficult to believe she was a Young Lady of excellent birth.
The girl suddenly saw Su Fei and relaxed instead. She let out a long breath, patted her chest, and revealed a lovely smile. "Oh, it's you, Brando. You startled me."
"Miss Romane, how did you get in?" Su Fei could not help getting a headache when he saw the girl.
This was the girl Brando had always admired. She lived in the house opposite with her aunt and often had strange dreams, such as spending every day imagining herself going out into the wider world to become a traveling merchant.
In Su Fei's eyes, this idea was rather absurd. Being a traveling merchant in Eluin was not a particularly respected profession. Ordinary people even lumped some of them together with swindlers and thieves.
For a period during Anson VI's reign, these people had colluded with bandits outside the city for years and were deeply hated. They were even called "people with two mouths and three hands."
The two mouths were because they were eloquent and skilled at deception. The three hands were because they had sticky fingers and often committed petty theft. These people could be said to be one of the greatest threats to local security. Eight out of ten quests Su Fei had done during his beginner days had involved them.
"I climbed in through the window outside your kitchen. Oh, right, your window is really small! It almost tore my skirt--" The girl complained as she bent down to straighten her hem.
"No one told you to come in that way--!" With Brando's memories, Su Fei had already developed some immunity to this young lady's personality, but he still could not help grumbling inwardly.
"That's not what I was asking about." He shook his head. "I'm asking why you came here in the middle of the night."
"I was worried about you, Brando." As Roman answered, she looked around, clearly unbearably curious. "Did you see it? That Skeleton?"
She saw it too? Su Fei noticed instead that the young lady's gaze had fallen on his chest.
"Are you hurt?" The future Merchant's Daughter tilted her head and blinked.
"Mm..."
"Let me see." She lifted her skirt and clattered up the stairs, then pressed one hand onto the young man's hand, which was covering his wound. "Move your hand. Why are you covering it? The wound will get infected--!" the girl complained as she examined Su Fei's injury.
She inhaled sharply and raised her head. "That's a serious wound!"
Su Fei felt the girl's cool hand gripping his own, and his heart sped up slightly. Although he knew perfectly well that these feelings belonged to Brando, he did not deliberately suppress them--
"It's fine..."
"Fine, my foot!" The Merchant's Daughter rolled her eyes at him, then rummaged through the cowhide bag hanging from her leather skirt. "Wait a moment. I think I have some Bandages..."
Su Fei watched her with interest.
He knew that everything in Roman's bag was precious to her. More than half of it consisted of strange little trinkets that Brando had bought together with her, such as seashells from the beach, colored glass beads, copper whistles, ancient coins, and so on. Most of those things were not worth much, but they were uncommon in this area.
The future Merchant's Daughter's greatest hobby was digging these treasures out of piles of secondhand goods. Although neither of the young people had any money, Roman could always find a way to buy the strange little things she liked at low prices.
He held Roman's hand down and shook his head. "Go inside to look for it. It's too dangerous here."
"I'm not afraid of those Bone Frames." She raised her head and glanced at him, finally pulling out a First Aid Kit. "Do you know how to dress a wound? I don't."
Su Fei opened the kit and took out the Bandages and Hemostatic Cotton, then froze. He had originally wanted to find first-aid supplies because his subconscious still regarded this place as the game world. In the game, applying Bandages automatically stopped bleeding and restored health. But only now did he realize that dressing a wound in reality was a specialized skill. He could not just wrap it around the wound a few times, could he?
"Brando, how about I try?" Miss Romane looked eager to give it a shot.
"Forget it." Su Fei hurriedly refused. Being lucky enough to survive did not mean he should let her torment him like this.
He suddenly felt that trying the desperate measure of treating a dead horse as though it were alive was not necessarily a bad idea. In any case, he would just do things here the way they were done in the game. If he died, he would blame the heavens. He tore open one end of the Bandage and bit it between his teeth, then undid his clothes and wrapped the Bandage around the area near the wound, one circle at a time from the inside. He was at least an old hand at applying Bandages in the game, so his technique was fairly practiced, and he carefully avoided wrapping it too tightly.
But he suddenly froze.
He saw a pale green number, +1, slowly emerge from his wound.
At that moment, Su Fei's mind buzzed as if it had been struck by a heavy bomb. For a moment, he had no idea what to do next. But he quickly reacted and, as if inspired by some sudden divine insight, frantically repeated in his mind, "Attributes, Attributes, come out!"
With half-expectation and half-fear that his wish would come to nothing, he waited. After about a second, a set of faint data appeared in succession over his arms, thighs, joints, body, and heart.
Strength 1.0, Agility 2.0, Constitution 0.9.
Then another set of data floated through his vision like ghosts:
Intelligence 1.1, Willpower 1.3, Perception 1.0.
Absolute Strength 1.0, Elements (Unawakened)--
Beneath this set of data, rows of text and values poured down like a waterfall, forming a page that looked like an illusory panel:
Brando, human male, Level 1 (Strength System: Physical, Melee) XP: 1 (Commoner Level 1: -, Militia Level 1, 0/3) Life (Weak): 60% (Bandaged State, recovers 1 Life per day) Class-- Commoner Basic Knowledge (Level 1), Geographical Knowledge (Level 0), Local Knowledge (Level 1) Militia Military Swordsmanship (Level 1), Grappling Techniques (Level 1), Tactical Theory (Level 0), Military Organization (Level 0)
Just as he thought. Just as he thought!
Su Fei could not help wondering what an ordinary person who had won five million would feel like. This was probably what he felt like now, right? Was this a dream? Absolutely not. He knew that a person could not possess such clear and rigorous logic in a dream. Few people suspected they were dreaming while in a dream.
But was he still in the game?
No. The game's history had already reached Year 19 of the Second Era.
The young man felt that his mind was a complete mess. All sorts of wild ideas seemed to rush in at once, making him dizzy. But Su Fei shook his head. He understood that all of this was real! He had read so many transmigration novels. He was not the first person to transmigrate into a game world, and presumably would not be the last.
Lady Martha, do you really exist?
Su Fei could not help praying heavily in his heart to the only supreme deity in this world. He stared blankly at the virtual data projected onto his retinas, then could not help asking himself:
Isn't this your world, Su Fei? What more could you want?
Yes. As a veteran warrior over Level 130, what more could he ask for? Experience, he had it. The ability to know the future, he had that too.
If he still could not seize control of his own fate with all this, he might as well be ashamed enough to bang his head against a wall and die. But then again, it felt so good to be filled with confidence. It really did.
(PS. This chapter is nearly 4,000 words, but the results have been really disappointing. Please click, favorite, and recommend it, everyone! Also, thanks to Duoxin Yifang, Hua Li De Bei'ai, zippiz, Feise Huiyilu, d Daopian, Mi Maomao, Xuanyuan Xue, Jiju de Yu, E'mo.d.Gui Ji, Jinqian Sha, and the other friends who voted recommendation tickets. But some of you who gave four points are really heartless=_=)
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