Act II: Su Fei's World

Although this room was old, it was spotless; the previous owner had kept it very clean.

Su Fei raised his head to see the half-broken skeleton frame he had pushed over earlier. A pile of white bones lay scattered in silence, the only battle damage sustained by these Undead Scouts thanks to Brando's final counterattack. Su Fei knew that while Skeleton Soldiers lacked intelligence, those controlled by a Lich were a different matter entirely. His misjudgment had nothing to do with being young; Brando simply hadn't known any of this.

In times of peace, few people knew such things.

The oil painting, sliced in half, lay flat on the floor, and the Skeleton Soldier's chilling longsword rested not far away. This made Su Fei's gaze narrow slightly—Madara had clearly intended to launch an attack the moment the scouts withdrew, not even bothering to clear the battlefield.

However, this aligned with his memories of history.

Hm?

Su Fei suddenly raised an eyebrow, his gaze lingering on the severed oil painting. He hadn't seen wrong; there was clearly a hidden compartment in the plane where the frame had been cut.

Wait, an heirloom oil painting? Su Fei suddenly remembered—could this be the famous Butch's Oil Painting?

He immediately struggled to his feet, leaning on the armrest as he walked over, listening vigilantly to the movements around him. Su Fei knew that the one who killed Brando must have been a low-level Lich—though it was the lowest level, it was more than enough to deal with an ordinary person.

In the "game," low-level Liches could cast minor black magic and summon skeletons and zombies from nearby graveyards. They were cunning by nature and accustomed to sneak attacks, posing a huge threat to those who didn't understand them.

But Su Fei was different, for he likely understood them better than they understood themselves.

He crouched down and pried open the frame of the painting. With a clink, a ring rolled out from within. At that moment, he couldn't help but draw a sharp breath; he was far too familiar with the design of this ring. The silver band glowed faintly in the darkness, and beyond its circular shape, the surface at its center bore the Saint Rune of the Wind Empress.

Such a pattern was not common in the south of Eluin.

This was the national emblem of Saint Orso in the north.

Su Fei carefully wiped the ring with his thumb. This was the famous Ring of the Wind Empress, the reward for the "Butch's Oil Painting" quest. The quest had disappeared in the next version of the game, and very few people had ever known about or completed it.

Su Fei was not one of them; he had only heard the story. Legend had it that this ring was a replica of a keepsake belonging to Dilute, one of the Four Saints. But how could Brando's grandfather have possessed such a thing?

In the game, the Ring of the Wind Empress granted +1 Agility and consumed energy to fire Wind Bullets at enemies in front. In the game, it absorbed one point of energy every ten minutes; he just didn't know if it worked the same way here.

He looked at the ring, his heart pounding so hard that he momentarily forgot the danger surrounding him. The appearance of this ring confirmed his suspicions: this world was indeed the one he was familiar with.

Su Fei couldn't help but let out a long breath. He felt a mix of anxiety and excitement, but after a moment of hesitation, he slowly slid 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 to be the center where the human body's magic gathered, and most spell gestures were derived from this point.

But for Su Fei, it was merely a subconscious action dictated by game rules, nothing more.

Clang—!

He was just testing if the ring would actually take effect when a loud crash from the direction of the first floor made him whip his head around.

Su Fei felt a jolt of alarm and immediately became alert. This could be a sound made by the undead—but even if it wasn't, it would surely attract enemies from outside. He didn't care about anything else, immediately dropping the oil painting and instinctively backing up against the wall, then staring cautiously at the hall below.

He immediately saw a stealthy figure.

It was a young girl wearing a simple leather skirt, carefully creeping out from below. She looked left and right, appearing quite nervous—but she never once looked above her head. The girl gripped a stonemason's hammer in both hands—it looked a bit heavy for her—but judging by her demeanor, she seemed to be looking for something.

Su Fei couldn't help but sigh.

He coughed, not loudly, but it sounded exceptionally sharp in the empty house.

The girl was clearly startled; she whipped her head around, her small face turning pale. In all fairness, the girl could be considered a beauty. Her chestnut-colored hair was pinned up at the back, appearing dignified, yet the slender eyes beneath her smooth, jade-like forehead always gave one a sense of charm. Her eyebrows were slightly arched, her gaze both clear and flustered, and her nose was straight and defined; one look told him she was a person with an extremely independent personality.

She had a unique temperament, but she could by no means be called a lady. At the very least, if you saw a girl clutching a stonemason's hammer with both hands and carrying a cowhide bag like those used by merchants in the south hanging from her leather skirt, it would be hard to think of her as a Young Lady of high birth.

When the girl saw Su Fei, she suddenly relaxed. She let out a long breath and couldn't help but pat her chest, a lovely smile appearing on her face. "It's you, Brando. You scared me."

"Miss Romane, how did you get in here?" Su Fei couldn't help but feel a headache coming on when he saw the young girl.

This was the girl Brando had always admired. She lived in the house across the way with her aunt and often had strange, whimsical dreams, such as wanting to run off to the outside world to become a merchant.

To Su Fei, this idea was nonsensical. In Eluin, being a merchant was not a particularly respected profession; the common folk even lumped some of them together with swindlers and thieves.

During a period of Anson VI's reign, these people had colluded with mountain bandits for years and were deeply detested, even being called "people with two mouths and three hands."

Two mouths because they were glib and prone to deception. Three hands because they were light-fingered and often engaged in petty theft. It could be said that these people were one of the greatest threats to local public security; eight out of ten quests Su Fei had done during his beginner days were related to them.

"I climbed in through the window outside your kitchen. By the way, your window is so small! I almost tore my skirt—" The girl complained while bending down to straighten her hem.

"No one asked you to come in that way—!" Inheriting Brando's memories, Su Fei already had a certain immunity to this young lady's personality, but he still couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

"I'm not asking you about that," he couldn't help but shake his head. "I'm asking you, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"I was worried about you, Brando," Romane replied while looking around, despite clearly being curious to death. "Did you see it? That skeleton?"

She had seen it too? Su Fei noticed that the young lady's gaze had fallen on his chest.

"Are you hurt?" The future merchant girl tilted her head and blinked.

"Yeah..."

"Let me see." She lifted her skirt and trotted up the stairs, grabbing the young man's hand that was blocking the wound. "Move your hand, what are you blocking for? It'll get infected—!" the girl complained, looking at Su Fei's wound.

She gasped and looked up. "Such a deep wound!"

Su Fei felt the girl's cool hands gripping his, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat. Although he knew this was an emotion belonging to Brando, he didn't deliberately try to stop it.

"It's fine..."

"Fine your head!" The Merchant's Daughter rolled her eyes at him, then began rummaging through the cowhide bag hanging from her leather skirt. "Wait a second, I think I have some bandages..."

Su Fei watched her with interest.

He knew that the items in Romane's bag were all her treasures, and more than half of them were strange little trinkets that Brando had bought with her. Things like seashells from the beach, colorful glass beads, copper whistles, and ancient coins; most of these things weren't worth much, but they were quite rare in this region.

The future merchant girl's greatest hobby was digging for these treasures in piles of junk. Even though neither of the two young people had any money, Romane could always find a way to buy the rare little things she liked for cheap.

He pressed down on Romane's hand and shook his head. "Go inside and search; it's too dangerous out here."

"I'm not afraid of those Bone Frames," she said, looking up at him before finally pulling out a First Aid Kit. "Do you know how to bandage a wound? Because I certainly don't."

Su Fei opened the kit, took out the bandage and hemostatic cotton, and froze. He had been searching for first aid supplies because, subconsciously, he still viewed this place as a game world. In the game, applying a bandage would automatically stop bleeding and restore health, but at this moment, it hit him: in reality, bandaging was a professional skill. He couldn't just wrap it around the wound a few times, could he?

"Brando, why don't I give it a try?" Miss Romanee looked eager to test her skills.

"Forget it." Su Fei hurriedly refused; he wasn't about to gamble with his life like that.

He suddenly felt that treating a dead horse as if it were alive was better than nothing. He decided to just do it the way he would in the game; if he died, he would just have to blame the heavens. He tore off the end of the bandage, held it in his teeth, unbuttoned his clothes, and began wrapping the bandage around the wound from the inside out. As a veteran of the game, he was at least proficient at applying bandages, so he worked with a steady hand, carefully avoiding wrapping it too tightly.

But then, he suddenly stiffened.

He saw a pale green number, +1, slowly emerge from his wound.

At that moment, Su Fei's brain buzzed as if it had been struck by a heavy bomb, and for a second, he didn't know what to do next. But he quickly snapped out of it, and as if struck by a flash of inspiration, he frantically chanted in his heart: "Attributes, attributes, show yourself!"

He waited with a mix of anticipation and the fear that his wish would go unfulfilled. After about a second, a set of faint data points appeared in sequence across his arms, thighs, joints, body, and heart.

Strength 1.0, Agility 2.0, Constitution 0.9.

Then, another set of data floated in his field of vision like a Ghost:

Intelligence 1.1, Willpower 1.3, Perception 1.0.

Absolute Strength 1.0, Elements (Unawakened)—

Beneath this data, lines of text and values cascaded 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)

Health (Weakened): 60% (Bandaged State, recovers 1 Health per day)

Occupation—

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)

It was real, it was actually real!

Su Fei couldn't help but wonder if this was how a normal person felt when they won five million. Was this a dream? Absolutely not. He knew that in a dream, one wouldn't have such clear and rigorous logic; very few people would suspect they were dreaming while inside a dream.

But was he still in the game?

No, the history in the game had already reached Year 19 of the Second Era.

The young man felt his head spinning; a flood of wild thoughts rushed in all at once, making him feel dizzy. But Su Fei shook his head—he understood that all of this was real! He had read so many transmigration novels; he wasn't the first person to transmigrate into a game world, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

Lady Martha, do you truly exist?

Su Fei couldn't help but pray heavily in his heart to the only supreme Deity of this world. He stared blankly at the virtual data projected onto his retinas and couldn't help but ask himself:

Isn't this your world, Su Fei? What more could you want?

Yes, as a veteran warrior of over level 130, what else could he ask for? Experience? He had it. The ability to foresee the future? He had that too.

If he couldn't seize his own destiny with all this, he might as well die of shame. But then again, the feeling of being full of confidence was truly great—really, really great.