Harvest and Disputes

Tired, hollow, as if his body had been completely drained dry...

That was Aaron's first reaction. However, the stabbing pain coursing through every part of his body immediately made him let out a muffled groan.

His hands and feet were numb and sore. He didn't even have the strength to move a finger.

Where was this?

For a moment, Aaron had no idea where he was. He stared blankly at the empty ceiling, knowing only that he was probably lying in some room.

He was still struggling to sort through his muddled thoughts, recalling the fragments he could still remember.

It seemed Tog had been targeted by some sort of entity, and then he had used Dream Speech: Twisted Language?

Tog seemed to have been eaten, and then he had been targeted by some sort of entity?

That thing seemed to be called... the "Crawling Lord"?

Aaron remembered seeing that name flash across the light screen.

The mere thought of that name inexplicably made his entire body turn cold. The air around him seemed to grow more viscous, and a strange sensation gradually spread. Frightened, he hurriedly cut off the train of thought.

What the hell?

He couldn't even think about it?

He instinctively summoned the system, only to discover in astonishment that his attributes had completely changed.

Strength 5, Agility 6, Constitution 8, Will 10, Spirit 6

Compared with his previous attributes, his values had actually soared by a considerable amount without him realizing it!

What was going on?

He instinctively browsed through the logs on the light screen.

Came into contact with a certain supernatural vessel. Due to an overload of supernatural information, the information was forcibly organized and categorized...

Insufficient Knowledge Points. Failed to generate Strange Occurrence Points...

Randomly consumed Knowledge Points to enhance attribute points...

For a moment, Aaron didn't know whether to lament or celebrate.

Strange Occurrence Points could be converted into abilities, which was naturally a good thing. For example, this time, the seemingly useless "Dream Speech: Twisted Language" had displayed an extremely powerful effect.

He even felt that the system had deliberately distorted the ability. It was nothing like the childish skill described in the explanation.

But wait?

On the light screen, in the column labeled "Strange Occurrence Points," a solitary number 1 stood there.

Where had this Strange Occurrence Point come from...?

Aaron instinctively scrolled upward again, then wisely stopped.

He had more or less guessed where that Strange Occurrence Point had come from, and for the time being, he didn't want to use it to generate an ability.

The system had made it perfectly clear: the source of a Strange Occurrence Point would affect the ability generated.

And this Strange Occurrence Point had come from that "Being." Who knew whether something might go wrong during the generation process?

He was currently severely crippled, with no one around to care for him. If something went wrong, things would get very amusing indeed.

He had survived the Heretical Cultists and that Being with great difficulty. If he died inexplicably just like this...

That would definitely be recorded in the Collection of Facepalm-Worthy Things Done by Transmigrators. Most likely, it would be the kind where one skipped straight to the end and planted rice inside someone's stomach.

The stabbing pain throughout his body prevented him from falling asleep for the time being. All he could do was silently recall everything that had happened recently and quietly review it all.

He had arrived in this world several days ago. As he gradually became involved in the events of this world, he had increasingly shed his initial gamer mentality.

In this world, his identity as a transmigrator probably amounted to nothing at all.

What hadn't the supernatural beings here seen before?

That claim about "coming from another world" was probably nothing more than an amusing anecdote to them.

Could anything be more terrifying than that "Being"?

Or was it very likely "Them"?

After transmigrating to this otherworld, if he really dared to treat it as a game, then the difficulty of this game was probably on par with Hounds: Only Die Once.

At the thought of that Being, Aaron's heart seemed to miss another beat.

He didn't dare think about that Being, yet merely recalling how he had felt back then was enough to leave him shaken.

Despair, darkness, pain, hatred...

He couldn't help sighing over how incredibly lucky he was to have survived that.

It seemed this system was pretty reliable after all.

"Awake?"

Just as Aaron was struggling to review everything with his aching head, he heard the creak of a wooden door. Then Sart's voice rang out.

Aaron moved his neck with extreme difficulty, but before he could adjust the angle, he saw the concern on Sart's face.

"Looks like you're doing all right." Sart was clearly in a good mood and even managed to tease him.

Aaron weakly grumbled, his voice exceptionally hoarse. "Does 'not dead' count as doing all right?"

"You should think about what condition you were in at the time." Sart shrugged. "Your whole body had been twisted into something barely human by that thing, like clothes wrung dry by a laundry worker. The fact that you survived at all is already pretty good."

"Hmph. That's because he took the Blazing Sun Potion." Siosand strode in from the doorway, clearly irritated.

His face was deathly pale, with a faint bluish tinge. Heavy dark circles ringed his eyes, making it seem as though he hadn't slept well the night before.

Siosand glanced at Aaron and said solemnly, "Sir Aaron, that was the Blazing Sun Potion—the essence those old scholars from the Tower of the Sun steal from the sun every year."

He saw the bewilderment in Aaron's eyes and sighed. "Let me put it this way, Sir Aaron. That single drop of Blazing Sun Potion you took could probably buy half of Leyden City."

Siosand paused, forcibly suppressing the urge to roar. "Half of Leyden City."

Aaron remained bewildered, his harmless eyes blinking at Siosand.

Heaven knew, in the novels he'd read before, the weapons could casually buy an entire continent, while the rare treasures were worth hundreds of billions.

People bathed and swam in gold coins, rolled around and soaked their feet in ten-thousand-year spirit springs. A mere half of Leyden City...

He didn't really feel anything.

It was only half of Leyden City, wasn't it?

Besides, the original owner had been a penniless pauper. The largest denomination he'd ever seen in his memories was a gold coin, and even that had come from selling the family estate.

But then again, those few pitiful gold coins hadn't even warmed up in his hands before becoming gambling chips a few minutes later.

After that... Aaron never saw those gold coins again.

Later, the original owner was thrown out by the casino guards.

Half of Leyden City? What did that have to do with him?

Still, from the sound of it, there seemed to be more to the story of how he had been rescued?

"All right, Siosand. You don't need to keep emphasizing it." Sart waved his hand, cutting Siosand off.

Siosand let out a cold laugh. "Don't need to emphasize it? Senior, he doesn't know the value of this potion. Do you mean to say you don't?"

It was true. Before setting out, his teacher Julian had given him this drop of Blazing Sun Potion. But the problem was that it had only been meant as a precaution, in case something unexpected happened.

And now?

Sart had actually dared to use this drop of potion on an outsider?

How could Siosand accept that?

"Are you not happy to see things turn out this way?" Sart glanced at Siosand. "What I did will greatly diminish our teacher's favorable impression of me. Wouldn't that be a good thing for you?"

Thanks for the tip, Ling Nian~

(You think something like this can stump me?)

(Kneels down gently.jpg)