Unable to Bear the Suffering of the World

Back in his room, Yan Qing casually placed the mask on the table, then let gravity pull him down onto the soft, fluffy bed.

Even though I didn't do anything, I still worked hard.

The Thieves' meeting at noon had made him feel like he was going to work. What was even harder to bear was that everyone else could return to their homes in the main world, while he could only return to the room provided by the Thieves' Den. Although there was no real difference, and they still had to return to their rooms before entering the hall tomorrow, the environment of "walking out the door and immediately being at work" still gave Yan Qing a slight case of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lunch was still Roasted Lamb Leg and vegetable buns. At most, Yan Qing could heat them up a little. For some reason, he found himself missing ice cream and cake. He had never liked desserts before, but after seeing the pastries Red Snake had eaten today and watching Red Snake lick the glutinous rice flour from his fingers, Yan Qing couldn't help swallowing.

Ling Jade should have pretty good purchasing power, right? As long as I reached the safe zone of any main city, I could shop without worry...

Yan Qing shook his head like a rattle, trying his best to fling the thoughts from his mind.

As long as I didn't take risks, there wouldn't be any danger. As long as I didn't go outside, there wouldn't be any accidents. Improving one's life was something only people without worries had the right to consider. Right now, merely staying alive already took everything he had.

Not to mention, he still wasn't a Second Turn Messenger. Whenever he discussed things with Black Wolf and the others, he always felt like a husky mixed into a pack of wolves, terrified that they would notice something was wrong.

Fortunately, Black Wolf had suggested ending the meeting. Otherwise, Yan Qing would have been so nervous he was about to wet himself.

After eating his fill and brushing his teeth, Yan Qing lay on the bed and turned on the Nesser Game Console.

Messenger, start!

There was once again only one character left on the character screen: "Yan Qing." "Yan San" had vanished without a trace.

Yan Qing had actually felt a little regretful after killing Uwan Ryu. After all, Le City County Princess had promised that he could farm dungeons every day, which meant a stable daily income of at least 2,000 Ling Jade, one token, and all sorts of food. If Uwan Ryu had knelt down, kowtowed, and apologized, perhaps Yan Qing would have pretended nothing had happened, and they could have remained friends.

Who could have known that Uwan Ryu would be so unwilling to cooperate?

We single-player gamers are like this. If we hate a character and can kill them, we kill them. If we can't, we download a mod and set it so we can kill them anyway.

In my game, there can't be a character I dislike.

Yan Qing quickly came up with a backup plan, because he had heard Le City County Princess mention, while speaking with someone, that the spoils from the secret realm were usually stored in Ping City's military camp and only sent to Evernight Sky after accumulating to a certain amount.

Therefore, Yan Qing could create a Thief character, find a way into the military camp, and steal the pills and Ling Jade they had accumulated. He would probably bring in more than ten thousand Ling Jade at the very least, right? One theft should basically be enough to cover the penalty for failing the Thief quest.

As for how to enter the military camp and where the spoils were stored, Yan Qing wasn't worried at all. At worst, he could use dozens of new accounts to scout out a path. Surely he could gather some concrete intelligence...

A flash of inspiration crossed Yan Qing's mind, and he vaguely connected it to something.

But at that moment, the game displayed a new notification, drawing all his attention.

"Your other Reality Mode characters have maxed-out skills. Would you like to activate the 'Talent Inheritance' function? Warning: After activating this function, you may only create new Reality Mode characters."

"Talent Inheritance: Can only be activated for Reality Mode characters. To commend the player for their outstanding achievements in Reality Mode, when creating a new character, the player may transfer the talents of an existing character to the new character."

"Detailed explanation: An existing character's maxed-out skills will become the new character's 'Talent Skills,' granting an additional 100% experience bonus and allowing Wisdom bonuses to stack."

Yan Qing's eyes gleamed. "An existing character's maxed-out skills"—that should refer to his maxed-out Basic Footwork.

In other words, when his new character learned Basic Footwork, it could receive a 100% experience bonus?

Of course he had to activate such a great function! Basic Footwork was extremely difficult to train, after all. Experience could only be gained through dodging and moving over long distances, and "Yan San" had died without even reaching Level One.

Moreover, it seemed that advanced skills could also be inherited, such as Swift Thunder Saber Technique. Most advanced skills only came with an introductory manual, while all subsequent levels had to be raised slowly through combat. With Talent Inheritance, as long as Yan Qing had one high-level character in the future, he could easily train his other low-level accounts to a very high level.

Wasn't this a little too overpowered?

After thinking about it, Yan Qing guessed that the company probably wanted to lure more people into the pit that was Reality Mode. With such an overpowered system for raising alternate accounts through Talent Inheritance, perhaps even many casual players who didn't play Reality Mode would come to test it out. Once they fell into the pit, it would be easy for them to buy another month of subscription time just to raise their alternate accounts...

However, the moment Yan Qing created a new character, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he cursed the game planners for being idiots.

A new section called "Inheritable Talents" had appeared on the character creation page. Naturally, there was only one option inside: Basic Footwork.

And following Basic Footwork was a price!

"Basic Footwork Talent: 12 hours of game time"

"Your total game time so far: 21 hours; available game time: 21 hours"

The currency used to buy talents was neither in-game currency nor real-world currency. It was game time!

Twelve hours didn't seem expensive, and Yan Qing could afford it. But if the Basic Footwork talent cost twelve hours, wouldn't an advanced skill talent cost at least a hundred hours? At the rate of several alternate accounts dying every day, no amount of game time would be enough for him to squander.

Then should he change his approach and carefully nurture his alternate accounts?

Yan Qing rejected the idea. Even if he didn't go crazy and took every possible precaution, his alternate accounts could still easily die in unexpected accidents. Besides, compared to losing the virtual currency of "game time," his actual time spent playing was the greater loss—when a character he had played for a long time died, most of the time Yan Qing had invested in that character would vanish with it.

Even his own life could end up being wasted. Compared to that, a loss in virtual currency seemed insignificant.

After a brief moment of thought, Yan Qing settled on his strategy: he would invest in talents when necessary and wouldn't begrudge his alternate accounts, but neither would he place too much importance on them.

If he valued a character too much and stopped letting him take risks, that would be putting the cart before the horse. The whole reason he had created alternate accounts was because he didn't want to take risks!

Thus, he quickly molded a tall character with 13 points of vitality and equipped him with the Basic Footwork talent.

While adjusting the character's face, Yan Qing thought for a moment and recalled Uwan Ryu and the others' discrimination against Central Plains people.

I'm going to steal from them this time. If I use the face of a Central Plains person to do it, they might vent their resentment on other innocent people.

With that in mind, Yan Qing created a new character with the appearance of a Northern Border native. As for his name, he decided to call him "Night Four."

"Nevernight Subordinate Newbie Village," start game!

After spawning, he ran skillfully toward Ping City. Along the way, Yan Qing sensed something different—the pedestrians all took the initiative to avoid him. Some even stopped and waited for him to pass first, despite "Night Four" wearing only ordinary cloth clothing.

There was almost no change at Ping City's gates. The commoners were still lining up on the left while waiting for the guards to inspect them at a leisurely pace, while several guards on the right chatted among themselves. The only difference was that they were no longer the same guards as yesterday.

Yan Qing naturally wasn't about to indulge them and went straight through on the right.

When the guards saw someone approaching in coarse hemp clothes and not even wearing shoes, they instinctively wanted to shout at him. But when they raised their heads and saw "Night Four's" face, the words immediately caught in their throats.

"Do you have a travel permit?" another guard asked.

"No."

Yan Qing stood at the city gate and watched them, ready to beat them up at any moment. His original plan had been to force his way into the city, then find somewhere to wait until dark before sneaking into the military camp.

However, after exchanging glances, the guards seemed uncertain about the origins of the Northern Border giant before them. To Yan Qing's surprise, they obediently stepped aside.

There were benefits to looking like this?

Yan Qing was just about to enter when he heard a commotion beside him. He turned his head and saw an old woman in the line entering the city on the left tugging at a guard.

"I—I only have five coins. I only paid five coins before..."

"You're entering the city to do business, so of course you have to pay the market tax." The guard pointed at the basket she was carrying. "If you won't pay, get out of the way!"

"I'm not doing business. I'm bringing these things to my son, who works as a waiter at an inn. It's Chen's Inn..." The old woman lifted the cloth covering the basket, revealing the warm red eggs inside, and rambled, "My son loves eating the eggs from home. I'm bringing him eggs, not doing business. Five coins is enough..."

The guard glanced at the basket of eggs and reached out to take the five coins the old woman offered.

"Fine. Go in."

"Thank you, thank you, sir... Ah, give them back to me!"

"Didn't you say you weren't doing business? Then the eggs can't go in. Hurry up and leave! Don't block the road!"

"Sir, please show some mercy. My son works as a waiter and can't eat or sleep well. I want to bring him some eggs to nourish his body—"

"Get lost!"

During the struggle, two eggs rolled out of the basket and smashed onto the ground. Rich yellow yolk flowed into the dirt. The guard grew annoyed and shoved the old woman hard, sending her tumbling backward. Feeling that he had lost face, he cursed and strode over, crushing the eggshells beneath his foot. Then he raised his leg and was about to kick her. "I told you to get lost, but you still won't go. You don't know what's good for you—"

Bang!

"Night Four" punched the guard into the wall. The strength of 13 points of vitality knocked several of the man's teeth out. Before the guard could recover from his daze, "Night Four" grabbed the back of his head and smashed it viciously against the ground!

"Didn't you want to eat eggs? Eat them, then. Don't waste them. Eat more."

Although the ground at the city gate had been leveled and contained few stones, "Night Four's" strength was immense. Before long, the eggshells on the ground had been ground into sand, and the guard's face was already a bloody mess. Throughout the entire process, the other guards didn't dare come over to stop him. Someone seemed to have run into the city to notify Bai Bao, but Yan Qing didn't care.

This might have been the real reason Yan Qing had never dared to enter the outside world—Master Yan was kindhearted and unable to bear the suffering of the world.

He was the sort of person who would take a detour whenever he saw beggars on the road, because he didn't know whether they were really begging or not, and he didn't have much money himself. If he saw someone in a truly miserable state, his empathy would flare up, but he couldn't help much, leaving him feeling awful.

But things were different in the game.

Precisely because he couldn't release those feelings in reality, he entrusted his desires to the game.

If he was framed, he had to take revenge from morning to night. If he was angry, he had to act immediately. If he played a game while constantly treading carefully, what was the point of playing at all?

"You'll kill him if you keep going."

"Night Four" turned his head and saw an old general slowly approaching on an aged horse. Several Evil Spirit Knights followed behind him. When they appeared, the people inside and outside the city gate all retreated far away. The old woman who had fallen to the ground looked even more terrified and scrambled out of the city on all fours.

"Let go. I'll spare your life," the old general said calmly.

Yan Qing remembered him, and so did the game system. A name appeared above his head—

"Bai Bao Supervisor Gai Lou Xian."

When Ying Ru Shi had promoted Yan San, she had assigned him under this old general's command.

Bai Bao had one commander, three supervisors, and eighteen captains. All the captains were First Turn Messengers.

As for the supervisors, they were naturally all Second Turn Messengers.

Yan Qing glanced at the old woman's gradually vanishing back in the distance. Without hesitation, he crushed the guard's throat bone with one hand.