Milestone

Yan Qing was getting a little tired of playing characters with maxed-out health and qi. Besides, this new alt was meant to investigate intelligence, and being too tall would attract unwanted attention—Pingcheng was different. At the gates of Pingcheng, they basically had to fight their way in, so maxed-out health and combat power were necessary.

This time, he wanted to try starting with maxed-out agility.

Just as being exceptionally tall granted an extra 2 points of health and qi, being excessively thin granted an extra 2 points of agility. Thus, he created a malnourished-looking little boy who seemed not to have finished growing.

He decided not to invest in inherited talents. It was inevitable that a few alts would die while opening up a new map. As for the name, this was an alt for Chang'an, so it would be "An Wu."

"Chang'an Subordinate Newbie Village," start game!

As the screen lit up, An Wu appeared in a small grove, with a village just outside it. To Yan Qing's surprise, the village had level ground, orderly houses, fertile fields, beautiful ponds, and crisscrossing roads. No matter how he looked at it, it was a prosperous little village.

Could newbie villages really exist?

Yet just as Yan Qing reached the main road, before he had even entered the village, two able-bodied men carrying clubs came over and blocked his way.

"This is Bu Liugu's manor. Outsiders aren't welcome."

Sure enough, there was no such thing as a free newbie village.

Yan Qing felt that newbie villages were probably all located in excellent places, so it made sense for them to be developed into manors. What was truly strange was that Qi's newbie village had actually been left to fall into ruin.

"I want to go to Chang'an. Could you tell me how to get there?"

The able-bodied men exchanged a glance, then pointed west. "Follow this road to the main road, then head northwest. You'll reach Chang'an County after about two hours."

Two hours. Even if Yan Qing used his accelerated walking cycle, it would take at least one hour. And the sun was already slanting west—it was afternoon.

Nightfall wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that each trip took an hour. If this alt died and he made another one, wouldn't he have to run for another hour? Which gamer could stand having to spend an hour on the road before every quest?

Under the gazes of the two able-bodied men, Yan Qing gradually moved away and reached the main road.

Was there any way to reduce the time spent traveling?

If he couldn't reduce the length of each trip, he at least had to reduce the number of trips...

A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he opened the game's built-in map. Although it was called a map, it had no landmarks at all. Players had to personally measure the land before the corresponding map would be drawn. Its only advantage was that the map was shared by all characters. Thus, Yan Qing could see that thousands of li from Chang'an Newbie Village, the landmarks Evernight City Newbie Village and Zheng Family, Suppressor of Three Mountains, were also marked on the map.

Pingcheng, however, had not been entered into the system.

That was understandable, too. After all, within the game's programming, it probably only recognized landmarks related to the game that would exist forever—for example, newbie villages and dungeons. A "settlement" like Pingcheng that might be destroyed and disappear did not qualify for entry on this eternally unchanging map.

Following the directions, Yan Qing marked a point to the northwest, then activated the "Auto Evolution" function and had An Wu run the map automatically.

Success. An Wu could run the map normally.

In other words, players could assign tasks to their game characters through Auto Evolution.

Next, Yan Qing had An Wu squat by the roadside, then logged out of the game and created the alt An Liu as quickly as possible.

When An Liu reached the roadside, he indeed saw An Wu squatting there and watching ants.

Yan Qing opened Auto Evolution and ordered An Liu to follow An Wu.

After the setting was complete, An Liu squatted beside An Wu and began watching ants with him!

Yan Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Next came the repetitive process of creating An Qi, An Ba, and An Jiu, then setting them all to follow An Wu.

When he controlled An Wu to run the map, the other four alts followed along and acted with him. It was equivalent to having five alts run the map at the same time!

Although he couldn't control the other four alts in detail, it at least saved travel time. Yan Qing didn't dare leave them to run automatically, either. Who knew whether a group of knights might appear and slaughter them all? He honestly used his accelerated walking cycle and ran the map.

An hour later, the sun set. The sky was divided into one-third darkness and two-thirds pale blue, but Yan Qing had already seen the magnificent city of Chang'an.

More precisely, he had seen the myriad lights outside Chang'an City, the streams of pedestrians, and the endless traffic. Countless manors and mansions lined the way, along with markets, shops, and pleasure houses that operated at night. Just crossing Chang'an's outer city took Yan Qing another half hour or so, bringing the total travel time close to two hours.

Only then did he realize belatedly that when the able-bodied men had said "Chang'an County," they had probably meant the outer ring. Chang'an County was Chang'an County, while Chang'an City was Chang'an City. Naturally, the game did not have a Chang'an County map, but settling around a safe zone was an entirely normal choice.

There were guards at the city gate, but they merely looked back and forth over the faces of An Wu and the others a few times. They asked neither for a pass nor an entrance fee, simply letting them enter.

"You have entered the main city, Chang'an."

"Based on your level, you can currently obtain the following milestone information."

"Gold Medal Guide: You have drawn complete maps of Jiangnan, Chang'an, and Evernight Sky."

"Local: You have discovered the nineteen hidden Haha Grass plants in Chang'an City (0/19)."

"Marathon Enthusiast: Run one lap around Chang'an within half an hour."

"Leap Across Vermillion Bird Avenue: Cross from one side of Vermillion Bird Avenue to the other without touching the ground."

"Suspect: You successfully harmed someone in Chang'an City without being caught (0/10)."

"Demolition Team: You successfully destroyed a medium-sized or larger building in Chang'an City (0/1)."

"Raise your level or unlock milestones to obtain more milestone information."

So the game had a milestone system after all... Did players only receive milestone information after entering a main city?

Normally, players would train in a newbie village until reaching level ten and completing their first class advancement before entering a main city. At that point, giving them a milestone system to guide them in exploring the world made perfect sense.

Yan Qing skimmed through it a few times and realized that Gold Medal Guide, Local, and Marathon Enthusiast were similar milestones. While completing Local and Marathon Enthusiast, players would basically explore most of Chang'an City's map, and would likely complete Gold Medal Guide in the process.

If Yan Qing wasn't mistaken, the final milestone in the Gold Medal Guide series should be drawing a map of the entire region. It was highly suitable for casual players and achievement hunters.

Suspect and Demolition Team, however, were rather strange. Rather than milestones, they seemed more like the game company was using players to help find bugs. After all, Chang'an was a safe zone—how could players possibly be allowed to harm others or destroy buildings at will? Compared with asking players to submit bugs, giving them milestones that encouraged them to actively report bugs would undoubtedly motivate them more.

There were definitely rewards for completing milestones, but Yan Qing put them aside after looking through them a few times. Leaving aside the two more difficult ones, Suspect and Demolition Team, he absolutely couldn't complete even Local. Normal players would look up guides on the forums and follow the directions. Without access to the forums, how could he possibly find the Haha Grass that the developers had deliberately hidden in every corner?

After entering Chang'an, Yan Qing found, to his surprise, that the city was far less bustling inside than outside. If the area outside was a busy commercial district, the inside was more like a residential district. There were other differences as well. The city was far cleaner than outside, and clean in a way that made it look like a set from a costume idol drama. Yan Qing guessed that the main-city area might possess an automatic-cleaning function.

After all, he had never seen a network game's main city with trash cans and restrooms...

Though it was already late, there were still many well-dressed pedestrians on the roads. Some even had children with them as they strolled along the brightly lit streets. When they saw An Wu and the others, a group of peasants in cloth clothes and covered in mud, quite a few showed disgust and disdain, but almost no one took the initiative to avoid them. Clearly, they had complete confidence in Chang'an City's security.

Yan Qing casually led them into an alley and tried attacking An Liu behind him.

An Wu threw a punch. An Liu's body moved, and a huge damage number, "0," appeared on the screen.

The main city's safe zone didn't make attacking impossible. It merely made all attacks incapable of causing damage.

As for whether tokens could be used, he would have to wait until the alts reached level ten and changed classes before he could test it.

Yan Qing stationed An Liu through An Jiu in the alley to play mushrooms. With the main city's protection, he didn't have to worry about their safety while they were idle. Then he went outside to ask for the location of Anguo Temple and controlled An Wu to scout the route alone.

Naturally, this was to prevent a total wipeout. If something happened to An Wu, he could send An Liu out next. With five alts, he should be able to uncover at least a little information, right?

A perfectly good MMORPG had been turned into a strategy game by Yan Qing.

Whoosh.

Yan Qing raised his viewpoint and vaguely saw someone darting between the buildings.

Running around on rooftops at night... Could it be a fellow thief?

It took him nearly half an hour to reach Anguo Temple, and he also took the opportunity to stroll along Vermillion Bird Avenue. Yan Qing saw many restaurants and shops there, including a wonton noodle shop that made him hungry. He had grown up eating wonton noodles.

Unfortunately, all the restaurants were closed. He could only come back to buy some during the day.

Anguo Temple had undoubtedly closed for the night. Compared with the Sand Table, the real Anguo Temple was unquestionably even more majestic and imposing. The stairs alone had dozens of steps, and the outside was enclosed by walls several zhang high, making it look like a city within a city. Yan Qing walked around it twice, yet he couldn't even find a dog hole he could squeeze through.

He could only wait until daytime to take a look inside.

Yan Qing controlled An Wu to squat down in a corner, planning to leave him idle until morning. Just then, a person walked up in front of him.

"If this benefactor has nowhere to spend the night, he can stay temporarily at the Charity House next door."