Stuck

Inside the pitch-black thatched hut, Li Muyang opened his weary eyes and stretched.

"So this lousy stockade really does have other dangers..."

He muttered, feeling rather speechless.

After surviving the night, nothing important happened in the game dungeon the next day.

The game character simply went to ask the steward for some food and money, a benefit he was entitled to as a caretaker.

For the rest of the day, Li Muyang took Little Wild Grass around the stockade. Apart from not being allowed to take her outside, there were almost no restrictions on where they could go. The two of them could visit most places in the stockade.

Now that Li Muyang had to look after Little Wild Grass, he no longer needed to work in the mountains. He had become an idler in the stockade, with his meals and lodging taken care of.

But no one envied him.

In fact, whenever he passed by with Little Wild Grass, most people avoided them as if they were plague gods, afraid that getting too close to her would drain their yang energy.

The day sped by without a single ripple. Li Muyang wandered aimlessly around the stockade, but didn't trigger any events.

That night, Li Muyang chose to go to sleep, and, sure enough, he died again.

When he loaded his save once more, he chose to stay awake until morning. This time, he made it through the night safely.

Was this killer specifically waiting until Li Muyang was fast asleep before striking?

On the third night, Li Muyang once again chose not to sleep.

Unfortunately, after two all-nighters, his game character couldn't hold out and fell asleep halfway through.

So, just as expected, Li Muyang saw the pop-up: [You have died. Game over.]

After this death, Li Muyang opened his eyes and temporarily exited the game.

He gazed at the dark night outside the window and felt the exhaustion in his body, then stretched out at length.

"I'm so tired..."

Li Muyang sighed.

He'd stayed up all night for two nights straight, and now he was dead on his feet.

That was how games in the galgame genre went. Even if the premise and characters were interesting, they still had a hard time keeping you hooked—and Kaleidoscope was no exception!

At that moment, Li Muyang didn't feel the same urge as before to stay up all night playing.

He'd already gathered most of the available information. It was clear that some kind of danger lurked in the stockade, and it would appear to kill his game character whenever Li Muyang fell asleep.

This was probably the first stage after adopting Little Wild Grass. By the usual conventions, clearing it would bring him closer to her.

Once Li Muyang had figured that out, he exited the game, yawning as he got to his feet.

Before going to bed, he checked that the front door was locked, then lay down to sleep.

Judging by the [No time limit] label on this game dungeon, it was obviously one that would take a great deal of time—not something he could finish in a day or two.

Li Muyang had plenty of patience. With the Endless Spirit Rice Jar, he had nothing to worry about. He was free of the pressures of daily life and could devote as much time and energy as he wanted to this raising-sim game.

Once he lay down, Li Muyang quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, the first thing Li Muyang did after getting up was remove the pickle jar sitting on top of the spirit rice jar.

The spirit rice jar looked filthy and completely unremarkable, but now it was filled to the brim with plump grains of premium spirit rice.

After the spirit rice in the jar was scooped out, it really did fill back up again overnight.

Having confirmed this, Li Muyang was finally free of all worries. In high spirits, he got up, washed, and went out to work.

As usual, he drove a flock of strange Two-Legged Sheep up the mountain. After herding them into the valley, Li Muyang sat down wherever he pleased.

Game with Fairies, launch!

When Li Muyang opened his eyes again, he was back in the empty stilt house.

And then...

[You have died. Game over.]

"What the hell? This is seriously weird!"

At dusk, Li Muyang sat bolt upright, feeling rather frustrated.

He'd spent the entire day exploring the game, yet every time he died for no apparent reason.

He didn't just die when he fell asleep at night. He also died soon after dozing off in broad daylight, and the game ended.

The killer targeting Li Muyang only struck when he was asleep.

At one point, Li Muyang even suspected Little Wild Grass was the culprit. He locked the little girl inside the house, went far away by himself, and lay down beside a busy road in the stockade.

And he still died.

Eventually, he even went to sleep right outside Steward Wu's door. He died anyway.

—That killer dared to murder someone in broad daylight, in full view of everyone!

He could even kill right under Steward Wu's nose.

It was downright uncanny.

Steward Wu was one of the stockade's most powerful experts. Who could be so brazen as to kill someone right under his nose?

After dying over and over all afternoon, Li Muyang was feeling pretty frustrated.

"I'm stuck..."

As a veteran gamer, Li Muyang was no stranger to this kind of situation.

It was easy to get stuck at a particular stage for ages.

If he'd gotten stuck in his previous life, he could've just pulled out his phone and looked up a walkthrough online.

But now he was in another world without computers or the internet, playing a system game that only he had access to... There was nowhere to look up a guide.

As he herded the Two-Legged Sheep down the mountain, Li Muyang couldn't help sighing in frustration.

The frustration of being stuck for so long was overwhelming. Even the spirit rice he cooked that night didn't taste as good as the previous meal.

Still, finishing that bowl of spirit rice did nothing to slow the growth of his spiritual energy, even though Li Muyang could barely taste it.

His cultivation surged once again.

When he finished meditating and regulating his breath, organizing the abundant spiritual energy within him, the character experience bar on the system interface read [Li Muyang: Qi Refining Realm, Second Heaven, 43%].

Yesterday it had been only 27%, and the day before that, just 12%... His cultivation was growing so fast it felt like a dream.

At this rate, with more than ten percent growth every day, he'd soon break through to the third heaven of the Qi Refining Realm.

And after breaking through to the third heaven, he could apply to learn the Cloud and Rain Art.

There weren't many cultivation arts the sect was willing to teach outer disciples for free. The Cloud and Rain Art used by spirit farmers was one of them.

After all, if someone truly had a talent for spirit farming, the sect only needed to provide two spirit fields, and that spirit farmer could produce spirit rice continuously.

Such a huge sect needed to be sustained, and it required vast quantities of spirit rice every month.

So the sect was quite generous when it came to training spirit farmers.

Li Muyang planned to learn the Cloud and Rain Art. If he could become a spirit farmer, he wouldn't have to go digging around in that stinking valley every day.

Spirit farming was also the most leisurely and best-value profession among the outer disciples.

Thinking this, Li Muyang took a deep breath, his expression bright with determination.

"Work hard! Cultivate! Strive!"

With something as good as the Endless Spirit Rice Jar, he couldn't let it go to waste!

Seeing that it was getting late, Li Muyang locked the door, climbed into bed, and opened the game once again.

In the empty stilt house, Li Muyang smiled at the little girl before him, whose health bar was pale yellow.

"Go to sleep. Tomorrow, I'll take you around the stockade."

And then...

[You have died. Game over.]