Life Is Full of Ups and Downs

The first time he had loot drop, Gu Mo was naturally delighted. But he also knew he couldn't expect trash mobs to drop good equipment, so it might just be a consolation prize.

With a light scoop of his hand, the Item Light Spot vanished the instant his fingertips touched it, as if it had been absorbed through his skin... At the same time, Gu Mo stole a glance at Hidechiyo behind him and found that the black-haired girl did not seem to have any particular reaction on her face.

She was still somewhat absentminded because of what had just happened.

Sure enough, other than himself, no one else could see the phenomena presented by these game-like mechanics. Otherwise, that would be far too strange.

Eh, wait, where was his loot? Where had it gone?

He withdrew his hand and examined his fingers, his brows nearly twisting together. Had it melted or something? Even if he knew it could not possibly be some grand prize and was more likely a symbolic, consolation-type reward, perhaps some material from the hungry ghost or a soul core or something.

But it was still his stuff. How could it be swallowed up for no reason at all?

Besides, if this could happen once, it could happen a second or third time. If it kept happening in the future, then what was he supposed to do about his loot?

Thinking calmly, perhaps there was another explanation. For example, maybe these sorts of items were directly placed into some special space like an "inventory" or "item box"? But how was he supposed to use that function? He had not seen any options for it.

As Gu Mo pondered, he absentmindedly reached into his pocket. Then his expression froze slightly.

No way, had it gone this smoothly?

The instant his hand entered his pocket, he "felt" the existence of a peculiar space. Through a kind of sight that was not sight, he saw an interface: rows upon rows of neatly arranged slots, like an in-game storage screen. It was empty, with nothing inside.

Only the first slot was occupied by an icon, with a quantity of 1 displayed in its lower left corner.

That was probably the Item Light Spot he had just picked up?

"Hmm?"

At that moment, Hidechiyo also quickly came to his side. She first looked down at the Lesser Hungry Ghost's corpse on the ground, then looked at him and made a questioning sound. She seemed unable to understand why he had suddenly stopped, especially with such a complicated expression on his face.

"Sorry, I suddenly remembered something. When I left home, I didn't turn off the gas, so I need to hurry back and check..."

Gu Mo looked at her, blinked, and came back to his senses as he gave that explanation. He also wanted to give himself a reasonable excuse for making a run for it later.

At least, it seemed reasonable to him.

Axiu could not understand what nonsense he was spouting. Her rose-red eyes remained full of confusion... What did it mean to turn off the gas?

This showed that although the two sides could communicate despite not sharing a language, thanks to some mysterious force providing an instant translation mechanism that converted and conveyed everything with extraordinary fluency—even making both parties feel as though the other was speaking their most familiar language—

There were still some things it could not handle. Limited by worldview, knowledge, and so on, even if someone understood the pronunciation, it was difficult to grasp a newly coined term they had never heard before. The Idiot System's mysterious translation mechanism would not ensure that both sides could understand concepts they had never encountered while translating.

That would no longer be mere translation. If anything, that part would be even more absurd and outrageous...

"Right, maybe I didn't turn off the water and electricity either. I'll have to hurry back and check later..." Gu Mo nodded repeatedly and continued along the mountain path ahead.

At the same time, he devoted part of his attention to the special space that had suddenly appeared, or rather, his inventory.

It did not seem to exist inside the pocket of his clothes. Rather, it seemed that something like a pocket, which inherently carried the concept of holding things, linked him to this function. The pocket itself merely served as an intermediary... He tried taking the hand out of that pocket, then casually putting his other hand into the pocket on the other side.

After briefly losing the connection, he once again successfully "felt" the existence of that special space.

Furthermore, his phone, wallet, and other belongings had been in his pockets all along, yet they had not been affected. They were still sitting properly in his pockets and had not entered that special space... So now, he could sense the existence of two completely different "pocket spaces."

One was normal. The other was not.

He tried to make a reasonable guess. This inventory probably had special restrictions: only item props recognized by the system could be stored inside, rather than anything at all... So only after he killed a monster, got his first loot drop, and stored it inside did he realize he had an inventory?

Well, that was hard to judge. He had previously considered how much more convenient it would be if he had a game inventory function. At the very least, he could get some weapons for self-defense immediately...

Now it seemed it was indeed convenient, but only a little.

Because reality-based items that were not recognized by the system still could not be put inside. If he wanted to carry them, he would probably still need to keep them on his person. And leaving aside whether that was convenient, carrying restricted items around in the real world was not exactly practical.

Feeling rather disappointed, he kept an eye on the road ahead while examining the item he had just acquired.

It was a small prism-shaped crystal, emitting a faint golden-yellow glow like fireflies. According to the description, it was a tiny, high-density essence fragment called a "Lesser Spirit Stone." The system's notes said that it could replenish a certain amount of health or energy, or simply be used as material for certain special purposes.

So it really was this thing. Gu Mo curled his lip.

Spirit stones were a unique product of this world and era. In the West, they were called "essence," and alchemists believed they were miraculous stones containing immense hidden power. But they could only be harvested in Bloodshed Land. And it just so happened that, over the next several decades, this island nation would be plunged into an unprecedented age of war.

That was why the story took place here...

For the first loot dropped by a monster to be this thing did make sense, but it truly was nothing more than a consolation prize.

Gu Mo sighed. At that moment, he saw a solitary building on a level patch halfway up the mountain ahead. It was probably Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village's Ancestral Hall. But this important place was now contaminated by Perpetual Darkness, appearing eerie and sinister within the dim world of near-black-and-white tones.

Farther up, at the end of the mountain path, a sturdy locked gate blocked the way. He could vaguely make out a short stretch of road beyond it, with what appeared to be a temple or some other building standing farther above. Its gates were shut as well, and only the walls built around the hillside could be seen.

This alone showed that Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village had indeed once been a prosperous and wealthy settlement. It not only supplied cattle, horses, and relay stations, but likely also did waterway trade. An ordinary village could never have amassed such wealth.

With a metallic ring, the black-haired girl drew her tachi. She stepped forward and extended an arm in front of Gu Mo, making him retreat behind her. At the same time, her gaze sharpened as she fixed it directly on a certain target inside the Ancestral Hall.

Several yokai wandered through the Ancestral Hall's courtyard. Even the hungry ghosts were no longer Lesser Hungry Ghosts, but creatures larger than adults, their heads seemingly as large as basketballs...

At the deepest part of the black-and-white domain, where Spider Lilies continuously bloomed and withered, stood a burly great ape. It stood upright, gripping a wooden spear that resembled a walking stick. It seemed to be a weapon crudely made from hard mountain wood, decorated with vines, branches, leaves, and flowers...

An Ape Fiend that had surpassed ordinary members of its kind by so much that it could unfold a domain of Perpetual Darkness.

Having found the source, Hidechiyo felt the Yokai Bloodline within her stir restlessly. She knew they could not delay any longer. They needed to kill this Ape Fiend quickly and dispel this Perpetual Darkness. She turned and signaled the person behind her with her eyes, telling him to stay away.

"Why does this feel so safe..."

Gu Mo muttered under his breath, but he still followed the girl's wishes and backed away a little, not approaching the Ancestral Hall.

The yokai inside were truly nothing to Hidechiyo. Even if they all attacked at once, she could probably deal with them one slash at a time. But that was not the case for him. Even the hungry ghosts inside were Greater Hungry Ghosts. He had no idea how much stronger they were than Lesser Hungry Ghosts, so he had better not go up there and become dead weight.

He would just stay safely in the back and be a battlefield reporter. Taking photos would be enough...

Watching the black-haired girl walk resolutely into the Ancestral Hall courtyard alone with her sword, Gu Mo was about to take out his phone when he stopped himself. Forget it. That did not seem like a good choice either. The ambient lighting was poor, and the tones were too dark. Without flash, he would not capture anything.

And if he used the flash, it might just serve to taunt and lure the monsters over...

So forget it. If he could not help, then he should not become a useless teammate who dragged everyone down. Gu Mo knew that much, even if he did regret that he would not be able to take more photos back with him. Still, he restrained the urge to pull out his phone.

Roars, wails, howls, and panicked shrieks...

The instant the first brilliant arc of sword light tore through that gray, black-and-white world, all of those sounds erupted, as though a grand chorus had begun within the Ancestral Hall—the savage howls of hungry ghosts, the roars of yokai before their heads were severed, and the shrill monkey-like cries of the Ape Fiend!

A delicate, luxurious golden Oni Horn emerged from her forehead. The girl's figure darted through the Ancestral Hall courtyard like a phantom, her beautiful black hair flying as though she were dancing. She effortlessly evaded the yokai's vicious encirclement, while the tachi in her hand reflected chilling, terrifying glints and carved one dazzling silver arc after another through the melee.

Accompanied by low whistles that split the air, it severed the yokai's heads and arms like lightning.

Severed limbs flew high through the air. Heads stained with blood retained the final vicious expressions of their lives, flying out, crashing to the ground, and rolling several times.

A lightning-fast horizontal slash.

A thunderous thrust of the sword tip.

It was not necessarily dazzling or elegant, but it was clean, decisive, swift, and unbelievably fast. This was the girl's own style. Swordsmanship meant exploiting her advantages in strength and speed, crushing the weak with the strong, attacking the enemy's weaknesses with her own strengths, and ending battles in the fastest, most efficient way possible.

It was also pleasing to watch. In any case, it formed a stark contrast to Gu Mo's current combat style, which was utterly unstructured and painful to behold despite all his excessive effort.

The shrill monkey cries grew increasingly frantic. The Ape Fiend that had unfolded Perpetual Darkness stared at the girl with fury and fear. While commanding its yokai underlings to surround and attack her, it also swung that crudely made, primitive-looking but lethally powerful throwing spear, attempting to injure her.

Perhaps due to instinct, even becoming a monster had not changed it. This giant ape's method of attack was to leap high into the air and hurl the spear in its hand at its enemy.

It did not actually throw away its only weapon. Instead, it conjured a throwing spear formed from Yokai Power to attack, making it even more powerful and savage.

Yet it had no effect at all. None of the spears the Ape Fiend threw during each opening managed to strike her... No, some did hit. For example, when the girl's afterimage vanished from one spot just as another yokai viciously pounced there, it was nailed to the ground by the Ape Fiend's Yokai Power spear.

With the tacit cooperation of enemy and ally alike, the ordinary yokai were slaughtered one after another. Headless, burly corpses fell in succession, while the girl's phantom-like figure continued to dart back and forth across the courtyard. Her Divine Speed sword-drawing attacks heavily wounded a yokai with every slash, or simply killed it outright.

"Tsk, tsk..."

At the edge where the forest met the mountain path outside, Gu Mo watched the scenes unfolding inside the Ancestral Hall and nodded repeatedly, feeling a leisurely longing. He wondered when he would be able to grow to that level.

But Axiu did not seem to have transformed into the fantasy-level powerhouse she would become later. This level of combat ability did not seem overly outrageous yet. Optimistically speaking, perhaps once he raised his strength, agility, constitution, and so on to fourteen or fifteen points, he might be able to approach her to some extent?

That was what Gu Mo thought.

Just then, a roar suddenly came from behind him.

His heart tightening, he spun around and tried to swing the weapon in his hand. But the moment he turned, a black shadow slammed him violently to the ground with tremendous force... Stars burst before his eyes, his blood churned in his chest, and everything had happened so suddenly!

Gu Mo's thoughts stalled for an instant, but his body instinctively struggled. The moment he hit the ground, he reflexively crossed his arms in front of himself. In the next instant, a thick crimson arm as burly as an adult man's thigh reached for his head.

The immense force instantly numbed both arms. He felt as though his arm bones were about to crack, while sharp claws tore through his flesh and blood spurted out!

But Gu Mo gritted his teeth and held on desperately. In the end, he did not let his head be crushed immediately. Forcing himself to calm down amid the chaos, he saw that a hideous yokai had pinned him down.

Fortunately, it was only an ordinary yokai...

The thought surfaced in his mind and flashed past so quickly that even he did not notice it.

At that moment, the suddenly appearing yokai roared and raised its other thick arm, about to bring down another vicious claw strike. It had no special abilities; its limbs were simply extraordinarily powerful, likely far beyond those of ordinary people. That first claw strike had nearly overwhelmed both of Gu Mo's arms.

"...!!"

His pupils contracted sharply. Without thinking, Gu Mo poured all his strength into one arm, pushing upward with everything he had to block the monster's claw pressing down upon him. He released his other hand, swiftly grabbed the Uchigatana that had just fallen beside him, gathered every ounce of his strength, and viciously stabbed first at the yokai's pair of horns!

Something in his chest pounded violently like a war drum. At that moment, his heart strained as though it were about to leap from his body.

He was already so close to being carried through the entire ordeal by someone stronger. He absolutely refused to stumble at the very end!