Ring

A pale blue game screen unfolded before Aster once more:

Special Class Quest—Grave Digger:

Quest: [Hand That Digs One's Own Grave] (Daily)

Requirement: Kill 10 enemies with undead attributes.

Progress: 0/10 (Incomplete)

Reward: 2% roleplay value (usable below level 20)

This quest refreshed once a day and was relatively simple to complete. Finishing it earned roleplay value—commonly known as experience points. But Aster had long since reached the level 20 bottleneck, and his experience bar was already full. There was no need for him to do daily quests anymore, so he skipped it and looked at the second one:

Quest: [Spirit Medium]

Requirement: Collect two Carlock eyeballs, one Whispering Sheep horn, five grams of human ashes, three Night-Scented Grass leaves, six strands of Whispering Sheep fleece, and one hundred milliliters of white peach juice. Brew them into a potion and drink it.

Progress: 5/6 (Incomplete)

Reward: Obtain the special class [Spirit Medium], and raise the level cap to 30.

Only the Whispering Sheep horn remained. Hopefully, Tingen's black market would come through... Rubbing his face, Aster stood on tiptoe and spotted a horse-drawn tram approaching.

He first went to Iron Cross Street, found a cheap inn, and checked in. After briefly unpacking, he took out some cosmetics from his suitcase and applied them to his face, creating a simple disguise. Then he headed out, boarded the tram again, and made his way to the black market.

After riding for four stops, Aster got off in the Docks and looked at the Evil Dragon Bar before him.

This black market had been one of the places players often gathered during version 1.0, and it had official backing. Aster had not started playing during version 1.0, so he had not experienced that era... By the time he joined, most players preferred idling in Backlund, the capital of the Loen Kingdom.

Skillfully weaving through the packed crowd in the bar, Aster arrived at the billiards room at the very back. Two men holding cue sticks were chatting and laughing inside. When they saw someone enter, their smiles vanished. They studied Aster for a moment and only shifted slightly aside after confirming that he did not look like any wanted criminal.

Aster curled his lips imperceptibly and walked straight toward the hidden door. With a press against the wall, he entered the room beyond it. The two men in the billiards room exchanged a glance. "He came straight through the door, so he probably didn't wander in by mistake. Maybe some regular customer introduced him."

The muscular man wearing only a shirt set down his cue stick. "Better not let our guard down. I'll tell Boss Swain that a newcomer has arrived."

The other man leaned on his cue stick and chuckled. "Your caution might be justified, but I doubt he'll care. This is too minor! He's just an unfamiliar outsider. We can't monitor everyone. As long as he hasn't clearly shown any danger, there's no need for us to do anything."

"You're right, but maybe I just want to take the opportunity to grab a glass of Southville beer." The muscular man flashed a sly smile and left the room with his hands in his pockets. The man inside called after him, "Bring me a Half-and-Half."

Black leather boots made dull sounds against the floor beyond the hidden door. After passing through several rooms, Aster finally reached the trading market. Calling it a market was a bit generous; it was really just a large room where people had set up stalls on the floor.

The newcomer drew some attention, but did not provoke much of a reaction. Aster's intuition sensed several gazes lingering on him for a few seconds. Rather than pretend not to notice, he calmly looked back in the direction his instincts guided him and met the eyes of the least threatening person among them.

It was a woman in a black robe, sitting cross-legged with quite a few metal accessories and tags laid out before her. She had merely been instinctively observing the newcomer to the gathering, but then she realized that the black-haired man with the cold aura seemed to have noticed her gaze and was walking toward her stall.

His boots stopped before her. Aster crouched down and casually extended a hand. "May I take a look?" His mouth asked, but his hand had no intention of waiting for the stall owner's permission. He had already begun rummaging through the small pile of unfinished jewelry, ignoring the neatly arranged finished charms beside it.

"Go ahead." The woman did not react much. Her makeup was heavy, just like Aster's. In fact, it was fairly normal for stall owners to disguise themselves. Customers like Aster, who were also disguised, were the rarer sight—ninety percent of the customers had perfectly clean faces, with the occasional one wearing only light makeup, because most customers here were occult enthusiasts. They were generally law-abiding ordinary people and had no need to disguise themselves.

Aster did not particularly trust charms made by these amateur occult enthusiasts—especially after transmigrating here.

All equipment obtained in the game initially displayed nothing but question marks. Only after paying other players on the Artisan Pathway or an "Appraiser" NPC to identify them would their stats display properly. Unidentified equipment could not be used. If someone tried to equip it by force, the system would only prompt: "Equipment has not been identified and may have special negative effects. The adventurer does not dare to use it rashly."

Charms were included as well. A poorly made charm could very easily become a "death charm." Without an Appraiser's abilities, Aster did not dare buy one casually. So he decided to first buy a semi-finished product and try making one himself. He remembered a charm related to the Darkness Pathway that was quite useful. If he could make it successfully, it would be a major help at the low sequences... Wait, this was... Aster's brows suddenly knitted together.

It was a crudely made brass ring, with a circle of colorful gemstones set around its outer edge.

His hand trembled as he snatched up the ring and examined it over and over. The shapes and colors of the gems... There were twenty-two gemstones in total... This width...

Not just Aster—every player was familiar with this ring beyond measure. Even Aster's memories from last night included this very ring.

This was the ring that changed the protagonist's fate, drawing him into a series of adventures and upheavals!

Why was it here?! Aster felt uncertain and alarmed. According to the plot, that ring should already have fallen into the hands of a lousy thief by now! Clutching the ring tightly, Aster's lips trembled slightly.

Noticing Aster's strange reaction, the stall owner narrowed her eyes and asked, "Sir, are you feeling unwell?" The woman's voice pulled Aster's mind back to reality. He pressed a hand to his forehead, opened his palm, and put on a sorrowful expression. "Ma'am, I simply noticed that it resembles a relic my mother left behind—sorry, I absolutely do not mean to accuse you. I only..." Aster placed one hand over his heart and sighed. "Please forgive a child who misses his mother."

"This ring... one pound." The stall owner was not fooled by Aster's performance. With none of the Loen people's usual tact, she named her price directly. "I can tell it must be very important to you. Then please forgive a poor occult enthusiast as well."

"You won't always be poor." Aster gave a bitter smile. "Ma'am, you're an excellent merchant."

"Thank you for the compliment." As if she had not heard the hidden accusation in Aster's words at all, the stall owner shrugged in a very unladylike manner. "I don't think I can become an excellent merchant, seeing as I'm quite an honest and trustworthy person." Sensing the cold, inhuman aura around Aster, she hurriedly added, "After all, occultism is only a hobby. I have a very stable job, as well as a husband and children."

Aster's brows relaxed somewhat. He understood what the stall owner meant. Perhaps her price was high, but she would not tamper with the goods or risk offending him by extorting him. He took a gold coin from his pocket and pressed it onto the oilcloth covering the stall. "Very well. Praise your grace, and may you and your family remain safe and healthy."

After leaving those words behind, Aster did not leave immediately. Instead, he tucked the ring away and wandered around the gathering once more before exiting through the back door.

Casting aside the leisurely act he had maintained at the gathering, Aster hailed a hired carriage as quickly as possible and swiftly returned to his rented inn room. The entire way, he kept the ring tightly covered in his hand, afraid of losing it along the road.

He took out the ring and placed it on the table. By then, the disguise on his face had been removed. Aster narrowed his eyes and examined the ring bit by bit once more.

There could be no mistake. This was the ring the protagonist continued wearing throughout the following plot, the mysterious item that drew the protagonist into that secret organization! But why was it here?

Although he could not remember the game's details clearly, he still remembered the opening cutscene: the protagonist had stalked that habitual thief for three days, finally cornering him in an alley on Iron Cross Street when he moved his safe house. The moment the protagonist took this ring from the unconscious thief's pocket, he was pulled into a strange space.

So where was the protagonist? Where was the protagonist? Where was the protagonist?

Aster's expression grew somewhat agitated. He stood and paced back and forth through the room.

Had the plot changed? Was there no protagonist? How could that be?

He was certain that in the game's plot, this ring had absolutely never appeared in the underground market of the Evil Dragon Bar!

That meant the plot had changed before it had even begun!

However, whether there was a protagonist or not, this ring had already fallen into Aster's hands. That meant it would be difficult for him to find the protagonist and deliver the ring to him before June 28th—especially since there was most likely no protagonist at all, perhaps not even a thief. Aster suspected that the ring had been lost by the female stall owner. Stall owners who made occult charms would be less sensitive to semi-finished products instead, and having a few stolen was perfectly normal.

Aster summoned the game interface and began checking the ring's attributes. The result was unexpected, yet perfectly reasonable—the interface did not provide the ring's specific effects or attributes, but it did give its name.

Mysterious Ring, a name with a touch of the East, the same name as that ring in the game.

"This is a bit troublesome."