Novice Village Protection

Lin Bai supported Zhou Jiang as he entered the City Lord's Residence in ostentatious fashion. Whenever anyone offered to take over, he smiled and shook his head, putting on a show of being perfectly tireless.

First, he wanted to polish his image. Second, he wanted a hostage in hand.

One move of Divine Dragon Waves Its Fur had tested the strength of the residence's guards, but even a fierce tiger could not withstand a pack of wolves. What if the city lord still wanted someone to kill him to see whether he was a player?

So.

Until he knew exactly where the city lord stood, he would not let go of Zhou Jiang. Besides, Zhou Jiang was currently a walking source of positive emotion points.

Lin Bai finally understood: having lots of systems was not necessarily a bad thing. A mountain of quests might make him act like someone with a split personality, but whatever he did, he stood to gain!

In the corridor.

An old man hurried over, intending to take Zhou Jiang from him.

Lin Bai dodged backward with his precious treasure and refused out of habit. "No need. I can manage..."

The old man looked at Lin Bai and shook his head helplessly. "Let me handle him. I'm the physician here at the City Lord's Residence."

"Oh, you're the physician! My apologies." Lin Bai hastily laid Zhou Jiang on the floor and apologized repeatedly. "Doctor, please take a look at Lord Zhou right away. He was unconscious the whole way here, and he coughed up a lot of blood."

The old man nodded slightly at him, his fingers already resting on Zhou Jiang's pulse.

A moment later, he frowned and muttered, "These are severe internal injuries! But why didn't he take healing medicine promptly?"

"Perhaps he didn't get the chance!" Lin Bai said without batting an eye.

"If he'd taken medicine and promptly circulated his energy to regulate his breathing, his injuries wouldn't be this serious. Now he'll probably need two or three months of rest to recover." The physician sighed.

He took a bottle of pills from the medicine chest beside him, tipped one out, and moved to put it in Zhou Jiang's mouth.

Before he could reach Zhou Jiang's lips, however, his hand was suddenly empty. Lin Bai had snatched the pill away.

The physician froze.

Lin Bai examined the pill's structure and quality, pried open Zhou Jiang's mouth, and fed it to him himself. "Let me. After all, I personally brought him back to the City Lord's Residence. If I personally give him his medicine too, that will bring this good deed to a perfect close."

The old physician gave Lin Bai a strange look but did not pursue the matter. He simply took it for an odd fixation on seeing things through. The medicine had gone down, after all. Who fed it to him made no difference!

The people around them generously contributed another wave of positive emotions, privately marveling that Shopkeeper Lin truly was a conscientious man...

[Treat one patient (completed); reward: Constitution +1 (issued)]

[Take the initiative to treat three patients; reward: Constitution +1]

The instant Lin Bai put the pill into Zhou Jiang's mouth, the notification of a successful quest sounded in his mind, just as expected. Every system's initial quest was practically a free gift. It only required him to act, not to do a particularly good job.

That was a very user-friendly touch from the systems' designers. Lin Bai liked it a lot.

One point of Constitution was added to his body.

Lin Bai felt considerably lighter, but nothing else particularly noticeable happened. Apparently, Constitution was like Spirit: he would have to accumulate more before he could truly appreciate its benefits.

"Shopkeeper Lin, the city lord requests your presence." An attendant parted the crowd, came up to Lin Bai, and saluted him with cupped hands.

"Very well." Lin Bai rose and cupped his hands, bowing all around. "I'll go meet the city lord. I'll leave Lord Zhou in your care."

If he was putting on an act, he had to see it through. He might as well earn some goodwill first.

Zhou Jiang had launched a sneak attack only to be beaten instead, yet Lin Bai had still gone to great pains to bring him back to the City Lord's Residence. Given such a righteous deed, surely Zhou Jiang would have nothing to complain about when he woke.

Judging from the attitudes of everyone at the City Lord's Residence.

Perhaps it was just as Zhou Jiang had said: after this round of probing, the city lord probably would not make any more covert attempts on his life.

The attendant led Lin Bai to the study door. "City Lord, Shopkeeper Lin is here."

"Show him in," a slightly husky voice answered from inside.

A woman?

Lin Bai froze.

Xu Longyun, the city lord of Jiamao City, was a woman?

"Shopkeeper Lin, please!" The attendant pushed open the door and gestured for him to enter.

Lin Bai looked inside.

The study was divided into two sections and brightly lit. Books filled the shelves along both sides. The city lord was in the second section. Through a carved partition, he could vaguely make out a figure in dark green, but not her features.

Lin Bai stepped into the study and cupped his hands. "Lin Bai greets the city lord."

"Come in!" Her husky voice rang out again. "Mr. Lin, I'd like to talk to you."

Lin Bai walked into the inner section.

Only then did he get a clear look at the city lord: a woman in her thirties, with understated makeup and a heroic air about her brow.

Though she was a woman, simply standing there, she exuded an unmistakable authority—the bearing naturally cultivated by someone in a high position.

At the moment, however, she looked visibly exhausted. On closer inspection, he could even see the bloodshot lines in her eyes.

Several sheets of white paper lay scattered across the desk before her.

They contained the Heavenly Fragment Collection Lin Bai had put together that afternoon. Quite a few words had been scribbled into the blanks in the poems.

Such as "If two hearts reach the depths of love" and "The spring silkworm's thread ends only at death; the autumn cicada, at life's end..." and so on.

Every time she filled in a phrase, the city lord seemed dissatisfied and immediately crossed it out...

Well, well!

So the city lord was a literature buff, too.

Then he was probably responsible for the state she was in!

"If two hearts do what?" Xu Longyun asked abruptly as she looked at Lin Bai.

Lin Bai shook his head. "There's no need to test me, City Lord. If I had the complete poems, why would I put together a Heavenly Fragment Collection? Wouldn't publishing them myself and winning fame and success be far more appealing?"

"Do you know how many people will turn gray over this Heavenly Fragment Collection once it's published?" Xu Longyun asked.

"City Lord, better for the world's hair to turn gray than for bright pearls to gather dust," Lin Bai said with a smile.

Xu Longyun stared at him for a long while, then suddenly smiled. "Better for the world's hair to turn gray than for bright pearls to gather dust—well said. You truly are an intriguing man, Mr. Lin."

No emotions came through in the background.

What an insincere compliment!

Lin Bai grumbled inwardly, then said, "You flatter me, City Lord."

"Enough about the poetry collection." Xu Longyun smiled. "I want to know what sort of person you are, Mr. Lin."

"What sort of person do you think I am, City Lord?" Lin Bai countered.

"I'm asking precisely because I can't see through you," Xu Longyun said. "If I call you someone from beyond this world, none of those other outsiders knows anything about your Heavenly Fragment Collection. If I call you someone of this world, your actions are completely at odds with it..."

Someone from beyond this world?

Lin Bai sighed inwardly. Apparently, the city lord knew nothing about the game!

Lin Bai interrupted Xu Longyun. "City Lord, what do you think of those outsiders?"

Xu Longyun fell silent for a moment. A flicker of disgust crossed her eyes, and she said coldly, "The seeds of calamity for this world."

She had hit the nail on the head.

Lin Bai gave Xu Longyun a surprised look. "In that case, why not round them all up while they're still weak, instead of letting them run wild?"

"Is that why you used the secret guards as an excuse to send them to the City Lord's Residence?" Xu Longyun countered.

"More or less!" Lin Bai said with an awkward smile. Could I tell you that all of this was simply because you'd detained my big brother?

Xu Longyun gave Lin Bai a long, searching look and shook her head. "It's not that I don't want to. I can't. Seven days ago, a divine oracle descended from heaven: when those from beyond this world first arrive, the government must allow them to grow, neither interfering with their actions nor luring them into harm. Only after they leave the city may things return to normal. Otherwise, heavenly thunder will descend, destroying the city and slaughtering its people."

Holy shit!

Novice Village protection was enforced with threats?

Lin Bai froze. This was fucking ridiculous!

His heart raced for several beats, and his expression shifted slightly. If this was how the game protected players during their novice phase, would all the trouble he had stirred up bring heavenly thunder down on him, too?

Xu Longyun had been watching Lin Bai's expression all along. Seeing him stare blankly, she tapped the desk lightly. "Mr. Lin, sending all the Heaven-Sent Ones to the City Lord's Residence has certainly left me with a difficult problem!"

[Resentment from Xu Longyun: +1 +1 +1]

At last, the background system received the city lord's negative emotions.

So your name was Xu Longyun. I'd thought you were so deeply calculating that you could control your emotions at will. Lin Bai looked at the city lord, shook his head, and smiled. "City Lord, let's work together!"

Xu Longyun frowned. "Work together?"

"Before meeting you, I didn't quite understand my own mission either. But after hearing what you've said, I think I'm beginning to see it." Lin Bai smiled meaningfully. "I sent the whole lot of them to the City Lord's Residence, yet no divine punishment came down on me, did it? I think that could form the foundation of our cooperation."