What's wrong with writing a little slower? (Shrugs)

He had only seen the game's golden lettering twice, both times through the Eye of Truth skill: in the annotations for the Ladder Tower and Red-Eyes.

That stingy #... no, he couldn't keep thinking about it.

Zuo Cheng'an still remembered the feeling of being glanced at by an unknown being. Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to experience it a second time.

So being powerful made you special, huh? Being powerful meant you could instantly retaliate even when someone just thought something bad about you!??

Well, damn. Apparently, being powerful really did let you do whatever you wanted.

On second thought, both had golden lettering. Could there be some special connection between them?

Or was this merely one way the game marked something as special?

Just as in the game's public chat window, system messages used a different font from messages sent by ordinary players.

High-grade items also used unusual fonts to set themselves apart.

Unable to reach a conclusion right away, Zuo Cheng'an simply turned to studying the quest.

First, the quest's name, [???'s Farm], was clearly asking the player to fill in the blank.

There was also a horizontal line, clearly intended for the player to write the answer on.

And there was a note afterward.

If the answer Zuo Cheng'an wrote was incorrect, the text would automatically disappear, and one writing attempt would be deducted.

So each question mark in "???" certainly didn't stand for one character. Instead, it represented a short phrase of unspecified length.

Moreover, the phrase "So-and-so's Farm" easily brought to mind the instance's name, "Uncle Red-Eyes' Farm."

Red-Eyes referred to that rabbit.

But the rabbit had a child's voice. Paired with "Uncle" to make "Uncle Red-Eyes," it sounded wrong no matter how he looked at it.

Could "Uncle" have been part of the farm's original name?

With half the answer settled, Zuo Cheng'an tentatively wrote "Uncle" toward the end of the line.

"Uncle" didn't disappear, which meant it was part of the correct answer.

Getting one step closer to the correct answer in one go put Zuo Cheng'an in a good mood.

He had, in fact, exploited a loophole in the game.

The game only said that if the answer was written incorrectly, the text on the line would automatically disappear.

But what if the answer he was writing was correct, just not finished yet?

Naturally, the text wouldn't disappear. It would stay there.

Zuo Cheng'an (shrugging): "What's wrong with writing a little slower?"

"My habit is to write one character an hour. What business is that of yours?"

The game: "..."

Fine, fine. As long as you're happy.

Next, Zuo Cheng'an searched the room carefully.

He lifted the picture frames to check for hidden compartments behind them, then took them apart to see whether anything was written on the backs of the photographs.

He pulled open the bedside cabinet to check for hidden compartments inside.

Sure enough, he actually found a bit of information.

A photograph of a scratched-out figure posing with his Sheepdog had been placed in the bedside cabinet.

The room's owner seemed to like this photograph very much and take it out to look at often, so it had been placed in the most convenient spot.

The figure in the photograph was tall and broad, carrying a pitchfork over his shoulder with one hand. The Sheepdog sitting beside him was also a large, long-haired dog, looking imposing and formidable, completely at odds with the playful, cute bell around his neck.

On the back of this photograph, Zuo Cheng'an found two characters-Mo Dou.

Could "???" mean "Uncle Mo Dou"? Or "Uncle Mo"?

Zuo Cheng'an didn't rashly write this answer on the panel's line.

Leaving the house the same way he had entered, Zuo Cheng'an got his bearings on the roof and headed for the sheep pen.

As the extra, twenty-first member of the flock,

the black sheep might hold information related to the quest.

Perhaps "???" could even stand for "Uncle Black Sheep."

Adding "Black Sheep" and "Mo Dou" to his list of possible answers, Zuo Cheng'an didn't rush to try them.

He could only submit a wrong answer three times. There was no harm in waiting until he was seventy percent confident before deciding.

Rather surprisingly, Wang Guangfei was actually beside the sheep pen.

He hadn't gone out searching all over the hills for sheep?

Wang Guangfei sat in the clearing. He wasn't spacing out; he was thinking.

He had finally realized that the game's quests were no longer so simple. Stubbornly sticking to the task would only get him killed.

This new realization completely contradicted the survival principles he had distilled from over a dozen level-one instances.

In ordinary level-one instances, the game didn't litter the rules with pitfalls or play word games with the players.

Black was black, white was white, and whatever it told you to do was exactly what you had to do. It didn't run you around in circles.

As long as you followed the game's requirements and had the strength to keep up, you could clear the instance.

There had never been a situation where the game asked players to find twenty-one sheep, yet searching the entire instance yielded only twenty.

Based on Wang Guangfei's experience clearing instances,

there should have been a basement on the farm, with the missing twenty-first sheep locked inside.

The lamb's pitiful bleating would serve as a clue, drawing players to the basement.

Then there would be a ferocious monster in the basement, which players would have to defeat to rescue the twenty-first sheep and complete the quest.

But the Ladder Tower's instance didn't follow the formula!

More than half the allotted game time had passed, and aside from the fiercely protective hens in the chicken coop, which could barely qualify as enemies,

not a single individual hostile to players in the traditional sense had appeared!

This wasn't normal at all!! Where were the game designers? Did they even know how to design a game's progression!?

As for the locked, red-roofed house,

it hadn't even entered Wang Guangfei's consideration.

Because level-one instances never featured locations that required roundabout methods to enter.

They were either an enclosed corridor, a single-floor supermarket, or a bus.

The entire game took place in these small, enclosed locations.

Even outdoor ones had invisible walls blocking the way.

Wang Guangfei had also grown accustomed to treating anywhere he could access freely as the instance's playable area.

As for places he couldn't reach, he automatically assumed they were decorations or backdrops and would subconsciously ignore them.

And that played right into the game's hands.

Only those who could quickly break free of habitual thinking could pass the screening, clear the instance, and advance to become First Heavenly Ladder players.

The game's purpose in establishing a Ladder Tower advancement system with no walkthroughs was probably also to select truly capable people for advancement and direct resources toward those at the top.

As for those who teamed up to ride someone's coattails and got carried upward...

Smart people needed a few cannon fodder to test things out before they could draw on the experience, after all. That counted as putting everyone to good use. :-D

Wang Guangfei kept a very close watch on the twenty sheep in the pen. The moment Zuo Cheng'an tried to approach, he stopped him.

Wang Guangfei: "What are you doing here?"