"Could I touch the cells myself?"
Jiang Xiaofeng didn't know. After all, the cells had handled everything themselves, from appearing to disappearing.
So Jiang Xiaofeng shot another pigeon out of the sky.
A bright blue cell flew toward Jiang Xiaofeng, and he reached out to grab it.
He caught it easily.
"Huh?"
Holding the cell in his hand felt very strange.
It wasn't slimy like the game's old promotional images suggested, nor was it hard and impossible to reshape as he'd imagined.
Instead, it was springy and quite resilient.
With a little force, he could even push his hand inside the entire cell.
"This is pretty fun."
After playing with it for a while, Jiang Xiaofeng pressed the cell against his body.
As though sensing he'd had enough fun, the cell merged into his body on its own.
Standing on the mountaintop, Jiang Xiaofeng looked down at the two stone statues below.
He remembered there was a writer who hung around here year-round.
But Jiang Xiaofeng didn't know exactly what she did.
There was also a Geo Archon Oculus here that was very easy to get, the kind that didn't require solving a puzzle.
Jiang Xiaofeng wanted to take a look.
When he'd first arrived in this world, all Jiang Xiaofeng could think about was surviving and reaching the surface. After emerging from the underground mines of The Chasm, he'd headed straight for Liyue Harbor without stopping.
Now that he was finally almost there, Jiang Xiaofeng relaxed a little and started getting curious about the things in this world.
For instance, right now, Jiang Xiaofeng wanted to see whether a Geo Archon Oculus could be destroyed.
With that thought, Jiang Xiaofeng jumped off the mountaintop.
Just before hitting the ground, Jiang Xiaofeng activated the Wings of the Crow and landed unharmed.
Jiang Xiaofeng looked around. The female writer didn't seem to be nearby at the moment.
The perfect opportunity.
Jiang Xiaofeng went to the foot of the statue on the left, pulled away the bushes covering its base, and jumped into the pit before him.
The moment he entered, Jiang Xiaofeng felt himself enveloped in golden light. It took him a moment to react.
"A Geo Archon Oculus?"
Jiang Xiaofeng took the Geo Archon Oculus directly into his hand and examined it closely.
Yes, it was still an aggregation of energy he couldn't understand.
After a few looks, Jiang Xiaofeng lost interest. He jumped out of the deep pit, carried the Geo Archon Oculus to the stone platform between the statues, and set it down.
Then the Hayabusa Gauntlets appeared on Jiang Xiaofeng's hands.
"Hah!"
Jiang Xiaofeng smashed a fist down on it.
Crack-
The Geo Archon Oculus shattered at the blow.
Jiang Xiaofeng wasn't curious anymore.
It was a beginner reward with "Modified" tacked onto its name, after all. Having some special powers was perfectly normal.
Anyway, he'd shattered the Geo Archon Oculus with one punch.
Jiang Xiaofeng watched the fragments of the Geo Archon Oculus slowly disappear before his eyes.
"..."
Jiang Xiaofeng seemed to have guessed something.
He returned to the pit.
Sure enough.
The Geo Archon Oculus had "respawned" in its original spot, perfectly intact.
"Tsk."
Jiang Xiaofeng raised his hand and punched the "respawned" Geo Archon Oculus.
Crack-
The familiar sensation of shattering, the familiar sound.
Before Jiang Xiaofeng's eyes, a familiar Geo Archon Oculus "respawned" once again.
Jiang Xiaofeng suddenly wanted to see just how many times this Geo Archon Oculus could restore itself.
And so...
"Muda!"
"Muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda-"
Crack-
Crack crack crack crack crack crack crack crack-
The two sounds kept ringing out like that.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Jiang Xiaofeng looked at the Geo Archon Oculus before him, which had "respawned" who knew how many times.
"I'll take my leave."
Jiang Xiaofeng gave the Geo Archon Oculus a friendly gesture and left.
You can revive infinitely. Good for you.
When Jiang Xiaofeng emerged from the pit, it was indeed already nighttime.
The Geo Archon Oculus had been a little too bright. Jiang Xiaofeng hadn't even noticed it had gotten dark.
Tonight, Jiang Xiaofeng finally decided to rest for a night before setting out again.
Jiang Xiaofeng didn't need food, and he had no trouble adjusting to places to sleep.
So...
He turned around and jumped back into the pit to lie down.
He gave the Geo Archon Oculus the middle finger, then rolled over and went to sleep.
Jiang Xiaofeng ignored the few fire totems.
Let the Traveler deal with that headache...
Morning soon came.
After "saying good morning" to the Geo Archon Oculus, Jiang Xiaofeng jumped out of the pit and slowly walked toward Liyue Harbor.
"Finally almost there."
Jiang Xiaofeng tilted his head back to look at the enormous Jade Chamber, then turned his gaze to Liyue Harbor before him.
Sure enough, in reality, Liyue Harbor wasn't made up entirely of single-story buildings like in the game.
Clearly, most of the buildings had two stories...
"Huh?"
Jiang Xiaofeng suddenly remembered something.
If I look like a monster, why hasn't Xiao come to deal with me?
And on my way here, I don't think I heard that guy who loves grilled tiger fish muttering about me.
...Could it be that I don't count as an evil spirit in their eyes?
That would make things much easier.
Following the principle that less trouble was better than more, Jiang Xiaofeng prepared to head into Liyue Harbor.
"Oh, right."
Jiang Xiaofeng took out a throwing knife and knocked a pigeon out of the sky.
He remembered there was a dog here he could feed...
Back when he played the game, although he was always rather short on fowl, Jiang Xiaofeng had really liked coming here to feed it every so often.
Was it at this entrance or the other one...?
Whatever. There are dogs on both sides. It's not like I need a food bowl to feed them.
Jiang Xiaofeng eagerly activated the Wings of the Crow and began sprinting.
Games and reality were different, after all. Jiang Xiaofeng hadn't noticed while hurrying along earlier, but now that he looked, he spotted the differences.
This stretch of road sloped downhill, while the fork beside it led toward the Golden House.
Jiang Xiaofeng charged down the slope toward Liyue Harbor and soon reached the wooden bridge.
There were also a few houses nearby, seemingly belonging to the NPCs from that Primo Geovishap quest.
What Jiang Xiaofeng hadn't expected was that Liyue's Ministry of Civil Affairs was right there in the distance, plainly visible.
There was no other reason for it: the building was simply too tall.
It was practically built against the mountain and was almost as tall as the mountain itself.
Jiang Xiaofeng surveyed the entrance to Liyue Harbor, clicking his tongue in wonder.
After looking around, Jiang Xiaofeng walked toward the wooden bridge at the entrance to Liyue Harbor.
Jiang Xiaofeng spotted a yellow dog with a white belly and tossed half the pigeon straight toward it.
The dog happily ran toward the pigeon, failing to notice the bloody aura around Jiang Xiaofeng.
The people on the bridge were all absorbed in their own conversations and didn't notice Jiang Xiaofeng.
Jiang Xiaofeng reached the other side of the bridge, where two black-backed dogs were playing, and tossed them the other half of the pigeon.
While the dogs fought over the fowl, Jiang Xiaofeng approached the general goods shop at the end of the bridge.
"Wel... come, dear customer..."
Dongsheng had spotted someone entering Liyue Harbor from afar and was just about to call out, only to be frightened almost speechless by Jiang Xiaofeng's cell-person face.
"A handful of almonds and a few tomatoes."
Although Jiang Xiaofeng wasn't hungry, that didn't mean he couldn't eat.
After so many days, Jiang Xiaofeng had long since started craving food.
However delicious Sunsettias were, eating them all the time was still too much.
Though Jiang Xiaofeng hadn't actually eaten many of them...