Chapter 16

As soon as Yun Cheng walked in, the brown-haired landlady with wavy curls spotted the two girls behind him and came forward in delighted surprise. She warmly hugged Su Cheng and Yun Nian. "Oh, my God! You have found them!"

Smiling, Yun Cheng answered her with a long passage of English that Su Cheng could not understand.

The landlady looked at Yun Nian and Su Cheng, gave them a gentle, friendly smile, and began talking with Yun Cheng.

Yun Nian whispered, "The landlady thought we were both Dad's daughters. Dad's going to book you a room here."

Hearing this, Su Cheng quickly told Yun Cheng, "I'll only be staying here for about three more days at most."

Yun Cheng nodded and took a key from the landlady.

He handed the key to Su Cheng. "This is for you. It's the second room on the left upstairs. When you check out, just give the key back to the landlady."

"And this. I hope you'll accept it."

Yun Cheng placed a wallet in Su Cheng's hand. Seemingly very worried that she would refuse, he immediately added, "It isn't much, but it's a small token of my gratitude. I'd originally planned to give you a proper welcome once we returned home... Anyway, Miss Su, I hope you won't refuse!"

Su Cheng nodded and gave a faint smile. "Thank you very much. I really do need this right now!"

Seeing her accept it, Yun Cheng sighed in relief. "My contact information is in the wallet. You're welcome to contact me anytime."

"Yun Nian said you don't speak English. There are a few children at the shop to the left of the inn. You can pay them a little to act as guides. They speak Chinese."

Su Cheng smiled. She had to admit that Yun Cheng was very thoughtful. "Thank you."

Yun Cheng shook his head. "I'm the one who should be thanking you. If Niannian hadn't been able to return to Mu Rou and me, we'd have spent the rest of our lives in pain. I hope you can visit the Yun family someday. Yun Nian's mother would really like to meet you too, Miss Su."

Su Cheng glanced at Yun Nian, who was already wiping away tears at their parting, and told a kind lie. "All right, I will."

"Goodbye, then."

Yun Nian threw herself forward and hugged Su Cheng tightly. "Big Sister, goodbye! I'll be waiting for you to come see me!"

Su Cheng patted her back. "All right."

The father and daughter got back into the car.

Su Cheng waved goodbye to them. "Goodbye."

Watching their car gradually disappear into the distance, Su Cheng knew very well that their brief connection had ended. They probably would never meet again.

Author's note:

Now that she has money, time to stock up~

Chapter 16

Su Cheng went upstairs to her room. It was a standard single room, not particularly large, and much like the inns on Blue Star, though the mural on the wall reflected a little local character.

Aside from a contact card, the wallet Yun Cheng had left contained thirty banknotes. Rather than the red or blue Su Cheng was familiar with, these notes were green.

Fortunately, the numbers printed on them were Arabic numerals.

"With this money, I can buy some supplies to take back before I leave the instance."

Su Cheng once again had to marvel at how thoroughly Yun Cheng considered everything.

She unscrewed the bottle of mineral water on the table, took a sip, then turned and left the room.

After greeting the landlady with a smile, she left the inn.

Su Cheng noted the inn's name, then first went next door to find the child guides Yun Cheng had mentioned. For one banknote, she hired a ten-year-old girl as her guide for the day.

The girl first led Su Cheng into a clothing store.

It was summer, and the clothes on display were all light and breathable: various satin short-sleeved tops, long pants, long skirts... Their colors all showed some degree of local style.

With the little girl interpreting, Su Cheng bargained for five sun hats, three pairs of sunglasses, and ten short-sleeved tops and pairs of long pants.

She also bought five sets of autumn and winter base layers and outerwear that the shopkeeper had kept tucked away.

At the shoe store next door, she bought four pairs of sneakers for spring and winter and two pairs of slippers.

After leaving the shoe store, Su Cheng bought ten bags of biscuits, ten bags of small bread rolls, five boxes of chocolate, two bags of beef jerky, one case of water, one pair of scissors, two daggers, a kitchen knife, one small chainsaw, and five neck fans at a crowded shop.

Su Cheng had picked up the chainsaw without hesitation the moment she saw it. It was a small model and not too heavy, within what she could manage.

The chainsaw's destructive power went without saying. The roar when it started was enough to give anyone a tremendous boost of confidence.

Once she finished buying these things, Su Cheng carried the water with a burlap sack containing the weapons hanging from her arm. Then she paid the little girl extra to help carry the other, lighter items, such as clothes and food.

When they brought everything back to her room at the inn, the landlady let out a soft exclamation of amazement.

After putting everything down and having some water, Su Cheng followed the little girl to a fast-food restaurant by the street for lunch.

Su Cheng had to admit that the sight of piping-hot burgers and fried chicken drumsticks being served nearly made her drool!

Thinking back, she had eaten nothing but bland packaged food since entering the apartment. This was her first time since then eating hot, flavorful meat like burgers and fried chicken.

Not caring that the food was fresh out of the kitchen, Su Cheng tore into two large burgers and the fried chicken drumsticks as though possessed by a starving ghost.

The way she wolfed down her food startled the little girl.

Su Cheng sucked up the last of her cola and rubbed her belly, full and satisfied. "How long has it been since I had a meal like that..."

That afternoon, Su Cheng followed the little girl around the nearby streets and alleys, experiencing the local customs and way of life.

She also bought fruit from roadside stalls and enjoyed sweet, delicious watermelon and pineapple...

Passing a small pharmacy, she bought two boxes of antiviral oral solution, two boxes of heat-clearing and detoxifying oral solution, two boxes of tablets to protect the stomach and stop diarrhea, ointment for insect bites, a bottle of fish oil, and multivitamins.

These replenished some of Su Cheng's medicine stock.

As for the fish oil and multivitamins, she could also take them regularly to supplement her body's trace elements.

She bought the insect-bite ointment because she already had several bites on her hands and feet. Before, she had never had time to deal with them and had simply endured them.

She had burgers again for dinner. Su Cheng actually wanted Chinese food, but there was none nearby, and she did not want to eat the roadside food that looked rather unhygienic, so she could only keep eating delicious burgers.

With the day's outing over, Su Cheng returned to the inn to rest.

After washing up, she stood in front of the mirror and used the scissors to cut her uneven hair straight into a shoulder-length bob, then tied it into a small tuft with a little elastic.

"That looks much better."

That night, Su Cheng lay clean and fresh in bed and fell asleep, unexpectedly feeling a strange sense of being on vacation.

Today's carefree eating, drinking, and shopping were worlds apart from what she had experienced over the previous two days, almost jarringly so.

The next day, after waking naturally, Su Cheng repeated the previous day's activities, enjoying food and drinks outside and spending every last bit of the money Yun Cheng had left her.

One thing worth mentioning was that, with the girl guiding her, she visited a famous local temple and met a highly respected local monk.

Su Cheng paid a high price for a packet of crimson cinnabar at the temple. The monk said that burying a small bladed weapon in the cinnabar for one day and one night would give it the power to ward off evil, but the cinnabar could only be used once, for one weapon.

After returning, Su Cheng immediately poured the cinnabar over a dagger.

That evening, while sitting on the bed and stretching her limbs, Su Cheng noticed that the previously slack muscles in her calves and waist had become much firmer.

Despite all the running and walking over the past few days, she had none of the backache she had experienced in the previous instance.

Everything she had bought was piled in a corner of the room. The water and food, clothes, medicine, and weapons were all close to the storage slots' weight limits.

"This instance was bitter first and sweet afterward. There were only 300 points, but considering these past two days, I really can't complain."

Lying in bed, Su Cheng sighed, yawned, and closed her eyes to await her departure tomorrow.

At ten in the morning, the mechanical voice sounded in Su Cheng's mind right on time:

[Instance exit countdown initiated]

Su Cheng opened her eyes, stretched unhurriedly, and waited for the countdown to end.

...3, 2, 1.

[Calculating instance results]

[Congratulations to the owner of Unit 1216 in Apartment No. 1167, Street X, District E, on successfully completing the mission. Total points earned: 300]

[You may select items within the surrounding 2 m² to take with you]

The same five storage slots appeared before her, with a sixty-second countdown hanging above them.

[Notice: each storage slot can only hold items of the same category, with a weight limit of 3 kg per slot. Living things and items more than ten times your own size cannot be selected]

Su Cheng's Smart Backpack already had one slot filled with medicine and two slots filled with water and food.

She selected all the remaining clothes, weapons, and other things to fill the five storage slots before her.

She did not know whether it was her imagination, but when she took the dagger out of the cinnabar, she kept feeling that it had become a little sharper.

When the sixty seconds ended, the surrounding space twisted, and Su Cheng's vision went black.

[Teleporting...]

[Ding~ Dear owner of Unit 1216, welcome back! The apartment will now provide you with one free medical treatment]

Thud...

Su Cheng once again dropped into the medical pod in the white examination room, immersed in a medicinal bath.

Lin Deng was still sitting in the chair. After looking Su Cheng over, he said, "You seem to be in good shape."

Su Cheng relaxed in the medicinal bath. Even without any injuries, she really enjoyed how comfortable soaking in it felt.

"I took a blow to the abdomen in the instance, but it seems fine now. Do I still need an examination?"

"No. Your physical condition was already updated on my tablet when you entered the medical pod."

"Then how long can I soak?"

"Five minutes."

Su Cheng nodded. It was the same amount of time as last time.

After swiping through the pages on his tablet, Lin Deng raised his eyebrows slightly. "Your abdominal injury is listed as a ruptured spleen. It's healed now, but there are no signs of surgery..."

Su Cheng did not hide anything and asked directly, "Dr. Lin, do you know about the Gene Lock?"

Understanding flashed through Lin Deng's eyes. "You unlocked your Gene Lock, so your injury healed on its own."

"Yes. I suffered very serious injuries in the instance. Thanks to the Gene Lock, I was able to heal on my own."