Returning to his room, Yan Qing casually placed the mask on the table, allowing gravity to pull his body onto the soft bed.
Even though I haven't done anything, I've still worn myself out.
The midday thief meeting made him feel like he was at work, but what bothered him more was that everyone else could return to their homes in the main world, while he could only come back to the room provided by the Thief's House. Although, in reality, there was no difference—tomorrow they, too, would have to return to their rooms before entering the hall—a work environment right outside the door still gave Yan Qing a bit of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lunch was still roasted lamb leg and vegetable buns, and Yan Qing could only heat them up a bit. For some reason, he started craving ice cream and cake, despite not liking sweets before. Seeing Red Snake eating those pastries today, watching Red Snake lick sticky rice powder off her fingers made Yan Qing swallow hard.
Spiritual Jade should be quite valuable, as long as you reach any safe zone in a main city, you can shop peacefully...
Yan Qing shook his head like a rattle, trying hard to shake off those thoughts.
As long as there's no risk, there's no danger. As long as you don't go out, there won't be any accidents. Improving life is something only people with no worries in life can afford to think about. Right now, he's putting in all his effort just to stay alive.
Not to mention, he's still not a First-Turn Messenger, and when discussing with Black Wolf and her crew, there's always a feeling that he's a husky among wolves, fearing they'll see through him.
Luckily, Black Wolf suggested ending the meeting, or else Yan Qing would have been so tense he'd need to pee urgently.
After eating and brushing his teeth, Yan Qing lay on the bed and opened the Nexar Game Console.
Messenger, activate!
On the character interface, only "Yan Qing" was left; "Yan San" had vanished without a trace.
Actually, Yan Qing felt a bit regretful after killing Wuwan Liu, because the Marquis of Lecheng County had promised he could farm dungeons daily, which meant at least 2000 Spiritual Jade + a token + all kinds of food as stable daily income. If Wuwan Liu had knelt and apologized, Yan Qing might have pretended nothing ever happened, they'd still be good friends.
Who knew Wuwan Liu would be so disrespectful.
We single-player game players are like this, if a character is annoying, we'll kill them if we can, and if we can't kill them, we'll go online and download a MOD to make them killable and then kill them.
In my game, there can't be any characters I dislike.
But Yan Qing quickly had a backup plan, because he heard the Marquis of Lecheng County mention during a conversation that the spoils from the Secret Realm are usually stored in the military camp in Ping City, and sent to Nocturnal Heaven only when they accumulate to a certain amount.
Therefore, Yan Qing could totally create a thief character, find a way to enter the camp and steal the elixirs and Spiritual Jade they've accumulated, which would bring in at least over ten thousand Spiritual Jade, right? Just one theft would be enough to cover the penalty for failing a thief mission.
As for how to enter the camp and where the spoils are stored, Yan Qing wasn't worried at all. If need be, he'll create dozens of new characters to pave the way. Surely, he'll gather specific intel...
Yan Qing had a flash of inspiration, vaguely connecting some dots.
But at that moment, a new prompt popped up in the game, capturing all his attention.
"Detected that one of your other reality mode characters has a max-level skill. Would you like to activate the 'Talent Inheritance' feature? Note, once activated, you can only create new reality mode characters."
"Talent Inheritance: Activation is limited to reality mode characters only. To recognize players' achievements in reality mode, when creating new characters, players are allowed to transfer the talents of existing characters to the new ones."
"Detailed analysis: The max-level skill of an existing character will become the 'talent skill' of the new character, gaining an additional 100% experience bonus, and can stack with potential bonuses."
Yan Qing's eyes sparkled, 'the max-level skill of existing characters' should mean his max-level basic steps.
In other words, his new character would get a 100% experience boost when learning basic steps?
This is such a great feature; it must be activated! You know, basic steps are very hard to train, relying solely on dodge and long-distance movement to gain experience, 'Yan San' never managed to learn even the first level before dying.
Furthermore, it seems possible to inherit advanced skills, like the Thunderbolt Saber Technique. Most advanced skills only have entry-level manuals; higher levels have to be slowly improved through combat. With the Talent Inheritance feature, as long as Yan Qing has an advanced character, he can easily train other minor characters to very high levels.
Isn't this a bit overpowered?
Yan Qing speculated it might be a strategy by the company to draw more players into the reality mode trap. Having such overpowered talent inheritance mechanics might lure many leisure players who wouldn't normally play reality mode to take a dive, and once they do, they might easily buy next month's subscription card for training minor characters...
However, when Yan Qing created a new character, he immediately grimaced and cursed the game planners for being brainless.
Because on the creation page, a new section called "Inheritable Talent" appeared, and naturally, there was only the basic steps option.
And behind basic steps, there was a price!
"Basic Steps Talent: 12 hours of game time"
"Your total game time experienced: 21 hours, available game time: 21 hours"
The currency for buying talents isn't in-game currency, nor is it external currency, but game time!
12 hours doesn't seem expensive, Yan Qing could afford it, but the problem is that if the basic steps talent costs 12 hours, then advanced skill talents must start at a hundred hours, right? At the rate Yan Qing loses several minor characters a day, no amount of playtime would be enough for him to splurge.
So, perhaps a different gameplay approach, carefully nurturing minor characters?
Yan Qing dismissed this notion; even if he's not neurotic and extremely cautious, minor characters could still unexpectedly die. Moreover, compared to the loss in 'game time' as virtual currency, Yan Qing's real playtime is a much greater loss—when a character dies after playing them for a long time, it's as if most of the time spent on that character has gone to waste.
Even in one's own life, there's the possibility of futile efforts, making losses in virtual currency seem insignificant.
After a brief contemplation, Yan Qing confirmed his play strategy: When necessary, invest in talents. No need to skimp on minor characters, but also no need to prioritize them.
If he starts being overly concerned that a character might die when risking, that would be missing the point—Yan Qing opened minor characters precisely to avoid risks!
Thus, he quickly molded a tall character with 13 Qi Blood points, equipping him with the Basic Steps Talent.
While pinching his face, Yan Qing pondered for a moment, recalling the prejudice of the Wuwan Liu against Central Plains People.
This time I'm going to steal something, and if I use a Central Plains face, they might take their anger out on other innocent people.
Based on this idea, Yan Qing created a new character with a Northern People's appearance, and as for the name, let's call it 'Ye Si'.
"Nocturnal Heaven Affiliated Newbie Village", start the game!
As soon as he landed, he quickly ran to Ping City, feeling something different along the way—the pedestrians would deliberately avoid him, even stopping to let him pass first, even though 'Ye Si' was wearing plain cloth clothes.
The gate of Ping City was almost unchanged, with commoners still lined up on the left, waiting for the guards to leisurely check them, while a few guards on the right were chatting. The only difference was that the guards were no longer the ones from yesterday.
Yan Qing naturally wouldn't accommodate them and went directly past the right side.
The guards, seeing someone dressed in coarse cloth and without shoes, instinctively wanted to yell, but when they looked up at 'Ye Si's' face, their words stuck in their throats.
"Do you have a pass?" asked another guard.
"No."
Yan Qing stood at the gate, ready to beat them up. His original plan was to violently enter the city and then find a place to hide until dark before sneaking into the barracks.
However, the guards exchanged a glance and seemed unsure about the identity of the Northern strongman before them, so they let him pass obediently.
This has its perks?
Just as Yan Qing was about to enter, he heard a commotion nearby. Turning his head, he saw an old lady in the queue on the left pulling at a guard.
"I-I only have five cents, and I only paid five cents before..."
"You're doing business in the city, so you have to pay the city tax." The guard pointed at the basket of goods she was carrying, "If you don't pay, get out of the way!"
"I'm not doing business; I'm delivering things to my son's inn where he works as a waiter, it's the Chen's Inn..." The old lady uncovered the cloth over the basket, revealing the warm red eggs inside, talking incessantly, "My son loves eating home-cooked eggs; I'm giving him eggs, not doing business, five cents is enough..."
The guard glanced at the basket of eggs and took the five cents the old lady offered.
"Fine, go in."
"Thank you, thank you, sir... ah, give them back to me!"
"You said you're not doing business, so these eggs can't go in, hurry up, get out of the way!"
"Please be kind, sir, my son works as a waiter and doesn't eat well or sleep well, I need to give him eggs to nourish him—"
"Get lost!"
During the struggle, two eggs fell from the basket and smashed on the ground, the rich yellow egg liquid flowing into the dirt. The guard, annoyed, gave a hard shove, causing the old lady to fall backward onto the ground. Feeling humiliated, he cursed and walked over, crushing the egg shells and lifting his foot to kick her, "I told you to get lost, and you won't, refusing good wine but choosing punishment—"
Bang!
'Ye Si' punched the guard, sending him crashing into the wall, the strength of 13 points of Qi Blood knocking the latter's teeth loose. Before the guard could recover his senses, 'Ye Si' grabbed the back of his head and slammed it hard onto the ground!
"Didn't you want to eat eggs? Eat them, don't waste, eat more."
Although the ground at the city gate was level without any stones, 'Ye Si's' strength was immense, soon grinding the egg shells into sand, while the guard's face was a bloody mess. Throughout the entire process, the other guards dared not come and stop him, some even seemed to run and inform the city's Baibao, but Yan Qing didn't care.
Perhaps this is the real reason Yan Qing doesn't dare to face the outside world—Master Yan is kind-hearted and can't bear the suffering of the mortal world.
He's someone who would try to take a detour when he sees beggars because he doesn't know if the beggars are genuine, and he doesn't have much money himself. If he sees someone very miserable, his empathy would flare up but he can't help much, and he'd feel bad.
But the game is different.
It's precisely because he can't release his frustration in reality that he channels his desires in the game.
If he's wronged, he will retaliate from dawn till dusk, if he's angry, he will act immediately, if he's cautious and timid playing a game, then what's the point!
"If you continue like this, he'll die."
'Ye Si' turned his head, seeing an old general on an old horse slowly approaching, followed by several Evil Ghost Knights. Seeing them appear, everyone inside and outside the city gate stayed far away, and the old lady on the ground, terrified, rolled and crawled to escape.
"Let go, I'll spare your life," the old general said calmly.
Yan Qing remembered him, the game system remembered him, his name showed on his head—
"Baibao Guardian Gai Louxian."
When Ying Rushi promoted Yan San, it was to place him under the command of this old general.
The Baibao has one commander, three guardians, eighteen banner masters, and all banner masters are First-Turn Messengers.
And guardians, naturally they are Second-Turn Messengers.
Yan Qing glanced at the distant silhouette of the old lady gradually disappearing, hesitated not for a moment, and crushed the guard's throat in one hand!