rpbooks Chapter 18 : Things Are Looking Up
Chapter 18 : Things Are Looking Up
Things Are Looking Up10:55 a.m., Desolate Village.
A young boyish-looking player was searching among the ruins and broken walls.
Not long ago, he had received a quest to come to the Desolate Village and kill 10 Wall-eating Rats. This should have been a very simple task, but for some reason, Desolate Village was particularly dead silent today. The monsters that usually showed up after a few steps were nowhere to be found no matter how hard he searched.
Did I see a ghost?
The boy scratched his head, doubt rising in his heart.
Now that he thought about it, it really did seem especially quiet nearby, without the slightest sign of any living creatures. The entire village was bathed in a deathly stillness.
Thinking of this, a chill ran down the boy's back. This wild zone was already eerie to begin with, and recalling those forum stories about female ghosts in abandoned villages, he felt worse and worse.
Just as he hesitated about whether to head back, a deeply resentful voice suddenly called out behind him.
"You'll do. Follow me for a moment."
The hair on his back stood on end. Instinctively, the boy turned to look behind him—then was utterly stunned.
Standing there was a girl in a white dress, her arms crossed, two thick silver twin-tails hanging down. Her delicate little face radiated impatience, her blue-green eyes narrowed and staring at him as if he were a piece of trash.
Wait a minute! Did I just see what I think I saw?!
Shutting and reopening his eyes for confirmation, the boy's expression contorted as if he'd really seen a ghost.
That dangerously cute appearance, those easily recognizable silver twin-tails, and that exquisitely lavish maid outfit...
This person...
Should be...
Cecilia, right?
Seeing no particular reaction from the boy, the impatience on the girl's face deepened. She reached out a hand disdainfully and waved it before his face, her soft pink lips parting as she asked, "You got dementia or something?"
"N-no, absolutely not!"
The boy shook his head awkwardly. Only now did he finally confirm that the legendary number one female player stood right in front of him.
It all felt like a dream.
"Good. Saves me the trouble of calling an ambulance. Come help out. Don't worry, you'll be compensated."
Leaving not a shred of room for refusal, Cecilia turned around and walked straight toward the depths of the ruined village.
The boy hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and followed.
"Wait—what do you want me to help you with? I don't need a reward."
"No. I don't owe anyone favors."
Cecilia's refusal was extremely decisive, her tone even a bit cold.
A favor is a very troublesome thing, and if you can avoid owing one, it's best that no one owes anyone else anything.
With just a couple of exchanges, the two arrived at a long-abandoned courtyard. Rounding a corner, the boy was greeted by a scene of monster corpses strewn across the ground.
The not-so-large courtyard was piled with Wall-eating Rats, massed layer upon layer like some monster grave pit.
Seeing this, the boy audibly swallowed.
Now he finally understood why he hadn't encountered a single monster today.
So, they were all here.
At this realization, he couldn't help but glance surreptitiously at the girl beside him again.
Cecilia's expression remained serene, though her demeanor seemed slightly stiff. Barely perceptibly, she stepped two paces back, then turned to the boy.
"Help me collect the monster materials here. Split is 30/70—thirty for you, seventy for me."
The boy roughly tallied up the number of monster corpses—at least several hundred. Even with only thirty percent, that was a pretty good deal.
No, actually, this wasn't a business transaction. How much time could it possibly take just to gather some materials? He barely had to put in any effort; this was practically a freebie.
"No need, let's do it ninety-ten, just give me a little."
Wiping his sweaty palms, the boy summoned his courage and spoke to Cecilia.
"Stop wasting words. Get to work."
Apparently too lazy to continue the conversation, Cecilia rolled her eyes and threw out a casual remark before turning and leaving the courtyard.
The boy watched her disappear around the corner and vanish altogether.
"Are all the big shots this weird in how they do things?"
Sighing helplessly, the boy entered the courtyard, crouched near a Wall-eating Rat corpse, extended his right hand, and activated his collection skill.
With this many monster corpses, who knew how long it'd take to collect them all...
On the other side, after recruiting her laborer, Cecilia didn't slack off either. She climbed onto the roof of another house, starting to search for clues regarding the Bloodthirsty Ancient Tree.
First off, this village had been abandoned for a long time, so there definitely weren't any NPCs inside. To receive the hidden quest related to the Bloodthirsty Ancient Tree, she'd have to approach from another angle.
According to Yuewu, her people had found a dust-covered letter inside a shrine at the village center—which had triggered the quest.
While the boy was still gathering materials, Cecilia decided to check out the shrine herself to see if she could also get that quest.
If only one person could take the quest, she'd have to consider teaming up with Yuewu's teammate.
Taking a deep breath, Cecilia took a running start and leapt to a rooftop more than ten meters away.
The houses in Blood-soaked Soil Village were low and fairly dense, so traveling by rooftop was quite convenient.
The main advantage: no risk of running into nests of rats.
The deeper she went into the village, the more densely monsters gathered, and the fewer players she saw. The map had only just unlocked, and very few players could make it to the village's core.
Finally, after a few minutes, Cecilia arrived at the shrine Yuewu mentioned.
Compared to the dilapidated houses nearby, this building was relatively well-preserved. The doorway yawned in darkness, its original wooden doors long since vanished—presumably gnawed away by the rats living here.
The thought of rats made Cecilia's scalp tingle again, but this time she was more cautious. She didn't just charge in headfirst; instead, she summoned her Darkwing Demon Bat and sent out ultrasonic pulses to detect whether any monsters were hiding inside.
She'd braced herself to face another few hundred giant rats, but surprisingly, not a single living creature lurked inside the shrine. Instead, an overwhelming aura of death radiated out.
That couldn't be a good sign.
No...
Cecilia's brows creased for a moment—then she changed her mind.
No matter what frightening monster was inside, as long as it wasn't a rat, everything would be fine.
Everyone, things were looking up.
.......