Chapter 7

Not Watching for Free

"Grandma!"

Grandma snatched up a wooden stick from the ground and marched into the guesthouse with great purpose, Chao Musheng sprinting after her.

The building had been constructed by Xiufang, an elder of the village, for her three children. After they all bought homes in the city, the countryside house had sat empty ever since.

Chao Musheng heard a chaotic tumble of footsteps and shouting from upstairs.

He rushed to intercept his grandmother and tried to position her behind him. The old woman shoved him aside and took the stairs two at a time: "What on earth is going on?"

Several unopened water bottles were scattered across the hallway floor. Two young men — one stocky, one tall — were scuffling in front of a doorway, with several others standing nearby trying to pull them apart.

"No idea what started it — we just came out and found them going at it," said the couple, leaning against the doorframe of the room diagonally across the hall with the air of people watching a show. "Honestly, what is there to fight about? You're all here to have a good time. Don't ruin it for everyone on the whole floor."

Chao Musheng bent down to pick up the water bottles at his feet. The door of the neighboring room opened a crack, and two eyes full of curiosity peered out.

"Who's fighting? Who's fighting?!"

Xiufang's sharp voice cut up from downstairs, followed by a rapid clatter of footsteps. She burst onto the landing, pulled the two men apart, and charged into the room to inspect the damage.

"You've broken something!" She pointed at a patch of chipped paint on the corner of the table. "You're paying for that."

The players: "..."

Hold on — Auntie, we were only pretending to fight so you wouldn't get suspicious. How did we end up actually getting shaken down?

"You don't want to pay?" Xiufang's eyes bored into Chubby and Lone Wolf with an intensity suggesting that if they dared refuse, she'd launch herself at them with her bare hands.

"Of course, of course we'll pay." Chubby released Lone Wolf and fished out a banknote, pressing it into Xiufang's palm.

Xiufang approved of this attitude. She turned to Lone Wolf: "And you?"

Lone Wolf's expression remained stony. He patted himself down, located a hundred-yuan note, and handed it to Xiufang.

"No more of this, you hear me?" Xiufang tucked the money into her pocket, then turned to smile at Xiao You, who was standing quietly in the corner: "If they ever dare start a fight in your room again, you come straight to me."

The dusty curtains, the scratched paint on the bed frame — those weren't beyond claiming compensation for either.

Xiao You nodded in silence. Noticing that Chao Musheng was still collecting the bottles scattered across the hallway floor, she bent down and gathered the remaining two, placing them in his arms.

"Thank you." Chao Musheng set the Kunlun purified water bottles on the narrow hallway table, then took out his phone and sent two messages.

"Sorry about all this, mate." Chubby's honest face arranged itself into an apologetic smile. "The three of us were chatting in our room when he walked past the door and insisted we were talking about him behind his back — demanded we apologize. I lost my temper and it turned into this." He spread his hands helplessly.

Whatever happened, they couldn't let the NPCs suspect something was off about them.

Picking a fight was the only explanation they could offer for why Lone Wolf had been found in Xiao You's room. From the villagers' perspective, they and Lone Wolf were tourists from different places — not companions who would logically share accommodations.

"A man nursing a broken heart — what do you expect?" The male half of the couple slung an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders with a proprietary air. "Why bother getting worked up over him?"

Chao Musheng found a plastic bag and loaded the unopened water bottles into it, then turned to Xiao You: "Would you like to move somewhere else? I've already checked — there's a guesthouse in the village that only takes female guests."

Xiao You blinked, caught off guard. She looked at him for a moment, then quickly looked away. "That would be too much trouble for you..."

"It's no trouble." Chao Musheng picked up the plastic bag and walked toward Xiao You's doorway. Lone Wolf and Chubby, who were blocking the entrance, stepped aside to let him pass.

Chao Musheng stood in the doorway and glanced at the room's interior without entering: "Do you have a lot of luggage?"

The development had taken the players by surprise. They all watched Xiao You without speaking.

Any player with half a brain wouldn't separate herself from the group and go live somewhere alone.

Players who went solo died fastest.

"Not much." Xiao You set her jaw, reached inside, and pulled out a single travel bag. "Sorry for the trouble, Chao Musheng."

"Xiao You, you—"

Are you trying to get yourself killed?!

Chubby shot her a warning look, utterly baffled by whatever madness had seized her.

The female half of the couple watched Xiao You and Chubby with a thoughtful expression. So the relationship between these three players isn't as tight as it looks.

Chubby seemed straightforward but was clearly the dominant one among the three. The other male companion was unremarkable — the sort of person who was easy to overlook entirely.

This woman called Xiao You seemed to have an unusual gift for attracting children's attention — which would explain why the child NPC on the bus had ignored everyone else and gone straight to her.

A charisma-type ability, perhaps?

She shifted her gaze to Chao Musheng and quietly retrieved an S-rank item from her inventory — a Peering Glass — and activated it.

The Peering Glass, as its name suggested, was capable of reading the danger rating of any NPC encountered in an instance. It could only be used once per instance, and came at a cost of ten health points.

The Peering Glass flickered several times. Streams of garbled code cascaded across its surface, and the erratic pulse of light made her chest tighten with unease.

[Item used. Target has no readable values. Please use item on a valid target.]

No values?!

She stared in disbelief. Even the most basic, bottom-tier NPC carried at least five danger points. Chao Musheng was a living, breathing person — not a stone. How could he have no values at all?!

Chao Musheng had the distinct sensation that someone was watching him. He glanced around at the surrounding doors. Who's staring? So rude.

"Ah!"

The female player, who had been leaning against the doorframe, let out a sudden cry of pain. Finding all eyes on her, she managed a smile that looked worse than a grimace. "Bit my tongue."

Her Peering Glass!

Just now, its rank had dropped without warning — plummeting from S all the way down to A, its range and capabilities drastically reduced along with it.

The loss was a physical blow. She had no more appetite for watching anyone else's drama, and turned back into her room.

They were right. This instance really is something else.

*

Xiao You followed Chao Musheng out of the guesthouse. From somewhere in the distance came the sound of children laughing.

"You're done already?" Grandpa had borrowed a shoulder pole from someone — no one was sure whose — and upon seeing Grandma emerge with Chao Musheng, and a young woman trailing behind them, he quickly tucked it behind his back and lowered his voice: "No one got hit?"

Grandma shot him a look, then turned to Chao Musheng: "Musheng, you take the young lady to her new lodgings. Your grandfather and I are going home to make you something good to eat."

Xiao You gazed after the three of them in a daze and didn't come back to herself until Grandma and Grandpa had disappeared down the lane.

"Every time I came back to my grandparents' place when I was growing up, my grandma always made my favorite dishes too."

I'm so tired, Xiao You thought. Home is so far away. In this strange, unknown instance, she could see no path to success — no hope of getting out.

Seeing her so downcast, Chao Musheng wasn't sure what to say. He looked down at the water in the plastic bag, drew out a bottle, and offered it to her: "Want some water?"

"Thank you." Xiao You took it and twisted the cap off without hesitation, drinking several long gulps.

Perhaps dying in an instance as warm and alive as this one wouldn't be such a bad way to go.

[Ding — Health +20]

Xiao You stared at the bottle of purified water in her hands. A sense of wordless absurdity washed over her — absurd and faintly bitter.

How laughable. The food and water they hadn't dared touch — the things they'd treated as potential traps — turned out to be the greatest kindness this world had to offer them.

"It's really good. Thank you."

"Top-selling purified water in the country." Chao Musheng raised an eyebrow, a small smile tugging at his mouth. "It had better taste good."

"Here we are." He stopped walking. "This is the home of Sister Ling, the village women's director. Someone checked out just today — and since you're a girl, you'll be more comfortable here."

"Chao Musheng." Xiao You looked up and gave him a small smile. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Making every guest feel at home is the Chaojia Bay Village philosophy." Chao Musheng led Xiao You through the courtyard gate. The little yellow dog inside spotted him and came barreling over on four stubby legs, tail whipping furiously.

"Dahuang, you've gotten fatter again." Chao Musheng ruffled the dog's head, and Dahuang's tail moved even faster.

Xiao You watched the young man playing with the small dog for a moment, then turned and walked quietly into the house.

*

Night fell again. The rain that had paused in the morning returned, falling in a soft, steady murmur, and the entire village sank into the curtain of rain.

In the guesthouse, the curtains stirred in the wind. A faint sound from next door broke the quiet — then just as quickly fell still.

"Fatty-bro. That show-off's on the move."

Chubby sat up in the dark and lifted the edge of the curtain.

The village's solar-powered lamps cast a thin, pale glow. Tree shadows twisted and warped in the light.

"The fog's coming in." His companion watched the mist thicken and deepen, his expression uneasy. "Fatty-bro — you think that guy makes it back tonight?"

"What do you think he went out there for, in the middle of the night, in this?" Chubby let the curtain drop. His voice was cool. "He's found some kind of important lead and doesn't want us knowing about it."

"But what if he gets to the clear condition first?"

Chubby said nothing. He'd originally planned to use Xiao You's charisma ability to gather useful information around the village — but Xiao You had gone and moved out. He was beginning to suspect that Chao Musheng had deliberately driven a wedge between them and her. This person of unknown origin made him uneasy in a way he couldn't quite name.

*

"Two men fighting in a girl's room means they had absolutely no consideration for her whatsoever. Arranging different accommodations for her was the right thing to do for her safety."

Grandma stepped out of the house to find Chao Musheng pulling on his rain boots.

"It's raining out. Where are you going?"

"Grandpa left his thermos at the activity center. I'm going to fetch it."

"Is it the new one you bought him?" Grandma muttered a few words about Grandpa's habit of leaving things everywhere. "It can wait until tomorrow — it's still raining out."

"The rain's light, and it's just a few steps." Chao Musheng said lightly, "If I don't bring it back tonight, I'm afraid Grandpa won't sleep a wink."

He knew better than anyone how much the old man treasured anything he gave him.

The rain was still falling. He wasn't sure if anyone would be at the village committee activity center this late. If it was locked up, he'd just have to come back in the morning.

Chao Musheng arrived at the main door of the activity center to find the village Party secretary booming away in his gravelly voice: "Friends, these loquats are the sweet variety."

"Trust me, these are home-grown from our own village families — good, honest fruit."

The livestream had barely any viewers, and despite the village secretary and the village chief's combined efforts — singing, dancing, the full performance — they'd barely moved any orders. They were just about to wrap up and head home when the dead-silent comment section suddenly erupted.

[Uncle, call back that young guy who just walked past! Get him on camera!]

[I won't watch for free — I'm sending people your way right now.]

[Same, uncle — I'm rallying people too.]

Within moments, the viewer count climbed from single digits to double digits and continued to rise.

The village secretary and the village chief both looked up at the same time — and found themselves facing a thoroughly bewildered Chao Musheng.

*

Outside the activity center, Lone Wolf was crouched in a corner of the darkness, eyes fixed and burning as he stared at the bookshelf inside.

The shelves held books and newspapers from this world. The moment the people inside left, he'd be able to search through them for the answers he needed.

[Fog exposure detected — Health -2 per hour.]

That's fine.

Lone Wolf pulled his invisibility cloak tighter around himself. He still had 38 health points. Chao Musheng and the other two NPCs would surely leave soon enough.

He could hold out.