Early the next day, just as dawn broke, the players were called up by their parents at home to eat. After entering the game, the players' daily routines had suddenly become incredibly healthy. It was just that although they had gone to bed early, they were exhausted from the illusion of reality and fantasy, causing them to nod off while drinking porridge and eating steamed buns in the morning.
Thinking that they still had to endure seven more days of this…
The players were utterly hopeless.
After breakfast came work. Washing clothes, chopping firewood—these NPCs wouldn't tire the players out too badly, and they didn't make them do farm work, but it was still busy. Even if they didn't do heavy labor, they still had to feed the chickens and ducks and clean the coop.
Only after finally finishing the chores required by their character settings did the players have time to gather in a secret corner to exchange information.
"Yesterday, did you enter the realm of illusion?" Unlucky Wang Erma asked in a low voice without beating around the bush. He had thought for a long time while working today and felt that the players still needed to cooperate—missing even one of the seven people wouldn't work. So although he had been furious yesterday, he didn't intend to question who took the zen staff today. "There are seven magic tools. Each of us has to take one. So… let's set the targets first. The kasaya can only be unlocked last."
"Magic tools, kasaya… but we can't even get close to the Golden Light Buddha!" Player Zhang, who failed to comprehend the mystery, looked completely confused.
The other players who also failed to comprehend it stayed silent first, but in that silence, they felt the gazes of Shangguan Cuihua, Wang Erma, Nangong Meili, and Yuchi Goudan focused on Zhang San, and instantly understood something. They even felt a bit relieved: thank goodness they didn't speak up as fast.
"Within the clouds beneath the Golden Light Buddha, golden lights will appear. Following the order in which the lights appear, you can approach the kasaya at the lowest point. When you stand before the kasaya, you'll see a golden lock on it, with six chains extending in different directions, corresponding to the other six magic tools." Shangguan Cuihua shared all of this in great detail.
Wang Erma's expression didn't change, but he secretly let out a breath of relief. After all, he was the one who brought up the topic, and he didn't actually know how to decipher the mystery—he had only used a skill. Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to expose that he had such a limited-use skill. Hearing Shangguan Cuihua finish, he smiled and took out the map he had redrawn of the kasaya and the locations. "This is the map I drew, but aside from the kasaya and the zen staff, the details of the other magic tools aren't very clear. Mainly because we don't know their materials."
Blue-name NPCs definitely wouldn't ask meaningless questions. Since that NPC had asked what material the dropped magic tool was yesterday, it meant that to acquire the magic tool, they definitely had to answer correctly.
"I also grasped the mystery yesterday, but before I could look for anything, time was up." Nangong Meili said regretfully. "It's not that I'm hiding anything, I really don't know anything… Do you guys have more detailed information?"
Yuchi Goudan looked at Nangong Meili with instant mutual sympathy. Ah, kindred spirits! Zhang San, Li Si, and Huangfu Tiezhu all kept quiet. Zhang San's big manly face even turned a bit red. He thought uncertainly: Could it be… could it be that among all the players, he's the only one who didn't discover the secret of the golden light and got nothing from the realm of illusion? No way!
Wouldn't that make him look like an idiot?
Behind the scenes, Mu Anqi couldn't help laughing as she watched Zhang San's emotional values spike again and again. She hadn't expected this Zhang San player to have such thin skin and to be someone who loved overthinking things. The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he became, the more despair he sank into.
"Yes." Wang Erma glanced at Shangguan Cuihua. He suspected that she might have gotten the silver zen staff… Forget it, don't overthink. Whoever has it doesn't matter. Who says the silver zen staff is necessarily the best? The easiest magic tool to obtain might not be the strongest. "Following the guidance, you'll find a treasure chest. When you touch the chest, a blue-name NPC will appear and ask what material the dropped magic tool is—in other words, which magic tool you followed to get there. After answering correctly… the blue-name NPC I met gave me a dance video and told me to learn it, then dance for her. Only if she's pleased with your performance can you obtain the magic tool. But I'm not much of a dancer, so I didn't pass." When Wang Erma said this, he kept looking at Shangguan Cuihua.
Such blatant staring made it impossible for Shangguan Cuihua to ignore. Since Wang Erma had already spoken to this extent, she saw no need to continue hiding it. After all, they would soon have to assign ownership of the magic tools, and the fact that the zen staff had already been obtained needed to be said. "He's right. It was the same for me. I obtained the silver zen staff, but this magic tool has no additional effects — even its description is just 'quest item.'" Shangguan Cuihua extended her right hand, and a small light sphere appeared in her palm. The light slowly expanded, faded, and finally turned into a silver zen staff held in her hand.
"This is a magic tool? You're amazing!" Nangong Meili exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with interest as she looked at Shangguan Cuihua. She lowered her voice, asking, "Can I touch it?"
"Of course." Shangguan Cuihua generously handed over the staff. Nangong Meili accepted it with a slightly overwhelmed expression. But just as Shangguan Cuihua had said, the staff felt completely ordinary in her hand; the system also judged it as a simple "quest item."
Seeing this, the other players couldn't resist asking to touch it as well. The staff passed around everyone's hands once before returning to Shangguan Cuihua.
"Besides the kasaya, one of the remaining items is a string of prayer beads, and another is a thumb ring — I could see that one clearly. As for the rest… they all look like bracelets." Nangong Meili analyzed seriously.
"One of them should be a coral bracelet. I used to have something similar… although it might be made of a different material?" Li Si recalled. Although she hadn't comprehended any golden light, she had stared at the magic tools in the air long enough to gain some impression. "Judging by the color of the prayer beads, I think they're probably amber. Since there's a gold kasaya and a silver zen staff, plus the Buddha statue, it's hard not to think of the Seven Treasures of Buddhism."
"Are there amber items in the Seven Treasures?" Wang Erma suddenly asked. He remembered that among the options the blue-name NPC gave yesterday, one choice was an amber zen staff.
"There are. There are many versions of the list, and amber is considered a type of fossilized resin." Shangguan Cuihua thought for a moment. "The blue-name NPC who questioned me mentioned coral as one of the materials, so… the Seven Treasures here should come from the Prajna Sutra, which are—"
"Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, coral, amber, pearl, agate."
The players memorized the seven materials. Excluding the obvious gold, silver, and amber, the remaining materials could be handled flexibly. After all, the blue-name NPC would give three choices—eliminate one, guess randomly, and they'd probably get it right.
Li Si chose the coral bracelet she recognized. Zhang San, after some thought, chose the thumb ring. The larger prayer beads — likely made of amber — were chosen by Huangfu Tiezhu. As for the remaining bracelets, Nangong Meili and Yuchi Goudan split them. Shangguan Cuihua had already obtained the zen staff and naturally didn't need to participate; she could accompany the others, because if the next blue-name NPC also required dancing, players like Wang Erma would just fail again. Wang Erma wanted the kasaya, but before that, he had to help the others unlock the six magic tools.
After setting their targets, the players had no further intel to share and dispersed on the spot.
During the day, the players suddenly felt much more motivated while working. Just thinking about entering the realm of illusion at night to try winning a magic tool made them incredibly excited. Actually, thinking carefully, this game wasn't that hard after all, was it? They just had to dance! Even if it had to be self-taught, as long as all seven players embarrassed themselves together, it simply wouldn't count as embarrassing at all.
At noon that day, a light rain fell over the village. After lunch, still feeling like something was missing, Zhang San planned to spend some money on steamed buns to taste some meat. But before he reached the bun shop, he saw the blue-name NPC from the school, Teacher Xia, strolling by under a red umbrella.
To be honest, whether it was Teacher Wu or Teacher Xia, both of these female instructors gave him a strange feeling. Teacher Wu was still fine — very much the scholarly type. But Teacher Xia's aura was sharp and chilling; even when she did nothing, she felt like an unsheathed sword with its edge exposed — every movement carried sword intent.
Zhang San wasn't wrong. Xia Yun was still far from He Guxia's level, but recently she had gained new insights into swordsmanship. Naturally, she couldn't completely control the aura leaking out. To truly restrain it and appear like an ordinary person, she would need a few more years of cultivation and discipline.
However, that wasn't why Zhang San froze in place.
The main reason was — Zhang San rubbed his eyes hard. Maybe he was seeing things, but it looked like… under that red umbrella, a pale arm was resting lightly on Teacher Xia's shoulder? The arm was extremely fair, looking like a woman's. But in that position, there was absolutely no way it could be Teacher Xia's left hand placed over her right shoulder! A normal person couldn't do that!
"What the hell, no way? A blue-name NPC is being haunted?" Zhang San hesitated, unsure what to do. The ghost wasn't targeting players — instead it went after a blue-name NPC? Logically, in other games, if an NPC dies, then it dies; they aren't real people. Even if they look real, it usually turns out they were ghosts in disguise. But this game's settings were different!
The system had warned that killing a white-name NPC might reset the game, but no one knew whether a white-name NPC dying on their own would cause a reset. Worse, angering a blue-name NPC gave debuffs. Didn't that imply blue-name NPCs played a major role in the game's progression? The prompt didn't say what would happen if a blue-name NPC died, but… could Zhang San afford to gamble?
He didn't even have a magic tool yet, had only just learned the clues, and could finally try to obtain a tool tonight. If a blue-name NPC died right now, who knew what consequences it would trigger? He had also heard from Shangguan and the others that the ones testing them in the illusion were also blue-name NPCs.
"…Forget it, I'll just treat it as doing a good deed." Zhang San gritted his teeth, gave up on the meat buns, and hurried forward. "Teacher Xia! Teacher Xia!"
While calling out, he discreetly pulled a crumpled yellow charm from his clothes. It was a simple protective talisman with some deterrent effect against ghosts — mostly because ghosts disliked the smell and material. Seizing the chance while greeting her, he lifted his hand, intending to slap the charm onto Xia Yun's shoulder and apologize afterward.
The idea was perfect; reality was bizarre.
Before Zhang San's hand even touched Xia Yun's shoulder, his arm was grabbed. Then the world flipped upside down — his vision blurred, and pain shot through his back and arm—
He had been thrown over the shoulder…
By the female instructor of the village school.