---o---
Cold, deathly stillness, silence.
It was as if all creation had sunk into an inky mire, blending with the chaotic mud, wrapping Ron in a freezing darkness where boundaries could no longer be distinguished.
He felt the wisps of chill radiating around him. To Ron, this bit of icy coldness was actually a relaxing coolness, allowing him to securely sink into this endless dark silence, slumbering wrapped in the pitch-black.
This was a rare, deep sleep for him... The perfect rest did not make Ron open his eyes, refreshed from the darkness. Instead, it made him unconsciously crave the chaotic currents around him, sinking deeper and deeper into the endless dark, falling further into slumber.
...Until a warm little hand tugged at his cheek and violently yanked away the blanket he was tightly wrapped in. Only then did he suddenly feel the pitch-black and chaos around him slowly recede, his abundant mental energy returning to his body once more.
He snapped back to his senses from that pitch-black cage. Squinting his sleepy eyes, he saw Qingque looking at him with an exasperated expression... Wait, why was it Qingque?
Ron's brain was half-stalled. He abruptly sat up, turned his head to look out the window, and saw the already setting sun...
It was at least three or four o'clock in the afternoon now. In another hour or two, the sun would completely set, and the entirety of Exalting Sanctum would welcome its most bustling evening hours.
Ron felt his brain crash for a moment—had he really slept that long?!
Why had he slept for so long... Although he had been mentally exhausted after the simulation ended yesterday due to experiencing death firsthand with his consciousness fully immersed, and it had already been late at night, it shouldn't have resulted in him sleeping until this hour, right?
Ron's mind was full of bewilderment, but as his brain gradually woke up from its deep sleep, his thinking slowly returned to normal...
Immediately after regaining his senses, Ron felt the lingering, subtle icy coldness still clinging to his body—
That lonely, freezing sensation came from a profound emptiness... During this slumber, Ron's thoughts had sunken into it, inexplicably advancing a few points further along the traces of the Path of [Nihility].
...Could this be considered the same event triggered by choosing the [Nihility] option in the previous simulation?
Ron pondered this in his heart, realizing that his deep slumber had caused him to fall into the Path of [Nihility]. This time, a deep sleep born purely out of extreme exhaustion had inexplicably triggered a resonance with [Nihility], allowing him to advance a few points on its Path...
What an unexpected gift.
He truly hadn't expected that his actions would inexplicably align with the [Nihility] option from the last simulation, allowing him to freeload a bit of a Path and slightly increase his personal strength as a Pathstrider...
Is this the victory of a freeloader?
After fully waking up and figuring out what had happened, Ron couldn't help but chuckle.
"...Ron, Ron?"
Seeing Ron inexplicably seeming to laugh to himself, Qingque waved her small hand heavily in front of his face. Discovering that Ron hadn't noticed her at all, she pursed her lips in anxiety:
"D-did you sleep yourself silly...? Does the Alchemy Commission have a cure for outsider dementia? Wait, thinking about it, those kinds of things are probably banned drugs that the Six Charioteers forbid giving to outsiders..."
She pulled a bitter face: "If the Master Diviner knew that on the second day she entrusted Ron to me, I brought him to the Alchemy Commission, wouldn't the Master Diviner... demote me out of anger in my performance report, or even lower my position?"
"I have nowhere lower to drop! One more demotion and I'll become the 'Gatekeeper' of the Divination Commission!"
"...Are you being silly, Qingque?"
Looking at Qingque, who was pacing back and forth, biting her nails anxiously in front of him, Ron smilingly interrupted her:
"And besides, didn't you say you have nowhere lower to drop? How could you be demoted to 'Gatekeeper'? That sounds like a leadership position."
Qingque subconsciously replied, "That's just a nice way of putting it. The head of the gate, the one managing the gate—to put it plainly, it's just watching the door! The yearly salary for the guys under you guarding the main gates is higher, who the heck wants to do that kind of work... wait a minute."
Qingque suddenly came to her senses. Seeing Ron looking at her with a smile full of teasing, she let out a huge sigh of relief:
"So you didn't turn stupid... Good, good. Otherwise, I wouldn't even know what kind of hell I'd be facing."
As she spoke, she looked into Ron's eyes with a hint of grievance:
"But why did you sleep for so long? By the time I woke up, the sun was already baking my butt. I thought I'd be late for my job of 'taking you on a tour of the Luofu'... But your door was shut tight, and your snoring could be heard from the room next door!"
"I knocked for two solid hours! Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and went to the front desk manager for your room key to wake you up..."
Qingque spoke, gradually returning to her usual lazy demeanor, looking at Ron with a hint of curiosity in her eyes:
"...Are all you Belobogians like this? Sleeping an entire day away?"
"Of course not... I'm just not accustomed to the climate yet since I just arrived on the Luofu. I'm a bit fatigued, that's all."
Ron smiled, casually dismissing Qingque's curiosity.
He rolled out of bed. Because he had been too exhausted the night before, he had fallen asleep with his clothes on. They were now quite wrinkled. He pinched the hem of his shirt, utilizing the newly increased imaginary energy from the Path of [Nihility] to smooth them out.
Imaginary energy serves as the foundational substance composing this sea of stars. Regardless of their Path, Pathstriders can utilize the imaginary energy within them to fulfill their desires at will.
While imaginary energy is powerless to accomplish many complex things, a purely trivial matter like smoothing out clothes could be resolved effortlessly.
Watching Ron's practiced movements, Qingque couldn't help but feel a little envious:
"So you're a Pathstrider too. The threshold for [The Hunt] is much stricter. No wonder the Master Diviner broke the rules to bring you into the Divination Commission... Ordinary people would have to squeeze their heads bloody just thinking about entering the Commission."
Speaking of this, Qingque sighed:
"Saying this makes me feel like I walked into the wrong line of work—I told my mom that passing the exam for the Divination Commission meant an iron rice bowl, and I could finally relax. Only after I got in did I realize this rice bowl is too hard to eat..."
Ron finished straightening his collar and smoothly replied:
"Isn't that because you don't work hard enough? Your position hasn't risen or fallen in so many years, it must be because you slack off too much and caught the Master Diviner's attention..."
"Some things are better left unspoken... Don't I lose face if you say it out loud?"
Qingque grumbled, but she didn't seem to care at all, casually brushing past the topic:
"But your acclimatization issue needs to be treated properly. Otherwise, when you go report for duty later, you can't be waking up at this hour every day. That wouldn't just be considered late, it'd be skipping work... The Master Diviner has always been strict with slackers like us."
"I think your acclimatization is just because you haven't played enough on the Luofu. Once you're completely used to the Luofu, you won't be unaccustomed anymore... How about this, want to go grab a bite first?"
She simply raised her finger, pointing out the window at the bustling Exalting Sanctum outside the Petrichor Inn, specifically towards a street corner at the edge of the area—Aurum Alley.
"Aurum Alley... We old Luofu locals love the food there!"
"The Fruitwood-Roasted Shatar Terrorbird Wing-Roots are a specialty of Spices Supreme, you definitely have to try them!"
"I don't eat wing-roots..." Ron subconsciously replied, then immediately caught himself: "No, why do we have to eat dark cuisine?"
He also pointed towards the bustling Exalting Sanctum outside the window, pointing in the direction of Aurum Alley:
"Go to Tall Auntie's Food Stall and buy a cup of Steamed Puffergoat Milk and a Mingkun Pastry, then go to the Meizhuang Pavilion and buy a portion of their Signature Red-Oil Chopped Beef Offal, and finally, freeload the innermost seat at Spices Supreme to watch Chef Yancui beat up a Shatar Terrorbird. Isn't that much better than eating wing-roots?"
Ron's fluid recitation of this menu left Qingque dumbfounded. For a moment, she was somewhat bewildered:
"This... what kind of eating method is this?"
Ron smiled and gave her a thumbs up:
"Never tried mixing and matching a few shops before? I call it 'Ron Cuisine'... Authentic old Luofu flavor, you definitely have to try it!"
"What the heck is that..."
Qingque couldn't help but be amused by Ron. The corners of her mouth curled up unnaturally, but she tried her best to hold back her laughter:
"Alright, for the sake of your serious nonsense being genuinely funny... I'll listen to you, let me try this 'authentic old Luofu flavor'!"
---o---
Qingque is not a player.
Looking at Qingque, who was humming a little tune and lazily strolling toward Aurum Alley ahead of him, Ron confirmed this fact in his heart.
Although to Ron, the possibility of Qingque being a player was fundamentally very low, out of caution, he still carefully tested the waters, to avoid the possibility of her being a player and ruining his subsequent plans.
But despite him deliberately mentioning multiple events related to the previous simulation, Qingque was completely unmoved, clearly ignorant of what had transpired in the last simulation.
...Otherwise, back when Ron mentioned the so-called "Ron Cuisine," Qingque should have reacted and realized that Ron was a player of the Life Simulation Game.
However, this was clearly a good thing... The reason Ron was willing to spend his precious time going out to eat and play with Qingque was because he needed to use various channels to understand Fu Xuan. And before understanding her, he had to do these things to confirm Fu Xuan's identity as a player and figure out what she was actually planning.
Only by figuring these things out would he have confidence. Only then would Ron dare to confront Fu Xuan directly and have an open, cards-on-the-table discussion.
After all, if you know yourself and know your enemy, you will never be defeated. A battle at the negotiation table requires sufficient information as support—right now, Fu Xuan was still a complete mystery to Ron. He had to rely on Qingque, who was close to Fu Xuan, as a starting point to extract intelligence.
Ron was mentally sketching out his plan to extract information from Qingque. The chaotic thoughts in his mind had long since drifted off to who-knows-where.
He was merely following Qingque forward subconsciously, until a warm cup of Steamed Puffergoat Milk was handed to him, and a slightly helpless voice rang in his ear:
"Ron... here, your hot goat milk."
Ron snapped back to reality with a shiver. He subconsciously took the Puffergoat Milk Qingque handed him, and then noticed her slightly worried and helpless expression:
"Is your acclimatization really that severe? It's just a two-kilometer walk from the Petrichor Inn to Aurum Alley... Do you want to go to the Alchemy Commission to get checked out?"
Ron knew clearly that he had merely been lost in thought. Obviously, it wasn't a disease that required a visit to the Alchemy Commission, so he naturally refused immediately.
But Qingque shook her head and said:
"I used to get hand cramps from playing Celestial Jade so much, so I asked a friend to introduce me to the Dragon Lady at the Alchemy Commission."
"Initially, I was a bit skeptical. I never expected that after writing the prescription, Lady Bailu would bring out a set of 'Celestial Jade' tiles and instruct me that constantly shuffling them would improve flexibility. I instantly gained immense respect..."
She took a sip of her hot Puffergoat Milk and affirmed: "Even a weird miscellaneous symptom like mine can be cured. Yours doesn't even count as a real illness, I'm sure there's a simple prescription for it."
"Of course," she said, her tone shifting: "This illness of yours really doesn't require a trip to the Alchemy Commission."
As she spoke, a trace of slight worry for her new colleague flashed in her eyes, and her tone became filled with doubt:
"You're just carrying too heavy a burden on your heart. Even when you're resting and strolling down Aurum Alley, you seem restless... What is it that you care so much about, Ron?"
She spoke, offering a lazy smile, yet her eyes unmistakably shimmered with genuine emotion:
"It feels like this matter is already pressing down on you so hard you can barely breathe... If you don't mind, why not tell me about it?"