A new day. The sky outside was just beginning to brighten.
[Daily Quest: Challenge to Avoid Women for a Whole Day]
[Quest Description: Beauty is like a wolf or a tiger, eroding one's will and corroding one's spirit. (Fail if contact with women exceeds five in one day 0/5)]
[Completion Reward: Astrite *800, Shell Credit *10000.]
[Challenge (Optional): Contact with women less than one.]
"Have I been in contact with women too much lately?"
Noah stood in front of the mirror brushing his teeth while seriously reflecting on himself. Last night he didn't eat a single dumpling and was force-fed vegetables until he was stuffed by the women.
"Yeah, I really have been in contact with women too much."
After seriously reflecting, Noah finished washing up, walked out of the room, and saw Carlotta greeting him in the hall:
"Morning, Tall Chestnut!"
"Morning."
Carlotta is Little Potato, so this doesn't count as contact with women. His challenge remains valid.
"Thanks to you, I didn't expect it would be so easy to meet the Magistrate of Jinzhou and even obtain authorization for the central beacon in the Jinzhou region."
Carlotta thanked him earnestly:
"Zani and I are heading out right away to bring the other Montelli staff from the dock over to start work. Although today will probably be very busy, I'll bring lunch back for you at noon."
As she spoke, Carlotta smiled gently, walked closer, leaned her upper body slightly forward, and got even closer to Noah, looking bold and playful:
"Tall Chestnut, wait for me to come back and feed you."
"Alright, alright. Then I won't cook today." Noah smiled and didn't refuse. He then asked another question:
"Where's Zani?"
"Here."
Zani walked down the stairs and yawned. With her thick dark circles, she gave off a faint sense of a working person who had lost all hope in life:
"We originally agreed that when I came to Jinzhou, you would take me sightseeing. Now it looks like there won't be time for that."
"There will be a chance when you have a vacation."
Zani is a workhorse, not a woman, so his challenge to avoid women remains valid.
Soon, Carlotta left with Zani.
"Morning, Laureate. Do we have anything planned for today?" Cartethyia's soft, sleepy, and slightly powerless voice came from behind.
Noah turned around and saw Cartethyia brushing aside her slightly messy golden hair, revealing her still drowsy and hazy eyes. Her cheeks carried a faint post-sleep blush, looking like a sweet and soft peach.
"Morning, Little Cart. Today…"
This is the wandering knight, so it doesn't count as contact with women.
Noah glanced at his daily quest and shook his head: "I have something to do today, so I can't accompany you."
"It's fine, it's fine. Laureate, you go do your thing. I'm good taking a stroll by myself."
Cartethyia, who had just been turned down, wasn't discouraged and instead comforted Noah:
"These past two days we used your teleportation ability every time we went out. It was really too convenient and lost the meaning of traveling."
Alright, first time hearing that traveling in the big world being too convenient could also lose its meaning.
After a simple goodbye, Cartethyia perked up and went out to find a place to plant iris flowers.
Noah teleported and instantly arrived at the Midnight Rangers' camp.
"Eh, Noah!"
As soon as he arrived, he heard a familiar greeting. Jinhsi quickly walked to his side with a look of pleasant surprise on her face:
"Why are you here?"
Beside her, Changli walked over at a leisurely pace:
"The Magistrate and I are here for our regular inspection of the Midnight Rangers' equipment. Does the Hero want to join us?"
"Uh, no. I originally wanted to find the locked Jiyan to chat casually. Since you two are busy, I won't disturb you."
One big Xixi, one long raccoon dog, neither counts as women.
Noah shook his head, chatted briefly with the two women, and hurriedly said goodbye.
Another teleport, and he arrived inside Jinzhou City.
He looked left and right, confirming he didn't see any familiar members of the opposite sex, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
His terminal rang with a communication signal. He glanced at the name and immediately answered.
"Bro, it's me, Aalto. Encore ran out of the Black Shores with my wallet again. The signal detection shows she's in Jinzhou. Can you help me catch Encore and bring her back to class?"
"No problem."
After ending the call and following the wallet location sent by Aalto, Noah quickly found Encore. She was actually sitting on a bench with Verina, basking in the sun and chatting.
Noah quietly approached, wanting to hear what the two were talking about.
"Does Encore have any troubles? You can tell me."
"It's useless even if I say it."
Encore let out a long sigh, looking very melancholic:
"I want to grow up quickly and become a great hero who stands tall and saves the world, but I'm still too short right now."
Very short in height? Then she's very Carlotta. Noah thought.
"Encore wanting to become a great hero is a very beautiful dream, but greatness is not achieved overnight. Instead of thinking about how to grow up and become a great hero, why don't we start by being small heroes first."
Verina pressed down on Encore's shoulders and encouraged her:
"Even though you're a child, as long as you do your own tasks well, don't cause trouble for others, and sow good virtues, they will eventually sprout and bloom."
"But, I understand the reasoning, but I'm also worried that if I grow up following other people's ways, I'll end up living as someone else's version of me."
"Don't be afraid. Dandelions and purple irises bloom at the same time. They share the same sunlight and soil, but the flowers they produce each have their own colors."
Hearing this, Encore seemed to gain some understanding.
Not far away, Noah quietly stepped back, took out his terminal, and sent a message.
[Noah: Didn't find Encore.]
[Aalto: That shouldn't be. The location shouldn't be wrong.]
[Noah: Really didn't find her. You come find her yourself.]
[Aalto: I don't have money to take the boat over, bro! Encore thought all my money was in the wallet.]
So all your money really is in the wallet?!
Fantasy manifestation is still too overpowered.
Silently setting messages to do-not-disturb, Noah put away his terminal.
What's the big deal if such a small child misses two classes.
He actually felt that letting Encore spend more time with Verina might purify the demon pill into a spirit pearl. That would be more practical than going to class.
Time slowly reached noon.
Carlotta returned excitedly with Zani, of course also bringing several packed meals.
"Good news, Tall Chestnut. Quick, give me your terminal."
Taking Noah's terminal, Carlotta operated it briefly and soon added an app called Quick Tone.
"All done. I installed Quick Tone for you. With the Black Shores' technical support, even though we're in Jinzhou, we can still receive video messages from all the way in Rinascita."
"You can watch videos from Rinascita? That's amazing?"
"Yes. Quick Tone has already become a craze across all of Rinascita."
Noah became interested. Following Carlotta's operation, he started browsing Quick Tone on the virtual screen projected from his terminal.
The next second, a familiar figure that popped up immediately made his eyes widen.
"Eh, Lupa?"
Wearing some gray-black armor on her upper body paired with a white half-body tight suit and ultra-long white over-the-knee boots tightly wrapping her slender legs.
A deep red cloak was casually draped over her shoulders, fluttering in the wind like dancing flames.
In the virtual screen, Lupa tightly gripped her flame-flag long spear and defeated her opponent in the arena in just a few moves, becoming the focus of the entire venue. She enthusiastically waved to the surroundings as her large tail wagged excitedly behind her.
The person filming was too far away, so Lupa's words couldn't be heard clearly. Only the enthusiastic cheers from the arena could be heard.
In the last second of the short video, the camera hurriedly swept across a golden-haired man also standing in the arena. Noah found him vaguely familiar but couldn't see clearly.
"Has the gladiatorial tournament already started in Septimont? So soon?"
"No, this should just be a performance match. The preliminary and selection rounds are still a few days away."
Hearing this, Noah felt slightly reassured.
Seeing that Septimont was still peaceful, he wasn't worried.
He flipped through a few more videos and found that most were users sharing normal life videos. The captions and editing were very ordinary and not particularly attractive.
If Quick Tone wanted to develop to the level of certain audio or short video apps on Earth, it probably still had quite a long way to go.
"By the way, Tall Chestnut."
Carlotta helped Noah open the personal user interface for Quick Tone:
"Why don't you create an account too and post some videos every day? Trust me, Quick Tone will definitely become the next big trend across all of Solaris."
From every angle, Carlotta very much hoped Noah would become a video creator on Quick Tone.
This way, she could see Noah on Quick Tone every day and contact him anytime and anywhere through it. How wonderful!
What Carlotta didn't know was that doing this would benefit more than just her.
"It's a good idea."
Noah's finger paused on the username field. His thoughts drifted as if dreaming back to before he crossed over.
Back on earth when he was a liver, he not only had to edit videos in all kinds of creative ways but also had to livestream while grinding accounts.
Recalling this, his finger tapped lightly. He used his old username — Phaethon .
After a pause, he added parentheses after the name and typed six words inside: Searching the entire network for Rover.