'I should've asked what they were doing,' he thought belatedly.
As he walked, SV's mind was filled with their conversation, regret flooding in as more questions occurred to him.
'How should I gain talents? How to increase attributes?'
'Where is this place? What is this place?'
Following the random thoughts, SV couldn't help but frown. There was something wrong, very wrong. No matter how he thought about it, he felt that he had been tricked.
Not the 'sacrificed to a deity for blessings' type of trick but tricked nonetheless.
Then his frown deepened. What was divination? In a game, a divination about the future could only be a simulation; it could be something less but definitely nothing more.
So having simulated a result, she wanted to push the events towards that outcome?
He stroked his beard.
She panicked when he wanted to deduce her intentions in front of her. Was that an act?
It must've been. Everyone with a bit of brain would know that he'd start thinking over it the moment he was alone. So what was she preventing?
Or did she perhaps want to make him think that she was preventing something?
Maybe it was just a drawback of her divination?
What was her goal in sitting down with him and talking, simply building good will with him? What did she mean by her final sentence? Was she preemptively exonerating herself?
But he was just a nobody! What role could he possibly play?
And if there was some role for him to play, why did she just let him leave?
His hand clutched the beard in frustration, pulling out a few strands.
No matter.
He shook off the strands from his hand and opened the bottle. He took one out and popped it. A few seconds later, a warm sensation spread from his stomach and filled every inch of his body, providing him with inexplicable strength.
[You have gained Exp. Exp +9843]
The ridiculous number left SV slack-jawed for a moment. However, the system messages weren't done yet.
[You have leveled up. Lv1 -> 2. Attributes +1]
[You have leveled up. Lv2 -> 3. Attributes +1]
...
[You have leveled up. Lv9 -> 10. Attributes +1]
[You have reached the first threshold.]
SV blinked his eyes and opened his profile.
======
[Name: Dead Undead]
[Race: Human(?)]
[Sex: Male(?)]
[Lv: 10 (Exp: 1000/1000)]
[Class: None]
[Attributes: STR 20, DEX 17, CON 19, INT 17, WLL 18, SPR 15]
[Talents: Survivor Lv1]
[Skills: None]
======
Holy shit.
SV looked at the bottle filled with a dozen more pills and felt that he had hit the jackpot.
Who cares what she was plotting? He, SV, would gladly sacrifice himself to a deity for blessings if she asked.
He checked to see if his name would come up on the leaderboard.
The leaderboard showed one hundred players, and he found his name in the fifty-third position.
SV wondered what the criteria were. They were all level 10, so why were some higher than others? Was it, as Yun Jierou called it, foundation? Probably.
He wondered if his ranking would've been higher if it were his Bandit Emperor character instead. After all, a higher talent rank should mean a better foundation, right? Unfortunately, it was still stuck with the BOSS.
He then thought for a moment before checking his logs. He didn't see any strange logs apart from the first threshold thing. Then, he checked his quests just to be sure. Unfortunately, there was only one 'escape the graveyard' quest in there; Yun Jierou hadn't triggered any.
Were NPCs unable to trigger quests, or did she simply have no intention of assigning one?
No matter.
SV turned to the first threshold thing. How was he supposed to trigger this class change? He looked to see if there was anything different in the tabs. Then, he noticed that the level display in the profile tab looked different.
He clicked on it.
[Do you proceed with the trial?]
SV's finger hovered over 'yes' for a bit before declining. Now wasn't the time. He was afraid he'd miss the main event here.
A storyline that randomly gave him a full bottle of pills was worth seeing it to its end. As for foundation? Bruh, he was playing a game; he'd do a perfect run when he felt like it. Anyway, his raw foundation shouldn't be low, having ranked fifty-three without any appendages.
He closed the panel and continued his journey.
Finally, he was upon the town. Still in its dilapidated state, scattered pedestrians lay dead here and there.
As he took his first step, a welcoming notification popped up.
[A quest has been generated.]
SV immediately checked it. To his surprise, it was actually a different quest.
[Quest: A town's plea]
[Description: It all started with a wish. The wish of a mortal reduced the town to a fragment. The wish of a fragment shall reduce the mortal to ash. Fulfill the town's desire.]
[Duration: 06:32:21]
[Rewards: A wish]
'A wish,' SV blinked as he looked at the reward. Fucking shit, this was outrageous. What was the limit here? But then again, how was he supposed to kill the BOSS?
And what was this timer?
He thought for a moment. None of the previous quests had a time limit. But this one had six hours. Remembering how the BOSS was chanting something down there, he ventured to guess that it might be until he finished whatever spell he was chanting. Then the NPCs must also be preparing to attack, but before or after then?
With Yun Jierou in the lead, he had no doubt that she knew about the time limit and the BOSS's actions... his thoughts suddenly stopped in their tracks. If her divination were all-powerful, then he wouldn't have found her in an embarrassing state the first time.
So did she know or not? Whatever, why should he care?
He looked at the town and shouted, "Hey! How about you give the wish now and I'll help you kill him?"
His voice boomed in the empty town, echoing in the silence of the night.
He waited a moment or two, and then, he seemed to hear crickets chirping back? No? Well, not even crickets chirped back to him.
No matter. It was always worth a try.
Well, it seemed he could only rely on the NPCs. But if the NPCs managed to finish the BOSS off, would that count as him completing the quest? Was there a party feature? There didn't seem to be any.
This made no sense. On the one hand, it didn't make sense for an MMO to have no party features, and on the other hand, the system surely wouldn't give an impossible quest, right? SV wasn't sure about that latter part.
He pulled up the forum and created his first post, setting his name as anonymous.
[Is there a party feature in this game?]
He then sat down and waited patiently. However, as time passed, he saw the posts around him getting recognized, but his remained gathering dust.
He started to have doubts. Did he ask a dumb question?
Wondering whether he should just delete the post and save himself some embarrassment. Someone finally replied.
──Anonymous: There is no feature as such, but there is an implicit party function. Experience is shared amongst the group if they fight the same target.
SV frowned and hurriedly replied.
──└─Anonymous: Thank you for replying. Does the same apply to quests with NPCs?
Thankfully, the other party replied directly.
────└─Anonymous: I'm sorry, I do not have a definite answer for NPCs. However, I do know that you can complete quests with other players, and I did hear that you can share experience when fighting alongside NPCs. So probably yes.
SV replied with a thank you and then waited silently to see if any more lurkers would show up. He waited for half an hour, but no one had a definitive answer, or the ones who did didn't deign to give it to him. He closed the forum and went to the BOSS's manor to see if he'd find something.
He searched almost every nook and cranny, but unfortunately, he didn't find anything useful, or rather, even if he did find something useful, unless it shone brightly and had an 'I am important' tag on its head, he wouldn't be able to distinguish between it and a random piece of junk.
He had no identification skills.
He actually realized the problem when he was on the way, but with the mentality of having nothing better to do and 'what if,' he continued.
He then went to look for the fountain, only to see it dry. He then looked randomly around.
—
SV sighed as he sat on the highest point in the town, a clock tower of sorts, surveying the dead landscape.
Honestly, if there was something useful here, the NPCs should've found it way earlier than him. He looked at his logs and quests before a thought occurred to him. Could he get the quest on another account?
Then he shook his head. He could only control one account at a time, so it was a pipe dream to have two wishes.
He sighed and exited the game.
—
Back in the cavern, SV looked at the busy BOSS, the lake, and the magic circle.
He looked at this account's quests, particularly the one involving this cavern, and went into deep thought.
[Quest: Where the curse began]
[Description: The Cavern of Wishes holds the mystery of the town's curse. The clear water in the lake speaks of its untold desires. Break the eternal cycle.]
[Duration: Unlimited]
[Rewards: 300 Exp]
Clear water in the lake speaks of its untold desires.
Desires...
It would've been wonderful if he could somehow receive the quest on this account instead. He stared at the BOSS and wondered what would happen if he just upped and left.
He clicked on revive.
—
As his senses became physical, and before he could formulate a coherent thought, his consciousness still jarred from giddiness; he felt a red light flash in his eyes.
And then he was no more.
—
Staring at the spot where he was pulverized by the magic circle just now, SV wondered whether, maybe, perhaps, he had moved a tiny millimeter? Maybe not.
But he felt there was hope. If he could somehow react before he was fully in, it should be totally possible. Even if he moved one step at a time.
Anyway, the BOSS seemed unconcerned with him, so he could give it a try.
—
It wasn't a pleasant experience to speak of. All the motion sickness accumulated on him bit by bit, leading him to have to spend some time in the death screen to recover his senses between deaths.
At first, he couldn't react at all; only the speed at which he recovered got slightly faster.
Then, as if by a miracle, he could somehow try to lift his leg. But only to lift it.
And then, he finally took a step forward, only to realize that he was stepping away from the entrance. But no matter. With the first step done, other steps would naturally follow.
One step, two steps, three steps...
It wasn't until he was at the edge of the entrance that he took a step forward, finally getting out of the damn circle.
He grinned, staring back at the BOSS, only to see him staring back at him. SV forced a smile, but the BOSS simply ignored him.
He couldn't free his hand? No matter, he better got out before the BOSS changed his mind.
He stumbled into the dark tunnel and made his way upward. But before he could take even two steps forward, he realized that he was breathing rapidly. He frowned and only now remembered that there was no oxygen in the tunnel.
He frowned and tried to cross as many steps as possible as his vision darkened.
—
SV stiffly came out of the tunnel. Then, he pressed his middle and ring fingers against each other. Suddenly, gas came out of his body and coalesced into another him, leaving the other SV to drop dead to the ground.
SV stretched slightly. It really wasn't pleasant to possess his own corpse; it felt even stiffer than the ladies he possessed before. Heck, in retrospect, he didn't recall Dorothy being stiff beyond a simple awkwardness. Strange.
But no matter. He looked at the quest he had just received and grinned.
[Quest: A town's plea]