Chapter 31
The truck departed inconspicuously. Upstairs, Jiang Jitang was stuffing ripe mulberries into his mouth.
His face was pale as paper. Only after eating most of a bowl of mulberries did a hint of color return to his cheeks. These mulberries grew on the tree downstairs, possessing strong vitality and healing properties, capable of quickly replenishing the life energy he had consumed.
Healing ten people at once, and remotely from a distance at that – Jiang Jitang made no attempt to be low-key or hide his abilities. His intention was very clear: he wanted the authorities to immediately spot him, shining brightly, in the crowd.
Me, precious, come quickly.
Now that he had demonstrated his value, it was up to the authorities to show their sincerity.
Given how the Cube World was pulling people in, it was inevitable that it would eventually become public. In such a scenario, a healer would be like a walking golden goose.
Going solo had its difficulties, so he changed his approach to find a reliable partner organization for himself.
Besides, delivering packages was burning through money, and he needed a stable source of income.
Jiang Jitang didn’t know how it should be in other countries, but in C-Nation, with the authorities present, he never even considered other private organizations.
He didn’t even consider starting his own small organization.
It would cost money, effort, and time, and would disrupt his current lifestyle.
“The Master just wants to help them. The Master is just too tsundere,” Golden Eye said, viewing things through its own filter.
“It’s mutual benefit. Have you forgotten that I’ll activate business mode later? I imagine it must be an extraordinary business model. With so many secrets on me, I can’t withstand scrutiny. I need the official endorsement; they are the top authority on this land.”
He had to demonstrate his importance and irreplaceability, hence the need to look cool even while coughing up blood.
Healing ten severely injured people at once was still a bit of a stretch, but with the Wishing Star, he could grow rapidly. After all, the core of his being now was the mythical plant, the Tree of Life. Nothing could out-heal it.
This was also why he wasn’t too worried about exposing his ‘external aid’ identity. He would become so powerful that others would only dare to curry favor with him, not control him.
He had worked hard enough in his previous life. In this life, Jiang Jitang only wanted to maintain the status quo where even ordinary people could live well, and then lie back and take it easy.
He wanted social stability, lasting peace and order.
No other organization could achieve that; only the authorities could.
Soon after, the piping hot clay oven chicken arrived. The delivery person, sweating profusely, handed it over to Jiang Jitang’s dinner plate.
“Thanks for your hard work!”
After seeing the delivery guy off, he carried the takeout box upstairs. As soon as he lifted the lid, the aroma wafted out.
A golden chicken, its skin and flesh saturated with the rich fragrance of oil and spices. A gentle pull separated the entire leg. The tender, white leg meat was coated with a layer of glistening juices and gelatin, tasting fresh, fragrant, and delicate – simply delicious.
If the flavor was too mild, one could use the powdered spice provided by the shop – perfect.
He had ordered a whole chicken, without any other side dishes.
To assuage the guilt of eating pure meat, Jiang Jitang also cut up some cucumber and tomato chunks as a source of vitamins and plant fiber, and to cut the grease.
Jiang Jitang, an experienced chicken eater, stuffed an entire chicken wing into his mouth and pulled out the equally intact bone, clean without a single shred of meat left.
And Golden Eye was even more thorough. It ate even the crispy chicken bones, leaving not a single crumb. But it didn’t like those plain vegetable chunks, not one bit, so those all belonged to Jiang Jitang.
“Mmm, chicken is the best food in the world!” Golden Eye slumped contentedly on his wrist.
“That’s not necessarily true. The lamb skewers from the Halal canteen near the library are also delicious. A whole roasted lamb is too big to finish. The old yogurt is exceptional, and the grilled fish…” Even though he had just eaten, Jiang Jitang managed to make himself hungry again just by talking.
Golden Eye listened to him listing the dishes, drooling: “Master, I want to eat.”
“Hold on. Going to a restaurant alone is no fun. I’ll find a dining buddy.”
He took out his phone and sent a text: [There’s a pretty good Halal canteen next to the library in the west of the city. Are you free tonight? Want to go together?]
Golden Eye took a quick glance and saw the name ‘Parsons’. It short-circuited on the spot.
Given how things ended between them in their previous life – practically to the death – how could they just go for a meal after meeting once this life? Human emotions were too complex; it couldn’t understand.
Jiang Jitang clicked send on his phone. Now, he just waited for a reply.
“Parsons is an unexpected element in my plans, an uncontrollable variable. Rather than avoiding or ignoring him, it’s better to keep him under my watch. That way, I can react immediately to any changes.”
“Besides, don’t you think it’s fun to watch his expressions change?”
Jiang Jitang actually felt a little regretful because the current Parsons had a fair complexion that didn’t seem to tan.
As a fragile mage, he preferred the honey-colored skin of warriors, wrapped around powerful muscles, with golden sweat flowing like honey.
It would be even better paired with shiny gold and gemstone jewelry.
But upon discovering that the fair-skinned Parsons couldn’t hide his emotions at all, with every change clearly visible on his skin, he decided this wasn’t bad either.
Fair skin with gold jewelry also looked good – arm rings, bracelets, rings…
“But last time we met, it was your expression that changed drastically,” Golden Eye blurted out without thinking.
“…I think you’ve been eating a bit too much lately, probably not digesting well. Let’s do a light fast tonight,” Jiang Jitang said seriously.
“Wah.”
Ding-dong! Parsons replied: [Sure.]
Concise and to the point. Jiang Jitang wondered what expression he had when typing those words. Would he remember their conversation from not long ago?
The smile in Jiang Jitang’s eyes deepened. He loosened the fishing line, giving the other side the illusion of having some autonomy: [What time? You decide.]
[Five.]
[Okay.]
—
Southwest corner of Jin City.
“Master, you…”
Not only did Golden Eye fail to understand its master’s actions, but the Demon Sword also couldn’t comprehend its own master’s actions.
Was he crazy?
If not for considering its own well-being, it would have yelled: Aren’t you being a bit too eager?
Even with the Demon Sword’s biased view that its master was the number one knight under heaven, it had to admit that its master had never won a war of words against him all these years.
Let it go! How could a warrior ever outplay a mage with a hundred tricks up his sleeve?
“Mine and his situation can’t be calculated by common sense,” Parsons said calmly, his low voice growing hoarser due to some rising emotion. “He wants to test me, to probe the purpose of my coming.”
Unlike him, Illman seemed very satisfied with his current life, so he wouldn’t allow anyone to disrupt it, including an ‘old friend’ like himself.
“Then why did you agree?” The Demon Sword grew anxious.
“He’s testing me, and I also want to know what happened to him. I don’t understand him well enough yet. At the very least, I don’t know why he completely abandoned the past.”
“He feels no nostalgia for the worlds we traversed, yet wants to settle down permanently in this one. What is so captivating about this world? Only by figuring that out can I glimpse a part of his truth.”
How can you understand someone without close contact? Secondhand accounts, recorded images – they can all be deceiving. Only through personal interaction can you find the truth from the subtle clues.
As for the option of turning and leaving, that was never in Parsons’s choices. He had chased that person’s shadow for so long it had become instinct.
After Illman left, he went to all the places Illman had been, including his hometown. There, from an old servant of the Duke’s estate, he learned some things about him.
The vague outline in the mist was becoming clearer and clearer.
The Illman he knew, the Illman who was the leader of the rebels, Duke Illman, and the Illman of now… He would understand everything, gather all the puzzle pieces, and dispel the mist.
“Alright, I still don’t get it,” the Demon Sword said, unable to comprehend this obsession, compressed and transformed by a death abruptly cut short. It just found humans too complicated.
“You don’t need to understand.”
“…” Alright then. Off you go, to be fooled.
“I really don’t need to understand. But I should remind you, my master, that your promotion tier game is in only twenty-seven minutes. Perhaps you should think about how to attend the appointment with all your limbs intact first.”
“Don’t worry.” He opened the leather case beside him, revealing a pile of precious items that would make any player drool.
“I will come out completely intact, to see him.”
—
Southeast corner of Jin City.
His phone, which hadn’t vibrated for a while, was casually tossed onto the table by Jiang Jitang.
“It’s still early before five. Browse the forums for a bit?”
He had only flipped through a few pages of his book, but the fickle human quickly opened his phone and entered the Cube World forum.
C-Nation’s location was in the Southeast District. Jiang Jitang entered the Southeast District first, wanting to get a sense of local current affairs.
“What’s the hot topic today? ‘Two or Three Things Between Me and the Big Shot’? Sounds like those clickbait ads for web novels. Tch.”
Jiang Jitang sounded disdainful, but his finger honestly tapped to open it: What happened with the big shot? Do tell.
Gossip was like snacks – you complain about them, but you love them to death.
“Do you know who helped me clear the fourth-tier Cube game? It was the boss of Seekers of Mystery!”
The thread starter wasn’t modest at all, boasting right away about gaining the favor of a certain organization’s boss, who personally helped them through the instance. But no one believed it. The boss of Seekers of Mystery was based in Western Europe; why would he come to C-Nation?
Even though the thread starter provided evidence, everyone preferred to believe it was the delusion of a player who could no longer distinguish reality from fantasy.
After all, this big shot was known for being low-key in person but high-profile in actions. Moreover, it was said he had plans to clear the ninth-tier Cube game. Why would he cross the ocean to help out here?
“…And this managed to spawn seven pages of arguments? Are players really that bored?”
This is the ‘two or three things’ with a big shot? Just being taken through a game once?
Feeling like he had fallen for a clickbait title, Jiang Jitang didn’t read carefully. He exited after reading the main post, going all the way back to the homepage to check the previous instances he had been in: ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Mad Artist’.
As rare instances that featured external aid, they, like ‘Museum Night,’ appeared within the first ten pages, periodically bumped up. So he found them easily.
Like Museum Night, they were originally third-tier Cube games.
The reason for adding ‘originally’ was that Mad Artist had undergone an uncontrollable mutation, raising its difficulty to the fourth tier.
The usual outcome for mutated instances was a total wipe, but this time, a small number of players managed to leave successfully, even bringing out high-rated items.
The appearance of external aid seemed to be counted as part of the player’s performance.
“No wonder they were so happy to see me. So it wasn’t just about saving their lives, but also gifting them points?” Jiang Jitang thought.
He recognized the thread starter for Black Friday; it was the female player from that star-crossed couple. In the thread, she condemned the veteran players who treated newcomers as ‘fat pigs,’ using her boyfriend’s arms in exchange for funds. In that game, someone else was entirely sacrificed for money.
Jiang Jitang recalled the two people in that instance who lost their arms.
So that’s how they lost their arms – traded for shopping funds.
Clearly, in their instance, they also faced the problem of insufficient money, but obtaining vouchers from the zombies wasn’t as easy as it was for Jiang Jitang. So, using flesh and blood in exchange for money became the last resort.
Other people’s flesh and blood.
The relationships between players were so complex; they could be companions or enemies.
Another player who lost her arms, a black girl, corroborated the thread starter’s story and also confirmed the existence of the external aid.
“I don’t care what you all think, about conspiracies or forgeries. I don’t want to know how he did it or how to become the second him.”
“All I know is he saved me twice: once in this game, and another time for the next game. He didn’t ask for anything, didn’t set any conditions. He is a true humanitarian warrior, full of great love…”
Jiang Jitang silently covered his face with his hands. He read it two more times, his mood continuously rising, rising.
This feeling was why he did good deeds – this kind of positive emotional feedback.
Good girl, if you can talk like that, say more. I’ll save you again next time.
“Visitor No. 000, want to play a game?” A voice suddenly popped up.
“No, thanks. Huh?” Jiang Jitang, who had answered reflexively, froze, whipping his head around. But the room was empty except for him.
