Chapter 1: Something’s Not Right
Noon, lower district of the Fuling Region.
The fire crackled inside the little alchemy hut.
Dressed in gray robes, Supervisor Ba paced around the room. He reached into a bamboo basket by the wall, pulled out a medicinal plant, and examined it with open disdain.
“What is this garbage? You spend all that time up in the mountains every day, and this is the best you can bring back?”
Dong Li sat beside the furnace, staring blankly.
He didn’t answer.
Instead, his gaze drifted to the top of Supervisor Ba’s head.
[Low-Level NPC · Snake Spirit]
[Region: Fuling]
Dong Li blinked slowly.
The two lines of tiny text were still there.
“I’m talking to you. Are you even listening?” Supervisor Ba spun around and glared at him with narrow eyes. “Both baskets are unacceptable! Go gather everything again!”
His voice was shrill. A gaudy belt peeked out beneath his outer robe, and a tiny gray snake rested on his shoulder, flicking its tongue with a soft hiss.
When Supervisor Ba dumped both baskets of herbs straight into the incinerator, Dong Li’s face fell.
“Fine,” he mumbled.
Then his eyes crept upward again.
He secretly studied the words above Supervisor Ba’s head.
So annoying…
Those herbs were perfectly usable…
Why did he throw them away every single time he came to inspect them?
Still…
It said Low-Level NPC above his head.
Low-Level.
NPC…
A tiny fox was crouched on the windowsill. Its pale violet eyes glittered with temptation as it lifted one paw, clearly considering giving Supervisor Ba a smack on the head.
Supervisor Ba seemed to sense something.
Both he and the little snake on his shoulder turned to look.
The fox instantly lowered its paw and casually began licking it as though nothing had happened.
Then it hopped off the windowsill, trotted over to Dong Li, and pretended to inspect the furnace fire.
Just then, the door creaked open from outside.
Shu Bai took the large bundle off his back and greeted the supervisor first.
“Supervisor Ba, I’m here to pick up the medicine.”
Then he turned toward Dong Li, smiling brightly.
“Dong Li!”
[Low-Level NPC · Fox Spirit]
[Region: Fuling]
Dong Li stared at the words floating above Shu Bai’s head and spaced out again for a moment.
Shu Bai normally lived in a small town just outside the Fuling Region. He worked at an herbal medicine shop there, but he was still considered part of the Fuling Region.
Supervisor Ba took the medicine order from him and gave a narrow-eyed snort.
“Two minutes late. That’s one strike for slacking off!”
“I-I got held up on the way…” Shu Bai tried to explain carefully.
Dong Li stared at the bald head beneath Supervisor Ba’s hood and cursed him silently.
What a jerk!
Only after Supervisor Ba finally left the hut to make his rounds outside did Dong Li toss aside the herb in his hand.
He stood and peered through the mottled window.
Then he wandered around the room, looking here, touching there, until at last he crouched in one corner.
Dong Li knocked on the wall.
“Hey,” he whispered. “Come out!”
Behind him, Shu Bai was counting the medicine. He looked over curiously.
“Dong Li? What are you doing?”
Dong Li knocked a few more times.
Nothing happened.
Eventually, he had no choice but to give up.
But he’d definitely seen it last night.
Those strange little figures had disappeared right through here…
Last night, Dong Li had been alone brewing medicinal soup. He’d been so sleepy that he’d accidentally thrown the wrong herb into the pot.
And then—
BOOM!
An enormous explosion shook the hut.
The lid shot straight into the air, and half the roof went flying with it.
Fortunately, Dong Li wasn’t hurt.
He simply stood there, staring open-mouthed at the missing half of his roof, too stunned to react for several seconds.
“What am I supposed to do…?”
Dong Li clutched the ladle in his hand, muttering miserably to himself.
The little fox beside him, on the other hand, was thrilled.
It smacked the remaining half of the pot with one paw and shattered it too.
There wasn’t anyone outside at that hour.
Dong Li was still agonizing over how he was going to clean up this disaster when something strange happened.
More than a dozen peculiar little figures crawled up from underground.
Their entire bodies gleamed like metal. Their eyes shone bright white, and two characters were stamped across every one of their foreheads:
PATCH.
The mechanical figures formed a line.
Without so much as acknowledging Dong Li’s existence, they immediately got to work inside and outside the hut.
Two minutes later—
the ruined roof had been completely restored.
So had the exploded pot.
The little mechanical figures had even cleaned the floor for him.
Once they were finished, they lined up again and disappeared through the corner of the wall.
Clatter.
The ladle slipped from Dong Li’s hand.
He stared around him, dazed and confused.
The hut and the medicine pot looked exactly as they had before the explosion.
It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Dong Li rubbed his face, picked up the ladle, and almost convinced himself he’d hallucinated the whole thing.
Except…
The repaired pot was empty.
The herbs inside had been blown to bits, leaving only a little residue behind.
How strange…
Then again, Dong Li had already started noticing strange things several days ago.
For example, there were those outsiders.
They didn’t have spirit forms like everyone else. They behaved strangely, appeared and disappeared unpredictably, and were constantly talking about unfamiliar things.
Then there was the tree outside his house.
Its fruit ripened impossibly fast…
Everything was just weird.
Dong Li snapped out of his thoughts and walked over to Shu Bai.
Lowering his voice, he asked, “Xiaobai… don’t you feel like something’s really wrong around here?”
Shu Bai looked completely baffled.
“Dong Li? What’s gotten into you?”
“You seriously haven’t noticed?” Dong Li had no idea how to explain it. After thinking for a moment, he pointed out the window. “Look. That guy’s acting really weird…”
It was difficult to see inside the hut from outside, but the view from within wasn’t especially clear either.
Someone was walking down the path outside, dressed entirely in black with his face covered. As he walked, he repeatedly raised his hand and tapped rapidly at something in midair.
Shu Bai turned and took a closer look.
“Oh. He’s an outsider.”
Dong Li had always known that “outsiders” didn’t possess fully formed spirit forms the way they did.
“But…”
Dong Li glanced at the words floating over Shu Bai’s head and hesitated.
At Shu Bai’s feet, his spirit form—a little white fox—sat perfectly upright.
Dong Li’s own spirit form was nearby as well.
It was a small golden fox with white fur beneath its chin and across its belly. Its coat was a little longer and fluffier, and its enormous bushy tail swished back and forth, ending in a white tip.
The golden fox reached out and poked the white fox.
Then it circled halfway around it, tilted its head…and poked it again.
The white fox kept its eyes rigidly forward the entire time, patiently waiting for its master to finish collecting the medicine.
Dong Li fell silent.
He looked up at the ceiling and sighed to himself.
Maybe he’d just been working too much.
Too busy, too tired, his head all muddled up…
Maybe he really was hallucinating.
Shu Bai quickly finished collecting his medicine.
“I’m off!” he said cheerfully. “I’ll come see you again next time!”
No sooner had he left than Supervisor Ba came storming back inside.
“Slacking off again!” he barked. “Get outside and turn over the herbs drying in the courtyard!”
With Shu Bai gone, Dong Li’s expression fell all over again.
“Fine.”
He dragged himself out the door and headed toward the side courtyard.
Meanwhile, at a fork in the road some distance from the alchemy hut—
Lufiel stood beneath a tree, his gaze fixed on Dong Li.
He leaned against the trunk, a black metal mask covering his face while the hem of his outer robe stirred gently in the wind.
The area around him was silent.
There was no one else nearby.
The time was 13:43.
Right on schedule, Dong Li walked out of the hut.
The afternoon sun was fierce. Dong Li lowered his head against the glare, his golden hair dazzling beneath the sunlight.
The herbs had been laid out to dry in the side courtyard.
Dong Li walked over and began turning the sliced herbs one by one.
One slice.
Two.
Three…
Lufiel watched intently.
His gaze lingered on Dong Li’s pale fingertips with the familiarity of someone who had watched this exact scene countless times before.
13:46.
Dong Li moved around to the other side.
13:49.
He finished turning the entire large basket.
There was still another one left…
At the edge of Lufiel’s vision, his interface chimed several times as new messages appeared.
[Liufeng: Knew you’d log in.]
[Liufeng: Coming to Asura City later?]
It wasn’t only the game’s internal messages.
The external connection linked to his gaming pod was flashing as well, indicating that someone was trying to contact him outside the game.
Lufiel ignored all of it.
He simply stood there and quietly watched Dong Li from afar.
At 13:56, Dong Li returned to the alchemy hut.
His figure disappeared from view.
Lufiel checked the time once more.
Today was Sunday.
Later in the afternoon, Dong Li would make a trip into the mountains.
Unfortunately, Lufiel didn’t have much time today.
He probably wouldn’t be able to make it back before then.
Lufiel opened his interface and replied:
“Not coming. Got something to do. Logging off.”
He cast one final glance at the alchemy hut.
A glowing formation appeared beneath his feet.
A moment later, Lufiel vanished with the light.
An NPC happened to pass nearby.
They didn’t so much as blink.
Inside the hut, Dong Li had barely stepped through the door when he saw Supervisor Ba pulling the little medicine furnace he’d hidden in a drawer.
Supervisor Ba dumped every pill inside into his palm, then stuffed them straight into his sleeve.
Dong Li immediately scowled.
“Those are mine…”
He’d refined those pills himself.
Their effects were completely unpredictable, but if he saved enough of them, maybe he could sell them for a decent amount of money.
Unfortunately, every time Supervisor Ba came around, he confiscated the whole batch…
“Yours? Mine? What’s the difference?” Supervisor Ba straightened his sleeve, then casually helped himself to a pot of carefully cultivated medicinal plants as well. “Everything in this entire house belongs to me!”
Not far away, the little golden fox’s fur had already puffed up.
It glared viciously at Supervisor Ba, ready to attack at any second.
Dong Li took a deep breath.
Then he looked at the words floating above Supervisor Ba’s head again.
[Low-Level NPC · Snake Spirit]
While turning the herbs outside, Dong Li had kept thinking.
What if all the strange things he’d seen and noticed were real?
What if none of them had been hallucinations?
Wouldn’t that mean the world he lived in was…
Dong Li knew what NPC meant.
An NPC in a game.
If the roof and medicine pot he’d destroyed last night could simply be restored…
Then if he beat Supervisor Ba up today, would Supervisor Ba forget all about it by tomorrow?
And if Dong Li hit him too hard…would those mechanical little figures from last night come out and patch him up?
Then again, Supervisor Ba had managed to become a supervisor, so he was probably pretty strong.
Dong Li might not even be able to beat him…
“Snake Spirit” was Supervisor Ba’s race.
Dong Li couldn’t see the words above his own head, but he was a fox spirit just like Shu Bai.
Which meant…
He was probably a Low-Level NPC too.
Dong Li spent another moment letting his imagination run wild, then reached up and patted the top of his own head.
Supervisor Ba was about to leave.
Naturally, he couldn’t go without one final warning.
“Quit slacking off! Get back to work!”
Dong Li was still sulking.
He stared at Supervisor Ba’s face and slowly clenched his fist.
He really wanted to try punching him.
Just once.
Unfortunately, Supervisor Ba walked too fast.
By the time Dong Li finally made up his mind, there was only a sliver of his back left visible through the window.
Dong Li loosened his fist and rubbed his fingertips together.
Then he picked up the little fox, sat down in a chair, and kicked the medicine furnace lying on the floor farther away.
He leaned his head back and stared blankly upward.
Then he sighed.
Ugh…
I don’t want to work.
—
That afternoon, Dong Li dragged his feet through his alchemy work.
Once the time was about right, he left the hut carrying a large bundle of things.
He followed the path toward the mountain behind the settlement.
The little fox followed along at first, but before long it disappeared off somewhere to play.
Dong Li didn’t worry about it.
He continued on alone until he reached a spot halfway up the mountain.
Sitting beside a large rock, he untied the cloth bundle in his arms.
It was filled with half-finished pills from failed batches, all giving off a rich medicinal fragrance.
Dong Li lifted his head.
“Yuanbao?”
He called toward the surrounding woods.
“Yuanbao?”
Before long, a tiny white creature darted out of the forest.
It raced happily toward Dong Li and flung itself into his arms.
The creature was very small, only slightly larger than an adult’s palm. Short white fur covered its body, and its eyes were an icy blue. Two tiny horns sprouted from the top of its head, while its long, slender tail was covered in scales.
It looked a little like a cat and a little like a dog.
Dong Li had no idea what species it actually was.
Whatever it was, though, it was gentle and very clever.
Yuanbao was thrilled to see him.
It burrowed against his palm, rubbing itself all over his hand.
Dong Li stroked the top of its head, picked a pill out of the bundle, and held it out.
“Here. Eat up.”
Yuanbao lowered its head and sniffed.
Then it swallowed the pill in one bite.
These defective, half-finished medicines were useless to anyone else.
To Yuanbao, however, they were delicious.
Within moments, it had eaten more than half the bundle.
Dong Li took out the water flask he’d brought with him and poured out a little warm water for Yuanbao so it wouldn’t choke.
There was nothing floating above Yuanbao’s head.
Not a single word.
Dong Li thought about it.
So Yuanbao wasn’t an NPC.
He’d found the little creature a long time ago.
It… probably counted as his pet.
The problem was that Supervisor Ba refused to let Dong Li keep pets in the courtyard.
He wouldn’t even allow one in Dong Li’s bedroom.
Besides, Yuanbao seemed to appear only at certain times. If Dong Li came up the mountain at other hours, there was no guarantee he’d find it.
Dong Li stroked Yuanbao down the back again.
“Slow down.”
The enormous bundle of “food” disappeared in no time.
Yuanbao sat on the ground and let out a tiny burp.
Despite everything it had eaten, its belly hadn’t grown at all.
It was practically bottomless.
Dong Li wiped its face, then packed away his flask and the empty cloth bundle.
He stayed and played with Yuanbao a little longer.
By then, the sky was getting late.
It was time to head back.
Yuanbao was very well behaved.
As soon as Dong Li stood up, it hopped onto the slope on its own and wagged its tail as though saying goodbye.
Dong Li waved back.
“Bye! I’m going home!”
He turned and walked a few steps.
When he looked back again, Yuanbao had already vanished.
In reality, however, the little white creature was hiding in the grass not far away, watching Dong Li’s figure recede into the distance.
Only after Dong Li disappeared completely from sight did it turn and leave.
It was astonishingly agile, darting through the forest at incredible speed.
Before long, the little creature arrived at a cave and slipped inside through a hidden corner.
As it moved deeper into the cave, its body gradually began to grow.
And change.
Frost covered the ground inside.
The temperature plunged in an instant.
Finally, an enormous white beast stood in the center of the cavern.
Two lines of glowing text appeared above its head.
[Dungeon Boss · Ice Qilin]
[Region: Fuling]
At that very moment, more than a dozen players had gathered not far from the entrance to the cave.
Several of them were clearing away the small ice spiders around the perimeter.
They were almost ready to enter.
“These ice crystals are useless. Don’t bother picking them up,” the player in front said. “Get ready. We’re going in.”
One player standing off to the side was obviously a newbie.
He immediately dropped the ice crystal in his hand and stared nervously toward the cave.
A teammate beside him reminded him, “Just follow the calls once we’re inside. You can’t tank the Ice Qilin’s ultimate. Watch the timing—get out before it hits, then go straight back in…”
Meanwhile, down the other side of the mountain, Dong Li was still on his way home.
The sky was growing darker.
The air was getting colder too.
He pulled his hood and scarf tighter around himself and trudged along.
It was so cold…
What if Yuanbao got cold up there?
And what did it eat on days when Dong Li didn’t come bring it food?
There had to be other animals in the mountains.
Yuanbao was so tiny…
What if something bullied it?
Now that he thought about it, Dong Li couldn’t even explain why none of these questions had ever occurred to him before.
But if he brought Yuanbao home…
Supervisor Ba would definitely get angry.
Dong Li went back and forth with himself until finally, he stopped walking.
So what if Supervisor Ba got angry?
That jerk was annoying anyway!
Worst case, Dong Li would just quit!
As if on cue, the little fox came running back.
Dong Li bent down, scooped it into his arms, and announced, “Come on. We’re going back for Yuanbao!”
The little fox lifted its head, eyes sparkling.
“Mm!”
—
Not long afterward, Dong Li was back halfway up the mountain.
The forest had grown dark enough that it was difficult to see.
He raised his voice.
“Yuanbao?”
“Yuanbao!”
At that exact moment, on the other side of the forest, more than a dozen players were inside the dungeon.
They carefully timed the Ice Qilin’s ultimate, retreating from the dungeon just before it went off and immediately rushing back inside.
Then they launched another round of attacks at the enormous beast before them.
The beast had exhausted the last cycle of its abilities.
It staggered backward again and again.
Its head drooped.
Its massive body was gradually weakening, and a mournful cry escaped its throat as it hovered on the brink of death.
At the same moment—
The little fox in Dong Li’s arms twitched its ears.
It seemed to have heard something.
Its violet eyes suddenly flew wide open.
Then it leaped from Dong Li’s arms and tore off into the distance.
