Chapter 21

Bonus ko-fi chapter.
Fairytale Town 5
Song Qi glanced between Xie Xi and the girl.
The girl was very pitiful. She came forward and sweetly tried to pull Xie Xi’s arm.
Brother Bai Xia, fortunately you have come back…

Xie Xi stepped back and distanced himself from her.
I’m not Bai Xia.

The girl stood in place at his words, the sweetness fading from her thin face and panic replacing it.
Brother Bai Xia, don’t joke around with Yunren, Yuren is very afraid.

Such a beautiful maiden, so pitiful and attached to him. An ordinary man would probably be moved.
Xie Xi didn’t want to deceive her. Intuition told him that things weren’t so simple and this girl was hurt far beyond a flesh wound.

I’m sorry.
Xie Xi told her earnestly.
I’m not Bai Xia or someone you know.

The girl’s eyes were widen and her black pupils expanded to almost completely fill her eyes, creating a frightening shock.
How can that be? You are Brother Bai Xia… before… not… but now… Bai Xia… Brother Bai Xia…

She seemed too emotional. The words came intermittently and the meaning couldn’t be understood.
Xie Xi frowned and wondered in a low voice,
Before…

The girl interrupted without giving him a chance to finish. She took out a well-preserved photo from her pocket.
Look, look… Brother Bai Xia… this is what you gave to me. This is the photo of us together. How can it not be you? How can it not…’
Her hands were very thin and the bones of her fingers could be seen. She was holding the photo like it was 30% heavier than her hand.
Xie Xi stared intently at the photo.
This was a photo of the two people. The man in the photo was blurred and only his outline could be seen. It was also different from Xie Xi because the man was taller and burlier than Xie Xi. The girl next to him looked particularly petite.
The girl in the photo was smiling happy. The curves of her mouth were full of the temperature of the sun. She was slim but not the dead skinny that she was now.
Xie Xi was more concerned with the town behind them.
They were standing on a high mountain and the town was in the background. There were rows of red tiled buildings and well-defined blue brick paths. Along with the ethereal fireworks, it gave off a fairytale serenity.
This was the real fairytale town.
Song Qi also saw it. He was stunned and couldn’t say anything.
The girl cautiously pleaded,
Brother Bai Xia, you see… this is our photo. I have been keeping it and waiting for you.

Xia looked at him and spoke cruelly,
Sorry, I’m not Bai Xia. I have no impression of this photo.

The girl was pale and her thin body trembled, like the last dead life about to fall in the winter forest.
Why? You don’t want Yunren? You… you really don’t want Yunren.
Big tears rolled down at her mournful words.
She was too thin. Once she cried, she seemed like she was squeezing out the last water in her body.
Xie Xi glanced at Song Qi and Song Qi nodded. The two people left this pained maiden alone.
They walked away and Song Qi couldn’t help saying,
She is too pitiful…


It can’t be helped.
Xie Xi replied.
I’m not Bai Xia and can’t give her what she wants. Lying to her will only deal her a double injury.

Song Qi sighed,
Indeed.
Still, the average person couldn’t endure it when a young girl was begging like this. Forget straight men. As a gay man, he even wanted to persuade her not to cry.
Xie Xi asked Song Qi,
When you entered this world… did you see the whole town?

Song Qi saw the photo just now and understood why he asked.
I didn’t saw the whole thing but when I was stealing… uh… when I sneaked into a home to do the task, the situation of their home left an impression on me.


What is it?

Song Qi explained,
It was very poor. The house was a beautiful two-storey building. There is a small yard and the decorations in the house were also very good but… there was hardly any food.

Xie Xi thought deeply.
Song Qi continued,
I didn’t understand the terrain and took the kitchen as the bed… in any case, I entered the room and found a few grains of rice in the rice storage, as well as wild vegetables that are difficult to swallow…

He had never experienced a hard time so the kitchen left a deep and terrible expression on Song Qi. The family was so poor that they even wanted to eat bark.
Xie Xi murmured,
What is happening in this town?

Song Qi wondered,
Is it because of the dragon? In order to provide for it, the residents gave him all their food…

Xie Xi thought that if it was a dragon, the villagers might not sit back like this.
As a species, humans had always been fearless. In particular, they would do anything to survive when conditions were extremely harsh.
What about the dragon? A civilization with a gun, they really couldn’t handle the dragon? It was also a situation where they were so hungry they would probably peel off their skin to eat.
Besides, his mission was to collect a dragon heart. If the whole town couldn’t fight the dragon, how could he do it as a beginner collector?
The power of the low-level players was weak and they were almost the same as ordinary people. If 10 players could accomplish the task, why couldn’t the town residents?
Of course… it could be said that this was a game and the setting of the game left the problem for players to solve.
Was this the case? Xie Xi could never feel like he was ‘playing.’
In any case, these were all guesses and they were quite some distance from the truth.
Xie Xi suggested,
Let’s go to the back mountain to see.

Song Qi nodded.
Okay.

It was convenient for the two people to walk in the darkness. On the one hand, they could see and on the other hand, they could avoid people. It was killing two birds with one stone.
It was almost dawn when they finally came to the back mountain.
They looked up and…
Song Qi whined,
How can we find a cave in such a big place?

This wasn’t a computer game where a panoramic view could be seen by dragging down the map. They were standing in a real world!
They were tired from walking all night. Now they looked at the huge mountain covered in trees and felt like crying.
A cave in the rear mountain…
Who knew how many caves there were?
Compared with Song Qi’s sigh, Xie Xi calmly pulled out a magnifying glass.
Song Qi,
…

Xie Xi raised the magnifying glass and started to carefully search.
Song Qi exclaimed,
A search mirror! A search mirror is 30,000 silver coins!

Xie Xi told him,
Well, the search level is very low. Due to the limit on the number of uses, it is barely useful.

What do you mean, barely useful? It was too wasteful to use it in this D-grade world!
Song Qi remembered the previous character freezing item and now the search mirror. He couldn’t help whispering,
Brother… ah, emperor of luck… how do you have so much money? You can’t be like me… and received a breakup fee from a scum male…

In a sense, it was a bit like that…
Xie Xi told him,
It is a reward from the last game.
He hadn’t intended to hide this from Song Qi since using the character freeze. Song Qi hadn’t returned to the Central World and didn’t know about Love to the Left or Right. Thus, he didn’t know that Xie Xi was the one who cleared it.
In all quasi-worlds, the advanced quasi-worlds designed by the designers wee the same. X was a big celebrity and the games he designed were on a list. Forget clearing the A-grade, S-grade and even SS-grade games, they couldn’t even be activated!
The longer that no one cleared it, the more curious people became and the hotter the topic would be. That’s why the news of Xie Xi clearing the instance had shocked the Central Hall.

Oh my god!
Song Qi looked shocked.
Didn’t you just clear one world? What grade is it that you can get 40,000 silver coins as a reward?

It was actually 100,000…
Xie Xi didn’t hide it from him.
S-grade.

Song Qi,
!!!!

Xie Xi said,
My luck was good.
It was actually bad luck. What the hell type of game did he have to go through?
Song Qi thought, ‘This is good? This luck is from the heavens! Hello Emperor, could you give me a bit of your luck?
Song Qi spoke pathetically,
I only completed three E-grade tasks and this is my first D-grade task. I also got a garbage main task…

Completing the task wasn’t the same as clearing the instance.
After entering the quasi-world, they would get a main task. They could only leave the quasi-world after completing the main task. Otherwise, they would still in the quasi-world until it was finished. The main task couldn’t be given up and had to be completed to the end.
The conditions for clearing the instance were more demanding. First, they must receive the core task as the main task and secondly, they had to complete the core side task. The side task wasn’t mandatory. If it was completed, additional rewards would be issued according to the grade. They didn’t have to be trapped in the quasi-world if they gave up on it by default.
The side task was okay and it wasn’t a big deal to spend money to refresh it. Therefore, many people were unable to clear the instance because they didn’t receive the core main mission.
It was only when receiving the core main mission that clearing the instance was possible. The rewards after clearing the instance were top-notch, just like the S-grade quasi-world. It made many people covet the special rewards.
After clearing the instance, the quasi-world would be closed and players would no longer receive related tasks.
For an E-grade quasi-world, clearing the instance wasn’t difficult as long as their luck was good. Song Qi wasn’t surprised when Xie Xi said he went through one world. Then he heard it was a S-grade quasi-world…
Oh my god…
This wasn’t the emperor of luck, it was the god of luck!
..The start was too high and Song Qi’s heart was gone.
Xie Xi told him,
Don’t tell it to others. I don’t want to be too eye-catching.


Rest assured, I will keep my mouth shut!
The two men didn’t know each other long but Song Qi felt that Xie Xi was cautious and serious. Since Xie Xi was saying this, he must really think of Song Qi as a friend.
The emperor of luck considered him as a friend QAQ! The crybaby Song Qi thought he should sing about the change to his fortunes!
Due to the search mirror, it wasn’t long before they found the entrance to the cave.
The two people descended the mountain with their bare hands. They were tired and panting but Song Qi had brought a lot of items with the breakup fee. He gave Xie Xi a physical potion and the two people temporarily gained physical strength.
This type of physical potion wasn’t cheap but the effect was really average. It was similar to eating a meal. Apart from saving time, the effect wasn’t significant.
The entrance of the cave wasn’t big. From the outside, it was dark and impossible to figure out if there was any danger.
Xie Xi told him,
I’ll go first. You be careful behind me.

Song Qi nodded.
Yes!

The two of them were about to walk into the cave when they were suddenly blocked by a red light.
Song Qi was startled.
Is there a barrier?

Xie Xi raised his hand and touched it. The red light rose again, blocking it like a door.
Song Qi used the brain circuits from playing games and said,
Is there a clue we missed or prerequisites we have to meet before going in?


It is possible.


Should we go back to the town to look for clues?


Yes.

It was midday when they returned to town and the bright sun was high in the sky. The atmosphere of the town was still strange and cold.
Xie Xi and Song Qi tried to avoid any eyes and ears as they pondered on where to find information about the rear mountain and the dragon.
Just then, a man’s low voice was heard.
Catch him!

Both Xie Xi and Song Qi were shocked. Song Qi pulled Xie Xi’s hand,
We’ve been discovered!


Don’t move!
Xie Xi dragged him closer to the corner.
Footsteps hurried past as a group of skinny people ran like crazy, full of hideous resentment.
A dark shadow rushed past Xie Xi and Song Qi. It was the man being chased.
Song Qi sighed with relief and held his breath again.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out and the man being chased fell as he was shot in the back.
Then there was an even stranger scene. The dead person actually climbed up again and ran forward.
Song Qi thought, ‘It is a player!’
Xie Xi stared at the residents behind the man and found they weren’t surprised at the ‘death resurrection’. They didn’t hesitate to fire the gun again and the person who just stood up was completely killed.
Xie Xi’s pupils shrank.
These residents were hunting players!