Calamity Messenger-Chapter 63 - 50: Shallow Long-Term Thinking

Yan Qing held the teapot to pour out the first brew of tea, discarded it, poured out the second brew, and took a sip. The initial taste was slightly astringent, but with a lingering sweetness, somewhat similar to Tieguanyin.

Now his life was also getting better; he even got a set of tea utensils. These days, he hosted banquets every day, indulging in meat and fish, so he had to drink some tea to relieve the grease, lest he becomes constipated.

Logically speaking, he should also be a game character, given his name was in the role slot. But why do other game characters never need to poop, while he possesses such a backward function?

Or perhaps Ye Si and Jiang Shi secretly pooped when I’m not playing?

While Yan Qing was lost in thought, he watched ’Jiang Shi’ return to the Qian Family carriage.

Qian Gongyu had just finished bathing, with her hair still steaming and wearing a thin silk nightdress. She pinched her nose upon seeing ’Jiang Shi’: "All sweaty, hurry and take a bath, the water is still hot."

When ’Jiang Shi’ went to bathe, the steam immediately clouded the entire screen, and Yan Qing could only see a few parts like the head, shoulders, and arms. At this moment, Qian Gongyu walked in again, leaned against the bath barrel, and asked: "Jiang Shi, are you planning to go to the Jie Family or Shang Family? It should be the Jie Family, right? After all, their conditions are better."

"You heard?"

"You were chatting at the door, just heard a little bit."

After the banquet ended, Shang Xinlei and Jie Yuan Shao came over one after another to recruit ’Jiang Shi’ in tacit agreement. Shang Xinlei offered the lowest terms, requiring service to the Shang Family for five years in exchange for three tokens; Jie Yuan Shao was much better, promising four tokens for four years of service, and these four tokens can be chosen at will from the Jie Family treasure trove.

However, they both stated these were the minimum terms; once they contact their family, they will offer more advantageous conditions. They didn’t need ’Jiang Shi’ to agree immediately; after Mansu Forest Land’s three-day Secret Realm ends, they were sure their family would value ’Jiang Shi’ even more.

Their recruitment was mainly to show they valued ’Jiang Shi’ as much as Qunyu Book did. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Yan Qing didn’t care about serving the aristocratic families. As a player who had long been tormented by canned single-player games, he had accustomed himself to helping NPCs with trivial tasks for minor benefits everywhere. As long as the price was right, who cares whom the toilet is cleaned for?

As long as the other party cooperated sincerely, Yan Qing was happy to exchange labor for reward.

But these people were too stingy, each holding onto the tokens and not releasing them unless having worked for a certain number of years, but Yan Qing needed tokens now to enhance his strength!

As for working a year for a token...

In the game "Herald", no matter how clumsy, laid-back, or unprofessional the player, as long as they persist in playing three hours a day, they could reach Fourth Transition in less than half a year. Even if the difficulty to reach Fourth Transition in this world is a bit higher, requiring twice the time, a year should be enough for Yan Qing to advance to Fourth Transition.

Why would I need your ordinary white tokens, which can only be sold to shops, once I’ve reached Foundation Establishment Fourth Transition?

This is also why Yan Qing directly appraised the ’Guardian Jade Pendant’ handed over by Qunyu Book — he knew that ’inspecting all information about a token’ is an invaluable basic function in this game, equivalent to being the only literate person among a group of illiterates. Far from being a public intellectual, it’s more than enough to be a prophet.

He also knew that exposing this ability would attract more coveting towards ’Jiang Shi’.

But as long as the benefits are in hand, that’s all that matters.

Shang Xinlei once complained that ’Jiang Shi’ shouldn’t have displayed his appraisal ability, and Jie Yuan Shao bluntly stated that ’Jiang Shi’ was too presumptuous and conceited, a short-sighted approach.

They couldn’t understand why ’Jiang Shi’ was so eager for tokens, why he didn’t hide his strength and wait for long-term benefits.

After all, to most people, discretion and gradual accumulation are undoubtedly correct; life is singular, and people should look further ahead.

But their foresight was far too shallow for Yan Qing.

Yan Qing wasn’t chasing merely Foundation Establishment Fourth Transition but the highest versions of Seventh, Eighth, or even Ninth Transition. As long as he got enough equipment to get through the beginner period, he didn’t mind offending all the aristocratic families here — though these aristocratic families monopolized resources, destroying their gold coins as an act of justice was not his concern; he simply pursued his ruthless methods.

Single-player gamers are like this; as long as the game mechanics allow, deceit, theft, or robbery, whatever works will be used. Game NPCs might call such acts crimes, while players call them efficient.

"Their offered conditions are not good; I’ll wait until after Mansu Forest Land ends for them to offer better conditions."

"These conditions are not good, huh?" Qian Gongyu clicked her tongue, "Well, that’s good... so you’ll be staying with me these two days, right?"

"Of course, Miss."

"Hehehe."

"Miss, tomorrow let’s spar using tokens."

"Huh? Ah... alright."

Qian Gongyu suddenly remembered something, ran out barefoot, then returned barefoot with a box in hand: "This is the Spiritual Jade Xinlei gave me, since Jiang Shi you’ve switched to ’Herald’, let’s split it!"

"This was given to you, not me, and I’m not lacking Spiritual Jade."

"You’re not lacking?" Qian Gongyu glanced around and suddenly remembered: "Oh, you must’ve stored Spiritual Jade in your storage token."

She lowered her head, looking at the box, her voice a bit sad: "I figured, you have blade tokens and storage tokens, you’re clearly noble-blooded, so you wouldn’t be short of Spiritual Jade... "

"But waste not, want not."

’Jiang Shi’ reached out to take half of the Spiritual Jade from the box, "Consider it the cost for Miss employing me as a bodyguard."

Qian Gongyu was taken aback, somewhat amused: "That cost is too high; just a few days requires three thousand Spiritual Jade."

"But I’m worth it."

Qian Gongyu blinked, leaning against the bath barrel and gazing at ’Jiang Shi’, her eyes flowing with amusement: "True."

...

...

The next morning, at the clearing in front of Mansu Forest Land entrance, three groups gathered.

The largest group was naturally formed by scions of aristocratic families. Mansu Forest Land was a three-day Secret Realm; missing even a day meant automatic forfeit, so they had to continue entering today.

They repeatedly glanced at ’Jiang Shi’ and the others, eyes filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment — envy of their ease in the Forest Land, jealousy that ’Jiang Shi’ could influence Mansu Forest Land, and resentment that she didn’t share this Secret Technique with everyone — how could they not resent a mere Black Belt Commoner for climbing above them?

The second group consisted of Jie Zilong, Chen Linchuan, and Qunyu Book. They would enter Mansu Forest Land together. With luck, they might form a team; if unlucky, they might be in separate teams. No one has figured out the rules of team allocation in Mansu Forest Land thus far.

The last group was ’Jiang Shi’ and the others.

"Let’s go," said Jie Zilong, "They’ve all teamed up, even if we go together, we won’t be allocated together."

"Then I’ll rely on you seniors," Qunyu Book smiled.

Chen Linchuan took a spear from his attendant and led the way into the forest mist, with the other two following close behind. Once they entered, ’Jiang Shi’ and the others also set off, but even if they didn’t enter together, they would end up at the same Shelter.

Yet Qian Gongyu seemed unaware of this and tightly held onto ’Jiang Shi’s arm. Seeing this, Shang Xinlei grabbed the other arm of ’Jiang Shi’, while Jie Yuan Shao hesitated then took hold of Shang Xinlei’s sleeve.

Passing through the brief mist, the Shelter appeared before them.

The Shelter remained in the same state as they left it, with the Blade Warrior statue, stone house, damaged wooden crossbow, and shattered walls. For some reason, upon arriving at this dangerous place, Qian Gongyu relaxed entirely, as if it were safer inside than out.

Meanwhile, a new message popped up in the game:

"You’ve entered Mansu Forest Land."

"Based on your level, you can currently obtain the following milestone information."

"Bronze Hunter: You passed the fifth level of Mansu Forest Land."

"Silver Hunter: You passed the tenth level of Mansu Forest Land."

"Gold Hunter: You passed the twentieth level of Mansu Forest Land."

"Lord of the Forest: You passed the ninety-ninth level of Mansu Forest Land."