The Anomaly Bureau's car seemed reinforced, escorted by several vehicles, weaving through twists and turns before stopping inside an office building.
Zi Shu and the others tagged along under the pretense of escorting Yu Yu, and the Bureau seemed to have anticipated this. Nothing notable happened en route. After a series of checks and passing through heavy metal doors, they took an elevator deep underground.
Yu Yu's expression was calm, unfazed.
Shu Tu and Zi Shu were equally composed. Fuyu, gawking curiously, was pinched by Zi Shu and forced to mimic her serious demeanor.
Yu Bai led the way, guiding Yu Yu inside. "Eternal Darkness has far fewer spellcaster players than other classes. Our city doesn't have many either, but among Xia District's spellcasters, you're the best, so we invited you first."
Yu Yu: "I'm flattered. Xia District's full of hidden talent—I just got a head start."
She wore a simple, low-key outfit: white shirt, black jacket, fitted black pants. Her fair, delicate face bore a polite smile, her striking black eyes focused on Yu Bai, exuding humility and poise.
At this moment, Yu Yu was easy to like. Along the way, those observing—overtly or covertly—formed a positive impression.
Before the Federation, individuals had no secrets. The Federation had dug into Yu Yu's past ages ago. They likely knew more than the parties involved. To the Federation, it was a trivial matter.
A covert supervisor nodded to himself. This small issue—resolve it at the right time to curry favor with her. Spellcaster players were plentiful. But that unseen magic circle Grand Archon had clearly chosen her candidate. With their haughty attitude, they informed the Federation. The magic circle had selected their intermediary.
Accept? Or reject?
As Yu Yu was brought in, Officer Chen closed the surveillance screen.
He had a slight connection to Yu Yu.
Just a slight one.
Like his mother, with her down-to-earth username—Tomorrow Will Be Better.
She often rambled at home: the big shot's a good kid, humble, studious.
Other players just wailed, but the big shot read and translated books. What's that? Vision!
Officer Chen wasn't impressed. He'd checked Yu Yu's past.
A cocky, talented kid.
Not humble—more like arrogant, begging for a smackdown.
And she got one.
Still, his impression was mostly positive. She seemed decent enough now.
Worth engaging, worth further engagement.
The rest? Time would tell.
"Hello, Rong City Anomaly Sub-Bureau, Chen Shengsheng."
A middle-aged man in a white coat and glasses introduced himself with a name like Chen Shengsheng.
Yu Yu, still calm, said, "Hello, Yu Yu."
Thankfully, he didn't linger on small talk, diving in after a couple of sentences.
"These are the preliminarily screened artifacts," he explained. "Rong City's history is long, with countless artifacts. These are just a fraction."
He added, "We suspect these might be special artifacts and invited you to appraise them."
This time, Yu Yu entered alone. Zi Shu and the others watched from behind glass. Though unsure why it was so formal, they figured the Federation had its reasons. Before Yu Yu stood a cauldron. A rustic bronze cauldron, exuding ancient, primal aura, its surface speckled with unscrubbed brown stains.
Chen Shengsheng introduced, "After extensive expert analysis, this cauldron may be the Yangzhou Cauldron, one of the lost Xia Nine Provinces Cauldrons from before the Qin Dynasty."
"It's engraved with ancient Yangzhou's mountains, rivers, terrain, flora, fauna…"
His vivid explanation continued, but Yu Yu had already cast identify. Truth be told, she'd appraised plenty, mostly getting garbled results, so her enthusiasm was low.
But this time…
[Garbled]
[Quality: Common/Common/Common/Mythic…]
The interface flickered into a mess of garbled text before vanishing.
Yu Yu: "?"
Eternal Darkness, are you serious?
The next second, a rare real-world task popped up—
[Appraise the Object Before You] (*Reward: Base Attribute Point 1)
The panel kept flickering but stubbornly refreshed.
Seeing the reward, Yu Yu near-instantly hit "Accept."
A base attribute point!!!
After accepting, the panel miraculously stabilized.
The task updated instantly.
[Manifest Magic Circle Emblem]
Yu Yu thought for a moment, then said to Chen Shengsheng, who'd been watching, "There might be some anomalies soon. Don't mind."
Chen Shengsheng nodded.
Yu Yu manifested the magic circle emblem. Maybe it was her imagination, but this emblem was far brighter and more arcane than in-game. With its appearance, the panel grew steadier, more refined.
[Use Identify (0/1)]
Yu Yu cast identify again.
After another garbled flash, the interface stabilized.
[Garbled]
[Quality: Legendary
Attributes: Unknown
*Traits: *Group Will Aura, Garbled
Description: Garbled]
Yu Yu was stunned.
Group? Will? Aura?
The Group Will Aura she was thinking of?
She clicked the asterisk, reading intently.
[Group Will Aura]
[Attributes: Regional human Will +2, significantly suppresses anomaly emergence, slightly repels formed anomalies within range
Range: <10km
Duration: Unknown]
Yu Yu clicked the garbled trait, marked in bold red.
[Garbled]
[Attributes: Suspected pollution suppression
Range: <3m
Duration: Unknown]
The vivid red text screamed Eternal Darkness's hint.
But…
Yu Yu reported honestly to the waiting Chen Shengsheng. His eyes lit with uncontainable joy, confirming repeatedly. Yu Yu appraised the other artifacts, most mocked by Eternal Darkness as useless junk.
She genuinely felt the game's writing wasn't by one person.
Such biting sarcasm?
After careful appraisal, she identified one more useful item.
A bronze sword.
Chen Shengsheng: "This is the Yue King Sword."
He launched into a ten-minute spiel about it.
Yu Yu checked its stats—
[Garbled]
[Quality: Legendary
Attack: 0-1
*Traits: Group Will Aura
Description: Garbled]
Yu Yu shared the stats with the increasingly disappointed Chen Shengsheng, lifting his spirits. She didn't mention the mocking 0-1 damage.
This Group Will Aura had a range of <500m.
A huge drop.
Eyeing the garbled text, Yu Yu's fingers itched, and she poked it.
Poked again.
This time, the panel budged.
Yu Yu tentatively swiped, naming it.
[Yue King Sword]
Her handwriting appeared, converted to Allen Peninsula script, joining the stat sheet. Yu Yu perked up, selecting bits of Chen Shengsheng's spiel for the description.
At first, Eternal Darkness resisted, reluctantly yielding after persistent prodding.
Satisfied, Yu Yu said, "Aside from the Yangzhou Cauldron and Yue King Sword, the others showed no reaction."
Chen Shengsheng, barely containing his excitement, said politely, "Thank you, Miss Yu. Your reward will be sent to your account."
Yu Yu took the hint and left.
Group Will Aura?
She wanted one!
Where would the Bureau place the cauldron?
Time to move house.
Yu Yu rode the escorted car back, sharing her experience with Zi Shu and the others.
Yu Bai didn't intervene.
No need to mention real-world excitement. In their fervor, she and Zi Shu shoveled the hill for half a day. The last defensive gap, the small hill, was nearly flattened. By tomorrow, Yu Yu could complete the final defensive node.
~
Online.
The task wasn't timed, and Yu Yu hadn't figured out the magic circle's expectations. She wasn't even sure if her "bandit clearing" was truly random or Senior Meng's sleight of hand. Regardless, after days of hustle, Yu Yu decided to rest and clear her mind.
The undead core hunt rewards had arrived—
[Gained Experience +15000, Points +10000, 'Pain Deception,' 'Felix's Mind Shock']
Yu Yu was baffled.
Both… negative energy spells?
And not first or second-ring?
Searching her memory, she decided to ask Senior.
She sent a formal invite to treat Senior to fries that afternoon.
Then Yu Yu tidied up and joined Shu Tu at the hunter camp that morning.
Back from the camp, Yu Yu had secured a lucrative deal.
At home, she awaited Senior's visit.
Her grand plantation was brimming with potatoes.
Of course, a high-tier spellcaster—Senior!—had to taste the delights of her gifted plantation!
With plenty of time, Yu Yu, under Shu Tu's guidance, diligently learned and prepared (sort of) a table of potato dishes. She recalled Senior wasn't picky—she ate anything.
After a morning of enthusiastic prep, Yu Yu perched on a stool on the second floor, waiting for Senior. Teleportation let high-tier spellcasters come and go tracelessly.
Yu Yu held her chin with her hand, and before she knew it, the woman in black robe was sitting opposite her. Felix motioned for her to look towards the table, her eyes questioning.
Yu Yu reacted instantly. "Senior, check it out!"
She whipped out dishes from her inventory. Moments later, the table was piled with potato cuisine. Felix was slightly puzzled, but not much. She picked up chopsticks primly, signaling Yu Yu to start.
Wolfy dines.jpg
Yu Yu introduced, "Senior, these are potatoes…"
She rattled off explanations.
At first, Felix listened with one ear.
Gradually, she raised a curious brow. "Potatoes? Can you grow them?"
She quite liked them.
"I recall you saying," Felix's voice was as cold as ever, her eyes serious, "you failed to grow them."
Yu Yu muttered inwardly, Did I tell Senior about that failure?
"But potatoes should grow," Yu Yu said loudly.
Felix scoffed, "Wishful thinking…"
Yu Yu felt challenged, raising her voice. "What if I do grow them?"
Felix smirked, "I'll make you a duchess."
Yu Yu was ecstatic. "Really?"
Felix glanced at her.
Yu Yu shut up obediently.
Felix then said coolly, "When are you moving that orange tree?"
"Still expecting me to babysit it?"