Chapter 25: Quest Mobilization

Chapter 25: Quest Mobilization

———

[Letters to Home]

You have inadvertently discovered a severed arm without a body. Beneath it lies an aged letter.

Obtained letters: 1/5

———

Give Me Medicine viewed the updated progress bar on the quest panel, then hastily tucked the parchment into his waist bag and started searching the small wooden house.

"There's nothing here!"

Give Me Medicine had no choice but to give up the search after five minutes. This tiny wooden house had been cleared by countless players during quest runs. Besides dust and scattered dirt, there was nothing else to be found.

"Could other players have taken them? No, that can't be. If the letters were taken by someone else, this hidden quest would have been triggered long before I arrived."

A frowning Give Me Medicine pondered for a bit before a thought struck him. "Wait a minute, I'm not the only one that uses this path. There were two players who were ahead of me earlier, so how could they not have noticed the severed arm?!"

He quickly ran out of the door, and at that time, a player was conveniently jogging past from the direction of the respawn point.

Give Me Medicine stood on the doorstep and called out, "Hey buddy, doing a quest?"

The player stared at Give Me Medicine strangely as if he didn't understand what this person was up to; then, recognizing the stranger as one of the three closed beta veterans, he politely responded as he passed by the front of the small wooden house, "Yeah, Brother Meds."

Give Me Medicine watched as the player turned the corner, then he glanced down at his feet. The severed arm was still resting on the doorstep.

This was after all just a game, so Give Me Medicine didn't feel like he had encountered a supernatural event or run into a ghost.

"Could it be... the key item that triggers the hidden quest isn't visible to everyone? Perhaps only specific players that meet certain conditions can view it?" Give Me Medicine started to get excited. "Just like a fortuitous encounter in Jisan, where numerous players on the same server are digging for treasure and exploring hidden caves but only one lucky person out of thousands can trigger the Three Mountains and Four Seas event?!

"The hidden quests in the game are equivalent to fortuitous encounters of other PC games! This makes sense!

"Wahahaha! I'm the true luck god!"

Give Me Medicine was overjoyed and immediately took screenshots of the severed arm and parchment letter. Then, he spiritedly picked up the severed arm and went off to find his companions.

Previously, Blossoming Strokes had been grinding zombie quests nonstop to earn copper coins for Give Me Medicine and hadn't had time to increase her reputation with the Mage Apprentice Instructor. Now that she was currently making progress, Give Me Medicine didn't want to disturb her.

———

Qin Guan, who was capturing video footage and shooting scenes on the southern ruins in the town, looked up to see Give Me Medicine running toward him excitedly, seemingly holding something in one arm, but there was nothing there.

Between midnight and 2 a.m. was when the forum for "OtherWorld" was most active. Players needed to wait until after midnight to download the screenshots and gameplay videos they had captured throughout the day from the official website. Many players would casually share their screenshots and videos on the forum to garner some attention and boost their name in the game.

For the community of players, these visuals that they could see in the game every day had since lost their novelty. However, considering that the total number of players was only 300 while the number of registered forum accounts was several tens of thousands, it meant that there were still a massive number of keen video game fans who were quite interested in this game which they couldn't personally experience.

At five minutes past midnight, a post titled "Shocking! Hundreds Witness Conclusive Evidence That Vanilla Boss is Busty!" appeared on the forum, instantly capturing the attention of the non-playing enthusiasts and rapidly gaining popularity.

This post, shared by one of Qin Guan's fans, presented multiple-angled screenshots and a comprehensive view of the scene where Qin Guan equipped the Orb of Deception and completely overshadowed everyone at the Knight Instructor's construction site.

Amid the crowd of skeletons in shabby white T-shirts and shorts stood a remarkable female warrior with wavy black hair, exuding an air of elegance and confidence. The description of her overshadowing presence was absolutely accurate, without a hint of exaggeration.

To add insult to injury, after several pages of replies from both non-playing enthusiasts and genuine players, the original poster sneakily shared two additional images provided by someone else, captured at the Treasure Expert's construction site.

The first screenshot depicted a muscular illusory disguise of the big shot with the female character, dressed in a magnificent Renaissance-style evening gown. As soon as the image appeared, countless non-playing enthusiasts burst into laughter.

The second screenshot was Blossoming Strokes' illusory disguise.

"Argh, my eyes! I'm going blind!"

"Oh no! My eyes!!!"

"Thank you, OP. Now my supper is ruined."

"Censor it! Censor it! I'm going to report this post!"

"My god! Even the governor in a miniskirt would be 100 times more pleasant to the eyes than this thing! What did Madam Blossom do to deserve such punishment?!"

"Give up, Madam Blossom! Don't be human! Your skeletal frame is a thousand times more adorable!"

...It was fortunate that Blossoming Strokes was still grinding in the game and hadn't logged out since accepting the Mage Apprentice reputation quest. Otherwise, she would have been infuriated by this bunch of clamoring non-players.

What was even worse was that some non-players, with a talent for stirring up trouble, merged screenshots of Blossoming Strokes and Vanilla Pudding, then gleefully posted the finished product on external websites.

Then, this heavily contrasting image was further edited to create memes such as "Your online girlfriend vs. your real girlfriend," "What you see in the mirror vs. the real you," "Someone else's wife vs. your wife," and so on...

After receiving the screenshots sent by Give Me Medicine, Qin Guan had been tirelessly editing videos. It wasn't until 3 a.m. that he finished producing a well-edited video combining game content and a mobilizing message, which he immediately uploaded to Bilibili and the game forum.

Then, Qin Guan took a shower and had a quick meal before preparing to wear his headset and continue his gaming session.

This routine was "invented" by players who confirmed their bodies were asleep when they were in the game. By wearing the headset before going to bed, they could play while asleep and continue sleeping once they logged out without needing to wake up. Using a U-shaped pillow to protect their necks, they would wake up the next day without any discomfort.

The only downside was that they could only log in for a maximum of 12 hours within a 24-hour period. If they played too late into the night, they would have to count the hours they could be online for the next day.

Before logging in, Qin Guan refreshed the official website and checked the forum.

And then... he noticed that whether in the video's comments section or the forum, both players and non-players, regardless of whether male or female netizens, were calling him "wife"...

Qin Guan: "??"