Chapter 243: Chapter 243 – Seasonings of Life
Ren Suo looked at the world map on the screen. There were so many cities on the map which he could select. He could even end up cross-eyed if he tried to select one from them.
In the top-left corner of the world map were a counter [Days Remaining: 10] and a cup icon which said [Desires Collected: 0].
In the top-right corner of the world map was a selectable option [List of Cities]. Upon selecting it, a list of cities sorted by alphabetical order was displayed.
The main information in the list of cities included: [Land Area], [Human Traffic], [Country], and a blood-red column [Degree of Concealment].
[Degree of Concealment] represented the number of ‘customers’ who concealed themselves in the darkness of the night. A high degree of concealment would mean that there were many ‘customers’ who did not appear at all in the day, and who endured their extreme hunger to conceal themselves within the darkness.
Ren Suo could choose to “flee ghosts” in the same city throughout the ten days, or otherwise “flee ghosts” in a different city each day—as long as the game character was able to live through each night, there would not be a problem.
“I shall pick one at random then…”
Ren Suo sorted the list of cities by [Degree of Concealment], and he quickly picked his target: a city which ranked tenth based on [Degree of Concealment] and was represented by 3 skulls—Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was not far from Lianjiang and was one of the important ports of entry in Xuan Nation. Both Lianjiang and Hong Kong were often discussed together as a whole, and similar language forms were used in both areas. When he was young, Ren Suo often watched drama series and films produced by Hong Kong television stations, although he had never been there before.
After selecting the target city, the next step was to design his own game character.
Ren Suo let his imagination run wild again: he had used male characters throughout “The Mage Under the World Tree”, so it was time for a change! He would use a female character this time!
To be fair though, what would you feel if the person who served you when you went for supper late in the night was a beautiful lady, and as you sat at the stall waiting for your food to be prepared by her, the beautiful lady would occasionally bend down, revealing her curves, while beads of sweat formed on her gorgeous face as the piping hot steam condensed, then finally she served your food with a smile on her face…
Ren Suo smacked his lips as his fantasies ran wild. In reality, if he went to buy supper, there would, at most, be a well-rounded, mature lady in the dining hall who would ‘slam’ his plate of crayfish on the table.
In order to fulfill his fantasies, Ren Suo selected an Oriental girl from the given character templates which suited his taste and started the game.
On the screen, the scene plunged into darkness once again. When it lit up, he saw the female stall owner pushing a food cart into a dimly-lit forest park. She passed by a notice board very briefly, and Ren Suo saw the word ‘Kowloon’.
Along the way, Ren Suo could see homeless people who were sleeping in the park, and there were even one or two security guards who were patrolling the area. However, they did not seem to notice the female stall owner, and she pushed her food cart all the way to an area where barely anyone would walk past.
The female stall owner parked her food cart in that spot. Before long, the stall was lit, the menu was hung up, and the kitchenware was cleaned. She took a glance at the park that was barely lit and not a single soul was seen. She bent down to take out a pan, and when she stood upright again, the first ‘customer’ had appeared in front of the food stall.
It was a man whose age was hard to tell.
He was handsome in his own right, looking somewhat cold, alone, and depressed. He had crow’s feet but still looked young as a whole. He wore what appeared to be a set of long-sleeved sportswear used for running. Sitting quietly on one of the high counter stools with backrests at the food stall, his hair was slightly poofy and his eyes were cloudy.
Ren Suo had completely not heard his footsteps nor the sound of him sitting down.
[What would you like to eat?]
Ren Suo did not actively control the female stall owner to ask the question—it was a pre-set automatic voice. She looked at the man in the sportswear and asked in an emotionless tone, neither happy nor sad.
The man glanced at the menu and said: [You did not state the price.]
The female stall owner tapped on the panel on the left side of the stall. On it was a sentence written in eight different languages: [The story of your life in exchange for a sumptuous meal; payment has to be made before the food is served; just a small business, strictly no credit]
The man nodded and said: [Give me a bowl of luncheon meat noodles with egg and a bottle of mineral water.]
The female stall owner got down to work to prepare the meal. She gave him a bottle of mineral water first. At that juncture, the man began: [My life is… well, very boring.]
[My father had an affair and left us when I was still young. My mother raised me single-handedly and even sent me to study abroad. After I returned, I was unable to find any decent job. At the same time, to keep up with the times, I became an actor.]
[After some time, my acting career was still not taking off, and then I made the difficult decision to act as a clown. From then on, whether it was on-screen or off-screen, I pretended to be a happy clown. My viewers, my colleagues, and the directors all thought of me this way, and the roles I play are always those that make people laugh.]
[However, I know that I am not such a person. I tried to change that, but it proved to be useless. I just can’t take the mask off after wearing it for such a long time.]
[My parents’ failed marriage also seemed to take a toll on me. I had the privilege to meet a few decent girls, but whenever we got closer and they saw even a small bit of my true self, hidden behind my mask, they all left me. There was no exception, and I understand why—no one is required to become anyone else’s dustbin.]
[Then, I…]
At that juncture, the man’s voice suddenly became louder and echoey and sounded sinister and ear-piercing. Strange black smoke billowed from his body and formed an apparition with a scowling face above his head. The apparition looked just like him, except that it had makeup tears on, and purple lipstick was applied exaggeratedly on its lips.
The apparition stared intensely at the female stall owner. Its sclera was larger than the pupil, and it shot daggers in its gaze.
[… I became hungry.]
[I really wish to eat all of their faces. Being able to smile so happily, their faces must be very springy, chewy, and delicious, don’t you think so too?]
The man looked up. The whites in his pupils had become black, and the rest of his eyes turned white. The blood vessels beside his eyes were dilated and intertwined with one another. An icy cold breath emerged from his mouth as he spoke, as if spitting out cold daggers.
Water droplets began forming on the outside of the bottle of mineral water he was holding—it was the phenomenon when water vapor in the atmosphere came into contact with a colder object and condensed. That usually happened when Ren Suo was drinking a can of cola, and he would notice water droplets forming on the outside of the can.
Although he did not know what date it was in the game, Ren Suo remembered that the homeless people that he saw sleeping on the benches as the female stall owner walked through the park were all wearing short-sleeved or sleeveless shirts. It was likely that it was still the autumn season in August.
Yet, the man was wearing long-sleeve sportswear and was even able to breathe out cold air. The bottle of water he was holding also turned into cold water very quickly.
At that juncture, the female stall owner also finished preparing the bowl of luncheon meat noodles with egg. However, she did not give it to the man immediately, but instead opened a drawer:
[What seasonings should I add…?]
The entire list of seasonings in the drawer appeared on the screen. There were so many that Ren Suo was dazzled for a moment: [Hope], [Happiness], [Calmness], [Fatherly Love], [Motherly Love], [Resentment], [Anger], [Love], [Understanding], [Freedom], [Humor]… There were dozens of seasonings.
“Is this where I have to play?” Ren Suo muttered to himself as he looked at the list of seasonings, slightly stunned. He was not yet sure what exactly he had to do, so he casually picked the seasonings [Happiness] and [Love]. Then, the game prompted again: [How much should I put…?]
Two vertical bars appeared on the screen, with [Happiness] written on one of them, and [Love] written on the other. Bewildered, Ren Suo increased the selected amount of each of the bars to half of the maximum.
Following which, Ren Suo watched as the female stall owner scooped out three spoonfuls of yellow crystals and three spoonfuls of pink crystals from two bottles of seasoning, then poured them into the luncheon meat noodles.
The seasonings immediately dissolved into the soup of the noodles and disappeared without a trace.
The female stall owner then pushed the bowl of noodles over to the man and said: [Your luncheon meat noodles with egg is ready.]
The man silently picked up a pair of wooden chopsticks and tucked in. He finished the noodles first, then the luncheon meat, followed by the eggs and vegetables, and finally he picked up the bowl to finish the soup.
The man looked at the female stall owner and said: [It tastes very fishy. The happiness makes me feel suffocated, and the love is even choking me like a fishbone lodged in my throat. Besides that… I’m still very hungry.]
Ren Suo blinked. Did that mean that he wanted another bowl?
[Sadly, I no longer have another life to pay for another bowl of noodles.]
Without warning, the game screen ‘shattered’, and the scene turned into a turn-based battle!
The man was completely engulfed by the apparition, and the sportswear he wore turned into a purple suit. The makeup on his face clearly showed that he was crying, but his purple lips made it seem like he was smiling.
He said: [My life is already so tragic, why are you not laughing at me? Don’t you think that it’s very funny? Don’t you all love to laugh? Come on, laugh!]
The enemy’s health was 800/800, which did not seem like much, but then Ren Suo looked at the health of the female stall owner:
50/50.