Chapter 244: Chapter 244 – Desire For The Holy Grail
There were only three actions the female stall owner could take: [Skills], [Defend], and [Attack].
There was nothing in [Skills], so Ren Suo tried selecting [Attack].
The man’s health dropped by 15.
Then, the man used [Icy Wind], and the female shop owner’s health dropped by 175—she died.
The game screen returned to the world map and Ren Suo blinked. He had not finished processing what just happened in the game.
It was very obvious that the game did not encourage players to engage in fights with the ‘customers’. Instead, the game hoped that players would satisfy the needs of the ‘customers’ by adding the appropriate ‘seasonings’. In that way, fights would be avoided while achieving the target.
However, it was a challenge to choose the appropriate seasonings. Ren Suo had no idea what ‘flavors’ the man was looking for. After pondering for a while, Ren Suo reopened the table of cities, then sorted it by [Degree of Concealment].
However, he had ordered it by descending order previously; this time, he ordered it by ascending order.
Ren Suo randomly selected a rural city in Xuan Nation, where the [Degree of Concealment] was only equivalent to one drop of blood and began ‘fleeing ghosts’.
On the screen, the scene instantly turned into night in the countryside, with terrace fields everywhere. The moon in the night sky was obscured by storm clouds, and there was not a single street lamp along the village road. Under the moonlight, the female stall owner set up her stall by the road, then proceeded to watch videos on a tablet.
Watch videos?
Ren Suo adjusted the camera angle and focused on the video that the female stall owner was watching. He immediately recognized it—it was the drama series “Over My Dead Body”!
In addition, Ren Suo could zoom in, and with the light from the tablet screen, he could see the silky smooth neck and rosy cheeks of the female stall owner. He realized that the female stall owner was watching the first episode of the series, which was the story about the three brothers of the Ren family.
It was quite an interesting series. Despite it being the second time he was watching it, Ren Suo was unknowingly engrossed in the video—’Naisser Ren’s’ video editing skills were truly outstanding.
After watching three full episodes, the female stall owner finally paused the video. It was only then when Ren Suo heard footsteps approaching.
[Woah, be careful.]
A young boy climbed onto the chair. His small face was dirty, and there seemed to be traces of mucus on his face. He looked at the female stall owner with a wide smile, and large gaps could be seen between his teeth where his front teeth had not grown out, making him look especially funny.
The female stall owner tapped on the sign on the left side of the food stall and said: [What do you want to eat? No money is needed, just tell me your story from when you were young till now as payment.]
The child immediately said: [I want red eggs! Three hot red eggs!]
The female stall owner began boiling water, and the young boy bit on his fingernails as he began telling his story: [My name is Jia Zhu! Grandma said that my name represents the hope that I would become the pillar of support for my family! I am studying in elementary school now!]
Then, the boy shook his head and said: [There’s nothing else that I have to say, are the eggs not ready yet?]
The female stall owner replied: [Not yet. You certainly have other things to say, such as why you are hungry?]
The child said glumly: [It’s just because I’m hungry. My parents have not come back for a very long time…]
[I live with my grandma most of the time. The food she cooks is not appetizing, and she does not have money for me to buy snacks either…]
[I am especially fond of red eggs. Two years ago when my parents returned to celebrate my birthday, they cooked a red egg for me. It was so delicious.]
[It has been so long since I ate red eggs, and that is why I’m hungry… Moreover, all of my classmates have money to buy snacks for themselves. When it was Xiao Qiang’s birthday, his parents bought him a cake. He brought the cake to class, but only shared it with Xiao Min and the rest of them…]
[Of course, I am not envious, because I don’t like cakes! I like red eggs!]
[However, after being hungry for such a long time, I also started craving to eat other things… and cakes would be good too…]
The boy’s voice became hoarse yet piercing, and in the gaps where his front teeth had not grown, sharp fangs which were as long as fingers suddenly appeared. His fingernails, which he had been biting, turned red and became slim, long, and sharp. The whites in his eyes turned blood red, and his voice turned sharp and piercing:
[However, since Xiao Qiang did not share the cake with me, could I not take a slice myself? I do not even mind if he had already eaten it since I will clean it after I dig it out from his belly… I will piece all the slices back into a complete cake…]
The look on the female stall owner’s face remained unchanged. The red eggs were cooked, and it was time for the seasonings.
The taste the boy needed was very obvious. Ren Suo first selected [Fatherly Love] and [Motherly Love], then added some [Friendship]. He increased the first two seasonings to the maximum, and one-fifth for [Friendship].
Consequently, the female stall owner took out two bottles of seasonings, one with orange-yellow crystals and another with bright yellow crystals. She opened the lid of the two bottles and poured their entire contents into the bowl containing the red eggs, as if they did not cost any money. Then, she scooped a spoonful of blue crystals and added it into the bowl.
[Here are your red eggs.]
The boy did not care about how hot the eggs were and peeled the shells directly with his sharp nails, exposing the tender, white eggs inside. He popped one entire large egg into his mouth and chewed as satisfying sounds could be heard.
He quickly finished all three eggs and burped. He said: [It’s simply delicious. They taste exactly like what Mom and Dad cooked for me, and it even tastes a bit like cake… Thank you, Sister!]
The boy’s fangs and claws instantly disappeared, and the blood-red color in his eyes faded away. He turned back into the dirty-looking boy he was when he first appeared.
He bowed to the female stall owner, and the female stall owner replied as she sat down: [You’re welcome.]
The boy dug in his pocket for some time, and finally retrieved a white candy. He said: [Sister, Grandma gave me this, but I cannot bear to eat it. Here, take this.]
Ren Suo thought that the female stall owner would decline the candy, but unexpectedly, she accepted it and said: [Sure.]
Then, the boy jumped down the high stool and galloped home. At that juncture, the female stall owner looked at the candy, and a line of information appeared above it:
[Lonely Candy: Upon consumption, the stall owner’s health would increase by 15, attack power would increase by 7, and the fault tolerance of egg-based dishes would increase.]
“I see, the main character can still become stronger by eating the food of humans… It’s no wonder that her initial health is only 50.”
Then, Ren Suo continued to accompany the female stall owner to watch “Over My Dead Body”. Three to four episodes later, the sky was slowly starting to turn bright with the light of dawn. The female stall owner stretched her muscles, then began packing up her stall.
There was only one ‘customer’ after the entire night?!
The game screen returned to the world map, and the [Days Remaining] indicator in the top left corner dropped to 9, signifying that one-tenth of Ren Suo’s journey in the game had passed.
At that moment, the golden cup icon representing [Desires Collected] suddenly enlarged, and two drops of blood-red slurry dripped, slightly unsteadily, from the top of the screen into the golden cup.
[Desires Collected: 9].
The game prompted: [Collect 10,000 Desires within 10 days.]
It was only after a day had passed that the criteria to clear the game was made known. Within which, of course, there was also an implicit condition: the stall owner could not end up being eaten by the ‘customers’ as she was ‘fleeing ghosts’.
However, as Ren Suo looked at the golden cup which represented [Desires Collected], it somehow reminded him of… the Holy Grail from [The Mage Under the World Tree].
It was almost morning then, and Ren Suo pondered for a moment before he decided to start a new savegame.
He had a better understanding of how to play the game now.
He had to find a way to understand the needs of the ‘customers’, then add in the appropriate seasonings. If he failed, he would have to fight. Although the player was not limited to a specific city, it was not possible to collect 10,000 Desires in 10 days without going to large cities which had a high [Degree of Concealment].
In any case, Ren Suo could not afford to waste any of the 10 days.
It would certainly be easier to start from a smaller city, and the needs of ‘customers’ in such smaller cities would also be easier to figure out, just like that of the ‘left-behind’ child from earlier on.
Besides, the two ‘customers’ that Ren Suo had encountered thus far both seemed to be Awakeners who had been corrupted by Reiki energy, much like the ‘demon’ who Ren Suo once subdued in the subway some time ago.
However, as compared to ‘demons’, those two ‘customers’ still had some reason left in them. They held back their raging desires in consideration of other things that were important to them. However, their bodies had already begun to change, and it was just that ordinary people would be unable to notice those changes when they did not express them.
Whether it was a clown man or a left-behind child, Ren Suo knew, based on what they said, that they no longer felt empathy towards those who were human, so it would not come as a surprise whenever they ‘exploded’.
Ren Suo himself was also starting to feel slightly scared—although he could tell who were Awakeners, he was unable to tell who were on the verge of losing their sanity!
He chose to start from Hong Kong again. He watched as the female stall owner pushed her food cart across the garden, and saw the homeless people lying down on the long benches in the garden to sleep as before. However, a thought suddenly emerged in his mind:
Should this game be uploaded and the video broadcasted, what would happen to… this world?