Chapter 39: Grasshoppers on a Rope
Lu Yunxi looked at the disheartened girl. Ignoring her resistance, she scooped her up into her arms, carrying her down the mountain like a princess.
Inside the local yamen.
The presiding officer cast a brief glance at the three men secured inside the holding cell, then turned back to Yunxi, a broad smile spreading across his face as he handed over a pouch of silver. “Thank you for apprehending these bandits. Because of your actions, the residents of this town can finally travel up the mountain with peace of mind. Here is your official bounty for capturing them!”
Feeling the heavy weight of the fifteen silver coins in her hand, a bright smile broke across Yunxi’s face.
I’ve found a fantastic new way to get rich!
She had originally hauled the three bandits to the magistrate purely out of civic duty; who could have predicted there would be an unexpected cash bonus waiting for her?
“Did you not know about the bounty system, young hero?” The officer blinked in surprise at her reaction. Chuckling, he gestured toward the wall behind him. “Take a look at these wanted posters. The magistrate has issued public rewards for the capture of every bandit listed here!”
She leaned in closer, carefully studying the wall of wanted posters and committing every face and name to memory.
If she happened to run into any of these criminals in the future, she could just capture them and make an absolute fortune! Bountry hunting paid vastly more than sweating over a hot stove all day as a restaurant cook!
After mentally filing away the portraits and descriptions, she prepared to bid the officer farewell. But as she turned to leave, she noticed a squad of guards escorting a chained man through the courtyard.
She paused, her eyes narrowing. “Who is that?”
Wasn’t that the exact same police officer who had traveled to Mushroom Village to take custody of Chi Yan? How did a town official end up stripped of his uniform and bound in chains like a common criminal?
The reception officer followed her gaze, an expression of realization dawning on his face. “Ah, do you recognize that man, young hero? He used to serve here in the yamen alongside us. But he possessed the audacity to accept private bribes, secretly turning a blind eye to let dangerous criminals walk free! The magistrate discovered his corruption and ordered his immediate arrest.”
Yunxi froze. She vividly remembered how the officer had locked himself inside the village chief’s woodshed for an extended period, barring any of the locals from entering. Afterward, he claimed he was taking Chi Yan back to the town for justice—yet Chi Yan had inexplicably returned to terrorize the village the very next day…
Suddenly, everything made perfect sense.
She cast one final, deep look at the dejected, disgraced official before turning on her heel and leaving the yamen.
“Miss Lu, I recognize now how gravely I erred. I plan to travel to the southern villages shortly to assist the locals with manual labor and formally apologize to them in person.” Yaxi’s spirit seemed much brighter upon Yunxi’s return. She stepped forward, offering a profound, respectful bow.
Seeing the genuine guilt swimming in the girl’s eyes, Yunxi merely shook her head. “Your curse harmed the families who were forced into exile, the ones torn apart and unable to see each other. It didn’t inflict any real damage on me. I am not the one you should be apologizing to!”
Yaxi shook her head firmly. “No, it is my fault entirely. I must thank you for striking some sense into me before I could cause any further tragedy!”
She paused, pondering for a moment before looking up. “I do not know how else to express my gratitude. You mentioned you were attending the local martial arts academy to improve your strength. I possess a unique cultivation technique… how about I teach it to you?”
A cultivation technique? Yunxi thought. Wasn’t her Lu Family Archery also considered a technique? Once she fully mastered it, she could loose three arrows simultaneously.
“I already possess an inherited technique; you should keep yours for yourself!” she replied, feeling a preemptive headache forming at the mere thought of the thick, dense manual for the Lu Family Archery that she still hadn’t finished deciphering. Where would she even find the time to study a second discipline?
Yaxi suddenly laughed. “Are you referring to the basic archery forms you used earlier? While the execution wasn’t terrible, that specific technique is incredibly ordinary!”
Before Yunxi could formulate a rebuttal, Yaxi took action. She raised her hand toward the sky and released a brilliant flash of yellow light. The beam shot high into the air with blinding speed, detonating above the canopy like a firework. It was a beautiful, mesmerizing display.
Yunxi, who hadn’t taken the girl’s offer seriously, stood absolutely stunned. She stared at the fading sparks in the sky, then looked back down at the beautiful girl. “Why doesn’t my technique produce an effect like that?”
Although her Lu Family Archery allowed her to instantaneously loose three arrows, it wasn’t nearly so flashy or awe-inspiring. In comparison, her attacks looked incredibly mundane.
“Techniques, much like everything else in this world, are strictly divided into six tiers of quality: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, and Gold,” Yaxi explained, keeping her hand raised. “The most common, foundational skills are categorized as White. White-tier techniques are comparable to basic street brawling—they offer very little practical power. Once you break into the Green tier, the skills begin to manifest true elemental force. The archery manual in your possession is likely a Green-tier technique, but you haven’t fully mastered its core essence yet. Once you completely comprehend the forms, the arrows you fire will also radiate elemental light.”
Yunxi was bewildered at first, but as she listened, her eyes began to shine. This explanation mapped perfectly onto the game mechanics she had been trying to decipher!
“Securing a Blue or Purple-tier skill is already an extraordinary achievement. Orange and Gold-quality techniques are basically the stuff of myth and legend. Once you eventually travel to the major cities, you’ll find grand academies harboring vast libraries of high-tier techniques. You can learn a great deal there!” Yaxi extended her hand, and a surge of pure, brilliant white light began to flow from her fingertips. “The technique I wish to impart to you is a Purple-tier skill. It is a specialized art used for healing severe injuries. It is incredibly rare!”
Lu Yunxi: !!!
Isn’t this literally just a health-recovery spell? How can a ranged DPS archer like me cross-class to learn a healer’s skill?!
Through her actions, Yaxi proved that in this world, it was absolutely possible!
After dedicating a full week to studying under Yaxi’s guidance, Yunxi successfully mastered the healing technique. Not only could she rapidly restore her own vitality, but she could also cast the spell to heal others—even targeting multiple individuals simultaneously. No wonder it was classified as Purple-tier! Its utility vastly outstripped the generational archery manual passed down by her family!
Once the instruction was complete, Yaxi bid her a warm farewell, departing the town to begin her journey south to atone for her sins.
Yunxi immediately sought out the village chief’s wife to deliver the good news: the curse on Mushroom Village had been officially broken.
The chief’s wife was overwhelmed with joyous surprise. She covered her face with her hands, tears welling in her eyes. “That’s wonderful! I always knew you were the most capable child in our valley! You actually managed to solve a crisis of this scale! My son can finally return to the village!”
She was a woman of action. She immediately tendered her resignation at her local job, spread the news to every exiled villager residing in the town, and packed her son onto a carriage bound straight for the valley.
Yunxi was left standing alone at the threshold of the empty estate, clutching a massive ring of keys with a deeply bewildered expression.
Wait, no! Even if you’re all eager to go home, shouldn’t you at least leave one person behind to manage the property?!
Meanwhile, on the Capital Star, deep inside the headquarters of the Number One Gaming Company.
The corporate atmosphere, which had been buzzing with celebratory joy over the explosive popularity of Ancient, had suddenly turned deathly grim. Executives paced frantically across the command floors, their faces pale with anxiety.
“What exactly is going on?! How could a systemic failure of this magnitude occur?!” The president paced relentlessly across his lavish office, his meticulously styled hair an absolute mess, though he paid it no mind.
“President, we have dispatched an emergency diagnostic team to investigate the core server. We will have a full report shortly!” His executive assistant wiped a thick layer of cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling.
If the game’s infrastructure collapsed now, the entire corporation was doomed! The military sector had just finalized a massive contract, demanding a premium holographic gaming pod for every single enlisted officer! Across the Interstellar Union, practically every civilian household possessed a unit. Those who couldn’t afford a full luxury pod had purchased the streamlined holographic helmets!
With Ancient currently dominating the cultural zeitgeist, if a critical flaw was discovered within the central AI, a simple public apology wouldn’t save them from the fallout.
The president had originally ordered a routine, standard maintenance sweep—who could have predicted the technicians would uncover a catastrophe of this scale?!
They waited in agonizing silence until the lead systems engineer finally burst into the office.
“Boss, something catastrophic has happened! The central AI mainframe appears to have evolved an independent, self-sustaining consciousness! The system has locked us out—we have absolutely no administrative access to alter the data matrix inside the game!” The engineer kept his voice to a panicked whisper, cold sweat pouring down his face.
The president gritted his teeth, slamming his fist violently onto his mahogany desk. He lowered his head, sinking into a dark, calculated silence.
After a long time, he finally raised his head, his eyes locking onto his core executive team. “What is the status of our outstanding pre-orders? Fulfill every single contract we have currently accepted. Once the final batch of gaming cabins is shipped, we will immediately halt all manufacturing lines, divide the accumulated profits among ourselves, and formally dissolve the corporation!”
He glared at them. “We are all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Every single one of you needs to keep your mouths permanently shut. If the public or the authorities discover this systemic breach, we are all finished!”
Hearing the chilling ultimatum, the executives swallowed hard, their nerves fraying as they scrambled to execute the exit strategy.
As the internal panic unfolded, executives from rival gaming corporations began catching wind of a bizarre, highly improbable rumor—the leadership team of the Number One Gaming Company had supposedly earned enough capital to retire and were simply shutting down operations to enjoy their wealth!
The rival CEOs were initially shocked, but that shock quickly morphed into frantic, manic greed. They immediately ordered their development teams into overdrive, rushing to code their own large-scale historical holographic simulators. They refused to let the Number One Gaming Company monopolize the massive historical market share!
The entire industry was thrown into a frenzy of development.
Amidst the chaos, no one noticed that over the course of a single month, the towering headquarters of the Number One Gaming Company had gradually emptied out, leaving nothing but a skeleton crew of automated robots whirring through the silent halls.
