Chapter 167: [Transplantation] B7-Rank Instance
This question wasn’t particularly sensitive to begin with. Generally, anyone who had watched Shen Qingchen’s livestreams could deduce her skills to some extent.
Even if someone wanted to look into it intentionally, information was readily available on the forums.
Bai Cha brought it up merely as a subtle probe.
They hadn’t known each other for long, making it difficult for Bai Cha to extend full trust.
Hence, Shen Qingchen cast a half-smiling glance at her.
“I said you carry heavy thoughts as a young girl, and you got upset.”
Bai Cha: “…”
She silently turned her head away.
She wasn’t upset.
Fine, she was upset.
For reasons unknown, she was simply upset—who needed a reason anyway?
“I only have one core skill: Thriving in Adversity. The passive skill that branched out later is Taking Things as They Come.”
Bai Cha turned back to look at Shen Qingchen, mulling over those two idioms.
They seemed somewhat unrelated on the surface.
Thriving in Adversity and Taking Things as They Come were two entirely different concepts, though they didn’t strictly conflict either.
“Did you know? Most people’s skills can be summarized by idioms or simple phrases like mine. Yours, on the other hand, is quite rare.”
Shen Qingchen thought for a moment and added, “Usually, skills like yours—similar to Puppeteer or Corpse Master—mostly drop after killing an NPC.”
“Though your skill isn’t quite the same as those, so you don’t need to carry any mental burden. There are other players with plant-based classifications as well.”
Flower of Lies, however, was a different story altogether.
Shen Qingchen didn’t elaborate further.
Nor did Bai Cha bring it up again.
Knowing when to stop was for the best. Shen Qingchen handled boundaries with exquisite tact, likely a skill honed through her years of experience.
When Bai Cha noticed her waiting early this morning and felt a bit awkward, Shen Qingchen had immediately claimed she arrived early because of the child at home.
That excuse was eight out of ten true, but a less tactful person might not have brought it up so smoothly in that moment.
Once spoken, everything fell naturally into place.
Up ahead, they arrived right at the restaurant.
After finishing their meal, Shen Qingchen drove Bai Cha back to the company.
The company hadn’t been very busy lately, leaving Bai Cha with a fairly relaxed workload.
However, after having a dream that night, she successfully fell ill.
At first, she simply felt sick within the dream itself.
A throbbing headache, as if running a fever, while trapped inside a long-distance bus.
Beside her, someone kept muttering continuously:
“This time, our primary goal is to investigate the local folk culture. Our main topic focuses on their lantern tradition…”
That was the only sentence Bai Cha heard clearly.
What followed were frantic scenes of fleeing.
Dozens of red lanterns spun wildly in the dark.
When she opened her eyes again, her head truly throbbed with intense pain. Reaching up to touch her forehead, she realized she was running a fever.
Barely a week had passed since her last fever.
In truth, she likely hadn’t recovered fully to begin with.
Heading to work in this state was undeniably miserable.
Yet because of the game, she had already automatically taken a day off.
The game… tsk.
She didn’t even bother checking what her next instance was, hurriedly tidying herself up, taking some medicine, and heading off to work.
After work, she went house-hunting, finally finalizing a place to stay: a single-occupancy apartment featuring one bedroom, one living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom for 1,800 yuan a month, inclusive of utilities and internet fees.
Overall, it was a great deal, and the security downstairs appeared relatively reliable.
Next came the packing and moving process.
Instead of calling Shen Qingchen, she hired a moving company.
By the time everything was sorted out, it was already the night before her next game entry.
Lying in her new bed, the physical exhaustion coupled with the pain of her illness felt far more severe than a few days prior.
After all, she hadn’t rested for a single moment.
In her sleep, as expected, she entered the instance.
[Welcome to B7-Rank Instance “Grafting.”]
Bai Cha could barely open her eyes, the sound registering somewhat hazily, though she tried her best to listen.
[Number of participants in this instance: 12.]
[This instance is a Survival Mode. Players need only survive inside the instance for seven days to clear it.]
[You are students from the Folklore Department of a certain university, arriving this time to investigate the traditional folk culture of Xiaoguang Village: Decorative Lanterns. We hope everyone achieves great academic success~]
[The Secretive App wishes you a pleasant life~]
As the tail end of the prompt faded, Bai Cha’s eyes remained closed.
Her head ached far too severely; she desperately wanted to rest.
Perhaps next time before entering a game, she should step into the Game Town first—her condition would be much better that way.
Although the power within her body felt abundant right now, she remained firmly in a sick state.
In fact, the sensation felt even more intense than when she was outside.
“Hey, wake up…” Someone beside her nudged her lightly.
Furrowing her brows against the headache, Bai Cha opened her eyes and rubbed her face.
They were indeed sitting inside a long-distance bus.
Unlike last time, this bus was quite spacious and brand-new.
“You’re not a newbie, are you?” The male player beside her who had called her examined her carefully.
A few players from the front and back rows glanced over.
Before Bai Cha could utter a word, a female voice spoke up timidly first: “Excuse me, where are we?”
Everyone instinctively looked toward the speaker.
It was a delicate-looking girl in her early twenties, her face filled with startled uncertainty.
“Am I dreaming?”
“Fuck, don’t tell me there are two newbies?” The male player beside Bai Cha blurted out.
“Throwing two newbies into a B-rank instance?”
The group immediately exchanged wary glances, speculating whether a top-tier player was among them.
Under these circumstances, there had to be at least an A-rank player present, right?
“Wait, what are you guys talking about? I’m not dreaming, am I? What instance? Is this like those novels—some kind of game?”
The girl was visibly frantic.
“Yeah, a horror game. If you’re a newbie, keep your mouth shut, or you won’t even know how you died.”
Hearing this, the girl’s face turned deathly pale as she promptly shut her mouth.
Bai Cha had already closed her eyes once again.
If nothing went wrong before reaching the destination, it was the perfect time to sleep.
If something went wrong, she would deal with it then.
The male player beside her felt somewhat suffocated seeing her act like this.
Was this girl a newbie or not? Did she actually think she was dreaming, believing everything would be fine if she simply slept through it?
The bus drove under the bright sunlight, everything appearing completely normal.
Even upon arriving at Xiaoguang Village, no horror atmosphere could be felt in the slightest.
Thus, Bai Cha slept peacefully the entire way.
When stepping off the bus, the male player beside her gave her another nudge.
Feeling her mental state slightly improved, Bai Cha offered him a smile.
“Thanks.”
Male player: “…”
Bai Cha stepped off the bus with somewhat unsteady steps.
The sunlight outside was glorious, beating down and driving away much of the discomfort from her illness.
Bai Cha took a deep breath.
It was rare for an instance to feature such bright sunshine; Bai Cha felt as though she could almost undergo photosynthesis, even if it was merely an illusion.
Quite a few people were sizing her up.
“Are you really not a newbie?” the male player asked uncertainly.
“Of course not. I’ve already cleared five games.”
A naive, bright smile bloomed across her somewhat pale face.
The corners of the players’ mouths twitched upon hearing her words.
That was practically no different from a newbie—no wonder she seemed so carefree.
“Whatever, let’s go.”
Though called Xiaoguang Village, it was actually quite well-developed, far less run-down or desolate and remote than imagined.
In short, all of this seemed completely unrelated to a horror instance, allowing the newbie girl to relax significantly as she looked around with curiosity.
Just as they took two steps forward, a middle-aged man walked over to greet them.
“You must be the students coming to do research at our place, right? I knew you ought to be arriving today!” The man greeted them with a beaming smile the moment he approached, appearing exceptionally friendly.
