The First Order

Getting two Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls was extremely useful to Ren Xiaosu. He had always thirsted for knowledge. With just one of these scrolls, he could now readily learn an existing skill from someone. As such, Ren Xiaosu regarded them as treasures.

Although it was used to learn a random skill, and he might end up learning something useless, the Advanced Firearms Proficiency he learned had already given him a sweet taste of things to come.

However, what attracted Ren Xiaosu to come to explore the palace was not these two Skill Duplication Scrolls, but what the palace had mentioned at the end…a side quest!

Since it was only a side quest, then it should not be something too important or was something that took a brief amount of time to complete.

However, Ren Xiaosu clearly heard what the voice from the palace had said at that time: “Due to the loss of your weapon, a special…”

So this quest had something to do with a weapon, right?

In the long time that Ren Xiaosu had been going out into the wilderness, he understood well the importance of having a good weapon. Old Wang once bought a steel knife and wanted to resell it to Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu couldn’t afford it even after trying to earn and save money for half a year.

In the end, Old Wang sold that knife to a manager at the chemical plant. A factory manager was usually selected by the stronghold from among the refugees to take a leadership role. In a way, they could be considered people who enjoyed the benefits as followers of those in power within the stronghold.

At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought how great it would be if he could get his hands on a good weapon soon. Then he would not have to lie in the wilderness every day to wait to catch sparrows. It was getting much harder to wait for the birds. It was tormenting him.

If he got his hands on a knife, he could totally go out and hunt for some other wild animals such as rabbits, field mice, bamboo rats, etc.

Yes, even rabbits were considered wild animals ¹ now.

Rabbits in the wilderness would not attack humans, but they were very strong and could reach the height of an adult’s shins. Ren Xiaosu once dug a trap that was about two meters deep and a rabbit fell into it. However, when Ren Xiaosu approached it, the rabbit hopped straight out of the pit and even kicked him in the head while in midair. Ren Xiaosu nearly suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the leather parchment in the typewriter: “Due to the loss of your weapon, a special side quest has been activated: Collect 100 sincere gratitudes to unlock a new weapon. In addition, you can use the gratitudes gained in exchange for items.”

Ren Xiaosu looked bewildered. Why does this side quest feel so weird?

Collect gratitudes? And they had to be sincere too?

It should be easy for him to collect thanks, but this was made difficult by the fact that they needed to be sincere.

Besides, thanks could even be used as currency? More importantly, what kinds of items could it purchase?

He continued reading the leather parchment and was astonished to see new words appearing on it from time to time.

“Gratitude received from Li Xiaoyu, +1.”

Ren Xiaosu was pleased to know that he had not saved an ingrate. There shouldn’t be any mistakes with the palace’s judgment.

At this moment, he noticed another line of words in fine print on the leather parchment—Weapon Unlock: 1/100.

Ren Xiaosu felt unfortunate. If only he were required to collect negative emotions instead, that would have been great. He knew that he could easily cause the entire townspeople to max out on their negativity for him with no effort at all!

But he would have to make do with what the palace needed him to do. Now, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to getting his hands on his future weapon.

An item given by the mysterious palace would definitely not be inferior.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Yan Liuyuan. “Liuyuan, say thank you to me.”

Yan Liuyuan was stunned. “Bro, don’t be like this. You’re making me a little scared.”

“What are you scared of?” Ren Xiaosu snapped. “Hurry up and say it.”

Yan Liuyuan thought for a while and said, “Thank you for taking care of me all this while.”

“Gratitude received from Yan Liuyuan, +1.”

Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. Is it this simple?

“C’mon, thank me a few more times,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly felt at a loss for words. “Er… thank you….”

Ren Xiaosu was disappointed this time. It looked like he could not keep getting thanked repeatedly. The main focus was still on the gratitude needing to be sincere. He raised his head in dissatisfaction and looked at Yan Liuyuan. “You’re not being sincere!

“No, that’s not right. Your emotions are not correct, say it again.

“It’s still not right. You have to let your emotions build up. Come, come… yes, yes, yes, this is the expression.

“Try it again, sincerity can work wonders….

“Try again, put more emotion into the way you say it….”

Yan Liuyuan nearly collapsed. He said with a dry mouth, “Bro, this is your skill? It feels like your skill really takes a toll on the voice.”

On this very night, Ren Xiaosu insisted on testing the gratitude system with Yan Liuyuan throughout the night. In the end, he still only received one sincere gratitude from him.

But with this gratitude, he now had two token coins in total. The token had a heart engraved on it with line of words on the reverse side: “A grateful heart, thankful to you for accompanying me in life and giving me the courage to be myself. A grateful heart, thankful for fate. As flowers bloom and wither, I remain appreciative.”

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips, thinking that it flowed well.

At this moment, the showroom cabinets in the palace that were originally shrouded in a black mist saw some changes. On the left side of the typewriter, the black mist finally dissipated from one of the cabinets and revealed something within. A vending machine.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for quite a while. He wondered what its function was since this was the first time he saw it. He hadn’t come across something like it before in the outside world as no such thing existed in the current day.

However, he knew what the words on the vending machine said: coin slot.

There were no other options on it. Since there was only a coin slot available, he did not need to think further and just inserted a token into it.

Clink. The token with a heart engraving was slotted into the machine. Then it started to activate with a rumble. After that, a small bottle about the size of a palm rolled out.

Ren Xiaosu took it out and had a look. The vial was only labeled with the word “drug.”

“Come on, you should at least tell me what illness this is for, right?” Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. When he thought about it and opened his eyes, he was holding the vial of medicine in his hand. But when that thought vanished, the vial of medicine disappeared as well.

Yan Liuyuan was stunned at the sight. “Bro, are you performing magic?”

Ren Xiaosu ignored him. He decisively pulled off the cloth bandaging the wound on his hand to reveal an already infected wound.

Extravasated blood had surrounded the wound for quite a while now, and interstitial fluid was continuously flowing out. Ren Xiaosu knew that if he did not apply medicine to it in time, the wound would fester, and he would go down with a fever soon after.

When Yan Liuyuan saw this, he immediately stood up and walked out. Ren Xiaosu pulled him back. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll go and buy medicine for you,” Yan Liuyuan stubbornly said.

“No need for that.” Ren Xiaosu picked up the vial and swabbed a little bit of the ointment in it with his index finger before applying it carefully onto his wound. This vial of ointment was not large and was even very shallow. It looked like it was probably just enough for three dosages.

After applying it, Ren Xiaosu felt a little regretful. The vial was only labeled with the word “drug,” but what if it turned out to be poisonous?

However, his worries did not come to pass. After applying the ointment onto the wound, Ren Xiaosu immediately felt the initial burning sensation in the wound disappear.

The anti-inflammatory medicine given by Xiaoyu had been saved since he no longer needed it. Anti-inflammatory medicine must be taken for three days straights, while this ointment immediately worked wonders. An anti-inflammatory pill was worth 200 yuan each, and Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated that if he were to use this vial of ointment in place of the anti-inflammatory medicine, its value would be…easily worth millions!

Then Ren Xiaosu spun around and looked at Yan Liuyuan. He firmly demanded, “Help me think! What can I do to quickly gain other people’s gratitude?”