Ye Chuan pondered for a moment.
As expected, the young mistress's way of making money was faster.
But the problem was that the options didn't include—
"Forget it, this is how text-based adventures are—lacking a bit of interactivity." Since the adventure had already begun, Ye Chuan couldn't be bothered to fuss over it. Among the available choices, he spotted one about selecting a destination.
【Adventurers' Guild】
Might as well head there and take a look.
"I'm at the Golden Core realm, which should be around fourth-tier strength. That shouldn't be too weak on the Aiser Continent, right?" Ye Chuan wasn't entirely sure.
Since the two continents were on a similar level, and he could sense Lilith's strength as well.
【You enter the Adventurers' Guild. The layout resembles a tavern, with people not only drinking but even eating meals… Most of them are burly, and there are also robed figures reading documents.】
【"Welcome to the Yisu Adventurers' Guild. Are you here to accept a quest or seek assistance from adventurers?" A bespectacled girl greets you warmly.】
【You choose…】
【1. Learn more】
【2. Accept a quest for rewards】
【3. Leave】
Better learn more first.
【You choose to learn more. Seeing you're a newcomer, the bespectacled girl explains the general workings of the Adventurers' Guild.】
【The Adventurers' Guild operates independently of the major empires and is not under their jurisdiction. Anyone can register as an adventurer.】
【Those in need post quests at the guild, and adventurers complete them for rewards, with the guild taking a fixed commission.】
【Adventurer ranks are: Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.】
【The bespectacled girl smiles at you. "Would you like me to repeat that?"】
【You decline out of politeness and proceed to register as an adventurer out of curiosity.】
【Obtained: Black Iron Guild Certification x1】
【"To match quests to your skill level, you can undergo a strength assessment~" The bespectacled girl, the guild's receptionist, takes out a crystal ball. You choose…】
【1. Undergo assessment】
【2. Refuse】
【3. Confuse her with an Iron Mountain Shoulder Strike on the spot】
【Out of caution, you skip the assessment and instead perform an Iron Mountain Shoulder Strike as a distraction. Though puzzled, she assumes it's a dance from your homeland and doesn't press further.】
【You’ve become a Black Iron adventurer. You choose…】
【You opt to accept a quest. Due to your low rank, you’re limited to menial tasks like cleaning sewers, hauling bricks, or gathering herbs—simple jobs with meager pay.】
"Seriously? I'm a Golden Core expert, and this is all I get?" Ye Chuan couldn't help but feel something was off.
Very off.
He skimmed the remaining options—mostly just accepting or abandoning quests.
"So I’m stuck doing grunt work?" The limitations of the text-based adventure annoyed him. Starting from scratch wasn’t appealing.
Whatever. Let’s just dive in.
Time to switch modes.
【You switch to adventure mode. Current mode: Text】
【Switching—】
……
When his eyes opened again, the scent of roasted meat filled his nostrils.
Ye Chuan exhaled slowly as his awareness sharpened. Instinctively, he glanced around—
The space was furnished with oak wood, the pale-red floor tiles adorned with vintage patterns. The damp musk of moss mingled with the charred aroma of meat.
A massive crystal chandelier hung at the center of the hall, its eerie blue stones flickering within the lampshade, casting fragmented light over the bustling crowd below.
Faded bounty posters covered one wall, their edges curled from countless fingers. Some of the wanted portraits bore dried bloodstains.
"Is something wrong?" A voice snapped him back to attention.
His gaze focused ahead, where the bespectacled girl from the text adventure now stood before him in the flesh—elongated, elf-like ears peeking through her hair. She wore gold-rimmed glasses and a tailored blue-and-white uniform, a vibrant feather pinned to her square cap.
"An elf?" Ye Chuan eyed her ears curiously.
"Sir, I’m only a half-elf. Please don’t stare at someone’s ears like that."
"Oh, sorry." He averted his gaze, noticing the guild was filled with all sorts of peculiar humanoid creatures.
Nearby, a tiger-headed warrior in battle gear slammed his chipped axe onto the floor, the impact rattling the glass of a snake-faced man across from him.
A group of green-skinned humanoids huddled in a corner, counting loot, while ordinary-looking humans chatted over drinks. The scene was bizarre yet harmonious.
"So this is the Aiser Continent," Ye Chuan murmured before catching himself. "Right, miss, if I wanted to collect rewards—"
"Y-you just called me what?" The half-elf receptionist seemed flustered.
"Collect rewards…?" He frowned. Had he said something wrong?
"Before that!"
"Oh, right—miss?"
"You called me beautiful?" She cupped her cheeks, incredulous. "I’m just an ugly half-elf… Even if you say that, I won’t do anything special for you…"
"Ugly?" Ye Chuan studied her. She looked perfectly fine to him—great figure, pretty face.
"No, no, you really are beautiful," he clarified. Why did she react like Lilith, getting all worked up over a compliment?
"Eek!" The receptionist crouched, hiding her face, her pointed ears flushing red.
Ye Chuan: "?"
What?
"Cultural difference? Are compliments taboo here?" As he puzzled over it, a voice cut in from behind.
"What’s going on here? Are you messing with our Miss Eisien?"
Ye Chuan turned to find a girl standing behind him—shoulder-length hair, petite frame barely reaching 1.6 meters, clad in form-fitting leather armor with a dagger at her side.
"Messing with her? I didn’t say anything offensive, did I?"
"'Beautiful' is reserved for one’s wife. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that?" The girl crossed her arms, tilting her head with a look that screamed,
【Where the hell did you crawl out from?】
Beautiful is only for wives?
"……" Definitely a cultural gap.
"I’m from a very distant place. Where I’m from, it’s normal to call lovely girls 'beautiful,'" Ye Chuan explained.
"……" The girl scrutinized him like a predator sizing up prey, making Ye Chuan feel like he was being stalked by a leopard.
Her aura didn’t feel weak at all.
"Where are you from?"
"China."
"Huh?"
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
