Chapter 67: Newspaper Clippings and Hidden Side Quests

As soon as daylight broke, Wu Chang left the post office and followed the map toward the police station.

The police station was on the west side of the town, while the post office was at the far eastern end.

On the way to the police station, he had to cross nearly the entire town, which gave him a chance to observe it.

Breevo was both an island and a town.

Only one-third of the island was flatland; the remaining two-thirds were mountains, forest, and beaches.

The town's urban area was concentrated in that one-third of flatland.

The town had only been built twenty or thirty years, and with the residents maintaining it diligently day to day, the town was tidy and orderly by day.

When townspeople passed each other on the road, they would stop and exchange a greeting.

Even if their greetings were a bit stiff, like some kind of programmed setting, they still looked harmonious on the whole.

As an outsider, at a glance one would truly think Breevo was a peaceful, tranquil island town.

Most of the town's buildings were two-story houses, each not very large, mostly wooden in construction, with simple structures.

Standing at one end of the street and looking toward the other, the houses on both sides looked as if they were copied and pasted from the same model — you couldn't tell them apart at all, and could only distinguish each household by different colors and house numbers.

There were three landmarks in town that drew the most attention.

The first was the cathedral in the town's residential district; the cathedral was nearly fifteen meters tall, built entirely of white marble, its huge and beautiful form impossible to ignore.

Set among the town's simple, low houses, it could be said to stand out like a crane among chickens.

The second landmark was Count Jermaine's estate — if the cathedral was something you saw the moment you looked up, then the Count's estate was something you saw the moment you tilted your head back.

The Count's estate was built atop Seabird Mountain in the western mountainous area of the island, the highest point on the island.

Every day at dusk, the setting sun would overlap with the estate's grand main house, as if the estate were built within the sun itself.

That kind of scenery, once seen, was impossible to forget.

Unfortunately, ever since Count Jermaine went missing, strange incidents had occurred frequently within the estate, and it had now fallen into ruin.

The last landmark was Breevo Port.

As a transit point on the maritime trade route, merchant ships would dock and load or unload cargo every day.

But for some unknown reason, in recent days the frequency of merchant ship traffic had been steadily declining.

As if Breevo Island was being forgotten by the entire world.

The police station and the cathedral were at the two ends of the same street, and on the way to the police station one would pass by the cathedral.

On the marble plaza in front of the cathedral stood a faceless female statue.

The sculptor who carved it had poured his feelings into the work — even without facial features, the posture alone was enough to convey her compassion and mercy.

But after looking a few more times, Wu Chang sensed a different meaning in it.

It was a feeling that could only be judged by intuition, impossible to articulate in concrete terms.

In the resentment of the former postman from last night, the bronze statue that had witnessed the postman's death carried the same feeling.

In front of the statue, Lingfox, dressed in a nun's habit, was sweeping fallen leaves.

Without the boost of cosmetics, Lingfox's looks could still hold up, but she couldn't keep up the polish — the dark circles unique to wage workers showed, and her skin tone had dulled a few shades.

Combined with the shock of accidentally entering a C-rank instance, she looked utterly drained at the moment.

When Wu Chang passed by, he greeted her and asked, "How was last night?"

Lingfox yawned and complained, "It was absolutely awful. The people here seem to never sleep at night — some nun in her fifties dragged me through prayer etiquette all night long."

Wu Chang shrugged. "Pretty much the same for me. Last night, close to three a. m., there were still townspeople lining up to pick up mail."

He pointed at the statue and asked, "Did that old nun tell you what the deal is with this statue?"

Lingfox thought hard and said, "The old nun did say — she's called the Great Mother, the patron saint of the suffering."

"Then why does she have no face?"

"Supposedly the sculptor fell ill and died halfway through, and afterward no one on the island switched careers to become a sculptor, so the face was just left blank."

With no corresponding professional to take over, the work was simply shelved — they neither moved the statue nor made any effort to complete it.

So very Breevo. After chatting for a bit and finding he couldn't get any more intel, Wu Chang waved goodbye to Lingfox and was just about to leave when Lingfox grabbed his wrist.

Lingfox was very close to him — close enough that only he could clearly see her expression.

The listlessness and lack of energy were just her camouflage; right now her face was full of fear, unease, exhaustion, and anger.

The instance hadn't even made a move on her yet, and her will had already dropped considerably.

Her voice trembling, she asked softly, "Aren't you afraid?"

Wu Chang shook his head. "Not afraid."

"Why not? I remember you're only level 7 — the lowest level among us." Lingfox couldn't understand.

Wu Chang said expressionlessly, "Not afraid is not afraid."

He wasn't just unafraid — he even felt a little like laughing.

"Is it because I'm too weak? You too, and Hamster too — I really envy you all for being able to withstand this kind of pressure."

!

Lingfox's voice weakened, her head dropped lower, completely hiding her expression, and she let go of Wu Chang's hand.

Wu Chang had originally intended to leave Lingfox alone to be quiet, but when the corner of his eye caught the faceless statue, he vaguely felt that the statue's face had taken on a faint outline, and that it was looking at Lingfox.

Tch — was it because Lingfox's will was too low, or had some condition been triggered that made this ghost thing fixate on her?

Lingfox was both his colleague and a companion tackling instances together; at the same time, as a nun, she could also gather important intel related to religion.

Whether from the standpoint of her role or of practical utility, as long as Lingfox wasn't holding them back, he had no reason to leave her to die.

He hurriedly pressed both hands on Lingfox's shoulders and shook her firmly.

Being suddenly grabbed by Wu Chang left Lingfox at a loss, pulling her temporarily out of her negative emotions.

Her face slightly red, she exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing?"

Only after sensing the statue's gaze vanish did Wu Chang finally exhale in relief. He lowered his head to look at the Spirit Fox, meeting her eyes, and said in an exceptionally serious tone:

"Listen, as a stealth-style player, I have rich experience in how to survive inside an instance. Maintaining mental state and not letting the will be affected is the top priority."

"With a veteran player like Sword Star around, you don't need to worry about combat—just survive however you can. I promise you, as long as you do the nun's job and don't break any rules, everything will be fine!"

His resolute gaze, combined with an extraordinarily high Will stat, radiated a powerful sense of security.

Although the Spirit Fox knew the man before her was weaker than she was, she still instinctively chose to believe Wu Chang.

"Understood. Let go of me."

Wu Chang lingered a while longer, confirming the Spirit Fox's mental state had stabilized, then sent her back to the cathedral before continuing on to the town police station.

Being a small town with only a few thousand residents, the police station wasn't large—together with the sheriff, there were only four people in total.

Seeing Wu Chang arrive, Mo Leina ordered the rookie under her to fetch a mail carrier's bag from the evidence room. The rookie at the station was Hamster.

Just as the Spirit Fox had said, Hamster's mental state was still fine, still maintaining his usual energetic appearance.

Mo Leina personally handed the mail carrier's bag to Wu Chang and instructed:

"The mail carrier is an indispensable profession in town. It's been over a month since your predecessor's suicide on the job—hurry up and deliver the letters in the parcel to everyone. They must be getting anxious waiting."

Wu Chang took the mail carrier's bag, not knowing where to even begin his complaints.

If you say the townsfolk weren't anxious to collect their mail, they could show up at the post office in the dead of night to urge the mail carrier to work.

If you say they were anxious, the mail carrier's bag sat in the police station for over a month, yet they stubbornly held out without coming to claim it, insisting on waiting for the next mail carrier to appear before having it delivered.

The zipper of the mail carrier's bag had been twisted and deformed when the previous mail carrier was attacked—the lock had to be removed before the bag could be opened. But even after over a month, the deformed lock still remained on the bag.

Which meant no one had opened the parcel to check what was inside.

In the minds of the townsfolk of Bluff Town, it seemed only a mail carrier was allowed to use the mail carrier's bag.

Back at the post office, he removed the lock and found five letters inside, along with newspaper clippings the previous mail carrier had made before his death.

Just as he was about to close the mail carrier's bag, a sudden inspiration struck, and he reached out to feel the inner wall of the bag.

On the inside of the bag, he found a hidden compartment and pulled out a letter sealed with wax from within.

The moment the letter was in hand, his title "Perfectionist" reacted.

Hidden side quest triggered.

(End of chapter)