Chapter 69: Professor Ebert

Wu Chang looked at the last line on the letter and made a strange expression.

Presumably, when writing this letter, his predecessor never imagined that very night he would be sought out by Marty for going on strike.

In the end, he was tied up at the dock and made into a blood eagle.

Hmm…

In a certain sense, that counts as a kind of surprise, I suppose.

The intelligence brought by this letter overturned many of his previous guesses, requiring re-verification.

Earlier, seeing him instantly killed by Marty's trident, he had assumed the former postman was simply naive, weak, and loved to act up.

After learning the former postman was a veteran player, the one with the problem became Marty.

In that special state, Marty could probably use some kind of rule-based ability to suppress the opponent's strength, or ignore the opponent's defense.

Whichever it was, he could not act rashly.

Besides reassessing Marty's combat power, he also had to reassess the importance of working in town.

Based on the former postman's letter and Marty's performance, one could see that as long as one worked hard enough, it would raise one's favorability in the townsfolk's hearts.

He proposed a private plan for delivering mail, and Marty's attitude toward him instantly became much friendlier; the player named Logan could even join the Town Council because of his diligent work.

He had to get grinding!

He dug out the mail that had piled up during the period without a postman, sorted it by recipient, then slung on the postman bag, hitched up the cart, and began delivering the mail door to door.

When the first piece of mail was slipped into a townsman's mailbox, he finally understood why the townsfolk wouldn't bypass the postman and take the letters themselves.

Because these delivered letters were "poisonous."

Each letter delivered would deduct 0.3 from his temporary willpower cap!

And the mail piled up at the post office numbered as many as fifty-five pieces!

Delivering all of these would deduct a whopping 15 points from the willpower cap alone—enough to make an ordinary person have a mental breakdown three times over.

But there was also an unexpected bonus: during the process of delivering mail, the postman bag he had retrieved from the police station kept sending a warm current into him, nourishing his spirit.

"Item Name: Postman's Delivery Bag"

"Item Type: Instance Item"

"Item Grade: D"

"Item Skill: Skilled Delivery."

"Skill Description: Equipping the postman bag for delivery reduces the willpower cap consumed per package delivered by 0.2. During working hours, wearing the postman bag restores a portion of the willpower cap each hour, equal to 2% of the user's maximum willpower cap."

"Note: The item skill only takes effect on Breever Island; the delivery bag can only be used by the officially appointed postman."

Seeing the postman bag's item description, he realized that without the postman bag's effect, delivering one package would actually lower the willpower cap by 0.5.

Even the Moonlight Sanatorium's delusion disorder wasn't this deranged.

For work to be this painful, how much must the townsfolk of Breever Island dislike going to work? If it were an ordinary player, even spending 10 free attribute points to raise the willpower cap to 15, to break even they could only deliver one package per hour.

To deliver all fifty-five piled-up packages, working without rest would still take over two days.

But Wu Chang didn't need to.

As a legendary pressure-resistance king with 67 points of willpower, he could completely endure the lowered willpower cap, deliver all the mail first, and then slowly wait for his willpower to recover.

If normal mail delivery is work, and catching up on piled-up mail is involution, then the current Wu Chang could absolutely be called the King of Involution.

So the townsfolk of Breever Town saw a postman who was nimble and quick, moving several times faster than his predecessors, delivering the piled-up mail without stopping.

They had never seen such a diligent workhorse.

The townsfolk were very pragmatic. At first, upon seeing Wu Chang, they were still cold and indifferent, with an attitude of "smelly out-of-islander come to our Breever to beg." By the time the tenth piece of mail was delivered, the townsfolk who ran into him again all had smiles on their faces.

Not only did they take the initiative to greet him, the owners of the restaurant and the liquor shop even kept him for lunch and a few drinks.

In no time, the whole town knew a new diligent and handsome postman had arrived.

When delivering to the mayor's house, the mayor was full of praise for Wu Chang's performance.

He promised Wu Chang that as long as he delivered all the piled-up mail, he would personally write a letter of recommendation, inviting Wu Chang to join the Town Council and become a true Breever.

This was exactly what Wu Chang had been waiting for. He immediately declared: "Mayor, don't worry. Before sunset today, I will definitely deliver all the piled-up mail!"

The mayor was startled by Wu Chang's intensity, thought a naive young man had come, and hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "There's no need to rush that much. You've just arrived on the island and aren't used to the living conditions yet—don't wear yourself out."

"Mayor, don't worry about me. My duty at work is to provide convenience for the townsfolk's lives. This is what I should do!"

Wu Chang said resolutely. He was just too eager to advance—no, wait—too eager to join the Town Council.

Leaving the mayor's house, Wu Chang continued delivering the mail.

The only factor limiting his delivery speed was distance.

The town's post office didn't have a bicycle or a horse-drawn carriage—not even a single horse for transport.

All deliveries required him to drag the cart there on foot.

After a full day of nonstop delivery, he had walked at least fifty thousand steps. If it weren't for his stamina reaching 22 points after bonuses, an ordinary person really wouldn't have been able to keep going.

It wasn't until evening that he delivered to the last household.

The last household was the farthest from the post office; the recipient lived on the easternmost edge of the town, in a standalone building with no neighbors around.

The recipient's name was Joshua Ebert.

Or one could call him Professor Ebert.

Ebert was a man nearing sixty years of age. He wore round metal-frame glasses, had graying hair, a thin frame, and looked the picture of a scholar.

During the delivery process, Wu Chang had subtly probed the villagers for information. Ebert had once taught at the kingdom's foremost university, which was why he was called Professor.

It was said the courses he offered were archaeology and theology.

Precisely because of this, when teaching in the capital, he had cooperated with the Church on multiple occasions.

The fact that the Church's plea letter had named him specifically indicated Ebert's identity wasn't purely bad—at the very least, he was a waverer.

As long as he was used properly, his usefulness was no less than half a teammate.

It seemed Ebert had long been waiting for Wu Chang's delivery; he stood at the door, and the moment Wu Chang stuffed his two letters into the mailbox, he could not wait to take them out and read them on the spot.

After a brief read, a look of disappointment crossed his face, and he asked, "Mr. Xiao En, are you certain these are all my letters?"

Wu Chang replied without a change of expression, "I'm quite certain. Among the backlogged mail at the post office, only these two belong to you."

He was not lying, after all—the letters the Church sent to Ebert were tucked in a hidden compartment of the postman's bag.

The disappointment on Ebert's face deepened, yet a flicker of relief and release flashed through his eyes.

That sliver of emotion was extremely well hidden, terribly hard to detect—unfortunately for him, he had run into Wu Chang.

From the very moment they met, Wu Chang had been observing Ebert, especially Ebert's eyes; that brief flash of true feeling had not escaped his notice.

Taking advantage of the moment Ebert let his guard down, he said:

"Professor Ebert, before coming to Bluff, a relative of mine who holds a post at the Royal Capital's Church sought me out and said that if I ran into trouble in Bluff, I could come to you for advice."

"The town has little population turnover and a fixed social circle; there are many established conventions that I, as an outsider, have no way of knowing. I worry that I might inadvertently do something wrong and offend the townsfolk."

"Professor Ebert, I want to blend into this beautiful, peaceful little town as soon as possible, and I don't want any conflict with anyone. Could you give me some advice?"

(End of this chapter)