Chapter 9

Name: ???

Race: Human.

Level: 1 (0/0).

Attributes: Strength 8, Constitution 7, Agility 11, Intelligence 7, Spirit 10.

Skills: None.

Equipment: Unidentified.

This was the data that appeared before Zheng Chen. This kind of thing should only appear for players, right?

Why would it also appear for him? He didn't know. Moreover, the data before his eyes was incomplete; there was nothing in the name column. As for equipment... was it the clothes he was wearing?

"I am... Zheng Chen."

He muttered softly, and as if he had received some kind of unknown acknowledgment, the blank space in the name column was immediately filled in.

After observing for a while, Zheng Chen blinked, and the data that appeared before his eyes vanished without a trace.

Just as he was about to rest, he suddenly noticed the circuit-like patterns on his body. If it wasn't the clothes, then it must be these strange tattoos that had appeared on his body?

Apart from that, Zheng Chen had nothing else of value on him. However, he had no idea what these tattoos were or what they were for.

He gently touched the tattoo on his arm, but there was no special sensation; it felt just like touching his own skin. The tattoo seemed to have grown on his body.

Unable to figure it out, Zheng Chen didn't spend too much time on it. The reason he could see his attributes must be related to the recent changes.

After that, the number of players in the village increased. After the initial rashness, these players quickly adapted to their roles and rarely said anything strange in front of the natives.

During this time, Zheng Chen continuously observed the players' movements and collected useful information.

The attribute panel was something all players shared. Through bit by bit collection and listening, Zheng Chen clearly knew that his attribute panel was incomplete. For example, those players could level up, but his level remained at 1.

The upper limit of "experience points" was always zero...

As for the players' leveling up, it was quite special. By observing carefully, their strength improved abruptly. Even if they trained hard every day, there would be no improvement, but at some point, one of their attributes would suddenly increase.

They called this improvement "adding points."

Referring to his own situation, Zheng Chen summarized and had some unreliable guesses. It might be that after their daily training, the effects of the training accumulated in a way he couldn't understand, and when it reached a certain critical point... that is, when the players leveled up, this extra accumulation would turn into "attribute points" that allowed them to improve.

These points could be used to freely increase one of their attributes.

Zheng Chen had also heard players complain about how few attribute points they got, how the experience required to level up was too high, and so on.

After figuring this out, Zheng Chen was quite envious of their characteristics. Normal training to improve was not easy, but their leveling up could easily create a large number of outstanding individuals in certain aspects.

Their leveling up was even easier than normal training, which could be considered a shortcut. Unfortunately, Zheng Chen's attribute panel was incomplete, and he seemed to lack the accumulation trait of the players.

Additionally, Zheng Chen confirmed something else. Whenever these players talked about things related to reality, their words would turn into a language that the natives couldn't understand. If players tried to reveal things related to reality to the natives, the natives would react with surprise.

Zheng Chen had a similar experience, which made him feel a bit more at ease. He hadn't slept well for a while, always on guard against the mysterious surveillance that appeared that day.

As long as it didn't involve things related to reality, such situations wouldn't occur.

A dead body was found in the village.

Early in the morning, Zheng Chen was called to Ping Shizhi's place. As soon as they met, Ping Shizhi took Zheng Chen to the back of the clinic and pointed to two bodies covered with white cloth on the ground, "I've seen them; they are from the village."

The kind expression on Ping Shizhi's face was completely gone.

Zheng Chen lifted the white cloth and observed. The person who did this was very inexperienced. From the marks on the bodies, they had been beaten to death. He glanced back at Ping Shizhi, "There's no need to call me here."

"But this matter needs to be resolved," Ping Shizhi stroked his white beard, "What do you think?"

"Payment?"

Zheng Chen asked calmly, and Ping Shizhi immediately flared up, but then calmed down, probably finding it pointless to argue with the young man, "I'll give you a box of special medicine. It will ensure that you recover quickly from any injury that isn't life-threatening."

"I understand."

After covering the bodies with the white cloth, Zheng Chen asked Ping Shizhi some questions and then left the clinic. The matter of the dead bodies in the village was temporarily suppressed. As for who did it... it was easy to guess!

Since this kind of thing had happened once, it would happen again. The reason Ping Shizhi called Zheng Chen was that Zheng Chen had many similarities with the players, making him more suitable to handle the matter.

Similarly, Zheng Chen had heard the players talk about "killing monsters to level up." Chickens and ducks in the village had been stolen before.

At first, some players were interested in Zheng Chen, but after getting nothing useful from him, they stopped paying attention.

The players' integration into the village was not high. If this matter leaked out, the villagers and players would quickly become hostile.

The night was a good time to do things.

Wearing a black outfit, Zheng Chen quietly jumped out of the window. After the village was officially opened to players, there was no longer a game time limit.

However, players didn't run around at night; most chose to log out. From Ping Shizhi, Zheng Chen obtained a lot of additional information, the most important being the specific time and location of the deaths.

After lying in wait for a whole night, Zheng Chen found nothing. He wasn't discouraged; opportunities needed to be waited for. However, nothing happened for a whole week. The person who did it was very cautious and didn't show any signs.

"Still haven't found anything?" When he returned to the clinic, Ping Shizhi asked calmly, knowing that rushing wouldn't help.

"No."

"Don't worry, this matter can be handled slowly. Don't worry about it being suppressed; would I tell you I'm the village chief if I couldn't handle it?"

"I understand." After Zheng Chen left, Ping Shizhi thought quietly. He trusted Zheng Chen to handle the matter. As for preserving the bodies, he had special methods as a doctor.

Lying in wait wasn't effective, so Zheng Chen decided to try another approach. In the afternoon, he went to a tavern with the blacksmith's apprentice. When they arrived, the apprentice handed Zheng Chen a cloth-wrapped package, "The thing you wanted is ready. You're a good guy, but there's no need to treat me to drinks, right?"

The apprentice smiled and didn't worry about being late.

"It's necessary." Zheng Chen didn't even look at the package before putting it away.

"Then I won't be polite." The apprentice smiled and called out to the tavern owner, "You talk so little, don't you get bored?"

"I'm used to it." Zheng Chen shook his head and didn't say more.

The apprentice's smile faded, and he poured two cups of wine from the jug on the table, pushing one to Zheng Chen, "Since you won't talk, I will."

The apprentice's topics were varied and wide-ranging, and with the influence of alcohol, he talked about whatever came to mind, making it noisy to listen to for a while. However, Zheng Chen remained calm and listened.

Although the apprentice's talk was messy and mostly hearsay, it wasn't entirely useless. By organizing the content, Zheng Chen felt the richness of this world.

"Are there foreigners here?" When the apprentice mentioned people with different hair colors, Zheng Chen's eyebrows raised, and he asked a rare question. The term "foreigner" was something he had found in literature.

"Uh? What... foreigners?" The apprentice scratched his head in confusion, not understanding the question.

"People with hair that isn't black. And not from the same country."

"Uh? How could that be? There are no people with different hair colors in our village. You'd have to go to a city to see them; it's quite common." The apprentice shook his wine jug, looking at Zheng Chen as if he were overreacting, "I thought you were talking about something rare... foreigners... hehe, boss, more wine!"

After burping, he continued, "If you had come a month earlier, you would have seen one passing through our village. She was just a little girl, but she was so fierce."

Am I already so behind?

After drinking several jugs of wine, the apprentice couldn't hold it anymore. He looked at the sky and shook his dizzy head, "I can't do this anymore. My old man will beat me. Want to walk with me and vouch for me?"

"I have something to do."

"Burp~" The apprentice wobbled to his feet, thumping his chest loudly, "Next time you need any private work, come to me. I guarantee it will be ten times better than my old man's work!!"

"Check out."

On the night road, the drunk apprentice hummed a tune as he walked home. Emboldened by the alcohol, he wasn't afraid to walk alone on such a quiet night.

Until several suspicious figures suddenly pulled him into an alley and pressed a cold, sharp object against his waist, instantly sobering him up!