Chapter 9

As the sunset waited, he took a deep breath and tightly held the letter containing secrets that his mother had given him.

"Stop!" The old man at the gate raised his hand to stop the few people who were about to act pitiful, saying, "You've been in trouble here every day for the past month. There's no need to say such things. I've already said, if you're fewer than four people, don't come here."

Sunset forced a smile and then pulled out the unfortunate Afai, who was hiding behind him, and said, "Old sir, look, we have one more person."

The old man's eyes lit up, and he smiled, "So you've finally gathered enough people. Does this mean you're here to do a task today?"

"Of course, of course," Neptune's Sunset laughed, "Please be kind to us. We've gathered here by fate, hehe..."

After saying that, he took out a bottle and handed it to the old man. The old man took it, pulled out the stopper, and sniffed it, then smiled broadly, "Good stuff, you've finally brought the monkey wine I like. Given your sincerity, hmm, this boy isn't a martial artist, he doesn't count."

Sunset and the others were shocked and quickly explained, "Poor Afai, he is a martial artist."

The old man shook his head, "He doesn't know any martial arts."

Sunset and the others were dumbfounded, not expecting this hurdle. They needed four people, and all of them had to be martial artists. They should have made Afai learn a basic sword technique or some basic internal skills. But now there was no time to learn these things, and they had come in a hurry without any martial arts manuals. Afai was very unwilling and said, "After all this, I still have to learn martial arts? If I had known it would be so troublesome, I wouldn't have come."

"Wait," the person in the mirror stepped forward, pulled on Afai's clothes, and revealed a corner of the clothing. Afai was startled and covered his chest, "In broad daylight, what are you doing?"

The person in the mirror held him down and said to the old man, "He is a martial artist. Look, he has already joined the Huashan Sect. Although he hasn't learned any martial arts, he is already a member of Huashan. Old sir, a genuine Huashan disciple, can be considered a martial artist, right?"

Afai's clothes had the Huashan mark, and everyone was silent, staring at the old man. In the team chat, there was already a lot of noise. The person in the mirror laughed, "Fortunately, I had Afai join the Huashan Sect before coming, just for communication convenience, but it turned out to be very useful."

Moon in the Water reminded, "This is a big help. But we don't know if we can pass? What if we really need to learn martial arts? We can't let Afai learn on the spot."

"In that case, we can only go back and have Afai quickly find a master to learn martial arts," Sunset suggested a bad idea.

"Help has its limits. I have a haircut in the afternoon and work tomorrow!" Afai shouted in the team chat.

Fortunately, the old man made a decision. He hesitated for a moment and then said, "That's true. The designer only asked me to guard the gate, and non-martial artists are not allowed to enter. But this young man, although he hasn't learned martial arts, has joined the Huashan Sect, so he should be considered a martial artist."

Seeing a chance, Sunset quickly handed over another bottle of wine and said, "He is indeed a martial artist. Today is his first day in the martial world. As the saying goes, once you enter the martial world, it's like the sea, and you can't control your own fate. From now on, a young martial hero will rise, and he will start his journey of righteousness today. Old sir, as a witness, you will naturally be happy to see this."

The old man took the bottle and nodded in satisfaction, "Alright. You can come in."

Everyone cheered, and the task finally made progress. However, the old man pointed at the unfortunate Afai and said, "He can't go in, but you can."

"No problem!" The three of them said in unison. They were originally going into the valley to complete the task, and the key was the condition for entering the mountain. Whether Afai went in or not didn't matter.

"Why?" Only the unfortunate Afai asked. Although he was just there to fill the numbers, it was too boring to not even get a chance to see the valley. Afai had also become interested in the game and wanted to explore the hidden valley, maybe to find some benefits.

"You don't know any martial arts," the old man shook his head, "Although there's no great danger inside, it's still not suitable for you. So they can go in, but you can't. However, if you really want to go in, it's fine, but if you die, they will all be kicked out of the valley."

"Stay here!" The other three shouted in unison. Afai reluctantly stopped.

Afraid that Afai might cause trouble, Sunset ran over and said, "Afai, sit here quietly and wait for us to finish the task. Don't run around!"

"There are wolves in the valley, be careful not to get carried away by them..."

"Don't go near the water, you might drown..."

"Watch out for the stones on the ground, don't trip..."

Afai's face turned dark, as if he were being treated like a child. He roared and kicked Sunset into the cave, finally getting some peace. Watching the three of them happily enter the valley, he sighed and sat down opposite the old man. The old man held a bottle of monkey wine, took a careful sip, and sighed in satisfaction, his face wrinkling like a blooming chrysanthemum.

"This game is really amazing, the NPCs are so realistic. The conversations with players are not mechanical at all, and now he's even drinking leisurely, tsk tsk," Afai mused to himself.

The old man stared at Afai for a while and said, "Is this your first day playing the game?"

Afai was startled. The task was over, but the NPC was still talking to him? He nodded, a bit dazed.

"No wonder. You don't know, but many of the NPCs in the game are played by real people!" the old man said, taking another sip of wine.

Afai was shocked, jumping up, "Real people? You too?"

The old man chuckled, his face wrinkling again, "Otherwise, how could I remember those three people? I am a real person playing an NPC. Of course, not all NPCs are played by real people. To be honest, this place was not originally meant to be discovered by players. It involves a much larger task..."

He suddenly stopped, afraid of revealing more secrets.

Afai's interest was piqued, and he asked, "What big task? Does it mean that what we're doing now isn't the real task?"

The old man sneered, "I won't tell you any task information. What you've received is just a surface-level task, a reward for accidentally discovering this valley. But don't even think about the big task. With the current level and martial arts of players, it will take at least a few years to trigger this task. As for you... hehe!"

Afai understood the gatekeeper's meaning. He was level zero, with no martial arts, a complete nobody, and had nothing to do with the so-called task. But being looked down upon by an NPC was not encouraging. Afai roared, "I don't care about this game. What martial arts and secret techniques, I have no interest."

The old man was startled, almost spitting out his wine, and looked at him in surprise, "What do you mean, you play the game but don't want to learn martial arts?"

Afai thought, "I'll log off in a bit, and I might not come back to this game," and nodded, "I won't learn, I have no interest."

The old man, for some reason, showed a hint of hesitation, thought for a long time, and then asked tentatively, "Young man, don't you want to seek revenge and wield a sword in the martial world..."

"I'm a beginner, I have no enemies, and no one to seek revenge from. I have no martial arts, and I'm supposed to wield a sword in the martial world with this beginner's sword?" Afai sneered, giving the gatekeeper a look of disdain.

The old man was even more surprised and suddenly stood up. This startled Afai, who thought the NPC was going to attack him. He quickly jumped up and pulled out his beginner's sword, holding it in front of his chest. The old man muttered, "Lost all martial arts, no desire for revenge, Huashan Sect... damn, which unlucky designer set such task conditions, and they were actually met?"

Afai's mind wasn't slow. Hearing this, he quickly thought for a moment and asked excitedly and cautiously, "Could it be that I accidentally triggered an ultimate task, a system bug, and you, sir, are a legendary senior with a lot of secret techniques and divine weapons to give me?"

The gatekeeper looked even more surprised at Afai and said, "Do you think designers are as stupid as you, giving out big tasks so easily? I'm just a gatekeeper, I have no secret techniques and no divine weapons. Give up on that idea. But..."

Afai's heart was lifted by the word "but."

Page break for AD

Page break for AD end