Chapter 11

"Tu Lao Li? Are you there?"

"Tu your sister, call me Tu Ge!!! What's up?"

Lancelot, who considered himself suave, would of course not obediently let people call him Tu Lao Li. In fact, Tu Lao Li wasn't bald at all. He got this nickname because he was hit in the knee with an arrow, and there was a line in a comedy movie that said, "Look at others, look at you, look at the bald Lao Li next door." Coincidentally, Lancelot's surname was Li, and his given name was Tu, so the nickname stuck due to the homophonic and same surname.

"You guess."

"Are you being a jerk? What's up, just say it, I'm busy."

He didn't talk much, but the chances of him being a jerk were very high. Over the years, Tu Lao Li had long been accustomed to Qin Yu's introverted and sulky nature.

"Three base attributes maxed at 20 points, there's a hidden quest, but the outcome is unknown."

Alpha sent the message while taking the cleaning tools from Brother Hagen Daz. The latter led Alpha into a library filled with bookshelves, which was the church library. Alpha pointed to the library door, indicating if this was the place, and Brother Hagen Daz nodded:

"Yes, this is the place. Clean these books, and although the holy scriptures cannot be corrupted by evil, they are helpless against dust. To systematically organize them in the future, you need to sort them by the first letter—oh, and before sorting, you need to classify them by religious pantheon.

—Of course, I won't let you work for free. Although the church doesn't have much funding, we will still give you some compensation."

"Serving justice and goodness is my honor, this is the best reward, I don't need anything else."

Alpha smiled and refused Brother Hagen Daz's offer of compensation while inwardly grumbling about the tediousness of this task:

There are at least tens of thousands of books here. To clean them and sort them twice, and only one small laborer is assigned to do it, Old Hagen Daz is really stingy.

But fortunately, Alpha was a mage. Using the [Magic Trick] to make the cleaning tools work on their own and then automatically sort the books was something any mage would do when cleaning their living environment. After all, it was too much to ask these bookworms to do the work themselves.

This task shouldn't be too difficult to complete, it just might take a bit longer.

As for the compensation, Alpha had his reasons for not wanting it:

—The less useless compensation, the better the useful rewards might be. Alpha believed this was also a balance in the game details. A hidden quest obtained by maxing out three base attributes doesn't need a few copper coins as a reward to mess things up. It's better to concentrate the rewards rather than distribute them into small benefits.

"Then I'll record you in the monastery's donation list, you are truly kind."

When Hagen Daz heard that Alpha didn't want compensation, he immediately turned the compensation into a "donation." Alpha couldn't help but suspect that this old man might be a priest of the goddess of wealth, Vorgin, among the followers of Tom.

As Hagen Daz led Alpha into the church library, Alpha received the corresponding prompt:

"Do you accept the quest [Organize the Church Library]?

[Organize the Church Library]: S-rank quest, clean and sort the religious books in the church library by pantheon and first letter.

No time limit, reward unknown."

"S-rank quest?"

Alpha was confused. A cleaning task was actually S-rank?

Did Hagen Daz forget that he was a mage? Although everyone in the Northshire Abbey knew he was a mage who had difficulty communicating with the magic network, using a [Magic Trick] to tidy up a room full of books wasn't difficult.

—After all, organizing books is a mage's specialty.

Was Hagen Daz senile? Or was there a glitch in the system? An S-rank task for cleaning a room, could it be that a 110-level legendary monster would jump out of a book for him to kill?

This task was suspicious.

Alpha was about to ask, but found that Brother Hagen Daz had already turned and gone to the prayer hall, with no intention of explaining. Alpha thought for a moment and didn't say anything more. Whether the task was S-rank or a new F-rank task, it wouldn't be done for nothing.

Looking at the hundreds of religious books, Alpha shrugged:

"Let's start then."

He lightly waved his hand, casting a [Magic Trick] on the cloth and duster, making them work automatically, while he found a corner to sit and take a nap.

However, the next scene made Alpha pause.

...The cloth was still soaking in the bucket, and the duster was still leaning against the wall, showing no signs of jumping up and working on its own like in a fairy tale.

Alpha looked at the log, which only had one line:

"Spell ineffective."

"Spell ineffective" is not the same as "spell failure." Spell failure means the spell was not successfully cast, while spell ineffective means the spell, although successfully cast, did not affect the target. This usually only happens when encountering a [Spell Immunity Field] or an antimagic item that is immune to all spells and divine magic.

A [Spell Immunity Field] was certainly not possible, so the only possibility was:

—These cleaning tools are antimagic items!

What was the purpose of giving him a bunch of antimagic items? Alpha tried casting [Magic Trick] on the cloth again, and clearly saw the arcane glow indicating a successful spell cast. However, when the faint light hit the bucket, it was immediately dispersed by a visible ripple.

No doubt, these tools were definitely antimagic items.

It seemed that the automatic housekeeping mode was out of the question. Alpha had to clean and sort each book one by one. He picked up the cloth from the bucket, wrung it out, and sighed:

"Turns out it really is an S-rank task..."

Actually, calling this an S-rank task might be an understatement. A comparison would make it clear:

Two tasks, one is to have the player defeat a boss that is N levels higher and has a legendary template, the other is to clean and sort tens of thousands of dusty, disorganized religious books in a room. If given a choice, what would a normal player choose?

Most players would probably choose to level up, enchant equipment, and then team up to kill the legendary boss.

After all, the game is about having fun, not doing housework. Although grinding monsters and equipment day after day isn't necessarily easy, cleaning tens of thousands of books is undoubtedly a tedious and exhausting task, both physically and mentally.

Clearly, if killing a legendary boss is an F-rank task, then cleaning the library is undoubtedly an S-rank task.

Most players would have cursed, but Alpha calmly picked up the cloth and climbed the ladder to clean the books.

—After trying [Mage Hand] several times to reach the high shelves and receiving the same "spell ineffective" message, Alpha confirmed that the room full of religious books was also an antimagic item.

With this clear, Alpha picked up the cloth and happily started cleaning...

...

...

"What? Just cleaning the library? You're cleaning one by one?"

"What can I do?"

Although the physical fatigue disappeared as soon as he logged out, the mental strain still made Qin Yu's head ache a bit. Sipping tea lightly and talking on the phone with Tu Lao Li was also a form of rest.

"Who cleans a whole room? Last time, I cleaned one window at the Cathedral of Hironis and that was it. Didn't you notice the quest prompt?"

"There's a quest counter. I remember I had cleaned about 7,000 books when I logged out, and there are still over 40,000 left."

Qin Yu recalled and gave an approximate number.

Thinking about it, it really was a lot. In the afternoon, he cleaned less than 1/5 of the books, and then he still had to sort them. This would probably take 3 to 5 days.

"I'll go and help you. I can bring a dozen people tomorrow?"

Qin Yu knew that Tu Lao Li was a high-level member of the Maple Snow Capital, the largest guild in the Silver Moon Alliance. Bringing a few people to help with the cleaning was no problem.

If a dozen people came to help, it would probably be done in less than half a day. However...

"Never mind, I'll do it myself. This task isn't that simple. The pot is boiling, I'll talk later."

Saying this, he hung up the phone without waiting for Tu Lao Li's protests...

Qin Yu had a reason for refusing Tu Lao Li's help. It wasn't that he had high morals, but because this task shouldn't be done with help:

Brother Hagen Daz had clearly stated the reason for choosing Qin Yu to clean the library, requiring full points in agility, constitution, and willpower. This meant that only someone meeting these conditions could do the job.

In other words, unless Tu Lao Li could find a dozen people with the same full points, they probably wouldn't even be able to enter the church library.

Thinking about this, Qin Yu sent a text message to Tu Lao Li, asking him to have someone check the church library.

Sure enough, the church library of Northshire Abbey was tightly closed, and no one could enter, just as Qin Yu had suspected. This task could only be completed bit by bit, with no room for shortcuts. An S-rank task was truly an S-rank task, and it was indeed unique.

Leaving the game for now, Qin Yu needed to solve his own food and shelter problems. The pot in the kitchen had already started boiling when he was on the phone. He lifted the lid, and a fragrant aroma wafted up...