Chapter 13

The equipment of fine quality ranks third from the bottom, only better than the plain and the enchanted equipment with a single additional attribute. This [Servant Ring] isn’t much of a good item, but it’s not bad for Alpha, after all, jewelry is relatively scarce in the game, and there are usually many people who need non-class-restricted jewelry.

Especially for newcomers like Alpha, most of their equipment can be cobbled together, but jewelry is often lacking. Moreover, this ring can grant Alpha a rather practical 1st-level spell.

Lancelot instructed Youlaiyou to mail the [Servant Ring] to Alpha, then he slung the over-a-meter-long broad-bladed greatsword on his back.

Many players who had watched the grand performance of the Holy Warrior’s law enforcement had already recognized this +4 bright purple epic greatsword, the [Fragment of Ilandil], which ranked 14th on the equipment leaderboard.

This weapon, both in appearance and practical value, was drool-worthy, naturally drawing a lot of attention.

“[Fragment of Ilandil], tsk tsk,”

“Is that the Round Table Brother from Tian Du? Too awesome, I should have played a Holy Warrior!”

“Play your ass, can anyone even complete the class quest?”

“Tsk tsk, no matter how hard, it’s worth it...”

...

...

Our Holy Warrior had long gotten used to it, ignoring the envious gazes of the onlookers at the [Fragment of Ilandil]. He summoned his warhorse, leaped onto it, and as he pulled the reins, the warhorse reared up high. Lancelot, in his silver-bright armor, struck a pose that earned him a wave of admiration from the crowd.

The smug Holy Warrior, while turning his horse to head back to the church, muttered to himself:

“Only he could finish reading all these books.”

...

...

While the battle was raging fiercely and the major cities were in turmoil, in the Northshire Abbey, especially in the church library, which was rarely visited by people, everything proceeded in a peaceful and orderly manner,

—of course, with the occasional sound of pages being turned:

It had been an hour since Alpha hung up on Lancelot’s private chat. Our waste-of-a-mage had a pile of over a dozen books he had wiped clean, and he was still flipping through one.

Clearly, he had already skimmed through the books he had wiped clean. In fact, Alpha’s reading speed had always been exceptional, reading ten lines at a glance was not an exaggeration, and his browsing speed was quite fast, which shortened the task duration to some extent.

By around 10:30 PM in real time, Alpha had read over 300 books, all neatly arranged on the shelves.

However, reading 300 books in just 3 hours was a bit exaggerated, even with Alpha’s fast reading speed, it was unlikely.

The reason he managed to complete so much work was that when Alpha was reading the third book about the goddess Wogin, he received a notification: “Wogin Goddess Theological Knowledge Acquisition is Full, Continuing Reading Will Not Increase Proficiency.”

Alpha then realized that there was an upper limit to the knowledge of a particular religion. It made sense; players couldn’t keep gaining experience in one field indefinitely. All games were like this, trying to create obstacles for players.

But it was a good thing, at least Alpha didn’t have to waste time on repetitive religious texts.

This saved Alpha a significant amount of reading time. He only needed to wipe the remaining hundreds of books about the goddess Wogin, which also added some variety to the reading—after all, the texts about the goddess Wogin were repetitive, mostly about money and happiness, and reading too much would make one sick of it.

Reading—cleaning—sorting—reading—cleaning—sorting... Alpha’s work in the Northshire Abbey church library became a fixed, unchanging cycle.

Anyone else would probably be driven to the brink of madness by this endless cycle, but Alpha, who was extremely patient and determined, continued the cycle of reading and cleaning until he felt he had played enough for the day.

Qin Yu was not a professional player and had a very regular schedule, always logging off by 10 PM. The rookie mage Alpha in the game became the college student Qin Yu on summer break.

Although the access pod and game frequency of "Dungeons & Dragons" were designed to be conducive to human rest and recovery, the human body’s need for sleep could not be replaced.

It’s like a patient with anorexia; in reality, these patients who haven’t eaten for a long time are not actually not hungry. Their stomachs and intestines need food, but the anorexia patients receive a mental signal that they are full and can’t eat, which makes their brains reject food.

Therefore, Qin Yu’s professional player roommate, after an all-nighter, would sleep from noon until night, and then start another all-nighter from around 7 PM (most readers have had this experience of a reversed schedule, a tribute to those glorious days).

Usually, at around 10 PM, Qin Yu’s roommate would be tightly shut in the access pod, battling away.

But today was clearly different.

At a time when Qin Yu would never see his roommate active, he saw his roommate, who should have been in the pod playing the game.

From the slightly swollen eyes of his roommate, it was clear that something had happened that made her unhappy and unable to continue playing.

—Yes, it was her...

Qin Yu didn’t know Wen Xiaodao’s real name, but he was sure no one would name their daughter “Dao” (chatter).

—Chatter as in talkative.

From the day Qin Yu moved in, the landlord pointed to the sleepy-eyed Wen Xiaodao and told him, “This is your roommate, take care of each other.” And so, the two of them started living together.

Wen Xiaodao was actually not talkative at all; on the contrary, she was a bit quiet, even more so than Qin Yu. This might be a common trait among professional players.

Including the first meeting, the two of them basically just nodded and greeted each other—of course, they rarely saw each other:

Qin Yu had a regular schedule and was particular about his meals, while Wen Xiaodao, like all professional players, relied on takeout and instant noodles for her daily nutrition.

When they first met, Qin Yu had observed Wen Xiaodao’s fingers and found no nutritional rings, indicating a poor diet.

But even with such a lifestyle, the girl only had a couple of pimples from staying up late, and her face was still white and smooth. Her figure was standard, neither too fat nor too thin, and overall, Wen Xiaodao was a genuine beauty.

Qin Yu’s luck in this situation could be considered quite good, or rather, the dream of all men of all ages.

Qin Yu was neither coldly handsome nor a saint, so living with such a pretty girl made him quite happy.

However, it was just a temporary happiness, as the two rarely saw each other, and Qin Yu had no opportunity to interact more. He also hadn’t found a way to get to know her better.

Plus, Qin Yu himself was a bit introverted, so their relationship remained the same for a long time.

Of course, through a few brief conversations, Qin Yu learned a bit about Wen Xiaodao:

Wen Xiaodao was also a student at A City University of Technology, but she was a few years ahead of Qin Yu, who was in his second year of graduate school. She had taken a leave of absence during her sophomore year and had been on leave ever since, renting a place to be a professional player.

However, Wen Xiaodao didn’t say why she had taken a leave of absence and become a professional player, and Qin Yu didn’t press the issue.

On the other hand, Old Li, who was bald, kept nagging Qin Yu for not taking care of the girl and promised to come and meet this legendary professional player beauty as soon as school started.

—If Old Li’s family hadn’t been on the other side of the country enjoying their summer vacation, he would have come over to show off long ago.

Although Old Li was usually unreliable, Qin Yu thought he had a point in this matter.

He should take care of the girl, not necessarily to pursue her, but as a man, he should take some responsibility.

Considering that other ways of taking care of her were inappropriate, Qin Yu decided to focus on food. For example, the potato and ham stew he made for lunch, Qin Yu basically cooked every day, and after eating his share, he would warm up the leftovers and leave a note for Wen Xiaodao to eat when she woke up.

At first, Wen Xiaodao didn’t touch the food, still relying on instant noodles and takeout.

However, Qin Yu didn’t feel discouraged and continued to cook and leave food for Wen Xiaodao, always preparing a clean set of bowls and chopsticks, and greeting her normally when they met, without showing any awkwardness.

It wasn’t that Qin Yu was patient or pretending; it was just his personality.

He did what he should do and didn’t think about what he shouldn’t. Whether Wen Xiaodao appreciated it or not didn’t matter to him; he just did what he thought was right.

This went on for about two weeks until one day, Qin Yu suddenly noticed that Wen Xiaodao hadn’t ordered takeout or eaten instant noodles but had finished the spicy pork and stir-fried green beans he had made, along with about half a pot of rice, which was probably around half a kilogram.

Qin Yu smiled, thinking the girl could eat quite a bit, and continued to leave half a pot of braised pork ribs and rice for her the next day, going about his business as usual.

The next day, Wen Xiaodao didn’t order takeout either but finished the half pot of pork ribs and half a kilogram of rice.

Qin Yu was a bit surprised; such a small girl could eat so much? Was this what a professional player was like?

But regardless, things continued this way.