Chapter 2075: Government Nutrient Solution
Standing once again on a bustling street filled with people coming and going, Xu Huo felt a sense of absurdity. This was the first time he had gone through an instance where he was so blatantly given an easy pass, and he even ended up with an A-level rating. In addition to the basic rewards from the game and the items the Puppet Maker had already packed up inside the instance, there was an extra gift pack. Inside the gift pack was a "Instance Holder Favor Ticket," which would grant him one chance to escape when facing a fatal blow from an instance holder.
Two shops on the next street over had people fighting, and it looked like it might spill over to their side. The Painting Woman reached out and waved her hand in front of his face.
Xu Huo glanced at her. "Thanks to you, this instance was cleared so quickly. Are you hungry? Let's go get some good food."
The Painting Woman immediately nodded. She used the communicator to say, "I want to buy some pretty clothes."
The commercial scene in Ye City was quite good; there were both clothing and jewelry shops. Xu Huo agreed to take her to buy clothes first.
C11-011 had its own regional clothing characteristics. Probably because there were so many different religions, the locals loved to embroider or sew various patterns onto their clothes. These patterns not only signified drawing faith power from a religion but also represented different beliefs. Wearing or adorning clothing with different patterns meant you were a member of that religion and under its protection... On the street, it wasn't uncommon for two people who bumped into each other to start fighting upon seeing the different patterns on each other's clothes.
However, Ye City was better than Xi City in that they weren't as repulsed by other religions or ordinary people. To them, religion was more like a shell for distinguishing different factions. So even though Xu Huo and the Painting Woman went into over a dozen shops and bought clothes with all kinds of different patterns, no shop owner refused their business. They even thoughtfully gave them a few badges. Wearing this badge indicated to the locals that they were from another district, which at least guaranteed that within Ye City, no one would drag them into local affairs.
Xu Huo wasn't very interested in a dress-up game, so the clothes were mostly for the Painting Woman. Each outfit also came with some locally characteristic jewelry.
"This young lady's temperament is perfect for wearing the clothes and jewelry from our shop. Look, she looks even more beautiful than our locals!" the shop owner said, seeing the large and small bags in Xu Huo's hands, and tirelessly tried to sell expensive jewelry to the Painting Woman.
The Painting Woman was familiar with the bargaining process. She handled the back-and-forth with the shop owner, while Xu Huo followed behind as a human backdrop, only needing to hand over White Notes at the right moment when she finalized the payment.
After satisfying her shopping desires, they found a place to eat. During the meal, Xu Huo asked if she wanted to go home.
He had asked about the Painting Woman's past before, but she only talked about trivial things, like moving around with different players, each of whom promised her a big house. She herself had no special requirements for living conditions. She changed companions mostly because the person she was with was killed or suddenly disappeared. She was always very easygoing, except for her slight love of acting.
The Painting Woman stopped eating, carefully took out her communicator, and asked, "You're suddenly being so nice to me... you're not trying to kick me out, are you? A last meal?"
She skillfully pulled out a beautifully patterned handkerchief and dabbed at the non-existent tears at the corners of her eyes, looking at him pitifully. "I can eat a little less."
Xu Huo cut a piece of grilled meat for her. "I used to think you had no family or friends. Now it seems you not only have them, but someone cares about you a lot. Don't you want to go home and see?"
The Painting Woman had no real concept of the word "home." Perhaps good and evil made no difference to her; she simply imitated humans, and imitated their attitudes towards good and evil. So she asked Xu Huo in return, "Should I go home and see?"
Before Xu Huo could speak, she added, "But I don't know where my home is, and I don't remember who's in my family. That hat person in the castle was pretty good to me, but I still like you more..."
She paused, then looked at him with a gaze full of eager hope. "If you could give me another 'Light Gentleman,' I would like you even more."
"Don't push your luck." Xu Huo lifted his chin, signaling her to eat. Watching her dive back into the delicious food, his thoughts turned to that scripture book.
That book was an owned item, yet the Painting Woman could seize control of it. The item looked like a book, but its actual material was certainly not ordinary paper. Judging by her operation, it seemed that as long as it was a paper medium, she could somehow use it.
Of course, she wasn't a player. Even if she seized it, she could only use the paper itself, not the item's special effects. But did this mean her power had increased?
Before, she only played with ordinary paper.
Was it related to the Light Gentleman badge?
Xu Huo opened his personal panel and searched the Under Dimension for the materials needed to make a Light Gentleman badge.
It seemed this question had been studied by more than one person. Since accumulating Light Gentleman badges could be exchanged with the game for a Gray Player identity, many people were interested. So on the forums, there were over ten thousand valid holographic records just on analyzing the components of the badge.
The materials that could be extracted from the badge weren't particularly special. It probably contained a bit of Subclass Stone with special properties, but there was also a very small amount of an unknown component. Because of the badge's rarity, not everyone who analyzed it could get their hands on a whole badge; many used partial badges for experiments. However, whether using a whole badge or a partial one, this unknown component could be detected. It was a substance that couldn't be matched in the current player database. Considering that the Game Government seemed intent on reclaiming the badges, more players believed that the badges might be created by a higher power, and the unknown component was what the Game Government wanted.
However, this theory wasn't accepted by everyone. Many items in the game were naturally born; these mass-distributed ones seemed more like they came from an assembly line factory.
The Game Government offered no explanation. Perhaps they knew, but kept the information from the players. Eventually, this unknown component was jokingly called "Government Nutrient Solution" by the players.
The Painting Woman now had four Light Gentleman badges on her. Xu Huo had obtained two, Yan Jiayu had given her one before, and another he had bought. She didn't like it much, but she kept it. Recently, her paper tricks had become more varied than when they first met. Could it really be related to the badges?
"Why do you like the badges so much?" he asked.
The Painting Woman answered smoothly, "I just like them. I like seeing them, I like holding them even more. They are my most favorite."
Ignoring the hint in her words, Xu Huo picked up his chopsticks again. "Eat."
The Painting Woman immediately and diligently poured him some juice, and even prepared a napkin.
After the meal, Xu Huo prepared to head to the next city. To avoid encountering random instances on the way, he planned to use a Space Teleportation Item to go directly to his target city. (End of chapter)