{ Master, how about we explore the area ahead of us later? }

  Cyrus sent out [Mortal Eyes] as far ahead of himself as the limited range allowed. He knew doing so didn't increase his field of vision unless he physically marched onward, but he still couldn't help pushing the camera toward that thing, no, things.

  It was hard to act disinterested when he could hear their squalls so loudly, like they were in the water right before him. He took a step forward to stand at the darkened line where the land met the seaweed-green sea, his shoes sinking into the soft, damp sand.

  { Master, Your mortal body's current strength is too low to safely venture beyond this point. }

  "I know, I know. You alr—"

  A thundering boom interrupted him, one that only the sky imploding or equivalent could make. It was quickly followed by yet more, as if the shattered, colossal shards of heaven had plummeted into the sea. Cyrus pressed his hands on his ears, gritting his teeth as a piece of him died from curiosity.

  Fuck 5-meter radius. Screw this shit.

  At Tier 0 Godhood, Tier 1 [Mortal Eyes] had shown itself on the Ledger, but he couldn't click, view, or even check the cost for the upgrade. That had him very sour, but he couldn't take this out on anyone, as, according to Moshi, He was the one who designed the system this way for some reason. Cyrus could only blame 'Himself' and move on.

  Whatever made the sounds just now sent rolls of savage waves roaring across the sea, and the vigor reached all the way to Cyrus's feet, even after the waves had died down to his ankle height.

  Sleek, black birds with puffy heads flew overhead with piping shrieks, never straying too far away from the land. With their presence, he should have been able to use [Crow Eyes] on the targets even if he couldn't see them, but apparently, they were out of the skill's range, too. They didn't show up on the map either. Unlike the other skill, the system hadn't indicated whether [Crow Eyes] was even upgradable, at least not at his current level.

  With another defeat, Cyrus turned to the old pier down the coast, or what remained of it. Two lines of massive, black barnacle-tower of stone plinths marched out into the treacherous water. The pillars split the water surface to emerge into the open air like rows of rotten fangs. The wooden deck floor was long gone, splintered and eaten by the sea—its remains spat back out in decayed pieces along the coastline, most of which he'd picked up as driftwood.

  I'm not really in the mood for midnight parkour, but no choice. As in, he had to check it out, or he'd lose sleep over this.

  "Moshi, just up ahead to that pier should be fine, right?" Cyrus asked, already on the move.

  { That far should still be all right, Master. }

  Moshi's voice came a beat late, just as he was already calculating the distance to the pillar closest to the land.

  "Good," he said, then made a decisive jump.

  The math was right, but his movements were still out of sync with his new body. His feet landed an inch past the intended spot, right on the edge of the platform. Cyrus hissed sharply as he slipped, flailing while gravity yanked him down to slam his back on the pillar. At the last moment, he threw himself forward, hands slapping onto the nearest stone surface. Between the two pillars beneath him, turbulent waves exploded upward, spitting cold, salty droplets onto his face.

  Oops.

  Pushing against his hands, he scooped his feet backward and secured a footing on the flat surface. Finding his balance, he swung before straightening up.

  "Freaking long legs."

  His mortal character stood at 1.88 meters—meaning his bones were a good ten centimeters longer than what he was used to. Something Cyrus used to wish for back when he was still growing.

  With his heart refusing to calm down from the almost late-night dip, Cyrus skipped over the pillars with more careful steps than he would have taken otherwise.

  He caught a glint of something within the bird's-eye view of [Mortal Eyes] when he was halfway across. One universal law of an open world game was that shinies meant collectible loot. As a professional loot goblin, he would never leave a single corner of the map unplundered if he could help it.

  That was the entire reason for this trip when he should have been sleeping instead. He had been too busy adjusting and settling in that he hadn't explored the map at all. The thought of all the good things waiting for him kept sleep away, even when he hadn't gotten a wink of shut-eye since he'd logged in.

  And so the Eastern Anchored Beach at the back of Grandpa Wu Jing's house became his victim on the second night.

  His first move was to summon a specific item from the Moonglade realm, something that had become as natural as breathing. Along with a system prompt, a simple, light clay gourd materialized in his hand, fitting right in his grip.

  [ Still-Water Gourd (22/100) ]

  Thanks to Moonglade realm being nowhere near sufficient with its merely fifteen, mostly unstackable slots, he had to spend an additional three hundred Fate on a second storage item, which could, in turn, be placed inside the realm. There was also another thing he was planning to try out with the gourd sooner rather than later. All in all, it was a decent investment.

  Still-Water Gourd could hold a hundred distinct items, each slot allowing a stack of up to ten. So, technically, he could store a thousand items in it. At that price, it would have been considered cheap, if not for the fact that anything stored inside would emerge with Wet status applied.

  Still, this was more than good enough for him. The ridiculous image of shoving arm-length pieces of bone that had been washed ashore into a hand-span-tall gourd alone made it worth the price.

  Unplugging the gourd bottle, Cyrus made his way to the spark and found what looked like a marble larger than his fist. He didn't waste a second and used [Crow Eyes] on it.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  +++

  Item: Eye of a Mourning Current Spawn (Loot)

  Fate: 300

  Uses: Hero Ascension, ???

  +++

  Cyrus gulped at the word 'spawn'. The solid weight of the massive eye in his hand felt heavier than ever. He couldn't even celebrate the good price it fetched. The things in the sea were still out of his sight, but he now knew exactly what they were: future bosses. He extended his hand out to pray to no one in particular for that future to be far, far away when his wrist smacked into an invisible barrier. A wall of rigid air stood before him, shooting up right after the furthest pier.

  Before he could say anything, Moshi sounded an urgent caw.

  { Master! Please remain inside the border of Verdant Promise Isle, where World Will remains normally absent. At Master's current strength, the World Will is sure to get suspicious once Master is under its Main Eyes. Moshi pleas Master not to leave the island before Master has ascended to Tier 1 Godhood! }

  Ah. World boundary. Looks like the map is locked until further level up.

  Just then, a gush of bone-chilling wind snapped him out of his thoughts. The water seemingly rose as heavy mist at an alarming rate without any prior sign, reaching his knees in a blink. Before he could even react, the mist froze, and so did he.

  What the.

  His grip tightened on the monster's eyeball, his shoulder tensing up—not from the strange wind or the mist that had entirely swallowed up the sea around him. A figure stood behind him, just three pillars away.

  No sound. No movement. The entity was just there, whereas they hadn't been a moment earlier. He couldn't sense their presence, even with them up this close. If not for [Mortal Eyes] staring down from a height two heads above his own, he wouldn't have noticed them at all.

  Sword. Cyrus tossed the loot into the gourd and put the gourd away, too. He kept his hands close to his torso so that it wouldn't be so obvious as he slowly reached for his side.

  Among the six skills of [Hunting Blade], [Callous Stroke] was the only move that could deal decent damage, while the other two were just normal, weak sword attacks. The charged attack would deal enough damage to cut down 50% of the enemy's Max HP, but the damage was capped at 1,000. If the enemy was strong enough, losing 1,000 HP might barely concern them. Instead, the move would screw him, cutting down his Stamina by more than half, which would no doubt slow him down.

  Even if I get a good hit in, where the fuck do I run to?

  Everywhere he could see was floored with fog. He wasn't sure if the sea was still beneath the mist or if he had been moved to a different dimension. But by the time he got over the initial panic, Cyrus found himself loosening up at the fact that the person just stood there the whole time and hadn't attacked or moved at all. He realized they were waiting.

  Waiting for what? Oh. OH~

  Could it be that the cutscene wasn't starting since the player normally wouldn't have noticed the key NPC yet?

  If it had been another player, they would have no reason to be constantly using [Mortal Eyes] on their surroundings like he was. At this moment, they would be confused about the mist and turned around to face the person behind, where the cutscene would likely begin. It looked like the NPC hadn't been programmed to be able to sense [Mortal Eyes] like Yaoming was, so they had no clue that he'd already noticed them and could only wait for him to react first.

  Does this count as a bug? Or maybe an unintended feature.

  Considering the advancement and depth of the NPC AI with references to Yaoming, this could also be seen in a different light. This particular NPC could be the type who enjoys surprising people with their ghost-like state and sudden appearance. If the player, already spooked out, turned around to find a shadow in the mist, the scene could turn into comedy—from the NPC's perspective, of course.

  Either way, Cyrus wouldn't not use this to his advantage, as he unhurriedly used [Crow Eyes] on the mysterious figure behind the thick veil of mist.

  +++

  Mortal?:Human? Linlin?

  Level: ???

  Affinity: ?+32?-32?

  HP: 11,999-1,950

  +++

  What the... [Crow Eyes] is freaking the heck out.

  Glancing at the NPC profile that looked like a bucket of question marks was splashed onto it, he was now more inclined to believe he might actually have found a glitch of some sort.

  The Affinity value was all messed up, too, but if the question marks were taken out, the numbers would add up to zero. That was good enough for him. They had no reason to like him, but also none to hate him.

  Considering the Affinity wasn't in the negative—and also the fact that the NPC's insane HP stat was over ten times higher than his Level-1, 5-Star Hero—he reassured himself that he wouldn't be attacked right away. If anything, this could be a mini-boss he'd have to face later on. Not that he could escape a fight if the game wanted to force one on him.

  "Linlin?" Cyrus called, his voice somber as he tilted his head up, like someone just spoke to him from above.

  "Hm." The person took a step forward, stomping onto the next pillar as Cyrus turned to face them. Light teal eyes locked onto him. "My Lord is right. Something is special about you, Apostle. Apart from the fact that you've caught Her attention, of course."

  The voice was that of a masculine woman. Then after a few soft-spoken words, it hardened, smoothly morphing into a high-pitched male voice leaning feminine—the same voice wavering between tones and moods.

  The face that surfaced from the sweep of mist matched the voice perfectly. Once someone assumed their gender, their features would persuade otherwise. Their cheeks curved, too soft, too round for the somewhat prominent jawline they had. Pointed nose and defined brows contrasted long, fluttering lashes of a stunning woman, but Cyrus did know at least one man with such enviable eyelashes.

  So, Cyrus didn't try too hard.

  "I wonder why another god Apostle has shown up unannounced and unwelcome at Her mortal kingdom. Even I have to say that it's not very polite," Linlin spoke quietly, but their words were anything but mild.

  Cyrus hardened his face at the obvious provocation. He didn't really care at all, but as a god's 'Apostle', he still had to protect the god's honor. "You mean to say this land is Hers, the goddess who 'fell' decades ago? Sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but a land becomes unclaimed once the king has passed. The temples are empty; this is but a kingless land."

  "...You talk loud for someone of your standing. Any louder and I'm afraid my ears might bleed. Then, I—" Linlin said before their voice lurched.

  "—I knew it when I saw you. Cyrus, was it? Your eyes. You forfeited them for something worthwhile. I like you for that. Give and take is the way of all beings. I can see why She likes you, too. You see, well, you...don't, but you get what I mean. She likes offerings, as I found out the hard way."

  The voice shifted back to the slower, more mature-sounding tone. "My Lord, Please."

  Cyrus's face stayed blank at their bickering...with themself? Were they supposed to be split personalities? Or maybe some magical Xianxia two-souls-sharing-one-body kind of situation.

  Their dialogs seemed to bounce back and forth from what he observed, but in all honesty, Cyrus wasn't all that interested. Right now, the one thing on his mind was the ghost of a shiny skip button at the corner of his vision. He dearly wished he could spam skips and get to the quest already, but he tried to act as if he cared.

  Maybe he could get something if he played along.

  "Thanks," Cyrus replied to the compliments. "A magnificent voice that carries is one of my blessings, and I am quite likable."

  following, favoriting, commenting, rating, and maybe even reviewing when you're ready. The number helps summon the Algorithm Goddess! If you want to binge more, is 12 chapters ahead.

  Linlin is spelled '嶙林' in Chinese.

  嶙 : ranges of hills; 嶙峋 means bony (of people) and rugged (of terrain)

  林 : woods; forest; 树林 means grove

  This will make sense when we find out their actual name + backstory (Linlin is a nickname). Trust.

  https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php) to pick the words I like and smash them together, so they might not make as much sense or feel as natural as real names. Only for some characters tho. Most Chinese names are either from /Pinterest or made of random words.