Chapter 25
by GideonChapter 25: Ancient City of Weiqu 1 [ You have been deployed to [Ancient City of Weiqu] (D-rank) ]
[Ancient City of Weiqu] (D-rank)
A D-rank Dungeon. Jiang Qibai felt a wave of relief, but at the same time, the name of this Dungeon felt strangely familiar. Yet, she couldn’t recall ever having any information about it.
Seeing that Jiang Qibai hadn’t responded, the System repeated the question.
[ Your deployment this time will take longer than usual. Would you like to enter the Leisure Area to wait? ]
The Leisure Area… It sounded like a harmless place.
Her Safehouse was still upgrading, and there was nothing else she could do. Jiang Qibai decided to accept the System’s offer.
A sudden sensation of weightlessness washed over her. The blinding white light forced her eyes shut. When she opened them again, Jiang Qibai found herself in a long, silver corridor.
A mechanical voice, identical to the System’s, repeated endlessly in her ears: “Players, please proceed to the Leisure Area in an orderly fashion. Do not linger in the corridor.”
Players… Jiang Qibai immediately glanced around. Sure enough, the corridor was filled with people. Their expressions varied wildly: some wore the same wariness and confusion as Jiang Qibai; others looked numb and lifeless; and a few seemed even more excited, eagerly pushing through the crowd to get ahead.
Jiang Qibai and some other players instinctively looked up.
The space above them was empty. No player names hovered over anyone’s head. Everyone looked like an ordinary person before entering a Dungeon, temporarily stripped of their data-defined identities.
New players were constantly being teleported into this corridor. The Doomsday Dungeon had clearly altered many players’ habits. Even in a place like this, they remained highly vigilant, ignoring the System’s prompts to move and instead standing their ground to observe their surroundings.
The corridor never got crowded. Jiang Qibai watched as two players’ bodies overlapped, then passed right through each other without a single one of them showing any surprise.
They were like projections, unable to touch each other’s physical forms.
This discovery greatly lowered Jiang Qibai’s guard. She began to move forward with the crowd. The moment she stepped out of the corridor, her vision suddenly opened up. She was standing in the center of a massive, circular building.
Beneath her feet was a completely transparent glass floor. But what was truly astonishing was the view from here: a lush, vibrant forest stretched out below.
It was a sea of lush, layered greens. The towering canopies of the trees formed a massive umbrella, shielding the ground below and casting a dappled, dancing light. Vines coiled around the trunks, climbing ever higher. Beneath the giant, beautiful fronds of ferns, small violets and lilies of the valley bloomed, while wild roses and honeysuckle intertwined.
Plants that should have thrived in completely different climates coexisted here in perfect harmony. Suddenly, a lark, its belly full of fruit, took flight from the wondrous forest and began to chirp a lively song.
The players’ reactions to the forest beneath their feet varied wildly. Though they had no physical forms in Jiang Qibai’s eyes, she could still see their expressions clearly and hear their voices.
Some recoiled in sheer horror at the sight of the forest, stepping back from the glass floor until they could no longer see a single speck of green. Only then did they calm down. Others, their faces alight with longing and awe, turned toward the passage leading to the underground forest.
A clear sign marked the entrance to the passage: [ Natural Oxygen Chamber Area ]
Below it, a line of smaller text read: Ticket: 50 Points.
Instantly, Jiang Qibai decided the forest wasn’t all that special after all.
She looked up. The entire circular building was divided into numerous zones. Within her line of sight, she could see signs for the [Private Cinema], [Essential Oil Massage], [Hot Spring Bath], [Dining Area], [Shopping District], [Fitness Center], and more.
Many Players were clearly returning visitors, heading straight for their preferred destinations with purpose.
Jiang Qibai stared at the dazzlingly vivid environment previews on the surrounding screens, a wave of disorientation washing over her. Cinema, hot springs, massages… After the brutal Doomsday Dungeon, these words felt so extravagant, so surreal. Yet, after enduring the endless Polar Night in Snow Mountain Town for days on end, the sight offered a flicker of solace—a feeling of being reconnected to human society.
The System really is terrified of us Players going insane, she thought.
She resisted the lure of the entertainment zones. Her second Dungeon was only a few hours away, and she couldn’t afford to let her guard down completely.
Instead, she walked toward a corner of the building bathed in brilliant sunlight streaming through a transparent skylight.
As she drew closer, she saw a vast, majestic, and serene blue ocean stretching endlessly beyond the building’s massive, fully transparent glass walls. It met the pale blue sky at the horizon, its gentle ripples reflecting a sun that seemed eternally fixed in place, shimmering on the water’s surface like a field of golden scales.
The beach by the sea was teeming with activity. People were soaking up the sun, the sea breeze, and the refreshing chill of cold drinks.
Jiang Qibai instinctively took two steps toward the main entrance, only to be stopped by a transparent light barrier.
[ Lv2 Shopping Tier Player Access Area. You do not currently meet the entry requirements. ]
Jiang Qibai laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. Thanks to the System’s reminder, she thought, I almost forgot I’m a distinguished Lv1 System Mall user, entitled to a generous 10.0 discount.
Fine, screw the beach, she decided. She found an empty spot to sit and started enjoying the free sunlight.
Beside her, someone sighed, “It’s so good to be alive.”
Another voice quickly chimed in, “Yeah, dying once just makes you even more terrified of it happening again.”
Their first death had stripped them of everything they’d ever built, leaving them to be thrown, utterly alone, into one brutal Doomsday Dungeon after another. After finally managing to carve out a small sanctuary for themselves and gradually rebuild their fortunes, they clung to what little they had left, refusing to let go.
Jiang Qibai turned her head slightly and saw the woman who had spoken first.
She had turned her entire face to the sun, basking in its warmth with her eyes squeezed shut in a look of absolute relaxation.
People came and went around them, most resting briefly in the empty seats before heading to other areas. Only she and Jiang Qibai remained motionless, like two immovable pillars.
The young woman asked, “Sister, where are you from?”
Jiang Qibai looked left and right, confirming the woman was indeed speaking to her before answering, “A place without sun.”
“No wonder,” the young woman said, her expression saying so that explains it. “My last Dungeon was so damp. If I’d stayed a few more days, I think I would have grown gills.”
“The sunlight is so wonderful,” she sighed.
Time slipped away, and Jiang Qibai’s stomach gave a loud growl.
Her Spatial Bracelet hadn’t followed her to the Leisure Area. Here, she was just an ordinary person, like before she’d entered the Dungeon—no Personal Space, no Attributes, no Skills, and no constant threat of a life-ending crisis.
That was why Jiang Qibai was reluctant to leave this sun-drenched area and return to her dark Safehouse. If she requested to go back to her Safehouse for a meal now, the System might not send her back here again.
So, Jiang Qibai stood up and headed for the dining area.
The dining area was teeming with Players. Jiang Qibai spotted some of them with mountains of food piled high on their tables, gorging themselves with a desperation that bordered on a binge-eating episode.
Just like every other zone, this place was devoid of any living beings besides the Players. Ordering was a self-service affair, and the delivery was handled by white, jellyfish-like robots floating in the air. Their tentacle-like appendages gripped the trays as they descended from the ceiling, delivering meals to their designated destinations.
Jiang Qibai sat down and scanned the menu.
Fried Chicken & Burger Combo (Today’s Special) — 30 Points Curry Chicken Rice Combo — 50 Points Teriyaki Eel Set Meal — 80 Points Pan-Seared Sea Bass — 100 Points Charcoal-Grilled Surf and Turf Platter — 150 Points Chef’s Special Slow-Braised Red Wine Beef Short Ribs (Large Portion) — 200 Points
The menu featured stunning photos that showcased the food from every angle, falling just short of wafting the actual aromas right under the players’ noses to tempt them into ordering.
Fortunately, Jiang Qibai was a poor and strong-willed person. She forced her gaze back to the very first item on the first page and ordered a Fried Chicken Burger Combo.
When her meal arrived, Jiang Qibai took a small bite and found that the food quality here was indeed excellent. The fried chicken was incredibly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the burger patty was hearty and flavorful.
[ You have unlocked the Achievement [Chicken One Meal, Burger One Meal] and obtained the Skill [V Me 50]. ]
[ [V Me 50]: Upon use, deduct 50 Points from the target player’s account and transfer them to your own account (the target will be notified and receive your player name). Cooldown: 12 hours. ]
I can actually trigger achievements in the Leisure Area?
Now she could rightfully demand fifty points from all the other players. But would it be too reckless to offend so many people just for fifty points?
Then again, if they’re already my enemies, I can just rip fifty points out of their pockets every time we meet. That would piss them off to death.
After finishing her meal, Jiang Qibai headed to the rest area for a while. With one hour left before being teleported to the New Dungeon, she contacted the System and asked to be sent back to her Safehouse.
The Safehouse had already completed its upgrade, and Jiang Qibai needed to check out the new features.
First, she examined the changes to the Safehouse’s attributes. Its HP, Defense, and Auto-Repair Speed had all seen minor increases.
[ Bai Qi’s Safehouse HP: 100/100 Defense: 12 Auto-Repair Speed: 2 points/hour Anti-Intrusion System: Window Anti-Theft Awning, Rock Mimicry System, Swamp Moss ]
Next, she noticed a new staircase leading upward. Jiang Qibai climbed the wooden steps and arrived at a small greenhouse on the second floor.
The greenhouse was a square space constructed from a metal frame and transparent glass. The floor was covered in a thick layer of moist, dark brown soil, and the ceiling was equipped with an Intelligent Folding Sunshade Net. It could be programmed to deploy at specific times, preventing the crops from being damaged by intense or prolonged sunlight.
On a wall beside Jiang Qibai, two openable ventilation windows were set into the structure. To the north, a wall painted pure white served to reflect as much light as possible. Beyond that single wall, a uniform silver alloy frame held several waist-high glass panels securely in place, allowing sunlight to stream in from all directions without obstruction.
At this moment, no sunlight yet filled the greenhouse. The Safehouse’s deployment was still underway. Gazing through the glass, Jiang Qibai could see a colossal bubble enveloping the entire structure, floating within a vast, velvet-black void.
It seemed to be falling, or perhaps ascending—direction held no meaning here. Through a thin membrane, Jiang Qibai witnessed the sea of stars unfurl before her.
A newborn blue giant star scattered explosive brilliance; a dying red giant swelled, devouring everything in its vicinity. The invisible Eye of the Abyss stared out at the universe. The petals of the Rosette Nebula bloomed passionately against the dark curtain of space, while the mane of the Horsehead Nebula billowed in an unseen wind. On the three Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, gas streams illuminated by countless stars cascaded downward.
Against this grand, dreamlike backdrop, she was nothing more than an insect trapped in amber.
It took a long moment for Jiang Qibai to finally regain her breath.
The Safehouse was like a message in a bottle tossed into a vast ocean, washed ashore by the waves.
[ You have been deployed to [Ancient City of Weiqu] (D-rank) ]
The Safehouse shuddered violently before the vibrations gradually ceased.
Jiang Qibai looked out the window.
A Gobi desert stretched out from beneath the Safehouse, its ground a mix of grayish-brown gravel and sand, interspersed with parched, hard earth cracked into an irregular polygonal web.
The sparse vegetation clung to the ground—mostly thorny, low-lying shrubs and tufts of coarse grass. Even this scattered greenery was tinged with withered yellow.
In the distance, the terrain began to shift. A faint but visible line cut across the horizon, beyond which lay endless, rolling dunes. She could see sand grains drifting slowly along the ridges in the wind, forming a thin, golden mist.
The sky was vast and cloudless. Aside from the sound of the wind, the world was utterly silent.
Jiang Qibai’s Safehouse stood alone on the Gobi wasteland, but it wasn’t the only man-made structure in sight.
Less than a hundred meters behind it lay a primitive village. Most of the houses there had earthen walls, built by framing wooden poles and filling them with a mixture of mud and straw. Their windows were tiny, offering no glimpse of the interiors. Other dwellings resembled the “pit-dwellings” Jiang Qibai had seen in history books—deep pits dug nearly two meters into the ground, their sides lined with low adobe walls and their tops covered by roofs of straw and mud.
Compared to its appearance in Snow Mountain Town, where it looked like a refugee shelter, Jiang Qibai’s Safehouse now seemed like a luxury villa, standing out like a crane among chickens amidst the crude dwellings.
She immediately activated the Rock Mimicry System. With the sun shining brightly, the system would be fully charged in no time, and her Safehouse would appear as nothing more than a large boulder to outsiders.
However, Jiang Qibai knew that at such a close distance, the sudden appearance of a rock of this size near the village would be impossible to hide from its inhabitants.
Goatee from Snow Mountain Town had once mentioned that the NPCs in many Dungeons harbored hostility toward Players. The reason was easy to guess: not a few Players were ruthless individuals who would hesitate to clear any obstacle in their way, as long as it wasn’t their own life on the line.
Meanwhile, the Safehouses were stocked with a wealth of supplies. Once the NPCs caught wind of this, they might develop ulterior motives when they saw a Player alone.
Jiang Qibai knew she had no choice but to deal with this village. She didn’t expect them to be friendly; she only hoped they could mind their own business and coexist in peace.
Before that, however, there was other information she needed to gather.
Opening the System Mall, Jiang Qibai wasn’t surprised to see the section for exchanging Points for water was grayed out. A line of small text read: (Currently unavailable in this Dungeon).
In the previous Dungeon, Jiang Qibai had amassed a large amount of drinking water but consumed very little of it. She usually drank boiled water from the Safehouse, especially as the weather grew colder. When she went out, she always filled a thermos with hot water, almost never drinking cold bottled water.
After discovering the water supply in this Dungeon had been cut off, Jiang Qibai immediately took stock of her supplies. She had four full cases of bottled water, over a dozen loose bottles from System Rewards, one case of sparkling water, and one case of energy drinks. Additionally, she had over forty miscellaneous drinks she’d scavenged from the hotel’s vending machine.
With these reserves, she wasn’t worried about drinking water for the time being. However, daily water usage—like washing and cleaning—would be a problem. Relying solely on the toilet tank and the various containers she’d filled around the Safehouse wouldn’t last long.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a life-or-death issue; it would just lower her overall quality of life.
If I can get on the good side of the locals, she thought, I might find out where they get their water and replenish the Safehouse’s reserves.
Jiang Qibai then opened her friends list. Every single name was grayed out, except for Mr. Tree.
Still, she didn’t think Mr. Tree was in the same Dungeon as her. The odds were far too low.
She glanced at today’s Daily Quest.
[ Daily Quest: Kill Yu (0/5). Time Limit: One Day ]
What the hell is a Yu?
Staying in the Safehouse wouldn’t give her the answer. Jiang Qibai decided to head out and explore.
She started by changing her outfit. The temperature in this new Dungeon was much more pleasant than in Snow Mountain Town—daytime highs soared above 20 degrees Celsius, while nights plunged to just a few degrees.
Jiang Qibai walked toward a nearby village.
The so-called street was nothing more than a dirt path packed hard with crushed stone. The houses were huddled close together, their yards enclosed by fences only half a person’s height. This meant anyone standing outside could see exactly what every family was busy with.
Conversely, the people inside could easily see anyone passing by.
Someone noticed Jiang Qibai.
She had no intention of hiding her identity—nor could she. She knew absolutely nothing about this Dungeon, making it impossible to blend in with the locals through any kind of disguise.
The gaunt, sallow-faced villagers didn’t look like they possessed much combat power, which was why she had approached them so boldly.
But their reaction still caught her off guard.
A family stared at her in sheer astonishment. Their terror didn’t stem from seeing a stranger, but from recognizing her. It was the kind of panic that arose from knowing exactly what kind of person she was and what abilities she possessed.
A man dropped the wicker basket he was weaving with tamarisk twigs, snatched up a nearby rake, and leveled it at Jiang Qibai. He shot an urgent, frantic glance at the woman beside him.
The woman immediately abandoned her work. With one arm, she scooped up the child who had been playing with stones; with the other, she grabbed a winnowing tray filled with unidentifiable dried vegetables. Like snails retreating into their shells, the family scrambled back into their house, not daring to spare her another glance.
Players have a terrible reputation here. Jiang Qibai confirmed this fact.
She was unarmed, dressed casually, and was a young woman—the kind of person who should have been the least threatening. Yet, the villagers still reacted to her as if she were a mortal enemy.
Seeing that this family was clearly refusing to communicate, Jiang Qibai turned and walked toward the next house.
The exact same scene played out again. The villagers hurried into their earthen houses, peeking through narrow windows to see if she had finally left.
Jiang Qibai walked through the village like a walking plague, an eerie sense of wrongness coiling around her heart.
No, something’s not right.
The way the villagers looked at her… it was as if they were staring at a lion that had escaped its cage. That part made sense. It was also understandable why no one dared to speak to her.
But it was too quiet.
Before they spotted her, the families were working in total silence. Even the four- and five-year-old children, usually a whirlwind of mischief, played without making a sound. When the men raised their weapons, no war cries broke the stillness. Using sound to intimidate an enemy is a biological instinct, yet here, it was completely absent.
Why are they afraid to make a sound?
What would happen if they did?
…Would it attract something?
Jiang Qibai thought of the “Yu” mentioned in the daily quest.
Do I need to make some noise to lure out the target monster? she wondered. But she wasn’t sure if that would draw too many of these unknown creatures at once. So, she simply walked through the village in silence.
The village was small, and she reached the other end in no time.
Another detail puzzled her—the entire village lacked a single well. People couldn’t survive without water, especially when she’d seen livestock in some of the yards. Where did they get their water?
With this question in mind, she turned her gaze to the imposing city several kilometers behind the village.
She was certain its name was the City of Weiqu.
Basking in the sunlight, the city rose from the earth like a towering, solemn ochre-gold platform. The stone bricks of its walls were shot through with some unknown mineral, creating a honey-brown grain that shimmered in the light. The walls themselves were sheer, rising dozens of feet high, their crests lined with a continuous row of battlements and watchtowers.
The three gates—one large and two small—were all sealed shut. Their panels, crafted from dark hardwood and reinforced with thick copper plates, were polished to a mirror-like finish, reflecting a steady, dark golden glow. The massive door knockers weren’t the usual beast heads, but a pattern Jiang Qibai had never seen before.
Jiang Qibai lowered her binoculars. Her first impression of the city was one of absolute isolation. With its gates barred and its defenses heavily fortified, it seemed to reject all outsiders.
This immediately dispelled her absurd idea that the villagers might be getting their water from within the city. Perhaps there was a hidden spring nearby, tucked away in some secret spot around the village.
Getting the villagers to reveal the location of their water source would be nearly impossible. Not only were they refusing to speak to her, but even if they did, water was the lifeblood of a village in such a desperate environment. They wouldn’t share its location lightly.
Jiang Qibai had searched the entire village but found no other Player’s Safehouse. Judging by the villagers’ reactions, other Players had definitely been here—and not just one or two. She wondered if they had already left or if they were using some special Item that concealed their presence from her.
Though this village also hid its own secrets, Jiang Qibai was far more curious about the city. Was it a bustling metropolis teeming with life and wealth, or a wasteland strewn with bones? She had never forgotten that this was a Doomsday Dungeon.
Safehouses were dropped randomly. Jiang Qibai speculated that some players’ Safehouses might have been placed directly inside the city. That would save them a lot of trouble; players like her, who had been dumped outside the walls, still had to find a way to get in.
The surrounding villages were simply too impoverished. She couldn’t find any valuable supplies here, and she refused to stoop to robbing the few belongings the villagers possessed.
Her intuition told her that the city held what she was looking for.
But not now. She knew nothing about the city, and acting rashly would likely put her in grave danger.
Just as she was thinking this, a paper crane drifted down from the sky, landing right in her palm.
Jiang Qibai unfolded the crane. A single line of text was written inside: “Welcome to the Ancient City of Weiqu. Follow the crane’s flight path to reach Player Camp No. 1.”
The villagers had refused to give her any information. Perhaps she should change her approach and seek news from other players.
Jiang Qibai refolded the crane. It flapped its wings and floated back into the air, soaring toward a distant point in the wilderness.
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