Facing an Ancient God for a Year

After the task summary was finished, Fu Qian felt quite satisfied.

Overall, aside from the monsters’ designs that could easily contaminate one’s mind, the difficulty of this mission wasn’t considered high.

Even though the final dream sequence repeated over a hundred times, he didn’t find it tiring at all.

Compared to the past, this was the first time he felt the sensation of grinding monsters.

The key was that the monsters were helping with reloading, without consuming any SAN Points.

As a result, he achieved a feat of completing the mission on one life.

As for replays, there was no need.

He had no desire to watch some of the scenes from the recent task ever again.

Being resistant doesn’t mean having a unique taste.

Besides that, the rewards were plentiful.

After completing the task, his SAN Points had reached 95, with triple digits just around the corner.

Fu Qian first scrolled to the achievements reward.

[Transcendence: Skill, upon casting, returns you to your original starting point, limited to one use per containment.]

[Note: A technique sought after by perfectionists, but rumored to increase the chances of failure.]

Return to the original starting point? That means restarting, right?

You have to admit it fits well with the achievement of passing the game on one life.

But this skill… hard to say whether it’s good or bad!

Fu Qian frowned in thought.

Theoretically, this was definitely a strategic skill.

On the one hand, each containment gave him another chance, almost doubling his SAN Points.

At the same time, it made him more flexible, basically allowing for a restart without waiting for a containment failure.

But there lies the problem.

Based on past mission experiences, many things don’t become apparent until a life-and-death situation arises.

Having the option to restart might lead to missing clues due to misjudgment.

That’s probably what the note was hinting at.

Strategic skills shouldn’t be over-relied on.

Fu Qian quickly made his judgment and continued scrolling up to find another reward.

[Mythical Form: Your next attack escalates into a Mythical Form, consuming 1 SAN Point per use.]

[Note: Peering into mythology means paying a price in sanity.]

This?

Fu Qian was dumbfounded.

1 SAN Point for him was like—no, two lives!

Might as well rename it “Bound Together in Life and Death”!

Instantly, he felt like he didn’t have enough SAN Points.

And there’s another issue, it only says the skill is upgraded to Mythical Form, with no clarification on the actual effect.

Considering the cost of testing it once, he could only look into it later.

But it’s a high-stakes skill; the effect surely can’t be too shabby, right?

This skill is even more strategic than Transcendence.

No matter how you look at it, besides the basic reward, gaining two skills meant a grand harvest from this mission.

Worth enduring all those grotesque scenes.

Before leaving the storage, Fu Qian specifically found the place where object 2-088 was kept.

Trying to open the box, he found a grotesque looking black and red crown inside, with dried blood on its sharp spikes.

…

Green beans, tomatoes, beef, king prawns…

Humming a tune, Fu Qian moved leisurely through the supermarket, continuously chucking food into his cart.

Although his current physique meant he could survive without food, he never considered giving up this pleasure.

Previously on the verge of eating dirt, he had only noodles and hot sauce for company, seldom visiting the supermarket.

Now, posing as someone with an annual salary of ten million, he had no issues affording the basic freedom of shopping.

Of course, there was another important reason… considering his work environment, Fu Qian thought it best to interact with human society now and then; otherwise, it would be all too easy to become abnormal without realizing it.

“Mr. Fu?”

The next moment, Fu Qian, who was wholly immersed in shopping, heard someone calling him from behind.

“It really is you!”

Turning around, there stood Pei Yanqing, with another girl’s arm entwined with hers. Both of them had their eyes wide open, one with excitement and the other with curiosity.

“Hello.”

Fu Qian nodded.

“I heard that it was you who took me home yesterday, thank you for the trouble!”

Pei Yanqing sincerely expressed her gratitude.

“It was nothing.”

Fu Qian casually returned the politeness.

This one definitely didn’t know that, in fact, she was the actual victim.

However, if it weren’t for her reminder, he would have thought the incident took place several days ago.

Could it be that the workload was indeed too much?

Fu Qian gauged Pei Yanqing for a moment – she seemed to have recovered completely.

“Are you feeling alright now?”

“I’m fine now, thank you for asking.”

Pei Yanqing smiled beautifully, her eyes not hiding her shock at Fu Qian’s filled shopping cart.

“You’ve bought so much! Are you expecting guests?”

“I have a rather good appetite.”

Fu Qian didn’t feel inclined to explain further.

“Don’t you have to work today?”

“I only work there part-time.”

Pei Yanqing giggled.

“It’s Friday today. We came out for some shopping to have hotpot tonight!”

Life at Lincheng University indeed seemed colorful!

Fu Qian nodded without saying anything else.

At this time, the girl beside Pei Yanqing pulled at her clothes, and Pei Yanqing suddenly remembered something.

“I forgot to introduce her. This is my dormmate.”

The other girl, named He Xian, also had a lovely appearance, her bright eyes sparkling with vitality.

After a brief greeting, Pei Yanqing was quickly pulled away to continue shopping, and their conversation drifted over.

“You didn’t exaggerate this time.”

“Of course, I didn’t.”

“Someone as handsome as him stood you up? Seriously?”

“Why would I lie to you? I saw with my own eyes how he finished an entire table of food by himself.”

“I can’t think of anyone who would be so heartless… Wait, you didn’t specifically come all this way to buy stuff hoping to run into him, did you?”

“What do you think I am, a psychic? To predict that I’d bump into him here.”

…

Watching the two walk away, Fu Qian posed in thought.

This He Xian had thought of the same question as him.

Lincheng University was neither close nor too far away from here, with several places to buy groceries in between. There indeed was no need to come all this way specifically.

Pei Yanqing’s response seemed very natural, with no trace of a guilty conscience, and that was precisely the concern.

If she intended to find him to express gratitude, that would be normal. The fear was that she might not even be aware of the real issue, having subconsciously chosen this place.

Key is, she had also happened to run into him. It all seemed a bit too coincidental.

Had his existence begun to exert some special influence over this world?

Such matters held no interest for him.

Nevertheless, since she was a victim of his own oversight, he might as well lend a hand.

Shaking his head inwardly, Fu Qian grabbed a pack of cola from the shelf and casually tossed it outward.

Following a perfect parabola, the cola hit a young man passing by the two girls squarely, knocking him to the ground.

Caught completely off guard, the young man rolled on the ground from the forceful impact.

Pei Yanqing and He Xian were startled and instinctively moved to help, but the man swiftly got up and ran away.