Cane entered the Valley of Nothingness without much delay. As the name suggested, there was nothing here, not even enemies to fight or herbs to gather.
It was just a vast expanse of sand and nothing more.
And where in this desert place could a quest spawn? And just how was one supposed to find that without external information?
The simple answer was—they were not supposed to find this quest, ever. And that was why this quest was still available to Cane.
[LazyWriter: Oh-! Is that the Valley of Nothingness? Are we going to waste time today?]
[HaremKingXXX: Is today's stream boring? Can I leave now?]
More and more people complained about Cane's current location and what he was doing there. They wanted him to leave and continue the main quest.
But there was only one problem with this—Cane had never triggered the main story quest because he had never been able to enter the adventurer's tavern.
He had tried to do that in his free time, but because of his "NPC" class, he had never been welcomed.
"Well, why don't you all calm down? I am going to show you something never seen before."
Cane told his audience, and most scoffed and made fun of him for his choices.
[Shura: Sure, go ahead and make a fool of yourself. But if you truly manage to find something here, I will gift you 100 dollars.]
Cane got the message, but he did not get too excited. Too many people promised to give him things, but they never delivered. It was just a way to get his attention.
He walked toward the huge rock, the only landmark of the desert, before he attacked it. He took some damage because of it, but he continued to attack it.
Just before his HP died down, he took a potion to regain his strength. His arms and his hands hurt due to constant punching, but he did not give up.
Cane knew that if he gave up now, then all his hard work would be for nothing. Since he had already suffered this much, he could take it.
[Shura: Woah-! The streamer has gone mad. Give it up, dude. You don't want to be the first person in this game to die from punching a rock and taking damage.]
Cane ignored that message. Not only was that message not useful to him, but it was also factually wrong.
He was sure people had died from punching a rock in this game before. Heck, he had died more than a few times doing this during beta. But in his defense, he had been trying to find any glitches.
Not that he was going to admit that fact.
[LoserWinner: Too late for that. Our streamer had died too many times from that. Just look at some beta footage.]
'Tsk, no secret can be kept for too long. Darn internet.'
Cane focused his irritation on punching the rock. He could tell that he was close to triggering the required quest.
And just as his HP hit one and he took out another potion, it happened. An NPC came running toward Cane.
The old man huffed to catch his breath before he looked at Cane.
"Y-You-! What do you think you are doing to our sacred rock? You are…not dead yet? How-!"
The NPC sounded bewildered as he clutched Cane's shoulder. He turned Cane around to look at his back and front before he pulled himself together and calmed himself down.
"Since you are alright, even after hitting the rock for so long, I can only take it as divine intervention. Do you have anything you wish to show me to confirm who you are?"
The old man asked, and Cane paused. He did not have anything…
Well, he did have one thing he could try to show—the golden ball he had gotten from his first mission. His gaming intuition told him that it was time.
So Cane opened his inventory to take the item out.
"I don't know about anything else, but will this do as proof?"
He handed over the golden ball, and the old man looked surprised as his hand touched it.
"This is…ah yes-! This is it-! It's a sacred seed of the gods. But how do you…? Never mind-! There is no point in thinking about it. Since you have this seed, you must be the one chosen by our god. Please, pardon my behavior up until now. I was not aware who you were."
The old man told Cane as he bowed in front of him.
"No, it's fine. It was likely a coincidence that I picked up this golden ball. But I do want to know how to hatch it. Will you please tell me?"
Cane asked and quickly realized that he was getting off track.
"Before that, can you please tell me about the quest here? I wish to challenge the guardian deity of the valley and prove myself."
Cane came back to the main reason he was here.
No matter how excited he was to get more answers about what that golden ball was, his quest came first. He needed that pain-numbing skill at all costs.
The old man also seemed to realize this.
"Ah, of course-! You are more than welcome to challenge our guardian. We can postpone our talk about the god's seed after you are done with the guardian."
The old man agreed and led Cane toward the cave. Cane followed him while keeping an eye on the chat.
All he could see were questions as people kept asking him what he was doing and how he got the golden ball.
It seemed as if no one was aware of the beginner's quest.
[No#1Player: Hey you-! I will pay you any amount to tell me how you unlocked the golden ball. Was it a quest? How about you sell it to me? I will give you 1 million dollars for it.]
[BugControl: Fucking hell-! I know that the support told us this was not hacked, but I cannot believe it. How is all this possible in the first place? Surely it is hacking?]