Huipao and the others left first to find somewhere to eat. Though there were plenty of restaurants nearby, the shadowdagger(?) guild didn't trust NPC areas. They had brought in their own food, system bought and packaged, and had been eating that for a while now. Ah'Ming shrugged.
Their loss, since the restaurants here were really, really good.
He passed by the receptionist again. "Hi, Jiejie!" He beamed. With a smile on her face as well, the receptionist waved back. Ah'Ming walked for a while, but got bored really fast.
Over in the corner was a cleaner NPC. The thing is... He seemed slightly different to the other NPCs Ah'Ming had seen. For one thing, the man was older. He seemed to carry a different aura, one slightly more dangerous.
It was worth investigating.
Ah'Ming trailed him, and saw him weave past buildings. They (Not that the old man knew Ah'Ming was there) traversed through alleyways, and into a clearing near some trees. There was an old style pavilion in the center, red wood and black eaves.
The man kneeled, and lit some incense. The scent was thick and cloying, clogging Ah'Ming's throat.
He proceeded to just sit there... slumped. Ah'Ming padded closer. Seeing no reaction, he poked the old man. Still no reaction.
Hmm.
Could it be the incense was a sort of sedative? But it wasn't affecting Ah'Ming, so not likely. Maybe it transported the user's soul to somewhere else? The body didn't follow, obviously.
Perhaps this other place would be the alternate world that Ah'Ming had been looking for for so long.
He reached over, and took some incense. What was it again? Three for spirits, four for demons? it wasn't as though he prayed or used incense regularly. Or ever.
Sneaking a peak over at the old man's, he noticed that the old man had used four. Ominous. Still, Ah'Ming lit four and stuck them in the brazier. He copied the old man's position, and closed his eyes.
Nothing happened.
He continued kneeling there, confused. Where was the teleporta---
WHACK.
Ah'Ming reeled back, confused.
He blinked his eyes open, to see an old auntie there. What? Where had she come from?
Oh, wow. He had indeed been transported. The trees around the pavilion, once green, were now red. Crimson red, to be exact.
The old lady, seeing that Ah'Ming was leaving now, was satisfied and left grumbling. "Stupid tourists. Burning paper for fun… you people don't even know who it's for."
Paper?
Ah'Ming looked back, and yes... the incense that he'd burned had turned into a strange form of paper money. It wasn't normal paper coins, but a strange type of red rectangle. He grabbed some of it that hadn't lit yet, and stuck it into one of his pockets.
"Sorry, AYi." He bowed, and ran.
The old ladies were very scary.
The entire way around, he could only notice how different it was. Many of the resort's buildings were missing, and there were small village houses instead. There were still some shops, but they were shops owned by normal people, not massive corporations.
Construction sites ran rampant. There was a heavy cloud of dust weighing in the air. It was clear that the shop's ownership would change soon.
There were also a lot of outsiders. None were players... Yet none were NPCs. At least, not the ones that Ah'Ming could recognise. What? What else could there be?
The original inhabitants? But the system was meant to have cleared them out, no?
Ah'Ming's eyes narrowed. He followed a family into a shop that sold paper talismans. These red papers were stuck everywhere, from walls to roofs to even tables. They were made of the same type of paper as the paper money, but all the symbols were different.
All the stuff inside was junk, and Ah'Ming couldn't feel any power from them at all. The paper talismans were empty, the lanterns couldn't even withstand any wind. Disgusted, he left the store.
For some reason, the next was the same. It also had talismans, but these were geared more towards burial ones. The whole shop was washed in red, matching the town exactly. The proprietor of the store was half asleep, dozing on a rickety old chair behind the counter. Ah'Ming rifled through some of the shelves, and saw an old flyer in the background.
Contact +44 444 444 To buy the Complete Compendium of Spirits today! Learn the secrets of ghost quelling! JiangShi taming! Gu raising!
Ah'Ming blinked at it. This would be really useful... if he had a phone. Unfortunately, Aliya (the rat person who sold technology) would only be able to deliver the gauntlets in two days. Wow, time really passed by fast.
It also meant that Ah'Ming only had two days left to solve the main story. His determination was once again resolved.
Seeing that the talismans were useless, he made his way over to the proprietor of the store. "Hi, excuse me? I'd like to ask about the town. Has anything interesting or ghost-like happened recently?"
He ignored the system panel that popped up, warning him about his actions.
The proprietor nearly fell out of his chair, disgruntled from being woken up. "Snrk? Oh. Ah, you're a tourist I see!" The man made some movements with his hands, looking like a fly. "Sorry, I can't remember much about the town." He said, his eyes gleaming.
Expressionlessly, Ah'Ming took out $20 and handed it to the man. His eyes bulged, massively. Whoops. Ah'Ming had forgotten that this was probably back in time, before the resort was built. There must have been inflation, so this $20 was probably worth a lot.
Immediately, the man's expression was one like a rat, sweet and sickening. "Apologies, patron sir! I just remembered, the old man from the funeral shop died? That's about it."
Ah'Ming tilted his head.
"Is that why you've decided to also sell burial talismans?"
"Psh, of course! The stickler wouldn't let anyone 'disrespect the arts' when he was alive, so everyone's taking the opportunity right now! It's a booming economy, sir!"
Wow, this man was greasy. No wonder this town came to ruin, if everyone was similar. Ah'Ming nodded, and left the shop to the proprietor's dismay.
Lanterns, red and bloody, hung from every eave. If Ah'Ming hadn't been half colorblind already, the monochrome would have seared his eyelids into seeing nothing but green permanently.
A few children, screaming in happiness and holding wind chimes, sprinted past him. They were giggling, which brought a smile to Ah'Ming's face. One of the children looked familiar. A girl, around ten years old?
Oh well.
Ah'Ming tried to find other places, but then was barred from entering both the library and the mayor's mansion because of his lack of credentials. He frowned.
Why couldn't the system give him an identity?
|Broadcaster is outside of system-controlled land
Oh.
Well, that explained it.
"Hey, we should go check out the funeral man's workshop! We should have our pictures taken there!" It was a voice that Ah'Ming heard from the other side of the road. The proprietor's words came back to the forefront of Ah'Ming's mind.
This seemed worth investigating.
He tailed them as well, trying to stick to the shadows.
They walked to this house... that was covered in bad quality posters. All were advertising what this workshop was, who owned it, and the customs here. Ah'Ming felt bad for the late funeral shop owner. He had been turned into a mockery, his workshop turned into a gift shop.
Ah'Ming stepped inside, greeted by hundreds of bad quality figurines and knocked off talismans. His nose wrinkled. There were ads for premium tours of some of the workplaces, but the main workshop was off limits to outsiders.
Whatever.
He kicked through the barricade, hearing screaming from some of the tourists.
He walked into the shop.