N-A-A Chapter 1 The Old House
Chapter 1 The Old House
Holy crap, this game is amazing!
[It's just like those VR or metaverse games. The moment I stepped inside, I was completely dumbfounded. The lighting, the physics engine, and it even has five senses! What kind of cutting-edge technology is this?!]
In the back of the bus, Jiang Yuan sank back into the seat and leaned his head against the window while scrolling through his phone.
[Traitorous dog: What VR metaverse? It's called Spirit Realm!]
[Strawberry Yakult: Is there any older brother who can teach me how to play? ~ (Image: White stockings absolute territory.jpg)]
[One slash and I'm down: Mom, message me privately!]
[Going up the mountain to fight the tiger: OP is stupid, did you really think this was a normal game?]
……
The icon is two overlapping rings, gray background with white text, and it's for a software called "Oracle," which Jiang Yuan suddenly discovered.
Not touching things of unknown origin is a basic skill for modern college students surfing.
He was originally going to uninstall it directly, but when he saw the three-digit balance in his account, he suddenly became fearless and wanted to try the salty flavor.
After clicking in, I found it was just a game forum.
The post titles on the forum's homepage are getting more and more outrageous, such as "[Who should I ask for an antidote if I get bitten by a snake while squatting in the wild?]" and "What should I do if I get diarrhea from drinking cold stream water?"
He was stunned by what he saw.
I clicked on another post at random.
How do I defeat the Stone-skinned Lizards in the western ice plains? I've been stuck for three days!
The poster said that he encountered a "stone-skinned lizard" on the second level of the mine. It was nearly two meters long and covered with a hard, grayish-brown leather armor. Ordinary iron swords could not even leave a white mark when they hit it.
He tried to withstand the attack head-on with a shield, but was swept away three meters away by a tail, instantly losing half his life.
He tried flanking and ambushing, tried using torches to drive them away... He's been stuck in this spot for three whole days, logging off again shortly after each resurrection.
[I'm really out of ideas, please give me a guide!]
It's written so realistically... Jiang Yuan read it with great interest.
But he knew it was fake.
He had just searched for this game called "Oracle" online.
Apart from this forum, no one outside has mentioned it at all.
There's no official website, no download link, and you can't even find a screenshot.
"Could it be a beta game that hasn't been released yet? They've been hyping it up so much, but I haven't seen anywhere to download it..."
Jiang Yuan muttered to himself as he continued scrolling down.
[Night Rain's Annoying Voice: Stone-skinned Lizard? Brother, where are you? I'm still outsmarting that little beetle.]
[Innocent Young Man: I worship the master! Give me your contact information, I'll follow you if the game comes to life!]
Jiang Yuan chuckled, "You're talking about games coming to life? Your most pressing task is to uninstall Qidian novels."
Not only are the people on this forum all incredibly imaginative, speaking with such conviction as if they've experienced it firsthand, but they're also full of humor.
Suddenly, my phone vibrated, and the incoming call screen popped up.
Jiang Yuan glanced at the caller ID on the screen, and his smile faded.
"Feed".
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Jiang Yuan? This is Anxin Asset Disposal Company. We're here regarding the self-built property under your father Jiang Guoping's name located in the suburbs of Songhai City—"
"Didn't we just call yesterday?" Jiang Yuan couldn't help but interrupt.
"Excuse me, sir, this is to check the latest situation with you." The female voice on the other end of the phone was polite but mechanical.
"The current outstanding amount, including interest, is 980,000 yuan. If you can pay 10%, we can apply for a special extension of repayment for you."
Even 10% is nearly 100,000 yuan... Jiang Yuan felt somewhat powerless.
He's a recent college graduate with only a three-digit balance; where is he supposed to find 100,000 yuan?
"...I have no money."
"Yes, sir." The woman's tone remained unchanged.
"Let me let you know in advance that the assessor will be coming to inspect the house next Wednesday. Is there anything else in the house that you need to remove beforehand? It will be inconvenient once the locks are changed."
Jiang Yuan remained silent for two seconds.
"I see."
After hanging up the phone, he placed it face down on his lap, turned his head to the side, and silently watched the scenery outside the window recede into the distance.
When my mother was in high school, she was persuaded by her so-called best friend to start a business.
He not only squandered his family fortune but also mortgaged his old house, losing everything.
The person disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a mountain of debt.
His father single-handedly supported the family's expenses and paid for his education.
He saved up all his tuition fees for university by working part-time during his spare time, trying to ask his family for as little money as possible.
But he really didn't want to sell this ancestral home.
The crooked jujube tree in the yard could yield a large basin of red dates every autumn. The comic books and glass marbles hidden in the attic represented his entire childhood.
The rattan rocking chair that my grandfather always sat in in the main room was more comfortable than air conditioning in the summer when the breeze blew on it.
I can't bear to part with any of them.
But what's the use of being reluctant to part with it? The 980,000 yuan hole is there, and he can't fill it.
"I wish there really was such a game." This thought suddenly popped into Jiang Yuan's mind.
After all, barring any unforeseen circumstances, his life was predictable and his future was already set.
Find an ordinary job, marry an ordinary wife, raise ordinary children, and live an ordinary, mundane life.
Like most passengers on this bus, like the vast majority of people in this city.
It's impossible for him not to yearn for the otherworldly adventures fantasized about by those netizens on the forum.
"Unfortunately, I'm not like the netizens on this forum; I don't even have the talent to use my inner demons." Jiang Yuan sighed softly and put his phone back in his pocket.
As the bus drove away from Songhai city, the buildings outside the window gradually turned into low-rise factories, and then into vast stretches of farmland.
It was noon, the sun was high in the sky, and the ridges of the paddy fields were bleached white by the sun. Occasionally, a few birds would fly up from the paddy fields and slowly skim past the car window.
When they reached the final stop, he was the only passenger left in the carriage.
Jiang Yuan got up and got out of the car, his shoes making a dull thud as they stepped onto the compacted yellow mud road.
A wave of heat hit us, and the air was filled with the scent of dry, grassy grass.
He squinted, then walked along the path he remembered for about ten minutes until the outline of the old house emerged from behind the trees.
It looks older than I remember.
The stone base of the courtyard wall was covered with moss, and several tiles on the top of the wall had fallen off.
The peeling iron gate was ajar, and a few clumps of foxtail grass peeked out from the crack, swaying gently in the evening breeze.
I reached out and pushed the door, and the hinges creaked and rustled.
A single-story wooden house, covering an area of 300 square meters, stands quietly at the end of the courtyard.
The weeds in the yard have grown up to knee-high. A few unidentified wildflowers bloom in the corner of the wall, small and white, in clusters.
The crooked jujube tree is still there, but its branches and leaves are sparser than I remember. The ground under the tree is covered with dried jujubes from last year, and no one is picking them up.
Jiang Yuan stood under the jujube tree for a while.
My maternal grandfather passed away five years ago, and my maternal grandmother also passed away not long ago.
His mother and he had moved to a rented house in the city long ago, and this old house had been empty for many years.
This time he came back not only to tidy up and see what he wanted to take with him, but also to take one last good look at this old house.
As you walk through the courtyard and push open the door to the main room, a strong smell of wood that has been there for years hits you.
The furnishings inside the house remained the same as before.
On the dresser sat my grandfather's enamel mug, white with red lettering that read "Labor is Glorious." A faded, old-fashioned calendar hung on the wall.
Jiang Yuan's gaze swept across the main room. The rattan rocking chair was still there, but it was covered with a thick layer of dust.
He walked toward the basement behind the kitchen.
The basement entrance was in the corner of the kitchen, covered by a heavy wooden board with a half-bag of cement that had been sitting there for who knows how long.
When I was a child, my grandfather never let me go into the basement. He always said that it was damp inside and that children would get sick if they went in.
He sneaked in twice, only remembering that it was full of junk and nothing special. Later, his grandfather found out and he inevitably got a beating.
He never went down there again after that.
Jiang Yuan bent down and moved the bag of cement aside.
The cement was very heavy, making the wooden board creak. He gripped the edge of the board and pulled hard.
The moment the cover was lifted, a cloud of accumulated dust rushed up, choking him and causing him to sneeze twice.
The dust tumbled in the slanting sunlight, like golden mist.
Jiang Yuan fanned his nose, waited a moment, then turned on his phone's flashlight and walked down the narrow wooden stairs step by step.
The ladder creaked and groaned when stepped on.
The beam of the flashlight swept across the dusty old tables and chairs, across the piles of old newspapers, across the sewing machine with a missing leg, across the boxes of yellowed old books...
These were probably left behind because people were too lazy to move them.
The beam of light suddenly stopped.
In the corner, a wooden box sat quietly.
The dark red lacquer finish is simple and unadorned, without any carvings or decorations.
But amidst this pile of clutter, it inexplicably exudes a sense of weight and solidity that only old objects possess, as if it had been forgotten for many years.
Jiang Yuan was stunned for a moment.
He had absolutely no recollection of the box.
He had searched the basement thoroughly on both occasions, but didn't remember having such a thing.
"Did Grandpa put it in later?" He bent down and picked up the box.
It felt heavy in my hand, much heavier than it looked, like something was wrapped inside the wood.
The lid wasn't locked; it opened easily with a gentle lift.
Inside lay a section of a human finger bone.
The translucent crystal texture, when illuminated by a flashlight, seems to reveal a faint, deep, dark pattern.
"A craft?" Jiang Yuan asked curiously as he fished it out and flipped it over.
The finger bone felt heavy in my palm, with a cool sensation against my skin.
Just as he was about to get closer to take a look, the chill suddenly changed.
It was as if something had awakened deep within the joints.
A molten golden substance emerged from the finger bone, suddenly emitting a fierce golden light!
The light, like a star, spread in an instant.
Jiang Yuan felt a chill run down his spine, and only one word, "Holy shit," flashed through his mind.
In the next instant, a golden oval halo two zhang high formed in the blink of an eye, engulfing his entire body.
Jiang Yuan felt his vision was filled with golden light, and he couldn't see anything clearly.
Immediately afterwards, the ground beneath my feet gave way to emptiness.
He suddenly plummeted downwards.
The feeling of weightlessness seemed to last only a moment. When he regained his senses and saw the scene before him, he was stunned.
What comes into view is no longer the cramped basement.
Instead, it was a dark and spacious cave.
The stalactites overhead were jagged and interlocking, and the faint light shining from somewhere enveloped the entire space in a hazy, ethereal blue.
The air was cool and carried the smell of rocks and water.
In the distance, a hiss of an unknown creature could be heard.
Deep and lingering.
……