Chapter 209: Yang Qiu's day off

December 22, 2019, Earth time, was the winter solstice.

At noon that day, Yang Qiu returned to Earth to take a shower and change clothes. When he connected his phone to the internet, he found many messages on the social media app from his elder sister Yang Ying and his mother, urging him to return home.

According to Earth time, Yang Qiu, the sixteen-year-old boy who dropped out of high school and "ran away from home" to pursue his dream of becoming a "game producer," had been missing from his mom and sister for more than four months.

Although Yang Qiu had been communicating with his elder sister on social software and even used a voice changer (his voice was too different from that of a sixteen-year-old boy) to talk to his mother on the phone, his family's patience had apparently reached its limit after more than four months of delay. His mother even sternly asked him whether he had been deceived into joining a pyramid scheme and said that if he dared not even come home for the winter solstice, she would call the police.

There was no other choice, so Yang Qiu had to open the door and return to the other world. Not long after, he returned to Earth carrying a half-finished alchemical puppet.

Well, this thing was certainly not a proper alchemical creation, but a crude imitation alchemical puppet made by Yang Qiu using the materials handed in by players.

A human skeleton was found in the valley where the three thousand players" "game characters" were dug up. The internal organs and fat were replaced with the roots and stems of the large-leaf vines left after the leaves were harvested (this thing had the ability to conduct magic power). The muscle tissue was replaced with the flocculent residue left after the magic essence was taken from the magic materials handed in by the players (this thing had a certain elasticity).

The most "expensive" part was the simulated skin of the Imitation Alchemical Golem – it was made of the slime monster skin diligently collected by solo players.

When there were no large-scale events, not all players were willing to form large groups to kill monsters or complete quests. Many players who liked to play on their own still liked to go to the mining maps that could be played alone. If it were not for the fact that sandworms and slime monsters were low-level monsters that could be quickly born due to the turbid magic power in the area, the mining maps might have been long since cleared out for these players.

Yang Qiu had only opened the mining area as a monster spawning map for over a month, but the sandworm meat he had collected from the zombie NPCs had already filled several warehouses, and he had also collected a lot of slime monster skins.

Sandworm meat was an excellent feed ingredient, and it had low moisture content and was durable, so it could be stored for several years without any problem. The skin of the slime monster was more troublesome, as it tended to become brittle after being stored for a long time, and thus had no value as an alchemical material.

At first, Yang Qiu wanted to sell this thing to an alchemist, but he did not expect that because of his arrival in Weisshem, all the spellcasters in Indhal packed up their things and ran away, which was very embarrassing.

Seeing that the stored slime monster skin had become brittle, Yang Qiu had to try to refine it himself.

Relying on the half-baked alchemical knowledge that he heard from others, he actually made a simulated puppet skin that looked like the real thing, but it was extremely labor-intensive, and it took thousands of slime monster skins to extract enough for a humanoid puppet. The quality was not very good, and it would break if scratched or rubbed. In short, it was not as sturdy and durable as the legendary alchemical puppets.

At this point, the idea of "opening up new races" to players and replacing skeleton game characters with self-made puppets could be completely abandoned – the high cost was one thing, but the game characters of the "new races" were more fragile than the old races, and they were easily injured, killed, and kicked offline. Players would truly criticize the planners to the sky.

The "new race" plan was canceled, but the crudely made trial-produced alchemical puppets could be recycled at this juncture.

Next, Yang Qiu turned on the computer and used the PC to open his sister's Penguin Space, found a photo of himself in his youth, and then used the photo to shape the puppet's face.

It took two hours to shape the puppet into the appearance of Yang Qiu in his youth, put clothes on the puppet, and then add a spiritual imprint in the puppet's chest. It was done!

After taking a look at the sky outside, Yang Qiu quickly took a shower, changed his clothes, stuffed the puppet into his space ring, and went out.

The moment he stepped into the suburban rental house, at least three pairs of secret eyes were focused on him.

Yang Qiu pretended not to notice anything and went to the small noodle restaurant where he usually ate noodles and ordered a bowl of spicy chicken noodles. He also borrowed the toilet while the boss was cooking the noodles.

The restaurant's toilet window faced a back alley. There were usually not many people in this alley, and the surveillance camera was only installed at the corner at the other end.

Taking advantage of the time to go to the toilet, he threw "Young Yang Qiu" into the back street and quickly separated a part of his consciousness to connect with the modified mental imprint in the puppet's abdomen. After washing his hands, Yang Qiu returned to the lobby with a normal expression.

When the main character was sitting in the restaurant playing with his mobile phone, "Young Man Yang Qiu" suddenly appeared in the back street, moved his hands and feet, walked out of the alley, and walked towards the bus stop.

The national security personnel who were squatting on the side of the street pretending to be a fruit vendor and staring at Yang Qiu's true form, glanced at the young boy Yang Qiu who walked out of the alley and then paid no more attention to him. There was nothing to pay attention to about a kid in a school uniform.

On the afternoon of the winter solstice, when the young boy Yang Qiu returned home, his mother and sister grabbed his ears and scolded him for more than an hour. His mother cried while scolding him.

Yang Qiu, who was remotely controlling the situation in a suburban house, had to be thankful that he was not the one who went home – if his mother saw that her son had turned from a young boy into a middle-aged man after just a few months, she would probably be spit blood on the spot.

This simulated alchemy puppet had the same attributes as the game characters controlled by the players. When there was no one controlling it, it was almost the same as a corpse. Although he felt sorry for his mother, Yang Qiu did not dare to agree to go home, let alone agree to his mother's request to go back to school, study hard, and get into a good university. The puppet weighed only two-thirds of a normal person's weight, had no heartbeat or pulse, and even if the skin was scratched, not a drop of blood would flow out. If it was accidentally exposed someday, the person who found it would be scared to death!

After finally getting away from home, Yang Qiu went out to eat a bowl of noodles and took back the puppet, then returned to the other world.

As soon as he "went online" at the City Lord's Mansion in the central city of Indhal, Yang Qiu received a request from the "Online GM" to exchange service time for a game account.

"These two brothers are so dedicated," Yang Qiu could not help but sigh, and turned back to Earth to distribute helmets.

The purpose of developing the two old brothers who stayed in Exile Town into online GMs was to save trouble. The two old revolutionaries did not disappoint Yang Qiu"s expectations. They kept a close eye on the group of idiots and did not let the players cause any big trouble. For this, Yang Qiu was willing to exchange the helmets. 

After distributing the helmets, Yang Qiu returned to the other world. Before he could sit down to meditate, Rex came to him again in a hurry.

"Lowell wants to return to the Principality of Shiga?" Yang Qiu said with a strange look on his face.

"Yes, he sent a message from the post office." Rex said, "Yang, do you want to go back to Weisshem to see him?"

"Well... he must be quite stimulated." Yang Qiu said, touching his chin.

The fact that the Undead army took over the city of Indhal in just two days was indeed a significant event for the natives. Brother Lowell, the older intellectual, was obviously unsettled. After that, no matter how Yang Qiu invited him, he refused to come to the city and kept staying in Weisshem, reflecting on the situation.

Rex and Lowell had a good personal relationship, and Yang Qiu's leisurely attitude made him very anxious: "Yang, the monk may just be in a bad mood for the time being. I don't think he really wants to return home. You may not know that the monk is very curious about what kind of changes the undead can bring to the world. He always tries to understand the policies implemented by Ji Tang and Ms. Zhao in Weisshem in his own way, and has exchanged ideas with me many times in private-"

"Calm down, young man. I also cherish my friendship with him." Yang Qiu pressed his hand towards Rex soothingly and stood up resignedly. "Wait here for a while."

In front of Rex, he opened a space-time rift and returned to Earth. Taking with him the "little gift" that he had prepared long ago for the older literary youths, Yang Qiu returned to the alien world again.

"Ask the people at the post office to help bring this to Brother Lowell." Yang Qiu sat down on the sofa and threw the gift to Rex tiredly. "He won't leave before he finishes reading it. After he finishes reading it, he will definitely not leave. Don't worry."

Rex took it subconsciously, took a closer look, and found that... this red-covered book had three huge undead characters on the cover.

Through the translation function of the matrix, Rex recognized the undead writing on the cover as... "Jin Mei".

"A name I've never seen before? Is this a novel?" Rex wanted to open it.

"Hey, you can 't read it." Yang Qiu raised his hand to stop him. "Only Lowell can read this book."

Rex quickly closed the book and asked in surprise: "Is this a banned book?"

"Well... I guess so." Yang Qiu looked around and said something else.

The so-called banned books in this world referred to books related to the occult... works that contain specific texts with potentially unsettling themes, explore controversial religious or philosophical ideas, or depict disturbing or graphic content.

In a sense, the book "Jin Mei" could be considered unconventional – especially for an idealist like Rex who was compassionate to the world.

It delved into the complexities of human nature and explored the darker aspects of society. While some might find it unsettling, it can also be a powerful tool for reflection and understanding.

Rex didn"t understand why Yang Qiu wanted to give this book to Lowell, but he didn"t fully grasp the nuances of their relationship. He found a box to put the book in and locked it to prevent the postman from reading it out of curiosity, and then left with the book.

After sending Rex away, Yang Qiu quickly closed and locked the door, saying that he was determined to meditate immediately and that no one could stop him!

And then… before he even touched the sofa in the living room, he sensed the warning message sent by the "Online GM" through GM authority.

"Why are there so many things going on today?!"

Yang Qiu immersed himself in the matrix angrily, while Lao Geng, who had been brushing the online service time, transferred the attention of the high-risk players, who he thought were difficult to handle with his GM authority, to Yang Qiu, the administrator.

Yang Qiu looked carefully and almost laughed out loud.

The group of players who had been squatting in Indhal City for half a month (in another world time) were no longer satisfied with just scribbling on the inner city walls when there were not many residents around, and ran to the southern city area to find a civilian area that they thought was full of "street style" and started to perform their unrestrained artistic expression.

From Yang Qiu's perspective, he saw a player covered in paint "creating" on the wall of a residential building, painting a dog's head on the street-facing wall that had just been whitewashed with lime. The owner and his family stood by, clearly displeased.

Yang Qiu gave an order to the newly appointed sheriff (deputy) Jimmy with an expressionless face.

After being observed for a long time before obtaining the formal qualification... Jimmy, who was qualified to enter the matrix, immediately led his men straight to the South City residential area.

When the security guards dragged away the player who was painting on the walls of residential houses, the player was still struggling: "Wait, I"m not finished yet! I still need a few more details!""