Oak Town

[You've died.]

[Life Simulation Evaluation: F]

[Rewards: 1 Origin Point]

A transparent system prompt flashed in front of Fang Yuan's eyes, but he didn't have the time to care about it.

Instead, he leaned back on the chair and his body trembled continuously, as if he was having a stroke.

Tears flowed out of his eyes and his vision became a little blurry, while his body started burning.

All of the aforementioned things reminded him of his last moments in the simulation and if he didn't know any better, he would have thought that he had yet to return to reality.

However, even if the familiar antique shop proved that his current feelings were just an illusion, Fang Yuan had trouble calming down.

As he gasped for air, he closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind, but the pair of indifferent eyes remained deeply engraved on his mind, making him slightly distracted.

It took a few minutes for Fang Yuan's tense body to relax and the pair of eyes to disappear.

After all, although it was just a simulation and it couldn't be considered a real death, it was the first time that he had actually "died".

"Why? Why did that woman kill 'me' and all the other people?"

Fang Yuan couldn't help but wonder, but no matter how much he searched for an answer to this question, he couldn't find a suitable reason.

It was impossible that the smiling woman just chose to kill a few people for fun, right?

In the end, he could only shake his head and stop thinking about it, knowing that he would not be able to get a concrete answer with the information that was currently available to him.

[Name: Fang Yuan]

[Occupation: Antique Shop Owner]

[Skills: Antique Appraisal]

[Simulations: Beggar(1/3)]

[Origin Points: 1]

When Fang Yuan looked at the system panel, he discovered that two big changes had taken place.

First of all, his Origin Points had increased, and with the contents of the previous system prompt in mind, the way to obtain Origin Points became clear to him.

While he was happy about this "discovery", his eyes landed on the [Simulations] column and looked at the second big change.

Inside the brackets of the [Beggar] simulation, the number had changed from 0 to 1, allowing Fang Yuan to guess something.

"The amount of times I can enter each simulation seems to be limited."

"It's just that I don't know whether I only have three chances for each simulation, or the number of chances depends on the simulation itself."

After he took a look at these changes, Fang Yuan had an urge to continue simulating, but after some thought, he decided against it.

The feeling of dying was still fresh on his mind and most importantly, a red light passed through the antique shop's window and fell on his face, meaning that the time for him to leave the shop had come.

The moon in this world was quite similar to the Moon back on Earth, except that it was red instead of gray and it was slightly bigger.

Even though half a year had passed since he awakened his past life's memories, Fang Yuan had still not become used to this change and always had a feeling that something was off about it.

After he cleaned a few things up, Fang Yuan opened the door and stepped outside, before locking the door behind him tightly.

Then, he made sure that he didn't forget anything and started walking.

As a small town of this era, an era of low productivity, most buildings of Oak Town were built using timber and stone and they were very small in size, many times smaller than the buildings that he had been used to seeing on Earth.

The stone pavement on the streets of the town had been broken and was almost nonexistent, and it would be very difficult for any type of vehicle to pass through this place.

Perhaps because of the late hour, the streets were empty, and there was no light inside the houses, meaning that most people had already gone to sleep.

Fang Yuan's steps were pretty quick and since the town was quite small, he soon found himself close to his home.

However, his steps suddenly paused and he took a step back, before turning his head to look inside a dark alley.

A faint breathing came from inside this alley and rang in his ears, and Fang Yuan could see that there was a thin figure lying on the ground, with their body curled up.

Instantly, he understood that this figure was a beggar who was somewhat known in this part of the Oak Town.

At any other time, Fang Yuan would have just walked past him without paying much attention to him, but when he recalled his experience in the simulation, he let out a sigh and took a bronze coin out of his pocket, then threw it into the empty wooden bowl that lay on the ground.

Before the beggar could say anything, he had already walked away.

Even though Fang Yuan was a little emotional, he didn't make any great promise to solve world hunger nor was he suddenly filled with compassion.

In fact, Fang Yuan knew his own character very well.

It was fine for him to help other people, but that was if doing so wouldn't negatively affect him.

If helping other people proved to be detrimental to himself, he would never do it.

Fang Yuan put his hands into his pockets to resist the cold, and soon, he forgot about his previous impulsive actions.

Before long, he finally arrived at his residence and after using a key to unlock the door, he stepped inside.

This house, which was left behind by his missing parents, was close to the center of Oak Town and was located in what would be considered a high-level area where only wealthy people had the ability to live.

Even then, the house was made out of stone and only had a few rooms, being just large enough to accommodate a family of three.

Of course, now that his parents had gone missing, it was more than enough for Fang Yuan to live in.

Fang Yuan used a match to light an oil lamp that stood next to the door and its light instantly drove away the darkness, revealing the house's interior.

It was relatively empty and there were only a few wooden furniture in it, but it was decorated with all kinds of strange antiques.

Dark paintings, huge mirrors, worn-out books, jewellery, broken clocks, etc..

The antiques were everywhere, covering almost every inch of the house.

Whether it was before he awakened his memories or now, Fang Yuan had always felt that this decoration was actually very creepy.

Especially when he looked at a painting that depicted a dark humanoid creature that hung on the wall of the living room, he became inexplicably panicked.

Every time he stared at this painting, he would have the illusion that the creature in the painting was staring right back at him, sending a shiver down his spine.

"I should get rid of all these damn things! Otherwise, I'll go crazy sooner or later.", Fang Yuan thought and made the decision to sell these things as soon as possible.

At this time of the day, Fang Yuan would usually be getting ready to go to sleep, but tonight, he didn't follow his usual routine.

Instead, he started opening the drawers and rummaging inside, as if he was searching for something.

Half an hour later, Fang Yuan looked at the items that lay on the table, and with a thought of his mind, he chose to enter the simulation.

It's just that, unlike last time, this time he didn't immediately enter the simulation, but a system prompt appeared in front of him.

[You have 1 Origin Point.]

[You can consume Origin Points to bring certain items into the Life Simulation.]

[Current Options:]

[Option 1: A Rusty Sword(2 Origin Points)]

[Option 2: A Small Dagger(2 Origin Points)]

[Option 3: A Wooden Hammer(2 Origin Points)]

[...]

[Option 9: A Box of Matches(1 Origin Point)]

Looking at the price of each item, the face of Fang Yuan couldn't help but darken.

He had spent so much time and searched all over the house to find these items, and had even made various plans for how he was going to use them inside the simulation.

But now, his dreams were shattered.

The only item that he could afford in the whole list was the box of matches, which was completely useless.

"Is this the feeling of poverty?", Fang Yuan thought.

Obviously, the 1 Origin Point he received from the last simulation was not as valuable as he was expecting.

In the end, he made a decision and chose to bring the box of matches into the simulation, thinking that even if this Origin Point was spent, it wouldn't matter.

The next moment, the somewhat familiar feeling of the whole world spinning came and his vision suddenly went dark.