MMPS Ch. 44

Chapter 44: Refinement

Zhao Ran held the sketchbook in his palm, dipping a squirrel-hair brush into oil paint as he recorded Yu An’s accomplishments on the canvas. His randomly assigned traveler role was that of a sketch artist, and his paint box was equipped with everything he needed.

Yu An, oblivious to Zhao Ran’s actions, bent over and focused on the muddy riverbed. His hands searched through the silt, carefully feeling for something hidden beneath. Eventually, his fingers brushed against a gleaming object. He wiped the grime off on his clothes, revealing the object’s true form.

Nearby, the faint sound of gurgling water grew louder. The carnivorous tadpoles, a writhing mass of black, moved with terrifying power. They had stripped the beggar’s corpse clean in moments. Now, the bloated swarm began its return journey. Yu An, still a step away from the shore, found himself squarely in their path.

Without warning, something tightened around his waist. An arm encircled him from behind, lifting him out of the water. A dizzying spin followed, and his feet barely managed to touch solid ground once more.

“Stop treating this like a game. If you get hurt, your brain could suffer permanent damage. Do you want to spend the rest of your life as a vegetable?” Zhao Ran released Yu An’s waist, his voice sharp with reprimand.

“You’re the one who thinks I’d get hurt, Ran-ge.” Yu An replied calmly. He stood with one hand at his side while the other clutched an infant wrapped tightly in a swaddle.

Yu An had calculated that the time it would take for the tadpoles to be distracted by the beggar might not be enough to retrieve the object safely. To ensure success, he had brought the infant into the water as a backup plan. If the tadpoles returned too soon, he planned to throw the baby to distract them, buying himself enough time to get back to the shore.

His gaze shifted to the gradebook in Zhao Ran’s hand. He frowned and asked: “You docked me two points? Why?”

Zhao Ran tapped Yu An’s forehead lightly with the handle of his brush: “For using a life to achieve your goal. What did I tell you last night?”

He wasn’t incapable of understanding emotions. He knew how to manipulate human nature to achieve deadly results, which was far more dangerous than simply being indifferent to life.

“I didn’t think NPCs had emotions.” Yu An said, tilting his head in genuine confusion. “I only tested it to see if beggars would be influenced by the baby and fall into the water.”

“I followed your instructions exactly.” Yu An continued, lifting the crying infant in its swaddle. “I killed the highway-robbing beggar and kept the child. It’s not too good, and it’s not too evil. Isn’t that balanced enough? Do we really need to care about the lives of virtual NPCs in a game?”

Zhao Ran hesitated, unsure how to respond. After a moment of consideration, he erased the two points he had deducted.

As Zhao Ran stood there, Yu An leaned close to his ear and spoke in a low, smug tone. “I treat living people the same way.”

Frustrated by Yu An’s defiance, Zhao Ran redocked the two points without a word. He turned on his heel and started walking away, not bothering to wait.

Yu An quickly followed, trying to take Zhao Ran’s hand.

Zhao Ran, lost in thought, was startled by the unexpected touch. His fingers were particularly sensitive, and his first instinct was to pull away.

Realizing it was only Yu An, Zhao Ran turned to glance at him. Yu An stood in the shadows of a low wall by the canal, biting his nail. His traveler’s cloak concealed most of his face, leaving only the pale, cold glow of his left eye visible in the darkness.

“Fine, fine.” Yu An muttered, stepping out of the shadows with a resigned expression. He cradled the crying infant in both hands and followed Zhao Ran. As he walked, he addressed the child in a lazy tone, “You win, you noisy little pixel block.”

In the game, the infant was just a small sprite. When magnified, it became clear that the developers hadn’t put much effort into its design. It was nothing more than a clump of rough, pixelated blocks. Still, it cried loudly enough to be a constant annoyance.

Zhao Ran shook his head, helpless against Yu An’s antics. The stern expression he had worn earlier softened despite himself.

“Ran-ge.” Yu An said idly, holding the infant up in both hands. “You remind me of my middle school homeroom teacher.”

“She was a beautiful girl, new to teaching, but she took her responsibilities way too seriously. Back then, the boys in our class used to smoke in secret. No matter how much she lectured them, they never stopped. When she got really upset, she’d cry at the podium.”

“Eventually, the boys smoked less. Not because they quit, but because they started hiding it better so she wouldn’t find out.”

“You still remember middle school?” Zhao Ran asked.

“I just happened to remember a little bit.” Yu An replied.

“What kind of emotions drive that sense of responsibility? I don’t get it.” Yu An’s gaze turned serene. “As long as I care about you, I’ll listen to whatever you say. But you don’t actually believe human nature can change, do you?”

“You didn’t kiss me or call my name once last night,. Yu An added with a faint smile. He tossed the infant into the air and caught it again, clearly entertained by his own actions. “So today, I didn’t listen to you. I’m also docking you two points, too. How about that?”

Zhao Ran looked away, biting his lip and touching the tip of his nose. “Ahem… next time. There’ll be a next time.”

To mask his discomfort, Zhao Ran turned back to the gradebook. He scribbled over the area where he had erased the points earlier, filling the space with spiky hair. Around it, he drew more lines, adding eyes to the spiky blob with white paint.

“What did you fish out of the water?” Zhao Ran asked as he continued sketching, eager to change the subject.

Yu An opened his palm to reveal the shiny object. “A Refinement Badge. It’s a rare in-game item that significantly boosts a character’s skills. The more badges you have, the stronger you get.”

“Put it on. It’ll make you tougher.” Zhao Ran said, spinning the wooden shaft of his brush between his fingers.

Yu An pinned the softly glowing badge to his chest and shifted into a defensive stance. He threw a punch at Zhao Ran to test his newfound strength.

Zhao Ran instinctively raised his forearm to block. This time, the force of the blow pushed him back two steps. He glanced down at his arm, startled by the dull ache spreading through the bone.

“Not bad.” Zhao Ran said with mild surprise.

In linked scenarios, characters started with reset stats. With the Progress Badge equipped, Yu An was clearly stronger than a character without enhancements.

The streets near the canal were filthy. Cracks marred the brick walls of nearby houses, allowing moss to creep outward from within. Trash bins overflowed with garbage, while plastic-wrapped food sat rotting in acidic water, swollen and reeking. The stench in the air felt ready to burst.

Yu An felt a faint beam of ill-intentioned gaze fall on his back. He raised his head, instinctively scanning the top of a low brick wall for the source of the gaze.

In a spot very close to the two of them, someone stood behind the wall, staring at them with a blank expression. Only their head peeked above the low wall.

The moment their eyes met Yu An’s, the person turned and bolted, trying to slip through the broken wooden door. Yu An reacted instantly. The second the middle-aged man turned to flee, Yu An leapt up, grabbed the edge of the low wall with both hands, and pushed himself up. His legs pressed against the wall for support as he climbed over with ease.

The man panicked and, in desperation, tried biting the door lock before darting into the darkness of the small, decrepit house. Yu An chased after him without hesitation, grabbing Zhao Ran’s hand to pull him along through the doorway.

With the refinement badge enhancing his strength, Yu An’s grip was noticeably firmer, making Zhao Ran gasp from the sudden feeling.

“…”

The wooden door slammed shut behind them with a resounding thud, sealing off the dim twilight and plunging them into an enclosed, pitch-black room. The dusty wooden floor was littered with debris, and the wooden staircase creaked ominously. Some of the planks were broken, the railing was riddled with holes from rot, and the air was thick with the damp, stale smell of age.

Just beyond the door, it felt as if they had stepped into an entirely different world. Unlike the fictionalized game setting, this place bore the weight of years, steeped in an oppressive darkness that sent chills rising from the floor.

Zhao Ran’s expression abruptly grew serious, the confident, self-assured demeanor he usually wore now completely gone.

He abandoned his plan to watch from a distance and let Yu An explore on his own. Instead, he naturally moved ahead, occasionally extending a hand to pull Yu An back whenever he ventured beyond a safe range.

The pixelated baby NPC crouched inside a framed box, with only its eyes visible as it curiously observed the surroundings.

Yu An glanced around but struggled to see clearly in the dark. His eyes had yet to adjust, and he could only make out faint outlines of the room’s furnishings. A dusty typewriter sat on a low cabinet, its round keys emitting crisp clicks when pressed.

“A typewriter. This thing’s a relic from a century or two ago.”

Yu An felt his way along the long table toward the window, relying solely on touch to navigate. A rough burlap bundle sat piled on a wooden chair beside the table, concealing something decayed beneath it that rustled with movement when disturbed.

Finally, his fingers found an oil lamp on the tabletop. Nearby, he picked up a box of matches and fumbled to select one that wasn’t damp. Striking it, he lit the lamp’s tallow candle, which cast a faint glow over a small area.

The lamplight revealed the contents beneath the burlap. Yu An recoiled his hand at once.

The burlap bundle turned out to be aged clothing, and beneath it lay a desiccated corpse. Its skeletal mouth clamped around a quill, and beneath its chin was pressed a leather-bound book.

The decay had fused the corpse’s remains with the book’s cover and the tabletop over time. Yu An carefully pried the book loose, though the skeleton’s jawbone remained stuck. Frustrated, Yu An gave it a sharp tug. “Give it here.”

The skeleton collapsed to the floor in a scattering of fragmented bones, tangled with the burlap.

Yu An felt a sudden pull on his shoulder as Zhao Ran yanked him away from the remains. “Stop messing around in here.”

In the flickering lamplight, Yu An kept his gaze fixed on the fallen skeleton. “Did it just move?”

Zhao Ran shoved him aside. “Idiot, look up!”

Yu An dove to the right just as he glanced upward. On the storage rack above, the same strange man who had been peering over the low wall earlier was crouched, ready to pounce.

The man’s gaping mouth opened wide as he lunged downward, landing right where Yu An had been standing moments earlier. If Yu An hadn’t moved in time, his head might have been crushed into his chest by now.

Once engulfed in complete darkness, the man’s behavior shifted dramatically. He was no longer the panicked figure that had fled earlier but now moved with unnatural ferocity and speed. He sprang at Yu An with his mouth wide open, aiming for his carotid artery.

Yu An responded swiftly, rolling to the ground and springing back to his feet. With a well-placed kick, he struck the man’s head. The momentum from his spinning body delivered a second kick, which landed heavily on the man’s skull.

The refinement badge-enhanced strength made these kicks far more powerful than usual, causing a dent to cave into the man’s head on impact.

Yet, the man seemed unfazed by the blows. Without showing any signs of dizziness, he charged directly at Yu An. Forced to leap aside, Yu An narrowly avoided him as the burly figure smashed through the wall, sending fragments of brick and stone flying. One shard grazed Yu An’s cheek, leaving a thin line of blood.

“That’s tough…” Yu An panted, his eyes scanning the room for a sharp weapon. Suddenly, he tore the refinement badge from his chest and tossed it to Zhao Ran. “See if it can enhance your drawing ability!”

Zhao Ran caught it without needing further explanation. Their exchanged glance conveyed all he needed to know.

“Got it.” Zhao Ran tore a page from his sketchbook and flung it into the air. At the same moment, Yu An crouched low and slid beneath the iron-headed man, his left eye glowing faintly. The silver-tier Picture Within the Painting skill activated, revealing intricate patterns on the canvas.

Yu An reached into the drawing with his right hand, gripping tightly as he pulled. From the image, he dragged out a crimson-cored cross dagger—a piercing weapon designed for breaching armor.