The system-rewarded common house was indeed quite ordinary, consisting of only one main room, one side room, a small antechamber, and a very tiny courtyard, but Wu Zhen was already extremely satisfied.
Wu Zhen wasn't surprised by the developer's generosity. When she used to play life simulation games, the start often provided players with a cheap but fully functional house as a condition for the subsequent game.
In the operation interface, an icon for [Ancestral Home] had also appeared.
Opening it, it was precisely the common house she had just received.
Perhaps because this was the only property under her name, the game automatically assigned it as the [Ancestral Home], complete with an evaluation score beside it.
[Ancestral Home Evaluation Score: 10]
[A perfectly ordinary mortal dwelling.]
Wu Zhen had anticipated this evaluation, as this was, after all, a game about cultivating an immortal family.
This residence wouldn't even rank among mortals, let alone in a world where immortals existed.
She looked again at the tutorial quest panel.
It hadn't refreshed with a new quest, but rather displayed a passage of text.
[You have successfully acquired the family's ancestral home, embarking on the path to forge the number one immortal cultivation clan in the cultivation world.]
[Any of your actions in this playthrough may be recorded into the evaluation score, which will be converted into Inheritance Points and settled at the start of the next playthrough.]
[Please note, your main quests are strictly limited to two:]
[Build the number one immortal cultivation family in the cultivation world, and, attain enlightenment and ascend to immortality.]
As the text appeared and faded paragraph by paragraph, accompanied by the deep, ancient toll of a bell, the tutorial quest ended, and the game officially began.
Wu Zhen mused briefly on the game's sense of ceremony before enthusiastically starting to ponder her next move.
Inheritance Points would only be settled at the start of the next playthrough—that is, when the clan leader position changed hands. This meant she couldn't know her Inheritance Points amount during this period, but the methods to obtain them were surely mostly related to the two main in-game objectives.
Establish a family, and ascend.
Ascension was out of the question for now; there wasn't even a hint of it. This body was utterly mortal, with no possibility for cultivation, and its aptitude and comprehension were unremarkable even among ordinary people.
The starting strategy had to focus on expanding the family.
Wu Zhen's gaze fell upon the [Ancestral Home] before her, which had scored only 10.
Following her usual process in simulation games, she would start by obtaining a better living environment!
Looking at the [Brawling] lv.5 skill in her skill bar, the player, full of vigor, headed out the door.
She remembered there seemed to be a security escort agency in the town.
.
Qingni Town was a remote small town with low population mobility, simple and honest folkways, a very peaceful atmosphere, and similarly, very little change.
But today, people coming and going noticed something different from usual.
—Overnight, that dilapidated temple occupied by a group of beggars had transformed into a common house!
This startled passersby greatly, making them almost think they had encountered a ghost. It wasn't until the sun was high, broad daylight, and more and more people noticed this scene that the panic subsided, replaced by a sense of wonder.
They didn't dare approach, only cautiously stopping at a distance, marveling at this house built overnight.
Look at those roof tiles, those bricks, so neat, tightly fitted, so perfectly aligned without a single fault, it was simply like the work of an immortal!
The news quickly spread into the town, and some idlers even specially came out to see, stating emphatically: "It must be that the temple's goddess couldn't bear to have the town's peace disturbed, so she displayed her divine power to drive away that bunch of ruffians!"
Hearing this, the person beside him couldn't help but ask: "Then why would the temple's goddess change the temple into a house?"
The idler hesitated for a second, then quickly thought of a reason: "Perhaps the goddess is about to manifest and descend to the mortal realm, and this is prepared for her mortal vessel!"
As these words fell, a chorus of "Wow" sounds rose around him.
The owner of the house, Wu Zhen, unaware that she had become a goddess descending to the mortal realm overnight, was wandering around the town.
It must be said, the game's details were excellent. Normally, she would have headed straight for her destination, but now she was strolling leisurely towards the security escort agency, wanting to interact with everything she saw.
Before the town's curfew ended, she couldn't enter (the player didn't have a high enough climbing skill yet), so she spent an hour gathering grass outside the city walls, raising [Gathering] to lv.2, and promptly sold the grass at the market.
Ignoring the slightly odd expression of the grass-collecting vendor, the [Assets] column under [Family] finally broke free from zero, reaching an astonishing fifteen copper coins!
With this joy, Wu Zhen arrived at the door of the security escort agency.
Qingni Town was a small town, so its security escort agency naturally wasn't very imposing. At least, it was different from those typically portrayed in films and shows, appearing quite simple and plain, taking on cheap and straightforward jobs.
But the young men moving about inside were clearly well-fed and regularly exercised, carrying a special aura of those who often traveled.
Wu Zhen walked into the agency, ignoring the insignificant NPC at the door who tried to stop her but failed instantly, and headed straight for the person in charge inside.
As for why she knew he was in charge—the NPC had [Deputy Chief Escort] shining brightly above his head, impossible to miss.
A new notification refreshed in the [Events] bar.
[Deputy Chief Escort Chen] has noticed you.
[Deputy Chief Escort Chen]: What business do you have?
Wu Zhen shifted her attention from the event bar to the NPC in front of her.
"I'm looking for work," she asked. "Do you need any enforcers?—or guards?"
Deputy Chief Chen was clearly taken aback. He looked her over, then put on a polite, fake smile, obviously thinking she was making fun of him.
Wu Zhen didn't mind this. She looked around and clicked on a random character's basic information.
[Brawling] lv.4.
She turned and walked towards that character, opening the [Auto Mode] in [Turn-Based Combat].
Six seconds later, the character was on the ground.
"—How about now?"
She turned back and asked this.
.
In any case, whether they genuinely saw talent in her, or because several men in a row couldn't defeat her—the successive battles even raised her [Brawling] to lv.7—in order to settle the matter, the also-defeated deputy chief, feeling aggrieved and utterly perplexed, reluctantly agreed to give her a job.
Her job was very simple: no need to escort goods, just show up at the agency daily to stand guard and prevent trouble.
The pay was thirty copper coins a day.
Before Wu Zhen could even celebrate, she saw a flash in the bottom right corner of the screen.
[Achievement Unlocked: Town's Fist King]
Wu Zhen: "..."
What a unique achievement.
And Brawling lv.7 makes you the Town's Fist King? Qingni Town, you're really lacking talent, aren't you?
Unaware that she had been fighting since entering the game, fighting all the way until now, the player shook her head at the lack of talent in the starter village and stood guard for a while, finding it quite novel.
But soon, she began to feel...
That was quite a waste of time. After sparring with the few available security escorts from the escort agency all afternoon, the proficiency in [Brawling] had only slowly climbed to lv.7 and one-third of the way to lv.8.
It was normal for leveling up to get harder the further you went. Anyway, judging by the achievements, she should be invincible in this small town by now.
After work in the evening, she bought a small bouquet of flowers and a small vase from a vendor who was about to pack up, planning to take them back to her new home.
Leaving the town and approaching the vicinity of the [Ancestral Home], she noticed several NPCs in the distance cautiously peering at her house.
"Huh?"
She looked at the [Events] log.
[Villager 1]: Is that the immortal lady's residence... It's truly extraordinary...
[Villager 2]: It was just a dilapidated temple yesterday, and today it's become a proper house. It's truly a divine miracle!
They looked very surprised.
Wu Zhen was also surprised.
NPCs actually reacted to this? She thought they would just ignore it like in other games.
And also, what's this about 'immortal lady'?
Wu Zhen felt a bit bewildered, but compared to that, the flowers in her arms were more important. So, she ignored those few people, went straight to open the main gate of the house, and walked in.
[Villagers: ...]
The events log fell into an eerie silence.
Wu Zhen didn't pay it any mind. She put the flowers in the vase and placed it on the desk.
[Floral Art] lv.1
Wu Zhen was already accustomed to the game suddenly popping up with various skills. She simply opened the Ancestral Home evaluation score.
[Evaluation Score: 10]
Then, right before her eyes, a decimal point appeared after the score.
[Evaluation Score: 10.01]
Wu Zhen: ...
Who scores like this! With two decimal places, no less!
She closed the interface and saw that her fatigue value was almost full. Deciding to spare herself the annoyance, she simply went to the side room to sleep and reduce her fatigue.
From start to finish, she never opened the detailed profiles of those [Villagers] in the events log. Naturally, she didn't discover that a few of them were the jailers she had encountered earlier in the prison cells.
And at this moment, they had fallen into a deathly silence and silently returned to the town.
The town's government office was short-handed. Many constables held multiple positions, also serving as jailers on rotation when there was nothing else to do. Since the place was remote, no one would report them anyway.
Thus, a few unlucky fellows had participated in the entire process of the house-seizing incident.
When they received the news that someone was brazenly seizing a private residence in broad daylight, they all instinctively assumed it was a vicious individual. They rushed over aggressively, only to find it was a girl who looked to be fourteen or fifteen at most, holding a rough wooden club, with a slender frame.
She wore coarse linen clothes and had an ordinary appearance, the kind that should have been hard to leave any impression.
But when she heard the commotion and turned her head, her face—like stagnant water, pale and completely devoid of expression—caused an inexplicable, slight chill to creep up everyone's spine.
The splinters on the wooden club in her hand were completely untreated, extremely rough. Just looking at it made them feel phantom pain, yet her expression remained, from beginning to end, a calmness that even seemed somewhat eerie.
At that moment, they knew.
This person would not remain obscure for long.
"...Does anyone remember her surname?"
"It seems to be Wu," one of them said after a moment of silence. "Surname Wu, given name Zhen."
Wu Zhen.
Someone quietly drew in a sharp breath.
"...Truly, bizarre."
