Where is my heart?

Yining looked down in a daze, his left hand instinctively pressing against his left chest. Beneath his palm, there was no throbbing heartbeat—only silence and coldness.

He raised the hand holding the lantern and began to recall where his heart had gone.

During the enchantment ritual, his palm had burned, the ram’s head had vanished, and it felt as though all the blood had been drained from his body…

Could it be that the organ had truly been offered up as a sacrifice?

Wasn’t that an illusion? No, that couldn’t be.

Yining instinctively resisted the reality before his eyes—it simply couldn’t be true! How could a person possibly live without a heart?

But then again, wouldn’t someone who could live without a heart be invincible? What on earth was going on?

As thoughts raced through his mind, the old woman before him, Liv Beixi, continued to wait patiently, her cloudy yet gentle eyes fixed on him. Just then, the system notification sounded clearly.

【Special Event Activated】

【Event I: Explore the Dark Realm with Ms. Liv (1 hour)】

【Event II: Harvest the Thrilling Sea Buckthorn Fruit (0/100)】

【Completing all events will trigger the follow-up storyline “Mrs. Liv’s Deal.”】 The notification sounded like a bucket of cold water dumped over his head. Since he wasn’t dead, he had no choice but to complete the tasks.

Yining gathered his composure and offered a smile that was as natural as he could manage: “I’d be happy to help you. What kind of berries do you need?”

“Excellent, young man.” The wrinkles on Liv’s face smoothed out as she pulled a tin box from his small cloth bag. “It’s dangerous out there. You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you? These are chestnut biscuits I made myself. I hope you’ll like them.”

【Obtained Chestnut Biscuits ×10】

【Chestnut Biscuit: +5 Satiety, +5 Health, +5 Mental upon consumption】

Yining took the still-warm metal box, so moved that tears welled up in his eyes. His heart was gone, his blood was gone, and his life was running out.

He was currently powerless to resolve the strange events unfolding around him, but since things had come to this, he might as well eat first. He would continue exploring this hateful game once he felt better.

Salted mushroom noodles with chili sauce, hardtack with chili sauce, sugar-free rye bread with chili sauce, chili sauce with chili sauce, and unripe bloodflesh flowers—none of these could solve his immediate, pressing need.

Biscuits—a lifesaver in a pinch. He could eat ten in one go without feeling stuffed.

In return, Yining pulled out a few White Rabbit creamy candies: “You should try this too. It’s called White Rabbit creamy candy. I really like it.”

“Oh, the packaging is so cute.” Liv took them with delight, unwrapped the candy, popped it into her mouth, and after savoring it, exclaimed, “I’m getting on in years and can’t handle things that are too sweet, but this milky flavor is just right. It’s a shame—the town’s dairy farm supplies only the bigwigs, so I haven’t had proper milk in ages…”

Yining seized the opportunity to ask, “Is the town far from here? With your mobility issues, traveling long distances must be quite a strain.” 

“There’s a bus once a week. I come here every week to pick fruit.”

If she comes every week, then who was helping Liv before that?

And if the fruit from the cemetery really is valuable, why hasn’t anyone else come to pick it?

Most of the time, games don’t make sense—players just have to follow the game’s rules. There aren’t usually so many messy questions.

But Yining wasn’t willing to take that chance.

It would be terrible if this were a trap deliberately set within the game.

He asked casually, “How much lamp oil can these fruits buy? Do you usually use oil lamps for lighting?”

“Hard to say. The demand varies every time. I could make some pretty good pudding with these fruits.”

Liv sighed. “The oil refinery in town is full of monsters. Only among you outsiders do I find anyone selling lamp oil. Electricity is too dangerous—it’s not as good as oil lamps, which can safely light up an entire room.”

To think he’d managed to extract such detailed information.

Yining felt a stir of interest; it seemed there really was a need to interact more with NPCs.

After eating a few cookies, he checked his stats. 

Health: 38/101

Satiety: 95/100

Mental: 97/100

After removing the 【Contamination】 status, the pressure to survive dropped sharply. As long as he didn’t actively seek danger, maintaining his stats became much easier.

Yining then grabbed the lantern, which still had enough power to last another minute, along with the two AA batteries he’d found earlier, and followed Liv to pick fruit.

This solar lantern also retained the battery compartment design, providing an extra layer of security.

Of course, the most important feature is its 【Anti-Contamination】 property.

“Young man, stay close to me—don’t stray too far!” Liv instructed.

Even though staying close to Liv would help avoid the Contamination of the Dark Realm, it was still wise to remain vigilant, just in case.

Liv took an antique brass oil lamp from her cloth bag and lit it with an old-fashioned lighter, which clicked softly. A warm, dim glow spread out, enveloping the two of them.

Yining followed closely behind, never stepping out of the circle of light.

Along the way, the two walked within the narrow glow of the oil lamp, watching their step with every stride. After more than ten minutes, a massive tree emerged from the darkness.

The trunk required two people to encircle it; its gnarled branches stretched out, laden with clusters of fruit. The fruits were about the size of grapes, mostly milky white, with a few eerie blood-red fruits scattered among them.

【Thrilling Sea Buckthorn Fruit Tree】

【Description: Sea buckthorn berries are edible, the trunk is edible, but the red sea buckthorn berries are not edible. Sea buckthorn is rich in vitamins; long-term consumption can enhance spiritual vision. The plant is massive, drought-tolerant, and pollution-resistant, and can only be grown within the cemetery.】

Ordinary sea buckthorn trees are usually shrubs, but this one could be called a tree. Yining stretched his limbs and nimbly scaled the trunk.

Instead of picking the delicate, fragile fruits, he selected the branches bearing the densest clusters, snapped them off with a firm twist, and leaped back to the ground, clutching them.

【Acquired: Thrilling Sea Buckthorn Fruit Seeds ×3】

Pretty good luck.

To his surprise, not only did he not harm the tree, but he also ended up with three seeds; his unintended action actually helped the tree reproduce.

—It certainly wasn’t because he wanted to start a garden or drink juice.

The two of them crouched in the halo of light, carefully plucking the white fruits from the branches and placing them into the thick cloth bag Liv had brought. The fruits were at different stages of ripeness—some were still hard, while others were so ripe that they burst open at the slightest touch, coating their hands with a sweet-and-sour juice.

Yining looked at his hands, which were still relatively clean from having just eaten a cookie, and couldn’t resist licking the juice off his fingertips. Sour! So sour that his whole face scrunched up.

“Well, did it make you cry?” Liv couldn’t help but chuckle as she pulled out a clean handkerchief and handed it to him. “Hmm…”

Yining took the handkerchief, his voice slightly nasal. Yesterday, when the enchantment hurt so badly he was on the verge of death, he hadn’t cried, but now, because of a single sour berry, he was making a fool of himself in front of a native he’d just met.

Afterward, Yining set aside two sets of 99 thrilling sea buckthorn fruits for himself, along with three seeds.

Looking at the scattered red fruits on the branches, Yining asked curiously, “Miss Liv, what are these red fruits?”

“Those are the tree’s eyes.”

Liv’s voice dropped slightly, tinged with a sense of reverence. “This tree is like a person—it can see. It doesn’t welcome people; it dislikes coming to pick its fruit. So, we must never harm it.”

Yining nodded solemnly.

When the bag is more than half full, an alert sounds:

【Event II Complete】

【Reward: Common Sea Buckthorn Seeds ×3】

The reward was just ordinary sea buckthorn tree seeds.

These are different from my own Thrilling Sea Buckthorn Tree Seeds.

As Yining understood it, “Common” meant they could be sold to players without cultivation restrictions.

There were only a few minutes left until the one-hour exploration requirement for 【Event I】 was met.

Liv picked up the oil lamp: “Come on, young man, come with me somewhere. I need to refill my old friend’s lamp. Before you arrived, he was the one who helped me. The last time the calamity struck, he…”

A clear look of sorrow flashed across her face. Yining didn’t press her for details and followed silently behind her. The two crossed most of the graveyard and finally stopped in front of a solitary little cabin.

It was a typical woodshed-style cabin, built of logs with a pointed roof. An empty oil lamp hung beneath the eaves, flanked by a row of cured meats. The cabin usually exuded a sense of tranquility, but now its windows were pitch-black, and the silence was unsettling.

【Caretaker cabin】

【Description: Its former owner turned into a monster in the darkness】

【Item: Grave Keeper’s Land Deed】

Through the window, one can barely make out the destroyed furniture inside, items scattered about, and moldy food on the dining table.

【Event I: Explore the Dark Realm with Lady Liv (1 hour) – Completed】

【Reward: Blessing Candle ×1】

【Blessing Candle: A type of ritual material; it is said that some people can use it to communicate with the gods.】

Yining had been in the Dark Realm for an hour now, and aside from feeling cold, he hadn’t suffered any other negative effects. Yining sneezed.

He watched as Liv lit the oil lamp under the eaves, then asked the question that was on his mind: “Do natural disasters happen often around here? When was the last one?”

Liv sighed. “The last natural disaster was this endless darkness. The Church tells us this phenomenon is called the ‘Eternal Night.’ Outsiders appear during the Eternal Night—some are good, and some are bad.”

Good people and bad people?

How does Liv tell the difference? Is she just good at reading people based on her life experience?

Or perhaps…

Yining suddenly recalled that among his base stats, there was an item called 【Benevolence】.

“Come on, young man, I’ll take you back.”

The earlier question had been answered: the gravedigger who had once helped Liv had now turned into a monster.

Liv possesses the skill to turn fruits into desserts, which she sells to players in exchange for lamp oil.

Like his own enchanted lantern, Liv’s oil lamp possessed special powers. Perhaps the 【Resistance to Pollution】 and 【Resistance to Contamination】 effects he had were granted by that very lamp.

This raises a new question: if players can be good or evil, what about the indigenous people?

For example, the Church sounds like an indigenous organization—does the “theologian” Ziling belong to the Church?

If there are good and bad among the indigenous people, might they develop into corresponding factions and organizations? Like the heart, these questions require further intelligence gathering.

Led by Liv, Yining returned to the safety of his own territory, temporarily out of danger.

Seeing the belongings he had gathered—a makeshift clothesline, a makeshift tripod made from coffin slats with a camping pot hanging from it, a fire pit ringed with stones, and a small wooden stool—along with several unopened delivery boxes piled up in the open space, he silently let out a sigh of relief.

Indeed, no matter how humble, a “home” is still a safe haven.

“Young man, it’s going to rain in the next day or two,” Liv said suddenly. “Do you have a tarp?”

As she spoke, she actually pulled a large roll of thick, olive-green waterproof canvas out of that seemingly small cloth bag.

“This is your payment. If you’d like to buy some of my pastries, you can set aside some gold and silver coins—I’ll come sell them to you next time. Take a look—what do you like to eat? I’ll prepare them in advance.”

Next time, in seven days.

Yining took a piece of paper listing the ingredients for several pastries. He didn’t recognize some of the names, so he had to look at the ingredient list to get a rough idea of the texture and flavor.

And this sheet listed only prices; there were no 3D attributes.

The cookies Liv gave him could restore his mental—perhaps because the native inhabitants’ perspective and the player’s system were different.

【Chestnut Biscuit: 20 for 1 gold coin, 2 for 1 silver coin】

1 gold coin = 100 points; 20 pieces cost 5 points each, and their stats are 1 point better than the 10-point grilled sausage!

【Sea Buckthorn Pudding: 12 for 1 gold coin, 1 for 1 silver coin】

【Apple Pie: 1 Gold Coin for 5 servings, 3 Silver Coins for 1 serving】

【Orange Cake: 1 Gold Coin per slice】

【Sea Buckthorn Black Tea: 5 bottles for 1 gold coin, 1 bottle for 3 silver coins】

Yining looked up: “Miss Liv, do you sell bottles?”