My lord, spare his life!

[Confirm Synthesis]

Not needed for now

Two choices clearly emerged in Zhang Yang's mind.

This was the first time she had ever encountered such a situation.

Previously, this system notification only appeared when she disguised herself as a player to raid dungeons and collect fragments of loot that could be crafted.

Without hesitation, Zhang Yang chose the first option.

After a few breaths, she felt something wriggling densely at the site of the severed limb, as if thousands of insects were crawling across it. This was followed by an indescribable itching and burning sensation that shot to her brain, causing her to furrow her brow uncomfortably. At first, she could bear it, until—

"hiss--"

A clear and sharp pain came from the stitches.

Zhang Yang subconsciously raised his hand and grabbed the passerby's wrist.

"Stop!"

The passerby's pulse was pounding violently beneath his fingertip, and his muscles stiffened for a moment. After a brief standoff, the passerby released his grip and removed the needle. Zhang Yang pulled on the sutures to yank the needle out of his flesh.

Instantly, warm, crimson blood gushed from the needle prick, winding along the slender neck like a small, blood-red snake. Zhang Yang touched the spot where the pain was sharp, his palm smeared with sticky blood.

He held his palm up to his eyes and looked at it for a long time.

"It's real blood..."

Then he raised his arm higher.

This arm was originally divided into three sections—

From wrist to fingertips, from elbow to wrist, from arm to elbow.

Zhang Yang had put in a lot of effort to sew them up, and now, apart from three very faint pink marks and some blood on the skin, it was impossible to tell that the arm had ever been a loose piece of clothing. The arm was as flexible as her usual body.

She blinked and let out an envious sigh.

"So players eat this well."

Players cannot die. No matter how badly they are injured, whether they are minced into dumplings by a mechanical boss in a dungeon or engage in a large-scale, life-or-death melee with other players, they can be resurrected after a dozen or so breaths, at the cost of losing half of their health.

Even the lost health and mana can be restored naturally over time; players can use medicine if they don't want to waste time.

Zhang Yang, being an NPC, naturally didn't receive this treatment.

But why is it here now?

She was lost in thought.

She murmured, "...Is it because this is our home base?"

It's not impossible.

One of the human subjects Zhang Yang observed mentioned that when the game's official homestead system was launched, the promotional slogans were "This world is yours to control, this world is yours to reshape" and "My homestead, my world." Zhang Yang worked diligently for many years, raiding dungeons, robbing bosses, and robbing players in the wild, finally saving enough money to buy a homestead and obtain the land deed.

Although I haven't had time to officially register yet, but—

The land deed is already in my hands.

The signature was also Zhang Yang's own name.

She enters the Home branch, and this place is her home, her world, her domain, so of course she has special privileges!

What's wrong with having an extra resurrection skill that all players already have?

Thinking about it this way, my mind instantly became clear.

Zhang Yang had a guess. To test her idea, she flashed a wide, radiant smile across her face, which was covered in blood and mud. Under the horrified gaze of a passerby on this mysterious rainy night, she chopped off her left hand with her bare fingers. The hand slammed onto the muddy ground, kicking up a cloud of dust, and blood splattered onto the passerby's feet. The person who had committed this mad act bent down, picked up the severed hand, and laughed, "Want to try again?"

"Give it a try?"

Zhang Yang urged, "Of course it's stitching, come on."

Passerby A: "..."

Zhang Yang watched with interest as the name above his head rapidly changed colors, but regrettably, it eventually stopped at yellow, representing neutrality. He mechanically followed instructions, stitching up the severed hand with two more stitches. The anticipated notification sound arrived as expected: [Missing hand detected. Reassemble?]

[Confirm Synthesis]

Zhang Yang looked at his hands, which had been restored to their original state, and was extremely satisfied.

"The players are really eating well." If she had known that spending a lot of money to buy the official home base would allow her to enjoy the same treatment as the players, she would have tried to squeeze more money out of them long ago, and she wouldn't have had to be so timid for so long. As she spoke, she remembered that there was also a passerby.

She prepared to take a hamster out of her game backpack.

dig--

Zhang Yang looked embarrassed, only then realizing that he had already resold all the hamsters he had bought from the market. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to raise the exorbitant amount for the homestead land deed. Fortunately, it wasn't a big problem: "Don't move around here, I'll go catch one for you."

The passerby stared blankly at her without saying a word.

Zhang Yang was already used to this. NPCs like her, who had awakened self-awareness, were extremely rare. It was normal for other NPCs to be somewhat dull. Game developers probably didn't have the energy to add flexible communication code to ordinary NPCs that were everywhere.

Zhang Yang is preparing to withdraw from the Home branch.

Under the watchful eye of a stranger on a mysterious rainy night, she wandered around the dilapidated house for a long time, overturning tables and smashing chairs, climbing walls and beams, not missing a single corner, but still couldn't find the teleportation exit. She even brought up the system panel but didn't see any prompt to leave.

"Strange, where's the exit?"

She muttered to herself as she wandered around the dilapidated house.

We didn't find the exit, but we did find many pieces of clothing.

System prompts kept popping up.

You have obtained 1 clothing fragment.

You have obtained a larger clothing fragment +1

Zhang Yang habitually stuffs everything she picks up into her game backpack. This is one of the player behaviors she observed after studying countless players – anything that can be picked up and carried away should be put into the backpack! Even trash is no exception!

【Should we craft "a bloodstained garment"?】

Zhang Yang stared blankly at the pop-up notification.

This time she chose to "not use it for the time being".

She suddenly realized that the pieces of clothing she had collected in the house were made of the same material as the rag she was currently wearing.

At this moment, even the mysterious passerby in the rainy night couldn't hold back any longer.

"If you don't mind, you can wear one of my clothes."

Passerby A took off his outermost garment and handed it to Zhang Yang. With frequent lightning strikes, the dimly lit, dilapidated house was occasionally illuminated by flashes of light. Forcing himself to calm down, Passerby A noticed Zhang Yang's less-than-ideal appearance: "Use this to cover yourself."

"Cover up? Cover up what?" Zhang Yang looked down at his body blankly. Several key parts were still covered with blood-stained strips of cloth. He looked pretty wild, but compared to those players who ran around in swimsuits and trunks, he was actually quite conservative.

Passerby A: "..."

"Well, it's alright, since it's a good intention."

Kindness from fellow human beings is always heartwarming.

Wrapped himself in his clothes, Zhang Yang leaned out the window, rested his chin on the earthen wall, and sighed, "When will this rain stop?"

She could then go out and find a way out.

Because she had never explored other players' homestead side quests and couldn't access the player forums, she learned about the gameplay from the in-game newspaper and the information she gathered from her few human observers. But they wouldn't mention basic things like "where is the homestead exit," so she had to find it herself.

"Don't you remember anything from before?"

A hesitant voice came from behind.

Zhang Yang saw a blurry figure reflected in the water.

The name above the figure's head was now a deep crimson.