The moment this thought surfaced, Lin Gui shook his head and let down his guard.
For no other reason than this.
The main thing was that these "residents" before him... were simply too weak.
Even the strongest among them had only possessed Mid-tier High Rank strength in life.
Even if they really lost their minds and turned into evil spirits like that merman's soul...
Even if there were a vast number of them.
To the current Lin Gui...
Well, to Eve, who was hiding her true strength.
They were probably just a bunch of "small fry."
Not to mention, Eve could forcibly raise her power by a whole major rank in a short period of time.
A slap from a Legendary Priest was still highly lethal.
As for himself?
If he couldn't win, he could always run.
So, who cared?
He would focus on delivering this mountain of letters first.
Besides—
His right hand was already so close to losing all sensation that his aching wrist barely felt like his own.
But as he looked at the number of "pending letters" on his system panel snowballing at a crazy rate...
a strange sense of anticipation actually welled up in Lin Gui's heart.
He quietly did the math.
If only the commissions from these tens of thousands of ghosts in Blackwater City could all be accepted by the system as valid delivery tasks.
Then his long-stagnant "Messenger's Advancement Quest"—
that distant goal of successfully delivering ten thousand letters—
might actually, right here...
be completed in one fell swoop.
Although he had worked himself dizzy today, even with the other ghosts helping to transcribe, they had only processed a little over six hundred letters.
But this was only the first day.
There were still so many glass beads waiting outside to submit letters that the end was nowhere in sight.
Lin Gui roughly estimated that before his right hand gave out completely...
he could collect at least four thousand letters.
Combined with the 5,686 letters he had already delivered from Avalon, the Royal Capital, Shield City, and other places...
Although he was still a bit short of the ten thousand mark...
He couldn't forget that once these letters were delivered, there would very likely be replies.
There might also be other city-states sending letters to different locations.
Furthermore, most of the destinations these ghosts wanted to send their letters to were concentrated within the Wall of Sighs.
Namely, the nineteen city-states that had also been swallowed by "The Silent End."
The distance was great, but Lin Gui had his flying vessel and the Eyes of the Netherworld.
A round trip might not even take a single day.
He might really be able to complete the hardest part of the advancement quest—the ten thousand letters—right here.
He was also just one Special Commission away from completing that requirement.
Once done, the magic extraction pool rewarded by the system would upgrade from Novice to Intermediate.
When that time came...
he might finally be able to shed the title of "squishy little mage."
He wouldn't be so easily knocked out by a brick anymore.
At this thought, his aching shoulders and stiff right hand no longer seemed to matter.
Lin Gui couldn't help but softly hum a vague, upbeat tune through his nose.
“What's got you so happy...”
Eve, who was reading nearby, looked up, a hint of curiosity and a smile in her purple eyes.
“...to suddenly make you so cheerful, Mr. Lin Gui?”
Lin Gui's hand didn't stop, his pen tip continuing to rustle against the paper.
He cast a slightly resentful glance at Eve, who was leisurely reading beside him.
This Saintess was supposed to be his "best helper."
Yet she had spent the entire day curled up in the lounge chair behind him.
She was thoroughly engrossed in the copy of 《The Domineering Magic Dragon's Sweet Little Wife》 left behind by Theia.
It wasn't that Lin Gui hadn't tried to "hire" her to help.
He had even promised to pay a "generous" wage to this "penniless" Saintess
from the allowance Theia had given him.
But the moment the proposal left his mouth, it was immediately shot down.
Several ghosts standing respectfully nearby—who had been church clergy in life—stepped in.
They sternly and excitedly interrupted him.
“Absolutely not!”
The old priest's spirit was the first to float forward, his soul form fluctuating with excitement.
“Her Highness the Saintess possesses a noble, sacred body. How could she engage in such... such tedious transcription work?”
“This is blasphemy!”
A nun's ghost nodded repeatedly, her voice urgent:
“For Her Highness to grace this filthy place with her presence is already our supreme honor!”
“How could we dare let Her Highness exhaust herself with labor?”
Another ghost, who seemed to have been a church scribe, spoke with clear logic:
“Her Highness currently needs to maintain her energy and divine purity.”
“Tainting herself with too many earthly obsessions might cloud her perception, which would be detrimental to her future 'mission.'”
They chimed in one after another with resolute attitudes, even faintly shielding Eve behind them.
It was as if Lin Gui weren't asking for help, but rather attempting to defile some sacred relic.
Eve herself closed her book and gave Lin Gui a helpless, slightly mischievous smile.
Her eyes clearly said, “You see, it's not that I don't want to help.”
And now, hearing the Saintess's question,
Lin Gui didn't even look up, his pen tip never stopping, as he replied in a slightly teasing tone:
“Of course it's because...”
“...I'm thinking about how I'll soon get to 'speed' through the Wall of Sighs with you again.”
“That's why I'm happy.”
Before his voice could fade,
the leisurely smile on Eve's face in the corner froze at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She subconsciously shrank back, her fingertips tightening against the pages of the book.
She still hadn't adapted to Lin Gui's "insane" driving style.
Every time she rode in the flying vessel, she felt like her soul was about to be flung out of her body by the sheer speed.
Before, Theia had been there to suppress Lin Gui's speed.
Now that Theia was gone...
Did that mean she was the only one left to endure it?
She quietly glanced at her slender wrists.
Then she imagined the feeling of being pinned to her seat by intense G-forces, her stomach churning.
Suddenly, she felt
that the cheesy novel in her hands was no longer so appealing.
Soon, the sun sank past the edge of the ruins, and night once again enveloped Blackwater City.
The last glass bead inside the post office
rolled reluctantly down the track as Lin Gui rasped, “Please come back early tomorrow.”
Lin Gui let out a long breath, leaning back against his chair in near-exhaustion.
His right wrist was swollen, his fingertips trembled slightly from holding the pen for so long, and his palm was rubbed red.
On the desk, the sorted and sealed letters were neatly stacked into seven half-man-high "mountains."
At a rough count, they had actually written over eight hundred and thirty letters today.
Lin Gui himself had written over two hundred of them...
The efficiency far exceeded his expectations.
Trembling, he stood up and closed the smooth stone tracks in front of the counter.
He locked the main doors, preparing to go upstairs for a good night's sleep.
He had just stepped onto the stairs.
“Mr. Lin Gui.”
Eve's voice came from behind him, very soft.
He turned around.
As he looked, Eve was standing in the soft glow of her Glimmer spell.
Her hands were clasped behind her back, and her toes were mindlessly scraping the floor.
She looked away slightly, the tips of her ears appearing somewhat flushed under the light.
Then, she took a step closer, stood on her tiptoes, and quickly whispered in his ear:
“Can I... sleep with you tonight?”
Lin Gui: “...???”
Rate on N.U.
