It took Deli a long time to slowly accept reality.
No one wanted to work at her candy house; there was only a teenage girl with too much energy and nowhere to release it.
It was nice to be young.
Deli's face turned haggard and dull once more; though she looked like a young woman in her early twenties, for some reason, she seemed weathered by the years.
She shook her head in disappointment.
"Sorry, I appreciate the offer, but I don't need any help right now."
She didn't need help?
Lu Xun looked at the red question mark over Deli's head again, his face filled with confusion.
'Did the game glitch?'
No!
It was impossible for the developers to make such a basic mistake. Was he missing a part of the preparation needed before entering the storyline?
"Could the problem be with the candy house itself?"
Grinya looked around; everything appeared very peaceful and normal.
Even Grinya herself began to doubt if the Lord Evil God's judgment was flawed.
Then, she suddenly felt her gaze fixate on a certain spot... on Deli's figure.
"..."
'The Lord Evil God really is the dregs among deities; his gaze is still so bold and aggressive!'
'But could you please not use my body to do something so offensive?!'
"That photo..."
Grinya was stunned for a moment. It was only then she noticed that the Lord Evil God's gaze wasn't that shallow; his true attention was on a pouch next to Deli's chest, where the corner of a photo was visible.
"What is that photo?" Lu Xun asked curiously.
From his perspective, there was a shimmering point of light on Deli's chest that was drawing him in.
He had thought it was some kind of tasteless design by the developers, but it was actually a photo with its corner showing.
Intuition told him that the photo might not be simple.
"Oh, you saw it." Deli smiled sheepishly and took the photo out.
The photo showed a blonde girl making a playful pose for the camera.
The background was Deli's candy house.
It was an ordinary photo, and besides the girl's stunning appearance, there was nothing else worth noting.
But as it happened, he recognized the girl!
"Why do you have a photo of Princess Ruiya here?" Grinya asked.
"This morning, Princess Ruiya came to my shop to buy candy. It was the first time I'd seen her in person, so I excitedly asked if I could take a photo with her, and she agreed."
Deli let Grinya glance at the photo, then tucked it away like a precious treasure.
"Princess Ruiya said she snuck out, so the photo shouldn't be shown to just anyone; she doesn't want others to know she was here," Deli said.
'And yet you showed it to us anyway...'
Grinya complained silently in her heart.
"Alright, sorry to have bothered you." An expressionless Grinya nodded, then turned and walked toward the shop door.
Before leaving, she suddenly looked at the calendar hanging on the wall as if possessed.
"Miss Deli, is today the restocking day for the candy house?" she asked.
"Yes, the milk, condensed milk, and sugar all arrived today, so today's candy is especially fresh and sweet. Are you sure you don't want to buy some?" Deli asked.
"I have no money," Grinya replied very matter-of-factly.
After leaving the candy house, Grinya stood on the street, motionless like a statue.
Passersby thought she was a weirdo and stayed far away from her.
Grinya couldn't guess what the Lord Evil God was planning—suddenly entering the candy house, then walking out without doing anything.
From beginning to end, he had only seen a photo of Princess Ruiya.
Wait!
The Lord Evil God knew there was something wrong with Princess Ruiya, and then he suddenly found her photo here. Could it be that all of this...
He had already guessed there would be clues about Princess Ruiya here!
Grinya was terrified.
The actions of a deity were truly beyond the understanding of a mortal like her.
The red question mark over Deli's head vanished the moment she took out the photo to show Lu Xun.
Lu Xun stared at the quest list, lost in thought.
No new quest popped up in the list, but under the previous hidden quest, a new clue suddenly appeared.
【Hidden Quest: The One Who Gazes into the Abyss.】
【Find Deli's restocking supplier.】
Lu Xun had been very confused when he first saw this clue, not understanding why the princess was connected to a supplier.
But when he saw the calendar on the wall marked with the restocking date by Deli, he suddenly understood.
First, Deli said it was her first time seeing Princess Ruiya, which meant the princess had never bought candy at the candy house before. So why the sudden whim today?
Because today was the candy house's restocking day!
She happened to come to the candy house during restocking; the most likely reason was to draw attention away for the people moving the goods.
But what were they after?
Lu Xun couldn't guess, so he could only try to find Deli's restocking supplier as the quest guide suggested.
It wasn't difficult, because Lu Xun had noticed the name of the supplier's factory on the raw material crates in the back room when he entered the candy house.
Clicking on the map, he found the name in the bottom left corner of the city.
【Dungeon Opening Level: Lv. 5】
It was a dungeon!
Lu Xun's eyes narrowed slightly.
Finally...
Was he going to start grinding mobs?
...
Sometimes Lu Xun really wanted to complain—why did this crappy game have to make the map so huge?
Although the game's various models were very detailed and beautiful, making it a decent experience even just for the scenery.
But he really didn't want to waste most of his time running across the map when he was planning to complete a quest.
Passing through layers of deep alleys and constantly scaling walls, the terrain here was so complex that if Lu Xun didn't check the map frequently, he would definitely get lost.
Finally, he arrived at a desolate wilderness, the city's silhouette receding behind him.
An abandoned factory appeared abruptly in the clearing, but it seemed to be back in operation.
Plumes of black smoke rose overhead, and the dull noise of aging alchemical machinery could be heard.
Two guards stood at the entrance.
Perhaps due to the game's mechanics, the two guards stood bolt upright, but their gazes were fixed directly in front of them—even if it was a thick earthen wall.
Yet they had no reaction at all when Grinya stood to their side.
"The NPCs in this game are so braindead," Lu Xun complained.
Although Grinya didn't understand the term, she roughly understood that the phrase meant he was complaining about the people of this era being too stupid.
She suddenly felt a strong sense of shame.
In the past, the town teacher always scolded them, saying they were the worst class he had ever taught. Back then, Grinya hadn't taken it to heart.
She thought it was just the teacher's way of motivating them.
Times were progressing, and thoughts would change.
Who would stop moving forward or even regress?
But when these words came from the mouth of the evil god, the feeling was immediately different.
The Lord Evil God's tone was like someone who had woken up after sleeping for millions of years, only to find that the humans of the new era were actually inferior to those of millions of years ago, resulting in a sudden, intense disappointment:
"I'm done. Humans might have even regressed compared to the past; might as well just destroy everything."
'Sorry to have disappointed you, Lord Evil God!'
Rate on N.U.
