Chapter 2
The Paradise, inside her private room.
Mo Xi sprawled across the crude wooden bed, studying the “Crude Potion” in her hand. After letting out a long sigh, she put it back in her inventory.
Just as she’d expected, not a single one of her trashy potions—with a chance of draining the drinker’s health—had sold. Her free trial card for a newbie stall had also expired a little while ago.
Looking at the single-digit balance of Paradise Coins in her account, Mo Xi had no choice but to start thinking about what to do next.
“Mining is tiring, but the pay is decent. Working as a receptionist isn’t too demanding, but the pay is low.”
“If all else fails...”
A flicker of hesitation crossed Mo Xi’s eyes as she lay on the bed, but it soon turned to resolve.
“I’ve decided. I’m going to see just how difficult this world mission is.” Mo Xi sat up, thinking to herself.
Other staff might not have chosen such a dangerous path, but Mo Xi had plenty of confidence in her stats and her class.
Contractor No. 26126
Name: Mo Xi (Staff)
Level: LV1 (Tier One)
(Every 10 levels make up one tier. Leveling up grants no attribute bonuses; it only reflects a contractor’s permissions within the Paradise and corresponds to world levels and mission difficulty.)
Talent—Blessing of Life: For every 3 points of Intelligence gained, gain 1.5 points of Stamina as well.
Maximum Health: 113 (Affected by Stamina. This attribute cannot be fully quantified and serves only as a rough reference.)
Mana: 90 (Affected by Intelligence; recovery speed is affected by multiple attributes.)
Strength: 7 (Affects attacks and carrying capacity.)
Agility: 7 (Affects movement and attack speed.)
Stamina: 9 (Affects Health, defense, and resistance to negative effects.)
Intelligence: 9 (Affects spell damage, Mana, and mental strength.)
Charisma: 9 (Affects social interactions and summoning.)
Luck: -1 (Affects crafting, lotteries, and opening items. This attribute is extremely difficult to raise, and a negative value carries a chance of danger occurring.)
An ordinary adult’s standard attributes are 5 points, while Luck is 1.
Judging by her stats after awakening the “Angel” class and the true damage from her “Mercy” skill, Mo Xi’s combat power wasn’t actually low for Tier One—especially in the LV1–LV3 newbie range.
Of course, Mo Xi had another very important reason for daring to choose a world mission.
An Angel is a healer class.
That meant she could usually heal herself, an advantage. Her combat power certainly couldn’t compare to that of combat classes, but Mo Xi felt that staying alive shouldn’t be a problem.
Since she’d already decided to enter a world and go adventuring, Mo Xi naturally needed to make some preparations.
First, she’d probably have to fight once she entered the world, so healing items were essential. But Mo Xi was so poor—and could heal herself—that she decided to skip them.
Mo Xi: Why buy medicine when I can heal myself?
Next, repairing and upgrading equipment were also top priorities. But Mo Xi was so poor she couldn’t afford any equipment, so she decided to skip that, too.
Mo Xi: What’s there to repair when I don’t even have equipment?
Finally, raising her level was also very important. But Mo Xi was so poor...
Mo Xi: ?
In short, after a full three minutes of analysis, Mo Xi decided to enter the world and go adventuring without making any preparations at all.
There was only one reason: she was broke.
After Mo Xi contacted the Paradise and confirmed her choice, a prompt appeared before her.
“Contractor’s choice detected. Contractor’s level: LV1.”
(The Paradise refers to everyone as contractors, and only uses role-specific terms when determining their duties.)
“Searching for a world...”
Mo Xi patiently waited as she watched the pale blue prompt before her. The Paradise didn’t keep her waiting long. In less than a minute, several new prompts appeared.
“A Tier One world has been found.”
“Entering...”
Almost the moment Mo Xi finished reading, a powerful wave of dizziness suddenly swept through her mind. Before she could react, everything went black.
For some reason, just before Mo Xi lost consciousness, she had the distinct feeling that she’d been abducted with a hood forcibly pulled over her head.
After an unknown amount of time, Mo Xi woke up in a moving carriage. Before she could look around, the Paradise’s prompts began appearing one after another.
“Current world: Tiny Nightmare.”
“World difficulty: LV3 (Quite difficult).”
(Do not leave the mission area without good reason. The world difficulty outside the mission area will increase drastically.)
Source of the World: 0% (Contractors gain Source of the World by exploring within a world. When the world exploration results are tallied, this attribute will be used alongside the world mission’s difficulty to calculate the final rating.)
World introduction: Curses, echoes.
“Main mission: Uncover the truth about the old castle.”
Difficulty: LV2
Mission details: As an apothecary invited by the mistress of the old castle (a false identity), you must investigate the truth about the castle.
Time limit: 72 hours
Mission rewards: 1 Green Chest, 5 Free Attribute Points, 3,000 Paradise Coins
Failure penalty: Mine for free in the Deep Hollow Mine for three months. All ore mined during that period will belong to the Paradise.
(The failure penalty only takes effect after the mission is failed. This does not mean your life will be safe during the mission, so proceed with caution.)
After reading everything, Mo Xi gazed at the generous rewards, her eyes shining brightly.
However, Mo Xi didn’t let the rewards go to her head. She understood perfectly well what the prompt beneath the failure penalty meant.
“So I have to survive the mission before I can even be punished? That’s so like the Paradise.” Mo Xi leaned back in her chair and sighed.
“But why does the name Tiny Nightmare sound so familiar?”
Looking at the world’s name on the panel, Mo Xi seemed to recall something. In her memories, there was a superb horror game series, widely regarded as the gold standard of its genre.
And the word “Nightmare” often appeared in the series’ titles.
Just as Mo Xi was recalling the story told in that series, the carriage that had been moving all this time suddenly came to a stop. The oil lamp hanging from its ceiling swayed slightly with the motion.
Knock, knock, knock~
After a somewhat muffled knocking came from outside the carriage, a voice that revealed nothing of the speaker’s age or gender slowly called out.
“Miss, we’ve arrived.”
Realizing she’d reached the mission location, Mo Xi took a deep breath, opened the carriage door, and stepped outside.
“What is this?”
The gloomy sky looked ready to collapse at any moment. At the edge of the cliffs between heaven and earth stood a tall, magnificent old castle.
The moment she saw the castle, Mo Xi sensed something dark and damp lurking within. The sticky, resentful feeling was downright revolting.
As Mo Xi frowned and looked around, the squeak of turning wheels came from behind her. When she turned, four carriages had pulled up neatly beside the one she’d arrived in.
Watching several people climb down from the carriages, Mo Xi gave a slight, thoughtful nod.
“Looks like this is a multiplayer mission.”