She walked out of the teleportation array and was almost blinded by the light.
It's not that she's being pretentious. The stained glass of this church is so realistic - fourteenth-century arch ribs, sixteenth-century frames, sunlight pours in from the dome skylight, and is cut into hundreds of color bands of different shades by the stained glass: red like molten iron, blue like the reflection of the deep sea, and golden like someone pouring the lights of the entire city onto the stone wall.
She raised her hand to block it and looked around with half-squinted eyes.
The bluestone slabs you stepped on were polished and shiny, and the gaps were filled with wax dust accumulated over hundreds of years. The air smelled of incense mixed with old wood. The singing of the choir in the distance fell from the vault, and it was not clear whether it was the human voice or the organ.
The game interface expands in the upper right corner of the field of view.
[Main mission: Win the trust of the Cardinals]
[Time limit: three days]
[Current reputation: 0/1000]
[Warning: Death in this area will clear all progress]
Jiang Gu lowered his head and looked at himself - a long linen waist skirt, a dark blue woolen cloak, and a belt with a copper buckle around his waist. The boots are made of cowhide and the toe is a bit scratchy.
The art team of this game is probably crazy. But she likes it.
"Jiang Gu?" Someone next to her called her.
She tilted her head. The teammate panel shows four people: a berserker "Thunder Hammer", a white-robed priest girl, an archer, and a thief who is invisible throughout the game. The berserker was holding up his hammer and looking at her suspiciously.
"Your name is Jiang Gu? Two words?"
"Yeah."
"Good guy, other people's IDs start with eight characters, but you only have two characters for your last name and first name. How did you type it out?"
"It's from the keyboard."
The pastor girl came over with bright eyes: "Your appearance looks great. New season skin?"
Jiang Gu didn't wear any appearance. The default character model, the system scans the face and comes out. She didn't bother to pinch her face.
"Wear whatever you want," she said.
The main hall of the church is very large, and the dome is so high that it seems to pierce the sky. The main altar was covered with dark red velvet cloth and embroidered with gold thread emblems - crossed keys and a sword. Behind the altar is a giant mural: angels and demons competing for a scale with a heart on one end.
The berserker has already started wandering around the hall: "This stupid mission requires visiting three churches. The first one is so big. My graphics card is so hot that I can fry an egg."
Jiang Gu ignored him. She stood in front of the mural and stared at the heart for two seconds. There is a thin crack on the heart, the position is very unnatural, it does not look like a randomly generated texture.
She stretched out her hand and lightly scratched the crack with the initial knife provided by the system.
The mural lights up.
The heart slowly cracked open, and a red gemstone rolled out, only as big as a fingernail, and fell on the velvet cloth with a "ding" sound.
System prompt: You have found "Clues to the Fragments of Truth - One".
At the same time, the task panel refreshes:
[Main mission update: The trust of the Cardinals has expired]
[New mission: Go to the catacombs alone, don't tell anyone]
[Warning: If other players obtain this clue, PVP mode will be triggered.
Jiang Gu pinched the ruby and looked at the light from the skylight. There is a very fine line hidden inside the gem, like a miniature map.
She stuffed the gem into the inner pocket of her belt with an expressionless expression.
"Found it!" The Berserker shouted from the choir seat, "The first key! Am I good?"
System announcements pop up. The other three people cheered and ran over there.
Jiang Gu didn't move.
She turned into the apse.
The entrance to the catacombs was behind the choir stalls, an iron gate with a rusty lock. She squatted down and used a knife to turn the lock cylinder twice. "Click", it opened.
The iron door made a sour creak. Behind the door is a stone staircase that spirals downward. The torches on the wall light up one after another, like something ancient awakening from the darkness.
The priest girl's voice came from behind: "Hey, where is Jiang Gu?"
Silence for two seconds. The thief's voice was very low: "She went into the tomb. Alone."
"... Damn it, did she go to grab the boss?"
Jiang Gu heard it. She didn't stop.
The stone steps became narrower as they went down, and the air became cold and humid. The light from the torch shone on the stone wall, casting her shadow. She pulled up her cloak and hood, put her hands into the gaps in her belt, and walked slowly and slowly.
She wasn't nervous at all.
You're playing games, why are you nervous? The worst case scenario is to die and start over - although clearing the progress is a bit annoying, that's about it.
At the end of the stone steps is a huge stone door with a line of Latin inscribed on it. She couldn't read it, but the system's automatic translation popped up:
"Light comes from the east."
She pressed both hands on the door and pushed hard.
The door opened.
In the darkness, countless pairs of eyes lit up.
System prompts: Catacombs·Judgement begins.
Jiang Gu's mouth curved. It's not a smile, it's the "finally something interesting" kind of relief.
She pulled the knife out of her belt, turned it around, and held it tightly.
"Come," she said, her voice low, but the echo from the tomb carried it far.
Half an hour later, Jiang Gu quit the game and took off his holographic glasses.
It's actually eleven o'clock at night. She sat on the carpet in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the apartment, leaning against the sofa with her legs stretched out on the edge of the coffee table. Outside the window is the night view of the entire city - the skyscrapers on the other side of the river are lit up with layers of lights, blue and white near, warm yellow in the distance. The LED screens of the three tallest spiral towers are scrolling the global index, and the digital waterfall is flowing down. The tail flame of the speeding car drew long and thin traces of light between the buildings. It dissipated in a few seconds and then lit up again.
She was wearing a black sweatshirt, her hat was on, and her hair was tied up in a small knot at the back of her head. There is a cup of brown sugar pearl milk tea on the coffee table. Most of it has been drunk, and water beads are hanging on the side of the cup.
The phone vibrated.
Family group news: The master asked the eldest lady if she would be free to come back next week to sign.
The lights at the tops of the three towers outside the window had just changed color, jumping from cold white to light gold, and back to cold white again.
She is eighteen years old this year, and her surname is Jiang.
Freshman, majoring in applied mathematics. The course is boring, but the professor is good. You can bring an A4 cheat sheet for the midterm exam. She planned to copy the entire textbook, both sides.
She threw the empty milk tea cup into the trash can, stood up, stretched, and walked to the card table to sit down.
Conception:-