Starting the Game with Godlike Vision

Chapter 21 - A Special Mission - The Mysterious Farm

The two-storey house seemed straight out of a fairy tale. Its slanted tiled roof, dotted with moss in the crevices, was complemented by walls crafted from a patchwork of wooden planks and stones. A quaint chimney jutted from the roof, completing the picturesque image.

Through the window, the interior of the house was partially visible, including a fireplace at its center. However, the hearth lay cold and dormant, as the owner of the house was absent.

On the ground outside, Zuo Chengan mapped out a route.

With a light leap and a firm grip, he scaled the walls like a seasoned rock climber, relying solely on the strength of his fingers to support his body.

A full score of ten in strength represented the theoretical maximum a human body could achieve. Any higher, and it would defy the body's capacity to bear such power.

Yet the game had its peculiarities—granting humans strength far beyond the limits of their species.

By distributing points strategically, a mere mortal could shrug off gunfire and tear through steel with bare hands. Viruses ceased to pose threats, lifespans extended dramatically, and what once seemed impossible became attainable.

In a way, the game wasn't a catastrophe—it was an opportunity for evolution.

…

Zuo Chengan swiftly reached the edge of the roof. Without incident, he slid down the chimney and entered the house. His boots landed softly on a large white carpet spread across the floor, releasing a faint musk of sheep's wool.

It wasn't just a carpet. It was a sheepskin rug.

Zuo Chengan froze.  

Wait. Sheepskin? He instinctively took a step back. 

It dawned on him—this might be what Wang Guangfei had been desperately seeking: the elusive 21st sheep.

The floating eyeballs trailing Zuo Chengan—a manifestation of the audience in the game—burst into chaotic excitement:

[Holy crap! Is that the missing sheep?]  

[Red-Eye is as malicious as ever. It says to find sheep, and everyone assumes they're alive. But who could've guessed the 21st sheep had already been turned into a rug? Hahaha!]  

[That's right! If you didn't enter the house, you'd never find it. You could scour the entire map and still miss this clue.]  

[And the house is locked! Most players in the trials are too cautious to poke around. They wouldn't risk exploring random places like this.]  

[Do you think this player will do a good deed and tell Wang Guangfei about the rug?]  

[Probably. Players from the lower-level worlds love being the good Samaritan. If it were me, I'd never share the clue I risked so much to uncover.]  

…

Zuo Chengan noticed a key detail: while the eyeballs could phase through walls and fly freely within the game world, they couldn't venture far from the player they followed.

Because no one had lingered near the small house, the eyeballs hadn't been able to explore its interior. This limitation had kept the rug's secret hidden—until now.

The chat overlay buzzed with dense commentary, partially obscuring Zuo Chengan's view. He adjusted the transparency settings before resuming his exploration of the house.

The ground floor was sparse, lacking any signs of regular habitation. The only furniture was the massive white sheepskin rug before the fireplace and two ornately carved chairs—black and red, adorned with skeleton and tomato motifs.

His Eye of Truth identified them as the handiwork of Pipi, the finest carpenter in the Tower of Ascension.

Though the audience couldn't see this annotation, they recognized the chairs by their unique marks:

[Wow, even here we can see Pipi's craftsmanship. The wood looks incredible—must've soaked in specially treated blood for years.]  

[I'd bet these had been soaked for at least two years. Someone once tried copying Pipi's method, soaking wood in pig's blood for six months, but it didn't come close to Pipi's work. Pipi probably uses pure human blood.]  

[But why does Red-Eye have Pipi's furniture?]  

[According to my 8,000 hours of observing the livestream, I conclude that they're close. I've seen them collaborate to torment players countless times.]  

[Ha! Pipi's just sucking up to Red-Eye for free tomato sauce.]  

…

Ignoring the banter, Zuo Chengan climbed a narrow spiral staircase to the second floor.

The upper level was smaller, its meager furnishings consisting of a dusty bed and a bedside table. What stood out, however, were the walls, lined with rows of photo frames that nearly covered the entire room.

The photographs depicted animals from the farm—plump chickens, vibrant crops, and sheep as white as freshly fallen snow.

Everything looked normal, lacking the grotesque or uncanny features typical of the game.

One particular photo caught Zuo Chengan's attention: a flock of 20 sheep, their wool pristine and snowy, clustered around a human figure whose face and body had been crudely scratched out.

It was clearly a person, not a rabbit or other creature. This shadowy figure appeared repeatedly in the photos—holding a pumpkin large enough for two people, carrying a basket of tomatoes, or herding sheep with a jet-black dog. Yet every image was defaced, as if to conceal something.

After studying the photos, Zuo Chengan mused aloud, "Cuckoo in the nest, betrayal, the farmer and the snake…"

But there was one oddity—no black sheep appeared in the photos.

He'd seen the flock in the pen: 19 white sheep and one black.

If Red-Eye claimed there were 21 sheep, where could the black sheep come from? Was it a later addition? A newborn?

…

[Ding! Special Quest Unlocked!]  

???'s Farm  

Objective: Correctly identify the missing name behind ‘???'.

Reward: The recipe for Tower of Ascension's famous and coveted tomato sauce.  

P.S.: Completing the quest may provoke Red-Eye's hostility.  

…

A special quest?

Zuo Chengan stared at the golden text glowing on his interface, his expression a mix of intrigue and dread. Ignoring the bizarre nature of the reward—tomato sauce, really?—he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd stumbled upon something far more significant than it seemed.