Chapter 17: Lin Shurou

"Is anyone here?" Ling Yi called out, but there was no response.

He gently laid Lin Shurou on the long sofa in the living room and took a look around. 

The girl lived in a small two-story house with a living room that greeted you when you walked into the house.

The living room was of decent size. A red carpet splayed in the middle of the room, and one long and two small burgundy sofas were neatly placed around it. In the middle of the sofas was a large wooden and polished table.

Facing the sofa was an 80-inch television hanging on the wall. It was much bigger than the one in Ling Yi's room.

He walked around the first floor. There was a kitchen on the left, and right across from it was a gym. He also found the toilet and storage room. It was perfectly a typical house, but what stood out the most was that these rooms were spotless.

He only saw a pair of bowls and chopsticks in the kitchen that she had probably taken out to wash.

It looked like she had washed it after eating it last night.

'Is she the only one who lived here?' Ling Yi frowned at the thought.

He only planned to bring her to her house and leave the rest to her family to help her. But who would have guessed that she lived alone?

Ling Yi raised his eyebrows and helplessly took out her phone from her bag. He wanted to see if he could contact her family.

But he was surprised once again. 

The girl's contact list was as blank as paper, just like his!

Ling Yi was speechless.

He touched his chin and stared at the girl's sleeping face. He thought, 'She lives alone and doesn't have any contact information of her relatives or friends.'

"Could she be a runaway?" He guessed out loud.

He didn't care about her identity.

He was more concerned about what to do next. He stared at her longer than it was deemed appropriate before finally shaking his head.

"Forget it, forget it. I'll have to see to it until the end. Let me see how I can break this curse." Ling Yi said helplessly.

And besides, he lived nearby. He was in no hurry to get back home.

He immediately sat on the sofa at the side and went on the forum to search for a solution to the cursed nightmare.

…

After a short while of researching, he found several solutions.

The simplest way was to buy a curse removal talisman from the God's Path store.

It was a talisman that could remove low-level curses placed on players below level 10 (including ordinary people). And that just one talisman will cure one person.

He opened the server to God's Path shop to look and found that curse removal talisman paper was limited to one per day, and each one only cost 1 gold coin.

"If I had known it would be this cheap earlier, I would have searched for a way to dispel the curse in the restaurant." Ling Yi complained to himself as he bought the [Curse Removal Talisman] and immediately used it on the still sleeping girl.

In the next moment, a patch of pale blue light spots appeared from the void, as if a small star had appeared before him.

These light spots slowly floated towards Lin Shurou's body, enveloping her and entering her skin.

'She should be able to recover now.' Ling Yi had already decided to leave.

As if some mysterious force compels him to stay, a notification beyond his expectations appeared in front of him.

[Current Progress: 1/3]

[Prompt: The target's level is greater than level 10. More curse dispelling power is required!]

"Higher than Level 10?!" He stared at the sleeping woman with wide eyes.

It was hard to associate this delicate woman with a powerful high-level player.

While he was in shock, the woman's eyelids were twitching rapidly, as if she was trying to wake herself up.

Ling Yi thought for a moment and felt that she might need a little help, so he started to shake her body.

The effect was very obvious.

Lin Shurou immediately woke up, her watery blue eyes wide open.

Then their eyes met. 

The two of them only stared for a moment before the girl screamed and immediately got up. She crossed her arms like a frightened rabbit and quickly shrank into a corner of the sofa.

Her face was red from embarrassment.

"How did you wake up?" Ling Yi asked curiously.

He only completed one-third of the recovery progress. Shouldn't she have woken up once the curse was fully lifted?

Not that he was not grateful that the girl woke up! He was just really and genuinely curious! 

Lin Shurou looked at him in panic and then looked down at herself. Seeing that her clothes were still intact, she was slightly relieved.

Seeing that the girl was slightly calmer, Ling Yi added, "I've just dispelled one-third of the curse, so… I'm just really curious."

"With a little progress, I can wake up for a short period of time." Lin Shurou replied softly from her corner.

"Since you're awake and a player, I think you're alright. I won't stay any longer." Ling Yi waved his hand and was about to leave.

But just as he turned around and took a step, an urgent voice came from behind him, "Wait a minute, I still need your help."

"What?" Ling Yi turned around with a puzzled expression.

Lin Shurou took a deep breath and explained her situation to him.

...

It turned out…

She used to be a Level 30 player.

At that time, she was optimistic and cheerful, with a confident smile every day.

But then, in one of the God's Path assessment test, her District had failed, and an army of monsters had occupied the crystal. Everyone in the district had been permanently restricted from entering God's Path and using their player's power.

In other words, although she was still Level 30, she was now just an ordinary person.

After falling from being extraordinary to an ordinary person, she had a great sense of insecurity. And since then, she had been very careful in doing things, and she had slowly withdrawn into her shell and become weak.

"Although I'm still Level 30, I can no longer use my powers as a player."

Lin Shurou took off her shoes as she spoke. She curled into herself on the sofa with her white-stocking legs against her chest as if trying to hide, but she continued to face Ling Yi as she retold her story.

"I can't use the God's Path shop, so I can't buy curse-dispelling talismans, Which is why I will still need your help for the next two days." She ended somewhat in an insecure tone.

"Oh, that's it? Then that's fine" Ling Yi nodded in understanding.

All he had to do was to buy her a [Curse Dispelling Talisman] for the next two days. It didn't cost too much anyway, so he was quick to agree.

Lin Shurou looked at his genuine smile and thought for a moment. Then, she pursed her lips and whispered, "But I don't have anything to repay you."

She looked around her house for a while, and when she saw that there was nothing she could take out, she looked even more embarrassed.

But Ling Yi didn't think so.

"No, you have something that can repay me."

He stared at Lin Shurou's face and chuckled.

She had once been a level 30 player and had practically completed the entire Beginner Map. The information in her mind was not something a few gold coins could compare to.

Although most of these things were open to the public and could be found on the forum, it was undoubtedly better to have someone who already knew this information explain it to him.

Seeing the young man in front of her smiling at her, Lin Shurou was stunned for a moment before her face turned red.

Once again, she wrapped her arms around her chest and said nervously, "T-t-t-that kind of thing is not allowed."

Her big blue and watery eyes were almost covered in tears.

Ling Yi was speechless.

He skipped the topic and gave her a formal self-introduction.

"Speaking of which, you still don't know my name." He extended his hand to her. "Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Ling Yi. Ling as in soaring to the clouds, Yi as in outstanding1."

"I just became a player today, currently... Hmm... I'm at a pretty good level."

Lin Shurou blinked her eyes and stared at him for a long time. Then, she sighed as if she had resigned herself to fate. She reached out her pale hand and placed it on his palm.

"Lin Shurou, there's no special meaning to it. You can call me whatever you want. I'm just an ordinary person with no one to rely on."