Second quest

"He is such an idiot, letting me pick up herbs all on my own!" A woman cursed before stamping with an angered expression. While she was busy picking the herbs from the ground at the edge of the woods, a figure silently appeared behind her out of nowhere.

It was Shen who was staring down at the woman's neck with an indifferent expression and eyes filled with a bit of killing intent.

While he was standing behind her, several questions appeared inside his head.

'Should I use her as my test subject? Should I really do this to someone I don't even know? She is just living her life peacefully, do I want to take that away from her?' However, the moment he started hesitating, he recalled all of his cruel pain-filled deaths. Shen closed his eyes.

"Hmph...Why did I even marry such a good-for-nothing?" The woman muttered while picking up the herbs and putting them into a basket.

The moment Shen opened his eyes, any kind of empathy that remained there was completely erased. He held out his hand and a miniature blossom was formed out of gray energy before being shot right through the woman's body, creating a hole in the form of a blossom.

"Wha-?" The woman only looked down at the hole in her body before slowly turning her head to the side to look behind her just to see Shen's face covered in blood and dirt. When she saw his cold green eyes from so close, she could sense that he was very handsome under all that dirt, which only further confused her why he would attack her.

*Thud* However before her confusion could get cleared up, her body fell down with light leaving her eyes.

[+1 Death Coin]

Shen looked down at his right hand covered in a woman's blood and knew that he cannot undo what has been done and from this moment on, he would be recognized as some petty murderer.

'Better her than me, thanks to her I know that even the regular people without strength can get me coins. Even if 1 coin doesn't sound much, if I can kill thousands of people, it will amount to plenty of coins. It's a much better deal than killing those beasts while risking my life for some measly 15 coins. It's almost as if the system encourages me to go on a rampage.' Shen clenched his fist and a few scary thoughts already appeared inside his mind.

He took all of the herbs from the basket and put them inside his storage space.

[I recommend the master to be extra careful, in case of a killing many civilians, the master's sanity might drop down a bit. Based on how much sanity the master loses after dying, I calculate that killing around a hundred civilians will cause the master's sanity to drop by 1%. However, it is fair to say that by killing more and more civilians, the master might grow used to it and the limit can grow up to thousands per 1% of sanity]

'Interesting...how is the sanity being recovered?' Shen asked as he finally could make out a small city in the distance. Judging based on the woman's clothes, Shen could already tell that he is going to stand out a lot in his black jeans and jacket, no matter how handsome or ugly he is.

[The master's sanity is being recovered gradually, it can take weeks or months to recover just 1 %, it all depends on the master's talent to adapt to me. However, I would like to mention once again that recovering from the master's 50% to 100% won't make him turn back into who he was before.]

'Yeah, you already mentioned it. You also can't cure someone with PTSD just by magically increasing some numbers, I get it. Now, tell me more about those cores.'

The system explained everything it was allowed to and before Shen even knew it, he has already stepped inside this small city.

Naturally, the moment he appeared, wearing those modern and gloomy-looking clothes, a lot of eyes were focused on him. Many people started "whispering" about him, though he could hear everything. Not only were his senses enhanced however those people weren't even trying to whisper quietly.

He caught a lot of words like "weirdo" however there were also a few more luxurious clothed people of older age looking at him with shocked faces.

"* Such a young Nascent Profound Realm cultivator whose face is completely unknown?*"

When Shen heard older men's words, his brows twitched, asking the system how he can hide his strength.

[The master currently doesn't possess anything he can use to hide his cultivation, therefore he has to learn how to stop his profound energy from leaking out. Currently what the master is doing is similar to announcing his arrival to the stronger people inside this city.]

Before Shen could ask for details on how to learn it, another text appeared in front of his eyes.

[A new quest is available: Make yourself known throughout Floating Cloud City. Your name doesn't have to be mentioned in any of the rumors. Upon fulfilling this quest, the appropriate grade will be assigned and the reward will correspond to the grade received.]

'Hm? This means, there are several ways how to fulfill this quest. I am already creating rumors just by walking around with these modern clothes, looks like I will have to reconsider buying new clothes. Also, I bet if those rumors will be inducing fear or awe, the grade will be higher. I wonder if I can create two different kinds of rumors, ones for the midday me and the other for the midnight me.' Shen thought with a cold smile, however, he quickly assumed his indifferent expression as he approached a group of 3 men whispering while staring at him.

"Can you please tell me where I can sell Profound cores here?" Shen asked in a polite tone.

"Huh? What makes you think we would help some weird-looking person like you?" One of the men asked but he also threw a look at his companions when he heard "Profound cores"

Shen could tell that these people were extremely weak compared to him which most likely caused them to be unaware of his strength and he could also sense out their greediness. If it was any other time, he would very much like to play along with them but he didn't want to garner any excessive attention to his midday persona.

"Because I asked you politely, the next time I might become a bit rude." Shen tilted his head slightly to the side with closed eyes and a cold smile plastered on his face. He also conjured the miniature gray blossom inside his closed fist which was formed from his Death energy, causing to release a dreadful aura around him.

"?! I-I apologize for offending you! I-If you want to sell several of the cores, Xia Clan might be the ideal place for you. T-They specialize in a business so you might get the best rates there." All of them kneeled and the one who spoke back to Shen before explained with a shaky voice. Their action slightly surprised Shen, however, he didn't care much about it.

He asked them for the directions before setting out towards the Xia Manor.

'Are people naturally born here with some debuff - 50% of their original IQ?' Shen asked the system since he had no idea why they would assume him to be weak since he was in possession of the Profound cores.

[Not that I am aware of it, master]

'I see, in the world where the violence and strength can solve all your problems, where would you even use your brain, right?'