Acquaintance
"Trust?" Seriously? "the boy had a nervous tic. Even his self-control, which had been tempered over the years, could not accept this information.
Taking a deep breath, he began to grumble like an old grandfather.
— My grandson is constantly... no, even I think that this little girl, Jasmine, is comparable to a nuclear time bomb. One wrong step and boom! Or maybe ... no, if I don't try hard, I'll die, and my soul will go to this Hades, damn him...
The grumbling continued for a couple more minutes as he asked the system.
- System, when will Jasmine appear in this world… that is, in this city.
"Ding!"
"She will appear in the mountains behind the Xiao Clan of Floating Cloud City in 6 years."
Looking at this message, the boy closed his eyes and massaged them. The system gave me a task with a duration of 6 years, although I will be able to start it only in 6 years... he thought.
Deciding not to scold the System for fear of incurring its wrath, he crouched down and leaned against a tree.
"Then I'll have to kill Yun Che..." As he pondered his next move, he came to this conclusion. If you eliminate this protagonist, then the danger for him will become much less, and then he can only somehow get the Heavenly Poison Pearl and help Jasmine with the poison. — But the question is, how?"
"Ding!"
After reading the next message, the boy sighed again.
"You can't kill the main character Yun Che until the System allows you to!"
— So what do I do?" Two tigers on the same mountain will be cramped... if you can even call me a tiger. the boy laughed at himself.
"Ding!"
"Stop thinking about it until it's time. Better check out the store"
A store? The boy examined the interface of the system, where a new button with a store icon appeared. Opening it, an incredibly huge list appeared in front of him, laid out on shelves, from weapons to bloodline. Looking at his savings, he only saw 10 thousand points.
Opening the internal Veins section, he saw many names, including the Evil God Veins, and they were worth 5 thousand points.
"Wow... I happen to be rich." - the boy chuckled, having roughly determined the prices.
"Ding!"
When he opened the message, he realized that his initial money was only 1 thousand points, but thanks to the bonus from the avatar, he was able to get an additional 9 thousand.
"And he's not so bad, it turns out..." — the boy changed his attitude towards the avatar of god and smiled. As he scrolled through the list, he saw the following thing at the end that surprised him.
Lightning Sparrow veins.
"Sparrow? Seriously? At the end of the list, every vein has such pompous names, and here is a sparrow... " The boy laughed, but when he saw their price of 20 thousand points, he fell silent. He felt as if there was a lump in his throat.
"The Evil God's veins are worth 5 thousand ... and this ... I want this sparrow. like a child finding a favorite toy, his eyes lit up. - System, how do I get points quickly?
"Ding!"
"To earn points for purchases in the store, you must complete tasks. By completing tasks, you also increase your status level and..."
After receiving the answer to his question, and not reading further about the status, he waved away the message. He wasn't interested in status, level, and so on. It was difficult for him, just like in his previous life, when his great-grandson tried to teach him how to play rpg games.
"Ding!"
He got the message again.
"I didn't think I asked anything..." the boy muttered, but opened the text anyway.
"BOOR! BRUTE!"
— ... - after thinking for a while, he decided to apologize. "I'm sorry, but I'm really not interested in that status.
The system was silent for a while before responding:"System Update! Status and other indicators, other than the level of improvement, have been removed from your system"
— Thank you." the boy said sincerely.
After sitting still for a while, he decided to buy some elixirs and a regular sword for the first time.
"System, show the reward for the task with Jasmine.
"Ding!"
"5 thousand points!"
"..."he managed not to curse, but asked in a calm tone. "System, explain the reason for such a small reward.
"Ding!"
"The reward corresponds to the level of the quest!"
"She doesn't match it..." he sighed. "Jasmine is the Star God, if I remember correctly. And getting her trust, after what she's been through, is like climbing to heaven overnight.
"Ding!"
"The reward has been changed: 10 thousand points"
"Now, that's another conversation. the boy nodded. He has already come up with a plan to gain the confidence of the cheeky princess, and to do that, he needs to stay weak until she arrives or ...
" System, find an artifact or something that can hide my strength from everyone, even from the Realm of the Gods. he tried to stroke his beard, which was no longer there, and sighed in frustration. Habits don't just go away.
"Ding!"
"Artifact ring! Price: 2 thousand points"
"Expensive..." he wasn't surprised, since this thing should hide the power from Divine Practitioners as well. "Good-bye, my sparrow veins.... buying it.
An unremarkable ring appeared on the index finger of his right hand. It's a pity that I can't look at the stats of the items in the shop: he thought, realizing that the ring, in addition to concealing its cultivation, also has a space inside and is quite large at that.
"System, find me something that will allow me to conceal my presence to the level of an Emperor. The boy said. He could find an artifact that hid not only his power, but also his presence, but it would be much more expensive than buying it separately.
"Ding!"
"Presence Concealment Ring up to the Emperor Level: price 200 points! Restriction: Monsters, animals..."
The young man saw the ring restrictions written in the interface window, only smiled bitterly and shook his head. He knew that if the ring could hide him from everyone, then with this thing, he wouldn't even need to improve. Just come up behind everyone and kill them.
After all the purchases, he still had 6400 points left, but he didn't feel bad. After taking all the elixirs that should restore and purify his body and organs, he set about his healing. This was followed by a level-up elixir, which allowed him to break through from the Elementary Stage of Inner Strength level 1 to Level 4.It took two elixirs, which were quite expensive, and he didn't buy any more. Raising his level was necessary to increase his stamina, and that was all.
Getting up from the ground, the boy looked into the dense forest and squinted. Even though he had told God that he just wanted to die, now that he was feeling the full benefits of a young life, he realized how stupid he had been to give up on it all.
"Before I forget." he said, tapping the empty column with his name on it. "Let's call ourselves..."
In the blank line with the name, he wrote ... Jasmine…