Wayfarer

Chapter 845: Circle of Separation

As he walked along the street, Xiao Nanfeng glanced around and wondered to himself, "Did I travel to a different world entirely, or just back in time?"

He stopped a passerby to ask a few questions and confirmed what was happening.

"The name of the country doesn't match anything from Earth's history, so this must be another world. But isn't it strange that I understand the language here? Could this be my special ability?" Xiao Nanfeng murmured.

Though everything around him seemed strange, he decided to simply observe his surroundings for now.

"Let's set some priorities for myself. I need to make money, gain power, live long, and enjoy life. The order doesn't matter. I'm in an unfamiliar environment, so I should try to lie low for now and make some money, then use it to further my other objectives," he murmured.

He observed the people and his surroundings carefully. Given the experience from his past life, he saw countless opportunities to make money.

"Glass, soap, poetry, novels, songs—these are all my assets. Making money in this world should be easy. Of course, I can't show all my cards at once, or I might end up drawing too much attention to myself," Xiao Nanfeng thought.

As he walked, Xiao Nanfeng noticed the passersby staring disdainfully at his dirty appearance, but he didn't mind. In order to gain a stable footing here, he would clearly have to approach things with careful consideration.

Finally, he thought, "The mosti mportant thing right now is to understand this world better. I need to find someone I can question."

He had walked for some time when, suddenly, a wave of unease washed over him. A sense of gut-wrenching dread filled his entire body.

"What's going on? Why am I feeling so panicked all of a sudden?" he muttered, hurriedly checking himself over.

However, nothing seemed to be the problem. Instinctively, he took a step backward, and the feeling immediately vanished.

"Huh?" Xiao Nanfeng was taken aback.

He stepped forward, and the dread returned. He stepped back, and it disappeared again.

"There's an invisible boundary here... Something feels off on the other side," Xiao Nanfeng muttered, bewildered.

Ignoring his discomfort, he crossed the boundary and made his way to a nearby teahouse. As he approached, a waiter bumpted into him, knocking him down. The waiter stumbled, righted himself, and walked off without even a glance in his direction.

"What? Did he just ignore me? Doesn't he mind my dirty appearance?" Xiao Nanfeng murmured in surprise.

He tried interacting with a few other people in the area, but none acknowledged him. Though they could see him, they acted as if he were inconsequential.

"Why are these people acting like I don't exist, even though they can see me? Everyone's going about their own business and ignoring me," Xiao Nanfeng murmured, puzzled.

Then, he stepped back across the boundary. He found that the people on this side behaved normally and responded to him just as they had before.

"Hey, beggar! Scram! You're scaring off my customers," someone shouted.

Xiao Nanfeng's expression grew serious. "There's definitely something strange going on in this world."

He walked along the boundary, tracing its path, and soon determined that it was a circular area covering a specific region.

Within this boundary, people accepted him; outside of it, he was ignored.

"What's going on? The people on the other side won't even acknowledge me! How am I supposed to make any money? No one's going to listen to poetry or buy glass or soap!" Xiao Nanfeng frowned.

All his previous plans seemed to be for naught.

"Am I dreaming?" Xiao Nanfeng suddenly wondered.

He pinched and slapped himself repeatedly, but nothing changed.

"It's not a dream, then? I really traveled to another world? But this world doesn't seem quite right. It's as if I don't fit into it—it's like a single-player game where I'm not the protagonist..." A realization hit him. "A game? Am I in a game world? Are all these people just NPCs?"

The more he thought about it, the stranger it felt. Wasn't this world too advanced to be a game world? The NPCs were just like real people!

Or was this instead some sort of divine prank?

Xiao Nanfeng grimaced. None of it seemed right.

Just then, the feeling of unease struck him again.

"Hm? The boundary's moving? It's not fixed in place?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

He carefully observed the boundary's movements, feeling as though he might have latched onto something important.

Two days later, he finally located the center of the boundary: the little beggar girl to whom he had given a bun on his first day here.

"It's her? The boundary is a perfect circle with her at the center. It moves when she does. What's going on? Is she the main character of this game? Or perhaps some sort of chosen one? But she's destitute right now..." Xiao Nanfeng murmured.

He was deeply confused, but there was no time to question things. The girl was being bullied by a group of other beggars.

She was curled up and protecting her head as a gang of beggars kicked and punched her.

"You stupid girl! You're lucky I allowed you to join us, but you even refused my invitation! Beat her up! Break her arms and legs, then drag her into the crowd. She can beg for us," the lead beggar barked.

"Stupid girl! We'll teach you a lesson!" The beggars all began to punch and kick her.

The little girl, Yanzhi, huddled in terror. Tears streamed down her face. She had never been treated this cruelly before.

"Father, Mother, Brother, Sister—please come save me!" she sobbed.

At that moment, the lead beggar suddenly squawked in pain.

The others stopped beating her and looked up, only to see Xiao Nanfeng holding a rock. He had just bashed the lead beggar on the head. Blood was streaming down his face as he fell to the ground, clutching his head in agony.

"Boss!" The other beggars rushed toward Xiao Nanfeng, who pinned the leader to the ground and kept pounding on his head with the rock.

The repeated blows turned the lead beggar's head into a bloody mess. The scene was so gruesome that the others froze in shock.

"Stay back! If you come any closer, I'll kill him," Xiao Nanfeng warned.

The beggars stopped in their tracks. Without any hesitation, Xiao Nanfeng smashed their leader's knees with the rock, shattering his kneecaps. He would never walk again.

Xiao Nanfeng felt no pity for the man. He had heard him threaten to break the girl's limbs, and he deserved no mercy. Leaving him crippled was already lenient.

As for any potential revenge, he wasn't too worried. Beggars owned nothing to begin with. Now that he was crippled, it was unlikely that the others would continue to follow him, let alone avenge him.

"Does he have any relatives or friends?" Xiao Nanfeng asked, looking around at the other beggars.

The beggars' faces shifted uneasily. Finally, one of them said, "No, he's alone."

Xiao Nanfeng turned toward a thin beggar and pointed at him. "You, answer my question."

The thin beggar gulped and nodded as well. "He doesn't have any relatives or friends."

"Take him and leave," Xiao Nanfeng said, standing up.

He still held the blood-stained stone. His face was a mask of cold menace, which intimidated the beggars. Xiao Nanfeng might look young, but there was nothing childish about his ruthlessness.

They glanced at the half-dead beggar before him and shuddered.

"Well? Aren't you going to leave? Do you want to avenge him? Go ahead! I'll take one of you down with me if I have to. Before you bring me down, I'll rip out one of your throats," Xiao Nanfeng growled, baring his teeth.

Having already lost their leader, the beggars' resolve crumbled. After all, they were only beggars. If they had had any courage, they wouldn't have ended up in such a state. They picked up their crippled boss and slunk away in defeat.

Once they were out of sight, Xiao Nanfeng let out a long breath and slumped to the ground.

"Phew, I was scared. Keeping up that tough act is exhausting," he muttered, finally allowing himself to relax.

A short distance away, Yanzhi looked toward Xiao Nanfeng, her expression torn between gratitude and fear. Mother and Sister had told her not to trust anyone. Was this person also a bad guy?

"Hey, are you a player?" Xiao Nanfeng asked as he approached her.

He wanted to confirm if this was a game world. She was at the center of the boundary, and the most likely to be the main character of the game.

Yanzhi: ???

"You're not a player?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed, surprised.

Yanzhi stared at him blankly. Was he crazy?

Xiao Nanfeng also looked puzzled. "I suppose I must have been mistaken." Inwardly, he thought to himself, "This girl doesn't seem too bright, but I'll figure things out eventually. For now, I need to stay close to her. If she moves away and I'm left outside the boundary, I'd go crazy."

Just then, Yanzhi's stomach growled. Her face flushed as she lowered her head.

"Are you hungry? Let's go eat, then." Xiao Nanfeng smiled at her kindly.

Since he'd decided to stick with this little girl, their first priority had to be to improve their living situation. They couldn't stay beggars forever, after all.

"A feast?" Yanzhi's eyes lit up hopefully.

However, when she glanced at Xiao Nanfeng's scruffy, filthy appearance, doubt crept in. Could he really afford a feast?

"Don't worry. We'll have money soon, but you'll have to play along with me."

Yanzhi looked at this overly friendly boy with some confusion.

Xiao Nanfeng then tore off his already filthy white shirt and grabbed the blood-stained rock he'd used on the lead beggar. With the blood, he began to write on the shirt. He wasn't sure why, but he seemed to know the characters used in this world, and the words flowed smoothly.

"My mother, Bai Suzhen, was cruelly imprisoned in Leifeng Pagoda by the monk Fahai. My father, Xu Xian, became a monk to be by her side. I, their son, am determined to pass the imperial examination, earn the emperor's favor, and beg him for mercy to release my parents. Meanwhile, my little sister, left without care, has tragically starved to death. We humbly ask for your donations to help bury her." [1]

Once Xiao Nanfeng finished writing this 'letter of misfortune', he grabbed Yanzhi's hand and pulled her over to a bustling area.

"You'll act as my sister while I share our tragic tale. We'll have money for that feast soon enough."

Yanzhi gawked at the bloody shirt, stunned. After a moment, she finally stammered, "I... I don't know how to lie."

"What do you mean, lie? It's a performance. I'm giving people a bit of entertainment in their otherwise dull lives. We'll perform, and they'll pay a little. Besides, I'll handle the sad part. All you need to do is lie still and play dead. There's no acting needed—what's there to worry about? Lie down, and I'll cover you with the blood-stained shirt."

"I..." Yanzhi was at a loss for words.

In the end, she let Xiao Nanfeng position her on the ground and cover her with the shirt.

"Now, don't move, or they'll realize that this was a trick. It'll ruin the whole effect."

"Okay..." Yanzhi lay on the ground, stiff and still.

After a few groups of passersby had gone past them, Xiao Nanfeng began to shout out, "Everyone, come look! Witness my sister's tragic death!"

Yanzhi shuddered. Her face turned red in embarrassment.

1. This references the Legend of the White Snake, a well-known Chinese folktale. ☜Nôv(el)B\\jnn