A simple meal.
As night fell, the silhouette of Fengyue City blurred into the twilight.
The great bell of the Bell Tower tolled, its heavy chimes echoing over the entire town.
Ailiya sat at the very top of the Bell Tower, her legs dangling in the air as her silver-white wolf tail swayed back and forth in the night wind.
No one had seen how she got up there. For an Assassin with the **[Sprint]** and **[Stealth]** skills, such a height was a common occurrence.
The town lights flickered beneath her feet like countless tiny, pulsing stars.
Ailiya didn’t waste time on the so-called romantic atmosphere; she even felt a bit cold.
She pulled several books from her bosom.
After spending some money, she had finally obtained the books she wanted. One was a basic textbook on maid duties, one was *basic magic theory*, and another was a *historical overview of this world*.
People of this world had to study slowly and accumulate knowledge and skills over time. But Ailiya was different; the existence of the system changed everything.
To become stronger, besides killing mobs, there was a more civilized way — class roleplay.
As long as she performed actions consistent with her profession, she could gain experience.
Experience could be earned through a chef cooking, combat classes sparring or dueling, a maid sweeping, brewing tea, performing various chores, reading to improve one’s cultivation, teaching others, and so on.
However, the game system was strict about how experience points were judged.
For example, if she roleplayed as a maid but didn’t perform her duties well, she wouldn’t receive full experience, or the action might even be deemed invalid.
This was why Ailiya didn’t randomly snap at people while she was performing her job.
She opened her attribute panel and looked at the sub-class column.
**[Sub-class]** Maid Level 2 (10/120)
She had leveled up.
Her work at the tavern over the past few days had accumulated enough experience.
However, any excess experience points would simply overflow and be wasted; they would not accumulate toward the next level.
Ailiya opened the first book, *Maid’s Cultivation: elementary*.
When she concentrated on the page, a translucent panel popped up.
**[Do you wish to learn *Maid’s Cultivation: elementary*?]**
**[Learning Time: 10 minutes]**
Ailiya chose “Yes.”
She closed her eyes, feeling the strange sensation of knowledge automatically organizing and categorizing itself in her mind. It wasn’t a forced infusion; it felt natural, as if the knowledge had always been there.
As the progress bar began to fill, a wave of fatigue instantly washed over her body, as if she had just finished running 1 kilometer. This was the physical feedback of her stamina being drained.
When she opened her eyes, she could already understand many of the experiences and techniques of a maid — knowledge on how to fold napkins perfectly, how to wipe a table elegantly, and how to change plates without disturbing the guests.
It was a wonderful feeling. It wasn’t rote memorization, but more like her body had already practiced these things thousands of times. Whether she would actually do them, however, was a different story.
**[Experience Gained: Life Class +150]**
**[Maid Level 2 → Level 3 (0/300)]**
**[Learning Progress: 50%]**
**[Constitution +1]**
A small notification box popped up in the corner of her vision.
The experience required to level up varied by profession. Life classes required 2 levels to increase an attribute by one point, which was much more resource-intensive than combat classes.
Ailiya opened her personal panel to check the attribute changes.
**[Status Window]**
Constitution: 12 (Average +1)
Although it was only one point, it was decent for the early stages.
‘Killing mobs is indeed efficient, but it’s done at the cost of one’s life,’ Ailiya calculated coldly in her mind as she turned the pages.
‘I’m not sure if I can respawn. If a pack of high-level red-named mobs spawns in the wilderness, it would be seeking death. I’m not one of those hot-headed protagonists.’
She picked up the second book and continued the process.
This time, it took 30 minutes.
**[Experience Gained: Combat Class +50]**
**[Warlock Level 1 (90/100)]**
**[Learning Progress: 35%]**
**[Professional Ability: Mana Infusion (Not Learned)]**
The wind on the Bell Tower blew past, causing her silver-white wolf tail to twitch slightly.
She looked into the distance; the silhouette of the town appeared clear and real under the moonlight.
Ailiya called up the system settings, found the **[Pain Adjustment]** option, and turned the feedback from the current 20% back to 100%.
She pulled out a sharpened dagger.
She gave her palm a gentle slice.
Beads of blood slowly seeped out.
The resulting pain was almost instantaneous.
It was very real.
Ailiya didn’t panic; instead, she calmly watched the wound.
She took a silent breath and adjusted the pain back to 20%.
She looked at the wound on her hand and bandaged it with a piece of cloth she carried with her. Although she could have used a healing potion, it was better not to waste one now.
Back in the *eternal realm*, as a retired player, her status as a top-tier power leveler had given her a sense of achievement — the pleasure of being pursued and relied upon by countless fans.
But it had also brought endless exhaustion. Every day, she had to maintain a perfect combat state and face new client demands. That sense of achievement eventually became a shackle, a form of suffocation.
Now, she was Ailiya.
There were no guild restrictions and no pressure from client deadlines.
Ailiya stood up and brushed the dust off her skirt, her ice-blue eyes reflecting the lights of the town’s many homes.
As the final book, *general history of the continent*, was finished, the knowledge transformed into a stream of data and merged into her mind. Ailiya closed the book and turned her gaze toward the depths of the night.
***
Outside the city, about 20 miles away in front of a cave, a campfire burned brightly.
“Hahahaha!” Coarse laughter echoed through the night. Several rogue mercenaries wearing worn leather armor sat in a circle, holding roasted meat and wine, their mouths greasy from eating.
“Brothers, we did a good job on this one!” The leader, a man with a scarred face, raised his cup. “That loot is enough for us to hide comfortably in another stronghold for half a year.”
“Exactly!” the person next to him agreed. “Those patrol teams can’t find us at all, hahaha!”
“I heard someone is looking for us?” a skinny man interrupted. “Don’t be ridiculous. Who could catch us?”
Before he could finish his sentence, one of the men stood up and scratched his pants.
“I’m going to relieve myself, you guys keep eating.” He burped and staggered toward the dark woods.
The others laughed and continued roasting meat, drinking, and bragging.
“I’m telling you, if that old geezer Balke hadn’t been there, we would have dealt with that maid long ago.”
Their words became increasingly filthy and shameless.
But they didn’t notice that on a large tree less than 50 meters from the camp, a slender figure was standing quietly on a branch.
The night wind blew, and the short silver-white hair overlapped with the bright moon behind her, making her look like a ghost born of the moonlight.
Ailiya looked down at the group of celebrating “mobs.”
‘Having too keen a sense of smell is also a form of torture,’ Ailiya thought, frowning slightly as she covered her nose in disgust.
It was precisely this lingering stench that had allowed her to track them all the way here.
For an ordinary person, perhaps nothing would be audible at this distance.
But for a wolfkin with the silver frost bloodline, the five senses were enhanced under the moonlight. Those foul words carried clearly on the wind.
Ailiya’s wolf ears twitched. This trash actually dared to think about her.
Although Ailiya didn’t care about such gossip, being talked about so blatantly was still somewhat unpleasant.
She looked at the five targets below, red health bars and status windows floating above their heads, and made her decision.
Five minutes passed.
Ten minutes passed.
The men finally noticed something was wrong.
“Hey, why hasn’t he come back yet?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go see what’s going on.”
Another man stood up, cursing, and walked toward the woods with his blade in hand.
Another ten minutes passed.
There was still no response.
The darkness was like a giant mouth, silently swallowing two people.
Only the rustling of wind through the leaves remained.
The expressions of the remaining three changed from relaxed to alert. By reflex, they extinguished the campfire and drew their weapons.
“Stay sharp! Something’s wrong!” the scarred leader barked in a low voice.
Under the moonlight, a pair of glittering ice-blue eyes slowly opened.
In the darkness, her figure was as silent and terrifying as the night itself.