Chapter 31: Leaderboard (1st Update)

The crow flew away...

Jiang Ye's eyes widened, his mind going completely blank at the sight.

"Dorin?!"

Dorin was the crow all along.

The crow flew out the window without looking back, like a massive dark cloud, shooting off into the distance.

"Dorin! Wait!"

The mushroom dashed out of the room, thumped down the stairs, and burst out of the inn.

The crow didn't seem to hear Jiang Ye calling, already disappearing into the night sky, heading out of town.

The mushroom looked around, pulled a bike out of his bag, gave a mighty push with his long mycelium legs, and the bike clattered forward as he gave chase toward the edge of town.

It was already dark, and midnight was closing in fast. At this hour, the townsfolk rarely went out, and the streets were quiet—quiet enough for a little mushroom to ride at full speed.

Just as he neared the town gate, someone came walking toward him.

The mushroom felt a flicker of hope—maybe it was Dorin coming back.

The figure was tall, but not as eye-catching as Dorin. It was the player Le Yi Li.

Le Yi Li spotted the mushroom from afar and waved. "Mushroom, it's you! Did you see the leaderboard?"

Jiang Ye thought, what leaderboard? He didn't have time for that right now. He pumped hard on the pedals with his mycelium legs, unable to stop wondering if he should start working on an electric bike—pedaling was still too slow.

"I'm in a hurry, gotta run!" The mushroom zoomed past Le Yi Li without stopping.

Le Yi Li was caught off guard and turned to watch him go. "It's this late—where are you headed? Going to the mine? It's dangerous out there!"

No answer. The mushroom had already blown through the town gate and vanished.

Jiang Ye chased all the way out of town without stopping. It was even darker outside than he'd expected.

The bike had no headlight, and with only the little mushroom's glowing ring to light the way, it was hard to see the road ahead. And at the little mushroom's breakneck speed, he nearly plowed into a tree twice.

Squeak!

He slammed on the brakes.

The mushroom stopped and let out a breath. Good thing he didn't crash.

"Uh oh, looks like I took a wrong turn." He scratched his mushroom cap with his mycelium.

Jiang Ye smartly pulled up the map and studied his position—sure enough, he'd gone the wrong way.

Looks like when he develops the electric bike, he'll need to work on a headlight too.

"Dorin? Dorin? Where are you?"

The mushroom wheeled the bike back onto the right path.

He checked the time—"01:20"—almost 2 AM, the forced sleep time.

Jiang Ye called out loudly, but no one answered. Everything was dead silent—not even the wind made a sound.

Going back now probably wouldn't make it in time anyway. The mushroom figured he might as well accept his fate—what was passing out and getting sent to the clinic, anyway? It'd be a new experience.

"Dorin! Where are you! Dorin!" The mushroom kept searching.

"01:40"

"Dorin..."

He rubbed his nonexistent neck with his mycelium and cleared his throat, feeling like he'd yelled himself hoarse.

"01:50"

The mushroom put the bike back into his item slot so he wouldn't lose it when he passed out.

"02:00"

Time's up.

Thud...

A little mushroom hit the ground, all alone.

This feeling...

Jiang Ye lay on the ground, eyes closed, sprawled out, drowsiness washing over him. He thought: This feels about the same as a hangover...

He'd be heading to the clinic soon. Come to think of it, he'd never met the doctor—at least he could say hi.

Consciousness was slipping away. Just before the mushroom sank fully into sleep, he vaguely heard a sharp crack, like... something breaking.

"Spring, Day 13, Thursday"

"6:00"

Head...

His head hurt so much.

He used his mycelium to prop up his full umbrella cap as he slowly sat up, instinctively thinking that passing out in the middle of nowhere sucked—maybe he shouldn't do that again.

He opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the inn room, not the clinic.

"Ugh... my head hurts so bad." He rubbed his mushroom head with his mycelium, feeling like his brain was a total mess. "Wait, why would I go to the clinic? Oh, right..."

I got drunk.

That's right.

The mushroom nodded his heavy head. Last night, Dorin and I were chatting at the bar, had too many chocolate liqueurs, and accidentally got wasted. Dorin must've brought me back.

"Ugh—" The mushroom leaned back and lay down again, mumbling: "No more drinking, no more. Never again. I need more sleep... let me sleep..."

Jiang Ye closed his eyes again, drifting off, but something felt off—an uneasy feeling in his chest, like a puzzle piece in the wrong spot, a weirdness he couldn't put into words.

The mushroom sat up again, hands on his hips: "How weird, what exactly is weird here?"

"Open Grandpa's cookie tin?"

A system notification popped up in front of him.

"Almost forgot!" Jiang Ye got distracted and said, "Yes."

No wonder he felt so off—he'd almost missed the draw.

"Congratulations! You've obtained: Everlasting Rose x1"

A crystal ball materialized in Jiang Ye's hand, and inside it bloomed a rose as red as fire and blood. The rose gave off a soft, dim glow all on its own.

"It's pretty and all," Jiang Ye said, "but not exactly practical."

It was basically a knickknack—good for sprucing up a room or maybe gifting to boost someone's opinion of you. But not every resident was into fancy little decorations like that.

Little Mushroom tucked the rose into his mailbag. Once he was mostly awake, his mycelium reached up to touch the sapphire crown on his head, then switched on the TV.

"Weather Report"

"Today's gonna be sunny and clear, with a 0% chance of rain."

"TV Shopping"

"Today's featured item—the Automatic Sprinkler Blueprint!

Sick of the daily grind of watering your crops? What you need is this Automatic Sprinkler Blueprint! Fully automated—hands-free! It waters your precious crops for you every single day!

Limited-time 10% off, only at Sun Town Seed Shop!"

"Tea Leaf Fortune"

"You glance down at the tea leaves in your cup...

The shape is... a circle... right?

What does it mean?

—Cycles.

Also: Chief Deity is in a foul mood today, so tread carefully."

"Automatic sprinkler!" Little Mushroom's eyes lit up. That sounded awesome.

The cabin had been under renovation lately, and the town was a long way off. Going back and forth was a pain, and he'd been busy mining, so he hadn't made it back to water the crops.

Jiang Ye wondered if the crops were okay.

"I'm buying this blueprint!" Little Mushroom said firmly.

He planned to head out right away—and of course, he wouldn't forget the purple briefs.

The universal duplicator was done. He opened it, and two purple briefs popped out. He stuffed another pair in, so in four hours, a fresh pair would be ready.

He moved with practiced ease. After stuffing the briefs in, he instinctively glanced at the window.

He wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but he felt eyes on the back of his head—sneaky, lurking.

The window was shut, but the inn was old, and there was a gap in the frame.

He walked over, and his mycelium shoved the window open.

Whoosh— wings flapped outside.

He leaned out and grinned. "Oh, it's you, Your Majesty. No use hiding—I already saw you."

It wasn't some creep or thief—it was a crow.

The crow flapped, circled, and flew in through the window, its blue eyes checking him out from head to toe.

"What's up, Your Majesty?" he asked, confused. "You're looking at me weird."

The crow looked away.

He pulled a strawberry out of his mailbag. "Hungry? Strawberry? Want one?"

The crow didn't take it, but kept sneaking glances at him.

"Oh, not hungry, huh?" He smiled knowingly. "Then you must be here to hang out, right?"

His mycelium pulled out a chunk of gold ore that glittered in the sunlight.

He held it up. "Look, Your Majesty—shiny, sparkly. You like it, right? I'm gonna toss it now, and you go fetch."

Jiang Ye had thought it over—the last fetch game failed for a reason.

The crow didn't like twigs—they weren't pretty or sparkly enough.

Everyone said crows were the dogs of the bird world, so there was no way it wouldn't love fetch. Little Mushroom planned to try again.

He tossed the gleaming ore out—clatter, clatter—

Crow: "..."

He said eagerly, "Your Majesty! Go fetch it!"

The crow shook its head. "Caw—"

—Idiot.

Jiang Ye's eyes went wide. He stared at the crow, stunned, unable to react for a long moment.

Right as the crow cawed, he vaguely heard a man's voice say "idiot." The voice was nice, actually—kind of like Dorin's.

But Dorin was way too sweet and gentle to curse!

He patted his head. "Man, I must still be drunk. Did I just hear a crow call me an idiot?"

The crow tilted its head.

He crawled back into the tent cat bed, lay down, and muttered, "I need more sleep." He was hallucinating now.

Jiang Ye figured he might as well sleep a bit more. Four hours, wake up, duplicate another pair of briefs, then hit the seed shop and blacksmith's—plenty of time.

Jiang Ye was very sleepy. He had barely lain down before he was completely lost in dreams.

Little Mushroom was dreaming...

Jiang Ye clearly sensed he was dreaming, but could daytime naps also trigger creation dreams?

A little mushroom was walking alone down the road, when Jiang Ye suddenly spotted Delin from behind.

Before he could call out to Delin, the other suddenly morphed from a tall human into a giant crow, spreading its wings and flying away.

Whoa!

Jiang Ye sucked in a sharp breath.

Right then, he heard a crack—the blue crown on his head shattered and fell to the ground, breaking into three pieces.

"Whoa!!!"

Jiang Ye gasped again, shooting upright in bed.

The dream was over.

The mushroom sat on the bed, dazed. It wasn't a creation dream—just some weird nightmare.

It raised a mycelial tendril to touch the sapphire crown on its head. The mushroom sighed in relief—it was intact, no cracks, not a scratch.

"See?" the mushroom muttered to itself, "how could Delin ever turn into a crow? What a ridiculous dream."

"18:00"

"Oh no, it's this late! I overslept!"

The mushroom scrambled up, harvested the purple underwear, made a copy of it, and dashed out the door.

Once outside the inn, Jiang Ye whipped out his bicycle, hopped on, and took off.

It wasn't that late, but unfortunately, even if he biked over now, the seed shop would already be closed—he'd have to wait until tomorrow for the sprinkler blueprint.

Jiang Ye planned to head straight to the blacksmith's to pick up the two Hero's Swords, so he could give them to Delin tonight.

At this hour, the town was packed—residents were heading home from work and school. And it wasn't just residents—there were tons of players out too.

Thud! Thud!

Up ahead in the square, the Mayor himself was driving a huge wooden sign into the ground, giving it two solid whacks.

A bunch of players had crowded around the sign, all hyped up and chattering.

"Mushroom! Mushroom! Come quick!"

Someone was hollering at him from down the street—it was the Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King.

The mushroom pedaled over, braked, and asked, "What's going on here?"

"Mushroom!" Little Yellow-Hair stared at his bike, totally forgetting the question, and blurted out, "Oh my god, what is this? A bicycle? Did you pull this from a treasure chest?"

At the mention of the bike, the mushroom puffed out its stem proudly and said, "Nope, not from a chest—I built it myself."

"That's way cooler!" Little Yellow-Hair's eyes went all starry. "Oh hey, Mushroom, come check out the leaderboard!"

So that big wooden sign the Mayor had just put up was the leaderboard.

The mushroom squeezed through the crowd and leaned in for a look.

The sign looked crude, but one light tap turned it into a glowing screen.

The screen was split into two sections.

On the left was the "Server Leaderboard."

On the right was the "Crossover Leaderboard."

The Server Leaderboard was further divided into two categories: "Combat Leaderboard" and "Life Leaderboard."

Jiang Ye's head spun at all the options. "That many boards? This detailed?"

Little Yellow-Hair pointed, all excited. "Mushroom, Mushroom, look! You're number two on the Wealth Leaderboard! Second place!"

The mushroom spotted itself too—sure enough, there he was.

At this stage, hardly anyone could afford to spend rupees upgrading their house. Jiang Ye hadn't only upgraded his house but still had cash to spare—so yeah, he was near the top.

A nearby player said, "The top spot on the Wealth Leaderboard goes to 'I Love Farming'—that guy's insane."

"How come I've never seen them say anything in chat?"

Jiang Ye thought, Me neither. Guess they're a low-key big shot.

Besides the Wealth Leaderboard, there were also Combat, Fishing, Deepest Mine, Most Damage Taken, Healing Done, and more.

Little Yellow-Hair cracked up. "There's even a Scavenging Leaderboard—how is that even a thing? Oh, and this one's hilarious too—the Sleep-Deprivation Leaderboard. And check this out—there's a Big Eater Leaderboard for most food eaten! Hahaha, Mushroom, you're on that one too!"

Jiang Ye looked closer. "..." Awkward.

The only first-place Mushroom Soup had was on the "Big Eater" Leaderboard!

Jiang Ye grumbled to himself—it had to be from that day of getting bombed nonstop, force-feeding himself just to stay alive.

"There's a Greeting Leaderboard too," the mushroom coughed, quickly changing the subject. "Someone's greeted residents 1,008 times already—that's insane."

"It's that 'I Love Farming' again." Someone strolled over with arms crossed—it was Le Yi Li.

"Old Li, you alright? Why the long face?" The mushroom looked up, confused.

Le Yi Li's face was twisted with fury, practically radiating murderous intent.

Little Yellow-Hair whispered, "Old Li's seriously pissed."

The mushroom was confused.

Little Yellow-Hair pointed.

Jiang Ye saw the top of the Combat Leaderboard and said, surprised, "Old Li isn't number one? I thought he was the ultimate monster slayer. It's this 'I Love Farming'!"

That "I Love Farming" again—ranked first on the Combat Leaderboard, beating out Le Yi Li, who was stuck in second.

The mushroom marveled, "Now that's what I call a big shot."

Le Yi Li said grimly, "Some guy named 'I Love Farming' taking the combat crown? Isn't that a slap in the face to us roguelike players?"

With that, he turned and walked off, clearly heading out to slay monsters right now to surpass "I Love Farming."

The mushroom said, "Old Li, isn't it dangerous to go monster-hunting this late?"

Le Yi Li didn't look back, just waved and walked away.

The guy who wanted to be the Smoked Fish King said, "Don't worry about him, Lao Li's got plenty of experience."

Mushroom nodded and kept looking at the leaderboard, saying in surprise, "Fish King, you're not number one in fishing."

Blondie: "..."

Blondie's smile froze on his face.

Mushroom looked again and laughed awkwardly. What a coincidence—first place was...

"I'm number one." Someone walked over with a gentlemanly smile.

It was Smoked Fish King.

Blondie was so mad he nearly blew his top, saying, "I'll beat you tomorrow, just you wait."

Mushroom felt the mood suddenly get tense, like a bomb about to go off, and quickly changed the subject, saying, "There's also a sleep leaderboard—someone's slept 234 hours."

Mushroom said in awe, "We've only been in the game 14 days, and someone's already slept 234 hours?"

"It's been 13 days." Smoked Fish King corrected from the side.

Mushroom was taken aback, opened the system to check, and sure enough—13 days.

Jiang Ye said, "Guess I lost track of time."

Blondie pointed at the screen and said, "Mushroom, look, this is our server's overall leaderboard, you're number 101."

Mushroom nodded.

Blondie said, "You're number two on the wealth leaderboard, so why's your overall rank so low? How's the overall leaderboard even ranked?"

"What about you?" Mushroom asked.

Blondie scratched his nose and said, "Me? 3,701st."

Jiang Ye blinked and said earnestly, "We've got a lot of people on our server."

Blondie: "..."

Besides the server leaderboard, there was also a cross-server leaderboard nearby.

Mushroom asked, "What's this?"

Smoked Fish King said, "Besides our server, this game probably has other servers. This is the overall power ranking for all servers."

Jiang Ye suddenly caught on, saying, "There's a leaderboard like this too? So where's our server ranked?"

"Cross-server leaderboard: 88th"

Mushroom exclaimed, "What a lucky number!"

Blondie was surprised too. "There are 89 servers total? We're 88th?"

"Huh?" Jiang Ye's jaw dropped. This... was practically dead last.

Smoked Fish King shook his head and sighed. "Looks like folks on our server just don't grind hard enough."

More and more players crowded around the leaderboard, and Mushroom got pushed out of the crowd.

"I'm done looking—I still gotta hit the blacksmith's shop." Mushroom hopped on his bike and said goodbye to Blondie and Smoked Fish King.

It was already getting late. Mushroom hurried to the blacksmith's, where the blacksmith was still hard at work.

"You're here." The blacksmith nodded and brought out two long, big boxes. "Two hero's swords. They're sharp—be careful."

"Got it." Mushroom nodded, feeling a weird feeling inside.

Jiang Ye held the two boxes, heavy in his arms. Without even opening them, he already pictured the hero's sword in his mind.

A blue hilt, a sharp blade, glowing with golden holy light.

Beautiful, but also dangerous.

Mushroom shook his head as the weird feeling spread.

With a click, the mycelium opened the box, and the hero's sword appeared before Mushroom, exactly as he had imagined.

At the same time...

The precious sapphire crown on Mushroom's head made a sharp crack, fell to the ground, and shattered into three pieces...

Late at night, 10:30 PM

Jiang Ye had already returned to the small inn and was leaning by the window, looking out.

In the distance, someone walked along the town's dark cobblestone road. The person looked up at the window. Mushroom waved proactively in greeting.

It was Dorin.

Dorin entered the inn, went upstairs, stood at the door, hesitated a moment, knocked twice softly, and pushed it open.

"Dorin, you're here!" Mushroom said.

Dorin nodded.

Mushroom walked up to him. "You're finally here! A gift! For you!"

He thrust a box into Dorin's arms.

Dorin caught the box, and it was obvious his arms were stiff, his whole body tense.

Mushroom urged, "Go on, open it!"

Dorin looked down at the box. Even with his helmet on, Jiang Ye could sense Dorin's deep shock.

Dorin's whole body jolted, and his voice was full of surprise. "This box?"

It wasn't a long, big, heavy box, but a tiny one. Different from yesterday.

No—different from that vanished 13th night.

Dorin opened the gift box.

Mushroom asked, "Do you like it?"

Inside the small box was an eternal rose.