Zhao Doulai.
A third-year physical education major at Federal University's S-City campus.
That night, he'd been out for barbecue with his childhood friend Li Wufeng when the food had barely hit the table before they were forcibly teleported to the Karim Continent.
Honestly, he'd struggled to adjust at first.
But he was an athlete, after all. After a brief round of mental self-coaching, he pulled himself together.
Not like he had a choice — he couldn't just wallow in despair and wait to die.
Fortunately, while he was a jock, he wasn't stupid.
The moment he figured out the Magic Desk, he immediately contacted his childhood friend.
To his surprise, they'd both been assigned to District 666 — and even more surprisingly, their Shelters were practically door-to-door, only about a dozen meters apart.
So first thing the next morning, the two set out together to gather resources.
One whole morning yielded barely anything, and to top it off, a dark shadow swooshing through the sky above scared them into relocating at his friend's suggestion.
After all the back and forth, their combined haul was a measly two hundred-odd units of Wood and a hundred-something units of Stone.
Good news was, after relocating, they each found a Supply Box, so at least they wouldn't go hungry today.
Then, just as the day's hard labor was done and they'd retreated to their respective Shelters to rest, Zhao Doulai stood by his window admiring the otherworldly night sky — and suddenly spotted an object glowing pale blue drifting across the sky.
He nearly dropped his mineral water bottle.
"Holy crap! This is huge!"
Shouting as much, Zhao Doulai scrambled to the Magic Desk and opened the Regional Channel.
"Anyone got food? I'll trade 5 units of Stone for a loaf of bread."
"Water — I need water. One more day without it and I'm drinking from the stream."
"Half a bottle of mineral water for food. Bread, self-heating hotpot, buns, steamed buns — anything works."
"Eluel, you son of a bitch! Just because you killed my guy doesn't mean this is over."
"Lin Feng, quit your barking. You tried to steal from me, and you paid the price. Come kill me if you've got the guts. If not, sit down and shut up."
"James, you hook-selling bastard — you'll pay for my Pickaxe."
No wonder they called the 666 channel Villain Valley.
Zhao Doulai had barely opened the Regional Channel and the old-timers were already going at each other's throats.
"You guys, guess what I just saw?"
"Spit it out or shut up. Nobody's in the mood for guessing games right now."
"Are you nuts? It's been a long day — if you've got nothing useful, go to sleep. Why are you raving on the channel?"
"Alright, alright, no suspense. I just saw a glowing pale-blue object flying through the sky."
...
The channel, which had been crackling with hostility moments ago, went dead silent at Zhao Doulai's words. Even the item traders stopped posting.
"Excuse me?!"
"Wait, what?"
"Details. Now."
"You're joking, right?"
"This involves everyone's lives. Nobody would joke about something like this."
Seeing the skeptics, Zhao Doulai immediately added that.
"Brother Zhao Doulai, can you be more specific? What kind of object was it? What did the glow look like?"
"Sorry, Brother Xin Tianle. I couldn't make out the details — it was too dark. But the pale blue glow was real. Like the light from a blue laser pointer, except dimmer. It glided past my window, smooth and level. Not fast, but steady."
A pale blue glow, dimmer than a laser...
Gliding smoothly past a window...
Not fast, but steady...
Everyone chewed over Zhao Doulai's description, and then — almost simultaneously — the same thought crossed all their minds.
"Do you think... it could be... a ghost?"
"Don't be ridiculous! How could ghosts exist?"
"They didn't exist on Blue Star — but this is the magical world of the Karim Continent."
"Uh..."
"Great. Ghosts are the one thing I'm most afraid of. Physical attacks are completely useless against them."
"Could you have been mistaken?"
"Probably not. I saw it too — but it vanished in the blink of an eye, so I thought I'd been seeing things."
"I also saw it. It even descended toward the ground once. When it flew back up, the blue glow had traces of green mixed in. I figure someone dropped something and it recharged or absorbed energy."
"Wait! The headcount was 9,979 just now — how is it 9,978 already?!"
"Damn! So there really is a ghost!"
"Mommy, where are you?! I want to go home!"
"My cabinet just moved. I'm done. I quit."
"Bottom line — not going outside at night is your best bet."
Upon learning that their district apparently had a ghost, some people vehemently denied it, others questioned it loudly, some offered corroborating details, and others trembled in fear.
But none of this had much to do with Lan Qingyou.
Or rather, she had absolutely no idea what the Regional Channel was discussing right now.
On top of everything she'd found in the ruined cabin, she also had two more Supply Boxes in her arms.
She'd stumbled across them on the way home.
As expected, Supply Boxes were far easier to spot at night than during the day.
After all, the green glow they emitted in the darkness was anything but subtle.
She didn't rush to open them, though. Instead, she took everything out and began appraising each item one by one.
These were things from this world, after all. Until she knew what they did, she wouldn't feel comfortable.
[Worn-Out Herb Gathering Bag (C)]
[Effect: Contains an internal space of 1 cubic meter. Infuse mana to use for item storage. Herbs stored within will not lose potency over time.]
[Description: Originally, it probably had a much larger space and could hold far more. But prolonged mana depletion has shrunk it to this. You can try nurturing it with mana — it might recover to its former capacity.]
That was the appraisal result after she placed the linen pouch on the small screen.
'Well, well. A spatial item. The stuff of everyone's dreams.'
'One cubic meter too small?'
She wasn't complaining — that could hold an entire ton of water, thank you very much. And it apparently had the potential to be restored.
Most importantly, using this thing to store herbs wouldn't cause them to lose potency. For an alchemist, there was no better news in the world.
Then again.
She'd found it in an alchemist's workshop. Being perfect for alchemy was only natural.
With that thought, Lan Qingyou — excited and more than a little nervous — picked up the herb bag, opened its mouth, and peered inside to figure out how this spatial item actually worked.
The appraisal said to "infuse mana," but specifically how to do that was beyond her at the moment.