Chapter 9

Wangchuan stepped out after receiving his orders and ran into Lin Dahai waiting at the entrance.

Heipi and the others were nowhere to be seen.

“Heipi and the others logged out to rest,” Lin Dahai explained.

He asked with genuine concern,

“How are you doing?”

“Did you manage to take a master?”

Gratitude showed on Wangchuan’s face.

“Thanks to Brother Lin’s guidance, I successfully became an apprentice. Master told me to go buy flatbreads from the stall. Looks like I’ll be working late tonight.”

Lin Dahai had been his guide in the game, and his character was solid. Thanks to him, Wangchuan had avoided many detours in just one day.

“Good. Becoming an apprentice is good.”

“Having more work to do is also a good thing.”

“One more job means one more stream of income. At this rate, you’ll probably be the first among the six of us to break twenty thousand a month.”

Lin Dahai gave him a thumbs-up.

“Work hard, but don’t overdo it. Tomorrow morning at six, we’ll gather in front of Wang Dalang’s stall.”

Before leaving, he deliberately pointed at a wooden house nearby.

“When you log out, try to find a room. It’s much safer. That’s where we usually log out. Also, your character in the game world needs proper rest too. Otherwise, you’ll be exhausted the next day, and that can get dangerous.”

“Got it. Thanks, Brother Lin!”

After finishing his advice, Lin Dahai logged out and exited the game.

Wangchuan, with sixty-five copper plates tucked away, went to the flatbread stall and bought ten flatbreads from Wang Dalang in one go, leaving him with forty copper plates.

He returned to the blacksmith shop.

The village chief was there as well.

The iron ore that the miners had just sold had already been moved to the courtyard behind the blacksmith shop.

Blacksmith Sun pointed at Wangchuan and said to the village chief,

“Wangchuan is my apprentice now. Wangchuan, come greet the village chief.”

“Village Chief.”

Wangchuan stepped forward and clasped his fists in greeting.

The village chief smiled and nodded.

“The young man looks energetic. Not bad. With you helping your master, you’ll be able to share some of his workload. Work hard.”

“Yes.”

After saying that, the village chief left.

Blacksmith Sun called out, “Follow me,” and led Wangchuan to the back courtyard, where a mud kiln nearly two meters tall stood. A stone-built ladder leaned against it.

Below were a bellows and a slag outlet.

Thousands of jin of iron ore were piled up in the courtyard.

Nearby were heavy stone containers and massive stone hammers.

On the other side were piles of firewood and coal briquettes stacked like a small hill.

Two other young men, clearly players, were already busy in the courtyard.

Each of them wielded a heavy hammer, smashing iron ore with all their might.

“Tonight, your task is to smash all of this iron ore into fine fragments. One thousand jin per person. Once you’re done, you can go rest.”

Blacksmith Sun issued the task.

A system prompt appeared before Wangchuan:

“Do you accept the task assigned by Blacksmith Sun? Smash one thousand jin of iron ore. Task reward: 50 copper plates.”

Wangchuan took a deep breath.

As expected, more heavy labor.

Since he was already here, he might as well do it.

“Accept.”

Wangchuan took a heavy hammer from the corner. It weighed around fifty jin. Made from high-density, repeatedly forged steel, it could easily break iron ore.

There were many stone containers in the courtyard, and their bases were actually cast from iron.

The other two were clearly Blacksmith Sun’s apprentices and had been here for some time. One had short hair and a square face, looking sharp and energetic. The other had dark skin and bright eyes.

Wangchuan observed their movements.

They first used the heavy hammer to crack the ore with maximum force, splitting it into smaller chunks. Then they eased their strength slightly, swung seven or eight times to break the chunks into even finer fragments, and simply shook the handle to pour the crushed ore out.

Then they refilled the container and repeated the cycle.

Swinging a fifty-jin hammer was no easy task, but Wangchuan had eight points of Strength and a bench press of two hundred kilograms, so it was not a problem for him.

He stepped up to his “station” and set the iron ore in place.

Whoosh!

The heavy hammer swung in a full arc and exploded downward.

Boom!

The twenty-plus-jin iron ore collapsed structurally, cracking and sinking as it broke into many smaller pieces.

The two senior apprentices looked over at the same time, surprise flashing in their eyes.

To smash it that cleanly on the first strike—

The power and accuracy were both spot-on.

That meant the new junior apprentice had an exceptionally strong core.

“Nice.”

“Good power.”

“Junior brother, your name’s Wangchuan, right?”

The two took the initiative to greet him.

Wangchuan stopped and nodded.

“Senior brothers, how should I address you?”

The square-faced man introduced himself.

“Chen Feng.”

The dark-skinned man flashed a broad grin.

“Everyone calls me Heitan.”

“Brother Feng, Brother Hei.”

Wangchuan greeted them.

“I just entered the game today. There’s a lot I don’t understand yet. I’ll be relying on you two for guidance.”

“First day in the game?”

“Junior brother, your luck is really something!”

“Yeah.”

“We both slogged it out in Blackstone Village for quite a while before triggering the blacksmith apprentice task.”

“Tsk, tsk.”

The two exchanged bitter smiles.

They had run into a true lucky one.

“Senior brothers, how long does this task usually take?”

Wangchuan smoothly changed the topic.

Chen Feng answered casually,

“For a one-thousand-jin task, if you’re not used to it yet, it can be pretty tough. It might take three to four hours. Once you’re familiar with it, about two hours should be enough.”

“Same for me,” Heitan added.

“The first few days after finishing, my arms were so sore and numb the next day that it took several days to recover.”

Wangchuan nodded to himself.

He thought,

This was common in the gym.

Classic delayed-onset muscle soreness.

It occurred when excessive training caused muscle fibers to contract beyond their limits, creating tiny tears that triggered localized inflammation. The result was soreness, and in severe cases, even capillary rupture and impaired circulation. It usually took three to five days of rest to recover.

If one protected the body properly during exercise, or applied ice immediately afterward, the symptoms could be greatly alleviated.

And if one trained like this regularly, the body adapted quickly.

Wangchuan had already formed a plan.

He trained for several hours every day, and his arms adapted well. But with this level of intense exertion, discomfort the next day was still inevitable.

The best approach was to spread the workload out—work for a while, then rest for a bit—giving the muscles time to relax. That way, the soreness the next day could be avoided.

Wait.

Wangchuan suddenly showed a look of surprise.

Why did overexertion in the game also cause delayed muscle soreness the next day?

Was that reasonable?

He voiced his doubts to Chen Feng and Heitan.

The two exchanged helpless smiles.

“We don’t really know.”

“Maybe our real bodies are synchronized with the game world, and our bodies feel the fatigue too…”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not just the game character that gets tired. Our real bodies feel it too. We even experience mild physical symptoms.”

Wangchuan stared in disbelief.

“How is that possible?”

“If the game character’s experiences are directly linked to our nervous system and physiological functions, then if we die in the game…”

“Wouldn’t our lives be in danger?”

As the thought surfaced, Wangchuan suddenly remembered the rule that once a character died, the account would be immediately deleted.

A faint shadow passed through his heart.