“… What? I have something you want…?” The girl asked, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t have anything. Leave.”

She attempted to swat Xuan away, but her movements were weak, just like her attacks earlier. Xuan sighed, before elaborating in detail.

“The item I’m looking for is called a Beast Core, found inside the bodies of beasts. They look like translucent marbles varying in color, about the size of a ping pong ball,” Xuan said, estimating the size with his fingers before looking back at the girl. “As the hunter who killed those three Direwolves back there… does that description ring a bell?”

“… I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Get away from me.”

‘A moment of hesitation before speaking,’ Xuan analyzed. ‘Her mental strength may be stronger than most, able to recover quicker than the majority of people, but it seems she’s not good at lying. Probably due to a lack of social interaction.’

“For your information, I was the one who saved your life,” Xuan said, tapping on his own forearm. “Not even a bit of gratitude? What did your parents teach you?”

This seemed to have struck a nerve with the girl, as she suddenly swung forward with her fists reactively, but Xuan dodged her slow and weak punch with ease by moving his head back a few centimeters.

“Do you not learn?”

“… I don’t have parents,” she growled, hatred deep in her wild eyes as she completely ignored Xuan’s question.

“Ah. My apologies,” he said, completely unapologetically.

He’d met thousands of people in his past life, many of which had far more tragic stories than this. Xuan had seen far too much to feel pity for her.

The girl tried to clench her fists, but her muscles wouldn’t respond. She was simply too exhausted. Still, anger was evident on her face, and she glared at Xuan menacingly. Unfortunately, Xuan did not seem to care one bit, and instead continued reading off his mentally prepared script.

“It’s not a hard decision to make, young lady,” he said calmly, reaching out his hand. “You hand me the Beast Cores, I give you the healing pills you need so you can recover from your wounds, plus a few extra just to show my sincerity. It’s a win-win situation, is it not?”

He paused, a dangerous gleam appearing in his eyes as he leaned in and whispered in the girl’s ear.

“But of course… if you prefer the hard way, I can kill you just as easily as I can save you. In fact, it’d be a whole lot less work for me. Our exchange of pointers just now is more than enough to prove that, is it not?”

“… How many times do I have to tell you?” She muttered under her breath, unable to fight back despite clearly being uncomfortable with Xuan’s close proximity. “I don’t have what you’re looking for. I recognize what you’re talking about, but right after taking them from those beasts’ corpses, they magically disappeared from my hand. I don’t have them anymore, okay? Just… leave me alone.”

‘… This girl can’t be serious.’

Xuan was baffled for a moment. After all, even Xuan could tell that she wasn't lying anymore. But then, he remembered how all the tutorials of the game were removed for no apparent reason, and it became clear what was going on.

She did not know how to use her System.

Hell, she didn’t even know it existed. When she picked up the Beast Cores in her hand, they were automatically sent to her inventory because the thought ‘storage’ or something similar passed through her mind. That’s why they looked like they’d magically disappeared to her.

But then again, the question remained…

“… You’re not a past player of this game?” Xuan asked, arching an eyebrow.

“What?” The girl narrowed her eyes, as if his words sounded ridiculous to her. “No. I was enjoying my life out in the wild—my home—when those damn government bastards dragged me into an underground bunker and forced me to enter this place. What makes you think I’m a past player of this stupid game?”

“If you aren’t a past player, why did you retrieve the Beast Cores from those Direwolves’ bodies?”

“Huh? Isn’t it obvious? They looked pretty and like they would sell for a decent price. I need money to get some proper hunting equipment, you know.”

‘… This girl is truly something special, even if her reason is surprisingly fair,’ Xuan noted in his mind, before continuing out loud with a sigh.

“Swipe your hand across the air in front of you, and picture the word ‘Inventory’ in your mind.”

She frowned. “What?”

“There isn’t a hidden rule written somewhere saying you must question everything I tell you, you know.”

“… Tch.”

With no other choice but to obey, the girl did as Xuan said. Immediately, her inventory panel popped up in front of her, catching her by surprise.

“What… what is this?”

“This is a game, like you just said a few seconds ago,” Xuan replied calmly. “That is your inventory. Look inside.”

The girl’s eyes widened as she spotted none other than the Beast Cores that had ‘magically disappeared’ from her hands earlier, and she was left in stunned silence for a few moments.

“… This… how do I…?”

She looked at Xuan with puppy-dog eyes, and for a second, she almost looked cute.

Almost.

Xuan, however, wasn’t fooled in the least, and simply gave a sigh before instructing her on how to retrieve the item from this virtual inventory. While he was at it, he also explained to her the basics of the player System, since she’d never even come into contact with a mobile tablet before, much less a touchscreen holographic display.

After a good few minutes of explanation, the girl eventually seemed to have grasped the concept of the System, and was able to navigate it on her own. Following Xuan’s instructions, she took out the three Beast Cores inside her inventory and placed them in his hand reluctantly, who inspected their color and luster.

‘Hm… purple. Not surprising, considering Direwolves are mere First-Order Beasts,’ Xuan thought, noting the orbs’ color before storing them into his inventory. ‘Their Cores are naturally the lowest of the low in terms of Beast Core rankings, but the Quest didn’t specify what rank the Cores needed to be, so these should be fine. Although having higher-grade Beast Cores would mean forming a more solid, better Dantian for myself, this will have to do. It’d be even better if I could get my hands on a Magic Beast Core, but the chances of that happening aren’t very high.’

Beast Core rankings were quite simple—they followed the colors of the rainbow in reverse, with purple being the lowest grade and red being the highest. Above that were black Beast Cores belonging only to Eighth-Order Magic Beasts and white Beast Cores belonging only to strongest of the strong—Ninth-Order, but those powerful beings rarely existed in Lower Asphodel to begin with, so Xuan didn’t even bother considering the possibility of obtaining them.

‘A shame Direwolves aren’t Magic Beasts…’ Xuan thought to himself, sighing. The Cores didn’t have a sparkle within them, meaning they belonged to normal Beasts. ‘They’ve been hunted so much that they’re about as rare as Magic Beasts at this point anyway…’

Standing up in slight disappointment, Xuan turned around and prepared to leave.

“How much time we could’ve saved if you just agreed from the very beginning…”

The girl, however, was still glaring holes through Xuan's back, who was now turning around and moving away. It was clear what she wanted, and she was going to voice her demands.

“… The healing pills. Where are they?”

“Oh, right. Those.” Xuan chuckled with his back turned to her. “I almost forgot. Here.”

Saying that, he tossed a few more Health Rejuvenation Pills her way, just as promised. He wasn’t an unfair person, after all, and he held no enmity towards this girl.

“For best effects, eat one every five minutes or so. Trying to shove them all down your throat at the same time like you’re doing right now will accomplish nothing except choking yourself.”

The girl, embarrassed, stopped trying to cram a handful of them down at the same time, and instead simply took one.

“Good girl,” Xuan said with a gentle smile, like a father to his daughter. “Now then, I would say ‘see you later’, but I do sincerely hope we never meet again.”

“Huh? Wait, how am I supposed to repay this fav-” She began, but it was too late. The man was gone. Now, she owed him something, and she hated that feeling. Her life for a mere few Beast Cores? In no world was that an equivalent exchange. Even though it had been a deal that Xuan himself seemed to be fine with, she still felt uneasy. Her Master always told her to repay her favors, and not to owe anyone anything. But now…

She tried to stand up and chase after him, but her body had just barely recovered from the brink of death. That plus the skirmish earlier with Xuan used up all of her energy, and if she wanted to recover, she needed immediate rest.

‘Tch… I need to find him again in the future… but with those looks, that shouldn’t be too difficult.'

As she sat back down, however, realization slowly dawned on her face

‘Huh? Healing… pill? Wait… but if it's a pill, then… how did he make me eat it while I was unconscious…? Don’t tell me…’