Chapter 2 - The girl that wanted to study
Leng Mo hugged her arms as she leaned against the supermarket’s entrance, coldly staring at the people entering the supermarket one by one. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to enter, but because after giving up her spot, the things sold in the supermarket were not that different in prices when compared to shops outside. She’d rather go to the retail shops than squeeze in the crowd.
After waiting for more than two hours, the old lady from before finally squeezed out from the supermarket. She immediately started looking around after leaving the supermarket entrance, quickly finding Leng Mo waiting by the entrance.
“Ai, young lady, young lady.” The old lady waved her hand as she walked up to Leng Mo. “Today’s luck sure is good. Not only did the clothing shop give a discount, they even gifted me a gaming bracelet. You take this bracelet!”
The old lady took out a delicate bracelet from the bag as she spoke. It was about four fingers wide, with a deep groove in the middle of it. The bracelet was wrapped in an acrylic bag, and within the bag, there was even a delicate picture book.
Leng Mo’s eyes shined as she took the bracelet, though the thing she was actually concerned about was the picture book. “Thank you, then I’ll take it. Did you buy my clothing?”
The old lady hurriedly took out the clothing: “Look at my memory, I bought it. I picked a color that girls like to wear. Just look at yourself, all gray at not one bit pretty.”
The corner of Leng Mo’s mouth twitched as she received the pink colored clothing, silently storing it in the bag that she had brought. No matter what she couldn’t complain about the pink color the old lady picked. Ask the lady to go in again and change it for her?
Forget it, I’ll just wear this at home. After Leng Mo made her decision, she big the old lady goodbye before returning straight back home.
Immediately after returning, she hurriedly took out the acrylic bag, taking out the picture book from within. So beautiful! Leng Mo stroked the book’s colors as she looked at them. There were even blocky words on them, how nice!
It would be great if she knew how to read. She really wanted to read! Unknowingly, Leng Mo’s nose started feeling sour. There were no schools in the slums, and the other areas also forbade the slum’s residents from entering, so a majority of them were uneducated.
Luckily all the electronic newspapers used video broadcasting, so even a poor person wouldn’t be unknowing to the happenings outside. If she could understand words, she would definitely earn money properly to buy books!
But this game is really beautiful. If all the drawings in this picture book were real, then this thing called game really is mystical. Leng Mo looked at the art one by one, her heart slightly moved.
In the first picture, there was a lady with black colored wings. Her eyes were closed, and both her hands were wielding a large sword as she crouched at that place. Behind her were many many humans, all of them were smaller than her.
In the second picture, it was a scene of war. The black winged lady was flying in the air, and she was fighting against a white winged person that wore a hood. Below them there were many humans battling, however, their opponents were oddly shaped creatures.
In the third picture, it was a ruined city, and the humans were rebuilding this city, while the black winged lady was no longer seen.
In the fourth picture, the ruined city had turned into a beautiful new city, and there were green trees and flowers planted all around. It looked like there were a lot of people moving around.
Leng Mo felt the trees and flowers with her hand, a slight yearning in her heart. She had never seen real trees and flowers, only in the news did she see them, within the areas of the rich and aristocrats, many at that. However, the news only shows these beautiful things briefly, always focusing on those rich people’s face.
What is this game really? Leng Mo’s interest towards this kind of game grew bigger and bigger. She felt that she really should not have missed out on such a news. She decided to go out and find information related to this game.
The electronic newspaper was renewed once again. Taking a quick glance before she left, she did not see any news related to the game. It wasn’t surprising though. People of the slums can’t even afford to play the game, nobody would be stupid enough to advertise in the slum’s newspaper.
It looked like she had to go to the border of the residential area to take a look. From there, you could see the tall and large billboards within. You could also hear the sounds coming from the billboards. There were many people from the slums who would go to the resident area’s border to watch the billboards for entertainment.
Luckily she didn’t have work today, so she could spend the entire day finding it. Closing the door, Leng Mo headed towards the resident area’s direction.
After running and resting for four hours, she could finally see the residential area’s border from afar. There was no longer any poor people’s living area here, only a few public facilities, like restaurants, hotels, casinos and such.
Leng Mo passed through those noisy places, finally arriving at the resident area’s border. Coincidentally, there was a billboard in the direction she was facing, and the billboard was currently broadcasting the thing she wanted to know about.
“There is real life in here. This is not a game, but a new reality!” The images on the billboard kept changing, and they were much more marvelous than the picture book. Not only was there war and the process of rebuilding, there were also the sped up growth process of the trees and flowers.
The image suddenly changed, and a weird scene appeared in front of Leng Mo. Large wooden stakes were set up on the ground, and many people were hitting the stakes. There was also a man in odd clothing at the scene giving commands. “Want to learn how to battle? Then come to Drucker’s school! Not only do we have battle mentors, there are also magic mentors and knowledge mentors as well. There is nothing you can’t learn here.”
Leng Mo excitedly gripped her hand in front of her chest, her heart nearly jumping out. She didn’t hear wrongly, right? School? It really is a school? Then doesn’t that mean she could learn how to read? Does that mean she could finally study?
The advertisement lasted a full twenty minutes before ending, shortly followed by the next cycle. Leng Mo ran back home after she finished watching the advertisement. She took out the bracelet excitedly, following the actions on the advertisement, wearing it on her arm.
Why was there no reaction? Leng Mo waited for ten minutes, but there were none of the mystical scenes appearing before her eyes. Wasn’t this different from what the advertisement said?
She took off the bracelet, placing it back on the floor, and picking up the picture book for another look. Did the game determine that she could not play the game because she was a poor person? She leaked out a sigh. She was never perplexed because of her identity as a poor person. However, today she was really depressed.
Turning to the picture book’s last page, she saw a picture of a hand wearing the bracelet, while the other hand looked like it was swiping a card over the groove of the bracelet.
It can’t be……? Leng Mo sat cross-legged on the floor, wearing the bracelet and taking out her identification card. Taking a deep breath, she swiped the card across the groove of the bracelet.
Success! The bracelet suddenly released rays of light. The lights moved along the bracelet, turning a full circle before all of them gathered at the groove. Leng Mo suddenly felt a prick at her wrist, similar to being bitten by something, before she dizzily entered a slumbering state.