"Kid, wake up!" The man shook Nolan.
Nolan had fallen into a deep sleep, and even though the man shook him, he showed no signs of waking up.
"Elder, I told you this kid is just pretending." Another man spoke. "Look, he doesn't even want to wake up."
The man whom the group of beggars recognized as their leader smiled. "If it's like that, then it's even better. We could get revenge by making him beg."
Slap!
The man slapped Nolan.
"What happened?" Nolan jumped.
"Wake up. It's time for work." The leader of the beggars said. He then stood up and left the building together with the other man.
'He slapped me?' Nolan gritted his teeth. 'Old man, If I didn't need you, I would have beaten you up just now.'
"Forget it." He stood up. "But I can't believe I have to destroy my clothes."
"Aghhh!" He sighed and untied his hair, storing the white jade hairpin in the inventory.
Riiiiippppp!
Nolan tore part of his hanfu.
Rip! Rip! Rip!
Nolan made several holes into his hanfu. He then dirtied his hands by touching the dirty floor and messed up his hair. After dirtying and messing his hair, Nolan proceeded to lie on the ground and swirl around like a pig in mud.
He had not changed his clothes for a long time, and they were a little dirty, so it didn't take much time to dirty them even more.
After making sure he got dirty enough, Nolan stood up from the ground.
He had entered his beggar mode.
He then walked out of the building.
Outside, the leader of the beggars and a few other beggars waited for him.
Including Nolan, they were a group of seven. The leader, two little kids, one young girl, and two middle-aged men.
Nolan was almost sure the two middle-aged men were there to protect their leader.
Before, Nolan thought that they all listened to him because he was older and wiser, so because of this wisdom, they would follow him and even surrender to Nolan. But Nolan got a feeling that that was not the case. The leader aroused Nolan's interest. He aroused his interest so much that Nolan even used [Inspect].
[Name: Alfred]
[Age: 59 years, 11 months, 1 day]
[Personality: Clever]
[Occupation: Tactician]
This little information was enough for Nolan to briefly understand the situation. 'Do they plan to follow him into escaping the life of a beggar?' Nolan thought.
"Okay. Let me explain how we work." Alfred spoke to Nolan. "Every day, we divide ourselves into groups of seven. Then every group begs on a different street. So we seven are going to beg on one street. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Let's go." Alfred said and started walking.
He walked in front, and everyone followed closely behind.
…
They walked for about half an hour before finally arriving at a street.
"Alright. Everyone, find your place to beg. However, be sure to be at least fifty meters from each other." Alfred commanded as he sat on the side of the street where there was no stall set. "I would beg here."
Everyone separated in search of a place to beg.
Alfred watched Nolan get further and further away with a smirk on his face. The smirk on his face was enough to express his thoughts. "Let me see how long you can pretend."
After finding a good place between two stalls, with quite a distance between, Nolan sat on the ground and stretched his hand forward. "Please have mercy."
…
The time passed quickly, and it was already dusk.
Nolan had repeated, "Please have mercy," for almost eight hours.
Nolan got surprised by his overpowered skill [Begging lv. max] again.
"Thousand fifty copper coins," Nolan muttered in a low voice as he stood up to leave. He alone had made more than a tael of silver. 'Maybe it's better to abandon opening a business and make everyone beg instead. ' He thought.
Nolan didn't immediately head back.
He walked to a dark alley and brought a bag of grain out of the inventory. Then, he headed back to the deserted street carrying the bag of grain on his shoulder.
On his way back, passing through the street on which he begged, he had not seen any of the beggars with which he came. "Looks like they had already headed back," Nolan muttered as he fastened his pace.
Walking fast, Nolan quickly arrived at the gathering place of the beggars and also their home, the deserted street.
Though he walked quickly, the night had already fallen.
However, the deserted street was nothing like yesterday night when Nolan arrived, probably because he arrived too late yesterday.
Now, light emitted from several buildings, and laughter filled the deserted street.
"The kid has returned."
Nolan heard a voice.
"Hahahahaha! You are right."
Another voice sounded right after.
Assuming that Alfred was there, Nolan walked toward the building from which he heard people talking about him.
He entered the building. The first thing that caught his attention was the young girl that was in the group with him and Alfred.
Though she wore dirty clothes, her beauty was unquestionable
She had beautiful silk-like golden hair and a pair of deep blue eyes that reminded Nolan of the deep ocean.
Nolan quickly turned his gaze away from the young girl and looked at the fire in the center of the building and the people sitting around it.
Above the fire was placed a big pot.
With a wooden spoon, the beautiful girl filled wooden bowls with porridge and passed them to the hungry beggars around the fire.
The two little kids, also in the group with Nolan and Alfred, ran around the place, chasing each other.
Nolan's heart warmed at the sight of the little siblings happily running around the people sitting around the fire.
Nolan admired them all.
Though they were beggars, the lowest of the lowest, they still happily chatted and played around. Simply said, they lived their life happily without caring about their status in society.
"Sem, Sam, don't cause trouble." The young girl said to the two siblings with a gentle, almost angelic voice.
"Don't worry, sister Stephany." The two siblings replied with a wide smiles as they continued playing their game of Tag.
Nolan shook his head, pulling himself together.
He then walked over to Stephany.
Pam!
He dropped the bag of grain on the ground. "Here, this should be enough for now."
Seeing a whole bag of grain before her, Stephany was shocked. "W-What's this?" She asked.
"Can't you see? It's a bag of grain." Nolan replied casually.
As he uttered this, the chatter in the room and the people's expressions turned deadly serious. Even the twins stopped running and stood in one place. The only thing preventing the building from becoming dead quiet was the crackling sound of the fire.
"E-Everyone, there is no need to be so serious. He is new and doesn't know that he can't spend the money." Stephany spoke nervously, trying to protect Nolan.
Turning to Alfred, Nolan asked. "Why can't I spend the money."
Alfred stood up, followed by everyone who sat around the fire.
Surrounded by many men, Alfred looked at Nolan seriously, "Because we save money to open a business,"
"Ohh. I see." Nolan couldn't hide his disappointment. He expected a little bit more interesting answer. "So, how much did you save?" He asked out of curiosity.
"In the past two months, we saved about twenty taels of silver and seven hundred copper coins.," Alfred replied.
"Huh?!" Nolan was shocked by the amount of money they saved.
They saved too little, which once again proved how overpowered his skill [Begging lv. max] was.
"I understand now," Nolan said. "But why should I care about that? First, I am not part of your group. Second, I could spend the money however I want." To the others, it looked like Nolan deliberately spoke like this just to provoke Alfred, but in fact, he only spoke his mind.
"Since you are here, you will abide by our rules!" Alfred shouted angrily. "Give me your money!"
"Old man, don't shout at me. As I said, If you win the bet, you don't need to worry about money. I will financially support you. And If I win the bet, I will be the village head, and it's only natural for me to take care of the financial situation in the village." Nolan said. "But since I don't want to ruin the atmosphere and the little good relationship we have, take this." Nolan threw him a little bag which he took out of his sleeve. This bag contained all the money he earned today.
Alfred caught the bag.
Nolan immediately distanced himself from the group and sat in the corner of the abandoned building where the light and the warmth of the fire barely reached.
Alfred poured the money out of the bag. A little pile of copper coins formed on the ground. "T-This!"
The jaws of everyone present in the room dropped when they saw the amount of money the bag contained.
Alfred already felt the abnormal weight of the bag when he first caught it, but he never imagined that it actually contained so much money.
He didn't lose any more time and started counting the copper coins.
While everyone focused on the money, Stephany filled a bowl with hot porridge and walked to Nolan.
Stephany sat next to him. "Don't blame them. They are not bad people. They have been beggars for too long, and Uncle Alfred is our hope to leave this life behind. Since he said that we need to save money, we spend as little as possible, so we could gather enough money as fast as possible." She spoke gently as she passed him the bowl of porridge.
Nolan took the bowl. White, creamy ice porridge filled the bowl. "Don't worry, soon you will not have to worry about food. You will have clean clothes and a roof above your head.
Though he only met her fifteen minutes ago, Nolan noticed that she was not only beautiful but also a good person. Despite falling so low in life, he could still see the fire of hope for a better life still burning in her eyes. She had not given up. She has not lost hope.
Thus, Nolan decided to protect her from now on.
Not because he had any romantic interest in her. Yes, she was indeed beautiful, but she would need more than beauty to make Nolan interested in him. He wanted to protect her because of her kind and gentle nature. After all, such hardworking and good-hearted people were hard to find.
"You were serious about that?" She asked, surprised.
"You thought I was joking?" Nolan asked without an ounce of anger in his voice. For the first time, he didn't get angry when someone questioned his determination.
'Inspect.'
Nolan got a little curious about what the system would say about her personality, so he used [Inspect] on her.
[Name: Stephany Lyndone]
[Age: 18 years, 9 months, 29 days]
[Personality: Gentle, Naïve, Good-hearted, Pure, Merceful]
[Occupation: Beggar, Hidden occupation- insufficient skill level, cannot provide any information]
[Martial arts: None]
[Occupation Skills: Cooking lv1]
[Strength: 6]
[Stamina: 5]
[Agility: 5]
'Whoa. It's my first time seeing someone with so many personalities. And on top of that, she doesn't have any bad personality.
But what's this? Is the level of my skill [Inspect] not enough to perceive information about her other occupation? I thought she was simple.' Nolan thought.
"Impossible!" Alfred exclaimed, drawing Nolan's and Stephany's attention.
"Elder, how much are there? I stopped counting after the five hundredth copper coin." The person closest to Alfred said.
"Thousand and fifty copper coins! More than a tael of silver!" Alfred exclaimed in disbelief.
Stephany turned to Nolan. "Eat the porridge while it's still hot." She said as she stood up. She walked to the group around the fire and started collecting the empty wooden bowls.
Nolan quickly drank the porridge and placed the wooden bowl beside himself.
He then proceeded to observe the people around the fire.
[Ding]
A system message appeared, forcing Nolan to shift his attention to the system window before himself.
[You completed the Hidden Character Quest: Kelton the mason]
[You received: 15Exp, hidden trait]
A smile spread across Nolan's face as he read the system messages. 'Good job, Nara' He thought to himself.
Nolan knew he didn't contribute much in showing Kelton that the good in humans still exists. The person who contributed the most was definitely Nara. Though in the beginning, she beat the shit out of Nolan and Harley because they brought slaves into the house, later, she softened and accepted them. And not only that, she treated them very well and didn't regard them as slaves at all.
'Status Window.'
The bluish status window appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Nolan]
[Age: 19 years, 13 days]
[Personality: Mentally unstable]
[Hidden trait: Good person]
[Occupation: Beggar who knows basic swordsmanship]
[Level 3]
[Exp: 90/100]
[Martial arts: Basic swordsmanship]
[Strength: 16]
[Stamina: 16]
[Agility: 16]
[Allocation points: 0]
Nolan was just about to ask the system for further information about his hidden trait, but a new system message appeared, stopping him.
[Ding]
[The system detected a hidden trait: Good person]
[The hidden trait conflict with the host's personality]
[Ding]
[The system removed the hidden trait]
[Please choose one of the following options as compensation]
[Option 1: 500Exp, 25 allocation points]
[Option 2: 100 bags of rice, 100 bags of grain, 100 bags of wheat, 100 bags of flour]
[Option 3: Large Crossbow Construction drawing, Basic archery manual, Basic swordsmanship manual, Basic shieldsmanship manual]
'The first option is good. I could gain strength and get closer to level 10, finally unlocking the system shop. But no matter how strong I get, I can not fight an army alone.
Ten tons (22 000 pounds) of food is simply insane. But I do not need that much food, and I still have more than ninety bags of grain left.
The best option to choose is definitely the third. With it, I could train a small army. And build large crossbows on top of the village walls to protect the village… Yes, this is the best option.' Nolan carefully analyzed his options.
'System, I choose option three.' Nolan spoke into his head.
[Ding]
[You received: Large Crossbow construction drawing, Basic archery manual, Basic swordsmanship manual, Basic shieldsmanship manual]
Nolan was satisfied. As to why he didn't get angry even after losing the hidden trait, well, that was because he didn't even know the effects of the hidden trait, so he felt like he had lost nothing.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!"