Then he jumped out of bed.
His whole body was warm and he was even starting to sweat a bit.
He walked over to the clay pot, looked inside, and found half a pot of black, sludge-like liquid.
He couldn't help but want to laugh.
Whose urine would look like this?
The owner of that voice, the so-called great evil demon egg, would pee out something like this?
At the foot of the bed was a demonic statue, with the likeness of a goat-headed human, and its hands and feet were hoof-shaped.
Could hands like these actually do work? That thought just popped into his head.
Next to it was a small table with a book on it, its cover made of metal, and the pages seemed to be made of some kind of leaves.
When he wanted to study it in detail, he saw a line of text appear on the cover: Gift number two from the master.
What did that mean?
He picked up the book and found many chaotic illustrations and texts inside.
But on the last page, there were a few lines that he could understand.
"Help the master pour out the chamber pot, incomplete. Task reward: unknown."
"Fetch the master's hat, incomplete. Task reward: unknown."
How fresh.
Was this book important?
He tried to stuff the book into his pocket, but a woman's icy voice echoed in his mind: Please recite the incantation "You are my master" to bind the Servant Book.
Ma Lin said, "Go to hell."
A prompt sounded again: Incantation incorrect.
Then he felt the book seemed to vibrate slightly, like a mobile phone receiving a new message.
Curiosity filling his heart, he opened the book and flipped through it.
On the last page, he found an additional line of text:
"Bind the Servant Book, incantation: You are my master, incomplete. Task reward: basic running ability, basic cold resistance, one dagger."
What did this task reward mean? What was basic running ability?
Right then, he heard a roar from afar, far more ferocious than any tiger's bellow in the forest - almost enough to scare the pee out of him.
For a few seconds, his mind went blank, utterly paralyzed.
Now he had to seriously consider the question: Where am I? Could there be fierce beasts here?
He stood at the entrance of the cave and looked out, seeing only a vast wilderness, with weeds of varying heights and a few low mounds nearby. The snow was coming down heavily, making noise as it hit the ground.
His cave was at the base of a rocky hillock.
He really wanted to step outside to get a clearer view of his surroundings, but he didn't dare to.
He was scared stiff.
He always felt that outside the cave lay great danger. As to whether the inside of the cave was safe, he couldn't be sure.
In any case, he was terrified, like a quail.
He even thought about crawling under the bed.
Confused for perhaps dozens of seconds, he began to anxiously search the cave.
There were no weapons, not even a brick.
No sticks.
If a fierce beast came, he would have no means to defend himself.
No matter what he had been doing before coming here, he now had to snap out of it - his first priority was to protect himself.
Where would he find a weapon?
Pick up branches from outside to make weapons?
Anyway, there was a way to get a dagger right now.
So he went to the table, looked at the book with the metal cover, and said, "You are my master."
A mother is only acknowledged for her milk. Wealth makes the master.
When you live under someone's roof, you can't help but bow down.
He, Ma Lin, was now submitting himself.
Then an icy female voice directly reverberated in his mind: Servant Book binding successful, congratulations on acquiring the 'Servant Transformation' skill."
Then the book vibrated several times in succession, each time making him feel a bit better.
On the last page of the book, he found that the task to bind the 'Servant Book' was now complete, with an icon below that looked like a dagger, accompanied by a line of small text.
"Please recite the incantation, 'Bring forth my fang' to obtain the dagger, reciting it twice will store the dagger back in the book."
Thus, Ma Lin said, "Bring forth my fang."
Suddenly, a puff of black smoke appeared in the book, and then a dagger materialized within the smoke.
It indeed resembled a canine tooth. One foot long, extremely sharp at one end, and emitting a black glow.
One could tell at a glance that it was quite formidable.
The thicker end was wrapped with a cord to serve as a handle. Ma Lin grasped it and swung it around several times.
He even recited "my canine dagger, come forth" twice, and then a puff of black smoke emanated from his hand, making him feel an emptiness in his palm. When the smoke had dissipated, the canine dagger had vanished, and the icon of the dagger in the Book of the Servant lit up.
It was quite convenient, it's just that the command was so idiotic, it had to be changed.
He summoned the dagger again, affixed it to his belt, which had the magical ability to adjust its tightness automatically—quite miraculous.
'Servant transformation', what's that about?
He noticed that the words 'servant transformation' in the book were darker and shinier than the others. After some thought, he poked those words with his finger, and a line of fine print appeared next to it: Please recite the incantation "I am the dog servant" to proceed with the servant transformation.
Turns out the book was like a smartphone, touch-enabled.
For survival, dignity and shame could be completely disregarded.
He said, "I am the dog servant."
His heart was bleeding tears, Dad, Mom, I've lost all face for you.
At that moment, he suddenly felt an intense pain throughout his body, as if it radiated from inside out. The pain was so severe that he clenched his teeth hard. What was happening? Why did it have to hurt so much?
Then he felt a surge of strength overflowing from within him.
His head, legs, and feet hurt the most.
Yet he did not utter a sound.
A few minutes later, the pain subsided.
He was drenched in cold sweat.
Feeling something odd on his forehead, he reached up to touch it.
To his surprise, he found two horns protruding from his forehead.
He was extremely astonished.
Wanting to see what was going on,
he saw the Book of the Servant suddenly flip to a blank page, and a line of text appeared: Do you want to use the mirror function? Yes/No.
Ma Lin clicked 'yes'.
Then the blank page turned into a mirror.
He saw himself.
Red skin, two short goat horns on the head, brown in color. Yellow eyes.
It looked just like a person playing COSPLAY, with quite convincing makeup and props.
At the same time, he did indeed feel a real change in his constitution.
Before, he would feel extremely cold even wearing a big leather jacket; now he truly felt warm and was even contemplating opening the leather jacket to let some air in.
He pondered for a while, then ran out into the snowy ground, only to discover that his steps were unusually quick, like a springbok leaping, he darted out for dozens of meters with a 'plop plop', maintaining good balance even on the snowy ground, and quickly ran back.
The snow was still pouring down, quickly covering his footsteps.
He thought to himself, with this sort of pace, if he entered a running competition, he could probably win the championship.
Then he remembered he still had two tasks to complete.
Indeed, the rewards from tasks could significantly improve his survival conditions, so he might as well do them.
He went over to the earthen jar and observed it for a while, noticing it had no handle and could only be hugged with both arms.
As he squatted down, he was hit by a pungent, stinky smell from inside, nearly knocking him out.
Why could it stink so foully?
He held back his urge to vomit.
He felt again like he had lost all face for his parents.
With determination, he lifted the jar, and immediately after, he saw a task prompt. To the left of the cave entrance was a tree sapling about one meter tall, and beneath it was a glowing red circle, flickering on and off.
Was he supposed to pour the liquid in the earthen jar onto that spot?
Holding his breath, he hugged the jar over there and began to pour.
A gust of wind blew, splashing some of the liquid onto his shoes and trousers.
The foul stink almost made him pass out.
He thought to himself, this task was life-threatening!
The liquid quickly seeped into the soil.
Then he saw the tree sapling 'pop' and grow half a foot taller, the branches and leaves became thicker, and two fruits appeared, growing to the size of fists with 'plop plop' sounds.
At this point, the Book of the Servant flew in front of him, displaying that the task 'pouring out the chamber pot for the master' had been completed, and the reward was two 'Stamina Fruits'.
The words Stamina Fruits were bold and dark, he tapped them with his finger, and a line of fine print appeared.
"One Stamina Fruit can keep a low-level demon satiated for twelve hours."