Liu Xing and Tina returned to the temple, where they found Akira Akashi had already arrived, while Li Ming remained in a coma. Nan Xiaoniao was biting her finger, deep in thought.
"How did it go on your end? Did you encounter any problems?" Akira Akashi and Tian Dao, having heard KP Cao's alert, knew that Liu Xing and Tina had encountered a mythical creature, but were unaware of the specifics.
"We need to initiate Private Room time," Liu Xing said, choosing to request KP Cao to facilitate a private discussion space for sharing intelligence.
"Okay, Private Room time is now active. Just a friendly reminder, you have about half an hour left. Please hurry up to avoid failing the mission," KP Cao advised, subtly pressuring Liu Xing's group.
Tina briefly recounted their encounter: "Liu Xing and I met Nan Xiaoniao's mother in the grape arbor. She was incessantly eating grapes. Liu Xing tried to stop her to save some grapes for offerings. At that moment, she transformed into a Formless Offspring, and we had no choice but to retreat."
Frowning, Tian Dao said resignedly, "If I'm not mistaken, Formless Offspring are immune to physical damage, meaning we can't harm it."
"True, but did you buy today's newly released Qingming Festival gift pack? It contains an item called Qingming Rain, capable of damaging mythical creatures immune to physical attacks. It also has a 50% chance of slowing them down," Liu Xing inquired.
Even with Qingming Rain, they knew it was impossible to kill the Formless Offspring. However, the item could potentially reduce its speed by 50%, making the normally turtle-paced creature as slow as a snail.
"I just spent my money on a white character card, so I couldn't afford the Qingming Festival pack. Had I known about it, I would have saved my points," Tian Dao regretted.
White character cards, the lowest tier in the shop, limited initial attributes and skills to under 40. Even with multiple upgrades, attributes could only reach 60, and skills 50. They allowed freedom in choosing profession and birthplace, costing 500 points.
Despite the severe limitations and their cannon fodder status, white character cards offered a chance at redemption. Liu Xing was also saving points for one, as his character card from the Beginner's Room would be used immediately upon tearing it in a certain Cthulhu RPG Game, allowing him to continue the game with a new identity but no guarantee of survival.
Tina and Akira Akashi shook their heads, indicating they too couldn't afford the Qingming Festival pack after purchasing other items. Unlike Liu Xing, they lacked insider information about the valuable contents of the pack.
"Well, the speed of the Formless Offspring can now be described as tortoise-like. Slowing it down further wouldn't really affect us much," Tina said with a sense of acceptance. After all, it's like a race. Making a world champion slow down to the pace of a primary school student is significant. But reducing the speed of a baby who is just learning to walk by half doesn't make much sense."
"Uh, shouldn't the speed of the Formless Offspring be fast?" Akira Akashi asked, somewhat puzzled.
Liu Xing pointed at Li Ming, who was still in a coma, and said with a smile, "We have Li Ming to thank for that. In this promotion game, the speed of the Formless Offspring is consistent with the slowest among us."
Hearing this, Akira Akashi and Tian Dao couldn't help but chuckle. They could now imagine the Formless Offspring moving at a snail's pace.
"However, because of the Formless Offspring, we couldn't get the grapes, so we had to come back and think of another way. How about your side, Akira Akashi?" Liu Xing noticed that there were still only two peaches on the altar, which meant Akira Akashi hadn't found the bamboo shoots.
Akira Akashi shook his head and said helplessly, "There were no bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest. I've checked several times, and it seems that either the bamboo shoots are located somewhere else, or they don't exist in this mirrored world at all. We might have to use something else in their place, and I'm more inclined to believe the latter."
After all, even though the Cthulhu RPG Game has a high annihilation rate, it wouldn't present an unsolvable puzzle.
"A substitute, then it must be something that either looks like or symbolizes bamboo shoots. But here, we need a substitute for a ritual offering. It's like how Zhuge Liang once used steamed buns instead of human heads for a ritual. We probably just need to find something that resembles bamboo shoots," Liu Xing suggested.
Akira Akashi nodded and said seriously, "That's what I was thinking. But I've already looked around the temple and haven't found a suitable substitute. Were the stalls still there when you and Tina went to the commercial district?"
"No. Those stalls have already disappeared," Tina confirmed.
Liu Xing frowned, finding this strange. Usually, such key props are placed in significant locations, like the temple and commercial district in this mirrored world.
Unless...
The key prop is in the hands of an NPC!
Liu Xing suddenly remembered that before entering the mirrored world, Nan Xiaoniao seemed to have picked something up from the ground! He then looked at Nan Xiaoniao, or more precisely, the small bag she was holding.
Seeing Liu Xing suddenly turning his gaze to Nan Xiaoniao, Tina and the others followed his gaze and understood his thought.
"Leave it to me. Nan Xiaoniao's favorability towards me is quite high," Tina volunteered eagerly.