Yanghua passed though the backdoor in her house and followed a thin dirt trail into the bamboo forest ahead of her. Thin spindles of bamboo grew in spurts along the dirt trail. Sunlight poured through the leaves of the bamboo leaves creating a tranquil atmosphere. Soon enough Yanghua reached the end of the trail and saw a small clearing with a stone table. There was a set of small boulders acting as chairs. Yanghua could faintly hear the gurgling of a river nearby and the same twittering of the songbirds she heard this morning. "Well, I'm here. Now what?" Yanghua wondered out loud as she sat on one of the boulders. She clicked onto her necklace again and saw that she already earned 10 NALA coins by starting the mission. The mission now said started, and there was an arrow. Yanghua clicked on it and words on her interface changed, as it now said to wait in the clearing until the sun sets.
Instead of just stupidly waiting and sitting on the uncomfortable stone, Yanghua sat down on the forest floor and browsed through the NALA shop. Inside there was a multitude of things for Yanghua to buy. She could buy pills to buff her physical strength, change her appearance, or increase her intelligence. Yanghua even had the option to instantly learn skills such as embroidery, painting, playing an instrument, or playing Go. There were so many skills Yanghua could learn it was dizzying. Once Yanghua looked at the price to pay to buy these items Yanghua felt lightheaded. Everything cost at least 100 NALA coins, and those were the cheaper options such as rations or a camping kit. The skills that Yanghua was eyeing easily exceeded 1000 NALA coins. Thankfully Yanghua's system was not cruel enough to completely scam Yanghua senseless by providing reasonable prices for basic necessities, but the price for the skill building items were just ridiculous. There was a limited sale period on some "must have items" that NALA was advertising. There were some bundles that were selling for around half the price of the items Yanghua was looking at previously. Yanghua scrutinized each bundle.
Soon enough, Yanghua snapped out of her state of concentration and cracked her neck. Looking around it seemed like night had already fallen, as Yanghua could barely see five feet in front of her. She quickly found the side mission window again and saw that the mission was replaced again. It now said that Yanghua must search around the forest. But since this was a multi-part mission, she received an additional 20 NALA points for waiting. Peculiarly, there was a number at the bottom that said ???/1. Yanghua scratched her head. She brushed off her butt as she got up to search for whatever object the mission was looking for. Suddenly Yanghua thought of a brilliant idea. She pulled out the shop window and quickly bought a flashlight for 20 NALA coins (it was solar powered because there was no way Yanghua would keep buying batteries for it). She quickly turned it on and began searching.
Yanghua didn't have to look far. She soon stumbled upon a lump on the other wise clear forest floor. Yanghua shined her flashlight on the lump, which turned out to not be a lump, but it was a person. A bloodied person? Yanghua thought alarmed as she drew closer to the figure. Yanghua crouched down to see if the person was still alive. She was so preoccupied with trying to find the person's pulse that she didn't notice the glow of lanterns growing brighter with each passing second.
"Young miss?!" a voice called out frantically. Yanghua stopped her actions and quickly hid her flashlight in her long sleeve. She wrapped her arms underneath the person and struggled to haul them up. Yanghua called out meekly "Yes?" as she wobbled towards the glow of light peeking through the bamboo. "Young miss! Thank goodness I found you, you gave me a fright when I couldn't find you in your room!" Tangtang scolded once she saw Yanghua. "AH! Young miss, what are you holding right now?" Tangtang screamed pointing at Yanghua's hands. "I found this person-" Yanghua started to say until she felt that the weight in her arms were not as heavy as it once was. She looked down and saw a brown baby snake sleeping soundly in her hands. "Erm, never mind. I got lost and saw this cute snake. Let's go home." Yanghua said quickly correcting herself. She carefully cradled the small snake in her hands as Yanghua and Tangtang trekked down the dirt trail back to her cottage.
Yanghua felt a wave of uneasiness as she realized she just spent an entire day in this new world. Perhaps Holly was worried sick that Yanghua's body in her original world was not waking up.