“Why is it like that?” Mo frowned at the doorway that was full of a soft blue light. Glowing silver runes were raining down on it.

I poked the light with a finger. It was solid, and its appearance reminded me of the Matrix code from the movies, which raised a lot of questions in my mind. Could this be a visual representation of Adventure Incarnate’s code? Was I living in a simulation?

This thought made me decide to start the [Paradise Earth Primordial Origin Dream Soul Path] quest sooner rather than later

“I would’ve put black leather pants on if I’d known it was time to enter the Matrix!” I said.

Lari, Kharli, and Mo exchange baffled looks.

Kharli tentatively flattened a palm on the shining surface. “It feels cool and slick, like glass.”

Lari and Mo followed suit, poking, prodding, and running their fingers on it.

“I think there’s a slight vibration,” said Mo.

“I don’t feel it,” said Lari.

“Check the System,” I suggested.

After a few seconds of browsing the System tabs, I finally found the new settings that just got activated. I toggled some features on, and the silver runes disappeared from the blue light filling the doorway, replaced by square portraits of the people in Emberstone farm. Their names were written under the portraits.

“I can use this to choose who can enter,” I said.

Kharli’s brow furrowed, showing a hint of concern and uncertainty. “The System knows everyone’s name! Do you think… Do you think it listens to us?”

Mo shuddered. “Please stop making it sound creepy. The System is just trying to be helpful.”

“Guys, Scholar Wu is waiting for us. Let me open the door for her,” I said.

Lari, Kharli, and Mo stepped aside, and I touched Scholar Wu’s portrait. There was a popup that asked me to confirm that I wanted her to access the dimension, which I affirmed. The blue light then died down to reveal the farm on the other side, with Scholar Wu waiting excitedly for us with her instruments in hand. I waved my hand in a “come here” gesture, and she stepped right through without any hesitation.

“How lovely! The zidan here is the same as on Emberstone Farm.” She slowly spun around, taking in everything. “I’ll measure the qi now.”

She set her tools up on this side of the door and got busy.

“Zidan only matters if you’re a clan member, right?” said Mo.

“Yes, it doesn’t concern us at all. When Scholar Wu finishes, we’ll get started with the [Awaken the Spirits of the Land] quest. That should be the first one we do,” I said.

[Awaken the Spirits of the Land:

Find the five bells, mallet, and frame. Ring the bells to awaken the Spirits of the Land.

Reward: ???]

The text was uninformative but, thankfully, I remembered this particular quest and its importance.

When Scholar Wu finished her work, she put her tools away into her personal interspatial storage and said, “All the qi levels are normal.”

“You said zidan is normal, too?” I asked.

“Yes, I can very clearly sense that this land belongs to you,” she said.

Zidan was a sixth sense that only clan members had. As far as I could tell, clan members could see an energy field that surrounds everything, similar to how people on Earth who claimed to be psychics claimed to see auras.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

For land and other inanimate objects, its zidan could indicate ownership and information about its past. For living things like animals and plants, zidan could additionally show their health and emotions. Humans and clan members had a more complex zidan which seemed to be related to their charisma, reputation, physical and mental strength, etc. In many ways, zidan was the real indicator of social standing among the clans.

“It’s good that zidan isn’t weird here,” I said. “Now we need to walk around to ring the bells I told you about. My bloodline inheritance has a map guide that we can follow to find them.”

“Why do you need to do these quests? Your bloodline inheritance gave you this land, but won’t allow you to use it until you find some bells? I have never heard of such a thing,” she said.

“A lot of the quests are for finding stuff that are scattered everywhere. I reckon it’s just to force me to explore the entire area before I start Farming.”

The System was in [Guide Mode] which allowed me to see a path made of glowing yellow arrows on the ground which were visible only to my eyes.

We walked at a comfortable pace. The landscape was a gorgeous patchwork of fields of emerald grass, wildflowers, and groves of trees. The hills in the distance were a soft, undulating green, and the river wound through the land in silver ribbons. A gentle breeze rustled through the tall grasses, creating ripples across the fields. The sky was a clear, brilliant blue, with fluffy white clouds drifting lazily above us.

Scholar Wu stopped every now and then to measure qi and take samples of the soil, rocks, and water, as well as taking cuttings of various plants and trees.

The kids had already written down the texts of the quests in scrolls, and Scholar Wu read their work while we walked, praising them for their hard work, but also pointing out a few errors and sloppy work here and there.

I stopped at the end of the path the yellow arrows made. We were in an open field. “The map says it’s right here. Time to start digging, I guess!”

Five minutes’ work with a shovel unearthed a bronze bell the size of my hand. I was half-expecting a vision to unfold when I found the bell because there was a cutscene for this quest in Adventure Incarnate, but nothing happened. I couldn’t remember the exact details of the scene. Was it a story about the Harvest Goddess falling asleep? However, this didn’t seem to be the case here in this world.

I handed the item to the others to examine.

[Dragon King’s Bell:

Part of a set of bells used to make music.

A small bronze bell, its surface intricately decorated with coiled dragons. The bell's shape is classic, with a wide mouth and a tapering body. Its handle is adorned with a delicate dragon motif.]

“A normal bronze bell,” said Scholar Wu.

Lari took it and tried to ring it. “Teacher, it doesn’t have a clapper and doesn’t make any sound.”

“Look at the System’s text. It says this is part of a set. We probably need all of them before we can ring the bells,” said Kharli.

“Should we clean it up?” asked Mo.

“I believe the green patina is considered artistic.” I looked at Scholar Wu, who nodded. “But we should clean the dirt off.”

“A soft cloth should do the trick.” Scholar Wu took the bell and wiped the dirt off with a handkerchief.

“On to the next one?” I asked.

They all agreed, and this time we picked up the pace a bit instead of leisurely strolling without a care in the world. Finding the first bell had excited everyone, and we wanted to get all of them faster.

The second bell was hanging from a branch in a grove of oak trees. The third bell was under a rock in the river. The fourth was tangled in the roots of a patch of wild roses. The fifth was buried right smack in the middle of the open field in front of the door, where we also found the framework and mallet.

We quickly wiped them clean and assembled the bells by hanging them on the wooden frame. I placed the whole thing on a table and picked up the mallet. “Time to play some music!”

I struck the smallest bell, but as I was about to move on to the next one, a glowing symbol in the shape of a musical note appeared on the fourth bell. Then the musical note started hopping from bell to bell.

Noooooo!

It was a rhythm game! I sucked at those.

Grimacing, I tried to follow the notes as best as I could but failed several times.

I pulled out a chair from my inventory and sat down in front of the table.“Guys, I need some time to learn how to ring the bells.”

“Lady Violet, what’s wrong?” asked Scholar Wu.

I explained the problem to them. “The bells need to be rung in a certain order to play the right melody. I need to practice.”

“Good luck, Teacher!” said Mo.

“I hope the melody is easy,” said Kharli.

“The System wouldn’t make her do something too difficult,” said Lari.

“Okay, here goes nothing!” I tried again, and this time I realized that the song I was playing was quite familiar.

It was the Super Mario Bros. theme!

This made me chuckle and cemented my current hypothesis about the origin of this dimension.

GodIAm was a well-known cheater, hacker, and bug abuser in Adventure incarnate, and I thought it was likely that this dimension was an illegal mod he added since there was no way on Earth that the game developers would’ve added the Super Mario Bros. theme to the official expansion.

Shaking my head and chuckling to myself at the thought of GodIAm being dragged to court by Nintendo, I set out to learn how to play the famous theme song on the bells. Fortunately, I didn’t need to play the whole thing. The first twenty-eight notes were enough.

As the sound of the last chime sounded in the air, ripples of green light emanated from the bells and spread outward.

[Awaken the Spirits of the Land: Quest Complete

Reward: Dowsing Pendulum]

[Quest Available: Rekindling the Emberstone]