Learn one small skill every day

Bai Miao sorted things out and roughly figured out his role in this instance: a foreign high school student, most likely from the United States.

In the Abyss Street instance, Bai Miao doesn't recognize the text in Abyss Street, but the character Bai Miao plays retains some memories, allowing Bai Miao to roughly decipher some of the text.

However, in the Hardman Town instance, Bai Miao discovered that he had absolutely no memory of his current character.

Even these English words were deciphered using only his meager knowledge.

So what exactly is the purpose of this instance?

Bai Miao checked the status bar and found that the countdown was still going on.

I didn't encounter anything unfortunate while exploring the room, which means that the time for the Crimson Trial is still running in this instance, but my extremely unlucky debuff wasn't carried over?

Perhaps stepping through this door is itself an extremely unfortunate act.

Bai Miao quietly approached the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, and cautiously peered outside.

Outside, the sun shines brightly, and rows of detached houses sit neatly on the vast land.

The streets were neither clean nor wide, and some were cracked, indicating that they had been repaired some years ago.

According to the Qi Observation Technique, everything appeared peaceful and serene.

The only problem is that there's not a soul in sight outside.

It was almost too quiet.

He was the son of a resident in the small town of Hartman.

Bai Miao confirmed his identity.

So the question is, what do I need to do to clear this dungeon?

Is it going to be another matter of waiting for a certain amount of time to pass?

Bai Miao was thinking of just staying in the room, since he could survive without eating anyway.

However, it's daytime now. If we don't take this opportunity to find out what's going on, we'll just be waiting to die if there's danger at night.

With that thought in mind, Bai Miao opened the door and went out.

Chapter Forty-Eight: Mother's Mission

Bai Miao's room was located on the second floor of this building.

Besides Bai Miao's room, there are three other rooms on the second floor. The entire second floor is a large space, connected by a long and narrow corridor. Bai Miao's room is located at the end of the corridor, where there is an oil painting of fruit. At the other end of the corridor is the staircase leading up.

From this vantage point, Bai Miao has a clear view of the layout of the first-floor living room and the main entrance.

The living room was furnished with a rug, a coffee table, and other ordinary furniture. The television was an old-fashioned plasma TV, and it was on.

The television signal was rather jumbled, but with the aid of linguistics, Bai Miao could barely understand what was being said.

It seems there has been a murder somewhere in the town of Hardman. We hope all residents will stay home tonight.

Why are we being told to stay home again?

Bai Miao continued listening to the content on TV.

"We are investigating possible perpetrators. Based on eyewitness accounts, the perpetrator is most likely... *sizzle*..."

"The killer's height reached... *sizzle*... The killer's appearance is... *sizzle*..."

Damn it, what a piece of junk TV! I can't stand it, I want to punch it and smash it.

"White! The TV's broken again, come down and fix it!!"

The woman's voice coming from the kitchen downstairs sent a shiver down Bai Miao's spine.

Am I not staying alone this time?

"White! Stop staying cooped up in your room and come fix the TV! Didn't you hear your mother calling you?!"

Bai Miao steeled his heart, pretended not to hear, slowly retreated into the room, closed the door, and then lay down on the bed to start.

You can't kill me just because I ignore you, can you?

Faced with the choice between reason and indifference, Bai Miao chose the latter.

In the absence of any clear information, Bai Miao felt that remaining calm and observing the situation was a safer approach.

"You brat! You're not listening to your mother again!"

"Dong dong dong dong..."

A series of rapid footsteps came from the stairs. Judging from the footsteps, it should be a rather plump and short woman. Soon, the footsteps stopped at the door of Bai Miao's room.

"Open the door for me!"

With his back to the wall, Bai Miao already sensed that something was amiss.

Are you missing hands? Can't you drive it yourself?

"Bang bang bang!"

The door was banged on loudly.

"Open the door!"

It seems that ignoring this "mother" was the right choice.

"You're so disobedient to your mother, have you forgotten that you are... hiccup, born of your mother..."

The voice outside the door gradually changed from a woman's voice to a thick, unclear mixed male and female voice, which made Bai Miao's scalp tingle.

"Mom is coming in."

"Click."

A chill ran down Bai Miao's back. The sound of the door latch turning rang out, and with the creak of the door being pushed open, Bai Miao sensed something ominous standing behind him.

Bai Miao was ready to turn around and draw his sword at any moment.

Being able to enter one's own room... means this isn't a safe place.

She kept looking at me but didn't attack me. Was it because she was friendly or because she didn't have the opportunity to attack me?

Unfortunately, we can't use the Qi Observation Technique to see what kind of aura the other person has right now.

The first rule states that you should not contact them.

Does this contact package exclude eye contact?

The thing standing behind him seemed to be staring intently at Bai Miao. After about ten minutes, the door creaked and was closed again.

But Bai Miao still felt that thing was standing behind him.

"What are you still lying there for?!"

Bai Miao was suddenly patted on the shoulder, which startled him.

How could she possibly run into me?

If they wanted to attack me, I wouldn't have had time to react just now.

Bai Miao checked his condition and found that he had not suffered any harm whatsoever.

Is it safe?

"Get up quickly! Fix the TV before dinner!"

With a clear timeframe and requirements, Bai Miao knew he could no longer pretend he hadn't heard.

If the TV isn't fixed before dinner, something bad might really happen.

Bai Miao slowly turned around and saw his "mother" standing by the bed.

A middle-aged woman with blond hair and fair skin, who was overweight, was wearing loose-fitting home clothes and had unsightly eyeshadow on her eyes.

Her lips were painted with bright red lipstick.

The problem is, this guy's eye is slanted.

It's not that the eyeball is slanted, but rather that the entire eye socket is tilted towards the temple.

It was obvious at a glance that he wasn't human.

"Did you hear me? If you understand, answer me!"

Bai Miao pursed his lips, didn't reply, stood up on his own, brushed past "Mom," and went downstairs to fix the TV.

The mother was left behind, stomping her feet in anger.

It can only be said that repairing TVs was one of the skills he learned early on, otherwise Bai Miao really wouldn't have been able to handle this plasma TV.

But the problem comes again.

Bai Miao pinpointed the cause of the plasma TV's malfunction as a faulty IC chip on its internal circuit board, requiring a replacement to fix the TV.

Replacements for this component can be purchased at the town's electronics store, which means Bai Miao has to go out and make some purchases.

Replacing a chip requires a soldering iron, as its 144 pins mean brute force won't work.

Bai Miao searched the first floor and found more than 500 yuan in banknotes in the shoe cabinet near the entrance.

On the right-hand side of the entrance on the first floor is the White family's garage. There are no cars there, but there are several stacked storage boxes. Inside the boxes, Bai Miao found some screws, wrenches, screwdrivers, and other tools.

There is also a map of the town.

According to the map, the White family's house is located in the southwest of the entire town of Hardman, and there is an appliance store just one block away, so it's not too far away.

The map could be stored in the item backpack, but it had no rating. The money and tools, however, couldn't be easily stored away, so Bai Miao put them in the pocket of his hoodie.

After putting the map into his backpack, Bai Miao felt that some memories had appeared in his mind.

A boy named White carried his schoolbag to high school on the west side of town every day.

At school, he was often bullied and harassed by his classmates.

The classmates I remember were all smiling, but their smiles didn't seem human.

Time...12:30 PM.

Dinner is around 6 p.m., so I have five hours to fix the TV.

Walking out onto the empty streets, the warm sunshine overhead did not dispel the gloom in Bai Miao's heart.