My game even includes ancient times

The girl slung her small bag over her shoulder, pushed open the glass door, turned around and waved to the work area behind the counter, saying in a light tone, "Sister Xiaoyu, I'll be going now!"

"Okay, be careful on the road."

With the tinkling of wind chimes, the noise of the bustling street was shut out, and the small dessert shop in the heart of the city gradually returned to quiet.

He Yu smoothed out the last bit of texture on the cake, straightened up, let out a long sigh of relief, and put the frosted cake into the refrigerator with satisfaction.

She washed her hands, picked up her phone, walked out of the workroom, and threw herself onto a recliner at the shop entrance, completely relaxing her body. Her limbs immediately went limp, like overcooked noodles.

The store has been doing very well lately, and even though they've hired a summer worker, she's almost broken her back from exhaustion.

He Yu scrolled through a few short videos out of boredom, but none of them were interesting, and his tired brain showed no signs of relaxation.

She exited the app, scrolled through her phone's home screen twice, and inadvertently glimpsed a management simulation single-player mobile game that she had downloaded at some point.

It seems like I haven't played this game for more than half a year, right?

He Yu had forgotten why he had given up the game in the first place. Since there was nothing else interesting to do now, he decided to download another casual game to refresh his mind.

She opened the list of casual games and aimlessly scrolled down.

What came into view were all kinds of games like match-3 puzzles, simulation management games, and level-based games. These games all had the same routine, and He Yu was already tired of them. His finger movements became faster and faster.

Suddenly, a somewhat unusual icon flashed past my eyes.

"what?"

He Yu stopped what he was doing, scrolled back through the list, and revealed the game icon with a somewhat sci-fi style.

The icon has a black background, and upon closer inspection, you can see many tiny, scattered dots, resembling an endless universe.

In the very center is a pattern resembling a wormhole, with distorted edges and a color even darker than the black background, as if it were trying to suck people in. If you look at it for a long time and then look elsewhere, a black spot of light will always remain in your field of vision.

He Yu blinked uncomfortably and turned her gaze to the game name that followed the icon.

"The Order of the Jianghu"?

She paused, puzzled. The game's name and icon were complete opposites; she wondered what the developers were thinking…

But in any case, it did pique her interest a little.

He Yu clicked download, placed her phone on the small glass coffee table beside her, got up to pour herself a glass of water, and took a piece of chestnut cake that was left over from the morning's sale from the freezer. When she returned with the items, the game had already been downloaded.

He Yu clicked on the layered black icon on the desktop. There was no loading indicator, and he was almost instantly taken to the game interface.

So fast?

She looked at her phone screen.

The game interface is very simple. The experience bar is in the upper left corner, showing that she is currently level one and needs 10 more experience points to level up to level two.

Below the experience bar are four option icons: map, home, character, and quests. The bottom left and bottom right corners are control buttons for adjusting the view and direction, respectively.

The overall style is a realistic ancient Chinese ink painting style, quite exquisite, not bad.

The game currently displays an ancient street, presumably in winter, with unmelted snow piled up along the roadside.

The street was paved with neat bluestone slabs, with several shops and stalls on both sides. The stall owners sat on small stools wrapped in cotton-padded coats. There were quite a few pedestrians coming and going on the street, making it look quite lively.

He Yu tapped the directional keys, and as the screen moved, a special figure appeared in the upper right corner of the wall.

Unlike the other characters, he has a huge green arrow on his head that flashes, making him stand out in the overall low-saturation image.

He Yu clicked the arrow, and the game screen zoomed in. She could see the character clearly; it turned out to be a little beggar.

The little beggar was about ten years old. He was curled up in a corner, with a small pile of dry grass under him. He was covered with a tattered cotton coat, with large clumps of cotton exposed, so dirty that the color was no longer visible.

His head was buried in his arms, so his face was not visible; only a tuft of messy black hair stood out, swaying in the cold wind.

He Yu tried moving the camera, and the screen rotated upwards, changing the view from overhead to eye level. She then rotated it slightly to the lower right, and finally saw half of the little beggar's face peeking out from under his arm.

It turned out he was furtively munching on a cornbread.

This discovery made He Yu smile inexplicably.

The character design in this game is quite logical. A little beggar is eating, and he even knows to hide. Is he afraid that other beggars will see him and steal his food?

She didn't know what the plot would be like next, but she had a feeling it would be very interesting.

He Yu tapped the little beggar in the picture, but nothing happened, and no dialog box popped up. The little beggar still hid his face under his arm and secretly ate his cornbread.

He Yu was not giving up. He pointed at the little beggar from head to toe, and even pointed at the half-eaten steamed bun in his hand, but there was still no hint of the next plot development.

What's going on? Is the plot going to be triggered by another NPC?

He Yu tried using his index and middle fingers to shrink the game screen, and the screen was indeed shrunk.

She held her phone up to her eyes and carefully observed the pedestrians on the street. These NPCs all seemed to be created from the same model, with the same face, all looking the same and nothing special.

She randomly pointed to a few people, but there was no response. She then pointed to the shops and stalls on the street one by one, but there was still no response.

How strange, how do I trigger the plot?

Is this game just a beautifully detailed and realistic picture with no story at all?

He Yu was a little puzzled, and she decided to try out the icons in the upper left corner.

He Yu had just placed her finger on the map but hadn't even tapped it when the icon marking the task suddenly flashed, accompanied by a loud notification sound, startling He Yu so much that she almost dropped her phone.

What kind of eerie sound effects are these...?

He Yu steadied his racing heartbeat, frantically pressed the volume button, and then opened the task icon.

A dialog box pops up on the screen, displaying the content of the first task on a blank interface:

[Task 1: Rescue He Shi from being surrounded by wild dogs]

Who is He Shi? That little beggar?

He Yu opened the task details.

[Mission Description: Two stray dogs wandering near North Commercial Street smelled the aroma of steamed corn buns and their mouths watered. After some discussion, they decided to rob the human who had them.]

[Mission Requirements: Please help He Shi protect the only steamed bun he has.]

[Quest Completion Rewards: Experience Points*5, Copper Coins*10, Steamed Bun Recipe*1, Wild Dog Guards*2]

He Yu: "..."

What a fierce battle to defend our cornbread!

She moved the camera to the little beggar and saw two stray dogs, one black and one yellow, surrounding the corner of the wall.

The two dogs' heads were faintly glowing red, their front legs were lowered, and their canine teeth were bared—a posture indicating an impending attack.

He Yu's heart tightened, and she didn't delay any longer, immediately zooming in on the image.