The Only Player in 'Child of Stardust'

One hour later.

Zhou Yuan handed over the lost orange cat to Ms. Wang downstairs.

With the Eyes of Identification, this task had been incredibly easy for him.

Go downstairs → find the missing cat notice posted in the neighborhood and identify the appearance of the lost cat → locate the stray cats in the neighborhood → use the Eyes of Identification to get clues about the cats' frequent hangouts → follow the Meow Meow Team → successfully find the lost orange cat → return it to Ms. Wang and collect a 3000 yuan thank-you fee.

The whole process felt exactly like completing a side quest in a game.

[Task 'Cat Finding Notice' has been completed]

[Task Reward 1: Experience Points *10]

[Task Reward 2: Star Coins *100]

[Experience: 50/350]

[Star Coins: 5500]

Because the daily tasks were too simple, there was no rating system, or else Zhou Yuan would have tried to earn an S-rank.

"If I sell the healthy apple, it will be 5800, still 200 short."

Zhou Yuan had already selected his next task—

[Task Name: 'Yellow Flash']

[Task Objective: Deliver 20 orders within an hour 0/20]

[Task Reward 1: Experience Points *20]

[Task Reward 2: Star Coins *200]

A normal specialized delivery rider, in normal weather with the system dispatching orders properly and nothing unusual happening, could deliver about 3-5 orders in an hour.

If they were running crowd-sourced orders, the number might decrease by 1-2 orders.

If they encountered extreme weather or the system messes up the dispatching, the number would be even lower.

Only those "delivery gods" could achieve the terrifying record of averaging 8 orders per hour.

To break through to 10 orders per hour, not only did they and their vehicle need to be top-notch, but they also needed favorable conditions of time, place, and harmony among people. It might not even happen a few times in a year.

So, even the "delivery gods" could not guarantee they could deliver 10 orders in an hour, let alone exceed that.

But now.

Zhou Yuan was going to challenge the impossible!

Delivering 20 orders in one hour!

·

In a convenience store.

"You have a new delivery order. Please check it promptly…"

As the notification sounded, the machine printed out a receipt.

The store clerk frowned as he tore off the receipt, found the item according to the purchase details, packed it, and placed it on the counter to wait for the rider to pick it up.

At that moment, a customer walked into the store, saw the scene at the counter, and froze for a moment.

He saw the counter densely packed with paper bags waiting to be picked up, almost no place to put them.

"What's going on here?" the customer asked in confusion.

"Some idiot placed 20 orders, buying just one item per order," the clerk couldn't help but curse, "and each order used a coupon! Every single one!!!"

"Damn," the customer was dumbfounded, "is this even possible?"

Suddenly, the store door opened automatically, and a delivery rider wearing a yellow uniform, holding a box, walked in and rattled off a string of order numbers like reading out a menu.

"These are all for you." The clerk pointed to the twenty paper bags on the counter, "This guy is something, having the patience to place twenty orders."

Surprisingly, the delivery rider did not seem too shocked, calmly packing the paper bags into the box.

The clerk and customer found it strange but didn't ask, thinking he must have a good attitude… no wait!

They suddenly realized, of course, the delivery rider had a good attitude. This was twenty orders!

Delivering twenty orders from the same place, isn't that a jackpot?

Soon.

Zhou Yuan finished picking up the items, hurriedly carrying the box back home and quickly tapping on his phone to mark each order as delivered.

Yes, all twenty orders had been placed by him and were all accepted by him.

The system didn't specify to whom the deliveries had to be made. If he delivered them to himself, wasn't that still delivery?

When he marked the last order as delivered, the system notification sounded.

[Task 'Yellow Flash' has been completed]

[Task Reward 1: Experience Points *20]

[Task Reward 2: Star Coins *200]

[Experience: 70/350]

[Star Coins: 5700]

"Completed two tasks in less than two hours; looks like I won't need to sell the healthy apple to quickly gather enough Star Coins."

So, Zhou Yuan decisively accepted another task he had been eyeing.

[Task Name: 'Blue Flash']

·

Noon.

Zhou Yuan completed both the 'Blue Flash' and another task called 'Crazy Thursday.'

'Blue Flash' was the same as 'Yellow Flash,' requiring him to deliver 20 orders within an hour. However, the two tasks were not on the same delivery platform. He used the same trick again, easily completing the task.

'Crazy Thursday' required him to eat a Crazy Thursday meal and randomly give 50 yuan to someone.

What puzzled Zhou Yuan was that the second task was obviously easier than the first, but for some reason, the rewards were the same.

Maybe… because Crazy Thursday was a time-limited event?

So strange, how much stuff had the game designers crammed into 'Child of Stardust'?

Back at home, Zhou Yuan didn't bother himself with these trivial things. He looked at his panel. He had currently reached 110 experience points and 6100 Star Coins.

Finally saved enough!

He eagerly opened the game shop and purchased the Super Soldier Serum.

[Name: Super Soldier Serum (Modified)]

[Quality: Rare]

[Special Effects: Limited to level 10 and below. After injection, strength, agility, constitution, intelligence, and perception attributes will be increased to 10 points.]

[Note: I can go all day with you!]

The next second, an electric syringe appeared in Zhou Yuan's hand, filled with a blue liquid, like a tear from the deep sea, emitting a faint glow, deep and mesmerizing.

He rolled up his sleeve, aimed the syringe at the deltoid muscle of his left arm, took a deep breath, and pressed the button at the end.

Click.

The needle sprang out, piercing the skin and muscle barrier. As pressure was applied, the blue serum inside the syringe slowly descended.

A moment later, the injection was complete.

Zhou Yuan put away the syringe and lay on the sofa, waiting for the serum to take effect.

About ten seconds later, he felt his body temperature rise rapidly, and intense pain surged from various parts of his body.

It felt like a raging fire, spreading through his flesh and bones, ready to burn everything to ashes.

Each cell writhed in painful agony, every nerve felt like it was being electrocuted, and each bone seemed to melt in the flames. Even every heartbeat, every breath, came with excruciating pain.

Inexpressible pain engulfed Zhou Yuan, his face turned pale, and his entire body trembled from the agony. It felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out, his whole body on the verge of splitting open.

Sweat poured out in torrents, soaking his entire body. He clenched his teeth, trying hard to stay conscious.

The path to becoming Transcendent was destined to be filled with thorns. If he couldn't endure this pain, he wouldn't last long. Only by surviving this ordeal could he be reborn.

Finally.

After what felt like endless torment, the excruciating pain gradually subsided like a receding tide, and his body temperature started to fall back to normal.

Zhou Yuan gasped for air and, after resting for a while, opened the player panel to check.

Once he confirmed the serum enhancement process was complete, he immediately allocated the points.

Strength +1, Agility +1, Constitution +1, Intelligence +1.

Instantly.

He transcended human limits.

It was as if he had been reborn. Zhou Yuan felt unprecedented power coursing through his body, every cell brimming with boiling vitality, celebrating his rebirth.

His sensory abilities were pushed to the extreme. Every nerve was infinitely heightened, every external stimulus amplified as if with a powerful magnifier.

Light and color wove a dazzling tapestry before his eyes, each hue imbued with new life, dancing and shimmering, coloring the world vividly.

A cacophony of sounds surged from all directions, interweaving and colliding into a torrent that impacted his auditory nerves without mercy.

Touch, taste, and smell also became exceptionally sensitive in this heightened sensory state.

Every inch of skin sensed subtle temperature changes in the air, and every olfactory cell could distinguish the various mixed scents in the air.

An overwhelming flood of information bombarded his brain. Previously, Zhou Yuan might have gone insane, but not now.

His brain's operating speed and information processing speed were beyond imagination, countless times faster than during his peak in middle school, as if an ancient CPU had been replaced with the latest supermodel, allowing him to easily adapt to his enhanced body.

"My head itches, feels like I'm growing a brain."

Thinking so rapidly, Zhou Yuan found it hard to adjust.