Chapter 58: The Price Must Go Up

“No problem,” Ye Da replied casually, finding an empty seat and sitting down. The old man soon brought over a plate of meat, a bowl of white rice, and a bottle of liquor. The liquor came in a coarse earthenware bottle from the shelf behind the owner and had a sweet and sour taste—surprisingly pleasant. It was probably fruit wine.

“Boss, I saw on your signboard that you call yourself ‘The Know-It-All.’” Ye Da seized the opportunity to question the old man. “How much does it cost to ask a question?”

“That depends on the kind of question,” the old man replied, stroking his goatee. “If it’s an ordinary question, the price is one unit of quality fur. If it’s a more complicated question, it’s priced according to quality stone.”

Ye Da slapped a steel ingot onto the table and asked, “Is this a game world, or is it the real world?”

This question had plagued him for a long time. Was this truly a game world, or a real one? But asking a newcomer was pointless; only those who had been here a while might know, since the longer one stayed, the more likely they’d notice something amiss. If this really was a game, the veterans would surely know!

“What’s a game world?” the old man asked.

Ye Da was taken aback. The old man’s eyes filled with perplexity, as if he’d never heard the phrase before—his expression was genuine, like someone encountering the term for the first time, not understanding it at all.

Ye Da began to doubt himself. Was it simply because the owner was older and didn’t play games, so he didn’t know what one was? But that didn’t make sense! Even Ye Da’s father and grandfather knew about games, often scolding him with a stick when he played on his phone: “No games! Go do your homework!”

At this moment, the old man’s question truly left Ye Da at a loss. He didn’t know how to answer. “A game is… something you play on a computer or a phone, like Poker or QQ Mahjong.”

“I don’t understand.” The owner quietly swept away the steel ingot. “Ask something else. The only word I recognized just now was mahjong. I’ve heard the wealthy ladies play it to pass the time, but I don’t know how myself, and I can’t afford such an expensive set.”

“Mahjong… is expensive?” Ye Da was genuinely baffled this time, but pressed on, thinking hard. “Forget it, I’ll just ask you—can we go back?”

“Go back where? Beiping?” The owner rubbed his head. “What for? The whole place is wracked by war, we barely have enough to eat. It’s better to settle here. There may be monsters, but at least people can live decently, with meat to eat and clothes to wear. What’s not to like?”

“What? Beiping? Beijing?” Ye Da rubbed his ears, wondering if he’d misheard.

Beiping was the old name for Beijing, and nobody called it that anymore—unless they were from that era. Moreover, the owner just mentioned war everywhere, no food to eat, no safe place to live. He didn’t know what a game was, and he said mahjong was a pastime for rich ladies! Was it possible…?

But as soon as this idea surfaced, Ye Da dismissed it. The Republic era was decades ago; even if someone had survived till now, they’d be ancient. Yet the owner looked, at most, in his early fifties. He wore a melon-shaped cap, but the hair beneath was jet-black and shiny, showing no sign of age. Yet the long braid down his back made Ye Da suspicious again.

At first, Ye Da assumed the man was pretending to be an innkeeper from an old drama, but now… it seemed the owner was simply being himself.

“What, you’re not from Beiping? So you’re one of those ‘modern people’ Lin Zhi and the others mentioned,” the old man said matter-of-factly. “No wonder you talk such nonsense. You so-called modern folk speak gibberish, just like those ‘foreign devils’—nobody can understand a word.”

“So, are you really from the Republic era?” Ye Da took a deep breath and asked, “How old are you?”

“Are you sure you want to spend your question on that?” The owner’s lips curled slightly as he stroked his goatee. “Well, I’ll tell you. I’m indeed from the fourteenth year of the Republic, and I’ve been here three and a half years, give or take—I can’t recall exactly. As for my age, I doubt you’d be interested.”

“I know what you really want to hear. Since you paid with a steel ingot, I’ll tell you: people from all eras have ended up here. I’ve even met a man from the Ming Dynasty.”

“Ming and Qing people, and those from the Republic, are the most common. The rest are you so-called modern folk.”

These revelations thundered through Ye Da’s mind like bombs.

This place… people from every era were here? That was impossible for a game world; the Ming and Qing dynasties had no such thing as games, and even game consoles were modern inventions. So what kind of place was this? What kind of space could gather people from all times and places?

“Do you… know what this place is?” The more Ye Da asked, the more questions filled his heart.

The old man just smiled and rubbed his fingers together. “That’s another question—that’ll cost extra.”

“Fine.” Ye Da produced another steel ingot.

Raising his eyebrows, the old man replied, “As far as everyone can tell, this is a world for those who are nearly dead, but not yet departed. You can call it the Asura World. Everyone who comes here was on the verge of dying, but fate would not let them die—not just you, but me as well.”

“One last question.” By now, Ye Da’s mind was overwhelmed with information, but one concern remained. He placed an iron ingot on the table and asked, “Can I go back?”

“That’s a complicated question…” The old man glanced at the iron ingot, then rubbed his fingers, hinting for more payment.