“Noooo! Not my potatoes!”
Kharli gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s only half of the field. Cheer up, Teacher!”
I sighed, feeling melancholy all of a sudden. “We do everything right and still fail because of the weather and freak accidents.”
Mo was looking up at the sky with a perplexed expression on her face. “Frozen ice raining from the sky in summer? Could it be someone playing a prank on us? Teacher, did you refuse to follow a tall, handsome, foxy stranger during the festival?”
“Nope, I didn’t encounter any beautiful strangers who asked me to run away with them.” I looked around at the others. “What about you guys?”
Kharli and Mo shook their heads while Lari muttered “I wish!” under his breath.
“Okay. I think we should rest. See you guys later.”
I stayed in the potato field after they left, waiting for my boyfriend. When he arrived with three of his royal guards, I led them to the center of the farm, the place I had chosen for the Bell Tower.
“Thanks for coming. I know you’re busy,” I said.
“I’m never too busy for you,” he said. “How do you feel?”
I blinked. “A little nervous, I guess.”
“Don’t worry, I’m here, and we’re ready to help with anything.” He gestured at his guards.
They were just a precaution. Adventure Incarnate always warned the player beforehand if there was any danger in a quest, and there was no such warning. Therefore, I was reasonably sure this was a safe quest.
[Paradise Earth Primordial Origin Dream Soul Path:
An epic quest that will answer all your questions about the meaning behind your life in Adventure Incarnate.
Build a three-storey Bell Tower and ring the bells 108 times every morning and night for 108 days.
Time Remaining: 108 days]
“Okay, here goes nothing!”
Without further ado, I placed a [Bell Tower] ten feet in front of us. It was quite fancy-looking. Only three stories high, it had a white stone base and its corners featured columns topped with sculpted leaves. The second level was slightly recessed, with tall, arched windows and wrought-iron balconies depicting vines and flowers. Its topmost story was covered in intricate gold, blue, and white mosaic work portraying a blue dragon in flight over nine auspicious clouds.
I was about to enter it and ring the bells when I got a series of System pop-ups.
[Calibrating…]
[Calibrating…]
[Calibrating…]
[Calibration Complete]
[Checking requirements]
[Level requirement met]
[Atmospheric qi requirement met]
[Achievements requirements met]
[Time requirement met]
[Skip the bell ringing quest and proceed to the reward?]
Of course, I wanted to! Who would want to wait 108 days if they could get the answers right away? I mentally clicked on the [Yes] button.
[Calibrating…]
[Calibration Complete]
[Issuing New Quest]
[Quest Available: Go Gentle Into That Good Night]
[Go Gentle Into That Good Night:
Enter the Bell Tower and ring the bells 108 times to find the answer to all your questions.]
“Weird.” I turned to Prince Baiyu and told him about the new quest.
“I see. Then this will be finished today instead of in 108 days. We’ll accompany you inside.”
That’s what he said, but, unfortunately, an invisible force field prevented them from going more than three steps closer to the tower.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll scream if there’s any problem.”
Prince Baiyu tied a rope to my waist, and I entered. We tested to see if he could pull me out, and it was successful, so I went ahead and walked further inside. Looking up, I could see one large bronze bell and dozens of smaller bells. I suspected that the number of bells was also 108, a sacred number said to correspond to the number of earthly temptations. The thick, braided bell rope was easy enough for me to pull.
The bells rang.
[Lifting the seal]
[Progress: 10%]
“What seal?” I said out loud.
The System, of course, did not respond. I didn't expect it to. I waited a bit more, but nothing happened, so with a shrug, I pulled the bell rope again.
The bells rang.
[Progress: 20%]
Once again, I waited, but I couldn’t see any changes. Just in case, though, I made Mr. Bear grow until he was human-sized and put him on [Guard Mode].
I pulled the rope again and again, and they rang, and the System’s pop-ups continued to show its progress.
[Progress: 100%]
[Seal weakened and ready for removal]
Nothing had changed.
“Weird.”
I pulled the rope, but this time, I felt a vibration in my chest that echoed the bell’s ringing. It was strong but not unpleasant. As I continued to ring the bells, the vibration spread from the center of my chest to my whole body. I could feel my teeth rattle and fancied I could even sense my brain trembling inside my skull. Not wanting to chip a tooth, I slowed down and let the vibrations cease before pulling the rope again.
“This is kinda fun,” I said to Mr. Bear. “Weird, but fun.”
My mind wandered as I continued the repetitive task of slowly and steadily ringing the bells. I remembered my dream. 42? That was the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything, but what was the question?
I went over all of the unanswered questions in my mind.
Why was I sent to this world? How was it done? Who did it?
Was GodIAm involved?
Was my mother involved? What about my dad?
That last thought seemed to unleash something inside me that had been unnaturally quiet all this time.
Why had I barely thought of my parents since they died?
At that thought, a sudden, sharp pain lanced through my skull. My vision blurred, the edges of the world shimmering erratically, and I swayed in place, my hands still stuck on the bell rope.
[Warning: System instability has exceeded tolerable levels.]
[Calibrating…]
[Calibrating…]
[Calibrating…]
[Seal adjusted]
[Seal integrity: 50%]
The pain receded, and my vision normalized.
“What the heck was that?”
I looked around as though for answers, but none were forthcoming. I took a deep breath and wondered if I should continue or take a break.
“The seal… must be affecting my mind, right?” I said to Mr. Bear.
That had to be it.
Was it a seal that stabilized my emotions? Or one that sealed off most thoughts of my parents?
I patted my chest and decided to continue because I didn’t want to walk out of this tower without releasing the seal.
Cautiously ringing the bells again, I did it slower than before. I had lost count, but I reckoned I was around halfway there.
As the music and vibrations shook my body, I couldn’t help but think of my parents again. Memories flooded my brain.
Discussing the latest memes with my dad and laughing at funny cat videos.
Going shopping with my mom. The perfect pair of jeans we found in a little shop in Malaku. They were so cheap and looked so nice on me that we bought six pairs.
Renting a sailboat in Greece, and my mom teaching me how to cook steak in the tiny galley while my dad was horribly seasick.
Being homeschooled by my parents, and, how, when I was eight years old, all three of us made an increasingly large and complicated model of the solar system.
Running away to my aunt’s flat after burning the noodles my mom had asked me to look after, I forgot about them and left to play with some neighbor's kids.
Learning how to fish with my father at a tiny hotel fishpond in Penang. Why had I never thought of this while I was using the System to Fish?
[Seal integrity: 40%]
All the memories, big and small, flashed across my mind, and the last, most terrible one of all, was going to the crematorium. They asked me if I wanted to take one last look at my parents’ bodies. I was dry-eyed all throughout, and my mother’s family whispered that I was still in shock.
[Seal integrity: 30%]
My vision blurred again, but this time it was because of tears.
[Seal integrity: 20%]
I sobbed out loud for the first time after they died.
[Seal integrity: 10%]
“Mom, dad…” I whispered to myself.
[Seal lifted.]
I covered my face with my sleeve and wiped my eyes. When I lifted my face from my sleeve, I saw a shimmering oval portal appear in front of me. Obviously, I was supposed to go through it to find the answers to all my questions. I took a step towards it, then gasped as the floor beneath my feet shook.
I grabbed Mr. Bear for balance and looked around.
“What was that?”
Unexpectedly, the door had closed without me noticing. The rope that was tied to my waist was cleanly cut as though by a sharp knife, right where the entrance to the tower was. I ran to open the door and saw a strange sight. The ground all around the tower was torn up. Prince Baiyu was there, wild-eyed, holding his sword above his head as though he was about to bring it down on an invisible enemy.
“What happened?” I yelled as I ran to him.
He sheathed his sword in one fluid motion. “I was trying to get your attention.’
“Um.” I glanced down at the ground all around us. So those cuts on the ground were sword marks? And the tower was now leaning precariously to one side. “Yes, you got my attention. Did something happen?”
“I heard you crying.” He took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and tenderly wiped my face with it. “What’s wrong?”
I pulled him away from the guards and tried to explain what I had experienced.
He frowned. “There might be a formation inside the bell tower that affected you. Some kind of mental sorcery.”
“There’s a portal…”
“Why don’t I try to enter the tower again?” He put a hand on his sword.
“You mean by cutting your way through it?” I shook my head. “Wait, let me think.”
After some time to think, I hit upon a possible solution.
“Let me try this…” I mentally navigated to the System’s [Build] tab and used the [Destroy] button on the bell tower, which immediately disappeared. As I had hoped, the portal inside it remained behind. “It worked!”
I tried to smile, but I was still feeling down because of the seal and the memories I just recalled.
Hand in hand, we walked to the portal, and this time, there was no tower to get in the way.
Prince Baiyu eyed the mysterious glowing oval floating in the air. The portal’s surface wasn't opaque but rather a translucent swirl of light. I could vaguely perceive shapes within its depths. It hummed with an almost inaudible thrum, a low vibration that I felt more in my bones than heard with my ears. Tiny, glittering motes of what looked like pure light continuously drifted from its center, winking out of existence as they reached its periphery.
“Please let me enter it first,” he said.
“Okay.”
Hand in hand, we stepped through it, Prince Baiyu first, then I.
Author's Note: