Chapter 00039: The Ring of Sight
# The Ring of Sight
Chapter 39
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 39 - The Ring of Sight
Moving the game screen over to the chapel, just like usual, Viola was kneeling in prayer, surrounded by a large group of Royal Guards.
And also like usual, today's sacrificial meal was displayed on the altar.
Li Chengxi connected his computer to the monitoring screen using an HDMI cable, then reached his hand toward the screen and pulled out the food tray.
By now, this had become routine.
Lifting the cover, as expected, there were no surprises.
The ever-present white bread, and a serving of cream stew—though today’s meat had been changed to roast quail.
But just when Li Chengxi was about to place the tray behind the cash register to wait for a free moment to wash it and return it to Viola, he noticed a small box on the tray.
The box seemed to be made of cedar wood, without much decorative pattern.
There was only an eye-shaped symbol on the lid and side.
"Is this... something Zola and the others found in the treasure yesterday?"
He thought about it for a moment before remembering.
After all, he hadn’t paid much attention to what Zola and the others had discovered in the treasure.
The moment he saw the golem's HP bar hit zero, he had immediately switched the view to Viola's side.
But now that he thought about it, why had they sneaked a box into today’s offering?
A little confused, Li Chengxi gently lifted the lid.
Inside the palm-sized box was some kind of animal hide.
The fur was fine and short, looked a bit like deerskin.
And right on top of the hide sat a simple gold ring.
The craftsmanship of the ring really wasn’t anything to brag about.
It looked like nothing more than a piece of gold bent into a circle, with a gemstone roughly the size of a fingertip set into it.
The gemstone was golden in color, with a vertical line in the middle that resembled a pupil.
If it were a ruby or sapphire—something straightforward like that—Li Chengxi would recognize it.
But this kind of gem...
He didn’t really care about such things.
Opening his browser, he searched a bit online and found that it closely resembled a cat’s eye gem.
The encyclopedia even said cat’s eyes could be very expensive.
“Seriously? It looks more like one of those smooth pebbles you'd find in a river.”
Half-believing, half-doubting, Li Chengxi checked some online shops, and saw cat’s eye bracelets only sold for a little over a hundred yuan.
“Knew it wasn’t worth much. And this gold ring’s purity is pretty questionable too.”
Judging from the tech level in the game’s world, their metallurgy basically remained at the level of medieval times.
"Pure" gold probably came with a ton of impurities.
So if you don’t count the valueless cats eye gem, the gold might be worth eighty to a hundred yuan, if that.
But then again, this was something Viola and the others had offered up with sincerity.
Reducing it to a matter of money felt a bit too cold and calculating.
“Forget it, may as well wear it for fun.”
He put the ring aside, then turned to unpack a delivery package, stuffing all ten or so plastic-packaged items through the screen and onto the altar.
It was a batch of vegetable seeds he'd ordered online.
Mainly radish, lavender, soybeans, along with a few other kinds.
Of these, radish and soybeans were the most important.
Both were crops that could grow well in the Leon Territory’s climate and had high yields.
Most of the fertile land in the Leon Territory was forested.
The plains were few and not very fertile.
Soybeans could help improve the soil’s quality, so planting them was a smart move.
The thing is, potatoes could be propagated by cutting, whereas radish and soybeans couldn’t.
That’s why Li Chengxi had bought these seeds online to give to Viola.
Whether it was another world on the other side of the screen or a bunch of little people living inside Li Chengxi’s computer, the bottom line was—they had to eat.
First, make sure the vegetables that could truly improve people's lives could be grown.
Only then could he worry about other things.
After all, he was from the Celestial Empire—when it came to food, Li Chengxi refused to compromise.
Also, it was partly because Viola’s daily offerings had become way too repetitive.
Vegetables took time to grow, and since the game didn’t have a fast-forward function, Li Chengxi decided to grab a seasoning pack from his own shelf in the meantime.
It had all the basic spices and seasonings—should be enough to improve the taste a bit.
He’d seen the kitchen in the castle.
All they had were simple ingredients like onion, lemongrass, thyme, and salt.
Things had gotten pretty dull taste-wise.
Again—for the record—Li Chengxi never compromised on food!
On the screen, Viola and the Royal Guards were startled by the seasoning pack and the seeds.
Seeds were easy enough—they recognized them once the packages were opened.
But the seasonings came in glass bottles.
A bunch of Royal Guards stood around buzzing, looking as amazed as if they’d just stepped into a palace.
Viola opened a jar of white pepper, poured some into her hand, and right away a chorus of amazed shouts like “Gan!” and “Cao!” rang out from the surrounding knights.
Li Chengxi had long since given up trying to get them to stop saying those words.
Just imagine—an entire church full of holy warriors constantly shouting “Gan!” and “Cao!”—obviously not the kind of crowd to mess with…
Then Viola must have accidentally sprinkled a bit too much, and the screen was instantly flooded with a series of “Achoo!”
Honestly... kind of cute, right?
Li Chengxi had already explained the matter of the seeds to Viola long ago.
As for the seasonings, he’d just let them figure things out on their own.
Back at the cash register, he sat down again and picked up the small box.
He reached out and took the ring.
He bounced it lightly in his palm—it wasn’t as heavy as he’d expected.
Anyway, it was something Viola and the others had offered with heart.
It could be worn as an accessory, just for fun.
Li Chengxi slid the ring onto his index finger.
“Hm?”
In that moment, he noticed the ring seemed to shrink slightly to better fit his finger.
But it happened so fast, it felt like maybe he’d just imagined it.
Before he could double-check, the ring was already snugly on his finger.
Then he saw the golden cat's eye gem embedded in the ring—it was glowing!
Recalling the Radiance Ring he’d pulled out of the game on the first day, Li Chengxi immediately had a bad feeling.
He hurried to take the ring off.
Almost the instant his finger touched the cat's eye gem, he felt a booming sensation explode before his eyes.
His entire vision trembled up and down.
But unlike an earthquake, he didn’t feel any physical shaking.
The trembling made his head spin.
Then Li Chengxi realized—his vision was rising!
He had been looking at the screen, eyes focused on it—and now it felt like he was flying, rising rapidly upward.
Then he realized—it wasn’t that his vision was flying, but more like his soul was leaving his body!
As his view rapidly elevated, he saw the second floor of his home, then the solar water heater on the roof.
He kept ascending—until he estimated that he was nearly a hundred meters above ground.
Only then did it stop.
At that point, he could already see the street outside the store, the people walking by.
But they didn’t seem to see Li Chengxi floating in midair.
Heart racing, Li Chengxi looked around in a panic.
He noticed on the other end of the street, that pretty girl who often walked home with Xue Wenshu was passing by.
Just as he focused on her, his vision zoomed in instantly, making her image fill the view.
Startled, his vision pulled back again to the overhead view.
That’s when he realized—in this state, it was like he was a living magnifying glass.
Wherever he wanted to look, the view would zoom in.
If he lost interest, it would return to the overhead view.
The problem was—how was he supposed to return to normal?
Even though he couldn’t see it, he could still feel his physical body.
Li Chengxi moved his wrist and touched the ring on his finger.
Instantly, his vision plummeted downward as if in freefall.
In the time it took to panic, everything snapped back to normal.
He was still seated behind the cash register, hadn’t budged.
Li Chengxi hurried to pry the gold ring from his finger and put it back in the box.
“What the hell [i]is [/i]this thing…”
(End of Chapter)