After leaving the gym, Li Wei went to the laundromat and washed and dried all his clothes.
By the time he came out with his bag, it was already past midnight.
Rain was a common occurrence in New York in August. A light drizzle pattered on his arms, making him pull his hood tight and hurry toward the basement.
The moment he stepped back into the basement, a clap of thunder exploded by his ear. The ground outside was instantly soaked as a torrential downpour began, as if trying to wash clean the city mockingly called a hive.
Don Quixote was still at the restaurant washing dishes, with no sign of coming back.
Li Wei considered fulfilling his duty as both a roommate and a nephew by giving Don Quixote a call.
The old geezer might be foul-mouthed, greedy, and a cheapskate, but he was still his only guardian. Besides, the man was working two jobs at his age. It was only right for Li Wei to show some concern.
BEEP... BEEP...
It rang for a long time before the call finally connected.
"Hello? What do you want?" Don Quixote's voice sounded irritable. The background was filled with the clatter of plates and shouting in Spanish.
"It's pouring outside," Li Wei said, trying to sound friendly. "Do you need any help?"
"Ha! Haven't you been weaned yet, little master?" Don Quixote seemed to have the phone wedged against his neck, shouting while he worked. "It rains all the time in New York. A little downpour like this is nothing. And don't go crying like a little girl just because you heard some thunder. I've got no milk to give you. That's all, hanging up!"
The call was mercilessly disconnected.
Li Wei took a deep breath, a vein throbbing on his forehead.
"Damn old bastard," he muttered to himself. "I shouldn't have bothered caring."
So Li Wei went to sleep in his clothes, putting the old bastard out of his mind. For a moment, he even forgot all about the impending sleepwalking episode.
However, after he fell asleep, the rain in New York only grew heavier.
...
In a daze, Li Wei thought he heard something crack.
Then he smelled something damp, mixed with the scent of leaves and earth.
He opened his eyes, pushed aside the curtain, and saw that the long, narrow window near the floor of the basement was hissing as it leaked, the water forming puddles on the floor.
Li Wei scrambled up and went to Don Quixote's cubicle. He found Don Quixote still lying on the worn-out mattress, snoring, with no sign of waking up. His favorite Knight novel had fallen to the floor, one corner already soaked through.
"Wake up," Li Wei said, shaking him without a hint of guilt. "The window's leaking."
Hearing Li Wei's voice, Don Quixote suddenly sat up in bed, his eyes still closed.
"Attendant!" His voice was full and resonant, completely different from the deathly, world-weary apathy he'd shown during the day. "What do you seek of me?"
Li Wei could tell from his tone that he was still in his sleepwalking state.
He had just been about to tell Don Quixote that it was leaking and they needed to find some tape to reseal the window and then bail out the water.
But when the words reached his lips, they suddenly changed to: "Lord Knight, please come and see what has happened!"
'Since he's sleepwalking,' Li Wei thought, 'can I use this to reliably trigger the system? Treat him like a fixed spawn point for grinding stats?'
Don Quixote felt the floor and bellowed, "It is the black tide of the Abyss! The spittle of the Leviathan! Damnation! These sea monsters dwelling in the gutters can finally restrain themselves no longer! They wish to devour my castle!"
He sprang from the bed with an agility completely unlike a middle-aged man who'd been as exhausted as a dog all day. He snatched the mop from behind the door, gripped it with both hands, and pointed it straight at the leaking window crack.
"Fall back, you vile elemental creature! Fall back!" He swung the mop at the dirty water flowing in, trying to cleave the stream in two.
"Wait, Lord Knight," Li Wei called out loudly. "Could you let me handle this?"
As he spoke, [Poor Eloquence] on his skill list was flashing nonstop.
Then he heard a 'DING' in his mind.
Don Quixote responded to his request.
"My good Attendant," Don Quixote said, overjoyed. "Come quickly and help me banish this elemental creature."
[Adventurer Li Wei, you have received a quest from Knight Don Quixote: Banish the Water Elemental Creature]
[Quest Requirement: Assist the Knight in sealing the breach and disperse the water elementals within 3 hours.]
[Quest Reward: Constitution +0.1]
'It really triggered!'
Li Wei's heart leaped with joy. He rushed into Don Quixote's cubicle, flipped up his cheap foam mattress, forcefully tore off a strip, and stuffed it into the wet window frame.
The soft foam squeezed into the cracks of the window frame, then rapidly absorbed water and expanded, turning the river-like gush into a trickle.
Li Wei tore off a few more small pieces of foam for the corners and taped up the window, sealing off the flow of water.
He then found a bucket and spent over two hours cleaning up all the water on the floor, pouring it into the toilet.
"Good thing the pipes didn't burst," he muttered to himself as he poured the water. "If the sewers backed up, that would've been a real shitshow."
'I have to hurry up and move out of here.'
After what felt like an eternity, the bucket in Li Wei's hand finally hit the floor with a crisp 'CLACK'. The standing water was finally all gone.
[Quest: Banish the Water Elemental Creature has been completed]
[Reward: Constitution +0.1]
'Strange,' Li Wei thought, looking at Don Quixote.
'No Gold Coins as a reward this time? Is he not satisfied with me?'
But when he turned to look, he saw that Don Quixote had, at some point, already curled up on the foam mattress and fallen back asleep.
[Constitution 0.9] -> [Constitution 1.0]
In that instant, another warm current surged through Li Wei's body, slowly washing over his aching frame and weary nerves.
The soreness in his back from bending over to bail water for two hours now receded like a tide, replaced by a boundless, new strength.
His heartbeat also became slow and powerful, no longer racing wildly at the slightest provocation like before.
"Is this..." Li Wei clenched his fists. "A healthy body?"
Although the lack of a Gold Coin reward was a bit disappointing—it seemed the 'Lord Knight' had fallen asleep without bestowing any post-battle honors—the effects of a 0.1 increase in Constitution were far more valuable than Gold Coins.
Still, there was no way to test the exact improvement a 1.0 Constitution brought right now. Li Wei could only yawn, return to his own cubicle, and fall into a deep sleep on the only undamaged mattress in the room.
「The next morning.」
"Which goddamn animal did this?!"
A bloodcurdling scream jolted Li Wei from his sleep.
Pushing aside the curtain, he saw Don Quixote standing before the pitifully mangled mattress, clutching a piece of shredded foam. He was trembling all over, his face ashen.
"Oh, I did it," Li Wei said, pointing to the residue on the window. "You've got some nerve. It was pouring so hard last night, and I couldn't wake you no matter what. This was the only way I could plug the window to stop the water from leaking in."
"I..." Don Quixote blinked, looking confused. "Was I really dead to the world?"
Li Wei nodded. "I saw how hard you've been working, so I didn't want to force you awake. I just cleaned the place up myself."
"But..." Don Quixote accepted Li Wei's explanation. He turned to look at the surrounding floor. "Why did you tear up my mattress?"
Li Wei wasn't about to tell him that part of the reason was a little payback for Don Quixote's taunts the previous night. He asked:
"It's almost 9 AM. Don't you have to go to the construction site?"
"Oh, not today," Don Quixote said with a wave of his hand. "The rain in Queens hasn't stopped, so the site's closed for the day. Damn construction site, costing me money. I'll take you to the school to get your registration sorted out today."