People in America: My Uncle Don Quixote

After leaving the gym, Li Wei went to the communal laundry room to wash and dry all his clothes.

By the time he came out with his bag, it was past midnight.

In New York in August, rain is a common occurrence. The sparse raindrops pattered against his arms, prompting him to pull his hood tighter and hurry to the basement.

The moment he returned to the basement, a clap of thunder boomed in his ears. Instantly, the ground was soaked, and a torrential downpour attempted to wash away the city, which was jokingly referred to as the "Nest City."

Don Quixote was still washing dishes in the restaurant, showing no sign of wanting to return.

Li Wei originally intended to fulfill his responsibility as a roommate and nephew by calling Don Quixote.

Although the old man is foul-mouthed, greedy, and loves to take advantage of others, he is still his only guardian, and at his age, he works two jobs. He should care about him for both reason and emotion.

"Beep—beep—"

The call rang for a long time before it was finally answered.

"Feed? What for?" Don Quixote's voice sounded somewhat irritable, with the background filled with the clattering of plates and Spanish curses.

"It's raining heavily outside," Levi tried to sound friendly. "Do you need any help?"

"Ha! Are you still breastfeeding, young master?" Don Quixote seemed to have the phone clipped to his neck, shouting loudly as he worked. "It rains all the time in New York, this little bit is nothing. Also, don't cry like a woman over the thunder, I'm not giving you any milk. That's it, bye!"

The phone call was abruptly ended.

Li Wei took a deep breath, and the veins on his forehead throbbed.

"That damn old bastard," he muttered to himself, "I shouldn't have cared about him."

So Li Wei went to sleep fully clothed, putting the old bastard out of his mind, and for a moment he even forgot that he would sleepwalk at night.

However, after he fell asleep, the rain in New York started to pour down harder.

...

In his dazed state, Li Wei heard what sounded like something breaking.

Immediately afterwards, he smelled a damp smell, which also carried the scent of leaves and soil.

He opened his eyes, pushed aside the curtain, and saw that the long, narrow window in the basement, which was close to the ground, was leaking water, which was pooling on the floor.

Li Wei quickly jumped up and went to Don Quixote's compartment. He found Don Quixote still lying on the broken mattress, snoring, showing no signs of waking up. His favorite chivalric novel was lying on the floor, one corner of which was soaked with water.

"Wake up," Li Wei shook him awake without any hesitation, "The window is leaking."

Upon hearing Livy's voice, Don Quixote suddenly sat up in bed with his eyes closed.

"Servant!" His voice was still full of energy, completely different from the lifeless, half-alive tone he had during the day. "What do you want with me?"

Li Wei could tell from his tone that he was still sleepwalking.

He was just about to tell Don Quixote that the window was leaking and that he needed to find some tape to reseal it and then drain the water.

But the words that were about to come out of his mouth suddenly became: "Sir Knight, please come out and see what's going on!"

Since he was sleepwalking, Li Wei thought to himself, could he use him to trigger the system regularly and treat him as a fixed refresh point for data?

Don Quixote touched the ground and shouted, "It's the black tide of the abyss! It's Leviathan's saliva! Damn it, these sea monsters living in the gutter can't hold back anymore and want to devour my castle!"

He sprang out of bed with surprising agility, unlike a middle-aged man who had been exhausted like a dead dog all day. He grabbed the mop from behind the door, gripped it tightly with both hands, and pointed it at the leaky window crack.

"Back off! Evil elemental creatures! Back off!" He swung the mop at the flowing dirty water, trying to wrench the water back.

"Wait, Sir Knight," Levi called out, "Could I do it?"

As he said this, the skill "Poor Eloquence" in his skill list was flashing incessantly.

Then he heard a "ding" in his mind.

Don Quixote responded to his request.

"My good servant!" Don Quixote exclaimed with delight, "Come and help me drive away the elemental creatures!"

Adventurer Levi, you have received a quest from the knight Don Quixote: Drive away the water elementals.

[Mission Requirements: Assist the knight in sealing the breach and dispel the water elemental within 3 hours]

[Task Reward: Constitution +0.1]

It was triggered as expected!

Li Wei was overjoyed. He rushed into Don Quixote's cubicle, ripped off his cheap foam mattress, tore off a strip, and stuffed it into the damp window.

The soft sponge was squeezed into the gap in the window frame under pressure, and then quickly absorbed water and expanded, turning the small stream of water into a thin trickle.

Li Wei tore off a few small pieces of sponge from the four corners and used tape to stick the window shut, blocking the water flow.

He then grabbed a bucket and spent more than two hours cleaning up all the water on the ground before pouring it into the toilet.

"Luckily the pipe didn't burst," he muttered to himself as he poured out the water, "otherwise, it would have been hilarious if the sewer had backed up."

We must move out as soon as possible.

After an unknown amount of time, the bucket in Li Wei's hand finally touched the ground with a crisp "thud," and the water on the ground was finally swept away.

[Quest: Expelling the Water Elementals Completed]

[Reward: Constitution +0.1]

Strange, Livy looked at Don Quixote.

There was no gold coin reward this time? Is he not satisfied with me?

To his surprise, when he turned his head, he found that Don Quixote had already curled up asleep on the foam mattress.

[Constitution 0.9] - [Constitution 1.0]

In an instant, another surge of heat emerged from Li Wei's body, slowly washing over his aching body and tired nerves.

The back pain that had been caused by bending over to scoop water for two hours has receded like a receding tide, replaced by a continuous flow of new energy.

My heartbeat has also become slower and stronger, no longer beating wildly as it used to.

"This is..." Li Wei clenched his fist, "...a healthy body?"

Although the lack of a gold coin reward left Li Wei slightly disappointed—it seemed the 'Knight' was asleep, and there was no post-battle reward—the 0.1 increase in physique was far more valuable to him than gold coins.

However, there was no way to test how much improvement the 1.0 physique had brought at the moment, so Li Wei could only yawn and return to his cubicle, where he then fell into a deep sleep on the only intact mattress in the room.

The next morning.

"What kind of bastard did this?!"

A piercing scream woke Li Wei from his sleep.

Pushing aside the curtain, I saw Don Quixote standing in front of the wretched mattress, clutching a piece of sponge in his hand, trembling all over, his face ashen.

"Oh, it was me," Li Wei pointed to the marks left on the window. "You have the nerve to say that? It was raining so hard yesterday, I couldn't wake you up no matter what I did, so I had to use this method to block the window and stop the water from seeping down."

"I..." Don Quixote blinked, somewhat puzzled. "Am I really fast asleep?"

Li Wei nodded. "I saw that you were working too hard, so I didn't force you to wake up and cleaned the house myself."

"But..." Don Quixote accepted Livy's explanation, turning to look at the ground around him. "Why did you tear my mattress?"

Li Wei wouldn't tell him that part of the reason was actually a small response to Don Quixote's deliberate mockery of him the previous night. He asked:

"It's almost 9 a.m., don't you need to go to the construction site?"

"Oh, not today," Don Quixote waved his hand. "The rain in Queens hasn't stopped yet, and the construction site is closed for the day—that damn construction site is preventing me from making money. I'll take you to the school to complete the procedures today."