Chapter 46.1 (1/2)
Tang Mianmian repeated himself, “From the very start, you were the one who insisted on bringing us to District S. You begged us to wake your captain up. Now that he’s awake, you ask us for points. We haven’t even asked you to pay for the medical treatment yet!”
Duan Hongzhen glanced at Tang Mianmian and the latter immediately took a few big steps backwards, shrinking behind Xiao Tangqiu in fear. “Of course, we owe you these points. Naturally, we must still pay you back…”
Duan Hongzhen shrugged, “Fine, I’ll give you a flat rate. 50,000 points, okay?”
Tang Mianmian nodded at once, “100% ok! Then we will… “
Xiao Tangqiu quickly covered Tang Mianmian’s mouth. “I want to pay in installments!”
“Installments? Don’t you guys have at least 50,000 now? Didn’t you just complete an S-level mission?” Duan Hongzhen arched his eyebrow, emphasizing the words, “…With our help.”
Xiao Tangqiu immediately said, “Thank you great god for taking us along with you… But we still need some points to buy weapons and equipment, or we might really die in the next instance. I believe you don’t want to see this happen as well.”
Duan Hongzhen shrugged his shoulders. “Why not?”
Xiao Tangqiu offered, “… I’ll return it to you after the end of my instance. I’ll even give you 60,000.”
Duan Hongzhen smiled and mocked, “I don’t need that 10,000 points. In case you die in your next instance, I won’t even have 50,000.”
Xiao Tangqiu, “……”
He felt that he shouldn’t have mentioned returning the points at the beginning. Why did he open his stupid mouth?! Why?!
……But if he didn’t mention this matter, he might not have a reason to see Shen Yuan anymore.
Duan Hongzhen looked at Xiao Tangqiu’s expression with great interest. But after awhile, he seemed to have had enough of fooling around. Then he said slowly, “Alright, I’ll allow you to pay it back after the end of your next instance, but you’ll have to pay 70,000 points.”
Xiao Tangqiu gritted his teeth, “You’re still bargaining? Are you buying vegetables at the market?“
He didn’t know if Duan Hongzhen really had the power to look into a person’s mind because 70,000 points was indeed the most they could give now. Besides the points they needed to spend on supplies and weapons, he and Tang Mianmian had only 70,000 points to spare at most… But at least Duan Hongzhen gave them time to do another instance. As long as they returned safely from the next mission, they would have some money on hand.
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other and reached a consensus, so they both nodded in agreement to this method of repaying their debt.
After the three reached a consensus, Duan Hongzhen patted his bum and left while Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian returned to their new home in District D.
The two had been running all day and were so tired they fell to the floor as soon as they got home.
Tang Mianmian lay on the ground, poking Xiao Tangqiu who was beside him. “What should we do afterwards?”
Xiao Tangqiu looked up at the ceiling and said, “We’ll rest for a week, then we’ll do another mission and save enough points so we can return Duan Hongzhen what we owe. Then, we’ll continue to do more missions, save points and try to move to District S as soon as possible.”
“Move to District S? Do we really want to move there?” Tang Mianmian rolled over and looked at Xiao Tangqiu. “Although we can now enter District S whenever we want, the stuff over there must consume a lot of points and we, rookies, are broke as fuck…”
Xiao Tangqiu poked Tang Mianmian’s head, “Who among the great gods in District S didn’t start from being poor rookies? If they can do it, why can’t we?”
Tang Mianmian argued, “But Duan Hongzhen said that District S is a decadent place. What if we lose ourselves to the decadence when we enter District S?”
Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “Apart from the luxury and pleasures, there must be some secrets in District S that we don’t know of. Otherwise, why would all those people run to District S? They’ve survived so many close encounters, wandering between life and death all the time. Did they go there just for enjoyment?”
Without a second thought, Tang Mianmian agreed, “There seems to be some truth in that.”
“And I believe that the environment has a very huge impact on people. Look at those who live in Newbie Village? Their eyes and their attitudes… We’ve just arrived in the city of abyss and may not be affected by them for the time being. However, if we stay in Newbie Village for a long time, I’m afraid we’ll be influenced by them and become just as numb to everything. We’ll end up muddling along, trying to survive.” Xiao Tangqiu sighed, “I think this is the real reason why Su Manluo told us leave Newbie Village as soon as possible.”
When one has stayed in a room full of orchids and irises for a long time, one can no longer detect the fragrance. When one has stayed in an abalone store for a long time, one can no longer smell the stench… The effect of one’s environment and the assimilation to it was very frightening.