Chapter 47 - Ghost School (1) (1/2)
After chatting with Bai Yi for a while, Cheng Zhi Chu noticed that his phone was running out of power, so he stopped and took the bullet train back to his own city. He then dropped by home first before heading to school to tell his sister about his experience attending the variety show.
He didn’t know how the system would manipulate the other people’s memories, so he didn’t dare delve into it too deeply let alone mention the reality instance. He just vaguely said that it was a very fun experience and mentioned that he was chosen to go on stage to complete the interactive section of “Guess What I’m Doing” with Ji Yun Xiao.
Cheng Ling Ling, whose leg has still not recovered completely, couldn’t help but admire him. She even lamented even more fervently about this missed opportunity. If she went, she might’ve been the one who would be able to interact with Xiao Xiao.
But her own brother had the privilege of interacting with her idol and this made Cheng Ling Ling very happy. She looked forward to the episodes broadcast and was eager to see how they had interacted.
Moreover, when she heard that there would be other gifts to be delivered home in the next few days, she let out an excited scream and happily hugged her older brother while exclaiming that he is her lucky charm. Cheng Zhi Chu who heard this revealed a bitter smile. This little girl here has no idea about the misfortune that he had encountered.
After lunch, Cheng Zhi Chu rushed back to school. After all, he still had class tomorrow.
Over the next few days, Cheng Zhi Chu was very calm, and no other bad things happened. During this time, because the reality instance had rewarded him with a large sum of survival points and, adding on top of that the points that he had earned through his forum post, he managed to upgrade his skills.
He had altogether bought five types of cards before entering the reality instance. While he was in the reality instance, he had used two of them. They were, respectively, “Purification Fire” that can burn away evil spirits and a card that allowed instantaneous movement of up to twenty metres. He still had another one of the latter card in possession.
In addition, there were three other types. They were respectively “Soul Poison”, “Banshee’s Scream” and “Protective Shield”.
The protective shield card was previously used by Meng Zin and the effect was the same. Their protective diameter was three metres and, if you hid inside the barrier, you can resist external attacks.
But Meng Xing’s card had a duration of five minutes and the one that Cheng Zhi Chu had bought was only three minutes. However, even if it just lasted a short three-minutes, its original price was 1500 points which was the same as the purification fire card. It was so expensive that it is astonishing.
And because there is a 30-minute cooling down time between the use of protective shield cards, its price increased exponentially with its duration of effectivity. It simply was money-grabbing. Cheng Zhi Chu saw that Meng Xing’s one costed 5000 points and didn’t dare to look at the price of the other higher quality cards.
“Soul Poison” and “Banshee’s Scream” were both attack type of cards. Their original price was 1000 points and their effects are very different.
“Soul Poison” is a single attack card. After targeting an enemy, it would begin to release deadly toxins that would kill the target instantly. One card can infect up to three targets.
“Banshee’s Scream” is mainly used for group attacks and would result in a debuffed state. After using it, it can cause dizziness, bleeding, fear, confusion etc. If you are lucky enough, they may even die immediately but the chances of it happening is very low and it was useless when used against living humans.
These cards are very expensive. Even the cheapest instantaneous movement card required 600 points. Cheng Zhi Chu had also purchased an “Increase in number of times a card can be used” skill that allowed him to use every card twice. Just the skill itself costed 2000 points and it was only a low levelled skill. If he wanted to level it up, the price for it would be doubled.
In addition, Cheng Zhi Chu also purchased a “Map Interpretation” skill and a bottle of advanced levelled luck potion worth 1500 points. Even if his level was upgraded to C and he can get a 20% discount off the prices, it was still something that led him close to bankruptcy and he spent more than 8000 in one go.
After completing the instance this time, he once again gained more survival points. Adding on top of that the proceeds from the forum post, Cheng Zhi Chu used the points to raise his text interpretation, clue prompt and map interpretation skill to the third level. Like this, these skills would be able to be used in instances of “Expert” difficulty as well.
Although Cheng Zhi Chu wanted to say that he wasn’t at the level where he can complete “Expert” level instances, he could only keep his mouth shut when he saw that most of the instances listed in the photobook were of “Madness” or “Extreme” difficulty.
After upgrading those three skills, in an instant Cheng Zhi Chu once again only had 200 survival points left.
He couldn’t help but start to lament that it is too difficult saving 1 million survival points. Although you earn more points the further you progress and accumulating 1 million points isn’t a hard feat, the points were being used up like a running tap. No matter how much you earn, it is not enough.
What made people feel even more powerless was that these expenses were necessary. Otherwise, they would not be able to keep up with the difficulty of the instances if they just relied on their own abilities and would die then and there. Only a dead end awaits a miser.
It had been a few days since Winter Branch had replied to his forum post and the talk about it had soon died down. The players who had clicked into the forum to see the great good had already done that and now the points that Cheng Zhi Chu gets from it is very limited.
Cheng Zhi Chu didn’t feel frustrated about this. In fact, he had hoped that this post would die down more quickly. After all, Winter Branch had mentioned that this was a special instance and it would be troublesome if it resulted in widespread attention.
Over the past few days, Winter Branch would occasionally chat with Cheng Zhi Chu. His attitude was gentle and friendly, and he would take the initiative to help answer Cheng Zhi Chu’s questions without mentioning anything about Cheng Zhi Chu’s experience in the instance. It was as if he had completely forgotten about it.
However, after some consideration Cheng Zhi Chu decided to take the initiative to mention the special instance and show some curiosity about it. He asked the other party if they could reveal more information.
He inquired about these things because he wanted to mention this to Bai Yi. Before, due to some considerations on his part, he didn’t mention it to Bai Yi but after hearing that Bai Yi had been missing for the past 6 years and may be currently in a dangerous situation, he felt that it may have something to do with the special instances and he wanted to be of help.
After telling Bai Yi about this, he would be able to allow Bai Yi to decide whether or not he can trust Winter Branch. If he could then he was certain that, with Winter Branch’s extensive experience, it would definitely be of help.
As for Winter Branch’s side, any average person who hears about the existence of special instances would be interested so even if he asked about it, he was certain that Winter Branch would not be suspicious about it.
Of course, Cheng Zhi Chu still emphasised that if it is inconvenient for Winter Branch to talk about it, he didn’t have to. He didn’t want to be put on the hitlist because he had found out about a terrible secret that he shouldn’t know about.
[Winter Branch: Yes, it’s about time that I reveal some information about it to you.]
[Winter Branch: I mentioned this you to before, this kind of instance would need to be opened by a specific player. He holds the “key” to activating the instances.]
[Winter Branch: There is also one more special point. The bosses of those instances are not the same as the usual bosses. They all come from the same source.]
………..What?
Seeing these messages, Cheng Zhi Chu suddenly froze and thought of his Boss Photobook.
Fuck. Don’t tell me the player that activates these special instances isn’t Bai Yi but he himself and the so-called “same source” and “key” is the Boss Photobook?!
Large turbulent waves roared inside Cheng Zhi Chu. He stared wide eyed at the message on his phone.
[Winter Branch: Perhaps you have also noticed now. The one that can activate these instances is you, Zhi Chu.]
How does Winter Branch know his name?!
Cheng Zhi Chu held his breath and felt a chill down his spine. He almost dropped his phone onto the floor. The next moment, the string of messages sent from the other party made him feel like he had fallen into an ice cave and his face instantly turned pale.
[Winter Branch: Those instance bosses also include me.]
[Winter Branch: I was also awakened by you, Zhi Chu.]
[Winter Branch: The message exchange between us have now reached one thousand. Now I can follow your presence and go find you.]
[Winter Branch: I’m very happy that we can meet in reality.]
[Winter Branch: I’m heading off now. I’ll report to you my location whenever I can. Wait for me.]