Ch35 - Paper Gold

“You’ve been sleeping too long today.” In the midst of the children’s clamor moving away and the wings of the moths flying toward the lights nearby, Jiang Fang took him by the shoulder and whispered softly. “If you sleep for too long then your spirit will be bad.”

Nan Zhou gritted his teeth and eased through the burst of numbness and fatigue that rose within his body. He slowly let out an uncomfortable breath and tried not to whimper. 

…He really wasn’t feeling well today. This was why after he woke up, he just stood by his door, restraining his curiosity about this strange, dirty little world and not going anywhere. He didn’t even go to watch Jiang Fang play mahjong.

Nan Zhou did his best to control his disordered breathing rhythm. Jiang Fang hugged him, stroking the second vertebrae gently, just one finger away from the tooth mark on the back of Nan Zhou’s neck. He pretended not to hear the clear and rough breathing in his ears.

Nan Zhou suspected that Jiang Fang had discovered his secret.nHowever, Jiang Fang didn’t ask again and Nan Zhou had no evidence to support his judgment. Therefore, he had to swallow his doubts. Once Nan Zhou’s breathing had completely slowed down, he took a step back. His expression was cold without any fluctuations. “Let’s go back.”

Jiang Fang had no opinion. “Okay.” 

By the time Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou returned to their room, Li Yinhang had just put down her pen and paper. She tucked her pen behind her ear. “Hey, you came back quickly.”

She thought that with Nan Zhou’s cat nature, he would wander around the city and only go home in the middle of the night.

Jiang Fang smiled at her. “He found me and we came back together.”

Li Yinhang didn’t think too much. The three people sat together and had a small meeting. As a very self-aware tool man, Li Yinhang briefly sorted out the points, items and ranks in everyone’s hands.

According to her calculations, Nan Zhou had 4,815 points and was level 12. He had five storage spaces, the A-grade item ‘Counter-clockwise Hour Hand’ and the B-grade item ‘Ma Liang’s Sketchbook’.

In addition to the two items, he still had the dagger in his storage and the mushroom corpse with oxygen that wasn’t completely consumed. After offsetting their expenses of eating and drinking from what he earned from the Douzhuan Casino, Jiang Fang made a net profit of 400 points.

In the end, Jiang Fang made a gamble and bet almost all of Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang’s points. Therefore, it was decided that the 400 points would be used for their consumption over the next few days and was public property.

Jiang Fang’s score was currently the highest in Cube Boat. He had a total of 4,890 points and was level 12. He also had five storage spaces and had the B-grade consumable item, ‘Clown’s Secret’. In his storage, there were two items that he had exchanged for points before entering the first instance. There was a small tin can of fruit candy with a total of 20 pieces worth 10 points. 

[Item description: Necessary high quality sugar products for hypoglycemia patients.]

If the tin of sugar belonged to the category that people could still understand, the other thing that Jiang Fang spent 50 points on was beyond this category. He bought an apple sapling.

[Item description: Do you want to eat fresh apples? Put it in the storage compartment and try it out for a year.]

…Fuck trying it for a year. In the original worldview of Forces of Temptation, farming was one of the mainstream gameplay methods so it wasn’t surprising that the store would sell an apple sapling. 

Still, this didn’t prevent Li Yinhang from feeling that Jiang Fang was engaged in performance art. Li Yinhang’s thigh hugging achievements were also quite remarkable. Her current points were 4,660 and she was level 12. She had the B-grade waste item, ‘Ghost Grindstone’.

After listening to Li Yinhang’s summary, Nan Zhou was concerned about another thing. “What is the ranking?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Ol Tlctjcu abbx j ibbx ja atflg gfmbgv. “Yeg afjw… kf jgf cbk gjcxfv 172cv lc atf rfgnfg.”

Jeggfcais, atf Jtlcj rfgnfg ktfgf atfs kfgf yjrfv tjv j abaji bo 16,800 bcilcf qijsfgr. Ktf Jeyf Dbja afjw kjr gjcxfv 172cv. Pc afgwr bo qfgrbcji gjcxlcu, Rjc Itbe kjr 723gv, Aljcu Mjcu kjr 720at jcv Ol Tlctjcu kjr 888at. 

It could be seen that most players in the game were struggling in the thousands, exhausting themselves for a mouthful of oxygen and food. They went through the levels to earn a pitiful amount of points, sold themselves for meagre living supplies or gritted their teeth and went to fight for a chance at the casino.

Nevertheless, they were online. Being online meant at least being alive. Many lives were erased in the first level or even the trial level.

Li Yinhang couldn’t figure out such a result. “Why is our team ranked so high?”

It stood to reason that the first choice for most normal people after entering the game was to form a team instead of fighting alone. Therefore, the number of teams was bound to be considerable. The maximum number of team members possible was five. They were a trio and didn’t have an advantage in numbers. In theory, shouldn’t it be the more people there were, the more points? Moreover, in terms of the number of games, Cube Boat should be classified as a newcomer team. They just passed one level so why were they so far ahead? 

Jiang Fang heard Li Yinhang’s confusion and explained, “Yinhang, you are talking about an ideal state.”

Li Yinhang was in a fog.

Nan Zhou sat by the bed, drawing along the cracks in the floor tiles with his toes as he continued Jiang Fang’s words, “It is because the more people there are in a team, the more opinions they will have and the greater the possibility of death. This also means the greater the possibility of score fluctuations.”

Li Yinhang, “……” This statement was simple and rude but she understood it. 

Then Nan Zhou raised his head and spoke seriously. “Therefore, no one in our Cube Boat can die.”

Li Yinhang saw Nan Zhou’s calm but solemn face and was inevitably moved. Before she could say ‘none of us will die’ loudly and forcefully, Jiang Fang took out his beautiful sugar tin. “I have some sugar. Do you want to eat it?”

Nan Zhou immediately looked back. “Eat.”

Li Yinhang, “……” Fuck. 

You can take a look at the atmosphere before eating.

On the other side, Nan Zhou chewed on the candy and filled in the last half of the sentence he hadn’t finished just now, successfully dispelling what was left of the warm atmosphere. “Once someone dies, our ranking will drop.”

He watched Li Yinhang as he spoke, apparently feeling that he and Jiang Fang were still safe.

Li Yinhang sadly thought, ‘The bigshot is right. I will try hard not to die and not to hold you back.’ 

“In addition, Yinhang—”

Nan Zhou drew out the end sound, as if to emphasize something important. Li Yinhang immediately raised her spirits and listened carefully.

“Why are you saying that we’re ahead?” Nan Zhou sincerely asked. “Our team is ranked outside the top 100. This is very bad.”

“…I’m sorry, it’s because I’m too arrogant.” 

“There is no need to rush.” Jiang Fang comforted them. “Let’s rest here for a few days.”

Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang wondered in unison, “How many days?”

Nan Zhou was concerned with the ranking. Li Yinhang was concerned about the room fee. When Jiang Fang could control his emotions properly, he was the gentle and good-natured Jiang Fang. He smiled. “We don’t need to do the task today.”

Li Yinhang told them, “It definitely won’t work today. We have to check out before 12 noon. Today’s room rate has already been renewed.” 

Nan Zhou ate the soft candy and sniffed with slight relief. He moved from the side of the bed to the middle of it, laying down. Li Yinhang perceived his intentions and was a bit surprised. “Are you sleeping again?”

“Yes, it’s getting dark.”

Li Yinhang opened the bedside table. “Eat something. I went to buy breakfast in the morning. It was originally 5 points for one. I bargained to get three for 10 points.”

Nan Zhou closed his eyes and quietly refused. “I already ate sweets.” 

He was tired and weak while a chill seeped out from his bones. He didn’t like this feeling but he could do nothing. This was Nan Zhou’s disease and there was no cure. Nan Zhou thought, ‘As long as my wish comes true, everything will be better.’

Not long after his head sank onto the soft pillow, he suddenly sat up.

Li Yinhang was startled. “What’s the matter?”

Nan Zhou opened his eyes and murmured without thinking, “…Pillow.” 

Jiang Fang wondered, “Huh?”

Nan Zhou turned to him. “There is something under the pillow.”

It was only then that Li Yinhang remembered that Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou had the male-male promotional magazine under their pillows. She was about to explain when Jiang Fang took a magazine out from under his pillow. He saw the cover and slightly raised his eyebrow.

Li Yinhang hurriedly explained the source of the little yellow book. Jiang Fang really wasn’t interested in such things. He heard this and put it on the bedside table. 

As Li Yinhang was talking, Nan Zhou kept rubbing his temples but his eyes fell on the two men on the cover of the magazine. He was unable to hide his curiosity. Perhaps it was because he didn’t like this type of thing being placed where it could be seen casually. Nan Zhou took the initiative to place the magazine back under the pillow and then lay down on it.

It was just an ordinary episode and no one cared. Nan Zhou didn’t take the book out from under the pillow again.

Next, they took a three day break in the city. Everything went smoothly and nothing strange happened.

Apart from Nan Zhou waking up at 6 o’clock the next morning without yesterday’s sleepiness and fatigue and he wandered all over the 28 pagodas of the ring-shaped walled city, there was nothing special. 

During the rest period, the human oxygen cylinders belonging to Jiang Fang, Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang ran out. After increasing their oxygen balance, they found three vacancies at a nearby cemetery. They buried the bodies of the three players there and symbolically carved three gravestones for them.

Until now, they only knew that the first ‘ghost’ they caught was really called Liu Xiao. They didn’t know the fat man’s name or whether Qin Yadong was actually called Qin Yadong. They might never know.

After burying the three corpses who had accompanied them for a short time, Nan Zhou opened the store and chose a new instance with a face value of 100 points. This time, he still chose PVE mode.

Jiang Fang asked Nan Zhou, “Are you sure?” 

Nan Zhou answered, “Yes.”

Li Yinhang also agreed and analyzed it. “In PVE mode, there seems to be a greater chance of getting items.”

This time, Nan Zhou’s response was a bit late. “…Um.”

Nan Zhou didn’t choose PVE for points and items. He had been wondering if he should choose PVP to see how it was different from PVE. Then he inexplicably thought of the monk walking barefoot. Thinking about him walking around in bare feet, singing and chanting for someone to say goodbye to them, Nan Zhou really didn’t want to fight against other players. 

Nan Zhou thought up to here and clicked on the ‘use card’ option. A brilliant light spread out and swallowed up the three people standing or sitting in the hotel room.

[Dear players of the Cube Boat team, hello~]

[Welcome to the instance: Sha, Sha, Sha.]

[Number of people participating in the game: 7] 

[Instance nature: supernatural, campus, roleplay.]

[Have a nice game~]

Nan Zhou listened to the name and nature of the instance by the female mechanical voice and thought, ‘Is this school haunted by rats?’