Chapter 22 Reality

[Li Changzhou Settlement Report]

[Survived, Rating ＋1]

[...]

[Li Changzhou Settlement Report 2]

[No Rating]

[Li Changzhou's Final Rating 'F']

[Obtained 10% purchase rights for this arena match]

[Received Value 5 points... Two Identity Cards detected, please allocate——]

[Received Money 10 coins... Two Identity Cards detected, please allocate——]

[No ticket reward]

It's too tragic.

Struggling in the desert for so long only to get this little in return, what exactly is life all about?

Li Changzhou felt that "one must not lie flat" was correct.

A person should fulfill the tasks of each life stage: play well as a child, study hard as a student, perform well at work, and enjoy a good retirement when old.

He should take more initiative and kill more people.

Value and Money were all on the Black Card, only that much, and transferring it to the White Card would make Li Qianxia suspicious.

After deeply reflecting on himself, Li Changzhou turned his head to look at the two female college students, whose ratings were probably a bit higher than his, as "Wolf Howl" and "Attract And Repel" could easily earn an 'Assist Kill' rating.

The data showed that Li Qianxia got the same amount of Value as he did, both five points, together making 10 points.

She had 5 coins more than he did, they got 25 coins in total this time, plus the leftover from last time, making 285 coins altogether.

Li Changzhou's Black Card data as follows:

[Nickname: 'King of Black Fog']

[Name: Li Changzhou]

[Value: 2 (10/200)] (Twins)

[Instinct: Physical Enhancement] (You are completely infatuated and confident in every aspect of your body)

[Instinct: Twins] (Value shared completely, effect of instincts halved, backpack shared completely, Value Coins shared completely) (No one loves their brother more than you do) (Source: Li Qianxia)

[Skills: 'Rifle Mastery', 'Unlearned', 'Unlearned', 'Unlearned', 'Unlearned', 'Unlearned']

[Strength: 6] (Normal Human)

[Agility: 5] (Normal Human)

[Intelligence: 7] (Genius)

[Constitution: 7] (Ordinary professional athlete)

[Perception: 2] (Normal Human)

[Charm: 9] (Male protagonist)

[Equipment: None]

[Backpack Slot: 'AK-47', 'M95 Sniper Rifle' (Li Qianxia: 'Mosquito Style Blood-sucking Gun', 'Honeybee Sting Crossbow')]

[Money: 270 coins (Li Qianxia: 15 coins)]

The White Card added a B-level skill 'Control Dopamine', with no other changes.

Thinking of this skill, Li Changzhou finally felt a bit more balanced inside, thinking the desert trip wasn't in vain, thanks to the anime world, thanks to 'Invincible Wind Fire Wheel'.

"Want to buy anything?" he asked the two.

With ten percent purchasing rights, they could buy some stuff, like Snake Movement, Monkey Movement, Farting (originating from skunks, but the fart was your own), and so on.

The only one they could buy that was somewhat useful was the 'Compass' from the Magnetic Termite.

The skill description was not getting lost, but its level was only E, and the remark made it very clear: don't expect it to lead you out of man-made fog.

Basically, it meant it couldn't block skills.

Yang Qinglan shook her head, "Let's keep the money. These things won't increase our strength if we buy them. Let's wait until we have higher privileges next time."

"Ah, I really want the skill to enlarge and shrink! Flying would be great too!" Li Qianxia wailed.

The three got on the bus.

The cool breeze instantly made them collapse, the outside world blazing hot, the purgatory turning into scenery.

How many people in the world get to enjoy a bus tour around the desert?

If it weren't for the Value Game, Li Changzhou probably would never have enjoyed this in his lifetime.

After a brief rest and before falling asleep, Yang Qinglan began to reflect on the conference.

"The person who rolled down from the dune was not Zheng Qing; instead, they shot crossbow bolts at the three of us."

"The giant toxic python that could enlarge and shrink didn't come out from behind the cat's tail but from behind us."

"The first one to go to the water pit where the chameleon was laying ambush wasn't me; it was you."

"The pygmy marmoset led us in a very dangerous direction; the Golden Eagle snatched away one of us from mid-air."

"These were the dangers we encountered, and in this game, there were many more perils we didn't come across. Fifteen survived, but how many more died?"

"Surviving was purely by luck. If any of the above situations had happened, none of the three of us could be sitting here like this."

Having finished speaking, she turned her gaze to Li Changzhou, who had changed back into his own clothes.

"Do you have anything to say?"

"Your voice is really nice." He had given up on thinking.

His strength was 6, and his constitution was 7, but he couldn't bear to carry someone continuously through the desert.

In the game, it was fine, his spirit was taut, and he didn't feel tired as long as he kept his breath, but now that he had relaxed, he felt his brain could no longer direct his body, all his organs had gone on strike and taken a vacation.

"I'm so hungry, I really want to sleep." Li Qianxia also stared blankly at the ceiling of the bus, having forgotten the previous idea of going to watch a movie to celebrate.

Yang Qinglan didn't say anything; she too had reached her limit.

...

Bus number 69 stopped in an area with only streetlights, and three dust-covered figures descended.

They wanted to take a taxi, but the nearest one wouldn't arrive for another 15 minutes, so the trio could only cross to the opposite side of the road to wait for the 69 bus returning the other direction.

While waiting for the bus, they decided to simply sit down on the curb, not wanting to stand for another moment.

The night air in Ming City was stuffy and hot, and sweat spread again on clothes that had dried out who knows how many times.

Upon returning to Ming University, Li Changzhou didn't eat anything; he immediately took a shower and then went to sleep, even though it was only 9 pm.

...

...

In Daxia Capital, Yang City, a medium-sized conference room under tight security.

At this moment, before the dawn had broken, dozens of people were already seated inside.

Smoke filled the air, documents were scattered across the tables, pens had fallen to the floor, and someone had fallen asleep on a chair in the corner.

Clearly, it wasn't that they'd arrived early, but that they hadn't left the room all night.

The disarray in the room also reflected the urgency of the situation; there was no spare energy or thought to tidy up.

"What time is it?" a middle-aged man in a military uniform, sitting at the head of the table, squeezed the sides of his nose and asked the person next to him.

"Four fifty-eight. Today's report will be here soon," the other person replied.

"Wake everyone up," commanded the middle-aged man, as he rubbed his own face to wake himself up.

There was finally some activity in the conference room as they woke each other up.

After the noise subsided, silence reigned again until the door to the conference room was pushed open.

A female soldier entered, clutching a thick stack of documents.

She raised her hand to salute, but the middle-aged man waved his hand to interrupt her, "Just speak."

"Yes, sir!" The female soldier acknowledged promptly, then rapidly transitioned into her report.

"September 7th, which was yesterday, a total of fifty-three thousand six hundred and eight people from all military districts entered the qualification competition, with forty-nine thousand one hundred and fifty passing;"

"On the same day, a total of ninety-four thousand three hundred and sixty-one civil servants entered the qualification competition. The pass data has not yet been reported and is expected by noon."

"Last night, about nine hundred individuals participated for the second time, with x casualties, and acquired skills..."

"The military and government have completed the internal animal culling, and zoos and botanical gardens are under close surveillance, with the current count of awakened animals..."

Listening to the cascade of numbers was enough to make one's head spin.

Several of those present kept slapping their own faces to stay awake.

"Any news on the particularly noteworthy animal abilities?" asked a robust-sounding older military man of the female soldier.

"There's news on the mantis shrimp."

"Speak!" Everyone sat up instinctively.

The punching speed of a mantis shrimp is 100 kilometers an hour, and it can instantaneously heat the surrounding water to the temperature of the sun's surface.

Research has shown that if scaled up to human size, a single punch would have a power of at least 700 tons.

What used to be a fun fact for science popularization was now discussed in this office because humans truly could gain the power of the mantis shrimp.

"An official struggler from Oman, with the value coins provided by the authorities, managed to learn the mantis shrimp's punch."

"And the result?" someone immediately asked.

"The man's right arm turned to ash, and his internal organs were all burned up; he died on the spot. The punch he threw carved a hundred-meter-long trench in the ground, with the surrounding soil turned to glass."

The female officer placed a document in front of each person seated there.

The conference room fell silent.

The middle-aged man at the head put down the document with photos from the test site; the destruction was comparable to the latest in technological weaponry.

He picked up a special box of cigarettes, wanting to smoke one, but the cigarette box was already empty.

He sighed and put down the box, the middle-aged man said:

"The value game has just begun, and human bodies cannot yet withstand such overwhelming power, but from a developmental perspective, it's only a matter of time before humans gain this kind of strength."

It sounded like he was talking to himself, but it was also a warning to everyone.

"Anything else to report?" he asked the female officer.

"A soldier named Zheng Qing requests a direct video conversation with you. She has important intelligence related to strugglers," the female officer said.

Another scenario that would have been absolutely impossible before the value game.

From the establishment of the Special Warfare Bureau, all team members were granted this right—for any intelligence deemed necessary, they could report directly, skipping the chain of command.

The middle-aged man sighed wearily, then quickly gathered his spirits and said, "Patch it through."