Surprise Midnight

Chapter 9 – Surprise Midnight

Hua Shi gave up after she ran out of idea how to convince her parents.

"Oh my! Does she has that interest already?"

Zhan Ru spoke. She was amused by her daughter. Hua Shi was fidgeting, then panicking then sighed.

"Hmm? What interest?" Hua Tuo asked.

"Silly dear. She is growing up."

"Ho? What do you mean growing up? She's only 15 if I remember correctly."

"Girls grow up faster than boys, dear. Say, what do you think of that boy?"

"Zhang Tong? I wanted him as my disciple but he said he had other plans."

"Well, how about not taking him as a disciple, but taking him as a son-in-law."

"What!?"

"Isn't he a good prospect for our daughter? He has potentials. He has the eloquence and the business mind. His look is quite good too. I saw him sneaking glances at our Shi'er as well."

"Now that you mentioned it …"

From Hua Tuo's point of view, Tong has the potential to become a successful merchant. Tong seemed smarter than other kids around his age. Also, his health and his look were superb, too.

As a father, he didn't like the idea of entrusting his only precious daughter to any man, let alone a young boy. But Tong seemed indeed like a good prospect.

Tong's father, Zhang Jiao, was a well-known healer shaman, which had quite a respectable status. And Tong himself had great potentials. He could run a business at this age. Then if he grew up more, what height could he reach?

"I'll visit his father and we'll talk about this again. A pity that he wasn't here today."

Hua Tuo lamented. He also wanted to discuss and exchange some medical knowledge with Zhang Jiao.

Hua Tuo and his family left the Zhang resident and booked the inn to rest for the night. They planned to come back to find Zhang Jiao tomorrow.

...

Meanwhile, Tong was leading his servants carrying several pots into his warehouse.

Tong could not stop smiling. Today, he traded a dozen boxes of soaps for Hua Tuo's famous anesthetic, the Mafeisan Anesthetic Liquor.

The Mafeisan Anesthetic Liquor disappeared along with Hua Tuo's death. The composition of the anesthetic was unknown. Several historians had countless debates of what was in the true formula and had never yet concluded which one was the correct one.

But now, Tong had acquired several pots at once. He was planning to save it for his future cause during the rebellion uprising.

'Hua Tuo said it has to be stored with the cover sealed shut, store it under the roof and not being bathed in sunlight, but not stored in a high-temperature area.'

'The basic is similar to modern medicines. But I doubt if these anesthetics can last three more years.'

'The modern medicines usually expired in one year to five years. But it can still be used in one or two years after the expiration date but the effect will be minimized.'

'I'll just save it here for an emergency. It's never too early to be prepared.'

Tong was busy arranging the goods in his warehouse till night. He had a dinner, then he returned to his room for a nap, waiting for a new mission at midnight.

The missions, issued by the system, always appeared on every midnight on January 1st. It showed up once a year, and each year the content would be different. Tong had experienced dealing with the missions many times already.

He had completed 13 missions out of 15 mission he had received during these 15 years he was living in this world.

The missions he completed could be called "Trolling Missions" or "Sexual Harassment Missions".

He was forced to do something absurd, for example, "Strip yourself naked and run around a village", "Show your manhood at your young female neighbors", "Touch that girl's boobs.", etc.

It was easy in the beginning as Tong could complete it as a baby. But as he grew up, the degree of sexual harassment got higher. There was also the sticking-your-finger-into-a-female-butt mission that he completed it with difficulty.

Fortunately, Tong was just a child. He completed all of those actions with shame. But his neighbors didn't mind it. They thought it was just a childish prank by a young brat.

But Tong couldn't rely on the excuse of "Being a child" forever. In this era, being 15-year-old and above was considered an adult. They judged that if someone could reproduce, you were an adult regardless of how small you were.

If anyone that considered an adult were to commit such sexual harassment, he would be forced to take the responsibility of the victim by marrying her or be arrested and be imprisoned for life.

Tong was sitting in his room with his solemn face, feeling concerned. Aside from his mission one and ten, which forced him to follow the historical trend, the rest were just perverted missions.

'Next quest, wouldn't this goddamned system force me to rape someone?'

'If that time comes, won't I be forced to marry the person I assaulted?'

'The last mission I was too lucky.'

'Fudge! how the heck did I poke it into the wrong hole!? I was lucky that she's already married and she didn't mind it!'

'Shit! Friday will repeatedly castrate me if she finds out.'

'She hasn't been watching me through these 15 years, right?'

'Did she see me poke my finger into that girl?'

The thought sent Tong chills down his spine.

Although Tong was being ashamed of the sexual harassment deeds, he reaped good rewards out of the missions.

His lifespan value was now 380, which was absurd compared to the average modern human life expectancy of 79-81 years.

This value had included the 10 years deduction that Tong had spent it to test his [Time Stop] skill.

Tong hadn't used the skill again ever since. He was saving his lifespan for the future wars and battles that he might have to participate in the future.

...

It was about to become midnight.

In Zhang resident, Tong's room, Tong snapped his eyes open as if he had a mental clock within his brain sounding an alarm.

'It should be here soon.'

'Please, don't let it be another perverted mission. I'm sick of this shit.'

'I might even be forced to marry someone if there are another one of those shows up.'

'I don't mind another bullshit historical mission. Just don't give me another pervert mission…'

Before Tong could complete his chain of thought, a nostalgic theme song suddenly played itself inside of Tong's head. Tong did not try to recollect his memory or was trying to sing a song in his mind. It was a sign that a mission was about to show up.

It was a telepathy message from the system. Today, the message was not shown yet. It was a theme song before the system announcement.

'That sounds familiar … I heard this somewhere.'

450,000 Years in Hell made Tong forgotten the music during his previous life. But he somewhat remembered this.

[RrrrrrrrrrrR …. AMADOU!! TOOT doot-doot DOOOOO!!]

'Ah!' Tong remembered.

'It's J*** C*** theme song this time.'

The sound of obnoxious trumpets and basses were banging inside Tong's head. Tong used his hands to close his ears but the sound didn't reduce the slightest.

After a while, the message started.

[Hey! Yo! Peeps! It's me! It's me! Your favorite system.]

'Favorite my ass.' Tong thought.

[Today is an auspicious day for another fun exciting mission.]

'My ass.'

[The past missions were easy right? I knew I made it too easy for you.]

'My ass.'

[But worry not. The missions in the future will be even more fun, easy and rewarding!]

'My ass.'

[For those who has been thinking 'My ass' will also have a high chance of getting another mission to poke someone in the butt.]

"…"

Tong's face twitched.

[Joke aside. Listen carefully, fellas! In this past 15 years, all of your missions were nothing but tutorials.]

[You may have noticed that your first mission was stopping you from interfering with the history, right?]

[I have made it so don't you all didn't screw up the historical trend and get yourself killed prematurely.]

[NOW … You all are now 16 years old and it's about time we kick the gear up a notch.]

[Did I just say 'you all'? Yes, I did say that!]

[You, my dear, are not the only player in this so-called 'Trial'.]

[There are one hundred players, of course including you, in this world.]

[All of you died in the 21st century on Earth, and you were sent to Hell, and Hell sent you here.]

[Each of you was sent to China in a different location, but that's not important.]

[Now, the next mission onward will be the real thing.]

[There will be no more one mission per a year.]

[The frequency of the missions will be up to me, or up to the overall performance of the players, depending on my mood.]

[But each of you will not take any more than 20 missions in your lifetime.]

[In another word, you just have to complete 5 more missions and you can do whatever you want in this life!]

Tong was stunned. This was a good news to him. He didn't want to risk getting another pervert mission anymore.

[No more chitchat! Here is the fun exciting mission!]

**********************************

**Main Mission No.16**

The tutorial is over! Time for some action! All players will temporarily appear in the HUD map. Find them and kill one of them. The player who has the best performance will get an additional reward!

Mission Clear Condition: Kill one or more player(s).

Failure Condition: You are killed or time limit exceeded.

Clear Reward: 10,000 Lifespan. The top scorer will get another surprise reward.

Mission Failure: You will die.

Time Limit Remaining: 23 hours 50 minutes.

System Note: Pro tips, you are not the only one with a cheat, you know?

**********************************

The eleventh mission was finally issued. Tong was standing stunned, flabbergasted.

After a few breaths, he came up to his sense and immediately look at the HUD map, which he never had before.

The blue dot appeared in the center of the map. Tong guessed that this should be himself.

He looked around the map, it showed the layout of his village. He saw several white dots all over the places in several buildings. Tong figured that these white dots should be the villagers.

Then there were six red dots.