Chapter 277 Betty’s Shell and Evil Wall
Now that Zavilcha was dead, Zhang Heng could finally enjoy his holiday. The bartender sent him back to his dormitory, where he slept until the next afternoon. Upon waking up, he texed Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#”O’), telling her to inform Shen Xixi that the monster was dead.
Almost instantly, Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (# ‘O’) agreed. Then, the curious girl began asking his whereabouts and how the fight with the monster went. She even asked if he had recorded the whole thing, or if he acquired any game items, or had fun…
Zhang Heng didn’t know what to do with Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#’O’). He didn’t even know her name. They first met outside the bar’s toilet, and unintentionally, ruined her plan. Not too long after that, he met her again at the shopping mall in a Kumamon suit, trying to prank him and Hayase Asuka. Even though she tried to convince Zhang Heng that it was merely payback for what he did, he had other ideas. He thought Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#’O’) did it to satisfy a peculiar fetish of hers. Too bad her prank didn’t work in the end.
After the failed plan, Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#’O’) transformed herself in the image of Ma Wei and asked Zhang Heng to fix his bicycle. It was at that time that she wanted to come up with another prank. Alas, she failed again. If the monster hadn’t appeared then, Zhang Heng planned to use his 24 hours to find out more about her.
Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#’0′) was surprisingly decent when Zavilcha appeared in front of them. Instead of running away when the wall consumed Zhang Heng, she decided to stay back and help him. After that, she even followed his instructions to protect Shen Xixi. If Zhang Heng’s promise was to be believed, he was supposed to forgive everything that she did.
One last thing bothered Zhang Heng, though. Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#’O’) knew that he was a player. She shouldn’t bring him too much trouble, for now at least. So far, Zhang Heng had played all the quests in single-player mode, and as far as he knew, he made no enemies so far. Besides, he had no valuable game items on him as well, technically eliminating him as a target even if people knew he was a player. As for Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#`O’, it seemed she was connected to the mysterious woman in shades at the auction. The information she had with her would interest a lot of people.
Zhang Heng didn’t answer Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#oo’)’s questions, putting his cellphone aside. Now, he would attempt to live a regular life. Other than studying and the everyday workout, he even added a little social activity to his life. For that, he went hiking with members of the photography club that didn’t return home and joined a few activities organized by the rock climbing society. Being a member for a while now, he rarely showed up. At the same time, the results of his final examination were out as well. Things were definitely more convenient now than his senior year, where all he needed to do was go online and check for himself. The best thing was that he could view them privately, thus saving him any potential embarrassment if the results didn’t shine.
Thanks to the extra 24 hours each day, every compulsory subject that he took ranked among the top five, except for English, that was. Thankfully, and to his surprise, he garnered a perfect score for Advanced mathematics, discounting five marks that had been deducted because he skipped a class. Since many of the elective courses were essays and open papers, their scoring was more subjective. His worst was getting the twelfth place in happiness studies. As for critical thinking, he got a full score, but somehow, Zhang Heng found it to be useless. Even if a perfectly logical reason for an argument was to be found, it was almost always impossible to persuade a person devoid of logic in the first place. It was a reason why netizens could never be convinced during an online argument. In the end, it would simply fizzle out with everyone thinking it as banter and trolling As for his English results, they were directly related to the band-six results, and he had to wait until February. With his current English proficiency, it shouldn’t be a problem reaching a score of 609. Even without the additional points from the assignments, his final exam was enough to gain proper credits.
The two unidentified items he had left with the bartender were mailed to him earlier. He excitedly opened the package, feeling as if he’d just received a delivery from Taobao. [Name: Betty’s Shell]
(Grade: E]
[Effect: Consumes your anger to summon a storm at sea. Lasts for 15 minutes. Storm’s level depends on the user’s anger level.]
This was an item acquired from the Black Sail quest. When he returned to the real world, he had attempted to contact Betty, the Celtic god, but to no avail. He had a bad feeling about it all, and due to Betty’s weakened state, they communicated only shortly each time. From there, he discovered that Betty, just like all the other characters in the game, didn’t know she was in a game. He received further confirmation when she actually chose him to help her recruit more worshippers.
Zhang Heng’s experience in Black Sail told him that all the quests he entered so far were a copy of real-world history. Considering Betty’s state when they met, there was a high chance that she was now dead or had disappeared since a few hundred years had passed. This shell was the only thing she left behind, and the game’s committee placed it in the Black Sail quest. Now, for the other game item, Zhang Heng had freshly gotten it from Zavilcha. Having a ‘unique’ look, Zhang Heng wasn’t sure about carrying it with him all the time.
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[Name: Evil Wall]
(Grade: D]
[Effect: Reconstructing a wall’s structure. Form can be swapped from solid to liquid. Remaining uses: 4]
The first thing Zhang Heng did was test its effect, and to his surprise, it worked better than he initially expected. Having experienced Moresby, Zhang Heng knew that game items extracted from monsters would be weakened, and the Evil Wall was no exception. Although impossible to be used in the same way as Zavilcha, it was surely a handy tool to get through forbidden zones or escape a labyrinth. Of course, as in the manner of all things, it came with its own weakness.
It could only be used when there were walls around and would work perfectly in a city but was useless in vast open spaces with no concrete walls in sight.
All in all, Zhang Heng was satisfied with the two game items he acquired.