Chapter 250: Chapter 250 – Preparing A Reason
Early in the morning of the following day, Ren Suo logged on to the intranet to check on the discussion thread he started. He discovered that there were many replies refuting his views using supporting evidence from the classic literature and that his view had not been officially adopted.
Ren Suo had already anticipated that—his views were not easily verifiable, and it was also not peculiar that not many people bothered reading his post since even Ren Suo himself was not sure if the information he had obtained were true.
What he understood from playing the game was not necessarily correct, and there were also many of his own speculations in his post.
However, he was not a true, trained researcher, and could not confirm his own speculations. All he could do was publish his opinion on the intranet and see if it would be able to attract the attention of the research institutes.
Although he was now a Level 2 Researcher and was considered to be of moderate standing within the Reiki Research System of Xuan Nation, it was still not a given that his posts would receive a lot of attention.
Nonetheless, Ren Suo was just preempting what would happen later on. Of course, the best outcome would still be if one of the research institutes agreed with his views and researched into it. However, it would not be a big deal even if that did not happen. Once “Fleeing Ghosts in the Night” was broadcasted, there would surely be people who would attempt researching on ‘how to conciliate monsters’.
Ren Suo activated the Reiki gathering device, then put on [Jade Pendant of the Goddess of River Luo] and continued Practicing.
On the first night, only the evil ‘customer’ who appeared at the end and was defeated by the female stall owner activated [Jade Pendant of the Goddess of River Luo]. However, there was only a small amount of energy gained, similar to when Ren Suo first defeated the demon-human in the subway.
Compared to [The Mage Under the World Tree], it was about a 1:50 difference—but it was better than nothing.
Ren Suo figured that the amount of energy acquired was related to the strength of the monsters. Although the evil demon-human ‘customer’ was very strong, he was at best a tier 2 Practitioner.
In contrast, the boss characters in the seven mystery realms were monsters that were able to take on a large group of Extraordinaire warriors. Although large weapons like tanks and cannons could not be deployed within the mystery realms due to the realms’ entry restrictions, the boss monsters were still able to fight face-to-face with modern armies and greatly weaken their strengths. That was sufficient to show just how terrifying the capabilities of the monsters were.
If demon-humans were also able to greatly weaken the modern army of Xuan Nation, Ren Suo would not only see one demon-human in one night…
Of course, Ren Suo had another option, which was to attack all ‘customers’ by feeding them garbage.
If they were satisfied with the meal, they would leave behind their treasures and desires, and leave; if they were not satisfied, they would then fight against the female stall owner. After they were defeated, they would still leave behind their treasures and desires, and leave.
Based on such a strategy, Ren Suo realized that engaging in battles was a highly cost-effective option—he could save his merit points that would otherwise be spent on purchasing Holy Water.
Although Ren Suo had the player privilege [Seizing All Opportunities], he had already spent 9 merit points on the first night. There were still 9 nights left and Ren Suo would surely run out of merit points halfway through the game.
However, after Ren Suo ‘reviewed his performance’ on the first night, he felt that he should be able to figure out the trick to extracting the keywords. He intended to try figuring out the degree of emptiness and regret of the ‘customers’ subsequently by himself, and then season their food accurately.
After all, ordinary ‘customers’ had average combat power, and Ren Suo was confident that he would win even if a battle was initiated.
As such, Ren Suo had never once considered feeding garbage to all ‘customers’ to eliminate them, whether they were ghosts or spirits. The main concept of the game was clearly not to operate a stall that killed all its customers; although killing all the ‘customers’ would be easier and there would be a higher chance of clearing the game successfully, the final score and appraisal received would most likely not be high.
Furthermore, Ren Suo figured that the evil ‘customer’ which he encountered on the first night could actually be made to break down and break free of his demon nature if the right seasonings were used. He would then turn himself in for the crimes he committed in the past, and vow to fight for a socialist society for the rest of his life…
However, that was no longer a problem that could be solved by spending merit points in the game. Ren Suo would have to pick out clues for the seasonings based on the ‘customer’s’ appearance, clothing, physique, and other relevant characteristics.
Ren Suo decided that, for such ‘customers’ where spending merit points was not a viable solution, it would still be easier to feed them garbage.
At noon, Ren Suo was having lunch with Dong Chengling when she suddenly asked, “Did you receive the notification from Yuan Chu, the Institution’s Deputy President?”
“No, what happened?” Ren Suo replied.
Dong Chengling was slightly vexed as she said, “We’re going to start preparing for the students’ orientation ceremony. That means that I would have to take time out to rehearse, discuss the script, and coordinate with other people… The time I have to Practice has reduced once again…”
“However, Xiao Qiao would also need to come over to rehearse, as she is a Practitioner from the Countermeasure Division and is one of the actors. She will likely need to stay in the hotel outside the school for the time being. Finally, she would be able to have a taste of my cooking. Only the two of us have been eating together recently, and I can’t cook too much food.”
Orientation ceremony? Ren Suo blinked in confusion, but he quickly remembered what was going on.
At present, the “Nature Exploitation Technique to Awakening” was still the most effective method of Awakening. Practitioners and ordinary people who were still unable to Awaken after the activation of Reiki Treasures in Xuan Nation and around the world could choose to wait for fate to take pity on them. Otherwise, the only other way for them to Awaken was for them to actively ‘exploit nature’.
However, according to the statistics collated on the intranet, many people had already lost their lives when they practiced boxing on the edge of their balconies or participated in extreme sports and other techniques of ‘nature exploitation’. Of course, there were also many other people who managed to Awaken as a result.
The “Nature Exploitation Technique” was exactly the same as gambling. In this scenario, when one gambled, one would either benefit greatly or otherwise lose one’s life.
That was precisely the method which the ten Practitioner Institutions in Xuan Nation planned to use on a small number of top-performing students. They were making arrangements to provoke such elite students to Awaken in a way similar to the ‘Nature Exploitation Technique’. The students involved would be completely unaware of such an arrangement, and it was guaranteed that they would feel a sufficiently strong ‘sense of danger’.
In terms of safety, those who were involved in the act were either teachers in the institutions or were Practitioners from the Countermeasure Division, and there would certainly be more than one healing Practitioner on standby, not just Ren Suo.
Ren Suo had also received such a notification previously, but he need not be involved in the rehearsals—those who were on standby to treat any injuries simply needed to be at the scene when the time came.
“When does the orientation ceremony begin?” Ren Suo asked.
“Early September, before the university academic term officially begins. The specific date has not been arranged yet. Who knows, this plan could be too dangerous that they would end up not following through with it,” Dong Chengling replied.
Ren Suo said, “Oh.”
Suddenly, he said, “Oh right, Chengling.”
“Yes?” Dong Chengling replied.
Ren Suo said, “I have never mentioned this before, but in fact… I really like…”
Dong Chengling stared at Ren Suo and blinked.
“…I really like to go for walks in the middle of the night,” Ren Suo continued.
Dong Chengling froze momentarily, then asked, “In the middle of the night… in the school?”
“No, I go to the city,” Ren Suo replied. He explained, “I frequently have such sudden impulses to want to travel to street food stalls over ten kilometers away for supper.”
Dong Chengling thought for a moment and said, “I have never done anything like that.”
Ren Suo said with vegetables in his mouth, “That’s because it doesn’t suit you, and you would certainly not have such strange impulses. Only night owls like me would suddenly think of walking the streets in the dead of the night.”
“Do you find it very interesting?” Dong Chengling asked.
“It is, it’s very interesting!” Ren Suo exclaimed excitedly as he thumped his chest.
In the afternoon, Ren Suo continued ‘fleeing ghosts’.
He had already set his mind on training his ‘keyword extraction ability’ and was not joking about that.
He decided that he would spend about ten hours training that ability, and so he would repeatedly play the city with the ninth-highest [Degree of Concealment]—Mumbai of Maurya Nation.
Ren Suo first analyzed the life experiences of the monsters from Maurya Nation on his own. He wrote down what he thought to be the keywords so that he could add the right seasonings. If the monsters were unsatisfied with the curry he made and insisted on battling, then a battle would ensue.
It was only then when Ren Suo realized that the HP of the female stall owner would not be automatically replenished during one entire round of ‘fleeing ghosts’. For example, if she was left with 19 HP after a battle, she would still be left with 19 HP in the next battle.
After tending to about 29 monsters from Maurya Nation who directly used their hands to eat their curry rice, the female stall owner was finally killed by a female demon.
Unlike in Xuan Nation, 18 of the 29 ‘customers’ from Maurya Nation were actually demon-humans. That also meant that those ‘customers’ demanded meals without talking about their life experiences.
Ren Suo had no choice but to feed them ‘poisonous’ garbage.
During the process, Ren Suo even encountered an intriguing incident: When a man who was half-demon (that was, his demon nature was still partially suppressed) was eating at the fleeing ghost stall, a real female demon walked over and severed the head of the man in one slap. Then, she sat down and demanded her meal.
Ren Suo did not think of it as him losing one customer, but he felt that something sinisterly ominous was about to happen in that ancient nation which neighbored Xuan Nation.
However, Ren Suo’s ability to extract keywords was not improving much. Instead, his skills in feeding garbage meals improved tremendously throughout the afternoon.
After Ren Suo repeatedly played the same city three times, in the same way, the entire afternoon, he then controlled the female stall owner to drink Holy Water when he played again at night. He then compared the correct keywords to those which he had extracted in the afternoon.
Some keywords which Ren Suo felt was important turned out to be of no significance to the ‘customers’;
Some keywords which Ren Suo felt were only casually mentioned turned out to be an extremely significant regret deep down in the hearts of the ‘customers’;
…
Consequently, Ren Suo felt that there was indeed a reason why the Holy Water cost him so many merit points.
It was very difficult for people to think from another perspective. Due to differences in culture, education, and individual experiences, the listener might not comprehend what was said in exactly the same way the speaker was thinking.
One of the ‘customers’ was a man who said that he wanted to kill his wife and daughter, because of the stress he faced in life. However, the root cause of his anger was actually because his daughter wanted to marry a guy whom he did not approve of. He did not want to admit that he could not even control his daughter. He had rather said that his anger was due to his unemployment. Yet, his true complaint was only briefly mentioned in one sentence;
One of the ‘customers’ was a girl who said that she wanted to kill herself because she was going to be married to a businessman whom she did not fancy. However, what sparked her resentment was actually when her parents especially doted on her younger brother when she was young. As such, she hated her brother, but her brother was very kind to her. She did not hate that she had to marry but hated herself for being a ‘sacrificial lamb’ for the benefit of her younger brother. Her tangled emotions eventually turned into a ticking time bomb, whose fuse could blow any moment to cause an outburst. Yet, when she told her story, she spoke highly of her brother;
There were many things that remained unsaid, not because they were unwilling to say it, but because they had not realized it themselves.
After a night of trial-and-error, Ren Suo finally cleared the second night—Mumbai of Maurya Nation. Almost half of the customers were true demons and had to be battled. The last ‘customer’ who appeared was naturally also a real demon, but Ren Suo did not season the garbage meal accurately. The capabilities of the last ‘customer’ were only weakened slightly, but Ren Suo managed to scrape through the battle.
At that juncture, it was already past 12 midnight. Ren Suo got dressed and took out his mobile phone to make a call:
“Zhao Huo, what are you doing now?”
Zhao Huo replied, “I’m translating August anime.”
Ren Suo said, “Let’s go for supper.”
Zhao Huo asked, “Isn’t the dining hall closed now?”
Ren Suo replied, “I want to head outside to eat! Isn’t it boring to eat the same food at the dining hall everyday?”
Zhao Huo asked, “Of course you would think it’s boring. You have someone who cooks for you but not me… Is there a roadside food stall outside?”
Ren Suo said, “A barbecue food stall opened recently, and I heard the food is delicious. It’s not a roadside food stall though.”
Zhao Huo seemed to be slightly tempted. He asked, “How far away is it?”
“Well… It’s 9 kilometers away,” Ren Suo replied.
“Scram,” Zhao Huo said.
Ren Suo was not bothered that he was rejected. Unhurriedly, he walked out of the Heavenly Institution of Lian. He then walked another two hours toward the barbecue food stall in the city center of Lianjiang City. Subsequently, he uploaded a nine-grid image to his “Friends’ Circle” on social media and tagged his location: [3 a.m. at the Pedestrian Zone, in search of good food.]
Satisfied, Ren Suo kept his mobile phone and walked back unhurriedly to the Institution.
Indeed, he was preparing. He was preparing a reason for himself.