Chapter 161: Higher Education Entrance Examination (Twenty-one)
Looking at the APP interface that kept jumping sideways, a big question mark appeared on everyone's face.
What is this doing?
They waited for a long time, but the interface still didn't stabilize . Instead, it flickered more and more frequently:
Two universities, one university, two universities, one university...
Zhang You frowned. "In this case... is it because the examiner hasn't determined the score yet?"
They remembered Bai Yanqiu saying that whether one passed the entrance examination would be decided by the examiner who graded each question.
Tang Xin Jue: "It's possible."
Then the next moment, the crazy flashing phone interface went black.
“…”
This is no longer a question of whether the examiner changed the scores or not. It looks like the university town's network cable was blown up while changing the scores.
"At least now we can confirm that we have successfully passed the promotion to a university. We just don't know yet whether it is a second-tier or first-tier university."
Tang Xinjue swiped the screen of his phone and found that the black screen only covered the personal information, while other functions could still operate normally.
Zheng Wanqing scratched her head: "Report to customer service?"
Tang Xin Jue pondered for a moment: "Tomorrow is Sunday. If the game doesn't act up again, we still have one day to rest. If it's not restored by tomorrow, we'll contact customer service."
After all, customer service prices have increased now, and 2 credits cannot be wasted easily.
Fortunately, there was a room full of "express deliveries" and newly arrived reward points, as well as the long-awaited upgrade procurement process. The four of them were quickly distracted by the busy matters at hand.
"I got a 30% off coupon, three 20% off coupons, and four 10% off coupons." Zhang You held up the items in his hand. "There's also a small storage basket with a foldable space."
She estimated that 80% of the things in the dormitory that were not needed temporarily could be put into this storage basket that was less than 30 cm long.
Zheng Wanqing had only opened the larger items, and now, with a look of excitement, she continued Zhang You's words, "I found a good thing, too!"
She raised her hand high, and everyone looked up and saw a black shovel more than one meter long.
Zheng Wanqing: "Why aren't you talking?"
She gestured happily, "Don't be fooled by the size of this shovel. It weighs at least several dozen pounds. One shovel blow can definitely blow someone's head off. What a great weapon!"
Putting it aside carefully, Zheng Wanqing opened the next large item and took out a shovel from it.
"Wow! This one looks even better!"
After dismantling the rear, Tang Xinjue and the other two had already finished their work. They sat on the ground and watched Zheng Wanqing draw lots while picking up weapons one after another.
Shovel, shovel, hammer, pickaxe, mallet, awl...
Guo Guo couldn't help but ask sincerely: "After our next exam, won't we have to work in the fields?"
Zhang You: "If it's an ancient history course, it might also be about peasant uprisings."
She then turned to Guo Guo and asked, "What about you? What did you dismantle?"
When talking about this, Guo Guoke was no longer sleepy. She moved her butt to reveal a small pile behind her arm: "Look!"
All snacks!
Although these are common snacks in real life, they are already rare delicacies in the game. Guo Guo felt her mouth water at the thought of this. She picked up a bag of beef jerky with anticipation and asked, "Shouldn't we have dinner?"
Tang Xin Jue was flipping through the TV Program Handbook he had unpacked. Hearing this, he looked up and said, "Don't worry, we still have the most important thing to do."
——That means spending money.
Points are the game's most valuable currency and the foundation of a student's quality of life. Simply put, with enough points, you can turn the survival game into a vacation.
But the game obviously will not give candidates the opportunity to expand their currency. After a copy, they can only get a few dozen points at most.
Every time they thought they could finally become wealthy and prosperous, the remaining balance after purchasing items and upgrading skills would pour cold water on them:
Wake up, you can’t even afford a bottle of Lao Gan Ma, so you might as well go back to eating compressed biscuits.
So at this moment, when the four of them saw their account balances, they once again had the illusion of being serfs and becoming masters.
One, two, three... a full three-digit score!
On top of the 100 points awarded for the match, everyone received additional bonuses based on their output. Tang Xin Jue, the highest-scoring player, even managed 200 points, while the others had at least 150. Including the remaining points, the four of them had a total of nearly 700 points.
With a flash of silver light, Zheng Wanqing upgraded her fist again without hesitation.
[Congratulations, you've successfully upgraded this skill to the highest level, "Locomotive Punch"! No one wants to face an oncoming train on the tracks, and no one wants to withstand a full-force punch from you.]
The passive buff "Tears Behind Bars" has been upgraded to "Power of the Rails": This is a train on one track, and it will hit five people. If it goes to the other track, it will only hit one person. Do you choose not to change course, or send the train flying with a punch? Activating this buff instantly grants you the blessing of the rails, increasing your critical damage by 50%.
This time, a forearm the same size as a normal person appeared under Zheng Wanqing's right arm. Every move was smooth and natural, and only the silver color of the whole body made people know that it was not the original one.
When it clenched its fist, a huge shadow that almost filled half the dormitory appeared, and everyone instantly felt the pressure from the hood. When they looked up, the oppressive feeling disappeared.
Zheng Wanqing rubbed her head. "Sorry! I forgot to adjust the range when I used my ability just now. Now it separates the attack form from the natural form. As long as I'm awake, I can maintain this state! Cool, right?"
Seeing her beaming, the atmosphere in the dormitory also became very uplifting . Although Zheng Wanqing never spoke of it, her missing right hand had always been a hidden pain in the hearts of several people.
Now that the gap had finally been filled, everyone was delighted. Zhang You studied it for a moment and asked, "Shall I change your skin color back to your original color?"
Zheng Wanqing shook her head like a rattle: "No need to change! This one looks the best."
She went to happily study the fist, while the other three continued to exchange. Guo Guo was just taking a quick look when he suddenly heard Zhang You say, "Wanqing's skills gave me some inspiration."
Guo Guo looked up blankly: "What revelation?"
Zhang You: "To be precise, this is the common point between Wanqing and Xin Jue - they both specialize in a certain skill, and continuously upgrade on this basis. However, increasing the level of the same skill is not just a simple increase in strength, but a change from quantity to quality."
In theory, even if a skill is mediocre at first, it will become extremely powerful when it reaches the highest level.
Guo Guo understood: "So you mean, we should also focus on improving a certain skill?"
Zhang You nodded. "Most of the special abilities that awaken on their own cannot be upgraded through the mall, such as my [Used Item Recycling] and the toilet plunger from Xin Jue. However, those exchanged from the mall can be."
After saying that, she took out the brick account book from her storage bag. As the purchase was successfully prompted on her phone, a fingertip-sized ball of light sank into the account book.
Guo Guo stared at Zhang You without blinking as he opened the account book: ...there is no change.
Zhang You coughed lightly and closed the account book: "I missed a step just now, let's try again."
This time she exchanged for several healing skill cards, opened a page at random and slapped the card in. Suddenly, a transparent space emerged in the account book, with four card slots suspended in it.
"The account book originally could only hold two cards, but now it can hold four, and the bonus effect has also been improved."
Since it's impossible to achieve explosive output, it's also good to have both attack and support. The most important thing is that it doesn't affect its most basic purpose.
"That's right!" Guo Guo nodded vigorously, flipping through the account book with great interest. He soon discovered another upgrade: "Zhang You, this book can be customized with a name! Come up with an awesome one!"
Zhang You took it and looked at it, and it was indeed true. Before Guo Guo could gather the other two people to brainstorm, he filled it out directly. When Guo Guo came back, he saw a row of bright and simple characters written on the account book:
[606 For accounting purposes only].
Guo Guo: “…”
Where's the magic account book from earlier? Where's that big, mysterious, and cool magic book?
Zhang You ruthlessly shattered her fantasy: "It's just an account book after all, and you still need to keep accounts."
The purpose of getting rich through frugality is not to waste the use value of any item, especially things bought with money.
Guo Guo sat back in his seat with his head drooped, muttering with a hint of dissatisfaction: "Then why don't you use the toilet plunger of the Heart Sutra to unclog the toilet..."
Tang Xin Jue, who was shot inexplicably, said: "?"
When she heard Guo Guo muttering, she had just finished selecting her shopping cart, which was a two-piece set of spiritual skills: [Gate of Illusion] and [Blade of Spirit].
One focused on illusion manipulation, and the other focused on mental attacks, which just made up for the shortcomings and drawbacks of her own research.
Now, if she were to meet Gao Ying from the Friendly League again, she would probably be retaliated against the moment she spied on her, not to mention others.
Of course, nothing is perfect in the world. Objectively speaking, these two skills also have a most obvious flaw:
It’s too expensive.
After clicking to buy, Tang Xin Jue immediately closed the store. Because his account balance had been reset to zero, he couldn't afford any skills, which only added to his frustration.
Since she had nothing to do anyway, she used her last achievement point to exchange for a hair growth potion and walked over to Guo Guo: "Guo Guo... Guo Guo? Guo Guo!"
What caught my eye was that Guo Guo had his eyes tightly closed and was shaking all over , with his hands tightly clasped around his neck, as if he were having a nightmare!
She immediately pressed hard on Guo Guo's eyebrows, and the other party gasped and woke up suddenly. His frightened eyes fell on Tang Xinjue, and it took several seconds for him to refocus.
At this time, Zheng Wanqing and Zhang You also rushed over, and saw Guo Guo's face pale and he exhaled a long breath: "Jueshen, it's a good thing you came, otherwise I might have been scared to death just now!"
It turned out that when she was looking for skills just now, she became interested in a skill called "Sky Eye" that was on sale.
I had initially thought it was just another version of the Yin-Yang Eyes, so I bought it with the intention of upgrading it. However, as soon as I used the skill, I was plunged into a terrifying illusion.
"I saw a lot of black fog coming out from the ground... Then there were a lot of noises, some laughing, some crying, and then all I could see was darkness, nothing but darkness."
Guo Guo was unable to fully describe what he saw and could only barely summarize it with the phrase "a riot of demons."
In the strange and terrifying scene, she wanted to grab the pendant to wake herself up, but she couldn't find it. Instead, she could feel countless ghosts in the darkness.
They couldn't even be described as ghosts; they were more like a collection of the most primitive malice. They left the ground and transformed into all sorts of monsters, then rapidly spread, expanded, and approached in the darkness...
Bang!
A snap of the fingers brought Guo Guo back to reality. Tang Xinjue pressed her shoulders and said, "Don't dwell on these scenes. You haven't adapted to them yet."
Too strong a perception must be accompanied by sufficient mental endurance, otherwise it will backfire on oneself.
Guo Guo nodded with tears in her eyes, and quickly snatched the hair growth agent from Tang Xinjue's hand. She curled up in the chair and said, "It's okay, it's okay. I didn't spend much money on the skills I bought on sale."
If it were so expensive, she could go to the university town and cry her eyes out tonight.
By the time Guo Guo calmed down completely, it was already evening.
The four of them had almost finished packing up their skills and supplies, and after a quick cleanup and washing up, they prepared an unprecedented sumptuous dinner - dormitory hot pot.
Compared with the simple meals they had eaten in the past week, this meal seemed extremely luxurious: everything from the hot pot base to the side dishes were from the mall, rewarding them for their hard work and rich harvest in two consecutive dungeons.
Before eating, several people signed their names on the [Dormitory Renovation Card] and placed it in the most conspicuous center of the dormitory so that the construction team would not be unable to find the customers when they came.
After doing all this, they gathered around the table, started the pot, put the dishes in, opened the Coke, turned on the TV, and feasted in the rising steam.
If you ignore the situation in the game, they really feel like they are living on an ordinary day in the real world: after finishing a day of classes, homework and club activities, the four of them sit in a small room and order a hot pot takeout, eating the steaming hot meal while watching TV series.
The days that we once took for granted are now a rare and beautiful thing.
"Recently, the first round of promotion exams in University City has officially begun. Universities are welcoming students to register. Recruitment activities will also begin soon, so stay tuned..."
On the TV screen, the gossip was reporting the news as usual.
"Some people have reported that several university town residents claiming to be debut idols have been dancing in residential areas recently, disrupting the normal daily lives of those around them. In response, they've petitioned the Ministry of Education to launch a separate talent show and detain these disruptors..."
"According to an insider, a teacher at a university town course who offered a reward for the whistleblower's capture the other day has withdrawn it. He successfully bypassed the numerous identity protections. Did he find the whistleblower? Let's continue tracking him down..."
The steam was still rising slowly, blurring the air above the dormitory and obscuring the four figures gradually falling asleep below.
"Ding ding ding, clang clang clang..."
Tang Xinjue opened his eyes and found that there was an empty pure white space around him, with no visible boundaries.
Where is this?
Wasn't she just having hotpot with her roommate?
There was nothing around her, except for the clear sound of a bell in the distance, as if calling her over.
Tang Xinjue walked towards the sound, and gradually other figures appeared in his field of vision: Zhang You, Guo Guo, and Zheng Wanqing. They all walked towards him with confused expressions, completely unaware of why they were there.
When they walked together to the source of the ringing sound, they finally saw a few small figures on the pure white ground.
Are these... little puppets?
The puppets raised their heads, their round wooden heads showing warm smiles, and they opened their arms and made cheerful sounds:
“Ding ding ding, welcome to your new dormitory!”
