Chapter 57 Road Trip Tips"..."
Facing the greetings, the four people in the dormitory could not feel the joy of the holiday, but felt more like myocardial infarction.
What was this? Stage accident? Surprise attack? Flying away from the sky?
Tang Xinjue silently pulled out the toilet plunger and raised a gentle and harmless smile: "Hello, do you need any help?"
Looking at the toilet plunger that exuded an ominous aura of ghosts, Little Red Riding Hood felt a chill on her head: "..."
She flattened her mouth, held back the tears in her eyes, and tried her best to spin her head. It quickly took off, re-entered the TV screen, and returned to her stunned body.
The little girl on the stage straightened her head and apologized with tears in her eyes: "I'm sorry, it was my first time to perform on the stage and I accidentally made a mistake."
When she was crying and excited, the head that had just been fixed fell off again, and it was whimpering on the ground.
An unconventional girl with fiery red hair and smoky makeup ran onto the stage, picked up Little Red Riding Hood's head with one hand, supported Little Red Riding Hood's body with the other, and bowed and apologized to the audience:
"Hahaha, everyone, please forgive us. This is the first performance of our artist Little Red Riding Hood. If you like this performance, please pay attention to the first 101 Talent Show in University City that will be held in a while, and cast your precious vote for Little Red Riding Hood!"
Before the two dark ghosts came up to chase them away, the unconventional girl quickly grabbed a handful of colorful pieces of paper from her pocket and threw them out: "You must come to support us!! It's best to come to the scene directly! When Little Red Riding Hood becomes popular, you will be the original fans... I’ll treat you to a meal!”
As their backs were pushed away, the piece of paper also penetrated the TV screen and fell into Tang Xinjue's hands.
——Suichao Entertainment welcomes your attention!
The handwriting on the piece of paper is unrestrained and looks like it was written improvised with a colored pen, full of cheap and unreliable texture.
It's like a business card and an invitation.
As for the specific competition address, it turned into a blurry column of garbled characters when it exited the screen, making it difficult to read clearly.
Looking up at the TV again, the stage was empty. Two fishmen walked onto the stage easily: "Today's festival is over. Thank you everyone for watching!"
? ? ?
There was only one unreliable performance in the entire festival?
The black curtain fell, and the channel program list popped up - it turned out that there was only this one program in the whole day.
After briefly shedding tears of sympathy for the barren spiritual entertainment life of the "university town residents", the four quickly turned their attention back to the information they currently obtained.
The rustling sound stopped after a few minutes. Tang Xinjue shook the tip of her pen and tore off a map from the table.
“If the world we live in now and all the accessible information were condensed into a picture, it would look like this.”
Along the end of Tang Xinjue's writing, the structure radiates outward from "Dormitory Survival Game" and was divided into one, two and three universities.
Four heads gathered in front of the paper, looking at it intently.
"Limited by our current level, we can only access part of the exam."
There were two question marks after the First and Second-Rate, and the structure was concentrated in the [Third-Rate University] section.
Tang Xinjue continued; "Currently, the only channels for us to upgrade are exams and competitions. The exam subjects are internal courses in the university, and the competitions consists of dungeons and ghost NPCs.
"There are some exams of which when we enter, we will find that our dormitory has also become part of the dungeon. At this time, the exam background is usually within [Third-Rate University], which can also be said to be the real background in the game."
For example, in the "Dormitory Civilization Code" and "Four Seasons Protection Guide", most of the ghost NPCs they come into contact with are from the university.
For example, Xiaohong was originally supposed to be a student at Third-Rate University. But later she transferred to "Classic Movie Appreciation" and became a bathroom mirror ghost.
"Movies like "Classic Movie Appreciation" are like a different world in the game world. The ghost NPCs in it are more ferocious and lethal."
After a pause, Tang Xinjue muttered: "According to this distinction, we can also temporarily compare it to private companies and civil servants."
Private companies generally suffer from serious internal competition while working 12 hours a day*, and their employees are highly aggressive. Civil servants were relatively Buddhist, and their jobs are stable as long as they don't make major mistakes, but the NPCs are more restricted by rules.
*original text [996内卷]:
The 996 work system refers to a work system that starts work at 9 a.m., leaves work at 9 p.m., takes 1 hour (or less) at noon and evening, works a total of more than 10 hours, and works 6 days a week. This system reflects the overtime culture prevalent in China’s “Internet” companies.
内卷 or nèi juǎn (or involution in English) has another meaning originally, but has become an internet slang meaning 'an irrational voluntary internal competition'
Guo Guo and the other three: "..."
Could this analogy be made?
Zhang You thought for a while and tried: "Then the more difficult the exam, the stronger the ghost NPC is. Can it be regarded as the higher the position level?"
Speaking of which, the first time they had a vague understanding of the university in-game was in the "Four Seasons Protection Guide", the A-level exam they mistakenly entered, where they first came into contact with the student union, heating workers... and even the reapers.
In the map that Tang Xinjue drew, the three branches finally reunited and connected to one name: University Town.
"From the available information, the [University Town] in the game is a concept that is somewhat similar to reality, but even more bizarre."
It had three universities, countless NPC residents, a shopping mall, and even specialized TV stations and entertainment companies.
Students were forced into it and subtly become a member of it, but they had to face the dangers lurking here.
If they wanted to keep living, the exams were bound to get harder and harder. So the information they had at this moment, whether it came from A-level dungeons or TV, was of inestimable value.
After reading the map, Guo Guo sighed: "I don't know why, I know more now, but I feel more confused. Oops, am I infected by da xiaojie?"
Zheng Wanqing: "?? Look at the gap in our professional course scores. Do you think your IQ is higher than mine?"
She was reckless, but not mentally retarded!
Guo Guo was dissatisfied: "A good man does not mention his bravery of the past. Besides, I didn't study hard at the time, so you can't judge my IQ based on this."
*The meaning of 好汉不提当年勇: "A true hero does not brag in front of people about how brave he was in the past." In other words: A truly successful person does not brag about past achievements. He or she always maintains a humble attitude and an enterprising spirit to always move forward.
Zheng Wanqing: "Oh, then why didn't you study hard?"
Guo Guo: "I was..."
Seeing that the two of them had another disagreement and deviated from the topic, Zhang You looked helplessly at Tang Xinjue.
Tang Xinjue posted the information map on the door and said calmly: "If you keep making noise, you won't have spicy chicken feet to eat tonight."
The world was quiet immediately.
*
After sorting out their current situation and mindset, the four began to conduct physical and reaction training in the limited dormitory space.
Zheng Wanqing used to love fitness and bought dumbbells, elastic bands, small sandbags and other tools. Now that she had lost her right forearm, she could only practice living with one hand first. She also gave Guo Guo all the tools and urged her to practice her body strength.
Guo Guo started wailing within an hour, "Help, da xiaojie, I really have no strength!"
Zheng Wanqing strictly corrected her: "According to the data on the survival APP, your four-dimensional attributes are about twice those of ordinary people, and you can fully bear this level of physical exertion. The reason why it feels difficult is because you have not yet correctly understood your own power and cannot fully bring out its attributes, do you understand?
"If you don't believe it, I can accompany you in a sparring test," Zheng Wanqing said seriously, "I'll let you off, with only one hand."
Guo Guo: "..."
The hard training continues here, and Tang Xinjue and Zhang You were not idle either.
Tang Xinjue was helping Zhang You research the weapons that would be handy for her, but when it she looked at the price, it was rejected by the latter with a heartbroken expression.
Tang Xinjue: "If you continue to fight in the wild in the future, the environment will only become more and more dangerous. How can you survive without weapons?"
Zhang You thought seriously: "...I can run?"
Although she lacked weapons for attack, she is relatively confident in her ability to roam and escape.
"..."
In the end, Tang Xinjue used their points to buy a [Danger Summoner] priced at 30.
Once the danger around Zhang You was too high, Tang Xinjue would immediately receive a prompt.
"But looking on the bright side, maybe after we start this [Partial Subject Assistance Program], the positioning will be changed next time."
Tang Xinjue joked: "Think about the (damage) output position?"
Zhang You: "...No thank you, I'll just go be a jungler."
After a whole day of practice, in the evening, the four cut a piece of fresh bread for dinner and started making final preparations after a full meal.
Tang Xinjue took out a few strands of Xiaohong's hair, from the end of the previous exam. Although the black hair was a pile of dead matter, she could still feel the cold aura of ghosts lingering on it.
She threw the hair into the rubber head and it ate them up quickly.
After a while, Tang Xinjue frowned slightly.
There seemed to be something different this time. Although the toilet plunger ate something, it didn't show any reaction - it didn't spit out the hair, and no new skull logo appeared.
She shook the rubber plunger and pressed the water spray button. After a long time, the rubber head slowly spit out a small stream of water.
The sense of abnormality became more obvious.
In the end, Tang Xinjue asked her roommate to plug their ears and stay away, then she hit the toilet plunger with her hand and used [Ghost Scream].
Accompanied by a shrill scream that went straight to the ceiling, a large gust of wind suddenly burst out of the rubber head, overturning the chair and then suddenly disappeared together with the scream.
"Puff."
The toilet slowly spit out a stream of water.
This time, not only Tang Xinjue, but others also realized something was wrong.
They all slowly came closer, with shock written on their faces: "What's going on? There's something wrong with the toilet plunger?"
Tang Xinjue pursed her lips tightly and nodded.
…
Until the next morning, Tang Xinjue could not find out the specific problem with the toilet plunger. It can only be determined that the abnormality occurred because it ate Xiaohong's hair.
Fortunately, most of its abilities can still be used, but there would be problems such as temporary sluggishness or short-lived effects.
Putting down these doubts for the time being, Tang Xinjue looked at the screen of her phone. They had to choose a new exam.
[Please choose one from the following test content, countdown: 15 minutes]
Exam A: "Road Trip Tips"
Exam B: "Zombie Rising: Dormitory Survival Experiment"
Exam C: "Archaeology Begins with Grave Digging"
None of the three C-level exams looks like a good thing.
"Zombie Rising is an exam that has appeared before, right?"
Zhang You recognized the familiar options, "It has already appeared before. If we didn't choose it, it can appear a second time."
Unfortunately, there was no doubt that they will still give it a PASS this time.
Sure enough, after one round of voting, all zombies and grave diggers options were eliminated, leaving only "Road Trip Tips".
"Think on the bright side." Zheng Wanqing encouraged morale as usual: "Maybe we can take a free road trip during the exam!"
They had dreamed of going on a road trip after graduation, but instead of graduation, they waited until the game.
"Then let's go."
Tang Xinjue pressed the confirmation button, and the four of them held each other's hands.
"After the exam, I will make spicy chicken feet mixed with yogurt for everyone."
No matter what happened or what they experienced, nothing was more important than that they could sit here intact after the exam.
Guo Guo suddenly realized: "Wait a minute, wouldn't this cause diarrhea..."
The words were lost in the surging darkness.
*
When Tang Xinjue opened her eyes, a faint tingling sensation entered her mind almost immediately.
After enduring the pain in her head and looking around, Tang Xinjue found herself sitting in the driver's seat of a convertible with a map placed on the steering wheel.
Other than that, it was deserted, with no sign of any of her roommates.
Picking up the map, a note fell down and it said:
[Please send this box of specialties to Grandma Mayas’s house. As a reward, I can lend you this car for a day. The car has plenty of fuel, but the navigation system is slightly broken, so you can only use the map to find the way. Remember to get your stuff delivered before dark, it's very important to Grandma Mayas!]
The exclamation mark was drawn very heavily to emphasize the importance of this sentence.
There was a purple gift box placed on the passenger seat, with a red seal crossed at the connection: [It should not be opened by anyone except Grandma Mayas]
Tang Xinjue put the message on the gift box and opened the map. The top showed that it was a ring road.
After observing it carefully, Tang Xinjue's eyes darkened slightly.
There was no mark on this map about "Grandma Mayas's House".
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