Three Wishes

"I can grant you three wishes!"

Hearing those solemn, emotionless words, Luo Jun looked at the old man before him in confusion.

He was an old man with white hair and beard, an immortal air about him. One glance was enough to sense an indescribable majesty.

"Who are you?"

Luo Jun blinked.

"I can grant you three wishes!"

The old man repeated himself mechanically.

Luo Jun looked around. It was pitch-black. He could not remember when he had come here, nor how the old man before him had appeared...

"Where is this? Who are you? Why would you grant my wishes?"

"I can grant you three wishes!"

He repeated it again. It seemed this old man could say nothing but that one sentence.

How about... making a wish?

After thinking for a moment, Luo Jun tentatively said, "Then... make me a billionaire!"

This time, the old man finally did not repeat himself. Instead, he pulled two ten-sided dice from his robes, one black and one white, and tossed them out. When the dice settled, the black one showed three and the white one showed six.

"Final Points: 36. Wish Difficulty: 50. Sorry, this wish has failed!"

"I can grant you two wishes!"

"That used up one already? Are you kidding me?"

Luo Jun was so angry he nearly jumped up, but the old man across from him remained expressionless.

"I can grant you two wishes!"

"Fine..."

Luo Jun calmed himself down. "So as long as I roll more than fifty points, it'll work?"

As that thought crossed his mind, his expression gradually turned unrestrained.

"Then I don't want money for my second wish either. Just give me a booming love life!"

The old man took out the two dice again and tossed them. As they spun slower and slower, the white one landed on five, while the black one showed... six!

"Haha, 65 points! This time it worked, right?"

Luo Jun nearly leaped up, only to hear the old man say:

"Final Points: 65. Wish Difficulty: 78. Sorry, this wish has failed!"

"I can grant you one wish!"

"I suspect you're insulting me... I just wanted to be a little more popular with women. How is that harder than becoming a billionaire?"

Luo Jun refused to accept it, raising a hand to point at the old man.

"You really think you're some magic lamp? If you're going to grant wishes, then do it properly. What's with tossing those two dice around? If you can't roll dice, why not just give them to me!"

Upon hearing that, the old man picked up the two dice again and tossed them. This time, both the black and white dice settled on zero!

"What does that mean?"

Luo Jun froze. "I haven't even made a wish yet! What are you throwing them for? And what do two zeroes mean? You're not giving me any chance at all?"

"Final Points: 100. Wish Difficulty: 100. Congratulations, this wish has successfully passed!"

The old man looked at Luo Jun, raised a hand, and summoned the two dice back into his palm. Then he tossed them toward him. "The Dice of Heavenly Secrets are yours!"

The two dice flew straight at him, whooshing into Luo Jun's head and scaring him into falling flat on his buttocks.

"Ahhh!!!"

Luo Jun violently kicked out with his right leg. With a bang, he struck the corner of a desk, and excruciating pain instantly shot through his shin. Instinctively, he bent over and began rubbing it.

"Hahahahaha..."

Laughing sound erupted all around him.

Rubbing his leg, Luo Jun looked around.

Rows of neat desks and chairs, one youthful, energetic face after another, every pair of eyes fixed on him!

"Luo Jun!"

A stern voice came from the podium. "Daydreaming again?"

"Ah... ah?"

Luo Jun was still immersed in that bizarre dream. He blinked, rubbed his still-dizzy head, and finally saw his surroundings clearly.

A familiar classroom, a strict teacher, the same ordinary high school lesson...

"What do you mean, 'ah'?" Liu Tuzi slammed a hand onto the lectern.

"What time is it? There's only one month left until the College Entrance Examination, and you still have the nerve to sleep? Go stand outside. Come back in once you've woken up!!"

Luo Jun stood up blankly, his face full of confusion. Dragging his right leg, which was not moving well due to the excruciating pain, he stumbled out of the classroom in a daze. Halfway there, he even bumped into the doorframe, drawing another burst of laughter from the classroom.

Standing in the corridor, Luo Jun was utterly bewildered, his mind still lingering on the dreamscape from just now.

Three wishes? Dice of Heavenly Secrets? What kind of nonsense was that? Had he been reading too many novels lately?

But that dream had felt so real. Thinking back now, even every strand of the old man's beard had been distinct... Yet strangely, that old face seemed both clear and blurred at once, impossible to recall properly...

Still somewhat confused, Luo Jun rested the back of his head against the wall. Listening to Teacher Liu's lecture from inside the classroom, he looked out through the corridor windows and saw Ningyuan Mountain, distant and towering, rising west of the city.

This was Ningdong City Second High School, one of the city's foremost elite schools. Those who got in were top students from their respective middle schools. Not only did the students work hard themselves, their parents would spare no expense for their grades. The entire school was steeped in an intensely competitive atmosphere.

Yet Luo Jun was an oddity among this pack of academic overachievers.

First, he was not particularly good at studying.

Second, he had no parents.

Yes, Luo Jun was an orphan. His parents had died in an accident when he was six years old.

Luo Jun no longer remembered how his parents had died. His last memory was of the family of three eating at a restaurant near their home. When he woke up again, his parents were already gone. He himself had been severely injured and had spent a long time in the hospital before waking up. Even now, there was still a faint, thin horizontal scar across the bridge of his nose, making him look somewhat fiercer than others his age.

News reports afterward said that a gas explosion had occurred at the restaurant, killing many people. Luo Jun had been the only survivor.

The reason he had been able to attend an elite school like Second High School was also because of his status as an orphan, which happened to meet the criteria for that year's specially admitted students, earning him preferential treatment. Luo Jun had once mocked himself for it: if not for that accident, he could study himself to death and still never get into Second High School with his grades.

Strange, why had he suddenly remembered all that...

Luo Jun shook his head. Just then, his phone received a payment notification. Picking it up, he saw that it was this month's Relief Fund.

After his parents passed away, Luo Jun had been raised by his grandfather. But in the year he entered high school, his grandfather had also died of illness. Since then, with help from the community, Luo Jun had applied for Relief Fund payments. He received a little over a thousand yuan each month, enough to cover the basic needs of a student.

Eh, why was there two hundred more than usual?

Noticing the wrong amount, Luo Jun checked the Relief Fund details and found a two-hundred-yuan birthday benefit payment.

He had nearly forgotten. Today was his birthday!

Should I reward myself?

After his grandfather passed away, no one celebrated his birthday for him anymore. Still, he needed to maintain some sense of ceremony every year. In previous years, he would usually buy something he liked to eat and bring it home as a treat. This year, he planned to do something different.

A new film he had been looking forward to had just come out. Why not go see a movie?

Luo Jun opened a ticketing website and quickly found his target: Wild Hunt, the 6:30 showing, Row Six, Seat Nine. Confirm...

"Ring ring ring..."

The dismissal bell suddenly rang. As the teacher announced that class was over, the quickest students had already packed their bags and dashed out of the classroom!

"Ow!"

Luo Jun, absorbed in booking his ticket by the door, was not paying attention and got bumped by someone rushing out.

"Sorry!"

Leaving behind those words, the guy grabbed his bag and sprinted down the corridor...

Luo Jun shrugged. A little accident like that was not enough to ruin his good mood about seeing a movie.

The screening and seat had been selected. All that was left was payment...

"Eh? Seventy-five? Isn't that expensive?"

Looking at the payment-success message that popped up on the screen, Luo Jun frowned. That was enough for two tickets!

He hurriedly switched back to the seat-selection page and found two lit-up seats...

"Damn, getting bumped made my hand shake and select another seat..." Luo Jun smacked his forehead.

"And they're not even next to each other!"

Searching for the refund option, Luo Jun walked back into the classroom.

Inside the classroom after school, students were all packing their bags, and the room was full of noise.

Although they were already at the critical stage of preparing for the College Entrance Examination, Second High School students rarely stayed for evening self-study. Those studying here were either wealthy or influential, and at this point, most were spending big money on private tutors for a final sprint. It was far more efficient than staying at school and burying themselves in books.

Of course, Luo Jun was an exception. He had no money for private tutoring, nor did he want to stay for self-study...

Passing one classmate after another, Luo Jun heard an incredibly familiar line when he walked past a seat:

"I am the strongest hunter... Ling Yao!"

This was... a line from the Wild Hunt trailer! Another fan?

Luo Jun excitedly turned his head and saw a beautiful figure.

A pretty girl with a high ponytail was staring intently at the movie trailer playing on her phone.

Ling Xin? She liked this movie too?

Maybe I could sell the ticket to her...

Looking at Ling Xin's beautiful profile, a thought emerged in Luo Jun's mind on its own.

Ask her to go with me. Maybe that could also... Forget it, that's probably...

"Ding!"

A strange Prompt Sound interrupted Luo Jun's train of thought.

"Detected a low-probability successful event with a Severity Coefficient of no less than two times. Would you like to use the Dice of Heavenly Secrets?"

?!!!

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(End of Chapter)