Seeing Gao Teng's open expression, Zhang Meizhu felt much more at ease.
All she wanted was to get into a top university and secure a bright future. Romance and all that was just too much trouble for her.
"Let's go."
Zhang Meizhu raised her flashlight and aimed its beam ahead, leading the way deeper into the sewer.
Gao Teng followed close behind. After they'd gone a few meters, they heard a rushing sound as several cockroaches as big as bowls flew toward them!
"I've got this!"
Gao Teng's face lit up. He abruptly shoved Zhang Meizhu against the wall, then swung his blade at the cockroaches flying straight at him.
His blade flashed back and forth. In the blink of an eye, he'd hacked the cockroaches to pieces, splattering viscous fluid all over the ground.
[You gained 9 merit points]
[You gained 15 merit points]
[You gained...]
Hearing the prompts, Gao Teng shook his head to himself.
These cockroaches gave so few merit points. If a hundred or more of them came swarming over, then killing them would be satisfying.
"Gao Teng, that was too much."
Zhang Meizhu rubbed her sore shoulder and complained, "Are these cockroaches some kind of treasure? You might as well have let me crack my head open and die."
Gao Teng snapped his fingers. "Good idea. Your corpse could attract more mutated creatures, which would give me a better chance to hone my skills."
Zhang Meizhu: "...You really know how to talk."
Gao Teng chuckled. "I'll walk in front from now on. I'll deal with any mutated creatures we run into."
Zhang Meizhu snorted but didn't object.
If someone else was willing to do the heavy lifting, she was all for it. It was the perfect chance to slack off.
The two continued farther in. Gao Teng cut down three more rats, each strike swift and powerful.
Watching him, Zhang Meizhu said with some surprise, "When we first met, you needed several swings just to kill one cockroach. Now you seem a lot stronger."
Gao Teng shrugged. "There are only two months left until the college entrance exams. If I don't make progress, my life will be completely hopeless."
Zhang Meizhu raised an eyebrow. "Try a little harder and maybe you can get into a vocational college."
Gao Teng smiled but didn't argue.
If he told her now that he could get into a top university, she'd only think he'd lost his mind.
The truth would prove everything. In two months, he'd overturn everyone's expectations!
"Oh, right."
Gao Teng looked back at Zhang Meizhu. "Medicine's gotten more expensive lately. Do you have enough money? Have you thought about hunting monsters?"
"Forget it."
Zhang Meizhu rejected the idea without a second thought. "Hunting monsters is too risky, and the entrance exams are only two months away. I don't want anything to go wrong."
Gao Teng clicked his tongue. He'd known she'd say that.
Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough to deal with monsters yet. Otherwise, he'd have gone out alone to kill as many as he could and rack up merit points.
"Gao Teng, are you short on money for your loan payments?" Zhang Meizhu asked. "I advise you not to do anything stupid. Monsters aren't easy to kill. One careless mistake and you could die. I don't want to see you turn into monster shit."
Gao Teng laughed and shook his head. Just as he was about to speak, a tearful voice came from ahead.
"You can never pay off your loans. Once you set foot on the path of martial arts, you just keep borrowing more and more.
"The higher your cultivation, the more expensive the pills. Stop taking them and your progress slows to a crawl. Keep taking them and you have to borrow forever. You can't pay it off! You can't pay it off! There's no way to pay it off!"
Gao Teng and Zhang Meizhu exchanged a look and immediately went on guard.
They shone their flashlights toward the voice. A ragged young man stumbled into view.
His skin was deathly pale, his eye sockets sunken, and his hair was filthy and matted. He looked like he'd lived in the sewer for a long time.
"Tang Chao?"
Zhang Meizhu used the flashlight to get a better look, then cried out in surprise.
Tang Chao had been her deskmate. He'd been missing for nearly a year.
She'd thought he was dead. She never imagined he'd been living in the sewer.
"Y-you're Zhang Zhang Meizhu?"
Tang Chao's eyes cleared a little, and he could hardly believe what he was seeing.
Zhang Meizhu exclaimed in astonishment, "I never expected to run into you here. With your grades, you could easily have gone to college. Why did you give up on yourself?"
Tang Chao seemed deeply provoked, and immediately screamed hysterically, "What does going to college get you? Huh?
"I borrowed way too much money, and I'll keep borrowing more and more and more in the future. I can't fill this hole. I can't see any hope at all.
"Why? Why did my life turn out like this? Huh?"
Zhang Meizhu looked completely baffled. "You use other people's money to improve your strength and raise your social standing.
"That's clearly a good deal. What are you falling apart over?"
Tang Chao's eyes went wide. He looked as if he'd just heard the biggest joke in the world.
"A good deal? You're calling it a good deal?
"Don't borrowed funds have to be paid back? They didn't give it to you for free!
"You borrow from one place to pay another, and the debt keeps growing. I can't keep up with the payments! I can't keep up!"
Zhang Meizhu sighed. "If you know you don't have the talent, you should know your limits. Forcing your cultivation higher will only crush you."
Tang Chao's face suddenly bulged with veins. He roared at the top of his lungs, "Easy for you to say! Who's content to stay at the bottom of society? Who wants people walking all over them?
"I don't want to live like a coward all my life! I want to make something of myself! I want everyone to look up to me!"
Zhang Meizhu had no answer.
Wasn't working steadily every day and living a quiet, peaceful life a kind of happiness?
Who said you had to become someone important to count as a person?
Tang Chao had been driven mad by his own desires. He'd had a terrible hand, but insisted on betting everything to win big.
So of course he'd lost it all in the end.
"Zhang Meizhu, I wish I were like you.
"You were born a genius, with an unlimited future ahead of you. Unlike me, stuck hiding from debt in this stinking sewer, living like neither man nor ghost."
"I'm jealous of you. I'm so, so jealous of you. I wish I could bite you to pieces and make you rot in this stinking sewer just like me!"
Tang Chao suddenly let out a strange laugh, his face twisting into a vicious expression.
Feeling his palpable murderous intent, Zhang Meizhu's expression turned cold. "Get lost, or I'll beat you to death!"
"Beat me to death? I'll kill you!"
Tang Chao's eyes turned savage as he charged at Zhang Meizhu.
But he'd been in the sewer too long, and his body had grown terribly weak. Zhang Meizhu kicked him flying, and he crashed into the filthy water.
He struggled to his feet, tears and snot running down his face. "I can't even beat a woman. I'm useless. I'm worthless.
"I'll make you die! I'll make you—"
Tang Chao suddenly grabbed a shard of metal and stabbed it into his neck, dragging it hard across to carve open a gash.
In an instant, blood gushed out, and a sharp, foul stench rapidly spread through the sewer!
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