Surprised? Didn't See That Coming?

Looking at the two options in front of him, Wen Nan raised his hand but didn't make a choice right away.

[Don't accept it. It's definitely a trap.]

[For all we know, one of those hidden items on the ground could be some kind of high-risk weapon.]

[Right. Like that bloody, muddy weed. Maybe it's some unknown virus that'll disable the streamer's backup slot as soon as he picks it up.]

[I think those tattered socks look pretty suspicious too.]

[Refuse.]

[Wait, did you all forget the streamer signed a Gentleman's Agreement? He doesn't have the right to refuse. He has to agree to share.]

[The agreement only said he had to share once. It didn't specify when. I think he should wait until the mission countdown is over and honor it at the very last moment, just before the results are tallied.]

[Exactly. This field feels pretty suspicious too. They should go to the entrance of the boys' dorm first. The moment they start sharing, they can duck into a respawn point. Even if Yu Shujun is a player in disguise, his current identity is a female ghost. Female ghosts can't enter respawn points.]

[But if that weed really is the virus you're talking about, the kind that messes with the player system, hiding in a respawn point won't help the streamer, will it?]

[Either way, he absolutely can't accept right now.]

[Right. It's not just the timing. The location is a big problem too. It feels like Yu Shujun dug a pit and is just waiting for the streamer to jump in.]

On the field, seeing Wen Nan hesitate, Yu Shujun gave a scoffing laugh. "What, having second thoughts?"

Wen Nan came back to himself and smiled as he shook his head. "We signed a Gentleman's Agreement. How could I go back on it now?"

He raised his hand and tapped the [Accept] button.

The next moment, a click rang out in his mind, like a safe unlocking.

Then a pile of "junk" appeared among the empty money bags in his Equipment Backup Slot.

Wen Nan casually picked up the weed covered in blood and dirt. The system immediately displayed its description—

9527: [Sanqi Herb: Has potent medicinal effects. Can quickly stop bleeding and accelerate wound healing.]

It sounded like a perfectly ordinary healing potion.

Wen Nan swiped to the next slot and saw two pairs of hole-ridden Athletic Socks. As before, their description appeared almost immediately—

9527: [Athletic Socks: Grants a moderate increase in speed. Wearing them increases agility by 2%.]

Who would've thought that a pair of such ragged socks would turn out to be a pretty useful piece of equipment?

Wen Nan kept flipping through the slots and found the Blackboard Eraser he hadn't been able to inspect earlier—

9527: [Blackboard Eraser: For classroom use only. In any classroom, stand on the platform and throw this item with all your strength. If it hits its target, it will deal a certain amount of damage. The exact damage depends on the target's strength and armor.]

As Wen Nan read the description, the stern, no-nonsense face of his homeroom teacher inexplicably came to mind. This item seemed practically tailor-made for her.

But come to think of it, how was this description any different from a blackboard eraser in the real world? Weren't these things meant for teachers to throw at their students?

The next slot held a dented Empty Mineral Water Bottle. Its description appeared almost immediately—

9527: [Empty Mineral Water Bottle: Can be deposited at the system's Trash Transfer Station in exchange for a reward of 1 coin.]

The description was exactly the same as the one on the soda can Wen Nan had found earlier.

The rest of the slots held similar items. It seemed the items Yu Shujun had put in Wen Nan's equipment slot weren't unusual at all. They were all low-level items picked up from this map.

[The guy who said there was a system virus earlier, come out and explain yourself.]

[What kind of junk items are these?]

[They look completely useless.]

[It's a beginner player's Trial Map. What good stuff did you expect to find here?]

[Exactly. These players are only level 1 newbies. Even if you gave them high-level gear, they couldn't use it, could they?]

[Now that I think about it, Yu the Scholar doesn't seem to have pulled any tricks. He really just wants to borrow the streamer's equipment slot to take the items out, doesn't he?]

[Impossible.]

[Something's definitely wrong...]

[Wait! Earlier, when these things were on the field and the streamer picked them up, the system said he didn't have permission to view their descriptions, right? But now that they're in his Equipment Backup Slot, he can check their descriptions just fine. Doesn't that mean they shared more than storage access? They shared the right to use the items too!]

[So what?]

[Holy shit!]

[Shit.]

[That was devious.]

[So sneaky.]

[What are you all talking about? What happened?]

[You still don't get it? If this so-called shared equipment slot lets them share more than just storage, if they can view and use each other's gear too, then the streamer's equipment...]

[You mean it's now completely accessible to Yu the Scholar?]

[Shit.]

[!]

While Wen Nan was still flipping through the descriptions of the "junk" Yu Shujun had put in his slot, Yu Shujun had already opened Wen Nan's equipment slot through his own character system with practiced ease.

After scanning it in a split second, Yu Shujun immediately locked onto the item: the fragment glowing with a deep blue light.

That claim about how characters couldn't take equipment off the map and needed players to help them was all nonsense.

It was just a pretext Yu Shujun had made up.

The Gentleman's Agreement had only one purpose: to get Ye Jiu to open access to his Equipment Backup Slot so Yu Shujun could get his hands on that item.

The Archmage Staff Fragment.

From the very beginning, that had been Yu Shujun's reason for entering this map.

The prophecy [The Scattered Wind and Water] had given Yu Shujun stated clearly that the final Archmage Staff Fragment would drop in this Trial Map.

When he first entered the map, Yu Shujun hadn't known how the fragment would drop.

But after searching every corner of the map, he'd figured it out. The fragment wasn't a hidden item. It dropped straight from the prize pool into a player's equipment slot!

It had taken some effort, but that didn't matter. The result was the same. The fragment had ended up in Yu Shujun's hands after all.

With a smug smile, Yu Shujun raised his hand and successfully took the beautiful gemstone fragment out of the system.

The moment his palm touched it, the fragment flashed.

When he read the prompt on the fragment, Yu Shujun's pupils contracted.

He jerked his head up, eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at the man opposite him. "You...?!"

At some point, Wen Nan had closed the equipment description page.

Seeing Yu Shujun's fury, Wen Nan curled his lips into a particularly irritating smile.

He nodded toward the Staff Fragment in Yu Shujun's hand and asked:

"Surprised? Didn't see that coming?"