"Were any missing?"
Lin Qi glanced at the mountain of treasure chests, inwardly disdainful. Whether anything was missing, Twilight of the Gods and the others should know better than anyone.
If even one was missing, that would mean 500 points gone.
Lin Qi could practically imagine it—Twilight of the Gods and the others must have searched the Unicorn Gold-Eating Rat's nest ten times more carefully than they cleaned their own homes.
"Forty-three treasure chests in total. That comes to 21,500 points. I hope you'll keep up the good work and continue bringing glory to the martial arts hall." Looking at Twilight of the Gods' guileless gaze, Lin Qi could only grit his teeth and accept the chests.
"Great!" Twilight of the Gods was thrilled when he heard the reward points. "I knew it was an instance dungeon! Sure enough, running dungeons is the most profitable thing. If I can find a second dungeon underground, the middle volume of my Soul Shocking Breathing Technique will be within reach!"
"You really are lucky, kid. I dug for so many days without finding a single dungeon, yet you found one right away." Fang Zhen, who had just revived, could not help envying Twilight of the Gods, who had instantly received twenty percent of the dungeon's rewards. "This dungeon is practically a gold mine. Too bad it's one-time only. Looks like I'll have to search carefully for one myself in the coming days."
"Brother Zhen, if you're looking for dungeons, I recommend digging deeper down." Seeing Fang Zhen's interest, Twilight of the Gods generously shared his experience. "I kept digging downward before because I wanted to see just how deep this game could be dug. I never expected to uncover a dungeon."
"I have to say, this game hides its gameplay pretty deeply. On the surface, it has us digging holes and farming, but other gameplay had long since been designed underground. By my estimation, there should be plenty more dungeons down there—it just depends on how far we dig."
"True. This game has always hidden things deeply. Grizzly Mine had quite a bit hidden before, and so did that huge wilderness map. Seems I should dig deeper afterward." Fang Zhen nodded, feeling that Twilight of the Gods made sense. "When I find a new dungeon, I definitely won't forget your share."
"Then thank you, Brother Zhen," Twilight of the Gods said gratefully.
At this moment, Twilight of the Gods also came to a realization. He felt that he had found the casual gameplay of High Martial Descent.
Perhaps hauling goods in the wilderness was highly profitable, but digging underground was no loss either. Especially for someone like him, who was not skilled at fighting, digging out new dungeons was an excellent choice.
"..."
Listening to their conversation, Lin Qi wanted to dissuade them.
But considering that someone had to keep farming underground, since that was a long-term and stable source of income, he gave up on the idea. As long as they were happy, that was enough.
Afterward, Lin Qi issued the main quest to repair the martial arts hall to everyone who had revived within it. Three sets of repair tools were enough for ten people to repair different parts of the hall at once.
At the same time, Lin Qi used his Smart Watch to order a large quantity of cement and construction materials from a suburban factory, hiring one hundred vagrants from the abandoned district to repair the martial arts hall's walls and exterior perimeter.
For a time, the entire Obsidian Martial Arts Hall became lively as a marketplace.
Yet within the martial arts hall itself, a strange trend suddenly arose.
Other than occasionally repairing the hall's interior, these players no longer thought about how to reclaim land in their spare time. Instead, like madmen, they dug the entire underground of the hall into an ant nest, with passages crisscrossing in all directions like a maze.
One after another, they forcibly raised the beginner proficiency of Leopard Shadow Steps by more than 10%. They had practically run themselves crazy.
With Blood Essence Rice planted here and there throughout the tunnels, sightlines could be blocked very effectively.
It could be said that if someone came to attack Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, as long as everyone hid underground, they would probably be hard to find again. The defensive works were top-notch.
At Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, the sun slowly set, and another day quickly passed.
"Opening treasure chests really is like opening blind boxes. What kind of stuff is this?"
Looking at yet another treasure chest he had opened and the exam papers inside, Lin Qi felt his scalp go numb. He deeply suspected what kind of person this was, to bury all of his high school exam papers underground.
Burying these exam papers was one thing, but why not bury more answer explanations too? It was nothing but crosses from beginning to end. What was he expecting later generations to look at?
Thirty-nine treasure chests!
Other than occasionally finding detailed explanations of fist and kick techniques, there was nothing else useful.
No!
That was not entirely true.
Things like Thirteen Recipes for Monster Flesh and True Method for Absorbing Monster Flesh were all methods teaching students how to squander their fortunes.
"These twenty thousand-plus points seem like a bit of a loss." Lin Qi swept his gaze across the waste paper covering the ground. Not a single sheet could be sold; he had lost more than twenty thousand points for nothing. "Looks like they can only be used for heating later."
As for the remaining four treasure chests, Lin Qi did not hold much hope.
"Very good. It seems this person did make some progress over three years of high school. At least the papers aren't covered in nothing but crosses anymore—more than half are actually check marks. But why isn't the name the same person's?"
"Fuck! What's the point of this brat hiding other people's exam papers?"
"He even hid so many of them!"
Looking at the exam papers in the chests, Lin Qi was on the verge of collapse. He felt that the person burying the papers had turned it into an entire industrial chain—two whole chests of other people's papers. Who knew how much he had made?
With only the last two treasure chests remaining, Lin Qi could not even be bothered to look. He directly kicked one open.
"Fuck! A doll?"
Seeing a Mechanical Doll sitting inside one of the metal chests, Lin Qi was utterly dumbstruck.
Was it really okay to hide this thing in a chest of exam papers?
"No, this looks rather like the testing dolls used in primary and secondary schools." Lin Qi carefully examined the doll in the chest. The more he looked, the more it resembled the testing dolls he had seen before. "It's out of power. I wonder if I can wash it and still use it."
Lin Qi had some impression of the testing dolls used in primary and secondary schools. He had heard about them from Luo Qi.
Starting more than a century ago, the middle school entrance examinations in major cities had also begun including part of the martial arts curriculum exams. One component was skill testing, where scores were assigned according to a student's level of skill.
The Mechanical Person used to test examinees' skills could precisely determine the level of an examinee's skill through their demonstration—their skill rank.
First rank was roughly the level of elementary school students in major cities today.
Second rank was the normal level for middle school students.
Third rank was the normal level for high school students.
Fourth rank was the skill level of university students, and also the skill level of many Quasi-Martial Artists.
Fifth rank was a major dividing line, generally attainable only by Martial Artists.
If the Mechanical Doll before him could be used, it could accurately assess the level of whoever demonstrated their skills. For Martial Artists, it counted as quite a practical piece of mechanical equipment.
"With this thing, at least I didn't lose out."
Afterward, Lin Qi shifted his gaze to the other metal chest.
This metal chest was clearly different from the previous ones. It contained no exam papers at all, only a copy of 2214 College Entrance Exam True Questions and Solutions, along with a chest full of detailed explanations for the true questions.
"What's going on? A 2214 true-question exam paper? A whole chest of detailed explanations?"
Looking at the chest full of solution methods, Lin Qi was completely bewildered.
Just how many questions were there in the 2214 college entrance exam?
Were students really supposed to answer questions rather than write books?
When Lin Qi opened the 2214 true-question exam paper, his eyes widened even further.
How does one cultivate Stellar Explosion?
Were high school students a century ago really this insane?
Before you continue