The Third Day

"Should we remind Zhang Ming over the broadcast to watch his image and stop relieving himself on the beach?"

"There's no need. The mirage only shows a blurry scene. Besides, he's already under enormous psychological pressure. Wouldn't adding more just backfire?"

Listening to his subordinates, Li Xianfeng could only shake his head helplessly and sigh inwardly. Humanity...

Even people like them, working within the system, sometimes took pleasure in others' misfortune.

Expecting everyone to be a saint was clearly impossible.

Besides, as the earthquakes continued, there was no going back to globalization. Conservatism and isolation would become the prevailing trends.

Most modern nations used nationalism as the ideology that held them together, and as the disasters continued, that ideology would only grow more extreme.

Sports arenas were battlefields. Every Olympics brought nationalist fervor around the world to its peak.

Now, the "Mysterious Zone death survival challenge," where lives were on the line, drew even more attention.

Public rhetoric like "God is choosing the strongest race" simply could not be suppressed.

Even in an atheist nation like Great Xia, countless ordinary citizens watched what was happening in the sky.

Plenty of people agreed with that claim.

If Zhang Ming died a gruesome death in Mysterious Zone 16-the zone containing the stranded survivor under his charge-it would deal a heavy blow to the confidence of Great Xia's people.

After all, life was already hard. More and more people were being affected by the earthquakes, and unemployment was skyrocketing.

But compared with the people trapped in the Mysterious Zones, their own circumstances seemed bearable.

As for the infighting among the people of Japan, most people simply enjoyed the spectacle. Never mind morality. Only saints could achieve moral perfection; everyone else was just an ordinary person finding a little amusement amid the drudgery of work.

Every year, the Fusang Ministry of Foreign Affairs spent a considerable sum hiring online shills to polish its image with claims that its people were "civilized," "polite," and so on. Now that the Mysterious Zone scandal had broken, all that money had gone down the drain.

But what if Zhang Ming died in Mysterious Zone 16?

Other countries would undoubtedly mock them just as gleefully, while coordinating with the vermin within Great Xia to launch a wave of propaganda: "God despises Easterners," "The people of Great Xia cannot survive a major disaster," "They are genetically inferior."

Every script had already been written. They were just waiting for Zhang Ming to die in Mysterious Zone 16!

At that thought, Li Xianfeng rubbed his aching temples. "Everyone, think about what we should send tomorrow to help our young comrade Zhang hold on a little longer in the Mysterious Zone!"

"Want to experience being stuffed full? Want to make your belly round and swollen?"

"KFC Crazy Thursday! Craving chicken? Fill up for just 50 yuan!"

"Chicken... delicious..."

Zhang Ming woke groggily from hunger and blinked hard.

He confirmed that he had only been dreaming.

[Mental Value -1]

Dawn was breaking, and a light drizzle fell.

He discovered that his Mental Value had fallen to [15/30] (You slept poorly and are so hungry that your mind is somewhat muddled.)

It had actually been cut in half.

Zhang Ming could only despair at how easily he fell apart. He really wished he had a talent for going hungry-something like "Skipping Nine Meals in Three Days"!

"It's the third day. I have to eat a proper meal, or I'll go mad."

He opened a packet of instant noodles and crunched through them dry. A few bites, and they were gone.

Then he sliced off some ham and ate it uncooked, sticking out his tongue afterward. The stuff was unbearably salty.

Then he ate a packet of biscuits.

Then he ate a piece of Want Want Milk Candy...

Then he ate...

He couldn't eat any more!

When he was hungry, everything tasted delicious.

But easing his hunger also brought a sense of guilt. After all, his food supplies were limited.

If he kept eating without replenishing his supplies, he was doomed sooner or later.

His Mental Value slowly rose to [24/30] (You are reasonably satisfied with how full you feel. But you could still eat more, couldn't you? Eat to your heart's content. Eat ravenously. Eat without a care.)

"Eat, my ass!"

Zhang Ming slowly let out a breath.

He began studying his cheat ability.

He had 149 Total Attributes. He was twenty-four this year, so twenty-five points in [Lifespan] were essential.

That left 124 points to distribute freely among [Physique], [Perception], and [Spirit].

As its name suggested, [Physique] governed his physical condition. Strength, stamina, jumping ability, and even resistance to disease were all linked to this attribute.

"Strength seems to increase linearly with [Physique]. An ordinary person has about twenty points in Physique and can lift fifty kilograms."

"Raise it to forty, and I can lift a hundred kilograms."

"Raise it to sixty, and I can lift a hundred and fifty kilograms!"

Sixty points in Physique would not put him beyond human limits, but it would bring him to the level of a professional weightlifter.

"Still, adjusting my attributes consumes a lot of energy. With food in such short supply, I should minimize the number of adjustments."

[Perception], meanwhile, was closely related to sight, hearing, touch, and physical coordination.

If [Physique] was too high and [Perception] too low, he would instead feel top-heavy and unsteady, with his body difficult to control.

"Basically, all brawn and no brains. I can't let Perception get too low either."

"This world isn't the Earth I once knew anymore. It's a mysterious place."

"That man-eating monster is still roaming the island. I need to keep [Perception] above thirty."

As for [Spirit], it was even more obscure than [Perception]. It seemed connected to mental activity, as well as the quality of his sleep.

The higher his [Spirit], the less sleep he needed.

When his Mental Value fell too low, he naturally became depressed, suffered a mental breakdown, gave up on himself, and simply lay down.

This gave Zhang Ming the biggest headache. His current Spirit fluctuated wildly and was directly tied to his blood sugar: it rose when he ate his fill and fell when he went hungry.

Of course, there was another way to increase his Mental Value.

"Fuck you, heavens! Fuck this goddamn universe!"

[Spirit +1]

It really worked!

Zhang Ming kept feeling that he was hurtling toward becoming a psycho-

a complete mental wreck. Hell was empty, and the devils were all here. Unless he became a psycho himself, he wouldn't be able to survive!

After some adjustments:

[Physique: 46/50])(You did not rest well and have not fully recovered.)

[Perception: 35/35](Normal.)

[Spirit: 26/35](After a bout of cursing, you are barely satisfied.)

[Lifespan: 24/29](This short-lived wretch has only five years left to live. Stay away from radioactive elements, or you may die suddenly!)

[Total attributes: 149](You sacrificed your lifespan through some unorthodox method to make yourself less pathetic!)