As dawn broke, the city awoke once more.
The residents gradually got up from the ground, wondering, "How did I end up sleeping here?"
"Oh, I remember now, last night was the New Year's Eve party! What a wonderful night!"
The white-haired old man glanced at the dirty and messy square, then calmly dusted off the corner of his clothes.
She clasped her hands together towards the horizon and whispered a prayer, "I hope everyone can be safe and sound every year from now on."
A note from the author:
none
Chapter 141
[Ding~ The Apartment Joint Competition - District Competition dungeon " Out-of-Control City " has ended.]
Number of applicants: 823
Survivors: 221
[Individual participant scores are being tallied]
Contestant's Name: Su Cheng
Identity: Resident of Apartment No. 1167, Street X, District E
Task 1: Survival. Completion rate: 100%
Task Two: A Qualified Citizen.
Number of certificates obtained: 3
Top Delivery Rider (Difficulty: 3 stars), Excellent Lost and Found Administrator (Difficulty: 3 stars), Real-world Hotel Tester (Difficulty: 2 stars)
Total completion rate: 80%
Task 3: The New Year's Bell.
1000% complete (exceeded expectations!!!)
A total of 998 monsters were killed in the dungeon.
Obtain hidden achievements: [Ruthless Under the Blade], [Ghost Buster], [God of Teammates], [Savior], [Turning the Tide], [Master of the Demon God]
Overall rating: SSS
[Rankings Updated (Top 3 Only Showing)]
First place: Su Cheng
Second place: Lan Qing
Third place: Lu Heng, Xu Shaowei, Yan Yu
First place, as expected.
Of the three certificates, the one for the test sleeper surprised Su Cheng the most.
She submitted the evaluation report and then ignored it. Later, her phone broke down, so she guessed the platform sent her an electronic certificate of conformity, but she was too busy to see it.
Task 3 has a much greater impact on the rankings than the first two.
After all, if a demon were to truly descend upon the world, all participants would perish in the instance, making any ranking irrelevant.
Of the more than 800 people, only a quarter survived and escaped; the mortality rate was not low.
The system warned before registration that the dungeon for this competition was extremely dangerous; this was not meant to scare people.
[Congratulations to homeowner Su Cheng for successfully surviving to the end of the instance; the registration reward of 5000 points has been credited to your account.]
[Congratulations to Su Cheng for winning first place in the competition! Rewards: 22,000 points, 1 special item (please check at your apartment), 20 meal vouchers (please check at your apartment)]
Su Cheng nodded in satisfaction; this score was well worth her hard work.
[Given the outstanding performance of homeowner Su Cheng, a notice may be issued to the entire apartment complex.]
[Enable?]
Su Cheng pondered for three seconds and then chose yes.
When one's strength is sufficient, there is no need to conceal one's brilliance.
Following this announcement, she will become a celebrity in the apartment building, her name will carry weight, and she will be firmly associated with the image of a 'powerful figure not to be trifled with'.
After settling the bill, Su Cheng returned to her apartment.
Returning to the warm and familiar house, all the strength in my body was instantly drained.
Su Cheng slumped her shoulders, took out a bottle of nutritional supplement, and drank it.
She was so tired that she didn't even have the energy to check the system gift box on the table.
Physical fatigue can be addressed through many means, but psychological fatigue cannot.
During the final battle against the evil spirit, she almost exhausted all her strength, so after it ended, she chose to return to the rooftop instead of going into the crowd.
Now that we're back in a safe area, I no longer need to hide my exhaustion.
She glanced at the monster emblem on the inside of her left wrist, then opened her bracelet; her points had been updated to 49485.
Su Cheng's eyebrows curved slightly, and the urgency that had been hanging over her heart for so long dissipated by most of it.
The cell phone on the sofa kept ringing.
Su Cheng picked it up, and almost all the contacts she had added after entering the apartment sent her greetings.
It seems the system has already notified her that she is the winner of the competition.
She copied and pasted the words "I'm so tired, I'll go to sleep first" and replied to messages from Xu Shaowei, Yan Yu, Lu Heng, and others.
She put down her phone, took off her dirty clothes, and threw them into the bucket of water in the bathroom.
Then she jumped onto the bed and crawled under the covers.
I can finally get a good night's sleep.
Su Cheng slept very soundly and woke up feeling refreshed and full of energy.
The clock showed that she had slept for ten hours.
After washing up, she slowly sat down at the table and opened the system gift box.
The special item is a black rope, which looks ordinary, but disguising it as an ordinary object is a common tactic used by system gifts.
[ Immortal-Binding Rope ]
A versatile prop for both physical and supernatural purposes.
The user selects a target to be bound; the more the person struggles, the tighter the rope becomes, and the barbs on the rope have an anesthetic effect.
"Unrestricted targets, not bad, not bad."
It is applicable whether you want to strike first or pursue the enemy.
Su Cheng put the rope away, leaving only 20 meal vouchers in the gift box.
She was also a little hungry, so she simply tore one meal ticket to shreds and put the remaining 19 under her cup.
Next, we'll take inventory of the Smart Bag; remove what needs to be removed and replenish what needs to be replenished.
Because my memories were sealed when I first entered the dungeon, the dungeon didn't last very long, and I barely touched the supplies in my bag.
"And the book Yun Xi gave me."
Su Cheng took out the dusty book and suddenly felt a sense of familiar warmth. On a whim, she opened the book.
The cover is open, the pages are blank, and a row of gold lettering floats above the two pages.
The Primordial Talisman Compendium is available only to those with exceptional talent and destiny.
Su Cheng's eyes brightened slightly. To be able to make the characters stay on the paper and also require exceptional talent, the creator of this book must be a very powerful and legendary figure.
Previously, she couldn't open the book, but now the situation has changed. The variable is that her profession is to be promoted to Immortal Celestial Master.
Perhaps in the eyes of the author of this book, anyone below the Immortal Celestial Master is considered to lack talent and the ability to read.
Su Cheng turned the pages, becoming more and more engrossed in the book.
The book records all kinds of talismans, such as those for controlling fire, wind, and water, as well as attack talismans for different ghosts and monsters.
There are even talismans for nourishing the soul and the spirit of the artifact, which are very suitable for use on Mu Ling and the boning knife.
This book can be considered an encyclopedia of talismans.
Furthermore, the process of teaching how to draw symbols is not presented in dry text, but rather in a simple overview accompanied by a smooth engraving process.
Among them, the talismans that control natural elements such as feng shui are the simplest to explain. The talisman patterns are drawn extremely quickly, almost in the blink of an eye. It seems that the creator felt that these were too basic and did not need to be explained in detail.
More complex talismans require higher drawing skills, and almost always must be drawn in one stroke.
For example, the runes used to summon lightning are incredibly complex and dazzling if they are designed to strike down Vengeful Ghost or monsters of even greater strength.
The book is good, but it's also genuinely difficult.
Even if this book has no reading restrictions, if an ordinary person can't understand it or learn from it, it's no different from a stack of waste paper.
Su Cheng suppressed her mixed feelings of surprise and joy, knowing she couldn't rush things and had to start learning slowly, beginning with the simpler things.
First, master the basic talismans so that you can draw them fluently and intuitively, then move on to the more complex ones.
Then, the ability to draw symbols evolved from needing to draw symbols on objects to being able to draw symbols out of thin air.
Su Cheng believed that as long as she focused on it, she would be able to master this collection of talismans in no time.
However, she currently lacks materials such as talismans, so there's no need to rush into practicing.
Putting down the book, Su Cheng took an old box out of her bag.
It contains Calamity Seed.
The situation was urgent, so after taking it from Lu Heng, I put it in my bag.
We can keep the Calamity Seed; it might come in handy later.
After checking the Smart Bag, the meal was delivered to the door.
Today's random meal consists of four dishes and a soup.
Su Cheng smelled the food, ate it heartily, and then picked up her phone to accept Yun Xi and Wang Tai's friend requests.
Only after opening the small group chat with Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu did I learn what had happened to them after they split up.
After following Yun Xi to the villa door, Xu Shaowei and her companion, not having the key, had to sneak in through the window.
The three searched the villa for clues and eventually found a secret underground room.
It's described as an underground chamber, but it's more like a combination of an autopsy room and an altar, with various knives and sacrificial implements hanging on the walls.
There is also a large meat grinder.
Xu Shaowei and the other two took photos to document the event, intending to send them to Su Cheng later.
Then Hu Ding appeared with several people.
Xu Shaowei and her two companions killed their opponent, only to be entangled by the vascularized human head that had sprouted from him.
When they came out of the villa, they saw the sky crack open and eeries appeared, with winged monsters flying down from the sky.
[ Xu Shaowei ] Chengcheng, you have no idea, when the system told me the countdown had stopped, I was completely dumbfounded (biting a handkerchief).
[ Xu Shaowei ] But thankfully, my wise and powerful Chengcheng saved my life (kissing emoji).
[ Xu Shaowei ] That little figure in the sky who fought the demon for three hundred rounds, that's you, right?! You're so strong, my Orange! From now on, you're my goddess (flying kiss jpg)
[ Yan Yu ] I can attest that when the system indicated the countdown had stopped, she was genuinely terrified and almost got carried away by the monster.
[ Yan Yu ] (Paying homage to the great god jpg)
Su Cheng was amused by the two girls' compliments in the group chat; it was clear they were in a very good mood.
Aside from the fact that I survived a near-death experience, I was mostly overjoyed by the abundant rewards I had gained.
The registration fee of 5,000 points, plus the bonus points for ranking high, while not as many as the first place winner, is still quite substantial.
Su Cheng generously accepted the compliments in the group chat. After exchanging jokes, Xu Shaowei suggested going again...
A small gathering in the Central Circle.
Su Cheng agreed; she needed to go to the Central Circle anyway to see if there were any paper talisman materials to buy.