In many ways, Bai Zhi's trip on the "Shuttle Bus to Hell" could be considered a supernatural entity incident, but unlike other incidents, this one seemed to exclusively target Players.
The small village at the so-called "entrance to the Underworld" was clearly designed for Players. Even if a normal person were to somehow arrive at the village—ignoring the fact that the bus only took Players and the dead as passengers—they would fare no better than Xu Feng.
As for Bai Zhi, his level was now 4, and he had collected 250 of the 600 Experience Points needed to level up. Leveling up from 3 to 4 had given him a free Attribute Point, which he had put toward Perception in an effort to learn the Perfect skill in his possession as soon as possible. Thus, his stats were as follows:
[ STR: 8 ]
[ DEX: 8 ]
[ CON: 6＋2 ]
[ INT: 15 ]
[ PER: 13＋1 ]
[ CHA: 15 ]
[ SAN: ??? ]
Bai Zhi noted the three 8s in his primary stats and the values of his secondary stats, as well as the question marks that represented his Sanity...
Is this some form of OCD?
The "Shuttle Bus to Hell" incident had not afforded him any EXP, thus the main prizes he had secured for his troubles were Radiance and a skill card, though Radiance was, for the moment, unusable. After returning the weapon to his Inventory with a weary sigh, Bai Zhi retrieved the skill card which he had purchased from the paper doll for four hundred Hell Dollars.
[ Skill Name: Desperate Writer ]
[ Type: Special ]
[ Rank: Rare ]
[ Effect: Even the most desperate writer must, by hook or by crook, crank out a story they can be satisfied with. At the very least, it must be self-consistent and flow smoothly. The user may devise a short story with the target as its protagonist. If the work is logically sound, with a convincing setting, what happens to the target in the story will ultimately happen to the target for real. ]
[ SE Consumption: Spiritual Energy consumed depends on the demands of the story and the difference in power between user and target. ]
[ Requirements: Intelligence of 15 or above ]
[ Note: I've lost eeeeverything, again—I'll make you suffer! ]
[ Tradeable ]
Bai Zhi spent a few minutes reading and re-reading the description on the skill card. "Huh... this description is as clear as mud..."
After a moments' thought, he decided to just learn it.
Having acquired the new skill, Bai Zhi focused his attention on one hand and began imagining a story. When he was ready, he said, "Over the weekend, you planned to visit the director at the orphanage where you grew up, but got scammed by a dishonorable bus service for a huge sum of cash. Just as you were sitting in the last row of the bus feeling sorry for yourself, a lump of gold appears—urk! Tch!—you reach under your seat, where you find a wallet, left behind by some previous passenger."
Bai Zhi kept an eye on his Spiritual Energy bar as he spoke. Spiritual Energy, or SE, was a resource common to all Players. A Player's SE pool was influenced by their Intelligence and Perception stats—specifically, their maximum SE was calculated by the formula (INT + PER) x 10. Thus, Bai Zhi possessed a maximum of 290 SE, while most Players averaged between 200 and 300 SE. The rate of SE recovery, however, was unique to each Player.
At the end of his story, Bai Zhi quirked an eyebrow. His SE had dropped by 10 points. On the other hand, reaching under his seat, he found a wallet, just as he had said he would.
"So, turning fiction into reality costs SE… A plausible scenario incurs a reasonable cost, but telling wild stories costs much more, and in the case of the completely improbable, the story can't be told... but this skill, it really does make things happen."
Bai Zhi inspected the wallet and hummed to himself, nodding as he imagined a host of new ways to apply his new ability.
Used for small ends, Desperate Writer was a means to grant minor wishes—nothing was stopping him from picking up lost wallets on buses every day of the week, after all—but if used on a large scale, it was a lever with which to move the world…
After figuring out the skill, Bai Zhi finally turned his attention to the emerald-green box entrusted to him, which looked like a common round box from the outside.
[ Item Name: Strongbox of Dawn ]
[ Type: Special Tool ]
[ Class: Rare ]
[ Effect 1: Storage - May hold up to 100kg of items ]
[ Effect 2: Security - Once the Strongbox is closed, it may only be opened by the Authorized Person, named at the time of closing. ]
[ SE Consumption: None ]
[ Requirements: None ]
[ Note: My friend, have you ever seen a safe that absolutely cannot be cracked? The Strongbox of Dawn—safety and security, peace of mind for the whole family~ ]
According to Lin He, the box was meant for his sister, and that much was true—presumably, he had prepared it before he turned into a Fallen. Bai Zhi stared at the description for a long while, before sighing and returning the Strongbox into storage.
"Fingers crossed that you used your real name and didn't alter your appearance, or I'll have no way to trace you to your sister... After all, I can hardly go around asking any Tam, Vick, and Hailey to try opening the box!"
As he looked back at the scenery that had, at some point, returned to normal, Bai Zhi yawned. Fatigue was beginning to set in, and he leaned back against the chair.
The time he had spent in the small village might have only been three hours, but in that time, he had spent nearly every minute walking a tightrope, teetering on the edge between life and death.
It was easy to see why so many Players had fallen or become stuck there. It was a place where just about every shop posed a threat to their life, and where dying to a murderous clown in a maze was even preferable—at least they wouldn't be cursed to suffer eternal torture at the hands of the riddling ragdoll...
Having spent the last three hours strung tight as a bow, now that Bai Zhi was finally out of the woods, all the strain of his ordeal suddenly washed over him like a tsunami.
"Jeez, it was supposed to be a relaxing weekend, and now look—I take one step outside and all this happens..."
Bai Zhi fished out his phone, which was once again receiving signals normally, and checked the time. Narrowing his eyes, he muttered, "I should have been almost to the orphanage by now. I wonder if that's where the driver will drop me off..."
