Chapter 4: 4
Yu Kai glanced nervously at the others in the room before helplessly nodding his head.
Even though they had only known each other for less than a year Cheng Yang's friends understood him very well. He was a stubborn person and if he set his mind to something no one would be able to change his decision.
Yu Kai immediately took out a debit card and said, "Yoko, there should be over ten thousand dollars on this card. It's the money I've saved up since I was a boy so try to leave me a little."
None of Yu Kai's friends were surprised he had so much money since it was well-known in the dorm that his parents were nouveau rich. Cheng Yang's other two friends didn't have much money and their combined savings only amounted to one thousand dollars.
Cheng Yang grabbed their money and left the dorm room.
"Koko, Hiroko, do you think we should go poke around?"Ox asked with a bitter smile.
"Forget it." Yu Kai said, "Yoko is a reliable person, we should trust him."
Cheng Yang walked out of the school and took a taxi directly to the suburbs.
With the driver's recommendation he was able to find a lumber mill and negotiate a purchase of 300 cubic meters of timber from the boss. During the apocalypse a cubic meter of wood was considered one unit.
The money Cheng Yang had was only enough to pay for a third of the wood and promised to pay the rest upon delivery. Even though he didn't have the money, Cheng Yang wasn't worried since his debts would be cleared by the apocalypse. He directly handed the boss of the lumber mill his almost twelve thousand dollars as a down payment and requested for the wood to be delivered to Phoenix Slope before 5:00 the next day.
Since Cheng Yang had ordered such a large amount the boss didn't care too much about the strict delivery requirements especially with such a large down payment.
When Cheng Yang concluded the deal he checked the time. It was currently 1:00 in the afternoon and not a soul in the world had noticed that the apocalypse was drawing ever closer. Not even Cheng Yang would be able to tell that the world was about to end if not for the memories from his previous life.
That night when Liu Hau and the others were asleep Cheng Yang began training.
Cheng Yang had done this for over a year in his past life so naturally he was familiar with the method. It was actually quite simple, you only needed to use the Meditation skill.
No matter their class, a person would receive the Meditation skill. The skill could only be used for four hours a day however, this was an iron rule of god that no one could violate.
After a night of practice Cheng Yang was less than 1% closer to becoming a High-Grade Apprentice level. The meditation skill was very inefficient without Experience Fragments and it would take him 100 days to reach the High-Grade level at this rate.
That night was the best night of sleep he had gotten in a year.
The next day Cheng Yang arrived at Phoenix Slope and although he had hidden the statues perfectly he was still worried that someone had discovered them. If it was just the tip of the Territory Altar no one question it but four obvious human heads would attract a lot of attention. What if someone thought it was an ancient artifact and attracted a huge crowd of people who wanted to see them.
When Cheng Yang arrived at the summit it was the same as yesterday. Nothing had changed allowing him to put his mind at ease.
Cheng Yang calculated that there were still seven hours until the apocalypse so he decided to try and find the precious object he gave up on yesterday.
He was searching for a portal that led to a different world. Using game terms it was an instance dungeon.
Cheng Yang quickly went to the stopping point of his search yesterday and on the way noticed a strange stone. It wasn't a strange rock but Cheng Yang was able to detect something since he was a Mage. There were faint magical undulations surrounding the stone.
What was this thing? Cheng Yang didn't know as he hadn't seen a similar object in his past life. Even so, he could still tell it was an important object.
Since it would likely bring him benefits Cheng Yang didn't hesitate to claim the stone. It was a disk a quarter meter in length and barely 9 kilograms. Since the Physical Attack attribute also increased a person's strength Cheng Yang was able to easily carry it.
Cheng Yang had carried the stone disk with him on the rest of his search before returning to Phoenix Village. Although he didn't find the Instance Dungeon he had gained something at least.
Cheng Yang made a trip to Cloud City at noon to stock up on food. He bought large bags of crackers and high energy snacks like chocolate.
He got back at 3:00 and called Yu Kai telling him to bring Liu Hau and Lau Hui to Phoenix Slope in his car.
Cheng Yang's friends weren't natives of Cloud City and didn't know how to get to Phoenix Slope. but with help from Cheng Yang's directions they were able to find it. Although they came they didn't know why Cheng Yang would call they outside the city.
Cheng Yang didn't give them an explanation over the phone and simply said that they would find out when they arrived.
Now all Cheng Yang had to do was wait. Although there was only an hour left Cheng Yang enjoyed every second since he didn't know when he would have the chance to just sit like this without worrying about danger again.
As the final hour before the apocalypse started Yu Kai's car pulled over to the side of the road. When the car came to a stop Liu Hau jumped out of the car and ran over to Cheng Yang.
"Yoko, what the hell are you doing? What are you doing all the way out here?" Liu Hau sat down next to Cheng Yang who was watching the river. "You don't want to jump into the river do you?" He asked in shock.
Cheng Yang rolled his eyes, "Do I look suicidal? Why would I drive four to five kilometers to find a river to jump into? It's not like there isn't a river downtown."
"That's fair." Liu Hau conceded, "But why are you acting like this?"
"Don't worry about that, by the way where's Ox wasn't he with you?" Cheng Yang asked.
"Ehehe, looks like that scoundrel has been hooking up with a pretty girl these days." Yu Kai laughed, "They were on a shopping date when I called him earlier. He said he'd come over once they were finished but that it would take a while, maybe thirty more minutes or so?"
Cheng Yang doubled checked the time. Half an hour should be okay but it would be cutting it close. In order to avoid a tragedy Cheng Yang still texted Lau Hiu telling him to arrive at Phoenix Slope by 4:50 at the latest.
Lau Hui texted back confused but Cheng Yang didn't want to tell him about the apocalypse over the phone.
Then Cheng Yang said, "Koko, do you remember the question I asked you yesterday in class?"
"You said a lot to me yesterday, what was the question?"
"I asked you what you thought would happen if the world became a video game."
"Yeah, yeah, I remember now." Liu Hau said with absolute certainty, "I don't think that's what all this is about though you rascal."
"Your right, it's not about me, it's about what's going to happen. In a little under an hour our world is going to change dramatically and a massive earthquake is going to sweep the globe. When it does the world will become like a video game and all of humanity will have to play it or die."
A few seconds after Cheng Yang finished his speech Yu Kai silently squatted down and put his hand on Cheng Yang's forehead. "Huh, you don't have a fever so why are you saying that crap?"
Cheng Yang swatted Yu Kai's hand away, "You don't believe me? That's okay, you don't have to cause the apocalypse will come in an hour either way. The only reason I told you this was so you could give your families a chance to get somewhere safe before it happens."
The fact that Cheng Yang had said all this with a calm expression made his friends tremble. Perhaps Cheng Yang was serious?
"Yoko you can't be telling the truth? Really, how could that happen?" Liu Hau refused to accept the apocalypse would happen.
"I've said what I needed to say. If you wont believe me I don't blame you, I would act the same way in your place." Cheng Yang said, "As for informing your families, that's for you guys to decide. I just hope you don't regret your decision."
Yu Kai looked at the doubtful Liu Hau then to Cheng Yang who was engrossed in the scenery. Since when did Cheng Yang enjoy looking at nature?
"Or… lets believe him for now." Yu Kai said, "If the world doesn't end we wasted an hour of our families time, but if its true…" Yu Kai shuddered. Yu Kai hadn't said anything but Liu Hau understood the implications perfectly.
Liu Hau was hesitant to believe his friend but Yu Kai's idea was reasonable. In the end he decided to call his family.
"Tell them to stay close to the city center and find a park to hide in. If we manage to visit their city, we'll find them." Cheng Yang promised.
Relieved that they had taken his advice Cheng Yang took out his phone to call the few family members he had left. After convincing their families they hung up one after the other.
"Yoko, I staked my character on this. If you lied to us my dad is going to laugh about this for the rest of my life." Liu Hau said trying to lighten the atmosphere.
Yu Kai looked towards the sky, "I really hope you lied to us Yoko."
"Why are you worrying so much?" Liu Hau asked, "There's only twenty minutes left. If Yoko is lying or not… well just have to wait and see."
When facing the end of the world, in addition to panic these young men felt a little bit of hope that it wouldn't happen.
Of course, they still didn't truly believe Cheng Yang's words, for now however, they were willing to wait and see.
Ten minutes later a caravan of twenty trucks drove down the road headed from Cloud City stopping at the foot of Phoenix Slope.
Cheng Yang checked the time, 4:45. That lumber mill boss sure was punctual.
"You guys stay here, I ordered some lumber so I need to go pick it up." Cheng Yang whispered to his friends
Yu Kai suddenly understood why Cheng Yang had borrowed so much money. There was enough wood to build several houses on those trucks and even if it was the worst quality wood the price would still be at least thirty thousand dollars. At that moment Yu Kai believed Cheng Yang. He knew his friend very well and as long as he hadn't gone insane he wouldn't dare to put so much money into a joke and right now Cheng Yang's eyes were very clear.
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