Chương 4: Four Well Village (2)
During this chaotic time, Jia Hyson's brain finally went back online and he left the sticky trap of his mind and memories that he had been immersed in for a minute to, once again, focus on the matter at hand.
The enmity he had with the man who injected the liquid into him was a grudge he would never let go but Jia Hyson knew that he didn't have any privilege to think about such things now. After all, even if the other was still alive there was no way he could be here. Wherever this was.
Jia Hyson absentmindedly touched the corner of his mouth and wiped the sticky liquid from the corner of his lips. Ah, it seems even if his mind was elsewhere his body couldn't help but react to the fresh meat around him and instinctively drooled. He rubbed the saliva from his lips between his thumb and forefinger slowly.
If anybody was looking they would notice the saliva was strange. While it looked like saliva, the more it was rubbed the darker the colour would get, slowly turning into a dark gold shade with an oily sheen. As the colour changed, Jia Hyson's fingers seemed to slow a little bit before it exerted a little more force and continued to rub it.
As the trio of veteran players finally calmed the group somewhat after a mix of shouting, threats and logical arguments, the tall one turned around and saw Jia Hyson just staring silently at them as one of his hands seemed to be doing some sort of rubbing motion.
The tall one frowns. No matter how he looks at it, the other's response was abnormal. Not just his response, just looking at him made the tall veteran player's skin crawl a little but he couldn't exactly say why. The other's skin and hair seemed clean, but the long hair was messy and strewn everywhere, and the clothing the other wore was ragged.
Could he be homeless? At such a young age though? The player looks as the other stares back with a fairly vacant look as he continued to rub his fingers.
He rubbed the back of his neck which prickled with goosebumps. Could this strange feeling just be the uncomfortableness of meeting a mentally ill person? Still, his feelings on the mentally ill or not, a life was a life and the player still felt he should at least do the bare minimum to warn the newbies. What happens next is no longer in his hands.
"Hey, you, get up. If you heard us, you would know this isn't a joke, a dream or a fucking show. This is real and you'll really die if you don't take this seriously."
Jia Hyson cracked his neck, his body a little stiff from staying in the same position for so long, as his eyes assess the tall man in front of him. Pretty handsome. Plus, he likes his lips, his pink tongue subtly sensing the air like a snake, there was an interesting taste of energy coming from him.
After a few seconds to digest the information, Jia Hyson smiles. "Okay." He very simply replies but it was enough to move peoples hearts.
The smile is gentle and elegant. Before he became what he had become, Jia Hyson was quite popular in various ways. His public persona was a gentlemanly and elegant romantic, reserved but witty, and charismatically charming when he wishes to be. Even after so long, he still remembers how to smile in a way that would make one's heartbeat.
In fairness it wasn't like he hadn't been practising on others. After all just because one is a high level zombie doesn't mean you can't still do many fun things..
The tall veteran player reluctantly flushes.
It couldn't be helped. Even if he felt wary and was straighter than a steel rod, the player had to acknowledge the other's attractiveness. While the other was clearly a man, with defined handsome features, there was an ambiguous feeling nonetheless. Those slanted eyes that gave a lazy yet dreamy air and the long waterfall of black hair that fell into a slight wave as they curled around the other's shoulders and back only further accentuated a sensuality in the man.
He produced an unsettling feeling at first glance but his smile and his appearance would also create a fascination the longer you looked.
Like a sundew plant, so oddly and subtly peculiar in appearance, yet one couldn't help but be lured in by the enticement of the succulent droplets of water handing on to its trichomes*. In fact it could be that contrast that made it all the more entrancing.
*plant hairs
But it was only once you reach up to touch the sweet dew, would you realise it wasn't water nor honey but a sticky substance that made it difficult for any insect to escape from. Struggling in regret before suffocating to death as it becomes slowly digested by the secreted enzymes in the substance it had once been yearning for.
"Hey, you.."
"Dynamite," One of the other men from the trio, a glasses-wearing studious type, sharply calls out, "Don't get distracted, we only have a few minutes left."
Snapping out of his trance, the tall man, Dynamite, furrows his brows, reluctantly glancing at this strange beauty before withdrawing, back to his group. "Come on, you should at least understand the situation properly." He gruffly calls out.
Jia Hyson with the same smile on, takes a few seconds to respond before silently following. His mind was slower and so was his reactions, it was still better to comply and see the level of these humans as well as evaluate the general situation. The energy he sensed was definitely different from the power users of his world, but he instinctively could tell that it was even more delicious and useful than the crystal nucleus.
The group of newcomers were all wary, disbelieving and paranoid. In such a fearful and confused state there was little room for shallow social niceties and most of them immediately alienated the handsome but dull looking Jia Hyson.
Jia Hyson was neither hurt nor offended, not just because he was used to it, but because it was barely registered in his awareness. He was too busy staring at the group of veterans with an absentminded smile, his mind only fixated on puzzling out the three in front of him. This in turn made the group feel their assumptions were correct. Tsk, this man was simply a handsome fool!
Wth the exception of the tall veteran nicknamed Dynamite who kept glancing at Jia Hyson with a sense of entrancement, the other two ignored him, treating him like air. The third veteran, a muscular man, nudged at Dynamite impatiently and whispered harshly in his ear while Glasses stepped up to talk.
"Currently our identities are of student volunteers and the problem of the village seems to be the wells and the water." Glasses summarises, clearly taking up the role of leader. "This is a newbie level instance but it is at E-grade which means it won't be as straightforward as an F-grade instance." At this point, he sighs tiredly, "Which is a pity, I really wasted my coupon."
Dynamite pats his back sympathetically. E-grade was still fairly easy for veterans like them but with the amount one pays for a newbie world coupon, one would still wish to get the best result. It was like paying 1000RMB for a mystery box and pulling out something worth 990RMB. It was not bad but it was still a loss that felt almost more disappointing than if you lost a lot. Not to mention this was not just a simple loss of 10RMB but a potential loss of life if they weren't careful.
After all, newbie players can be both useful cannonfodder, unexpected hidden treasures, or the worst pig teammates one could ask for. While the instance difficulty between F and E are not too big, for the inexperienced, confused and frightened players it could be considered like heaven and earth. In order to facilitate decent survivability the system had announced there were reward bonus points for veterans to carry newbies, and at the same time point deductions for directly killing them.
If that wasn't enough, some instances actually require cooperation to get a good result. This produces a strange sense of wanting good players to enter the same instance with them and wishing they were incompetent in order for yourself to gain the biggest prizes.
But in the end though, rewards were secondary to life. It was still better to have competent players in the end.
Glasses sighs again before pushing up the glasses falling from his nose, "I know I have said this before but-" You all were too hysterical to answer, "-does anyone have a special role or identity? If so please speak up."
"Uh, there's nothing but that I'm a volunteer student?"
"Same here."
"En."
"Volunteer student as well."
Jia Hyson thinks about the little pop up message, and sees the light screen appear in front of him once more. There, there was a profile screen that appeared along with various information.
[Name: Jia Hyson]
[Age: 115]
Jia Hyson: …it turns out he's a geriatric already huh.
[Sanity: 78
Intellect: 52-88
Strength: Ẽ͍̩̹̫̝͈́̔ͫ͞r̳͈̱̱͋̕r̭͕͖̦̲̩̙̓̔̂͝o̧͈͇͙ͨr̜̪̤̪̥̤̊͌͘
Charisma: 94
Luck: 31]
[You are now playing Four Wells Village.]
[Your identity is Student that's dating the Professor. You can gain more information from the Professor NPC and get higher goodwill with older NPCs.]
After reading this, the screen glitches before correcting:
[Your identity is Student that's dating Teacher Ye. You can gain more information from the Professor NPC and get higher goodwill with NPCs, thirty-five years old or older.]
Jia Hyson takes a moment to react before his eyebrow twitches. Fuck! Was this system dissing his age??
Seeing no one answering, Glasses frowns slightly and his expression turns serious. "There are only benefits to revealing it right now, and it would help us greatly in our survival." He emphasises.
Once again, it takes a few seconds of processing, before Jia Hyson subconsciously curls his lips in a faintly mocking smile at what Glasses said. The words are good but as a person who had undergone the apocalypse, and someone who originally wasn't clean to begin with, he knew things weren't so simple.
After all, if it was such a good thing why would the system hide it?
The first reason is that the special identity was indeed a good thing to be exploited, and can be used as a bargaining chip.
The second is that the identity could produce special clues or advantages that could help level the playing field. And by revealing, it puts the individual at a disadvantage or they hold information that will make them a target once revealed.
And finally, the third and final reason was that the identity could be problematic and was an obstruction to everyone else's goals. In this case, revealing this identity will be an immediate Bad End.
However, Jia Hyson felt that without risk there was no opportunity and his own identity fell in neither the second or third category. Seeing everyone's continued hesitation or purposeful silence, he raises his hand up, his smile never changing as if it were carved from wood. "I am a student who's having an affair with the professor."
His words were a bit slurred and the sound was hoarse and raspy from disuse. However he spoke soft and lightly, and Jia Hyson had always owned an elegant and charismatic voice that was full of mature charm, so even if it was a little slow and rough, there was an inexplicable taste of temptation.
It wasn't only Dynamite, who was already attracted to him, found his breath hitching, both men and women couldn't help but flush.
The sunny teenager touches his ears awkwardly and the two girls couldn't help but feel excited. All three were still young and hadn't seen the world. Their hearts were immediately captured by such a sexy voice! Ah, ah, ah, such a good voice can fight against the voice of the most handsome movie king big brother in the entertainment circle and the roguish bandit king uncle in the voice actor circle!
However, after getting over the unexpected beauty of the voice everyone's expression turned complicated. Affair with the professor… isn't this just the identity of the Mistress?? And the type that specifically old men like?
Some of the new players give Jia Hyson's beautiful appearance a somewhat pitying look. It turns out this strange game discriminates against face? Oh, it was a little refreshing if you think about it.
The people who had special identities couldn't help but secretly glance at their assigned identities again to double-check if they also misread and also were dealt a strange hand too. Reading their information they can't help but breathe a silent sigh of relief. While there were some that were a bit specific they were still within the normal and acceptable ranges of their tolerance.
The three veterans also had similar feelings but they were far better at hiding it. Glasses, who was the most observant, silently looked at the new players who had accidentally revealed themselves as holding special identities thanks to their subconscious reaction and noted them down in his head. Because of Jia Hyson's honesty and his actions helping him determine more or less most of the others with special identities, Glasses' opinion on this fool was instantly raised.
"Thank you for telling us this," Glasses gently directs to Jia Hyson with a tone similar to how one coaxes children. Jia Hyson recognised this and only continued to smile and give a silly shy laugh in response. In his opinion, it was better to be treated as such for now. His brain was akin to defrosting, and it would take time and a large supplement of energy to get back to normal.
While he was by no means particularly vulnerable, he was still relatively disadvantaged in a fairly unknown environment. Jia Hyson didn't like taking any big actions without being completely sure he would succeed, thus he will choose to lay low and do his best to be obedient.
But… His throat bobs as he swallows heavily, gazing at the group of humans brimming with vitality and life. Jia Hyson really wasn't confident he could hold back for particularly long. Especially around those three veterans who were full of strange but tempting energy.
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