Chapter 21 Successfully Captured the Points System (Second Update) Driving Rules, ...
After delivering the furniture to Liwan Apartments, Zhao Dawei returned to Guijia Furniture Store.
The pickup truck came to a smooth stop in the parking lot, the driver's side door popped open, and Zhao Dawei got out of the vehicle.
It's already noon, and he hasn't eaten anything all day; his stomach is growling uncontrollably.
As Zhao Dawei walked through the back door of the furniture store, he pinched the fat on his stomach, trying to fight off hunger by sucking in his belly.
Just then, the elusive furniture store manager suddenly peeked out from around the corner and said to Zhao Dawei, "Liwan Apartments has placed another big order, requesting us to deliver over a hundred chairs to the auditorium of Linjiang Agricultural University."
Just then, Zhao Dawei's stomach growled with hunger again.
The store manager paused, then looked down at his protruding beer belly: "Are you carrying a ghost baby? Keeping pets is fine, but please don't play with them during work hours."
Zhao Dawei looked embarrassed: "No, I didn't raise it, I was just hungry..."
The store manager looked suddenly enlightened: "Sorry, I've been dead for too long and forgot that humans need to eat." With that, he quickly walked into the adjacent warehouse.
After a rustling sound, the shop manager came out with a bag of food.
"This is your staff meal for today. Go to the delivery truck and eat as you go. The big order from Liwan Apartment is quite urgent."
Zhao Dawei rummaged through the bag and found that it contained some bread and milk.
Although the expiration date seemed suspicious, the bread packaging was not bulging and there were no signs of mold on the surface.
Now he's not picky anymore, as long as he can fill his stomach.
Zhao Dawei returned to the parking lot, and just as he was about to get back into the pickup truck, the store manager called out to him: "Get in that big truck."
The back door of the furniture store opened a crack, and the store manager, huddled in the shadows behind it, said quietly, "We had too many furniture orders, and the pickup truck couldn't fit them all, so the kids moved all the chairs into the truck bed."
"The rules for driving large trucks are posted on the driver's side window. You need to read and memorize them. This time you're sending out children, so they might be a bit noisy. Don't worry about them."
Just as Zhao Dawei was about to ask what kind of child it was, the shop manager behind the door retreated into the darkness.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that as time went on, the furniture store manager's figure seemed to become more and more stiff, and even his facial features looked like they were painted on... he was practically a living mannequin.
However, Zhao Dawei, who was already used to the strangeness of the furniture store, was not too surprised. He found the truck, opened the driver's side door, and climbed in.
The driving rules inside the car are very prominent, taking up almost half of the windshield.
Zhao Dawei immediately noticed the first rule, quickly put down his food, and hurriedly fastened his seatbelt.
[Rules for Driving Trucks Returning Home to Furniture Stores]
① Fasten your seatbelt immediately after getting in the vehicle.
② Delivery cannot be stopped or the windows opened during the delivery process.
③ Do not brake, no matter what you hear, even if you hit someone or hear screams inside the car.
④ Do not tear off the red cloth covering the rearview mirror.
⑤ Do not tear off the driving rules.
⑥ Do not turn on the windshield wipers even during heavy rain.
⑦ Do not open the car door after boarding. Wait for the door to open automatically before getting off.
Zhao Dawei quickly read through the rules and memorized them.
The vehicle started slowly. Since there was absolutely no need for Zhao Dawei, the driver, to do anything, he took a bag of bread from the passenger seat and began to eat it comfortably.
After about twenty minutes, whispers suddenly came from the back of the train.
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhao Dawei, who was feeling drowsy, suddenly woke up with a start.
To prevent himself from hitting the brakes in fright, Zhao Dawei tried to tuck his toes in and covered his ears tightly.
Even with their ears covered, the whispers still rang out clearly.
"Finally out of the warehouse! I was so suffocated. Where are we going this time? Are we going to get returned again?"
"Hehe, this was ordered from the apartment company, and they won't give me a refund. I wonder if they still have any rooms available. I really want a room of my own."
"Give up. There are so many powerful ghosts in the apartment building. People like us can't even get a room on the first floor."
"But I heard from the store manager that we're not going to an apartment, but to some kind of agricultural college."
"What is an agricultural college? Is it a university? We don't even have a junior high school diploma, how can we get into university?"
"You're silly. We're all ghosts now. Is there any place we can't go?"
"Waaaaah, it hurts so much, it hurts so much... It's so dark here... Mom and Dad, why haven't you come to find me yet... It hurts so much..."
"The little crybaby is crying again, hahaha, so embarrassing!"
"Damn school, damn auditorium! It's a shame I'm stuck in this chair. If I ever find out who oversaw the construction of this school auditorium, I'll smash that person's flesh and blood to pieces and use their blood and soul to make a chair..."
"Stop venting your frustrations and stop scaring our customers. If no one buys from us, we'll be stuck in this damn chair forever."
"I hope I don't get any more returns. I've had enough of the warehouse. It's so uncomfortable for X to sit in that chair without moving."
"Waaaaah, I miss home... Mom and Dad..."
...
On the way to the agricultural college, the truck was filled with constant noise, as if more than a hundred energetic children were chattering in his ears. By the end, Zhao Dawei felt like he was about to have a nervous breakdown.
Being a teacher is truly a noble profession; it's amazing how they can patiently teach such noisy children.
After listening to this story, Zhao Dawei figured out where the chairs came from.
They must have come from the auditorium of a junior high school, where a group of junior high school students died tragically due to shoddy construction, and their souls became attached to the chairs.
Zhao Dawei sighed. It was quite pitiful; he left this world at such a young age.
The furniture store's truck arrived at the entrance of Linjiang Agricultural University.
It's currently summer vacation, and with over two hundred graduates having vanished from the graduation ceremony hall, the entire agricultural university is now deserted, except for patrol cars from the Abnormal Inspection Bureau roaming around the area.
However, when the furniture store's truck arrived at the already sealed school gate, the investigators on guard at the gate didn't even ask any questions and simply pulled up the gate to let them through.
Zhao Dawei, who was looking out the window, vaguely saw that the investigator's face seemed to transform into a smooth mannequin face for a moment.
The truck traveled smoothly all the way and stopped at the entrance of the auditorium.
Sitting in the car, Zhao Dawei could hear something prying off the partition of the car, followed by the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground and the sound of a chair scraping against the floor...
After a while, Zhao Dawei stared wide-eyed through the car window at the rows of wooden chairs painted with bright red lacquer, which moved their four legs and crookedly into the auditorium.
After the last chair was placed into the auditorium, the driver's side door was suddenly opened.
Zhao Dawei hesitated for a moment, then picked up the delivery slip and got out of the car.
Since this wasn't an order delivered to Liwan Apartments, the store manager instructed him to have the customer sign for it after successful delivery.
...to collect more than a hundred signatures.
Zhao Dawei felt his life was miserable.
Hopefully, the customer won't return the item, as the return process is much more complicated.
*
Zhang Shan is an ordinary agricultural college graduate at Linjiang Agricultural University. He should have graduated this year, but he was trapped in the auditorium and selected by a system called the Infinite Flow God System, where he played a life-or-death werewolf game with a ghost.
Even now, Zhang Shan still feels like he's dreaming.
No, he couldn't even dream of such an outrageous plot.
Even after they had won the game by sheer luck, the God's points system still wouldn't let these victorious students off the hook.
The countdown of the points system kept flashing before their eyes. The points system would make them return to this auditorium after the countdown ended for another selection competition.
Because of this damned system, they were completely isolated from this world, unable to contact the outside world, and no one else could see them.
There are only three days left in the countdown. If it weren't for the fact that they could redeem food for free from this points system, these students would probably starve to death.
Among the surviving students, some, unable to cope with the psychological pressure of their companions' deaths, chose to commit suicide by jumping off buildings even after their victory. Some local students simply chose to go home and spend their last moments with their parents, while the rest resigned themselves to their fate, remaining disheartened in the auditorium, awaiting the next life-or-death game.
Just as the entire auditorium was shrouded in an atmosphere of despair and oppression, a sound suddenly came from outside the door.
Zhang Shan looked in the direction of the sound and saw a row of brand-new red chairs swaying as they were wheeled in from outside the door.
This bizarre scene makes it seem as if unseen people are sitting in these chairs and moving them forward.
The students in the auditorium were stunned. They all stood up in horror, staring in shock at the chairs that could move on their own.
Is this the next selection game? But the countdown hasn't ended yet... What's with all these chairs?
Because the students were all gathered on the stage in the center of the auditorium, these chairs were clearly aimed at the graduates, inching closer and closer to them.
There were significantly more chairs than graduates in the auditorium, and some graduates even fought over a few chairs.
The defeated chair lay on the ground, covered in dust and dirt, even the red paint on it had faded considerably.
"I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting."
Just as the graduates were staring in disbelief at the red chairs that had been placed in front of them, a middle-aged man carrying a notebook came running in from outside the auditorium, panting.
"Hello, I am a deliveryman from Guijia Furniture Store. The chairs have been successfully delivered. Please sign for the order."
The students were startled again. They stared blankly at Zhao Dawei, who had spoken to them, with the same expression of disbelief.
They were able to be seen?!
Zhang Shan looked at Zhao Dawei standing right next to him, his Adam's apple bobbing, and said in a hoarse voice, "We... don't seem to have ordered any chairs."
Zhao Dawei wiped the sweat rolling down his forehead with a handkerchief and handed over the delivery slip and pen: "This was ordered for you by a customer named Duan Wenyu. You don't need to pay anything else. Just sign here."
Duan Wenyu?
Zhang Shan's eyes widened suddenly, and she grabbed Zhao Dawei's arm: "How is Duan Wenyu now? What's the deal with these chairs he ordered for us?"
Duan Wenyu left the auditorium in the morning, saying he wanted to find a way to suppress the curse of the points system.
Now there are these chairs that can move on their own, and a middle-aged man who can see them... Could it be that Duan Wenyu has found a solution?
“Young man, I know you’re in a hurry, but don’t rush… I just started today, and I’m not very familiar with the work yet…” Zhao Dawei frantically flipped through the delivery slips and found several standard answers to customer questions in the employee handbook.
"Duan Wenyu is now a tenant of Liwan Apartments. These chairs are special furniture he ordered for you. Simply sitting in them signifies your acceptance of them. Next, you just need to sign the delivery slip; that's the purchase contract. The chairs will bear the curse on you. I will then give you instructions on how to maintain the chairs..."
Zhang Shan became even more excited: "You mean, we can get rid of the system curse on us just by sitting in the chairs?"
"That's how it is in theory..."
Before Zhao Dawei could finish speaking, all the students in the auditorium pulled up the chairs in front of them and sat down, their movements so synchronized that it was as if they had rehearsed.
"The countdown is over! It's really over!!!"
"Oh my god, am I dreaming? I've actually escaped that points system..."
"Wait, why did the countdown for the points system reappear after I stood up?"
"You need a signature, right? We haven't signed it yet—give me the delivery slip, I need to sign it!"
Zhao Dawei was instantly surrounded by excited students, a scene that made him hallucinate a zombie apocalypse.
"Take your time, line up, everyone can sign... Don't mix up the chairs you were sitting in, bring your chairs with you to sign here—"
After signing, the students were all overjoyed. Some hugged each other and cried, some jumped and danced on the stage, and some immediately called their relatives to recount their bizarre experiences.
Zhao Dawei patted his wrinkled suit in a disheveled manner. It was his only suit, which had almost been torn to shreds by the excited college students.
Although Zhang Shan was also very excited, he did not lose his temper like the other students.
He remembered that Zhao Dawei had just mentioned the chair's maintenance details, so he reached out to Zhao Dawei: "Give me the maintenance details, I'll send them to them later. They won't be able to calm down anytime soon, don't delay your work any further."
"Okay, okay, thank you so much." Zhao Dawei wiped his sweat again and took out a stack of papers from his backpack. "Please be sure to distribute these precautions. Our company will not be responsible for any problems caused by failure to follow the maintenance instructions."
"Understood." Zhang Shan took the stack of papers and quickly glanced through them.
[Home Furniture Store Chair Maintenance Guidelines]
① The chair needs one hour of outdoor activity every day (walking, running, or hiking are all fine).
② The chair needs three incense sticks a day to maintain the gloss of the paint (ordinary incense and candles from funeral homes are sufficient; if it is offering incense, it only needs to be lit once a week).
③ The chair will bear all the curses on its owner, binding you firmly to this world. Please treat the chair well and chat with it from time to time (if you don't have time to chat, you can play videos for the chair using a tablet; most chairs like watching cartoons).
④ Owning a chair can protect you from ghosts and monsters; any noises the chair makes at night are normal.
⑤ If you encounter a ghost that a chair can't solve, don't worry, the manager of Guijia Furniture Store will personally come to your door for after-sales service.
⑥ If you violate the maintenance rules, the chair will become you, and you will become the chair.
After reading the maintenance guidelines, Zhang Shan felt cold sweat pouring down his face.
This isn't like buying a chair; it's more like raising a ghost.
However, just as Duan Wenyu said, only a curse more vicious than that points system could completely suppress it. No matter what happens in the future, at least they are alive now… that's right, they have survived and no longer need to worry about being dragged by that system to play games with ghosts.
Zhang Shan took a deep breath and solemnly assured Zhao Dawei, "Don't worry, I promise to hand over these maintenance guidelines to every student."
Zhao Dawei nodded with satisfaction. After checking the signatures, he walked over to the chairs that had been lost in the fight.
As Zhao Dawei approached the overturned chair, he seemed to faintly hear the sound of a child crying.
He pulled out his delivery log and found a solution to the current situation.
—If there are extra chairs, there is no need to send them back to the furniture store; they can be delivered directly to the person who placed the order.
It seems we need to move these extra chairs to the Liwan Apartments.
Looking at the listless, dusty chairs lying on the ground, Zhao Dawei seemed to see several children crying on the ground.
He couldn't help but think of his two children who had died unexpectedly, and his voice softened: "Don't worry, you won't be returned. You don't need to go back to the furniture store warehouse. I will send you to Liwan Apartments."
Upon hearing this, the chairs suddenly stood up and rushed out of the auditorium at an even faster speed than when they arrived.
Zhao Dawei smiled like a kind father and left the auditorium with the chairs.
When the furniture store's truck returned to Liwan Apartment, Duan Wenyu was already carrying a large pile of incense, candles, and paper money.
Because of his injured foot, he dragged his limp around outside several times. After handing over the incense and paper money to Zhou Fangdong, Duan Wenyu was so tired that he fell asleep on the bed in room 102.
When the furniture store's truck arrived at the apartment, Zhou Fangdong signed for the extra chairs on Duan Wenyu's behalf.
The system pop-up window appeared the moment the receipt was signed for:
Hidden Mission 1: Find a stable supply channel - Completed
[Current Progress: Capturing the Infinite Flow Integral System 114/100]
[Double the rewards for exceeding the hidden task requirements]
[Hidden Quest Rewards: 300 Ghost Coins x2, Room 104 Ghost Clue x2, Convenience Store Employee Badge x2]
Zhou Fangdong's gaze was firmly drawn to the '300 Ghost Coins x2'.
After deducting the 30 ghost coins he gave to the furniture store owner for the task, he now has a total of 910 ghost coins!
Zhou Fangdong suddenly felt a great sense of accomplishment. It hadn't been easy; he was finally rich! He was no longer the penniless wretch who couldn't even bear to spend 30 ghost coins!
After receiving the reward, Zhou Fangdong immediately bought two more exorcism talismans. With the one he already had, he now had a total of three exorcism talismans.
He planned to give all three exorcism talismans to his tenants when they returned home that evening.
Speaking of tenants, Zhou Fangdong thought of Miao Zheng, who had almost disappeared for a day.
It's almost evening, and I wonder how she is doing now.
The system's cold, electronic voice sounded again:
[Beep—Hidden Quest ① has been completed; Hidden Quest ② is now available]
[Hidden Mission 2: Clear out an apartment room to use as a convenience store storefront]
Cleaning the room... Zhou Fangdong looked at the [Clues to the Ghost in Room 104] reward from Hidden Mission ① and decided to clean up Room 104 next.
Thinking about this, Zhou Fangdong suddenly realized something and asked, "System, if I choose to clean up room 104 to complete hidden mission ②, will cleaning the room trigger another side mission?"
No. The side quest requires you to rent out the cleaned room, but the room that has become a convenience store cannot be rented out, so the side quest will not be triggered.
All right.
It's a bit of a pity. He originally thought he could get two mission rewards from one room, but the system was even more cunning than he imagined.
He can do the room cleaning task tomorrow; he needs to use the [Supplier] skill now to figure out how much offering incense he can produce with his current half health bar.
Before leaving the entrance hall, Zhou Fangdong looked at the seven red chairs at the entrance of the apartment.
His skill 3 was always active. In the eyes of someone with a "living person filter," all seven chairs were occupied by children in school uniforms—two girls and five boys—who all looked to be around twelve or thirteen years old.
Zhou Fangdong thought for a moment, then pointed to the corridor to the left of the elevator and said to them, "See that corridor over there? There are kids about your age there. You can go over there and play soccer with them. You can move around freely in the corridor, but don't go into the rooms on the first floor. Most of the rooms here are already occupied."
The children on the chairs nodded in unison.
One of the short-haired girls tried to jump off the chair, and after realizing she could get off, she happily hugged another girl and cried.
The boys also looked particularly excited, carrying their chairs as they rushed into the left corridor.
Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong stopped disturbing them and teleported back to his room.
Duan Wenyu was a very honest man. Despite his limp, he went out and bought two large sacks of incense, candles, and paper money for him.
Remembering Duan Wenyu's foot injury, Zhou Fangdong opened the favorability interface, clicked on Miao Zheng's name, and claimed her reward of 80 favorability points.
—1 month free broadband coupon, 30 Ghost Coins mobile data package, basic first aid kit, and a 20 RMB discount coupon for food delivery orders over 30 RMB.
To prevent these props from taking up inventory space, Zhou Fangdong took them all out and placed them on the table in the room.
Then he opened the basic medical kit.
It contains basic medicines, including cold medicine, fever reducer, anti-inflammatory drug, painkiller, iodine, alcohol, and bandages.
Duan Wenyu sprained his ankle after accidentally falling off the auditorium stage. There were no obvious external injuries, only a contusion of the ankle.
Zhou Fangdong picked up the bandages from the first-aid kit.
As soon as I got the bandage, an item description popped up.
[A simple bandage]
[It has all the benefits of a regular bandage; remaining uses: 3]
(Note: This product is especially effective for apartment tenants and can directly repair their injuries.)
After reading the item description, Zhou Fangdong nodded and threw the bandage into his inventory.
Let's use the bandages on Duan Wenyu tomorrow; it's been inconvenient for him to walk with a limp.
After tidying up the props, Zhou Fangdong took out a box of incense from the sack.
It is a regular red incense stick, 32 centimeters long, with six bundles in a box, totaling 222 sticks.
Given the system's stinginess, Zhou Fangdong felt that his current health bar was unlikely to turn this box of incense into offerings.
On a whim, he used the [Supporter] skill on this box of incense.
A pale golden light flashed, and only one bundle of incense in the box turned golden.
Before he could even get a good look, Zhou Fangdong felt a sudden dizziness and fell backward.
He was conscious before he fell and knew he was about to fall. He tried to stand up, but his body was completely out of his control. When he came to his senses, his perspective had completely changed, and he was lying on the bed.
Luckily, his room was small, and the bed was right behind the table. Otherwise, Zhou Fangdong was really worried that hitting the back of his head on the ground would knock away the remaining half of his health bar.
Zhou Fangdong felt extremely weak. He lay in bed for a long time, but his head was still dizzy and his temples were throbbing.
This feeling is almost like suddenly standing up from your chair after playing games all night.
The heartbeat was very clear; lying in bed, I could clearly hear my own heartbeat, as if my heart was beating desperately to replenish the half of the blood that had disappeared.
This is so uncomfortable. The side effects of this skill are terrible. Zhou Fangdong never expected that he would be in this state after losing half of his health.
He can't eat anything now, and he has no way to replenish his strength.
"System...do you have any items that restore health? I urgently need them..."
[As the landlord of Liwan Apartments, the host can directly absorb Ghost Coins to replenish their depleted health bar.]
Absorb Ghost Coins? Ghost Coins also have healing effects?
How do I absorb it?
[The host can simply recite the command in their mind to use it.]
Zhou Fangdong pondered for a moment and chose to use 50 ghost coins.
The headache subsided considerably. If it was a headache from staying up all night, it was just a normal headache from staying up until two or three in the morning.
My body is still very weak, but I can already sit up.
Zhou Fangdong sat on the edge of the bed and sighed wearily, then opened his character attribute interface.
These 50 Ghost Coins replenished approximately 25% of the health bar. To restore it to full health, you would need another 50 Ghost Coins.
Zhou Fangdong picked up the box of incense on the table and found that only one bundle had been turned into offering incense.
This bundle contains 37 sticks. If you convert the health bars into Ghost Coins, it's equivalent to him spending 100 Ghost Coins to get them.
Let's take the offering incense out and try it out in a bit, and see how it goes.
"System, besides absorbing ghost coins, are there any other ways to replenish health?"
The host's depleted health bar will automatically recover over time. The host's current health bar should be fully restored by tomorrow morning.
Zhou Fangdong nodded, deciding not to spend any more ghost coins and to lie down on the bed until tomorrow.
Just then, a rapid electronic voice suddenly rang out:
[WARNING! WARNING! Miao Zheng, the tenant of room 109, is in mortal danger!!]
The list of tenants' special interests and the preview of tenant rooms all popped up. The room preview screen kept shrinking and turned into a floor plan of the apartment's first floor.
The small red dot representing Miao Zheng appeared in the corridor to the left of the elevator.
Zhou Fangdong sprang up from the bed with a swift movement, realizing something was wrong.
How could Miao Zheng be there?
Oh no, could it be that Miao Zheng's life was in danger because he let those chair imps into the corridor earlier?
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