The nameless man glanced at Lin Zhaoyang’s painting and casually pushed up his glasses. “The similarity has reached eighty percent. You may leave now.”
“Aside from the clearance reward, you can also take your own painting with you.”
“Alright, thank you, Teacher. Goodbye, Teacher.”
Lin Zhaoyang happily logged out of this dungeon with his spoils of victory. Class was finally over. Having to study until a goal was met felt a little terrifying.
How was this any different from taking an exam without studying at all? QwQ He didn’t even know how to paint with oil paints.
“What is so bad about having a handsome guy like me teach you one-on-one? Everyone either runs away at lightning speed, or…”
Yan Wen, the art studio instructor, looked at Lin Zhaoyang, who was quickly exiting the dungeon, with a hint of helplessness. He originally wanted to complain, but halfway through, he furrowed his brow and decided against it.
Because half of the people who entered the dungeon ran away the moment they cleared it, while the other half flirted with him simply because he was good-looking. There were plenty of men doing it, not just women.
“Handsome, are you really an NPC?”
“Can you date an NPC in this game?”
“Wenwen, do you want to date me?”
……
Yan Wen used to introduce his name at first, but later he grew too lazy to bother, simply teaching them and getting it over with. Whenever someone flirted with him, he would give them a solid beating and then mark their run as a failure.
NPCs capable of providing one-on-one teaching like him certainly weren’t bound by rigid, repetitive programming; they were high-intelligence teaching NPCs. Even so, he was growing close to developing a fear of people.
He couldn’t spend every day guarding against players either. After all, he was an art studio instructor, and his task was to teach players how to paint a decent oil painting with a reasonable degree of similarity.
Thank goodness the game prohibited players from making physical contact with NPCs, or else he felt like perverted players would be groping him at every turn.
“999, I’m back.”
“I survived my studies, qaq.”
The art studio instructor was very gentle, but the moment he spotted any mistake, he pointed it out instantly: the colors were wrong, the brushstroke was too heavy, the paint was too thick.
Although the instructor’s gaze was gentle, it constantly hovered over him, making him too afraid to even attempt a stealthy moment of relaxation.
It felt like a gentle blade, slicing through him lightly, stroke by stroke. It didn’t hurt; it was just a bit nerve-wracking.
[Mm-hmm, truly wonderful.]
[What did you paint?]
999 was secretly giggling. Why did humans all harbor a bit of fear toward studying, especially when Yan Wen taught so well?
“I chose yellow little daisies. They felt pretty and relatively simple, though after painting it, I realized it wasn’t as simple as I’d imagined.”
“999, look quickly! Is it pretty?”
Lin Zhaoyang stepped out of the teleportation array and held the oil painting facing directly forward.
As soon as 999 noticed Lin Zhaoyang coming out, it packed things away and floated into mid-air to avoid getting stepped on again.
It circled the oil painting once, examining it carefully from top to bottom.
[Mm-hmm, very pretty.]
For a first oil painting, one could only say it was indeed a little daisy, but the overall look was a bit quirky. Still, it was the first time, so generous encouragement was definitely in order.
“I think it’s alright too.”
Lin Zhaoyang looked around and ultimately placed the oil painting on the floor not far from the teleportation array.
[Why aren’t you hanging it up? There’s already a pile of stuff on the floor.]
Oil paintings came with complimentary nails and hooks. How much space would it save to hang it on the wall?
[Besides, you really need to get some furniture later. You know how it is, if it keeps raining, things will get moldy.]
Even though it was a game, the various weather conditions and their accompanying effects were very realistic.
The clothes Lin Zhaoyang had made previously were also stacked against the wall, with the original starter clothes at the very bottom and the newly made clothes neatly folded on top.
The layout of the entire small wooden cabin was hard to describe in words: a pile of stuff here, a pile of stuff there, a pathway cleared down the middle, and a large empty space in one corner designated as the bed.
“I’ll get a wooden wardrobe later. Forget about the rest, the cabin is just too small.”
Although the game’s quests awarded points, expansions required you to submit materials and points first before the rewards would show up fashionably late.
It felt a lot like…
Oh, like those scam rebate schemes where you had to hand over your money first before they would grant you any rewards.
“I have no choice with that painting. I don’t have nails or hooks, so leaning it vertically against the wall doesn’t take up much space anyway.”
Lin Zhaoyang felt dizzy just looking at the materials required for the cabin expansion. Although he could use points for a direct deduction, he couldn’t afford it; the points in this game were genuinely difficult to earn.
[Huh? Nails and hooks come as a set. I’ll go ask Yan Wen for them. Just wait, I’ll be right back.]
Corruption? They couldn’t even provide these tiny items to his host? What was going on?
Lin Zhaoyang couldn’t stop it at all. Even though he couldn’t see the other entity, when he called out to 999, there was already no response. It was obvious that the system had bolted the moment it finished speaking.
[Yan Wen, why didn’t you give my host the nails and hooks? Supply them for me, and throw in a hammer while you’re at it.]
Yan Wen, who was busy teaching another player how to paint, didn’t even stop his brush as he replied to 999 directly in his mind.
(I can’t possibly remember which one your host is. Most of them run off way too fast, so I didn’t hand over the matching accessories. I’m clearly so handsome, why are they running in such a rush?)
Even though Yan Wen disliked those who flirted with him, he didn’t care for those who treated him like a terrifying ghost either. His space was an art studio dungeon; if they wanted to see ghosts, they should go to the ghost dungeons instead.
[Starting with the narcissism again. Give me the items when you have time. I’m leaving now.]
Though 999 heavily despised Yan Wen’s narcissism regarding his own appearance, it still harbored quiet envy. High-intelligence lifeforms like them could shape their desired appearance themselves, but its own hand-eye coordination wasn’t great, resulting in an appearance that wasn’t quite handsome enough.
After a routine session of envying someone else’s looks, 999 returned from the system space to Lin Zhaoyang’s small wooden cabin. It actually possessed those small trinkets in its own inventory, but asking Yan Wen for them was the proper protocol. Supplying them directly out of its own pocket would count as cheating.
It had already opened a massive backdoor for Lin Zhaoyang anyway. In a few days, the childhood video footage of Lin Zhaoyang’s adoptive parents should arrive in its hands; no matter what, it still had to give its superiors some face and avoid crossing any lines.
[Zhaoyang, I’m back. Praise me quickly.]
999 floated in front of Lin Zhaoyang, fishing for compliments.
“999, you’re amazing.”
Since neither of them would proactively state their precise coordinates nor ask where the other was standing, Lin Zhaoyang’s gaze ended up lacking any fixed focal point.
[Naturally, as expected of me, hehehe.]
[Eat your meal first. Aside from explorations, the livestreaming feature is also open. Take a look later and decide what you want to do.]
999 only enforced strict intervention when it came to Lin Zhaoyang eating properly. After all, they couldn’t have him kick the bucket due to poor nutrition right after starting his second life!
Other players in the game could go without eating completely without any severe consequences beyond draining health points; even failure only resulted in the random destruction of forty percent of their resources before letting them start over. But humans weren’t all built the same.