Although his teammate had stated the conditions for clearing the level, Lin Zhaoyang was entering this dungeon for the first time and felt a bit curious about what was written in the clearance manual, so he flipped it open to take a look.
What was written in the manual was indeed the same as what his teammate had said.
(The rules are very simple. Find ten intact four-leaf clovers among the clover patches outside, put them into the jars, and place both transparent jars onto the scanner simultaneously to complete the settlement and clear the stage. We recommend placing them yourselves.)
After finishing the rules, Lin Zhaoyang hurriedly grabbed his jar and went outside to look for four-leaf clovers. Before leaving, he glanced back and caught sight of the words inscribed on the wall, which read: “Other people’s good fortune has nothing to do with you.”
“Other people’s good fortune definitely has nothing to do with me.”
“I need to hurry up and look for four-leaf clovers. It would be awful to let my teammate down if I look too slowly.”
Muttering to himself, Lin Zhaoyang broke into a run toward the outside.
The floor was paved with stone slabs, and both sides rose in raised beds filled entirely with clover plants.
Lin Zhaoyang crouched down and looked at the clovers with a worried expression. After leaning in close, all he could see were plants with three leaves. “Are we supposed to find four-leaf clovers right in here?”
“Whatever. Finding them is tough, but I still have to look. I can’t let my teammate down.”
The tricky part about having a teammate was right here. He had wanted to slack off for a moment, but after thinking about it, no, he couldn’t let his teammate down, so he forced himself back up and kept trying.
“This one should…”
“Oh, nope, not this one.”
“Could it be that they aren’t right here in this patch, but secretly hidden somewhere more secluded?”
Lin Zhaoyang roughly combed through the patch of clovers directly in front of him, examining them very carefully one by one. Since he hadn’t spotted any four-leaf clovers yet, he suddenly started wondering if he was in the wrong spot altogether.
Lin Zhaoyang stood up and looked around. There ought to be other areas he had in mind, but after spinning around in place, he couldn’t see his teammate anywhere. He had originally wanted to find the other person to verify his guess.
That teammate whose name he couldn’t recall was level 35, so he definitely understood more than a little newbie like himself who was only level 11.
Lin Zhaoyang looked once more at the clover flowerbeds extending forward. It was honestly hilarious, because who plants these things in flowerbeds anyway?
Normally, shouldn’t it be bright sunlight, a courtyard filled with blooming flowers, and different blossoms competing in beauty?
“Whatever. I’ll just send a message to ask, and then keep searching.”
Lin Zhaoyang had grown used to being alone for a while now, and since he hadn’t been able to message anyone previously, his first reaction had been to search for the person directly, only remembering the teammate channel afterward.
Not long after sending the message out, Lin Zhaoyang received a reply. The other person told him that four-leaf clovers were usually buried underneath the three-leaf clovers, so he could either gently part the leaves or just pull them up entirely.
Although his teammate said pulling them up was fine, Lin Zhaoyang chose only to part the clovers.
After parting the leaves on top and around the sides, he indeed found four-leaf clovers, though sometimes he would find them and other times the spot would be empty.
“At this rate, I’m going to see clovers even when I look up at the sky.”
Staring at the exact same character for too long makes you a bit doubtful. Is this character even written correctly? Why does it feel so weird? Looking at clovers for too long had left Lin Zhaoyang feeling a bit sluggish.
Every so often, he would suddenly stop to let his mind go blank.
“How many four-leaf clovers have you gathered?”
Startled by his teammate’s voice, Lin Zhaoyang snapped back to reality and instinctively harvested his glass jar to answer the question: “Five four-leaf clovers.”
“Oh, so you’re only halfway there. I’ll come find you later then. Keep up the good work. If parting them is too troublesome, you can just pull them out directly. It doesn’t matter.”
“Keep it up.”
Hearing his teammate’s words, Lin Zhaoyang smiled and nodded.
However, once that unknown Traditional Chinese character wandered out of earshot, the words he muttered changed completely. “Tch, how slow. It’s been two hours and he only has five.”
Yet he hadn’t gone looking for a single four-leaf clover himself, choosing instead to find a comfortable spot to rest.
Lin Zhaoyang continued parting the clovers under the blazing sun, inspecting them leaf by leaf to see if any had four leaves.
The previous dungeon at least had resources he could bring out, but in this one, he was genuinely curious about what the reward would even be. It was much more tiring than the previous dungeon.
“It has been almost four hours. How many four-leaf clovers do you have now?”
The unknown Traditional Chinese character sauntered over once more to check on Lin Zhaoyang’s progress. There wasn’t even a trace of summer heat on him, making it obvious he hadn’t been lingering under the sun.
“I have nine. Just need one more.”
Lin Zhaoyang, being pure at heart, honestly handed his transparent jar over for his teammate to see. Inside the jar sat nine four-leaf clovers stacked on top of one another.
“Your count plus mine will be just enough. I’ll go take them over first, and you can make your way over slowly.”
Rather than asking for consent, the unknown Traditional Chinese character snatched the jar away by force.
To be fair, he actually did have two four-leaf clovers of his own, but that was only because he had lost patience waiting and managed to find a couple himself.
Lin Zhaoyang vaguely felt that something was amiss, but the jar in his hands had been snatched away so abruptly that he hadn’t even had time to react. Furthermore, searching for four-leaf clovers for so long had left him feeling a bit dizzy, so he could only stare in a daze as the other person ran toward the starting point holding his jar.
“Since we are on the same team, him helping me turn in the quest together should amount to the same thing anyway.”
Lin Zhaoyang walked back in silence. To gather enough four-leaf clovers, he had ended up quite far away from the starting point.
(Stage Cleared)
The moment Lin Zhaoyang took a forward step, his surroundings shifted instantly, changing from the brightly lit daytime courtyard into a dim wooden cabin. The moment he heard those three words, he was ejected straight out of the dungeon.
[How was this dungeon? Was your teammate a good person? Did he bully you?]
This second dungeon had taken Lin Zhaoyang nearly four hours. Although 999 didn’t know what kind of dungeon the other person had entered, the worry remained the same: did he run into any bad players?
“Yeah, he was a very enthusiastic and good person.”
“Still, I cleared my second dungeon, but I don’t feel like I gained much of anything. Why is that?”
This was precisely what puzzled Lin Zhaoyang the most. There hadn’t been any notification telling him he received a reward, but that shouldn’t be right. He had worked hard for nearly four hours, and he felt he deserved a decent reward.
[Which dungeon was it? If there is a bug, I will go report it for you.]
“The dungeon is called Lucky Clover. I found nine of them, and my teammate said he would help me turn them in together. After a little while, I got sent right back out.”
999 fell silent. Calling a teammate like that a good person?
Never mind. It was time to let the host experience the malice of human nature.
[Those lucky clovers are the clearance reward themselves, but whichever person puts the transparent jar onto the scanner gets credited for it.]
[In other…]
[In other words, your teammate ran away with your four-leaf clovers…]
“???”
“Ah? What do you mean?”
“Are you telling me that all those four-leaf clovers I worked so hard to find are completely gone?”