NPC dodged. Bai Fuling grabbed.
NPC dodged. Bai Fuling grabbed.
He ran, he chased and there was simply no escape.
In the end, in this PK match between player and NPC, the player emerged victorious. Bai Fuling finally caught the NPC and dragged him all the way back to the bus stop.
The NPC, who had been tightly hauled along and could no longer run, finally gave up struggling. The red bar above his head surged wildly as he shouted, “…Hey! What exactly are you trying to do!? I’m calling the police!!!”
Calling the police?
Bai Fuling had not expected there to be penalties for getting the sequence wrong too many times. He calmly considered the possibility. Most likely confinement, or perhaps a monetary deduction.
But logically speaking, if a player failed too many times, the game should provide corresponding hints or simply lower the difficulty. Otherwise, if players got angry and rage quit, wouldn’t the developers be finished?
Thus, Bai Fuling decisively seized the opportunity and proactively questioned the NPC in search of clues.
“How exactly are you supposed to line up while waiting for the bus?”
“…What?”
“What’s the correct way to queue for the bus?” Seeing that the NPC did not answer, Bai Fuling tried rephrasing the question.
“So what you mean is…” the NPC in the light blue shirt and glasses, the one from earlier, interjected from the side, “you want everyone to line up in a civilized and orderly manner while waiting for the bus?”
Civilized. Orderly queueing.
The moment Bai Fuling heard those words, it was as though he had caught onto a crucial keyword.
He understood now.
The queue order was determined according to the rules of “civilization”!
Just as he had expected, failing too many times would indeed trigger hints. Now even the hint NPC and guide NPC had appeared. Bai Fuling cast a satisfied glance toward the bespectacled guide type NPC and nodded.
“That’s right! Exactly like that.”
“……”
“……”
A string of ellipses popped up above every NPC present.
Several of the NPCs clearly seemed to want to say something and the light blue shirted NPC spoke first. Raising a hand to adjust his glasses, he said, “Very well, everyone. I’m sure you’ve all seen just how persistent this young friend here is, we may as well line up.”
Dark scribble like swirls floated above the heads of several NPCs and under the organization of the light blue shirted NPC, or perhaps due to Bai Fuling’s relentless dragging and pestering, they eventually formed a neat line according to the order of “respecting the elderly and caring for the young.”
In the distance, the sound of a horn rang out.
At last, a bus slowly approached from afar.
The moment the pixelated bus drove onto the screen, Bai Fuling was delighted.
This was the joy of solving a puzzle!
Very good. From now on, he finally knew how to call a vehicle in this game.
Although… the process still felt unnecessarily troublesome somehow.
Mostly because the NPCs kept running all over the place.
He wondered if knocking them unconscious would work. Perhaps next time, he could simply beat the NPCs unconscious and arrange them into a line on the ground instead, Bai Fuling silently mused.
He suddenly found himself missing the proactive driver NPC from when he had first logged into the game.
Would he ever encounter another NPC who voluntarily got out of the vehicle and offered him a seat like that again?
Surely that had not been some kind of beginner benefit package, right?
Ah… having a personal mount really was important!
The pixelated bus came to a steady stop at the station. Bai Fuling controlled his little character and stepped in through the front door, inserting one yuan to pay the fare.
“Hello, I want to go to the Trade Market,” he told the driver NPC his destination.
“To get to the Trade Market, you need to take Bus Route 8. This is Route 15,” the driver NPC replied.
What?
There were different bus routes too!?
Bai Fuling was utterly shocked upon hearing this.
Wasn’t it supposed to work by the player simply stating the destination, after which the vehicle would automatically drive there?
Could it be that the queue order affected which vehicle appeared? Or perhaps a successful queue triggered a random spawn each time?
Damn it all, he had already inserted one whole yuan!
For a player, every wasted bit of money was enough to cause immense heartache, especially during the starting phase, when funds were scarce!!
Absolutely unacceptable. He could not let that money go to waste, not even a single yuan!!
Bai Fuling stared at the driver for one second, two seconds, three seconds, just like how he had stared at the sedan parked in the middle of the road at the very beginning of the game.
Three seconds later, he opened his mouth.
“Why aren’t you voluntarily giving up your seat for me?”
Driver: “…Huh???”
Seeing that the bus driver NPC had absolutely no intention of voluntarily giving up his seat, Bai Fuling upheld the principle of “if there’s no opportunity, then create one yourself” and actively stepped forward to fight for his rights,
In other words, he attempted to hijack the bus.
If transportation tools were not meant to serve players, then who were they meant to serve? In a game, naturally the player should be able to go wherever they wanted! Besides, he had already paid one yuan. That meant he possessed the right to use this vehicle!
In any case, the worst possible outcome for hijacking the bus would merely be a fine or imprisonment.
And honestly, the earlier one experienced such punishment systems, the better.
During the early stages, players lacked both money and power. In order to accommodate beginners, games generally would not punish them too severely.
Which meant this was the perfect phase for probing the game’s boundaries regarding rewards and penalties. Bai Fuling wanted to see whether the logic framework of this game resembled the real world.
Thus, Bai Fuling boldly hijacked the bus and bravely lived as his authentic self.
And the result was exactly as expected,
He was reported by the citizen NPCs aboard the bus and stuffed into a wailing police car that came rushing over.
During the process, Bai Fuling even attempted to seize control of the police car as well.
Unfortunately, the policemen’s HP bars were simply too high. At his current stage, he stood absolutely no chance against them.
In the end, he could only give up regretfully while mentally making plans for the future: once he obtained better equipment and raised his combat stats, he would definitely try again.
What surprised Bai Fuling slightly was that the police car did not bring him to the police station.
Instead, it drove him back to Perland Academy.
He only realized this after catching sight of the school’s iconic triangular clock tower building and noticing the location marker on the minimap.
…Hm?
Could this place be the respawn point? Whenever problems occurred, did the game simply reset the player back at school to restart?
Bai Fuling blinked.
But he clearly remembered the introductory explanation mentioning that this was a game without save load or rollback functions. The timeline would always move forward and when players logged out, the system would automatically place their character into idle mode.
The police car drove into Perland Academy. Bai Fuling checked both the calendar and his inventory. Only after confirming that nothing had reset did he let out a breath of relief, though a trace of confusion soon followed.
If this was not a respawn point, then why had they brought him back to school?
Surely the prison was not literally built inside the academy?
Could it be that the developers had merged the prison and school together just to save themselves the effort of creating another building model? That was way too lazy!
This question was finally answered after an NPC emerged from the school security office, took custody of him from the police, then led him into a tiny classroom containing almost nothing at all before locking the door behind him.
The prison really was inside the school!
Bai Fuling widened his eyes as he stared at the text prompt displayed in the middle of the screen.
【Caught committing robbery and witnessed by others. Violated school rules and regulations. Confinement punishment triggered!
PS: During the beginner protection period, confinement duration has been shortened. Remaining time: 8 hours.】
Beneath the small text was a digital countdown clock, its numbers steadily ticking away second by second.
So committing crimes was treated as violating school rules and the punishment was solitary confinement?
Well, for players, being forcibly locked out from doing anything really was the cruelest form of punishment.
However, Bai Fuling had no intention of sitting still and waiting obediently. Even with the confinement warning displayed on the screen, he still attempted a prison break.
【No windows,
Escaping through the window: impossible.】
【The sewer opening was too small,
Escape via sewer route: impossible.】
【The toilet could not be forcibly removed,
Creative toilet utilization strategy: impossible.】
【The concrete floor was extremely hard,
Digging a tunnel underground: impossible.】
The classroom door was sealed from the outside with an electronic steel lock,
At his current stage, brute force could not break it open. He could only give up regretfully.
In the end, he simply lacked enough tools and sufficient stats. If he had cannons or explosives or something similar, he could definitely blast the door open in one shot.
Bai Fuling reflected deeply upon this. He needed to gather more resources and continue evolving!
While his thoughts wandered, he noticed a small question mark beside the confinement notice. Bai Fuling clicked it and a short explanatory text appeared on the screen.
【Confinement Room: For students of Perland Academy, punishment priority falls under school rules and regulations. Offenders will be detained here.】
Huh?
The school ranked above the law?
What kind of nonsensical logic setting was this?? Bai Fuling inwardly complained.
At that point, they might as well have honestly admitted it was done to save development costs by combining functions together. Saving money was nothing shameful, it was only human nature.
Still…
From a certain perspective, this kind of logic setting was actually very convenient for players.
Bai Fuling’s gaze once more fell upon the earlier text prompt.
Caught committing 【robbery】 and 【witnessed】 and 【captured】
There were actually three important keywords in that sentence.
Which meant that as long as he was not 【witnessed】or could escape before being 【captured】then he could avoid the school’s punishment entirely!
Bai Fuling immediately grasped the core point, his mood brightening considerably.
Excellent.
Another exploitable loophole in the rules had been discovered.
For players, criminal behavior and wanted notices were sometimes just another form of collection content. This kind of outlaw bug was amazing!
Bai Fuling glanced at the countdown timer, which seemed to flow at a one to one rate with real time. Then, without hesitation, he enabled automatic idle mode and logged out.
Only an idiot would stare at the screen waiting for the timer to finish. Since his character was imprisoned in game, then he might as well return to reality.
After exiting the game, Bai Fuling stretched lazily.
He picked up the tea sitting on his desk and took a sip before getting up and heading toward the art studio next door.
In reality, he was a moderately well known painter.
His paintings sold neither cheaply nor expensively. By completing several paintings a month, combined with the interest from the savings his parents had left behind before their deaths, he earned enough to live comfortably.
Bai Fuling entered the studio and lifted the cloth covering the easel.
His previous painting had only just reached the rough sketching stage.
With a composition forming in his mind, he dipped his brush into paint yet just as the brush tip touched the canvas, his phone emitted a crisp “ding” notification sound.
Did I forget to set it to silent mode when I came into the studio this time?
Bai Fuling frowned slightly and pulled out his phone one handed, unlocking it through facial recognition.
A pixel style pop up window with black tentacle like borders appeared on the screen, displaying electronic pixel font text:
【Wel_co/me to your\joining, Welcome to your乫入■Welcome to your加洳△】
A game notification?
The only game Bai Fuling had been playing recently was that strange pixel game from earlier. He tilted his head slightly.
Why were there so many garbled characters and typos…?
Looks like it really wasn’t very compatible with the system.
【Do yo_u&囍&like this world|嗎？】
So it was a feedback survey.
Bai Fuling thought about it.
This game really was quite fun. The freedom level was high, exploration was interesting and it was a rare source of entertainment.
Thus, Bai Fuling casually tapped 【Like】.
【■Will y_ou always]]li’ke’’ it?】
As everyone knows, “I’m going to play ××× for the rest of my life!” was a slogan frequently shouted by gamers during the peak of their enthusiasm.
Yet after enough twists and turns, most people still eventually ended up uninstalling the game and quitting.
At this moment, however, Bai Fuling was still in the early stages of excitement. Besides, this was only a survey experience questionnaire, so he generously selected 【Yes】
The pop up screen lagged several times. After flickering repeatedly, another long string of characters appeared.
【Welco_me to your joining■欢迎恁的佳入’‘欢迎您的嫁入 欢迎歓迎欢歓歓迎&＜＜】
Looking at the bizarre chain of corrupted text and typos covering the screen, Bai Fuling speechlessly closed the pop up window and stopped responding.
“What kind of game company makes surveys like this? They’re deliberately acting weird, aren’t they?” Bai Fuling muttered before tossing the matter to the back of his mind.
He set his phone aside and returned his attention to the canvas.
Only then did Bai Fuling notice that at some unknown point, a drop of black ink had fallen onto the painting.
“Ah, damn it, damn it!”
Bai Fuling hurriedly moved the paintbrush away. The black stain slowly wound downward across the paper. Although it was only a tiny streak, it stood out especially clearly.
Perhaps because he had just finished playing the game, the ink stain reminded him somewhat of the black tentacles spreading across the game’s opening screen.
“…Forget it. Luckily this painting was only in the rough sketch stage anyway. I’ll just start over from scratch.”
Bai Fuling removed the ruined sheet of paper.
He tossed the discarded paper into the wastebasket, then pulled out a brand new sheet of pristine white drawing paper and spread it flat.
=
After washing up, Bai Fuling lay on his bed before sleeping and picked up his phone again.
Once more, he saw the game’s pure black square icon.
After thinking about it, it had been roughly eight hours since he last played. The confinement period should already be over now.
Time to continue!
Bai Fuling logged in briskly.
Black tentacles spread across the screen before retracting and the game officially loaded. At the moment, his character was sitting on a chair outside the confinement room.
Everything within sight was extremely dim. The in game time displayed on the screen read 23:36.
The moment Bai Fuling saw the time, he instantly lost his composure.
Wait a second, He had not finished searching through today’s trash cans yet!
At midnight, everything would reset and refresh!!
Thus, he directly ignored the nearby prompt stating 【It is late at night. You should return to your dormitory and rest】 and immediately controlled his little character to leap off the bench before rapidly beginning another trash can scavenging operation with decisive efficiency.
There were trash cans both inside and outside the teaching building.
Inside the building, there was basically one on every floor. Bai Fuling sprinted all the way from the confinement room at the top floor down to the first floor, rummaging through each one in sequence. The moment he exited the building on schedule, a flashlight beam immediately shone straight into his face.
“Who’s there?”
The person holding the flashlight was Pang Chengyu. Tonight happened to be his turn for night patrol duty. Perland Academy’s nighttime patrol teams usually consisted of one teacher and three students.
The moment he saw the figure emerge from the building, Pang Chengyu froze briefly before quickly recognizing him,
The person before him was the miraculous transfer student who had stolen his father’s car during the daytime, angered his dad half to death, jumped directly from the fourth floor and then reportedly went out afterward to hijack a bus before getting arrested.
The title was a little long and entirely accurate.
The transfer student’s previously eye catching fluorescent raincoat was gone, replaced now with nothing more than an ordinary white T shirt. However, the strange angel halo hovering above his head remained.
“You…” Pang Chengyu was surprised by this sudden encounter and since this was a rare opportunity to actually speak with him, he still decided to greet him amicably.
After all, he had verbally admitted in front of his father earlier that this person was his friend. Naturally, he should properly get acquainted now.
“Did you just come out of the confinement room and get lost? I can take you back to the dormitory,” Pang Chengyu said naturally, trying to make conversation. “Do you still remember me? We met before. Earlier, you, uh, rode in my car. Um… thank you for bringing me to school.”
He beautified the original situation by at least several hundred times.
The transfer student looked over at him.
“Ah, so you’re here.”
Looks like he still remembers me.
A bright and cheerful smile appeared on Pang Chengyu’s face.
The transfer student charged straight toward him.
The transfer student brushed past him.
The transfer student charged straight ahead without even glancing sideways.
Without hesitation, he rushed outside.
Then, like a starving tiger pouncing upon prey, the transfer student lunged toward the trash can outside the building.
“Great! So you were here!!”
Pang Chengyu: ???
Author’s Note:
Pang Chengyu: Since when did handsome guys become less attractive than garbage?
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
✦ END OF CHAPTER ✦ BEGIN COFFEE NEGOTIATIONS ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Escape game freezesChapter 2 · Players aren’t allowed to use the main entranceChapter 3 · Players have created a medical miracle!Chapter 4 · If I hit the NPC more, will the NPC drop gold coins?Chapter 5 · Players earn the title of “bus weirdo”Chapter 6 · Players get a prison experienceChapter 7 · So the red bar isn’t for favorability, it’s for anger!Chapter 8 · The player is a nimble catChapter 9 · The player is a “law-abiding” good studentChapter 10 · Players have no morals and are fearlessChapter 11 · Player: What’s wrong? It’s called “Cai Cai Shui Ling LingChapter 12 · The player is the famous Farmer Detective!Chapter 13 · The player raised a new petChapter 14 · The player is a genius dog-riding boyChapter 15 · The player is a sticky, helpful, and kind comradeChapter 16 · It turns out that players aren’t considered human by NPCsChapter 17 · Players are like angels descending upon my side!Chapter 18 · Player: There’s only one truth!Chapter 19 · Why are players farming at the school?!Chapter 20 · Players came to the cafeteria to buy suppliesChapter 21 · Are NPCs model workers?Chapter 22 · If you’re a gay manChapter 23 · Player: Wheelchairs are a useful mode of transportation!Chapter 24 · So the player is actually part of Cat Returns (?)Chapter 25 · Liao Zhi Qiu, a large pet belonging to the playerChapter 26 · Player: Hello, I picked up this corpse.Chapter 27 · Bai Fuling: Players will never dieChapter 28 · Has the murderer been caught?Chapter 29 · Player: Visiting the mental hospital felt as familiar as coming homeChapter 30 · Players’ Adventure in the Mental Hospital: Round 1Chapter 31 · Player: Kid, fly!Chapter 32 · The player who does good deeds every day is truly a good personChapter 33 · The kitten brought back some local specialtiesChapter 34 · Let this adorable kitten stay forever?Chapter 35 · Players, don’t give up on being human!Chapter 36 · A kitten is just a kitten, isn’t it?Chapter 37 · Players want it, players get itChapter 38 · Angel Player and Unlucky Bear NPCChapter 39 · In short, players choose to throw at NPCsChapter 40 · The player just flew away!Chapter 41 · Player: You need to thoroughly understand the bookChapter 42 · Players love to tease honest NPCs.Chapter 43 · He said he was a little hungry.Chapter 44 · Even if cotton essence mutatesChapter 45 · Pure Love TentaclesChapter 46 · Choose to be a kitten?Chapter 47 · Players’ tears are weaponsChapter 48 · Players do not need to breatheChapter 49 · It’s on fire!Chapter 50 · The player is a top-tier rescue masterChapter 51 · How did the player manage to resurrect after killing themselves?!Chapter 52 · Call the player “Little Cat King”!Chapter 53 · What are the consequences of raising the cat-like alienation