BXBX NOVEL Chapter 187: Shop Item: Book With Unknown Ability
Chapter 187: Shop Item: Book With Unknown Ability
Su Yang opened Deeny and turned the phone into a tablet. He said, “Deeny, show me the statistics for the two apps from yesterday.”
Deeny’s voice sounded in Su Yang’s ears through the bone conduction earphones, “Okay, Master.”
Several windows then popped up on the tablet, and every single one of them was showing the data of the two apps from yesterday.
Su Yang went through the data and realized that the part-time app got around 1,000 new users yesterday alone but only around 200 of them took up jobs.
With previous examples as references, he could get 200 Point Coins at most from the users, so where did the other 300 Point Coins come from?
Su Yang opened the Gold Mission. The number of changed lives had also increased by more than 500 yesterday alone; it was already at 2163/10000. He felt like he could complete it in less than two months.
The increase in the number of changed lives matched the increase of Point Coins, which meant that nothing was wrong with the system.
After Su Yang pondered about the question for a long while, he believed that the only possible explanation would be “Find Me” and the milk tea shop.
When Su Yang started “Find Me” and the milk tea shop, he had wondered whether they could earn him Point Coins. He paid attention to the number of Point Coins and the increase of new users for the first few days but did not see any changes.
Be it the Gold Mission or the Point Coins, it seemed like only the part-time app contributed to the numbers.
Su Yang speculated that the part-time app might have really helped the users and supported them to make money, thus changing their lives for the better. “Find Me” and the milk tea shop were just normal businesses that satisfied people’s curiosity and cravings, so they were not counted.
After all, no one would suddenly be rich after drinking a cup of milk tea or after sharing a picture on some random app.
However, now it seemed like when the cardinality was large enough, both the socializing app and the milk tea shop could affect people’s lives actively.
A bold guess came up in his mind: out of the 300 people, most of them should be from “Find Me”. Maybe it was because they had just broken up with their girlfriends or boyfriends and became disappointed in life. Then, they discovered the beautiful girls on the app and somehow rediscovered the hope to love again.
The other possibility would be some girls who had lost their confidence in life and found makeup bloggers on “Find Me” to improve their lives. They must have realized that everyone had the same facial features, but they could change how they look with makeup and changing their outfits, thus reigniting their confidence in life.
Su Yang also thought it might be related to Deeny’s TikTok account. After all, she was already a verified content creator, and the stuff she posted could easily affect people’s lives.
With all the realistic deductions in mind, he stopped thinking about it. Having more Point Coins was something good, especially when it opened up a path to earn more and contribute to the Gold Mission. It was something that he should be happy about.
‘This means “Find Me” and the milk tea shop, plus the videos that I shot with Deeny were the right thing to do!’
With that in mind, Su Yang turned off the app and opened the system shop. He wanted to see what the shop was selling this week.
The first two listed items were still the same: Random Points x 3 and Protection Charms x 21.
‘What? What’s with the number of Protection Charms? Are the ingredients free now? If it’s free, why don’t you give me a discount since you are selling in bulk?! ‘Besides, what am I going to do with so many Protection Charms? Stick one on myself and look like a jiangshi*?’*
After roasting the system, Su Yang checked the last listed item in the shop. It was a book. Due to the size of the icon, he could not get a clear look at the book, but he could see the name under it: Book with Unknown Ability.
‘Why does this sound so familiar? Wait, is this the same situation with the sticky notes? Can this book be the next sticky note? Or is it a whole book of sticky notes?!’
Su Yang was shocked. ‘This is going to be great! But...the function overlaps, so is it even possible?’
He had a feeling that it was not as simple as it looked. He then checked the ingredients for the prescription.
[+1 Book, 1 bag of cumin powder, 1 New Orleans drumettes, 10 toothpicks, 1 bottle of beer, 1 pack of Cefalexin capsules...]
‘The ingredients are all randoms, right? RIGHT? What is the connection between all these strange things?’
However, Su Yang sharply noticed something unusual about this book. The ingredient list clearly stated a ‘+1 book’ whereas the other special item ingredient lists only needed a random +1 item.
‘Fortunately, I have one at home.’
It was the Modern History Essentials of Huaxia, which was Old Zhou’s class textbook. It was currently being used by Little Hus as a weight to slim down.
‘He’s been slimming down for a month now, but after the second point, that b*stard became fat again and is even bigger than before. How unfortunate!’
Su Yang could not help but laugh at the thought of it.
It was then that Old Zhou’s voice boomed from the front of the lecture hall, “Su Yang! What are you laughing at?”
Su Yang looked up and saw Old Zhou staring at him while drinking from his Thermos flask. He then looked around the class and saw the other students giggling at him.
‘Sh*t...Has class started?’
He nervously sat up straight and said, “Nothing, sir.”
Old Zhou put down his Thermos flash and said with a ridiculing smile, “I thought you were happy because you’ve got a date with your girlfriend later.”
Su Yang was so embarrassed that he almost dug a hole and buried his head into it like an ostrich. He nervously shook his hands and said, “No, no, I’m just thinking about something happy.”
Old Zhou nodded. “Okay, try to keep your happiness to yourself the next time. Ok, let’s continue.”
Su Yang blushed. ‘Little Hus, you are dead when I get home!’
Back in the virtual space, Little Hus was sleeping in his den with the huge book on itself. He suddenly sneezed and opened its blurry eyes, “Huh? What? Did someone call me? No? Zzz...”
Little Hus opened his eyes for less than two seconds before going back to sleep.
...
After class, Su Yang tidied up and wanted to leave, but Old Zhou held him back when he walked to the podium. “Su Yang, thank you for what you did before.”
Su Yang smiled and said, “It’s nothing, sir.”
For the past two weeks, Su Yang had been busy dealing with scouting Li Zijun from Lin Jiali and Pool’s milk tea shop.
However, no matter how busy he got, he did not forget about Old Zhou’s matter. He emptied his schedule at night to meet up with Zhou Yueting and talked to her. He tried to persuade her to slowly accept her parents’ love and care.
Zhou Yueting was reluctant at first, but she was slowly defeated by Su Yang’s skillful persuasion. For the past few days, Zhou Yueting stayed at home like a good girl and her attitude towards her parents was a lot better.
Of course, her goth makeup and ripped jeans did not change yet. Old Zhou seemed to have given up changing his daughter’s weird fashion sense because he was already over the moon when she started to accept him.
Old Zhou patted Su Yang’s shoulder and said, “If you are free these few days, come by and have dinner.”
Su Yang thought about it for a moment and rejected Old Zhou’s offer, “Let’s do it another time. I’ve been quite busy recently...”
Old Zhou did not force him either.
After the quick chat, Su Yang wanted to walk away, but Old Zhou was persistent. “Su Yang! Where’s your book? Why didn’t you bring your book again?”
Old Zhou went up to him and said, “You can’t be like this. You must at least bring your textbook to class. Otherwise, how are you going to learn? Are you going to study when you go back?”
Embarrassed, Su Yang said, “Mr. Zhou, I...can remember everything!”
Old Zhou was skeptical about his excuse, so he said, “Then, try to recite what I thought just now.”
All Su Yang could think of were characters like Romeo and Juliet, Mr. Dongpo and the wolf[1] or Lu Dongbin and the dog[2].
Since Su Yang did not show any response, Old Zhou patted his shoulder again and said, “I’ll spare you on the notes this time, but try to bring your book for the next class.”
Su Yang could say nothing else except, “Thank you, sir.”
[1] It’s a story about Mr. Dongpo saving a wolf, but the wolf did not appreciate the help and tried to attack Mr. Dongpo and his donkey.
[2] Lü Dongbin (796 CE-1016 CE) was a Tang Dynasty Chinese scholar and poet who has been elevated to the status of an immortal in the Chinese cultural sphere. The kindness of Lü Dongbin is demonstrated in the Chinese proverb “dog bites Lü Dongbin” (狗咬呂洞賓 g?u y?o Lǚ Dòngbīn), which means an inability to recognize goodness and repay kindness with vice.