Chapter 47: My Heart Is Exhausted; Earning Points Is Far Too Hard (Please Vote for Me~)

But with the uncle filling in the gaps for him, he didn’t have to rack his brains himself.

Xi Yan chatted idly with the bearded uncle for a while longer before the man left. As he exited the “safe zone,” he told Xi Yan that staying here wasn’t necessarily safe, so if you had the ability, it was better to leave.

Xi Yan wholeheartedly agreed; the crowd beyond the circle was already getting restless. It seemed that as soon as someone stepped out, they would make a move. After the uncle left, several people clearly wanted to act, but were held back by their companions.

Xi Yan considered his options. He could leave and find somewhere else to wait for the next day’s red crystal refresh, but that would require Ah Yuan’s help to guard the spot. Xi Yan didn’t want Ah Yuan to go through so much trouble.

So he decided to remain in the “safe zone” for now, to get through the day.

“Ah Yuan, let’s stay here for today and wait for tomorrow’s red crystal refresh.”

Ah Yuan nodded, climbed into Xi Yan’s arms, found a comfortable position, and looked up at him. “Brother, that uncle seemed pretty impressive.”

“Mmm, he probably is. Did you see how the people outside the circle wanted to act just now, but for some reason held back?”

Ah Yuan played with his fingers, lost in thought, and didn’t continue speaking.

Before long, Ah Yuan curled up in Xi Yan’s arms and fell asleep. Xi Yan carried him to the base of the wooden sign, then sat on the ground under it.

Waiting was interminable, so Xi Yan opened his character attributes—the control panel.

[Character: Human Esper—Xi Yan
Level: lv8 (Shop unlocked at level 66)
Unlockable Card Slots: Unlimited...
Currently Used: 7 cards (Exceeding 10 cards will no longer be counted)
Ability Name: “Almost There”
Ability Effect: (Click to view details)
Passive Ability: Can actively use passive skill once within three years (Status: Used)
Passive Ability Level: lv1
More...]

This time, upon opening his character attributes, Xi Yan noticed the passive abilities had now been included, along with a “More” option.

He clicked “More.”

[Character Attributes:
Virtue: 0
Intellect: 0
Physical: 1]

These three attributes were new; Xi Yan had never seen them before.

Why only three? Shouldn’t it be Virtue, Intellect, Physical, Aesthetics, and Labor? Could it be that the others hadn’t been activated yet?

Virtue and Intellect were both zero—what was that supposed to mean? Was he being called unintelligent?

Why was only Physical at 1?

Xi Yan was perplexed, so he opened the “Public Board” to look for an explanation, since the control panel contained none.

He searched the board for a long time before finding a single entry explaining these strange attributes.

[Public Board:
Espers possess one more special ability than Evolvers, and a rare few Espers will develop even more unique abilities. They may develop their own character attributes, which can evolve and grow.
The probability of an Esper developing their own character attributes is 0.0001%.
Information provided by: Olina Isabel]

It was him!

Xi Yan suddenly remembered where he had seen Isabel’s name before: the Public Board. Isabel had posted the previous instance’s level—the announcement for beginners. He had assumed Isabel was a woman, but unexpectedly, it was a man.

Knowing he had developed a special ability, Xi Yan felt both pleased and speechless.

This unique ability likely arose from his “Almost There” power.

And his frequent encounters with high-level instances were probably due to this ability. If it weren’t for Qu Ya and Lin Shuang’s help at the start, he would have died in the “Third Floor” instance.

Later, without Ah Yuan, he might not have survived either.

He was truly exasperated by his own ability.

It seemed to both hinder and assist him.

On the Public Board, Xi Yan saw many interesting things, and the latest post caught his attention.

[Public Board:
Bounty:
Reward: 1000 points, three purple core crystals
Content: There is an examiner called Celine in the Eighth Survival Zone. Capture her alive.
Trading location: Central Park, contact the main city personnel responsible for the Eighth Survival Zone upon arrival.
Posted by: The Man Without a Hat]

Seeing news about Celine, Xi Yan was elated, but the poster’s name was obviously an alias.

Except for certain special sections, real names were required on the Public Board—it was mandatory.

The bounty section happened to be one of those special categories.

Xi Yan made a mental note of “The Man Without a Hat.” He’d already decided: his next destination would be the Eighth Survival Zone.

However, he didn’t have enough points to go there yet.

Currently, Xi Yan had only 1100 points: 500 won from the instance slot machine, 500 from the “Third Floor” instance, and 100 from the monthly allotment.

So, to reach the Eighth Survival Zone, he needed to earn 800 more points.

Since today was the last day of the month, tomorrow would bring another 100 points into his account.

He was only 800 points short—much better than when he had nothing at all.

Xi Yan opened his points account to check, since his earlier calculations were just from memory.

He hoped to discover more, as memory wasn’t always reliable.

Full of anticipation, Xi Yan clicked on “Points,” but upon seeing the balance, he was instantly petrified.

[Points: 300]

Why only three hundred?!

Xi Yan immediately opened the details.

[Points: 300
Record: June 29th—used 500 points to enter SS-level “Bottomless Maze of the Third Floor” instance
June 30th—used 300 points to enter S-level “Logic Game Instance”]

“What… how…”

Only then did Xi Yan remember that when he’d checked the points rules before, there was indeed a clause: “Points required for instance entry: based on instance difficulty (50~999 points).”

Because there was no deduction reminder when entering, Xi Yan had forgotten all about it.

He recalled: clearing an S-level instance only earned him 500 points, and entry cost 300 points, so he’d only gained 200…

And for the previous SS-level instance, which should have rewarded him with 1000 points, he’d received only 500, thanks to his “lovely” ability.

Xi Yan suddenly felt exhausted. S-level instances were so dangerous—what was the point of entering? Just for 200 points?

What was he after? The danger? The measly rewards? Or that extra little bit of points?

Xi Yan felt his future suddenly turn bleak.