Wen Lang saw the clock on the wall too. Curling his lips, he turned to ask Jiang Dong, “Who is going to do it, you or me?”
Jiang Dong casually smiled and said, “It’s fine either way.”
Wen Lang said irritably, “Can you put away your fake smile? Don’t smile if you don’t want to.”
Hearing that, Jiang Dong stopped smiling. He didn’t expect Wen Lang to say that. After a while, he said, “Okay. Then don’t waste time. We’ll take turns to take it, I’ll go first.” After his fake smile is exposed, Jiang Dong stopped doing it and immediately became more relaxed, as if he had put down a burden.
Wen Lang: “Better right? Acting all day is really tiring. Alright, hurry up.”
Jiang Dong stretched out his hand to pick the clock. As soon as he touched it, a young male ghost with a steel pipe appeared. However, the ghost looked really ugly. His face looks like it got squeezed out of shape and then stretched out. A ghostly appearance indeed.
“You want to get the clock? It depends on whether I agree with that or not.” After speaking, the ghost didn’t stop to say any more nonsense. He waved the steel pipe and dashed towards the two.
Wen Lang is completely unprepared. So they are going to start fighting without any notice? What about the guessing game? He has already thought about what to pick for the first round. The NPC not following the pattern is too unreasonable! Why is the difference between their team is so big? So he and Jiang Dong are The Unfortunate Ones huh?
Jiang Dong responded quickly. With a flick of his hand, a strip of bandage flew out, wrapping around the ghost. The ghost fell to the ground with a plop.
“Ahhh! I’m going to kill you!” The Steel Pipe Ghost got up and struggled out of the bandage. The next instant, Wen Lang’s whip snapped in the air, hitting the Steel Pipe Ghost instantly. The Steel Pipe Ghost screamed out in pain. Its skin is torn and the flesh is visible, but there is no blood.
Taking the opportunity, Jiang Dong threw out another strip of bandage and wrapped it around the ghost. Next, his blade flew towards the steel pipe ghost like a petal. Wen Lang’s whip keep snapping at the ghost, and after a while, the steel pipe ghost disappeared into the air.
When the surroundings returned to normal, Jiang Dong took off the clock and set it back to the correct time.
Wen Lang put away the whip and asked, “Doctor Jiang, are there any usage restrictions on your bandages and blades?”
Jiang Dong is about to smile out of reflex, but immediately pressed down the urge, “No restriction for bandages, but for the blade, I can use about 300 times a day.”
Wen Lang sighed and thought to himself, why other people’s spirit weapons are so awesome while he only gets a limited deck of poker? Still, it’s better than nothing. Fortunately, he managed to exchange a chain whip as a weapon.
There seemed to be nothing in common to talk about between the two, so they walked to the next door in silence. Next, it is Wen Lang’s turn to take the clock.
…
Walking to the 3rd office, Lou Fan found a clock, hidden in a cabinet. Then, he pushed Chen Shuyang towards the clock.
Chen Shuyang: “Brother Lou, can’t you be nicer to your younger brother?”
Lou Fan ignored Chen Shuyang who is pretending to be pitiful and said, “Take out your short sword and get the clock. Qin Tan and I are right behind you, what are you afraid of?”
Chen Shuyang had a martyred expression on his face, “Okay, Brother Lou. But you must look out for me.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, hurry up.”
Chen Shuyang took a deep breath and touched the clock with his fingers. This time, an old man ghost appeared. He looked similar to the type of old man one sees in the guard room, with a chessboard in front of him. Chen Shuyang breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out to be playing chess, which he knows a bit. He can play a little bit of Go and Chinese chess.
The old man touched his nonexistent beard and said with a smile, “Come here and play a game of chess with this old man. If you win, you can do anything.”
Chen Shuyang sat down with Lou Fan’s encouraging eyes, “Mister, are we playing Go? I only know a little bit.”
The uncle smiled mysteriously and shook his head slowly. He said solemnly, “No, no, I can’t play Go, let’s play Gomoku.”
Gomoku!
Chen Shuyang is speechless, this is really unusual for a game. For a high achiever like him, he has never played a time-wasting game like Gomoku. Is it too late to switch participants? He turned to look at Lou Fan.
Lou Fan shrugged and said he don’t know too well about it either. After thinking for a moment, he said, “You just have to connect 5 points together. It’s very simple. We believe in you.”
Chen Shuyang’s expression is a bit indescribable.
The old man picked up a black piece and placed it in the center, “Your turn. Take the white one, and let’s start.”
Chen Shuyang is worthy of being called a high achiever. Holding the white piece and looking at the board for 2 minutes, he recalled how his deskmate and the classmate behind played chess using a workbook to draw a grid back in high school. But they used one black and one red pen to play and simply draw circles as their piece. Putting down a white piece with a snap, Chen Shuyang felt that he already knew how to play.
Another white and black piece is placed on the board. Seeing that the white piece is about to connect to 5 points, Chen Shuyang secretly felt happy inside and waited for the last one in his hand to be placed. In the next instant, he saw the black piece fall on a white piece and superimposed on it.
Chen Shuyang: “!!!”
“You cheated!” Chen Shuyang yelled, pointing at the old man.
The old man only smiled, “Ah, did anyone see me cheating?”
The three stayed silent for a while. Well, no one really saw him cheating.
“Shuyang, calm down.” Lou Fan comforted Chen Shuyang.
Chen Shuyang is furious inside, but there is nothing he could do. Looking at the chessboard silently, he no longer focused on attacking but turning to defense. He would block one side if the black pieces connected to 3 pieces in a row until the black pieces had nowhere to go. But then he still wouldn’t attack.
The black pieces are once again connected to 3 pieces in a row and the old man is waiting for Chen Shuyang to block one side. As soon as the white piece is placed, the old man moved to put the black piece on the other end to form 4 pieces in a row.
At that moment, Chen Shuyang said quietly, “You lost.”
The old man froze, and he frowned at the chessboard. After the black pieces are blocked 3 consecutive times by the white pieces, they eventually formed a line and connected exactly to 5 pieces; no more, no less!
Seeing the old man’s ghostly expression, Chen Shuyang finally couldn’t hold back and laughed out loud. “Hahahahaha! I won, I won! See if you dare to cheat again! La la la la!” He is so happy that he felt like flying.
This feeling is so cool!
Both Lou Fan and Qin Tan laughed, they didn’t expect Chen Shuyang to be able to play this hand. Lou Fan felt that Chen Shuyang seemed to have grown up. It had only been so long, the boy who was trembling with fear before had become a person who could stand on his own.
The old man probably didn’t expect that he could lose even when he cheated, so he almost got choked. Lou Fan can imagine the ghost might have been angered to death in the first place.
“Hmph! Consider yourself lucky!” The old man snorted arrogantly. Then he shrugged and disappeared.
Chen Shuyang made a face in the direction of the ghost and quickly picked up the clock to set the time back. Lou Fan disdained that the clock is too big, so he didn’t take it with him this time. It is already 3 hours from the time they started looking for the clock, and right now they only adjusted three. To complete adjusting 250 clocks, one does not know how long it’ll take.
Qin Tan glanced at the time, “Let’s go to meet up with Wen Lang and Jiang Dong, and then have a rest.”
When they got to the hall, they did not see Wen Lang and Jiang Dong. The two are probably still in a duel. Lou Fan walked to the sofa beside the hall and sat down. Putting down his backpack, he waved at the other two.
“Come and sit, take a rest.” Lou Fan patted the sofa, “It’s quite comfortable.”
Qin Tan sat next to Lou Fan and took out a bottle of water from his bag. After unscrewing it, he handed it to Lou Fan. Lou Fan took the bottle and drank it. Wiping off the water stains from the corner of his mouth, he suddenly said, “I wonder what the daytime is like in here? If the staff came to work, can we still continue to search for the clocks?”
Chen Shuyang’s eyes widened immediately in surprise, “No way. Brother Lou, don’t raise flags.” The adjustment process took enough time. If they can’t do the task during the day, how can they complete their mission?
Qin Tan: “This possibility is not impossible. There are still 5 hours before working hour so we better speed up. Let’s wait for the two to come out first to discuss it.”
Lou Fan nodded, “It’s best if we can do the tasks during the day, of course. But what if?”
Chen Shuyang rubbed his hair irritably, “Ah ah ah, why aren’t there guides to read? At least with a guide, I can roughly know what should we do. Otherwise, having to guess the rules every time is a waste of time.”
In his heart, Lou Fan thought, it may not be that there are no guides. It’s just that no one talks about it. Perhaps if they have enough things to exchange, they can post the information directly on the electronic screen. Thinking of this, he said melancholy, “Need to collect more things. We should take all the clocks that have been adjusted just now. What if we can take it back and exchange it for points?”
As the saying goes, ‘Poverty stunts ambition.’ (Poor people has lower expectation) Right now, they even wanted to pack up task items to take away.
Hearing that, Qin Tan paused for a moment. Then he got up and walked towards the first office. 10 minutes later, he came back empty-handed.
Lou Fan stood up immediately, “Where’s the clock?”
Qin Tan spread his hands, “It’s gone, it’s all disappeared. Neither the first nor the third room has it.”
“Damn it!” Lou Fan cursed and swiftly turned around to pull his backpack open. Luckily, the watch he found in the second room is still inside. “If you don’t collect it after the adjustment, it will disappear. It’s a big loss!”
As the three are talking, Wen Lang and Jiang Dong came out from the other side and they looked a little disheveled.
Qin Tan asked, “Did you encounter a direct fight?”
Wen Lang is exhausted and Jiang Dong nodded, “Yes, both matches are direct fights.”
Lou Fan: “…” The luck of these two is too bad.
Seeing Lou Fan’s expression, Wen Lang exclaimed, “You guys haven’t met any, have you?”
Chen Shuyang wanted to laugh a little and said, “One arm wrestling, one Gomoku chess game.”
Jiang Dong: “???”
Wen Lang: “!!!”
It’s kind of unfair! Why do they have to fight to the death, while the other team just wrestle their arms and play chess…
Qin Tan also laughed and then he told them about their guess on daytime staff. Hearing that, Wen Lang is about to curse out, but he is a little depressed now. So he slumped on the sofa and pretended to be dead. Jiang Dong agrees with their guess. But thinking of the fights they encountered just now starting right away without notice, he felt that it might be dangerous if they split up.
Lou Fan thought for a while and said, “Let’s do it this way then. Qin Tan and I will split up, so at least we have 3 groups now.”
Lou Fan and Qin Tan are both good with their skills, so it’s no problem to do it alone. Chen Shuyang will follow Qin Tan though. Lou Fan is a little worried about the fact that Qin Tan had a black (unlucky) hand and the duels would be too difficult.
When they arranged the grouping, it is already 4.30 am. They packed up and continued with their search. However, before that, Wen Lang squeezed Lou Fan’s hand and said, “Brother Lou, share a bit of your luck with me. If we continue fighting like this, Jiang Dong and I can’t hold on.”
Hearing Wen Lang said it pitifully, Lou Fan simply wanted to laugh. He drew an arrow from the quiver and handed it to Wen Lang, “Take it, Brother Lou will bless you!”
Wen Lang grinned and inserted the arrow into his backpack. Immediately, he felt like Brother Lou’s light of blessing is shining on him.
Lou Fan stopped Qin Tan too and asked him to take out his dagger. Then he said, “I’ll change my dagger with you. Brother Lou will bless you too.”
Qin Tan: “…”
Next, Lou Fan raised his arms and shouted, “Our goal is to collect all the clocks, go forward!” Except for the ones that are too big, they shall collect as many as they can.
As the person handling the finance, he has hard work ahead of him. In order to get enough stuff to exchange for points, Lou Fan went all out.
Raw word count: 3107
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