Hehe~ Slightly [N SF W] yo~
Chapter 31 Part 1 Mutual secret reveal
Zhao Sheng has a personal driver so he does not need to drive the aircraft himself. He sits in the back row of the aircraft with Hawke while Hawke selects the evening suit he needs to change into later in the terminal. Checking the pictures of beautiful suits sent via the chat channel, Hawke said with delight, “Cousin’s wife is really nice, he prepared so many clothes for me.”
Zhao Sheng’s expression turned soft, “Miao Miao likes to dress people up. He will be happy to hear that you like it.” After Zhao Sheng finished speaking, he casually asked, “When did Xiào Mu start working part-time in the infirmary?”
Hawke thought about it and stated the date. Thinking of that day, he laughed, “His actual appearance is beautiful, and he probably is afraid of being harassed so he put on some makeup. I accidentally hit his nose with the door. When he washed his face, all of his makeup was washed off.”
Zhao Sheng followed with a smile, “Sounds like you guys are brought together by fate.”
“Yes, I was surprised to see him later in school. After all, his physical strength is so weak, I didn’t expect him to report to the Higher education department of the Imperial Military Academy.”
Zhao Sheng listened to Hawke as he speaks and occasionally responded with 1 or 2 sentences. At the same time, he opened his terminal to check the date when the mid-grade healing pill was sold on the black market – it’s the same day as Xiào Mu’s part-time job in the infirmary. After thinking for a while, Zhao Sheng checked the records of the battledome fighters in the recent period of time. Swiping quickly, he soon found the 5 people who had appeared in the infirmary today. He checked their record of fights; all are after Xiào Mu started working in the infirmary. Zhao Sheng had a guess in his heart, but to be more certain, he looked at Hawke and asked, “Do you remember what kind of clothes he was wearing when you first met Xiào Mu?”
“White T-shirt,” Hawke remembered clearly because the blood from his nose dripped onto his clothes; making it extremely obvious.
The corners of Zhao Sheng’s mouth raised slightly. The same clothes, height, and black hair. Even at the same time of appearance, Zhao Sheng can now be sure that Xiào Mu is the one who sold the mid-grade healing pills. The 5 sentinels who had asked to buy the medicine did not lie, but the fact that their spiritual state could recover had nothing to do with Hawke. Xiào Mu should have given them the medicine secretly.
Zhao Sheng was a little puzzled; he couldn’t understand Xiào Mu’s intention. Why did he do this? Is it because of his nature of being a healer?
Hawke shifted his gaze from the evening suits to Zhao Sheng’s face, “Cousin, why are you asking about Xiào Mu?” He stared at him before continuing, “I’ll say this first, if you cheat in your marriage, I will definitely tell cousin’s wife.”
Zhao Sheng tapped Hawke’s head, “What nonsense are you spouting? I only love Miao Miao. Don’t forget, once the sentinel and the guide ‘combine’, they will belong to each other and will not react to other people. I will never do anything that upsets Miao Miao.”
Hawke pouted, “Then you are suspicious of Xiào Mu? He is a good person.”
Zhao Sheng did not conceal his intention and explained, “I saw him in the black market before this, but he was wearing a red mask that time. I was not sure so I asked you. Based on your answer, I got the correct person.”
“Huh?” Hawke sounded surprised, “Xiào Mu is so capable. Not only does he work part-time and sell cookies on the virtual net, but he also sells things on the black market. What does he sell?”
“Mid-grade healing pill powder, a medicine that restores spiritual power, and one that works very well.”
“What?!” Hawke’s eyes widened. “Did he make it? I didn’t know that he could make medicine that well.”
Zhao Sheng shook his head, “It shouldn’t be. The medicine has the scent of a guide so it should be made by the guide. Xiào Mu is just helping to sell it. By the way, did you see who he has contact with?”
Hawke pursed his mouth, “No. Due to his poor physical fitness, people at the school always mock him. He only has me as his friend. Could it be you have mistaken?”
Zhao Sheng pondered for a moment, “Maybe it was a private contact. The guide who made the pills can trade with him. It is very likely that the guide is not in the Golden Tower. They must be very cautious when contacting each other.”
Hearing that, Hawke’s eyes lit up. He whispered, “You mean there is a guide who is not in the Golden Tower?”
Zhao Sheng nodded, “It is very likely.”
Hawke bit his lip and his gaze moved around as he thinks of something. Zhao Sheng warned softly, “Don’t mess around. You can’t tell anyone about your identity. If anyone found out, your current happy life will be gone, and you have to stay in the Golden Tower.”
“I won’t mess around,” Hawke said.
Zhao Sheng saw Hawke’s obedient appearance and smiled with satisfaction. Then he said, “Give me Xiào Mu’s contact information, I want to talk about a business cooperation with him.”
Hawke blinked and smiled, “Then you must not let him lose money. He is poor, and he carries a backpack to class every day! His aircraft is a ragged second-hand too.”
Zhao Sheng raised his eyebrows. According to his understanding, Xiào Mu sold his batch of pills for a high price last time. He might not be able to afford space storage, but a brand new aircraft can still be bought. Zhao Sheng thought for a while and reminded, “Don’t tell anyone about Xiào Mu’s appearance on the black market. You said he put on makeup that day. Maybe he was afraid of being recognized.”
Hawke felt that it’s logical and nodded, “En, I won’t say it.”
The aircraft landed, and the two entered the Zhao residence. Zhao Sheng went to see his dad, while Hawke quietly went to his room that the Zhaos left for him and changed into his suit. Soon after the banquet started, Zhao Sheng received a message, “Manager Zhao, the medicine dregs you sent last time have been tested. There is only 1 ingredient, liquorice, which has no side effects on the human body.”
Zhao Sheng replied, “Thank you.”
During the banquet, Zhao Sheng drank quite some wine. At the end of the banquet, he was slightly drunk and was helped by his guide partner Gu Miao back to the bedroom. Gu Miao was 182 cm tall and slender compared to Zhao Sheng, making him extremely petite. Zhao Sheng wrapped his hands around Gu Miao’s waist and cornered him behind the door. Not far from the two, a cougar was lying on its side, hugging a white rabbit in its arms. The rabbit’s long ears turned pink, and it raised its small paw to touch the cougar’s mouth. The cougar sucked on the paw in its mouth and did not let go.
Gu Miao’s face was red. Zhao Sheng lowered his head and kissed him. Zhao Sheng didn’t let go until Gu Miao couldn’t breathe well, before bending over to carry him into the bathroom. After doing it a few times, Gu Miao’s body became soft and weak. Zhao Sheng was particularly energetic due to the stimulation from the alcohol tonight, and he nibbled at Gu Miao’s ears.
“Ah Sheng,” Gu Miao gro-an_ed softly, begging for mercy, “Mhmm, I’m out of strength already.”
Zhao Sheng raised Gu Miao’s head and kissed his lips. A light blue pill suddenly appeared between his thumb and forefinger. After feeding the pill to Gu Miao, Zhao Sheng stared at his expression and asked, “How is it?”
Gu Miao said, “It’s a bit sweet, is it a candy… Huh?” He blinked in surprise, as a warm current suddenly ran through his body. In less than a minute, Gu Miao’s originally exhausted body actually recovered a lot of stamina. He embraced Zhao Sheng’s neck and kissed him on the lips. With his face flushed, he said, “Ah Sheng, my strength has returned. You bought an excitement medicine?”
Gu Miao’s initiative made Zhao Sheng unable to hold back even more. He kissed Gu Miao fiercely, and replied vaguely after a while, “Kind of.”
At this time, Xiào Mu, as the person who made the pills, had no idea that his medicine was misrepresented. He had just returned to his dormitory not long ago. Although he was a little tired, he was very happy. Today, while people were not paying attention, he performed spiritual treatment on the injured sentinels and found a sentinel with the lowest spiritual power. Then he tried to use his spiritual filaments to attack the sentinel’s spiritual state. The person gr-oa_ned painfully. Xiào Mu withdrew his attack in time and used his spiritual power to appease the sentinel, so the man did not wake up. Although his spiritual filaments would resist the urge when Xiào Mu wants to attack and he would feel a sense of self-disgust, he quickly recovered from the state. Facts have proven that the direction of his idea is correct. Spiritual power has offensive power, which means guides also have the ability to protect themselves.
In the morning of the next day, Xiào Mu got up as usual and placed another order for the medicinal materials that he bought yesterday. Then he began to exercise. Xiào Mu stopped his morning jog when his physical strength left only 50 points, and his express order arrived at his dorm. Xiào Mu took the courier back to the room and took a shower. He changed into lighter clothes, sat on the sofa, and sorted the newly bought medicinal materials into his backpack. After sorting it out, he took out a mid-grade boost pill that was made yesterday and ate it. Xiào Mu plans to regain his energy and go to Wilderness Forest to make more pills.
“Ngh…”
Just as Xiào Mu is pulling the zipper of his backpack, severe pain shoots up through his limbs all of a sudden. His hand trembled, and the backpack fell to the ground. Xiào Mu didn’t have time to take care of it. After a while, the pain radiated from his limbs, and his whole body seemed to be cramped up. The pain was bone-deep that he can’t help trembling. Xiào Mu curled up in the corner of the sofa like a baby as his teeth chattered. The clothes he had just changed were quickly wet with sweat and stuck to his back. Xiào Mu wanted to raise his hand to open his terminal and call the emergency number, but he couldn’t move. His body seemed to have locked in place, and he could do nothing but tremble. He was so in pain that he couldn’t help letting out a painful whine, but this didn’t make him feel any better. Xiào Mu’s mind gradually blurred, only feeling that every minute and every second is extremely slow.
Xiào Mu didn’t know how long the pain lasted. He didn’t know when he fell asleep or fell into a coma. When he opened his eyes again, the sun outside the window was shining brightly, and he felt like he lost weight from 200 catties (120 kg) to 90 catties (54 kg); feeling particularly light. However, the fatigue still radiated from his bones. Except for the unrestricted movement of the eyeballs, every part of his body was as soft as cooked noodles.
[Congratulations, host. Your stamina successfully broke through and reached Level E.]1
Suddenly, a familiar mechanical sound came from his mind and Xiào Mu blinked. He blankly repeated these words in his mind twice before he understood what it means. Xiào Mu quickly opened the character interface and stared at the value of his stamina at 50/1000 in disbelief. When he finally woke up from the pain, his strength is still at 50 points, but his total value was originally only 270 points! Xiào Mu stared at the total amount for a long time and finally confirmed that he was not dazzled. A huge surprise hit him, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help curving up.
After Xiào Mu has calmed down, he asked the system in his head, “Why did my physical strength suddenly break through?”
The tone of the system’s mechanical sound does not fluctuate in the slightest: [The remaining value of your physical energy adding the medicine recovery value is higher than your level’s limit, thus forcing a breakthrough]
Xiào Mu was surprised to hear that, “You mean the remaining 50 points of my physical strength plus the 1000 points of the mid-grade boost pill recovery? The total is 1050, which is greater than my current level’s limit so it broke through?”
[Yes]
Xiào Mu’s mouth is slightly open. Physical strength at 1000 points is the start of Level E and 2000 points is the start of Level D. If he can really level up like this, does that means when he eats a top-grade boost pill, he can jump to Level D right away? One needs to know, the value of the high-grade boost pill is exactly 2000 points! Xiào Mu asked the system whether his idea is feasible.
[The theory is feasible, but the greater the distance between the current value and the next level, and the higher the next level, it means higher degree of strengthening of the muscles and bones, and the worse the pain]
Thinking of the pain he experienced earlier, Xiào Mu’s conditioned reflex trembled, “Is my previous pain considered serious?”
[270 breaking through to 1000, the value difference is less than 1000, so your belongs to the lowest level pain, 1st level pain]
Xiào Mu couldn’t help but froze. It was actually the lowest level of pain. Won’t people die from the pain if it’s higher than the 1st level of pain? He asked, “How to classify?”
[For every difference in value exceeding 1000, the pain will increase by a level, which the limit is up to 10 level… But this world is not a cultivation world, so no one can resist pain above 3rd level]
In Xiào Mu’s heart, he agreed with the system. In fact, to be able to withstand twice the pain he felt can be considered a tough person. After he cleared the doubts in his heart, Xiào Mu stopped asking but looked at his remaining stamina anxiously. His remaining stamina is only 5%, which is below the safe point. He had experienced this exhaustion a long time ago. His spiritual power and physical stamina have the same recovery rule. Above the safe point, he will recover 100 points per hour, but if below the safe point, he will only recover 1 point per hour.
Xiào Mu lay softly on the sofa. His sweaty clothes have already dried, but they didn’t smell very good. The corner of his mouth tugged up as he consoled himself. At least he fell on the sofa, not on the floor so he won’t have to sleep on the hard floor. Since he couldn’t do anything now, Xiào Mu closed his eyes and continued to rest; silently feeling the changes in his body. 2 hours later, he slowly shifted his body to the ground. Lying on his stomach, Xiào Mu tried to open his backpack, took a mid-grade boost pill, and ate it. Soon, a warm current rushed into his limbs. The tiredness was completely wiped out, replaced by an unprecedented feeling of strength. Xiào Mu climbed up from the ground and moved his limbs. Then he couldn’t help sighing in admiration. His physical strength is just Level E and he can already feel his body full of strength, what more of those at Level B? They would only feel the change more profoundly.
The time is already 1.00 pm, which means Xiào Mu actually fell asleep for almost 5 hours. He quickly ordered a takeaway and went to the bathroom to take a shower. After the shower, the time is just right to eat. After eating, Xiào Mu smiled contentedly and his eyes curved in smiles. Today is really a surprise! Checking his backpack, Xiào Mu stared at the mid-grade boost pill’s material Blue Grass and thought for a moment. Next, he placed another online order and bought 200g of Rosary peas2. He already made 100 mid-grade boost pills yesterday, which is enough for him. Xiào Mu planned to make high-grade boost pills today. Although he doesn’t want to feel the pain similar to the 1st level of pain, for the time being, he can’t say for sure when he suddenly could be cruel to himself and let go of his reservations.
Each top-grade pill requires 1g of bluegrass and 2g of Rosary peas. He already has Blue Grass in hand, so he just needs to buy Rosary peas. After the express delivery arrived, Xiào Mu put the material into his backpack and left his room in a great mood.
Raw word count: 6464 (whole chapter)
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Banana: I think the reason why LM could casually eat a mid-grade boost pill without care is he thought his stamina will be filled to the limit, not exceeding it. Just like how we heal our game character with high level potion despite not seriously injured XD
On the other hand, this author probably didn’t consult his/her note while writing the story, causing a handful of wrong information _(;3/ Banana’s advice is to not take the details seriously and breeze over the details.
Current bugs that Banana discovered:
Author didn’t seem to mention what is the ingredient for mid-grade boost pill lol. I checked back the previous chapters and can’t find it. Here’s the list of ingredients mentioned in the novel so far:
Low-grade healing pill (Material: Rhubarb 2g)
– Instantly restores 100 points spiritual power, with an interval of 2 hours per usage.
Low-grade boost pill (Material: Liquorice 2g)
– Instantly restores 100 points physical strength, with an interval of 2 hours per usage.
Mid-grade healing pill (Material: Chinese peony 2g)
– Instantly restores spiritual power to 1,000 points, with an interval of 2 hours per usage.
*from the random sentence above at footnote 2, it seems that mid-grade boost pill use only Blue Grass
High-grade healing pills (Material, Plantago 2g)
– Instantly restores spiritual power to 2,000 points, with an interval of 2 hours per usage.
High-grade boost pills (Materials, Rosary Peas 2g, Blue Grass 1g)
– Instantly restores stamina points to 2,000 points, with an interval of 2 hours per usage.
Banana: It seems sus that high-grade boost pill has 2 ingredients when the healing pill doesn’t.
[Important] Author forgot that he/she wrote LM has Level E stamina when he first got it checked in Gillette’s class. Since Level E supposed to start at 1,000 stamina points, it means Gillette should say LM has Level F stamina instead. But it’s too much of a hassle to try to amend previous chapters so Banana won’t be changing it 😛
Thank you for the wonderful translation and notes!
Probably the testing device doesn’t go below level E, so it just showed the lower limit of what it can measure lol. Doesn’t seem like a mistake so much as just a lack of specific info explained.