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Chen Miao closed his eyes tightly, even turning on the sound system to play the song "Good Luck Arrives," hoping that good fortune would favor him.
All he wanted was the city-state effect of Jingjiu City.
That way, he would have a significant advantage in both the early and late stages of the game.
"Come on, Jingjiu..."
Then he took a deep breath and abruptly activated the prop to begin the random selection.
The next second—
City-state effects in numerous different colors darted across the display in front of him, moving so fast he couldn't make out any specific effects, but soon... he wasn't tense for long, as one of the city-state effects slowly came to a stop in front of him.
「Ding, congratulations to player Chen Miao for drawing the city-state effect of Choosing Day City.」
「The city-state effect of Choosing Day City is, every player who has stayed in Choosing Day City for more than one year will, upon their first death, instantly recover from all injuries on their body, but it can only heal external injuries, and there's only this one chance.」
In the end...
He hadn't drawn the talent of Jingjiu City; it seems that the god of luck in the dark thought his offering wasn't enough.
However, this city-state effect seemed somewhat acceptable.
Chen Miao thoughtfully looked at the city-state panel. He checked, and this city-state effect turned out to be one of the 128 major cities, the only city-state effect that offers a chance at avoiding death, essentially giving the city's players an extra life.
It sounded strong, but from a long-term development perspective, it couldn't compare to Jingjiu City or even Fengtian City, because city-state effects that provide a continuous supply of resources were actually the stronger ones. Just an extra life was insufficient, offering no help in the long run.
If he wasn't guessing wrong...
The population loss of this city must be severe, since once the citizens of this city died, it meant the city-state effect of their own city was no longer efficacious for them. At that point, why wouldn't they plan to flee to another city?
Those who have died once would generally be more afraid of dying again, probably running off to become a Person of Leisure in Broken Pot City.
Indeed.
The starting point of life might be various cities, but the end point is surely Broken Pot City.
For a city, this city-state effect isn't too great, but for him as a player, it was still a decent safety net, providing him an extra life, especially since he didn't even have to fulfill the prerequisite condition of staying for a full year.
In the lower left corner of his personal panel, there was a small flame icon, which revealed a line of text when contemplated by his mind.
「Rest assured in death, for Choosing Day City is protecting every one of its citizens.」
This meant that the city-state effect had indeed taken effect.
"Not bad."
Chen Miao wasn't too disappointed. Although it wasn't the Jingjiu City he wanted the most, this Choosing Day City was barely acceptable. As long as it was useful, he was content. What he feared most was getting city-state effects specialized for enhancing professions like fighters. If he were to get such an effect, it would have been a complete waste of a classless prop, utterly useless.
After completing all this, he turned over and crawled into the coffin to prepare for sleep.
Before falling asleep...
He looked at the 'Taotie' skin rewarded to him after leveling up his Nothingness Space to level 3.
「Prop Name」: Taotie·Firearm Skin.
Exclusive content from m,v lem|p,yr
「Prop Level」: Classless (Unique).
「Prop Effect」: Can be applied to any firearm to activate the prop, this prop will transform into a skin and permanently accompany the firearm. It will greatly reduce the firearm's rate of fire while greatly increasing bullet power, and will randomly add some exclusive effects.
「Prop Restriction」: Can only be used on firearms, and once applied cannot be removed.
In the past few days, he had tossed many coins—let alone achieving consistency 34 times in a row, there weren't even more than 7 consecutive times. Statistically, this was almost impossible. He didn't believe it was Lady Luck looking out for him; instead, a potentially crazy possibility loomed in his heart.
One point of proficiency was gained with each use of the skill.
To level the skill up to 2, it needed to be used 100 times without dying. He didn't believe anyone could succeed to that extent. If nobody could do that, then did skill proficiency have any meaning at all?
Unless...
Unless this skill was a test of courage for a Swordsman and composure in the face of certain death.
Maybe the 40% chance of serious injury and the 10% chance of death would never occur.
Every time the skill was activated, it was always the remaining 50% chance that prevailed.
As long as you dared to use it, this skill would never disappoint you. It was crafted for the brave, The Fearless—those who were timid, cowardly, and afraid of death were unworthy of it.
Otherwise, there was no other reason to explain how he swung his blade 34 times and came out unscathed.
These past few days.
This thought had been revolving in his mind, even more so than finding a location for the "Little Sunflower Andrology Clinic." He was eager to test whether this skill really worked as he suspected.
But... he didn't dare to try it anymore.
He had moved past the mindset of wanting to atone with his death that night. Now, he simply wanted to run his clinic properly. He no longer dared to try using this skill. He was afraid that if he died, the clinic would have no one to carry it on.
After a long while.
Sitting in the dim hall, Doctor Gou sighed softly, slowly extinguishing the cigarette in his hand that glowed with a crimson light.
He had searched online but found no relevant information or speculation.
Perhaps he would never be able to confirm his guess was correct in his lifetime. This skill might indeed be tailor-made for the Fearless, and now... he was no longer fearless.
He no longer dared to wield the knife.
And he no longer wished to die.
...
Soon the lights came on.
A 2000-lumen bulb exploded suddenly in the burial chamber, illuminating everything in an instant, leaving no shadows to be seen. Even in the eerie location of the graveyard, it provided ample sense of security.
Familiar with the routine, Chen Miao closed the coffin lid and took a nap inside it, emerging from the coffin when the oxygen supply was nearly exhausted, ready to wash up.
By now, he no longer harbored much resentment towards the light bulb.
Maybe he got used to it.
Or maybe the 3 points he put into resistance were working. He even felt that 2000 lumens were not too glaring.
Today is another new day.
"Time Remaining Until Next Major Event 'Coward's Special': 27 Hours."
Stepping out of the burial chamber, Chen Miao, as usual, glanced up at the countdown above his head, then stretched and warmed up his body before arranging his plans for the day.
He didn't have much to do today.
Today, he planned to take Hungry Monkey and the others to Fengtian City for a good meal. It had been a long time since they'd had a proper meal. They had been too busy these past few days, and he felt he owed it to himself to treat his body well.
Just then—
He suddenly noticed the several mutilated bodies tied to the stakes behind the not-too-distant trees, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
Did Hungry Monkey work overtime last night?