Chapter 25

Money Tree

Qing Cai did not return all night, and there was no movement from next door in 402.

Zhao Shang opened the advanced study exchange group. Only the group owner had sent a message five minutes ago regarding the exam location and exam discipline. The other guides who usually reminded the advanced students to study seriously in the group did not speak.

About ten minutes later, a player replied in the group: [Received].

Only the three of them in 404 were left among the male players. The one who replied to this message should be one of the four female players living in the female dormitory.

This reply seemed to be the switch that broke the silence in the group. Players replied [Received] one after another, making the group lively for a short while.

But still, no guide came out to speak, which was obviously not right.

"Brother Shang." Zhang San stared at the chat records in the group with a solemn expression: "The situation seems a bit wrong."

"The two who went out in the middle of the night last night haven't come back yet." Wan You came out of the bathroom, a towel draped crookedly over his shoulder: "Maybe they caused some trouble, causing the guides to dislike all players."

Dungeons have always been like this. No matter how good the atmosphere is when players first enter the dungeon, eventually players and NPCs will stand on opposite sides.

Just like the black and white pieces on a chessboard, they are always opponents fighting each other.

He picked up the exam tool bag prepared last night, unable to distinguish whether it was disappointment or numbness.

It's really pathetic. He actually tried to regain the confidence of returning to the exam room and the fairness of life in a dungeon.

The phone group prompted a notification sound.

[Zhao Zhao Mu Mu: There is still one hour before the exam. Students, don't be nervous. Those who should eat breakfast go eat well. Step into the exam room in the fullest state. I wish everyone ideal results.]

It was that good-looking annoying man.

Wan You stared at this paragraph for a long time and pulled out the book hidden under the pillow.

Since he's here.

Let's try it.

"So sleepy." Chao Musheng ate the bun the boss brought back from the cafeteria. The number of times he was forced to stay up late recently seemed to be rising in a straight line.

Last night, cooperating with the school and the police investigation, he stayed in the Academic Affairs Office for nearly two hours. When he returned to the dormitory, it was almost dawn.

"There are no classes this morning. Why are you up so early?" The third brother was still wriggling in the quilt, with no desire to get up at all.

"The school arranged an exam for advanced students this morning. I have to go over and take a look." Chao Musheng finished his breakfast in two or three bites and splashed cold water on his face under the tap: "You guys sleep, I'm going out first."

"Old Four is busy all day long." The second brother poked his head out of the quilt and looked sympathetically at the closed dormitory door: "It seems that being too excellent is not good either."

Even a dog isn't as busy as him.

The advanced student exam room was arranged in the small conference room of the Academic Affairs Building. As soon as Chao Musheng walked downstairs to the Academic Affairs Building, he saw four girls running hurriedly towards this side.

Judging from the heavy dark circles on their faces, they might have read books all night.

"Hello, Student Zhao." The four female players recognized Chao Musheng and stopped in unison, not daring to walk past him.

"You go first." Chao Musheng turned sideways to let them pass: "Good luck with the exam."

"Thank you." The four were confused and had no confidence in this exam.

Seeing that Chao Musheng did not make things difficult for them, they all breathed a sigh of relief. In previous dungeons, an NPC blocking the road should have appeared, trying to prevent them from arriving at the exam room on time.

The small conference room is on the 8th floor. They ran into the building, saw the elevator was full of people, turned around and prepared to climb the stairs.

"Are you advanced students here to take the exam?" Seeing them holding transparent pencil cases for exams, people in the elevator immediately walked out and greeted them to enter the elevator: "Hurry into the elevator, don't be late."

Facing the burning gazes of everyone in the elevator, the four dared not refuse and walked into the elevator uneasily.

This elevator wouldn't suddenly fall to the negative 8th floor halfway, or two weirdos crawl out of the vent, right?

The elevator arrived smoothly at the 8th floor. They walked out of the elevator in a trance and heard someone in the elevator telling them to do well in the exam.

Does this dungeon have some positive aura blessing for candidates? If something unexpected doesn't happen, they are quite unaccustomed to it.

"Come here quickly, sit down in the exam room." Two guides stood at the door of the conference room. Seeing them coming, they waved to them: "Sit according to your names. Papers will be distributed in ten minutes."

The four exchanged glances with the three male players in the conference room. Just as they found their seats and sat down, they heard the system prompt.

[Ding! Players Qing Cai and A Tu were found abnormal by NPCs and have been obliterated.]

Two more died.

The players looked up at the expressionless guides at the door and couldn't help shivering.

This conference room seemed calm, but in reality, murderous intent was everywhere, and even the air was cold.

"Why did you set the air conditioner temperature so low?" Chao Musheng walked to the back door of the conference room and was hit in the face by the cold air inside.

He looked at the candidates shivering from the cold in the room, turned up the air conditioner temperature, stood with several seniors, saw that they all looked like they hadn't slept well, and asked in a low voice: "Seniors, have you had breakfast?"

"Can't eat." The senior sister took a sip of the coffee drink. Although the coffee was bitter, it was not as bitter as her heart.

It will be fine after today.

The biology senior came over with the exam papers. Seeing they were all there, he handed the papers to them: "The papers for different majors are different. You guys distribute them and give them to the students you are responsible for."

Chao Musheng dug out Zhang San and Zhao Shang's papers and handed them to them: "Do it well, don't be nervous."

With so many multiple-choice questions, you can guess a few right even by guessing.

Leaving one senior inside to invigilate, the other five all slipped next door.

"If the results of this exam are excellent, will the school really give auditor qualifications?" The junior sister asked the senior sister curiously: "How many points are needed?"

"An accuracy rate of over 98% is enough." The senior sister continued to pour coffee into herself: "But in my opinion, they need us to help them even to pass."

"That's true." The junior sister sighed: "Help if we can. There's no need to stick them on this matter."

The school specially gave them the right to grade the guides, fearing that these advanced students' professional knowledge was too poor, making it convenient to turn a blind eye and let them pass.

Halfway through the exam, they went outside the conference room to take a look. Some candidates were drawing lots, some students were throwing dice made of erasers, and some candidates looked solemn, as if thinking about the century-old problem of landing on the sun.

Clearly there were only seven people, but they tested out a chaotic scene of pigs, sheep, dogs, and cats fighting.

The senior sister covered her chest and returned next door. She couldn't take it anymore. She didn't rest well last night. She was afraid that if she continued to watch, she would have a sudden heart attack and die suddenly.

An hour and a half later, the candidates handed in their papers, and the six guides stayed next door to grade the papers.

Although this question was answered incorrectly, the handwriting is beautiful, add one point.

True or False questions... how can someone avoid all correct judgments?

The junior sister stared at the test paper for five seconds, secretly used her own pen to change the check mark on the test paper to a cross.

Very good, can add two more points.

Rip!

The senior sister next to her shook her hand and accidentally tore off a corner of the paper.

"Senior sister, are you okay?"

"I'm very good!" The senior sister smiled without smiling.

Multiple choice questions, the correct answer is AB, the candidate insisted on choosing CD. Even if the cat senior came to do this paper, he wouldn't be so outrageously wrong.

After grading all the papers, everyone seemed to have gone through severe torture and had no desire to speak.

The senior looked at the dying crowd and took a deep breath: "I have a full-score paper here."

Everyone looked at him in disbelief, and even Chao Musheng couldn't help being curious: "Whose paper is it?"

"Wan You."

"The one who falls on flat ground?" The junior sister was surprised: "He is actually so powerful?"

"According to school regulations, Wan You can obtain auditor qualifications." The senior asked Wan You's guide: "Why don't you go ask his opinion?"

"I'm not going." Thinking of Wan You's appearance of weak legs every three steps and crying every five sentences, the guide felt tired: "The exam is over, my guide work is also over. Don't look for me for other things."

This was rude, but no one thought he was excessive because they had all had enough.

"I'll go." Chao Musheng knew that the seniors were exhausted physically and mentally: "I happen to be familiar with the teachers in the Academic Affairs Office. It's very convenient to take Wan You to go through the auditor admission procedures."

"Then I'll trouble Musheng." Seeing Chao Musheng take the initiative to take this hot potato, the senior was very gratified: "The school has Wan You's personal information here. Tell him to hurry up. If he hasn't reported by 3 pm, it will be regarded as voluntarily giving up the auditor qualification."

"I know, senior." Chao Musheng marked a good score on Zhang San and Zhao Shang's score registration form and handed the form to the senior: "Then I'll go contact Wan You now."

The senior took the score sheet and looked at it twice. One was 85, the other was 78. Compared with the other advanced students who flew low past 60 points, these were very beautiful scores.

Junior Brother Zhao is very kind to these two advanced students.

The players were desperate because they knew how bad this paper was.

Several people sat around on the grass, doing nothing else, just blindly cursing the damned Main God.

Wan You sat aside silently. When the phone rang, he was stunned for a few seconds before answering.

Seeing him suddenly stand up straight and rush out of the playground without saying a word, his posture was as vigorous as a different person from before.

"What did he go to do?"

"Don't know."

The sunlight was dazzlingly white, but Wan You didn't feel hot at all. He passed through one teaching building after another and stood in front of Chao Musheng.

"I... took first place?"

He hadn't taken first place for a long time. He only remembered the pitying and condescending gazes of the students who took first place when looking at him.

"Yes, congratulations." Seeing him running so hard that he was sweating profusely, Chao Musheng handed him the water in his hand: "The school has a support policy for advanced students in poverty-stricken areas. Poor advanced students who meet the exam standards can get auditor quotas. If they are rated excellent in every subject within one year of auditing, they can obtain Jinghua student status."

"Do you want to try?"

Wan You's brain was buzzing, and his hands unconsciously took the water handed by Chao Musheng and poured it into his mouth.

[Congratulations to the player for consuming pure water resources, Health +10]

The inorganic system prompt sound was like a basin of cold water poured on Wan You's head, making him instantly sober.

This is a dungeon world, and he is a player.

After twelve o'clock tonight, there will be no Wan You in this world.

The long-awaited thing is nothing but flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water.

"Stunned with joy?" Chao Musheng reached out and waved: "Do you want this auditor quota? If you want it, I'll take you to the Academic Affairs Office to go through the procedures."

Wan You wanted to say, it's useless, he doesn't belong here.

Beautiful things shouldn't belong to him in the first place.

But he couldn't control nodding. Even if it was just a dream, he wanted to finish it well.

He didn't know how he followed Chao Musheng to the Academic Affairs Office. He couldn't listen to what the teachers in the office said. He only saw the teacher in front of the computer taking out a few documents from the printer and stamping red seals on them.

"Need to hand in two copies of ID card." The teacher responsible for handling auditor procedures asked Wan You: "Did you bring your ID card?"

ID card?

Wan You turned his head to look at Chao Musheng, his brain roared, realizing that this was a huge joke and conspiracy given to him by the dungeon.

He is a player, how can he have an ID card unique to NPCs?

"Your ID card fell on the ground." Chao Musheng noticed a card falling out of Wan You's trouser pocket, bent down to pick it up and found it was the other party's ID card. He handed the ID card to the teacher and turned back to Wan You: "Keep your ID card safe. It's troublesome to replace it."

Wan You stared at the strange card in the teacher's hand. This is not his thing!

"The procedures have been completed." The teacher handed the admission certificate and ID card to Chao Musheng: "Xiao Zhao, if this student wants to transfer household registration, take him to the Security Section."

"Thank you, teacher." Seeing Wan You still in a daze, Chao Musheng took him out of the office: "Don't be in a daze, let's go."

The cold ID card was placed in Wan You's palm.

[Zzz... Warning, the system is attacked by unknown forces...]

[Failed to detach from the dungeon, failed to detach from the dungeon, failed to report error, beep——]

Wan You's brain began to churn. After a long scream, the system suddenly disappeared without a trace.

The system, disappeared?

Wan You looked down at the ID card in his hand, then looked up sharply at Chao Musheng. Is it because of him?!

"You don't look very well. I'll send you back to the dormitory." Chao Musheng remembered that this student was very squeamish when he first came to school. He didn't expect his face to be so white today without making a sound.

Wan You stared blankly and didn't speak. When he returned to dormitory 404, he saw luggage bags at Zhang San and Zhao Shang's feet.

"Brother Zhao." Zhang San saw Chao Musheng and squeezed out a smile on his face: "Just now a student sent us the advanced study qualification certificate. Brother Shang and I booked a ticket for 3 pm. You don't need to send us off."

There were no tickets. They just wanted to have a normal farewell with Brother Zhao before the mission failed.

"Leaving so urgently?" Chao Musheng glanced at the time. It was already twelve noon: "Eat before leaving. I'll take a taxi to send you off later."

Zhang San and Zhao Shang did not refuse.

It was still window 8 of canteen 5. This time, student Zhou Yi served them a lot of food, even more than in Chao Musheng's plate.

There were several other students in the cafeteria who had attended classes together. Zhang San opened the favorability prop again, only to find that unknowingly, the favorability of these students towards them had exceeded seventy.

There was still no value above Chao Musheng's head, but this was no longer important.

Zhang San ate the food in the plate cleanly without tasting it, thinking uncontrollably, if only this were a real world without strategy players.

Brother Zhao could make games and robots with peace of mind, realize his life ideals in the future, and live happily and freely.

After eating, Chao Musheng accompanied the two to dormitory building 4: "Go get your luggage. I'll wait for you here."

Zhang San smiled: "Brother Zhao, the day we first came to school, you were also waiting for us to go downstairs here."

[Ding! There are 11 hours left before the mission ends. Please complete the hidden mission as soon as possible to obtain generous dungeon rewards.]

[Please complete the hidden mission as soon as possible!]

The system's prompt sound was more urgent each time. Zhang San managed to hear a sense of impatience in the system's emotionless mechanical voice.

"I was responsible for receiving you, and I also want to send you home safely." Chao Musheng also smiled: "You are unfamiliar with the place here. How can I rest assured letting you leave like this?"

Zhang San's throat felt a bit blocked, and he hurriedly turned and walked upstairs.

Back in 404, Wan You was reading a book. The three looked at each other, and no one spoke.

Everyone is a player, so they naturally know the consequences of failing to clear the level.

"Hey!" When Zhang San and Zhao Shang carried their luggage out, Wan You stopped them: "Take care."

The system on him disappeared, and everything given to him by the main god space also disappeared. From now on, he is no longer a player, but a part of this world.

They will probably never meet again.

"Goodbye."

When Zhang San and Zhao Shang went downstairs, Chao Musheng had two more bags in his hand, and a kitten was playing at his feet.

"Meow meow meow."

Cat Xiao Ju wagged its tail at the two carrying luggage.

Humans, congratulations on going home.

Chao Musheng had already called a car. It was less than an hour's drive from the school to Jing City West Station.

Zhang San and Zhao Shang stood in the station, feeling the embarrassment of being forced to do something beyond their ability.

They didn't expect the station in the dungeon world to be so big, so big that they couldn't see the edge at a glance. The shopping malls inside were dazzling. If an escape dungeon was opened here, maybe players wouldn't even be able to find their way.

Chao Musheng distributed the gifts in his hand to the two. For Zhao Shang, it was nationally published physics and computer professional reference books, and for Zhang San, it was Jing City specialties: "I don't know what to give you. Take these back."

"Thank you, Brother Zhao." Zhang San took out a puppet doll from the space. This doll has the status blessing of reducing disasters and eliminating bad luck. He didn't know if the prop could work on NPCs, but he hoped Brother Zhao could avoid all misfortunes in the future.

Another keychain doll?

Thinking of the keychain Xiao You gave him, Chao Musheng took Zhang San's parting gift: "Thank you."

A badge was handed to Chao Musheng. The badge looked particularly small in Zhao Shang's large palm.

"Also for me?" Chao Musheng picked up the badge: "Very beautiful, thank you."

"En." Zhao Shang nodded. The owner of this badge has permanent constitution +10.

"The security check channel at Jing City Station can only be passed by passengers. I can only send you here." Chao Musheng put away the gifts from the two and sent them to the security checkpoint: "Pay attention to safety on the road."

"Brother Zhao." Zhang San stopped: "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Chao Musheng waved with a smile: "Remember to send me a message to report safety when you get home."

"Passengers, please line up to pass the security check..."

Zhao Shang lowered his head, daring not look at Chao Musheng's smiling eyes: "Okay."

Chao Musheng won't receive their messages.

When crossing the security gate, Zhao Shang couldn't help looking back. Chao Musheng was still standing there, waving at them.

The cold wind blew, raising sand from somewhere, stinging his eyes so he couldn't open them.

When he opened his eyes again, the security gate disappeared. He and Zhang San stood by the busy street, holding nothing but the gifts Chao Musheng gave them.

"Brother Shang." Zhang San shook his head: "The system in my brain seems to be gone."

The always steady Zhao Shang eagerly took out the phone on him.

Everything related to the dungeon on the phone disappeared, leaving only familiar and strange names.

It was his friends in the real world. He had stayed in the infinite world for too long, so long that he almost forgot them.

"We are back."

"Back where?" Zhang San was still patting his head, trying to make his brain normal.

"Home." Zhao Shang hugged the heavy book in his arms tightly: "Zhang San, we are home."

++++++++++++++++++++++

Shortly after Zhang San and Zhao Shang left, Chao Musheng received a message from Zhang San and Zhao Shang. The two stood on the busy street. Someone took a photo for them, their faces full of the joy of returning home.

After that day, he returned to his usual school life.

After the final exam, he received an internship invitation letter from Kunlun Enterprise and prepared to go to the company for an internship.

At 8 am, Chao Musheng arrived at the Kunlun Enterprise Headquarters Building to report on time.

Besides him, there were more than twenty young men and women standing in the headquarters hall.

Some of these young people looked alert, some looked blank, and a few were whispering to ask what schools others came from, wishing to figure out the ancestors of their competitors.

However, everyone was very measured, and no one made a loud noise.

[Congratulations to all players for successfully arriving at Kunlun Company. Please pay attention to hiding your identity and do not be found abnormal by the NPCs around you.]

Ah Ze looked up at the hall. Among the twenty or thirty people, players accounted for the majority. Only a few people had data values above their heads.

Although he had only cleared two or three dungeons, he still knew the common sense that those with data values were NPCs and those without were players.

[Hello player, your random mission for today has been generated. Pluck a leaf from the Money Tree at the door.]

"Brother, do me a favor." Ah Ze looked at the player closest to the Money Tree. This brother is really good-looking. Everyone is a player, why is the difference so big?

Chao Musheng turned his head blankly and looked at the young man approaching him. The other party had a pleasing appearance, and his round eyes looked a bit like the huskies running wild in the community.

The other party dodged behind him, stretched his sinful hand towards the innocent Money Tree, pulled hard, and pulled again.

Nothing was pulled off.

Seeing that the other party intended to continue pulling, Chao Musheng said helplessly: "Buddy, stop pulling. This thing is plastic."

Pulling the company's Money Tree on the first day of internship, is this buddy sent by the rival company to cause destruction?