Chapter 88 - Curse Initiation

The system said it very firmly.

But this non-human thing was still reluctant to keep silent and continued:

[Rule violation at the end of an exam is a very malicious act. According to my database, examinees like these have a tendency to search for loopholes and take advantage of it. To put it more simply, they're crafty and sly.]

You Huo didn't even look up. He treated the speaker as if it didn't exist.

He would often ignore the sound that would appear in his house from time to time and would only very occasionally utter a few words when required or when annoyed.

For the remainder of that time, he would treat the other party as air and go about normally with his life.

If the other party was a human, it would probably explode with rage from this kind of cold treatment.

Unfortunately, the other party wasn't.

No matter how similar it was, it wasn't.

And so, the system just took You Huo's cold treatment for granted and was able to continue speaking for a long time without receiving a response.

[The number of violations made by this examinee is much more than the combined total of violations made by the rest of the examinees in the same examination centre. As of now, he has violated the rules 9 times. According to my analysis, this kind of behaviour isn't just craftiness, it's complete conceitedness.]

[Conceited.]

[Dangerous.]

[Arrogant.]

........

The system threw out word after word of insults directed at the examinee.

According to its initial settings, the system should only be responsible for initial assessment and it was the responsibility of invigilators to comment on such matters.

Even after the system gradually lost control and expanded its scope of control, it would rarely single out an examinee and evaluate them like this.

Just the use of one or two adjectives was rare. For the system to give out three adjectives, it could be said that the examinee had struck gold.

And for this examinee, it was as if the floodgates holding the system back was gone. Words were constantly thrown out one after another.

....

[Haughty.]

[Lazy.]

Those who didn't know what it was doing would have thought that it was going through a dictionary.

You Huo finally interrupted. "You done?"

[No.]

You Huo threw his phone onto the vanity, "Then make it a yes."

[Are you taking the examinee's side?]

"You're thinking too much." You Huo's expression didn't change. He continued coldly, "You're just too noisy."

The system then said confidently:

[According to data analysis and personality matching, the probability of you and that examinee getting into physical altercation is 52.11%, the probably of verbal argument is 46.32%, the probability of getting along peacefully is 1.16%, the probability of having a pleasant conversation is 0.403333% and the probability of becoming friends is 0.]

"......"

The You Huo in the dream was left speechless for a moment. He could neither cry nor laugh.

He didn't know if it was because of the system, because of the system's nonsense talk or because….of its description of the examinee.

Everything in the dream was a little unclear, particularly his state of mind.

Not only You Huo himself, the system also wasn't clear.

It is everywhere and can see and hear almost everything, but it's understanding of emotions was still very poor.

After reporting those statistics out, it said firmly:

[Just from this, the likelihood of you taking his side is very small. If humans tried to calculate this, this information would definitely be overlooked, and they would directly consider it impossible. I however won't do that.]

[There is still a 0.00666.....67% possibility of you and that examinee becoming friends.]

[But that small probability does not have the necessary conditions to allow it to happen.]

[That examinee has re-done his last exam several times and will soon come to a realisation that his efforts are pointless. After this confinement session, he should reflect on himself a little. As long as he manages to stay within the rule boundaries next time, he can leave.]

Hearing the word "leave", You Huo finally showed a reaction.

His thin eyelids lifted slightly before falling back down again.

His expression remained calm, but his fingers moved to turn on the faucet.

Water gushed out into the sink while he was a little lost in thought.

[Aren't you going to take a shower? Washing your hand before showering is a waste of resources.]

You Huo froze for a moment.

He didn't want the system to notice that he was distracted and expressionlessly brought some water up to splash his face before turning the faucet off.

Contrary to the temperature on a hot summer's night, the water was very cold. The wrist of the hand that touched the water was wet, and even a little painful.

That short period of pain almost pulled You Huo out of his dream state, leaving him in a half-asleep half-awake state.

On one end, he was that person supporting himself with the vanity. On the other end, he was someone standing on the side watching his past self.

Strangely enough, as an onlooker he didn't know who the person in the confinement room was and he also didn't know who the person the system said would leave was.

But for some reason, the he in the dream felt a little complicated.

He was disappointed, but also relieved.

The system emphasised again:

[If he performs normally, the probability of passing the exam is very high.]

The You Huo in the dream dried his hands.

He still remembered those examinees who had been converted into NPCs. Perhaps Zhao Wentu had left him with a deep impression.

And so, he asked: "You will really let him go?" 

The answer was something he both expected and didn't expect.

The system didn't answer directly. It thought for a moment and said:

[Overly dangerous people should not be directly released. I will deal with them in accordance to the relevant rules and regulations.]

You Huo frowned slightly. He replaced the towel he was using to try his hands back onto the vanity.

[Also, you went to the control centre twice this week. It is once more than the specified number of times.]

You Huo ignored the system and entered the shower. Very soon, the sound of water flowing could be heard.

This was not his first time, so the system didn't continue pursuing. For once, it was considerate enough to stop blabbering.

According to its data, humans are most relaxed when bathing and their five senses will be significantly weakened. Even if it spoke, he probably wouldn't be listening.

A long time later, You Huo dried his hair, changed into a new set of clothes and headed downstairs with a glass of water.

The system spoke again:

[You have been entering the basement more frequently each day compared to before.]

You Huo stopped: "If you really want to kill examinees from thirst, go and let them do that at the examination centre. Don't let them die at my place."

The system obediently shut its mouth.

Carrying a cold invigilator's expression, You Huo entered the confinement room.

After turning around and lowering his head to lock the door, a figure suddenly appeared beside him.

That person lightly grabbed You Huo's wrist, twisted it behind his waist and took the glass he held with his other hand.

"You won't get a second one if you spill it." You Huo turned his head and said to the person behind him.

Despite being restrained like this, he wasn't angry.

Perhaps it was because the other party didn't use any force and had only done it as if he was joking.

He couldn't see the face of the person behind him, but he could tell from that person's posture that he was lazily drinking the water.

You Huo saw through the corner of his eyes the other person's raised arm with their sleeve loosely rolled up. The other person's atmosphere completely enveloped him, and it carried a feeling of oppressiveness that wasn't unpleasant.

In the dream, that atmosphere was somehow very familiar.

You Huo was then woken up by this sense of familiarity.

Next to him were hurried footsteps as well as quiet discussions. It sounded like there were quite a few people around and they were anxious about something.

The moment his consciousness cleared, the scene in the dream faded and he was only left with a faint impression….

For example, the wrist that was restrained, and side of his waist that it was pressed...It hurt a little?

In his still muddled state, You Huo was a little puzzled.

As his mind gradually cleared up, those two areas started to become more and more painful.

This great master finally realised that something wasn't right.

He furrowed his brows and heard Gao Qi's voice: "Hey, hey, hey, he moved! Is he waking up? Any water? Young lady, don't be stingy. Seeing that we're practically colleagues, can't you give us two glasses of water?"

Miss 021's voice soon followed: "Medicine too."

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"Yes, and some fever medicine. You can just keep it on my tab. If it's not enough, you can deduct it from my card. Two glasses of water and two fever medicine. Just deduct from it according to the standard price at the rest stops."

Before 021 was able to speak, 922's voice rang: "154! I found the bandages! But there's not much…I don't know if its enough for them both. I knew I should've brought two less boxes of meat."

154: "What did I say before we came? Didn't I tell you to bring more useful things? You only know to eat."

You Huo finally half opened his eyes. He could vaguely see 922 standing in front of 154 with his hands clapped together: "I was wrong, I was wrong. I didn't think it would be so bad this time. I will definitely reduce two boxes next time."

"What are you doing?" You Huo asked.

It was only after speaking that he noticed that his throat was both dry and sore. It felt like it was rubbed by sandpaper and all his joints ached.

He tried to sit up, but Gao Qi flew over: "Don't move! Please, just stay like that. Don't move."

In a place outside of everyone's line of sight, 021 chewed on her bottom lip. Her worried eyes met with You Huo's.

Gao Qi asked worriedly: "Are you cold?"

"It's summer...." You Huo said with annoyance. His voice was still hoarse.

"Here, drink some water first. I got this from 021. I'll get more if it's not enough."

You Huo reached out to receive it but his movements suddenly stopped.

He finally knew why his wrist was hurting more and more. It was because a large chunk of the flesh there was missing.

It was different from ordinary injuries. Blood wasn't gushing outwards in large flows and was just slowly trickling out. It was bright red and sticky, and you could almost see his bone underneath.

If it wasn't on his body, he would have even doubted that the arm belonged to a living human.

Gao Qi sucked in a breath: "You…..Are you in a lot of pain?"

You Huo froze for a moment and said: "It's okay."

But it was indeed an ugly sight.

"You should mentally prepare yourself. It's probably.....the effect of the curse starting." Gao Qi explained, "We wanted to apply some medicine and treat the wound but....it's not a normal wound."

When they first saw it, that area was only missing some skin and was at most the width of two coins in size.

In less than half an hour, it had spread into something that was almost half the size of a palm, and particularly deep.

Just from its appearance, it was obvious that the wound that was just "okay" should be painful enough for one to cry in agony.

Gao Qi said: "You have a fever right now. Can you feel it? I think this wound is only going to get more and more serious. We had a discussion just now; this probably has something to do with the Duke."

From what they had heard from the townspeople, it usually took some time for the curse to spread.

That townsman had said that he initially started with a fever before getting sores and wounds on his skin a few days later but how long had it been for You Huo?

"Every time the Duke is resurrected, the curse is activated. After killing him so many times....."

The curse had increased by almost tenfold.

Gao Qi said: "Although it might not help much, you should take some fever medicine——Huh?"

Halfway through his words, You Huo suddenly stood up.

Under the complex gazes of 021, Gao Qi and 922, he immediately walked over to Qin Jiu's side, "How many injuries does he have? Why hasn't he woken yet?"

KK has something to say:

You Huo worrying about Qin Jiu

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