TDU Chapter 371
Chapter 371 Bestow
Zhang Chenze hadn’t expected the {fortune stick} she’d been holding steadily for so long to suddenly {flee}. Caught off guard, she loosened her grip for just a moment and it, too, wriggled into the insect pile.
“What the heck… What the heck is happening?!”
If this {fortune stick} had some kind of mechanism, why didn’t it escape previously? Why wait until now?
Unless… this wasn’t a {mechanism} at all?
‘No, wait…’ Zhang Chenze forced herself to calm down. ‘Could this be what they called {Reverberation}?’
Because all the rooms were completely sealed off, and hers in particular was packed with locusts, she had no way of knowing whether she had triggered her {Reverberation}, or what ability she might have gained through it.
But in the others’ rooms, no {fortune sticks} had tried to escape. Only hers did.
There could be only one answer: this situation was caused by her own {Reverberation}, a supernatural ability the others didn’t possess.
She did her best to keep her unraveling thoughts in check, shutting out the shrill buzz of the insects around her, and focused on retracing what had just happened.
What exactly caused the {fortune sticks} to flee?
The first time her {fortune stick} fled, she had been holding it in her right hand while her left hand crushed a locust to death.
From that moment on, the {fortune stick} in her right hand moved as if it were a locust.
It was a strange kind of {equivalence}, a form of incomprehensible {transposition}.
‘Wait a minute…’ Zhang Chenze felt like she was losing her mind. ‘Does this even make sense…?’
If killing one thing could cause another thing to turn into it, wasn’t that power far too bizarre?
Lin Qin had mentioned that all {Reverberations} could be considered a kind of {transcendent ability}, but what use was this ability?
‘No, that’s not right…’ Zhang Chenze’s brow furrowed deeply. She had already killed so many locusts, so why had only this one {fortune stick}?
Slowly, she raised her left hand and stared at the insect goo smeared across it, then, a realization struck her.
Could it be…
Only things killed with her {left hand} could take effect on what was in her {right hand}?
Earlier, she had mainly used her feet to stomp the locusts into mush, so this strange ability never had a chance to activate. But now that she’d started digging with her left hand, she must’ve accidentally crushed a few dying ones in the process…?
‘What the heck am I even doing…’ Zhang Chenze shook her head, realizing she’d completely abandoned conventional logic and was now analyzing the situation with the reasoning of a madwoman. She shook her head again to clear her thoughts, then muttered to herself, “Since those two {fortune sticks} have already turned into {locusts}… there’s only one way left to find them.”
She stripped off her torn suit jacket, gave it a sharp shake to dislodge the locusts clinging to it, then began waving it through the air to drive back the swarming insects on the ground.
With a loud {buzz}, a massive number of locusts took to the air in a sudden burst, startled by her movements.
The entire room instantly descended into chaos. Countless locusts scattered and flew in all directions, and Su Shan, watching from the side, felt her chest tighten in alarm.
Zhang Chenze, however, remained unfazed. She raised her left arm to shield her face and swung the jacket with her right, taking care not to let her left hand crush even a single insect because she had no idea what might happen if she did.
Within just a few seconds, her plan began to bear fruit. Though the {fortune stick} had been possessed by a {locust}, it lacked wings. No matter how hard it tried to flee, it could only flop about on the floor, making it far more conspicuous.
Sure enough, one {fortune stick} burst out of the pile of corpses and tried to spring into the air. Quick as lightning, Zhang Chenze stepped forward and snatched it out of midair.
Turning it over in her hand, she saw it clearly: {Radiant Sun Embraces the Earth}!
“Perfect!” She didn’t have time to search for the other {fortune stick}; she rushed to the table and inserted it in the right hole.
{Summer}’s wish this year was for Autumn to enjoy the warmth of {Radiant Sun Embraces the Earth}.
Zhang Chenze, clutching her jacket, leaned on the table with her left hand and was just about to let out a breath of relief—when, by sheer ill fortune, a locust happened to fly under her left palm and was crushed in that exact moment.
Before panic could even set in, the suit in her right hand suddenly began to shudder violently, so much so that it sent chills crawling across her skin.
“AHH!” She flung the jacket away and stumbled several steps back, every hair on her body standing on end. From the soles of her feet to the crown of her head, even her blood ran cold.
The jacket flapped in midair a few times before slamming down onto the table, morphing grotesquely.
It propped itself up with its sleeves, and the collar slowly rose, as if lifting its head and staring straight at Zhang Chenze.
“What the heck… don’ freak me out like tha—”
Zhang Chenze took a nervous step back only to see the suit jacket {take flight}, soaring up from the table and flapping its sleeves wildly as it lunged straight at her.
With the floor littered in locust corpses, Zhang Chenze struggled to move and was quickly tripped up, crashing hard to the ground. In the next instant, the jacket landed on her, sleeves clawing like a feral beast.
Su Shan had been watching the entire scene unfold in stunned silence. She was now too shocked to even speak.
This so-called {Soul Reposition} ability was far too bizarre. It wasn’t just the {fortune stick} moving on its own anymore, even a {suit jacket} had come alive. But could this really be considered a rational phenomenon?
Would these things actually harm their owner?
In the other chamber directly across from Su Shan, Lin Qin felt her mind slowly going blank.
In this freezing-cold room, she was curled up in a corner, trying desperately to conserve body heat. She had never imagined that a person could become so cold that they ceased to feel cold at all.
She just felt... drowsy.
As the -30°C wind kept sweeping down, the biting chill gradually vanished, replaced by heavy, sinking eyelids.
‘I’m…so tired…’
Lin Qin exhaled a breath of air. Just as she was about to close her eyes, she felt the howling wind suddenly cease—and seconds later, a blast of hot air surged in.
The heat wasn’t scorching in temperature, yet it brought a searing pain that shot through her entire body.
It didn’t just dispel her drowsiness, it knocked her flat to the ground, wracked with pain and unable to stop her cries. Her broken leg had long gone numb from the cold, but this wave of hot air brought the pain roaring back with full intensity.
As the heat swept over her, it felt like boiling water pouring directly onto her skin; her scalp to her limbs all pulsing wildly with pain.
From across the wall, Su Shan saw a thick mist rising in Lin Qin’s room. She knew Lin Qin was saved. But her condition was dire.
From the very beginning of the game until now, Lin Qin had been struck by two successive {Calamities}, and both of them were extremely lethal.
“Lin Qin... you have to survive,” Su Shan whispered. “We will get out of this damn place...”
Lin Qin flexed her fingers, then reached out to the table and slowly pulled herself upright.
The pain raged through her body, but it didn’t seem to hinder her movement.
“You guys didn’t do anything this round?” she wiped the fog from the glass with her hand. “We were this close to killing that damn dog…”
After confirming that Qin Dingdong’s room had been struck by a {Calamity}, Lin Qin glanced down at the {fortune sticks} on her table. Including the newly drawn {Default}, there were four in total.
She needed to use these four—
Wait.
Four?
TL Note: Rant goes here ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀)
