Chapter 5 Inflation 4

Chapter 5: Inflation (Part 4)

Su Han was just about to head toward a quiet corner when a drunk man approached her and shoved her hard.

The drunk man fell to the ground, his eyes glazed over, seemingly confused about what had happened.

Su Han, however, grew serious. "Cut the act," she said firmly. "Hand over what you stole."

The items in her Portable Storage were intact, but her backpack suddenly felt lighter, clearly indicating that the man in front of her was suspicious.

The drunk man acted as if he hadn't heard her, continuing to ham it up with exaggerated drunken antics.

"You wanna get tossed in the river?" Su Han asked coldly. "That'll sober you up real quick."

The drunk man paused. "... Damn! She looks so quiet and gentle, but her words are brutal!"

His eyes cleared up, and he asked helplessly, "How did you find out?"

"My backpack feels a lot lighter. What you took must be the steel balls," Su Han said indifferently. "If you'd taken something else, I might not have noticed."

The drunk man was filled with indignation—what rotten luck! He pulled out a bag of opened steel balls from his pocket and threw them back at her. "Here."

Su Han caught the bag and asked curiously, "Aren’t you afraid I'll beat you up?"

This guy had been caught red-handed, yet he didn’t seem to care at all?

The drunk man scoffed. "Beating someone up takes too much energy. We're all barely getting by—don’t waste your strength." After all, he had nothing to lose.

Su Han weighed the steel balls in her hand and suddenly asked, "Player?" The method of theft was too mysterious; she suspected it was a talent skill.

The drunk man hesitated, looked up, and asked seriously, "You got something to drink?"

"What do you mean?" Su Han was puzzled.

"If you’ve got a drink, I’m a Player, and I can chat with you. If not, you can leave," the drunk man said lazily.

Su Han thought to herself—wasn’t this indirectly admitting to being a Player? Without a drink, he wasn’t planning to engage with her.

After thinking for a moment, she took out a bottle of milk and waved it in front of the drunk man. "Answer right, and it’s yours."

The drunk man's eyes lit up, overjoyed. "I didn’t expect you to be doing so well!" Being able to just pull out milk like that showed she was faring pretty well.

"Keep it down," Su Han said, worried that there might be NPCs following behind. She deliberately lowered her voice and spoke quickly. "Let’s find a quiet spot to talk. Follow me."

The drunk man showed a look of indifference. But he was very tempted by the milk and couldn’t help but follow.

After turning left and right, they finally managed to shake off the followers behind them. Su Han now had time to observe the drunk man. The stench of booze on him seemed genuine; his hair was messy, his cheeks were red, and his eyes were swollen—clear signs that he wasn’t doing well. "Tell me," she said. "What do you know?"

The drunk man held out his hand, demanding, "Payment upfront."

Su Han casually tossed the milk over to him. Then, she took out another bottle and said casually, "Answer right, and this one’s yours too."

The drunk man's face turned red, clearly very excited. He immediately spilled everything he knew. "My name is Wei Minzhe. I’m a career thief. As long as I touch my target, there’s a 30% chance I’ll steal something."

"Are you worried our conversation might be overheard by the natives? Actually, it’s unnecessary. I’ve tested it—if you say the word 'Player,' the system automatically mutes it. Even if we talk loudly about game content, NPCs who hear it will just think we’re talking nonsense."

"And my talent skill—being able to steal just by touching—doesn’t it sound mysterious? But NPCs don’t find it strange at all when something gets stolen. They think it’s normal. I think the system must have processed it specially, making it seem normal."

Ah, I see. Su Han showed a thoughtful expression. Then she glanced at the drunkard and asked, puzzled, "How did you get into such a mess?"

Even if you exchanged all 100 points for food and daily necessities, you shouldn't have ended up like this.

"Don't even ask," Wei Minzhe complained bitterly, "The system really got me!"

"What do you mean?"

"After checking out the character stats, do you think that as long as you stock up on food and daily necessities, you can keep going indefinitely?"

"After all, food can increase satiety, and daily necessities can improve cleanliness, so does it really matter which one you use?"

"In the game, mineral water isn't worth much, so why not exchange it for other supplies?"

Wei Minzhe chuckled, then said with a blank face, "If you hold the above thoughts, you're setting yourself up for trouble."

Su Han kept her cool, "What do you mean?"

"Mineral water can indeed slightly increase hunger, but if you consume less than 500ml a day, you will experience dehydration symptoms the next day, steadily losing stamina. However, I later discovered that it doesn't necessarily have to be mineral water; cola, milk, and alcohol can also substitute. To be precise, the daily water intake should not be less than 500ml."

"Using towels and toothbrushes can indeed improve cleanliness, but if you haven't used soap or shower gel for 72 hours, your chances of getting an 'infection' shoot up."

"Similarly, eating chocolate and candy can increase satiety, but within 72 hours, you must eat staple food, such as rice or flour-based products. I haven't tested this out, so I don't know what negative effects might occur, but some players I know have gotten hit by it."

Wei Minzhe spoke slowly, his tone particularly somber. After all, these were hard-earned lessons, mostly from his own experiences.

Su Han didn't quite get it but inexplicably thought of the value bundle.

The value bundle contained soap, mineral water (water resource), Pork Floss Cream Bread (staple food), and medical bandages (medical supplies), all of which were essential. Now it seems that the system had already hinted at it!

Since the Portable Storage could only store a limited variety of items (ten slots), she stocked up according to the value bundle's configuration. Unexpectedly, she accidentally got it right.

"How come you don't know any of this?" Wei Minzhe was puzzled, "It's been 7 days since entering the game, haven't you run into any bad effects?"

Su Han shook her head, then said, "I eat noodles with soup at the noodle shop, and I usually buy soap."

Wei Minzhe was at a loss for words. Noodles are staple food, soup counts as water, and soap is also available. She's got everything covered, so of course, she can't understand the hardships of the lower class!

Su Han retorted, "Didn't you get the Portable Storage and the value bundle?"

Wei Minzhe showed a hint of embarrassment, "I cashed in all my points for currency, totaling ten thousand Bei. But after entering the game, I found that although I bought a lot of things, hauling them around was a pain. Then I stocked up on the wrong items..."

"Recently, I've been using alcohol to stay hydrated, but I actually don't like drinking. What's worse, after drinking a certain amount, there are bad effects like getting drunk or even alcohol poisoning."

"Unfortunately, the stuff in the supermarket flies off the shelves, and now it's hard to get mineral water, beverages, and the like."

Su Han was puzzled, "Haven't you thought about boiling water to drink?"

Wei Minzhe suddenly froze.

Su Han continued, "I stockpiled mineral water because I was worried about future water and power outages, so I prepared in advance. Why don't you boil water? Get some tap water, boil it, and you can drink it, right?"

That's how noodle soup is made.

Wei Minzhe looked down at himself, filled with grief and indignation. He thought he had money, so he focused solely on buying, never considering doing things himself...

Who knew that drinking too much alcohol not only reduces stamina but also accelerates the consumption of cleanliness!

In an instant, Wei Minzhe lost all his strength, feeling like an idiot who blew a great opportunity.

"What else have you got?" Su Han changed the subject and continued to ask. In fact, she was already very satisfied, but she deliberately asked this way, just to see if she could squeeze out something more.

Wei Minzhe said with a sigh, "Because of the tidal wave of layoffs, many people can't afford to eat, and theft and robbery happen from time to time. It's still okay now; they're only stealing stuff, not hurting anyone, but it's hard to say what will happen after a while."

"Folks are trading off their valuables to get some food. But what then, after they've traded everything? To survive, there's probably nothing they wouldn't do."

"The supermarket restocks daily at 6 AM sharp, but some people queue up at 4 or 5 o'clock, making it a mad dash to grab anything left. By 7 AM, the shelves are stripped bare."

"As far as I know, families scraping by have already started scrounging for discarded, wilted greens at the vegetable market. Others are fishing and catching birds, hoping to add some protein to their plates."

"I don't know anything else."

"Appreciate it." Su Han threw the milk to Wei Minzhe and then strode off with a confident air.

Wei Minzhe couldn't help but let out a wry chuckle. Knowing that he could boil water to drink, whether he took the milk or not didn't really matter anymore.

**

At 1:30 in the afternoon, a small crowd had gathered by the lakeside in Four Seasons Park, fishing.

Suddenly, one person showed a look of joy and excitedly shouted, "Got one! Fish on the line!" Then he yanked the line in fast.

When he pulled it up, it was indeed a hefty, wriggling fish.

The man couldn't stop smiling and teased the old man next to him, "Old He, how about you, how many have you caught?"

In fact, he was sitting right next to him and knew very well that his companion's catch was zero.

Old He tried to cover up the fact that he was not good at fishing, muttering under his breath, "Ding, stop shouting! You scared all the fish away!"

Old Ding sneered, "If you can't catch squat, don't go blaming me, alright?"

Old He was furious.

Old Ding continued, "Hey, if you're so bad at this, why hog two rods? Why not give them to others who need them?"

"I like it this way, so back off!" Old He stubbornly retorted. But in fact, he felt a pang of guilt. It had been three days, and while others had more or less some harvest, he had nothing.

The rice at home was running dangerously low, and if he didn't pull something off soon, his family would starve! At his age, it didn't matter much whether he lived a few more days or not, but his granddaughter was different—she was still a child!

Thinking of this, Old He couldn't help but worry.

Just then, a sharp, clear voice cut through the air, "Excuse me, whose fishing rod is this? Is it taken?"

"Not selling, so buzz off!" Old He was very annoyed.

"Mind if I rent it off you?" the female voice continued to ask.

Rent? Old He looked up in surprise and found a short-haired girl speaking, who looked very neat.

It was Su Han.

"How do you rent it?" Old He relented, mainly because he had no confidence in his fishing skills.

"Let me borrow the rod for four hours, and we'll go halves on whatever I catch," Su Han confidently smiled.

Old He was about to say what if nothing was caught, but he swallowed his words. The fishing rod had been sitting next to him all day with no harvest; things couldn't get worse...

"Alright, you can sit next to me and fish," Old He thought, What's the worst that could happen? It's not like I'm catching anything anyway.

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Author's note:

System (proudly puffing chest): System products, of course, the configuration is the most correct!

Nutritionist: Milk (water resource) + rye bread (staple food), completely meets the system requirements, that's why it's called a nutritionist!