Chapter 94

Chapter 94

Bai Fuling spun the aluminum pole, looking even more like a helicopter than last time—especially since now he even had a seat.

The player opened their personal panel, hoping to see if there was a "helicopter" mutation value. Grinding for this seemed fun too; if it got high enough, maybe they could carry people later, or even unlock items like bamboo dragonflies!

But to the player's disappointment, the personal panel still showed no special options.

Ugh, this game was way too conservative after all. He'd tried so many times, and still nothing. Bai Fuling sighed in disappointment. Look at America—even genders had attack helicopters!

He closed the panel and guided the character to land smoothly on the ground. The straps Zhong Xiaye had tied were super secure, keeping the player's seat almost perfectly level on landing, the wheels hitting the ground with a clatter.

Thanks to this, the player also discovered a new game detail: when riding a mount, damage gets absorbed by the mount first. That's why the player didn't lose any HP when they blasted forward and smashed through the glass.

But the newly acquired fancy wheelchair's durability instantly dropped by half.

At the third-floor window opening, the crowd finally snapped out of their initial shock and rushed over to the glass hole and looked down.

All they saw was a floor full of debris. The staff went silent for a moment: ...Dude, that was bulletproof glass!!

—He never expected the player to be a human cannonball.

With that kind of ability, the wheelchair's electric mode was totally unnecessary. Electricity would only hold the rider back!!

Now there was glass not just on the third floor, but all over the ground below. The transparent shards reflected the blazing sunlight, bright and dazzling.

Amidst the shimmering light, the black-haired youth on the ground spun the wheelchair, moving toward the sports car as usual, looking calm and totally unharmed.

"No." Zhong Xiaye clenched his right fist, his eyes widening then his pupils contracting, fixing on the figure below. "He's injured."

"Where? What? Do we need to call an ambulance immediately?" The staff member tensed up and quickly pulled out his phone.

If someone died in the shop, it would seriously hurt business! He knew no one could fall from that height without a scratch, even if the guy did seem to fly for a bit.

Zhong Xiaye frowned: "Didn't you notice? The injury's on his cheek." He let out a breath, his knight-in-shining-armor mindset overriding normal human skepticism, so the first thing he felt was guilt and anxiety, his lips pressed tight. "...I still failed to protect him."

The staff member glanced down.

He squinted, trying to see from a distance—and sure enough, he spotted a red mark on that pale cheek.

The staff member: "."

Ha, good thing they caught it early, or that wound would've healed by now!

He put his phone away without a word.

But inside, he couldn't keep quiet.

...Is this even human? Huh???

Come to think of it, the staff member suddenly remembered. His kid, who went to Pelland Academy, once came home saying classmates jumped out of windows every day, and the school was thinking about reinforcing the windows.

Back then, he thought his kid was studying too hard and spouting nonsense, but later he found out it was true... Still, nothing beat seeing it firsthand.

Hey, these days, skipping the stairs and elevator, going straight down, was a trend?!

Schools had it, shops had it, and the news even reported people taking off on highways... Why were so many people flying? When did humanity secretly evolve and leave him out!?

The staff member was momentarily lost in his thoughts, but the nearby PR person reacted fast, snapping a few photos of the scene below.

"Chief," the PR person whispered, "we can totally use this for promotion. Look at our wheelchair's quality—it survived a three-story fall without a scratch!"

Hearing this, the staff member's marketing brain kicked in again.

A new idea struck: Maybe the R&D team could explore this line of thought?

Create a wheelchair that could eject and land smoothly, made for tall buildings without elevators! That way, people with disabilities could actually be faster than able-bodied people.

Zhong Xiaye was lost in anxious thought, the staff member was buzzing with inspiration, the PR person was snapping photos like crazy, and the player was grabbing their ducks—everyone had a bright future.

Bai Fuling deeply understood the principle of forgetting one's roots (not really), grabbing the wheelchair and running.

—Well, actually, the player felt they had milked this part of the plot enough and it was time to move on.

You couldn't just keep grinding one NPC! Take the money and run for now.

Recently, the Rainbow Rich Heir's personal attributes had been slowly increasing. Based on game intuition, the player felt that if they kept interacting like this, some attributes might get too high.

Bai Fuling was used to playing this game now and knew not all attributes were good to max out. That chain icon in Zhong Xiaye's personal panel... definitely wasn't something good, right?

At least for now, the player didn't want to trigger a special event.

Maybe later, for collection's sake, they'd try it. But not now! The player still had to make money and solve the case.

The butterfly-related clues he'd heard from Zhong Xiaye: the charity auction and the insect specimen exhibition.

The player had already experienced the former, so now it was time to prepare for the latter.

Other clues related to insects—the player thought back carefully. It was probably that new NPC he'd met in the hallway on the way to Class A.

That scrawny, poor, cold but strangely enthusiastic when money was involved guy, who supposedly liked playing with caterpillars—Plum Cake!

Alright, perfect timing. The player was about to take the animals back to school anyway, so they could look for Plum Cake along the way.

So, completely ignoring the NPCs upstairs, the player pulled out a bedsheet from their backpack, tied it into a simple bag, picked up the ducks from the sports car one by one, placed them in the sheet, rested it on their lap, and half-tied the opening.

Then Bai Fuling untied the pig tied to the pillar and fastened the rope to the wheelchair—he originally planned to have the big black pig pull the wheelchair like a cart.

But on second thought, manually controlling the wheelchair would probably be faster, so he tied the rope to the back instead.

Everything was ready, just waiting for the east wind!

Gogogo, time to set off again~

Before leaving, the player finally turned the view and looked up.

The colorful NPC was still standing at the broken window. Because the light was too bright, plus the surrounding glass shards and no portrait icon, the player couldn't make out the pixel character's expression. And there were no mood symbols above Zhong Xiaye's head this time.

The NPC didn't chase after them.

Probably knew he couldn't catch up with the player anyway? Right?

Bai Fuling tilted his head. Both hands were full now, so he couldn't wave goodbye, and just left it at that.

Anyway, it was just a bunch of game data; probably wouldn't care about such details. In real life, this behavior might seem very cold, but this was a game.

Without any psychological burden, the player turned and left, as if some decision had been made.

Like a cannonball, he launched off again!

A single, piercing pig squeal echoed through the sky!

The player sped back to school in the wheelchair at super-high speed, the two big black pigs on the screen launching into the air like kites!

Everywhere the player went, chaos erupted. The surrounding NPCs intelligently let out various exclamations filled with plant-based curses.

When they reached the school gate, the player finally hit the brakes.

Thanks to Zhong Xiaye's thoughtful seatbelt, this time he wasn't flung forward by inertia.

But the two pigs were flung forward, crashing headfirst into the security booth, dragging the wheelchair along as it rolled a few times.

The player and the wheelchair rolled on the ground like a washing machine on spin cycle. The ducks in his arms scattered all over the ground, with quacking sounds as background noise.

"What the hell was that?! How are there pigs?!"

"...Who's there?! —Hey, student, are you okay?! What happened to you!?"

Bai Fuling wriggled, propping himself up with both hands on the ground. At that moment, he realized the downside of the seatbelt—if he tipped over, it was hard to get up!

The good news was that, while on the mount, the player still didn't lose health, even if he was covered in grass clippings and dirt—he was perfectly healthy.

The security guard stepped in to help, quickly freeing the player from the seatbelt and helping him up.

Bai Fuling stretched his body, with faintly visible red pixel marks around his exposed ankles.

To thank the guard, the player proactively pulled the pig stuck in the security booth window out and sincerely said, "Once the ducks and pigs are raised, I'll give you some gifts."

The player could, of course, choose to give gifts to any NPC. It wasn't just named NPCs worth gifting; raising the affinity of these everyday NPCs could also be very useful.

The player calmly offered his goodwill to the NPC.

But the NPCs' focus was elsewhere: "What are you doing? You're taking these inside?? The school doesn't allow bringing in—"

The guard started to say "bringing in pets," but looking at the two black pigs and a flock of ducks on the ground, he couldn't say the word "pets."

After all, why would anyone herd these things to school?!

But the player had been waiting for this moment. He opened his backpack, clicked on an application approval form inside, and presented it with a flourish.

"Here, the approval form! —These are specially approved experimental animals, brought in for scientific research! To bring glory to our school's research competition, we must do our part!"

Guard: "..."

The guard took the approval form from the player, a row of ellipses appearing above his head.

This was indeed the principal's office stamp, but—but what kind of scientific experiment uses these?! Don't experiments usually use white mice?

"You and that, that Plum Cake guy, how do you both..." The guard trailed off, unsure how to continue. Anyway, the animals these two brought were both pretty ridiculous, and the school actually approved it!

But since it was approved, he had no reason to block it.

So the guard handed the approval form back: "Alright, Cabbage Classmate. Since it's approved by the principal, please go ahead—you can pick a spot of experimental land on campus."

"Any spot?" Bai Fuling blinked.

"Yes." The guard nodded, paused for a moment, then added, "Not classrooms—can't disrupt student learning."

Ah! The player had thought about occupying some classroom space, so he could combine classroom check-ins with daily animal care.

For the player, having land meant building was totally reasonable!

But now the NPC had blocked the classroom route.

Bai Fuling had to reluctantly let go of this most convenient idea.

He thought about what other convenient spots would let the player do everything in one go.

"I see." Bai Fuling nodded and chose another spot on the teaching building, "So it's okay if I put them in the teacher's office?"

Guard: ?

A moment of silence.

Wait, isn't that too disrespectful to teachers and against his good student label? Bai Fuling thought next. Teachers coming and going wouldn't be good for the ducks and pigs' healthy growth either.

In that case, what empty rooms were left on campus?

A place with lots of space, few people, and no disturbances.

After a round of thought, an answer surfaced in Bai Fuling's mind. He slapped his left hand with his right palm.

"I get it! The correct answer is, I'll raise them in—the principal's office!"

Guard: ???

Author's note:

Remember Plum Cake? You can review chapters 72-73; his story is coming up next~