Chapter 74: Breaking the Code of Honor

Looking at the lines of small text that appeared before his eyes, especially the reward for “Wilderness Survival Skills,” Shen He couldn’t help but give the “Survival Guide” a big thumbs up.

It was truly a case of ask and you shall receive.

Although he still didn’t know, after signing the confidentiality agreement tomorrow, what kind of place that so-called military restricted zone would be, it was highly likely to be in the wild—an uninhabited expanse stretching for hundreds of kilometers.

The practicality of this skill required no further explanation.

Moreover, the task required him to search for eighteen different kinds of wild plants—a question as good as gifted points. There were no special requirements; any different kinds of wild plants would do.

It was basically as if the “Wilderness Survival Skill” was being handed to him on a silver platter.

Shen He got up, washed up, then took out the purple-gold gourd and drank a small mouthful of stone milk.

Noting that all his attributes had increased by another 0.1, he felt truly content.

Because of yesterday’s sip of stone milk, Shen He’s attributes had now slowly climbed to over 16 points. If nothing unexpected happened, they’d reach 17 by tomorrow.

Even if the effects of the stone milk diminished later, he was confident he could raise all his attributes to 30 within a month.

Reaching Tier Two, the main quest would be automatically completed.

He was rather curious to see what exactly this so-called “Power of My Own Reckoning” would be.

Before even leaving his room, Shen He spent 10 points to search for the sixteenth treasure chest.

He refused to believe that he’d have to open all thirty chests just to find “Lady Luck.” With his ancestral blessings, there was no way he could be that unlucky.

Shen He headed to a nearby breakfast shop. As he ate, he studied the regional map.

On the map, the glowing point for the chest was still unknown, estimated to be about twenty kilometers away from where he was—just the straight-line distance.

If he wanted to drive there, it would take at least half an hour via city roads, assuming every light was green and traffic was smooth.

Yet this was only the sixteenth treasure chest and already so far away.

Would the distances only get greater from here?

After breakfast, Shen He got in his car and started driving in the direction of the treasure chest, mapping out the route in his mind as he went.

Soon he’d sorted out a route with fewer traffic lights, which would get him there in about half an hour.

Roughly half an hour later—

He arrived outside a plaza.

Since it wasn’t a weekend, there weren’t many people in the plaza, but still a fair number. The “street-stall economy” had just been implemented, and many people had come here to set up stalls and sell their goods.

Shen He watched as the glowing point appeared on his regional map and followed the directions inward.

Before long, he came upon a toy stall at the roadside.

The stall was run by an elderly man, and the toys on display were quite nostalgic—almost all the kinds played with by children born in the nineties.

There were little horses connected to air bladders and soft tubes—squeeze the bladder and the horse would move; wind-up frogs; pull-back cars; as well as bamboo dragonflies and boomerangs.

Most eye-catching were the Ultraman figures wrapped in plastic bags, and yo-yos encased in plastic shells.

The treasure chest Shen He was searching for was right at the center of the old man’s stall.

Of course, the old man couldn’t see it.

Shen He pondered a moment, then stepped forward and bent down as if carefully selecting a toy.

The old man smiled kindly. “Young man, buying a toy for your child at home?”

“There’s an art to picking toys. For kids under three, buy Ultraman and pull-back cars. For ages three to six, frogs and air-bladder horses are best.”

“For older kids, bamboo dragonflies and boomerangs, or a yo-yo—Audi Double Diamond, that’s a big brand.”

As the old man spoke, Shen He feigned curiosity. “Grandpa, do you have any new blind boxes? I’d like to buy one for the kid at home.”

The “blind box” Shen He referred to wasn’t the kind sold in supermarkets, but a square plastic box with a colorful paper front, divided into countless little compartments.

Back when he went to school in his hometown, he’d loved buying these—twenty cents for a compartment, with a random little trinket inside—a card, a toy, or something miscellaneous, always a surprise.

Hearing this, the old man said, “Sure! I’ve got some in my tricycle. Let me look for one.”

While the old man turned to search his tricycle, Shen He quickly opened the treasure chest.

With a flash of light, a glowing dot lay quietly inside the chest.

He reached out and touched it.

The next moment, a stream of information surged into his mind.

[Congratulations, player, you have acquired a new skill!]

[No Honor in Combat: When you activate this skill, you will always create an opportunity and succeed in a sneak attack. The mental energy consumed depends on your opponent’s strength.]

(Note: Do not try to ambush enemies that are too strong, or you won’t even be able to break through their defenses.)

As he sensed the new skill in his mind, Shen He couldn’t help but feel the treasure chest was mocking him.

After all, he’d just gone head-to-head with the old man to open this little box—it was a bit embarrassing.

That said, the skill was indeed a good one.

If he ever faced an opponent he couldn’t handle, he could simply activate the skill and finish them off in a single move.

He’d thought the items in these chests would all be odds and ends, mere side rewards for the main task.

But unexpectedly, he’d gotten something excellent.

Now, he wasn’t in a hurry to open the main quest reward; in fact, opening more blind boxes sounded appealing.

Soon, the old man returned from his tricycle with a new set of blind boxes, smiling as he handed it to Shen He. “Not many people play with these anymore. I’ll give it to you at cost—fifty yuan.”

Shen He’s eyebrows arched—rather cheap, actually. He took it with a smile, scanned the fifty yuan with his phone, exchanged a few words with the old man, and then walked away.

But as he left, he vaguely heard the old man chuckling, “Cost me fifteen, sold it for more than triple. Young people these days are great, never haggle. If it were me, I wouldn’t buy it unless I bargained it down to sixteen yuan.”

Shen He: “…”

He looked back at the old man, who was grinning at his phone, no doubt sharing his little windfall with his family.

Shen He spent another ten points to activate guidance.

On his regional map, the glowing dot for the seventeenth treasure chest instantly appeared.

And it wasn’t far away—just twenty or thirty meters off, beside the ornamental pond.

The area was deserted—the perfect place to open another treasure chest!