Chapter 17: Exchanging Honor Points?

Xiao Si was excited: "What is it?"

Ling Lan laughed: "After so many years, even if there is a hardware server for the network to store everything, I believe not all books could be saved…you go online and see if there's such a demand."

Xiao Si was somewhat unhappy.  Even if there was a demand, it certainly wouldn't be a lot.  It would probably be just enough for pocket money.  He wanted to buy gene stimulation medicine for Ling Lan, the more the better.  This wasn't even enough money to plug up teeth.

Ling Lan helplessly flicked Xiao Si on the forehead, saying: "Do not underestimate this.  We have to acc.u.mulate initial capital and then find other ways to make money.  Otherwise, even if we have an opportunity, without initial capital it's all just a delusion."

Xiao Si finally understood and felt a heavy burden placed on his body.  He stood up straight and patted his chest: "Don't worry about it, let me deal with everything."  That cute 'believe in me, I'm pretty good' appearance made Ling Lan chuckle in her heart.  She inevitably once more felt fortunate that there was Xiao Si this little guy around who put all his effort into working for her.

The two of them discussed a bit more before deciding that the work on the virtual network would be completely Xiao Si's responsibility.  Being careful was the most important thing.  The work would mostly be slowly acc.u.mulating initial funds, it had to be done as secretly as possible.  In truth, they really didn't have to worry.  Even if they could purchase gene stimulation agents, who could use it?  Xiao Si was just a virtual existence while Ling Lan was only a baby who could only crawl and not walk.

After Ling Lan gave all the responsibilities to Xiao Si, she carefreely washed up and went to sleep.  She left Xiao Si, who was in the virtual world, to slowly begin preparing funds through her method.

Ling Lan was a completely hands off person, and thus no longer cared about this matter.  She never asked about Xiao Si's progress, which moved him very much.  Look at how much his host trusts him, ah.  He must work his hardest or die trying1.

In the past period, Xiao Si, in order to help a customer repair Romance of the Three Kingdoms, spent countless nights consuming millions of words.  Afterwards, he was completely fascinated and immediately changed from calling Ling Lan host2 to master2.  Every time Ling Lan heard him call her that, she felt a bit depressed3, ah.  Why did this little kid really love cosplaying?

In all it could only be said that Xiao Si was very pure.  He honestly didn't know that the reason why Ling Lan didn't ask was because she didn't put this on her mind.  For Ling Lan, being able to make money would be great, but not making any money didn't matter.  After all, it was Xiao Si fiddling around and his own business.  Whether it was good or bad, she didn't care, so long as she could see Xiao Si busying himself and no longer feel as lonely as he did before.

Alright, the truth was Ling Lan's choice to allow Xiao Si to be responsible for this action was just to coax him.  Poor little Xiao Si was tricked just like that.

Time pa.s.sed quickly and Ling Lan finally became a toddler that could walk on her legs.  During this period, she received another medicine injection, this time absorbing only 10 doses before withdrawing.  The people the military had sent was still the same people.  Perhaps due to prior mental preparation, when they saw this situation they were very calm – even having the delusion that the absorption of ten doses was actually a very common thing, why make a fuss?  It can only be said that people in the military were very adaptable, their ability to accept things out of the ordinary was extremely strong.

At around Ling Lan's 16th month, she, as usual, began to practice her forms.  She methodically began to form all nine positions one by one.  In truth, around her fifteenth month or so, Ling Lan had already learned the 9th position.  After that, every day she would in accordance to their order, work on the nine positions.  If there was any incorrect areas, she would correct it, and gradually worked on integrating these nine positions into her instinct.

When Ling Lan finished the ninth position, she suddenly felt a warm flow of heat that was so comfortable she couldn't help but groan.  This was something she hadn't felt before.  Although when she finished all nine positions in the past her body would feel very warm and comfortable, it didn't have this sensation of floating in air4.

Ling Lan was still comfortably lying in bed and experiencing the pleasurable body feedback when she found her consciousness had already entered the learning s.p.a.ce.

Before it had always been her actively entering.  She had never unconsciously entered before.

Ling Lan didn't have a chance to protest the overbearing action of the learning s.p.a.ce when a chilling man appeared out of thin air opposite to her.

Shocked, Ling Lan immediately became serious:  "h.e.l.lo Mentor No. 1!"  She absolutely couldn't allow this terrible man realize she was upset.  Ling Lan's instincts told her that if she angered this man, even if she didn't die, she'd still have to shed a layer of skin.

"First of all, congratulations on your perfection of the high-level body technique's base foundation."  No. 1's expression was as blank as his first appearance, his tone cold.

But, although Ling Lan didn't know how, she felt that mentor No. 1 was happy.

"Now you will receive the reward you deserve," No. 1 continued.

Ling Lan felt some excitement.  What kind of reward would mentor No. 1 give her?

Immediately, a mechanical voice sounded in Ling Lan's ears: "Reward: Firstly, the time remaining is 49 days, equivalent to 49 honor points.  Secondly, test result: perfect, reward 100 honor points.  The sum of these two rewards is 149.  Please pay attention and check."

Ling Lan, who was facing No. 1, realized that the mechanical voice didn't come from No. 1.  Instead, it seemed like it was the voice of the learning s.p.a.ce's system.

Ling Lan smiled wryly.  She really did suffer hindsight.  The sound of No. 1's voice, although very cold, was very clear and bright.  It absolutely had none of these mechanical sensations.  However, unfortunately the first time mentor No. 1 appeared behind her, so she did not notice this and had misunderstood until today.

Mentor No. 1's voice sounded once again:  "Now I will explain to you the use of honor points.  In addition to required courses within the learning system, there are many other extracurricular courses that require the spending of honor points to unlock and study.  Of course, there are game and entertainment ones too.  It is your choice to decide on how to use these honor points."

"Use? Does this mean that honor points aren't that easy to obtain?"  Ling Lan calmly asked.  She was very clear, No. 1's words were likely to have a hidden deep meaning.  It might even be a test, not allowing Ling Lan even a moment of laxness.

Unfortunately, this time's question, No. 1 did not answer and was silent.  However, Ling Lan could feel a touch of a barely perceptible smile in his eyes.  Perhaps she had already answered correctly – honor points were really precious.  Perhaps the initial huge distribution was also a trap to create an illusion that it was easy to obtain, causing people to use them up quickly.

A large screen suddenly appeared in front of Ling Lan.  It had a large amount of categories and options.  It seemed that these were all things that required honor points to redeem.

"Do I have to choose now?"  Ling Lan stubbornly continued asking.  Now that she knew that they were very important, she didn't want to recklessly waste these precious honor points.

No. 1 spoke: "You must redeem, this is one of the cla.s.ses." No. 1 destroyed her wishful thinking, "you have to redeem within ten minutes, otherwise something will be automatically selected by the system."

Hearing this, Ling Lan's heart moved.  She seemed to sense something.  Thus she no longer wasted time and started to open the exchange window.

—

Translated by somnious, unedited

1 鞠躬盡瘁死而後已 (jūgōngjìncuì sǐ érhòu yǐ): it's a Chinese idiom that essentially means sparing no effort to work until one's dying day.  Let us cry some sympathetic tears for Xiao Si ah.

2 宿主 (sùzhǔ),  主公 (zhǔgōng): Initially Xiao Si called Ling Lan suzhu, but changed it to zhugong, which is a really old fas.h.i.+oned way to say 'master'.

3 風中凌亂 (fēng zhōng língluàn): It's a Chinese slang that literally means to feel messy and chaotic and somehow leads to 'depressed'.

4 飄飄欲仙 (piāo piāo yù xiān): It literally translates as 'floating immortality' and describes a comfortable lightness or pleasure.