Translator: AnubisTL
Two-Star Random Item Chests differed from Three-Star Random Item Chests.
Three-Star Random Item Chests allowed players to choose a category, such as "Vehicles" or "Weapons."
Two-Star Random Item Chests, however, lacked such categorization, offering purely random selections.
Soon, a Two-Star Random Item Chest was opened.
[Item Name]: Sorrowful Calendar
[Item Star]: Two-Star Item
[Item Effect]: This calendar contains 365 tear-off pages, one for each day. Each page bears a single sentence. The first person who mentally recites or reads aloud the sentence on a given day, influenced by you, will have their heart instantly overwhelmed by uncontrollable sorrow, potentially leading to extreme actions. This effect lasts for 24 hours, and the affected individual remains unaware of any abnormality.
[Item Restriction]: Torn-off calendar pages expire after 24 hours and cannot be stored.
[Item Description]: Do you know how to create a perfect villain? It's simple: throw someone into darkness, give them a glimmer of hope, then crush that precious hope before their eyes, stomping it into the mud. Finally, amplify the sorrow in their heart until it consumes them.
"Hmm?"
Chen Jiang frowned slightly, staring at the item before him without speaking. To be honest, he didn't quite understand its purpose.
With the European Emperor's Blessing buff active, he should have obtained a decent item, but this one clearly didn't seem very useful.
Uncontrollable Sorrow.
It sounded... difficult to visualize concretely.
After pondering for a moment, he tore off the first calendar page. As it came loose, a short sentence in pale blue script slowly materialized on the page:
If emotions were weather, I'd be trapped in the rain.
Apart from this sentence, the calendar page was completely blank.
Not even the date was printed.
A calendar without a date was like a wife cake without a wife—utterly absurd!
Moreover, the sentence read like something he might have posted on social media as a teenager, a bit cringeworthy.
Just then—
Scar Dog leaned in curiously. "Brother Jiang, what item did you get?"
"A calendar?"
"A calendar without a date? What the hell..."
Mid-sentence, Scar Dog suddenly stiffened slightly, his gaze fixed on the line of text. He murmured in a voice barely louder than a fly's buzz, "If emotions were weather, I'd be trapped in the rain."
Lost in thought, Scar Dog abruptly lowered his head and fell silent.
A moment later, Scar Dog finally raised his head to look at Brother Jiang. His eyes were slightly red, with visible bloodshot veins, and he forced a stiff smile onto his rigid cheeks. "Brother Jiang, I'm suddenly feeling a bit tired. I'll go rest for a while."
Without waiting for Chen Jiang's reply, a phantom gate appeared beneath Scar Dog's feet, and he vanished from the spot in an instant.
"Damn it..."
Chen Jiang glanced worriedly in the direction Scar Dog had disappeared. Why is that kid so reckless? He sticks his nose into everything.
Scar Dog possessed a defensive item Chen Jiang had given him, one that could block rule-based attacks. However, that item only granted immunity to Rule Kill. While the Sorrowful Calendar was also a rule item, it was clearly a weaker one. Its rules couldn't cause death or injury, so the three-star item "Rule-Ignoring Token" Scar Dog carried couldn't nullify its effects.
"What does it say up there?"
Li Hao leaned in curiously, his gaze landing on the line of text on the calendar. "It's just a normal sentence," he said, puzzled. "Why did Scar Dog react so strongly? Does that phrase hold some special memory for him?"
Scar Dog's reaction had been undeniably abnormal.
Ever since Li Hao had known him, Scar Dog had never shown such emotion. How could a man who spat phlegm on the ground, cursed incessantly, and smoked constantly suddenly reveal such vulnerability?
Chen Jiang sighed softly and shook his head. "It's nothing. This event has been exhausting for everyone. You guys should go rest for a while too."
This calendar only worked on the day the first person silently recited the phrase.
He roughly understood how to use the item now.
There was no need to show the original calendar to anyone. He simply needed to write the phrase in a letter and send it to an opponent. Once the opponent silently recited the phrase, they would be trapped within the rule.
The drawback was that it only worked on the first person who saw it.
If someone intercepted it midway, there was no way to recover.
It wasn't an overwhelmingly powerful item, but it was definitely top-tier among two-star items. Finding a rule item within the two-star range was already more than he could ask for.
I should go comfort Scar Dog.
Chen Jiang sighed helplessly. He was truly terrible at comforting people—to be precise, he had never done it before. On Blue Star, Scar Dog had never needed his comfort either.
Both of them were the type who were accustomed to and skilled at comforting themselves.
Men rarely expressed their negative emotions to each other.
But before that...
He should open the other Two-Star Random Item Chest first.
Soon, another item panel materialized in the air.
[Item Name]: Rainbow Bridge
[Item Star]: Two-Star Item
[Item Effect]: Creates a rainbow bridge in mid-air. When bullets pass beneath the bridge, they gain a rainbow trail effect. Upon impact or explosion, they unleash a rainbow-colored burst. Wounds inflicted by these rainbow bullets cannot be healed.
[Item Description]: "War can be beautiful too." — A two-meter-tall, muscular man on some planet, dressed in women's clothing, wielding a Barbie wand in one hand and a Gatling gun in the other.
Chen Jiang stood motionless, his face expressionless, unsure what to say.
To be honest, the item's effect was quite impressive—it made wounds inflicted by his shells and bullets unhealable.
One could argue it was useful; unhealable wounds often meant certain death. But for Chen Jiang, this item was utterly useless.
Until now, he had never encountered anyone who could survive being hit by his cannon fire long enough to seek medical treatment.
A cannonball with a caliber of over ten meters exploding? Injuries?
Don't make me laugh.
Even a forensic pathologist with ten years of experience would need a year or two of overtime just to collect the human remains.
I'll keep it for now.
Maybe I'll encounter enemies with ridiculously strong defenses who can withstand my cannon fire someday? Though that seems unlikely.
He turned to Li Hao, who was still nearby. "Where's Scar Dog?"
"Let me check."
Li Hao quickly located Scar Dog's position on the map. "He's above the tree trunk, right next to your treehouse, Brother Jiang."
"Got it."
Chen Jiang nodded slightly, immediately activated his Seven-Eyed Mechanical Wing, and flew upward toward the tree trunk.
Soon, he spotted Scar Dog.
It was already dusk. Before entering this activity, the sky had barely been light; now, after it ended, darkness had fallen.
The sun was gradually setting, while the moon rose simultaneously, as if eager to start its shift. It was clearly still in its internship phase, full of that self-deceptive enthusiasm for work.
Scar Dog stood in the rain, a wet cigarette dangling from his fingers, staring blankly into the distance, lost in thought.
The rain, neither heavy nor light, seemed to envelop only him.
Above his head hovered a phantom gate, its ethereal frame constantly gazing down at the dripping raindrops.
"..."
Seeing this, Chen Jiang felt a headache coming on. Damn it, am I really going to have to comfort Scar Dog like he's some damsel in distress?
The item's effect seemed useless at first glance, but in this situation, it felt particularly troublesome.
"Um... Scar Dog," Chen Jiang hesitated before speaking. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Scar Dog replied without turning around, his back to Chen Jiang, standing alone in the rain, his voice hoarse. "Just suddenly remembered some things."
"Things I'd thrown into the corners of my memory palace."
"Brother Jiang, do you remember those days when we worked as waiters?"
"Mm-hmm," Chen Jiang replied, frowning slightly, his tone tinged with resignation. "I remember."
Scar Dog nodded and continued murmuring.
"It was a Huaiyang cuisine restaurant. I'll never forget it."
"The restaurant was high-end, and the dishes were expensive."
"We were officially hired as servers, but our specific role was food runners. We'd carry those beautifully plated dishes from the kitchen to the customers."
"Back then, many food runners would sneak a bite or two while delivering the food."
"Brother Jiang, you always told me not to. You said we were only working as food runners temporarily because we were down on our luck, and stealing food would make us no better than beggars."
"But I just wanted to taste it. I wanted to know what such an expensive dish tasted like. So one time, when you weren't around, I snuck a bite."
"Just one bite."
"But that one bite was spotted by a passing customer. He had a cigarette dangling from his lips and reeked of alcohol."
"He smiled at me, a friendly smile. Just when I thought he was laughing at my gluttony, he spoke, uttering a simple sentence."
"Let me slap you, or I'll report this to your supervisor."
"I went over, and he slapped me across the face."
"It didn't hurt, and no one saw it. The guest had taken me into a private room and slapped me in front of everyone."
"Many people laughed at me."
"They laughed heartily."
"I wasn't afraid of being fired by the supervisor. I was worried that if Brother Jiang found out, he'd look down on me."
Scar Dog's eyes reddened slightly as he rasped, "I had almost forgotten about this, but for some reason, it suddenly came back to me. I don't know what I'm feeling, but there's this indescribable tightness in my chest."
"..."
Chen Jiang sighed helplessly again. He casually found a place to sit before pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He lit one, put it in his mouth, and choked on the first puff, coughing loudly.
After a pause, Chen Jiang spoke, "I know about that incident. I was in the restroom at the time and overheard some people outside bragging about it. After listening for a while, I realized the 'fool who stole the vegetables' they were talking about was probably you."
"Ah?"
Scar Dog froze, then turned in disbelief to look at Chen Jiang perched in the tree. "Brother Jiang, you knew about this?"
"Yeah, I knew," Chen Jiang shrugged casually. "It was just a trivial matter. I didn't expect you to hold onto it for so long. After hearing about it, I asked the manager for permission to leave early."
"A dark road, no surveillance cameras, a drunk customer, and a man with a long-standing grudge."
"The rest isn't hard to imagine."
"But I remember you leaving early that day, Brother Jiang. When I asked where you were going, you wouldn't tell me, just told me to keep working, leave as late as possible, and walk back to the dormitory with my colleagues."
"Of course."
Chen Jiang rolled his eyes and glanced at Scar Dog. "How do you investigate a case with no evidence? The first step is to examine the victim's recent relationships—their loves and hates. You two just made an enemy today, so you're the prime suspect. You'll need a solid alibi."
"What?" Scar Dog exclaimed, shocked. "How come I didn't know this?"
"It's a trivial matter, really. Not worth mentioning."
"Besides, telling you might have been awkward, so I just kept it to myself."
"I..." Scar Dog stammered, unsure what to say. He blurted out, "Brother Jiang, did you kill him?"
"What are you thinking?" Chen Jiang snapped, getting up and casually stubbing out his cigarette. He shoved the butt into Scar Dog's chest pocket. "In a law-abiding society with a 99% murder clearance rate, who would dare commit murder? Now get out of here and stop moping around. A grown man crying like this is really annoying."
"Oh." Scar Dog wiped the corner of his eye with his arm and strode after Chen Jiang through the phantom gate, back to the soil beneath the world tree.
Just then—
A ding-dong sound came from the tablet in his chest pocket.
"Hmm?"
Chen Jiang pulled out his tablet and glanced at the message from the Black Europe Company. As he read, he said, "Looks like I won't be getting any rest after all. Got a job."
A notification popped up on the tablet:
[Mr. Jiang Cheng, we've encountered a bit of trouble and need your assistance. It's difficult to explain in a few words. Would you be available for a video call?]
[Available.]
Chen Jiang quickly replied.
The batch of million-dollar items the Black Europe Company had provided had been a significant help to him, though their usefulness had diminished somewhat recently.
This was because his Trash Manufacturing Machines were now producing nearly a million one-star items per day.
Frankly, if the Black Europe Company offered him another million one-star items at this point, he wouldn't be particularly interested.
Upgrading his turrets required an enormous number of one-star items.
To reach the first stage of his enhancement goals, he needed a massive quantity of these items.
In this situation, even millions or tens of millions of one-star items wouldn't make a decisive difference.
(End of the Chapter)
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