Hell's Handbook

Chapter 142: The Gods’ Ceremony

Number of Surviving Team Members: 3, 300 points

Degree of Challenge Participation: A-, 500 points

170 Level 1 Mutants killed; 20 Level 2 Mutants killed; 3 Level 3 Mutants killed: 840 points

Points Received: 3640

Total Points: 5860

Su Jin breathed a big sigh of relief when he saw the number of surviving team members. He had merely guessed that Chu Yi was not considered dead by becoming a zombie and looked very confident on the outside, but he really didn’t understand the virus well and had been very anxious all this time. He could finally relax now.

He took a look at the items he could exchange his points for in his Personal Hell Domain but there was nothing interesting among them. Kano Mai had told him previously that the chances of getting anything really good out of the Personal Hell Domain were pretty low.

“I don’t really have anything I need now, so maybe…I’ll do a lucky draw?” Su Jin rubbed his hands together. The one thing he bookmarked in his catalog was actually those Lucky Draw Bags. They cost 100 points each and even though the chances of it turning up something good were low, he couldn’t help but want to try his luck again and again.

When he thought about how they might find something really valuable in the team’s Hell Domain catalog, Su Jin decided not to spend too much and exchanged his points for just eight bags. His scowling only got worse as he opened each of the bags. Every bag only had a thank you message and nothing else. In his anger, he exchanged his points for another ten bags.

He immediately regretted his decision when he got the bags and really felt like slapping himself, but he chose to open the bags anyway. At least there was something in these bags.

“High grade blood clotting bandages, single-use human mask, winning luck.” Su Jin stared at the things in his hands and didn’t know what to say. While these things weren’t completely useless, they were certainly not worth the number of points he had spent on them.

“This is the last bag. May Lady Luck shine on me!” muttered Su Jin to himself before opening the bag. There was a book inside.

Su Jin was quite surprised. This was a purple-colored book and his name was printed on it in a very odd font. Su Jin couldn’t understand a single word inside the book, so he kept it inside his Handbook and finally found out what this book really was.

“Skill manual for Stellar Streams Heavy Armor. This skill will harden all the air and blood in one’s body so that the owner will increase their defense very significantly over a short period of time. While skill is in use, the owner cannot move.” Su Jin did not expect to get something like this at all.

He had gone through several Challenges now and had never come across a skill manual. This skill was a defense one and it was probably a really powerful one, except that he couldn’t move while it was in use.

In other words, whenever he used this skill, he would become a target board. He’d be a more resilient than usual target board, but one nonetheless. He hesitated for a moment, but chose to learn how to use this skill anyway. It wasn’t great but there was no harm in adding another skill to his bag. It might come in handy in the future.

Learning it was easy anyway. Just like how it worked in those lousy games, Su Jin just had to confirm that he wanted to learn the skill, then place his hand on the book. The book slowly disappeared and the skill appeared inside Su Jin’s head.

“Stellar Streams Heavy Armor!” shouted Su Jin in order to activate the skill. He immediately felt as though his entire body had become a lot heavier. His body hardened all over, as though he had become a block of steel.

During this time, Su Jin felt like he was being tortured. Stopping the circulation of blood was definitely something that went against the way a human body worked, so if Su Jin’s body weren’t strong enough, executing this skill might almost kill him.

Su Jin exhaled deeply after some time and his body went back to normal again. His body was strong enough to use this skill for about three minutes. Any longer and he might die.

When he walked into the Team Hell Domain, Chu Yi was already waiting inside and Kano Mai hadn’t arrived yet. Su Jin immediately smiled at Chu Yi and asked, “How was it? How was it like being a zombie?”

Chu Yi looked at Su Jin as if he was about to cry. He scratched his head and wailed, “It was so awwwwwfuuuuulllll I nearly criiiiiiedddddd…”

“Please speak properly.”

Chu Yi stopped pretending to be the most pitiful person in the world and said with a frightened look on his face, “It was really awful. I could still think normally but I couldn’t control my actions at all. I was so afraid you might shoot me dead.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t shoot you. Even if I couldn’t stand it, I’d use my sword to lop your head off,” said Su Jin with a hearty laugh.

Chu Yi shrank back and grumbled, “I’d rather you shot me. At least I’d die in one piece.”

After that, he had a serious expression on his face as he said, “Boss, I really want to thank you. If not for you, I’m sure I would have died during this Challenge.”

Su Jin really couldn’t stand how Chu Yi looked at him with those puppy eyes, as if Chu Yi was ready to offer himself to Su Jin to repay him for not killing him. “Ugh please! I wouldn’t have minded if Mai behaved like this, but not you.”

“Jin, please watch your words,” Kano Mai’s voice suddenly resounded from behind.

Su Jin laughed awkwardly but she ignored him and asked Chu Yi with a smile, “Are you alright?”

“Uh huh. It’s terrible to be a zombie. I still prefer being human,” said Chu Yi with a laugh.

After they had finished laughing at one another, Su Jin told his team mates about the skill manual he had received. Kano Mai said in surprise, “You’re a really lucky one, aren’t you? It’s very rare to find a kill manual in the Handbook universe, and it’s said that any skill offered in the universe is an excellent one.”

Su Jin felt much better about spending so many points on useless Lucky Draw Bags after hearing what Kano Mai said.

After that, he took out the Badge of the Fools to show the other two. “This is the Badge of the Fools, a guiding object we’ve received for completing this Challenge perfectly,” explained Su Jin.

Kano Mai was puzzled. “I don’t think we completed this Challenge perfectly. We didn’t even kill the Level 4 Mutant at the end.”

Su Jin grinned mysteriously, which made Kano Mai ask him, “What did you do?”

“Oh, it was nothing really. When I was fighting the Level 4 Mutant, I swiped the poison from the zombified Professor Charlemagne and gave it to the Fools in the Safe Zone.” Kano Mai and Chu Yi were certain that if Su Jin were an animated character, his nose would be high in the air right now from being so secretly proud of himself.

The Badge of the Fools was merely a Level D Challenge’s Guiding Object, but it was still a rare item in the Handbook’s universe after all. They decided to just keep it for the time being and proceeded to see if there was anything worth exchanging points for in their team catalog.

As they looked through all the new items in their catalog, their attention was attracted to one small item.

“Smart module for firearms. After installing, it will adapt the weapon according to the user’s habits and evolve the weapon. Points required: 3000.”

“I want this,” said Kano Mai without hesitation. Her Soul Whisperer was the type of firearm that fit the requirements. Now that she had Spirit Power, her Soul Whisperer wasn’t really good enough for her anymore, but it was hard to find a better weapon than this sniper gun. This smart module was just right for it.

After she exchanged her points for the item, an item that resembled a pigeon’s egg appeared in her Handbook. She placed it on her Soul Whisperer and it instantly melted to coat the entire gun.

Neither Su Jin nor Chu Yi found anything that was suitable for themselves, so Su Jin went on to pass Chu Yi the Key to Immortality that he had kept for him.

“Goodness, appraising this item needs 5000 points?!” Su Jin was shocked at the points needed just to appraise this item. Based on how things worked in the Handbook, the more it cost to appraise an item, the more valuable an item was. This Key to Immortality was probably way more incredible than he had imagined.

“How did such an item end up appearing inside a Level D Challenge?” Kano Mai was surprised too.

Chu Yi had enough points to spare, so he proceeded to appraise the item. He was even more shocked by the description that appeared in his Handbook and he quickly showed it to the other two.

“This is a sacrificial item required for the Gods’ Ceremony. The ceremony can be activated once five of such items have been gathered and you will receive a gift from the gods.”

The description was a bit vague and it didn’t explain what the ceremony or the gift was. But as far as Su Jin’s experience went, anything connected to the gods had to be something pretty amazing.

They had four of these Keys, but the ceremony probably only required one of them. If possible, Su Jin was happy to gather more of these sacrificial items and activate the ceremony.

After returning to the real world, Su Jin and Kano Mai did not return to S City. Han Mengyao had been following them all this time, but she had no idea that the two of them had completed a Challenge. To her, Su Jin and Kano Mai had merely gone out of her sight for less than 30 seconds.

Back in Hell’s Bar, Ye Yun was sitting by herself and attending to her wounds. These wounds had been inflicted outside of a Challenge, so she couldn’t get her Personal Hell Domain to heal her. Judging from how exhausted and injured she was, she had probably escaped into Hell’s Bar because she had been placed in a really desperate situation.

“Your injuries are even more serious than the last time you were here. The same guys are running after you?” The boss spoke to her like he was talking to an old friend.

Ye Yun made a face and scoffed. “They’re just a bunch of despicable idiots. But there are so many of them, so it’s really hard to deal with them. Argh!”

“If they are too many for you to handle, why don’t you consider finding some help?” asked the boss with a smile.

She considered his suggestion for a while, then shook her head. “Forget it. I don’t want team mates who are too weak. Unless…”

“Unless…?”

“Unless those people are really formidable, like those owners who managed to complete a Level A Challenge perfectly! That’s my minimum requirement for a team mate!” said Ye Yun in a matter-of-fact voice.

The boss laughed in response but did not say anymore. Ye Yun frowned and started thinking more about this suggestion. Perhaps she really did need some team mates to help with those people. But at the same time, if she wanted to deal with those people, she had to make sure her team mates were really very, very powerful.