Hell's Handbook

Chapter 227: A New Sort Of System

Nobody tried to stop them on their journey back to China from Japan, mostly because Su Jin had defeated a grandmaster and also because he turned out to be a high ranking government official. As a result, neither the legal nor illegal parties dared to do anything to Su Jin.

.

Once they got back to S City, they found Situ Jin waiting outside their door. Situ Jin laughed and said, “Not bad, huh! You went to Japan for just a few days and I got a call from the embassy to check your credentials.”

“You’re doing well too! There’s nothing left for you to do in B City, huh! Is that why you keep coming to S City to haunt me?” said Su Jin with a laugh as well. Situ Jin had been coming over very frequently recently, as though he couldn’t bear to use his points to make use of Hell’s Bar or something.

“I’m not here to haunt you. I was already informed of your return when you bought your tickets in Japan, so I’ve only arrived 10 minutes earlier than you,” said Situ Jin.

Su Jin unlocked the door and they walked into the house before Su Jin said, “The S City Special Police can’t wait any longer, I suppose? B City and S City share almost equal status to the top brass, so the Department of Supernatural Affairs is actually not that much superior to the Special Police, right?”

Situ Jin had an awkward look on his face when Su Jin mentioned the Special Police. He frowned and said, “It’s true that they’re getting a little troublesome now. Yang Tianzheng has been pressuring the top brass and I won’t be able to come here as often anymore.”

“Thank god!” said Su Jin as he laughed and clapped.

Situ Jin rolled his eyes, then said, “Let’s head to Hell’s Bar first. Wu Chen has been working very hard these few days, but I didn’t contact you guys because I didn’t want to interrupt what you were doing in Japan.”

Su Jin nodded and entered Hell’s Bar after contacting Wu Chen. The three of them hadn’t arrived for long when Wu Chen arrived as well. He sat down, ordered a glass, drank it down in one shot and exhaled deeply.

“Ahhh! That felt great! Hell’s Bar has the best alcoholic drinks in the world: the ones in our universes are as good as horse piss,” said Wu Chen with a hearty laugh. The rest of the table agreed. The drinks at Hell’s Bar were really the best in the world. Once you got used to that standard, the usual drinks became hard to swallow.

“Situ said that you’ve gathered quite some information recently. Tell us about it,” said Su Jin after Wu Chen was done drinking.

Wu Chen’s expression became serious as he said, “That’s right, I’ve gotten quite a bit of information recently. One piece of information also affirms what you talked about in our Team Hell Domain.”

“Oh? What did I say?”

“You said that many teams would be able to complete their first Challenge after the major announcement perfectly. Based on the information going around, more than ten teams have managed to complete their first Challenge perfectly,” said Wu Chen as he gesticulated wildly.

“Ten odd teams? That’s not a lot.” Su Jin tapped his nose with his finger. Even though this wasn’t the actual number, it was probably representative of how many had actually done it. His estimate had been much higher than this.

Wu Chen widened his eyes and snapped, “Not a lot? Listen. Before this major announcement, any team who could complete a Challenge perfectly was practically a legend, regardless of what level the Challenge completed was. Back when Team Boning Knife completed a Level A Challenge perfectly, the team had caused an uproar. Besides yourselves, almost all the high level owners could hardly believe that it happened.”

Su Jin laughed and said, “I know. But this first Challenge is different from the Challenges before. The Challenge was leading the owners, so it was obviously trying to help everyone familiarize themselves with the new system. It shouldn’t be difficult for a complete team to get through this Challenge, and if you’ve got a reliable strategist, it wouldn’t be surprising for the team to complete the Challenge perfectly.”

“That’s easy for you to say. But finding a reliable strategist… don’t you think that’s a little too much to ask for?” Situ Jin piped up.

Su Jin shrugged. He suddenly thought of Xiang Nan. Besides the announcements about the owner rankings and changes in the Challenges, there were other small changes. If owners weren’t observant, they might miss it, but the Handbook could now allow owners to have a friends list of sorts.

So, besides the owners that belonged to your team, you could add an owner outside your team to this list and page for them through the Handbook. This function only worked within Hell’s Bar, and both Su Jin and Xiang Nan had added each other to their lists.

Shortly after Su Jin sent a message, Xiang Nan responded. He told Su Jin to just wait for him in Hell’s Bar.

A moment later, Xiang Nan appeared before them. He had come alone and was dressed casually, so he looked a lot more cheery.

“Hello!” Xiang Nan greeted everyone at the table, then sat across from Su Jin.

“How are things? I suppose you managed the most recent Challenge well,” said Su Jin.

Xiang Nan nodded and said, “It wasn’t too bad at all. I got a Level D Challenge and we completed it perfectly.”

“Congrats!” said Su Jin as he put a palm over his fist as a show of respect to Xiang Nan. He proceeded to say casually, “Us too. We got a Level C Challenge and we completed it perfectly as well.”

“Hey, don’t you guys think these two seem to be competing?” Situ Jin sent a message to Kano Mai and Wu Chen via his Handbook.

“Clever people are always like this. After they’ve accomplished something great, they’d just mention it casually as though it doesn’t matter. It’s worse when they’re equally clever. They won’t sit down and compare cars, houses or women like everyone else, but they’d be comparing who did something cleverer!” replied Wu Chen.

“There’s a Chinese phrase about how scholars often don’t think highly of one another. Can that phrase be used on these two?” Kano Mai asked.

Su Jin and Xiang Nan had no clue that the other three at the table were talking about them at all. Xiang Nan asked, “Do you feel like this last Challenge was a little too simple? It felt like…”

“…playing an RPG game with hints on how to get through the stage,” said Su Jin as he shook his head.

“What hints?!” screamed Kano Mai, Wu Chen and Situ Jin simultaneously inside their heads.

Xiang Nan nodded in agreement. He even looked a little disappointed as he said, “I guess you could say that the Handbook was trying to help owners get used to the new things in Challenges, but by doing this… it makes the Challenges a lot less fun!”

“Trying your best to freaking survive has NEVER been fun!!” yelled the other three in their hearts once more.

Su Jin nodded in agreement and murmured, “It was indeed a lot less fun.” The two team leaders suddenly exchanged a knowing glance, which only sent shudders down the spines of the other three at the table.

“Since the first Challenge after the major announcement was this simple, we’ll have to be very careful for the next one. There’s a possibility that the Handbook will increase the difficulty in increments, but given how the Handbook also enjoys trolling the owners, it might also spring a huge surprise on us,” said Su Jin with a serious look on his face.

Xiang Nan nodded. “I agree. By the way, something happened during our Challenge and I would like to ask for your opinion on it.”

“What happened?”

“During the Challenge, Tian Lili somehow ended up becoming a disciple to one of the characters inside the Challenge. This character taught her how to control her medium powers. Do you think it’s a coincidence?” asked Xiang Nan.

Su Jin blinked in surprise and burst out laughing. “I don’t think so. Something similar happened to Wu Chen as well. He’s learned some sort of magic from a character in the Challenge.”

Xiang Nan was shocked and turned to stare at Wu Chen. Wu Chen nodded and affirmed Su Jin’s words. Xiang Nan then said, “If that’s the case, it means that the Handbook has begun a new sort of development system!”

“Looks like that’s the case. I think the Handbook has realized that if the owners rely solely on awakening their Spirit Powers, they’re going to take too long to become more powerful and their chances of dying are very high. There are some owners who are outstanding in various aspects, but end up dying in a Challenge purely because they haven’t received a Spirit Power.”

“By having a different way to develop, these outstanding owners will have an alternative way of growing stronger before they awaken their Spirit Power,” said Su Jin slowly. The other three nodded in agreement as well.

But Xiang Nan understood what else Su Jin was implying and said, “So, you’re saying that Spirit Power is still going to be the main thing in the future?”

“Yup. Based on the current situation, you can become more powerful through picking up these additional skills in the Challenges, but the types of skills are more fixed and I don’t think they’d have a very high upper limit,” said Su Jin confidently.

“Oh? They won’t have a very high upper limit? Why are you so sure… OH! I get it.” Xiang Nan realized why very quickly. “It’s the amount of time. You won’t be able to learn much during the short time in the Challenge, so it’s not going to be possible to fully grasp a skill in such a short time. Even if you complete the Challenge perfectly and get a Guiding Object to return to the same Challenge, you still won’t get a lot of time.”

Wu Chen nodded and said, “That’s right. The sort of magic I know is only at an average level, so even if I become amazing at everything I know right now, I won’t get very far. And I reached this level only after I was able to return to the same Challenge.”

Su Jin continued, “So it’s safe to conclude that learning these skills will definitely have a problem with a low upper limit, unless the Handbook has some way to make up for this.”

Xiang Nan nodded, then asked puzzledly, “Based on what you’ve said, it seems like the Handbook is trying to choose the most powerful of owners. But… why?”

Su Jin was stunned for a moment. Xiang Nan was truly an intelligent person, since he was able to reach this conclusion from casual conversation. But there were some things that Su Jin couldn’t tell him. Whether Xiang Nan could arrive at the truth of the matter would depend on his encounters in the future.

After they left Hell’s Bar, the team went through a relaxing period again. But Su Jin’s heart was going through greater and greater turmoil, because he couldn’t stop thinking about Ye Yun.

Finally, the day came for them to enter their next Challenge. The four members of Team Boning Knife contacted one another and started their next Challenge.