Chapter 37: Instant Noodles

There was the Money Card: one eerie point could be exchanged for one thousand Chinese yuan. There was the Refresh Card, which could refresh a task if you were not satisfied with it. There were also Strength Cards, Toughness Cards, Wisdom Cards, Agility Cards, and Charm Cards. After using them, a person could temporarily become stronger, more resistant to blows, smarter, faster at running, and more handsome.

There were also Blood Type Cards: temporarily changing your blood type; Birthday Cards: temporarily altering your birthday and zodiac sign; Language Cards: temporarily mastering a language…

Some particularly amazing ones were the Invisibility Card, which could hide your form for ten minutes; the Teleportation Card: instantly moving ten meters away; the Healing Card: no matter how severe your injuries, as long as you were not dead, using it would completely heal you; the Name Cleansing Card: after using it, all your crimes would be erased, making victims forget you and the police stop pursuing you.

There were also some very strange cards, such as the Gender Card: temporarily changing your gender…

Some cards were displayed in color, indicating that Lü Yang, as a Junior Paranormal Master, could exchange for them. Some cards were gray because Lü Yang’s level was not high enough to exchange for them. There were also cards that didn’t even show a name, labeled with ‘？？？’—these seemed to be special cards that required specific conditions to unlock for exchange.

Besides that, Lü Yang could also use the eerie points in his account to exchange for new components for the eerie computer, adding new features to it. This belonged to the eerie computer’s own upgrade system.

Different cards required different numbers of eerie points for exchange. However, one of the most important points was that these eerie cards could not be used inside the mysterious domain.

In some ways, the existence of eerie cards seemed to protect the owner of the eerie computer in the real world. For example, the Healing Card: if the owner suffered severe, life-threatening injuries in reality and had enough eerie points in their account, it would automatically exchange and heal the owner promptly.

Similarly, if the eerie computer’s owner killed someone or committed a crime in reality while completing supernatural tasks, the Name Cleansing Card could exempt the owner from all legal liabilities.

But if they left the real world and entered a mysterious domain—like the one last night—if Lü Yang died from severe injuries, he could not be protected by the eerie cards and could not use the Healing Card unless the mysterious domain was terminated.

Looking at how these cards required two, three, four, or even more than ten eerie points to exchange, Lü Yang shook his head. He did not dare to exchange them casually. He still needed to save up one hundred eerie points to bring Yi Yi back to life. If he wasted them recklessly, he didn’t know when he could save Yi Yi.

It was important to remember that there was a one-year time limit to save Yi Yi.

“Blue Text Mission released…”

Just as Lü Yang was studying the eerie computer, a message popped up on the screen.

“Task objective: Find the IOU and mobile phone recording in Li Fuqiang’s possession and submit them to the public security authorities. Task reward: 5 eerie points. The task must be completed within one week of release. Failure to complete within the time limit will result in a deduction of 5 eerie points from the account.”

This task came so timely! Lü Yang cursed to himself, but it was also good. He had not intended to let the matter of Sister Mei’s husband’s murder go. He didn’t expect that while helping Sister Mei seek justice, he could also earn an extra 5 eerie points, which was a pleasant surprise.

The last main quest in the mysterious domain only rewarded 2 eerie points, and hunting four porters only rewarded 6 eerie points. But the task of finding the IOU and mobile phone recording offered a reward of 5 eerie points. This made Lü Yang start to suspect the difficulty of this task.

A week also seemed quite tight, especially since Lü Yang was not part of the police system, making this kind of investigation tricky.

However, there was a ‘details’ option for this task. When Lü Yang opened the task details, he discovered that the eerie computer also included several video clips about the whereabouts of the IOU and mobile phone recording.

In the first clip, Li Fuqiang placed a letter, an IOU, and a mobile phone into an iron box and locked it. In the second clip, Li Fuqiang handed the iron box to a woman in her twenties, telling her to keep it safe. He also told her that if he died an unnatural death, she should give the iron box to the public security authorities.

The third clip showed the same woman handing the iron box to a middle-aged man in his thirties. The final clip depicted the middle-aged man placing the iron box into a wall safe, including the scene of him setting the safe’s password. After the man closed the safe, a cabinet panel was installed over it, and then the cabinet door was closed. Clearly, there was a wooden cabinet disguising the safe.

With these video clips, Lü Yang’s investigation time was saved. Getting the IOU and the recording mobile phone became much easier. First, he needed to identify the woman who received Li Fuqiang’s iron box, then figure out who the man was who put the iron box into the safe. Finally, locate the safe, use the password obtained from the video to open it, and retrieve the IOU and mobile phone.

It seemed like it would go smoothly, but Lü Yang thought that since this task rewarded 5 eerie points, the process probably wouldn’t be entirely trouble-free.

…

After studying the Blue Text Mission, Lü Yang’s stomach growled again. He always got hungry quickly. When Yi Yi was around, she would cook something for him if it got too late at night.

But being this hungry tonight made Lü Yang wonder what he had actually eaten at Sister Mei’s house and what had happened after dinner. However, that part of his memory was completely erased, and he felt it wasn’t appropriate to ask Sister Mei about it.

Lü Yang put down the eerie computer and went to the kitchen, intending to cook instant noodles in a pot and fry himself a sunny-side-up egg.

Unexpectedly, there was no gas in the kitchen’s gas tank…

Not only was there no gas in the gas tank, but there were no eggs in the place where eggs used to be stored. The small kitchen in the rented room was covered in a thick layer of dust, as if it hadn’t been used in a long time.

Lü Yang suddenly realized: without Yi Yi to buy groceries and eggs, where would eggs come from? Without Yi Yi to cook meals, he wouldn’t bother to refill the gas tank…

How annoying! Life without Yi Yi was really inconvenient. He couldn’t even cook a few packs of instant noodles and add a fried egg.

He needed to bring her back quickly. Before he knew her, he had muddled through life alone for so long without noticing anything. After having her, he slowly found a sense of home. But now, that home was gone again.

So regrettable! In the future, if Yi Yi wanted something, he would buy it for her as soon as possible, so something like this wouldn’t happen again. She wasn’t someone who liked to spend money much anyway, and tomorrow was her birthday…

Sigh…

The thermos was also empty. Fortunately, there was an electric kettle. After Lü Yang boiled the water, he found a large, unwashed stainless steel bowl by the bed. He then opened several packs of noodles and put them in, tearing open the seasoning packets one by one and adding them. Soon, the water in the electric kettle boiled.

Lü Yang poured the boiling water into the stainless steel bowl and then impatiently started eating the instant noodles.

There was too little water and too much seasoning—it was very salty.

Add more water.

Thankfully, because he had been eating Yi Yi’s cooking for a while, it had been a long time since he had instant noodles, so he didn’t vomit at the smell. Plus, Lü Yang was extremely hungry, and soon he finished the entire large bowl of instant noodles.