I Rely On Poverty To Sweep Through Survival GamesCh32 - Sealed Room

Hearing the knocking on the door, Xiao Lan swiftly got out of bed. He was no longer wearing the formal suit that was very troublesome to manage, and had directly changed back into the clothes he had been wearing when he entered the game. He had a quick shower, then left the room with Luo.

At the door, Xiao Lan noticed that Luo’s gaze was fixed on the room next door. The room to his left was where Luo was staying, and to the right was an unnamed player. wdTPr

“What’s up?” As Xiao Lan spoke, he followed Luo’s gaze.

He then realised that there was an ash-gray mark on that door. It was a little big, and shaped irregularly. It was hard to determine at a look what could leave such a mark.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Luo reached out to touch it for a bit, and white traces were left on his glove.

He said to Xiao Lan, “This is lead powder. It was once used in all women’s makeup, and can make the skin fairer in line with the aesthetics of that era. MUfoS4

“This sort of makeup was more fashionable among the aristocratic class. Nobles generally assumed that only labourers have dark skin, while pale skin is the true symbol of their own status.”

“Lead? Isn’t that thing poisonous?” Xiao Lan felt deep admiration for the bravery of past women in their pursuit of beauty.

Since he learnt that this was for the face, and something that nobles liked, Xiao Lan took stock of the mark on the door again. The more he looked, the more he felt that it was something left behind from a face pressed to the door. Because the surface area was too large and it looked too different to the structure of a regular person’s face, he hadn’t been able to recognise it right away.

In this manor, there was honestly only one person with such a large face and a different structure.

That also meant that after the players returned to their rooms, Madam Bella had once come to the room door of one of the players and pressed right up against the door to listen to the activity inside, while the players were completely unaware.

This was too strange.

Madam Bella’s footsteps were so heavy; if she appeared in the corridor, how could not a single player hear her? Did Madam Bella have a way to conceal her footsteps, or was there a problem with the players’ rooms?

“Luo, did you sense any unusual movements?” Xiao Lan asked. RFPTLC

Luo shook his head. “No. The room I was in was completely normal.”

He had been in Xiao Lan’s room the entire time, and nothing strange had happened. As for other people, he didn’t care about them.

Since there were no clues at the moment, Xiao Lan could only knock on that player’s door and, under the man’s fearful gaze, tell him what had happened.

As for whether or not the player would suffer from insomnia, that had nothing to do with Xiao Lan. P83YHp

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After that, Xiao Lan planned to look for the kitchen first. The best would be if he could find what the servants ate, but if it really wasn’t possible, he would just search for excess ingredients. Madam Bella wouldn’t go so far as to do anything to these basic ingredients ba.

Xiao Lan and Luo avoided the maids on night duty and slowly went down one floor. They searched the floor, and finally found what they suspected to be the kitchen’s location.

But just as they were approaching the kitchen, they heard singing behind the closed kitchen door. zuUxV7

It was a love song narrating one’s love for their beloved.

The singing was melodious and the melody mellow; adding in the fact that the singer had a pleasant and beautiful voice, conscientiously speaking, this song genuinely sounded extremely wonderful.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Coupled with the sound of kitchenware clanging together, one could imagine a woman who was good at singing preparing a meal for their beloved, and it should have been a heartwarming image.

But Xiao Lan recognised this voice. This was — Madam Bella. zhC73H

The current situation was that Madam Bella was singing in the kitchen as she proceeded with her grand undertaking of dark cuisine in what seemed to be high spirits.

On his end, Xiao Lan wasn’t that happy. Miss, don’t you have too much enthusiasm for dark cuisine? You’re not even willing to waste time sleeping?

Madam Bella’s expansive figure was vaguely visible through the narrow door gap; it seemed that the plan to search the kitchen tonight could only be temporarily discarded.

Changing directions, they began to look for the warehouse. 6RiKTp

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The warehouse itself couldn’t be said to be hidden, and the door was very conspicuous. Although there was a lock hanging on it, such an old-fashioned lock was a piece of cake for Xiao Lan to open, and they entered the warehouse in a matter of seconds.

Ktflg iemx kjr qgfaas ubbv; atlr kjgftberf pera tjqqfcfv ab yf erfv ab rabgf obbv.

Kkb oluegfr jirb jqqfjgfv jibcurlvf atf obbv: Qjcu Kjlvl jcv Qjcu Bf. Dbat bo atfw tjv bglulcjiis yffc ralii jr atfs mgbemtfv jcv tevvifv abufatfg jgbecv rbwfatlcu atja ibbxfv ab yf j qba. Qtfc atfs tfjgv atf vbbg bqfc, atfs aegcfv atflg tfjvr ja atf rjwf alwf.

“Xiao Lan! Fei Luo!” Wang Taidi looked like he saw his saviour. He put down the very dubious-looking black substance in his hands and waved at them. aYKUc2

Wang Ke also turned and nodded at them in greeting.

Xiao Lan greeted them and was a little puzzled at the same time. What were they doing?

Walking closer, he realised that there wasn’t just one pot in front of the Wang brothers; four or five identical pots had been haphazardly turned over, and inside all of them was a black, unidentified substance.

It looked like the tragic scene of a car that had flipped over. KhQJIa

Wang Taidi’s eyes flickered with hope. “Xiao Lan, do you know how to cook?”

Faced with Wang Taidi’s eager expectations, Xiao Lan took over the task of cooking. At this time, he realised that these pots were in fact items, and their sole function was to cook food without needing a fire. The finished product, however, ultimately depended completely on the cook’s skills.

Watching Xiao Lan proficiently chop up the ingredients and toss them into the pot, Wang Taidi’s face was filled with gratification.

His brother’s cooking was his childhood nightmare. He never thought that after entering the game, the meals his brother cooked would evolve, thanks to the fantastic oddities of the ingredients; they could simply be described as an alchemist’s trial products. 7gP8dT

While he was cooking, Xiao Lan made use of the time to casually chat with them. “How did you guys come in? I didn’t see any marks on the door lock just now ah.”

Wang Taidi pointed at a window high up the warehouse wall. “By breaking through a window.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Xiao Lan raised his head to look. That window was very high up, and a piece of glass had been forcefully broken, letting in a cold and dismal wind. Immediately, Xiao Lan’s perception of Wang Ke’s style was refreshed.

Xiao Lan was a little curious. “Will you receive a system notification for breaking a window?” k6lovT

Wang Taidi thought about it. “Are you talking about the one that says we’ve drawn more of the boss’s attention to us? This degree of damage is actually quite safe, especially since the manor is so large. We would probably have to tear down several floors to attract Madam Bella’s attention.”

He didn’t mention the poverty value at all. It seemed that only Xiao Lan received notifications for poverty value, while the other players wouldn’t become poorer from destroying props.

“What do you think the game hint means? I have the feeling that it doesn’t truly want us to seduce Madam Bella.” Xiao Lan suddenly thought of this.

Wang Taidi stared at the pot unblinkingly as he said, “Boss hints are sometimes traps as well. In later stages, there are fewer bosses that can give you clear hints. When they don’t give you clear hints, you have to figure it out based on clues.” gTlp 1

Xiao Lan nodded thoughtfully.

It wasn’t long before he finished cooking and distributed the food in the bowls which Wang Ke brought. He then buried his face in it and started eating.

Wang Taidi looked at the sludge in the bowl and sank into reflection and doubt about life and the universe. What just happened? Was there any difference between this and what Madam Bella made? One couldn’t avoid fate; what should come would still do so.

No no no, how could one be so superficial? Food shouldn’t be judged by its appearance; maybe it was extremely delicious? Wang Taidi gathered his courage and picked up a spoonful of the unknown substance from the bowl and put it into his mouth. zx7Ywo

Three seconds later, Wang Taidi’s eyes turned blank. He suddenly felt that Madam Bella’s dinner wasn’t that scary anymore.

Poverty had trained Xiao Lan in survival skills, but evidently hadn’t shed any light on his culinary skills, and instead might have even robbed him of his sense of taste.

Wang Ke ate swiftly without a change in expression, but he gripped his bowl so hard that the veins popped on the back of his hand.

Only Luo elegantly finished the food in his bowl, and he even smiled at Xiao Lan and said, “It’s delicious.” LoFlgU

Human food truly was extremely unique. A simple cooking process was unexpectedly able to turn the food’s appearance into something that was completely unrelated to the original ingredients. This was Mr Luo’s thoughts after eating human food for the first time.

He then received the admiring gazes of the other two people.

Brothers, here’s an amazing person!

. tWHnT8

After eating this dinner that brimmed with imagination, the four of them left the warehouse.

Because he had taken a nap earlier, Xiao Lan didn’t feel sleepy at all now. As such, he and Luo moved together with the Wang brothers through the manor.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

It was now late at night and the entire manor was extremely quiet. In the stillness, only a maid would flash past in the corridor every now and then with a candle holder.

Their attention was caught by a faintly lit room. EfzYt6

After getting closer, they discovered the very stern-looking housekeeper, who had welcomed the players, inside the room. The female housekeeper was still dressed meticulously, without even a hair out of place in the bun on her head.

The female housekeeper seemed to be studying something and was leaning on the table as she carefully wrote and drew. However, there was only faint candlelight in the room and they were very far away, so they were completely unable to see what she was writing.

The housekeeper had a very important status in the manor; what she was writing may be a crucial clue.

Xiao Lan quietly said, “Luo… Fei Luo, can you use your ability to see what the housekeeper is writing?” dyV2N5

He nearly forgot that the other players knew Luo by his fake name, Fei Luo.

Luo immediately understood Xiao Lan’s meaning and nodded. “Yes.”

He reached out one hand in a black glove and gently pressed the wall. A black shadow that the Wang brothers couldn’t see spread out in the room and gradually covered what the housekeeper was writing. After a while, it swiftly withdrew.

The housekeeper was completely unaware throughout the entire process. She even had the time to drink a cup of coffee. SNKMeU

“It’s a blueprint of the manor,” Luo said. “It seems that this place is going to be renovated.”

Xiao Lan: “Did it have any unusual locations on it?”

Luo thought for a moment. “There was a room that was crossed out. From the area and location, it should be a very nice room. It may have belonged to someone with a higher status.”

Xiao Lan: “Usually, a whole family would live in such a large menor, but only the owner, Madam Bella, lives here, which clearly is very strange. Could it be that a lot of people lived here initially, and that room belonged to the original owner?” kuQwHW

Wang Taidi raised a hand. “I think it’s highly likely. And did you guys notice, not only are there no other owners here; there isn’t even a single male servant.”

Male servants… They may be right next to you. Xiao Lan recalled the maid in the cloakroom whom he suspected had an Adam’s apple.

Xiao Lan turned to ask Luo, “Can you draw what you just saw?”

Luo nodded. “Not a problem.” 7gQAj3

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They stealthily returned to the players’ floor and entered Luo’s room.

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

Luo found paper and pencil, lit the candle on the table, and drew out stroke by stroke an identical copy of the blueprint he had seen.

Wang Taidi gave him a thumbs up. “Fei Luo, you’re amazing!” eXaDL0

Luo smiled. “It’s nothing, it’s just something related to my skill.”

He purposely didn’t give any details and merely categorised his ability as a skill. Wang Taidi didn’t question it either. After all, for a player, their skill was related to their life, and most people didn’t want others to know what their skill was, aside from Wang Taidi, who had exposed his skill himself.

Xiao Lan suggested going out to explore for a bit.

Wang Taidi nodded in agreement. FELAaQ

From beginning to end, Wang Ke only watched them wordlessly and didn’t intervene in his brother’s game decisions. He was like a guide who was watching Wang Taidi mature, only planning to step in at a crucial moment.

Following the directions in the blueprint, they arrived at a corridor.

There was now just a gorgeous wall where the room was located on the blueprint, but the placement of this wall was indeed strange. It made the corridor narrower for no reason, and was obviously an extremely unusual structure.

Xiao Lan reached out to knock on the wall. It felt solid, but judging from the sound, the wall wasn’t thick. It appeared that this room had been sealed up with bricks; what a pain. Ro1djk

Xiao Lan had originally thought that the room was merely locked, and he would be able to unlock it easily. If it was bricks, however, he would have to destroy the wall, which would be very loud; unless everyone in the manor was deaf, their small group definitely wouldn’t be able to sneak in secretly.

Looking at Xiao Lan’s frown, Wang Taidi asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xiao Lan said, “It’ll be too loud if we break down this wall; we’ll probably alarm a lot of people.”

Hearing this, Wang Taidi sighed in relief. “No problem, watch me.” ekdAL5

Saying that, he closed his eyes and looked through his storage item. After a while, an item like a plant growing in a pot appeared in Wang Taidi’s hand. He said to Xiao Lan, “This should do. It’s a soundless creeper. After it grows, any sound inside the area it covers will be completely isolated.”

Wang Taidi placed the soundless creeper by the wall and tapped the pot lightly. The transparent and light green vines instantly trembled and began to grow at a visible speed, climbing up the wall and finally breaking through its surface to grow into the air.

After a while, it surrounded the space which Xiao Lan and the rest were in, like a transparent cocoon. A leaf gently brushed over the back of Xiao Lan’s hand, but he didn’t feel anything.

Seeing how Xiao Lan was looking at the soundless creeper, Wang Taidi explained, “This is a plant without substance. It only has a soundproofing effect, and is a very common item in intermediate games.” PthOx1

Recalling how his storage space didn’t have anything apart from the envelope and Time Reversal, Xiao Lan could sense the yawning gap between a player who played for free and a player who made in-app purchases.

Wang Ke stepped forward and a blood-red sword appeared in his hand. He faced the wall and assumed a stance, ready to pull out his sword and slash at the wall.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Wait.” Xiao Lan hurriedly stopped him. “I’ll do it ba, I know a wall-phasing technique.”

Tearing down a wall ah! This was a perfect chance for him to obtain poverty value legitimately! uXWjZp

Recalling how he was able to obtain poverty value just by crushing a brick, Xiao Lan looked at this captivatingly gorgeous wall and was immediately fired up.

Wang Ke wordlessly sheathed his sword and walked to the side.

Seeing that Wang Taidi was still standing next to the wall, Xiao Lan raised a hand to signal to him. “Taidi, go a little further away. The wall-phasing technique is pretty powerful.”

“Ohh.” Wang Taidi ran behind his brother with small, quick steps, and waited to see the wall-phasing technique. fHraYb

He watched as Xiao Lan took a few steps back, then started jogging before he picked up speed. He then leapt and kicked the wall.

“Boom —”

The wall fell, revealing the exquisite wooden door that was behind it.

Wang Taidi, who was hiding behind his brother: “…” zvLMSx

This was just a fucking physical skill ah… 

Baobao Notes

I genuinely had to take a minute to laugh through that

Baobao Little Theater nfhdYJ

Xiao Lan: Don’t worry guys, I have the key

Xiao Lan: (Smashes the window with a brick)