I Rely On Poverty To Sweep Through Survival GamesCh52 - Old Television

After Xiao Lan and Luo came together again, the two still decided to prioritise exploring the environment. After all, whether it was looking for game clues or needing to be familiar with the layout when running away, these were all established by scouting out the environment.

Standing in front of the elevator, Xiao Lan pressed the down button. QY1hg

Recalling that there had once been two corpses stacked up on top of the elevator, he still felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. However, the only way to go up or down was with this elevator.

They had made several rounds earlier, and Xiao Lan didn’t find anything like stairs or a fire escape. This was clearly shoddy construction.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Ding —”

The elevator arrived. Looking in through the pull gate, the elevator was as old and dirty as always. It was empty, yet made one feel as if something was lying in wait. m6rSNk

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Lan still chose to pull open the gate and enter.

Reaching out, he pressed the button for the third floor.

The elevator creaked and groaned as it started to slowly descend, before stopping with a squeak.

Because the indicator in the elevator was broken, Xiao Lan couldn’t tell whether or not it had reached the third floor. Pulling the gate open, the two stepped out of the elevator.

The corridor outside was still just as quiet and calm. It was about as old as the floor above and also looked as if no one was living here.

The further Xiao Lan walked, the more he felt things didn’t seem right.

Weren’t the doors here a little too similar? Whether it was the metal wires around the door locks, the extent of the mottling on the door surfaces, or the few units with door gods and new year pictures still pasted on their doors, all of it was identical to the fourth floor.

Xiao Lan pointed at the new year picture and turned to give Luo an inquisitive look. 04oNiC

Luo looked at the faded new year picture in front of Xiao Lan, the corner of which had already come off. After a few seconds, he nodded at Xiao Lan. “It’s the same as what we saw before. Even the shape of the missing corner is identical.”

This floor seemed to be a replica of the floor above.

Xiao Lan had a hunch. He beckoned at Luo, and they headed towards 404.

As expected, this place also had a 404; even the door plate was exactly the same. 3deYRr

Looking through the door that was so shabby it had cracks in it, Xiao Lan saw the familiar couple inside, stuck to each other in that familiar way. The evil cult believer still clasped a broken image of god and muttered incessantly about god. They didn’t see the pregnant woman; perhaps she hadn’t returned yet.

Xiao Lan couldn’t hide the surprise on his face. He had definitely felt the elevator head downwards, so this place definitely wasn’t the fourth floor. How could there be identical rooms, and even identical people?

And when he shifted his gaze, he saw something that made him even more astonished — the mother and daughter that had died!

They currently looked no different from living people. The girl was doing her homework at the living room table and her mother was sitting on the side and watching her. The two would occasionally converse, and it was a very harmonious scene. uSgIE6

What on earth was going on with this floor?

Were these people humans or ghosts?

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Xiao Lan frowned at Luo, who appeared just as similarly bewildered. The two shared a look and quietly left the doorway.

Along the way, they didn’t encounter anyone else. It was as if the players didn’t exist here at all. ehU3Tf

After that, they went down to the second and first floor; they all had the same appearance as the fourth floor, with the identical unit 404 and those NPCs living in each room.

Moreover, even when he reached the first floor, Xiao Lan didn’t find anything like an entrance at all; it was as if this place was a sealed and endless cycle of fourth floor replicas, giving the players absolutely no way to leave.

This was an apartment with no way out.

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.

Xfaalcu lcab atf fifnjabg, atf akb bo atfw gfaegcfv ab atf obegat oibbg. 1efD72

Qtfc atf fifnjabg tfjvfv eq, Wljb Ojc tfjgv atf ojwliljg mijwbeg, ktlmt kjr fnfc j ilaaif cbrajiulm

“Kfii wf! Qtb’r atja biv ues klat tlr ojmf mbnfgfv bc sbeg tjcvqtbcf?!”

“Oh, that’s my dad ah…”

“Deiirtla! Qbeiv sbeg vjv rfcv sbe usw kbgxbea qlmr?!” f1kVSz

“Fine; actually, he’s your dad.”

“Hah?”

“It’s your dad who seduced me first!”

“I fucking —” S2QXHg

“Ding —”

The sound of the elevator arriving rang out, interrupting the two who had been on the cusp of breaking into a brawl for supremacy.

The two swung around fiercely, but when they saw that it was Xiao Lan slowly pulling open the elevator gate, they instantly stiffened.

Xiao Lan and Luo came out of the elevator one after another, and glanced at them askance as they passed by. They saw the two people leaning against the wall and hugging their heads to hide their faces, standing there well-behaved as if they had been caught in a raid on a prostitution ring. kGwCNQ

Looking at the two people who were as quiet as chickens, Xiao Lan felt some regret in his heart. Honestly, he quite wanted them to continue fighting. The content of their fight was very exciting… It sounded like it would be a good show to watch ah.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like they could continue arguing in this current situation.

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During dinner, there were far fewer people at the table.

It wasn’t just Meng Ze, who hadn’t appeared since that morning, but He Rui, whom Xiao Lan intended to have a friendly chat with, and even that pregnant woman who didn’t really speak, didn’t show up to eat. duXiYl

Apart from that, today’s dinner was exceptionally peaceful.

After dinner.

After exerting himself and sweating all over for a whole day in the stifling heat, Xiao Lan prepared to go take a shower.

Because of his encounter with the ball, Luo insisted on coming along no matter what. csUGKz

Left with no choice, Xiao Lan could only bring Luo along and allow him to experience humanity’s primitive and inefficient way of cleaning themselves. After showing Luo how to use the shower facilities, Xiao Lan went to the cubicle next door and began to sort himself out.

Not long after, steam began to rise next door.

Xiao Lan, looking at the extremely exaggerated steam: “…”

This enormous amount of steam… Luo couldn’t have become curious and adjusted the water to boiling temperature, right? dTZXvH

Forget it, as long as he was happy.

In any case, he didn’t have to be afraid of being scalded by boiling water. Luo was such a sturdy existence that he would be even healthier after being burnt. Xiao Lan relaxed and took his own shower.

As expected, no more little balls came to bother him this time. It seemed that the little friend had understood that a good ghost couldn’t fight a hammer, and had probably crossed Xiao Lan off the target list.

When he went back to his room, Xiao Lan, who had been about to open the door, froze. IOsTCb

Because there were wet footprints at his door.

It was like someone who was drenched had stood in front of the door for a very long time. But this pair of footprints had appeared out of nowhere, as there were no traces of them coming over.

A close examination of the door also revealed several damp handprints on it.

Was this… a water ghost? GaeXb0

The air even smelled faintly of laundry detergent; it seemed this fellow was a ghost that was pretty obsessed with cleanliness.

But how many unscientific existences were there on this floor?

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Returning to the room.

It was still early and the power hadn’t been cut yet. Xiao Lan simply turned on the fan to cool down first. XmhWq3

In the junk pile in the corner was an old television on a pile of trash which looked as if it had already fused with the rest of the rubbish. As a broke, new-age person, Xiao Lan was already used to spending his days without a television, and didn’t try to turn it on.

At that moment, there was a strange hissing sound in the room.

It was a little like an electric current and yet not; for a time, he couldn’t think what it might be.

After a while, on the junk pile, the television that might or might not be working slowly lit up. 5lQ9t6

Only then did Xiao Lan recall that it was the sound that only those old, clunky televisions would make when they were turned on; it had been many years since he heard it.

The image on the television’s old screen flickered constantly.

Sometimes it flickered with white noise, sometimes it was a program, and a twisted face would flash by from time to time, as if something was lying in wait inside.

The situation clearly wasn’t right, and Xiao Lan wasn’t interested in standing there and waiting for the face to become clearer. sk3 Hu

He strode over on his long legs and headed straight for the television, then forcefully yanked the electric plug out.

But this nonhuman entity seemed especially environmentally friendly and had its own BYO electric skill; its display wasn’t impacted whether there was an electric power source or not.

“Zz — zz —”

A strange noise came from the old television. yNu8Vw

Along with the noise, the image gradually grew clearer as a twisted face occupied the television screen. Xiao Lan was also very familiar with this face — it was that mother from the elevator.

Now, this face was gloomy and had a greyish tinge. Her mouth opened very wide to reveal an indistinct darkness inside which inched towards the screen bit by bit.

“Geh… Geh…”

Xiao Lan: “…” t9kEib

Luo looked at Xiao Lan with an expression that seemed to say: Who told you to bully another family’s little friend? See, now the parent has come to deal with you.

Xiao Lan tried to reason with her. “This older sister, imagine how good it would be if you used this skill in a power plant to benefit society; you can take your daughter to the pinnacle of life. Why do you want to stay in this tiny dilapidated partitioned room to scare people? Don’t you think it’s too much of a waste?”

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The female ghost in the television didn’t seem interested in the pinnacle of life. She was now clearly only motivated and passionate about beating Xiao Lan to a pulp.

She still advanced relentlessly, her hair already sliding out from the screen like lively snakes that slowly wriggled in Xiao Lan’s direction. XDcqQT

Seeing that reasoning with her was useless, Xiao Lan could only reluctantly switch to another method.

He took out 【This is a dagger coated in highly toxic poison】 from his storage space. Of course, he wasn’t going to attack the other party; after all, this thing was only effective on material existences.

Xiao Lan raised a hand and pried open the top of the old television cleanly and efficiently, his action smooth and performed in one go; who knew how many televisions he had torn open.

Looking at the female ghost whose head was poking out a little, Xiao Lan gave a determined smile. “Today, I’ll show you the might of a salvage market expert!” FugfU2

With that, he deftly found the old television’s CRT, then reached in — and directly pulled out the electron gun by force.

Based on Xiao Lan’s experience with opening old household electric appliances, this sort of old-fashioned CRT television required the electrons emitted by its electron gun in order to display an image. This female ghost didn’t rely on electricity, but seeing how she had to wait for the image to stabilise before she could appear, she clearly still needed to rely on the screen.

With a “zzt —”, the old television’s originally shaky image disappeared completely.

The female ghost’s malevolent face also disappeared unwillingly. dpJslA

At the same time, a system notification rang out:

“Poverty value increased by 50. Xiao Lan isn’t even willing to let off such a small amount of poverty value; he’s simply demented.”

Luo, who had stood by and watched the whole process, couldn’t help but applaud. “How amazing ah, sir.”

Xiao Lan smiled modestly. “Forced by life, forced by life.” SJUB4f

After carelessly passing by the doorway and drawn by the disturbance, Wu Ting, who had watched from beginning to end, said, “Do you guys always do it like this…?”

Luo smiled faintly. “Is something wrong?”

Nothing about it is right, okay?!

Wu Ting’s expression was blank. “It’s… It’s probably me who has too little experience.” D6PeiU

Baobao Notes

This little theater might have minor spoilers, so read at your own risk. If you do read it, don’t make a comment about it so that those who don’t want to know won’t inadvertently see it<3

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