Chapter 73: Cultivation
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Task requires physical attendance at 100 scenic spots.”
“Upon completion, you will receive the t.i.tle [Night Touring G.o.d] (night owl abilities +5, observational skills +3, aesthetic appreciation +1)”
Night touring G.o.d referred to wandering around outside, how psycho!
Meng Fan had thought he was about to enter the realm of hallucinogens and fantasies.
Eh. If he thought about it, they were pretty similar. If his ability to stay up late is increased, wouldn’t he become a master of cultivation?
As for observation skills and aesthetic appreciation, these both seemed to be in line with the task. It is understandable that after touring so many scenic spots, he would indefinitely increase his observational and aesthetic appreciation skills.
Only aesthetics appreciation only gives +1. How stingy of the system!
Aesthetics could be considered as a metaphysical attribute. After all, everyone’s aesthetics are different, but it was also scientific if you looked at it differently. For an art student like Meng Fan, he was already aesthetically motivated. There are also some applied disciplines throughout the pursuit of aesthetics.
Aesthetic appreciation didn’t mean to exclude all ugliness, but it was more about becoming adept at discovering beauty and representing it.
For instance; drawing is a pursuit of beauty and even though beauty does contain some concept of ugliness, it was another kind of beauty to portray something ugly very well!
This attribute was a rare one. At least, the System thought so too.
This achievement task was divided into four task phases. The task phases all included night owl bonus and observation bonus as rewards, but it did not include aesthetic appreciation. That is to say, even if he completed the entire task, he would only receive +1 aesthetic appreciation.
Task phase 1: Requires night tour of one scenic location; reward: Points +1, night owl ability +1.
Task phase 2: Requires night tour of 10 scenic locations; reward: Points +10, night owl ability +1, observational skills +1.
Task phase 3: Requires night tour of 50 scenic locations; reward: Points +50, night owl ability +1.
Task phase 4: Requires night tour of 100 scenic locations; reward: Points +100, night owl ability +1, observational skills +1.
Task phase 1 and three solely rewarded night owl ability; while two and four had double rewards, adding on observational skills.
If he finished the whole task: he would earn 161 points, +9 Night owl ability, +5 observational skills, and +1 aesthetic appreciation.
At this time, he had already completed task phase 1 and received its reward.
This had also been a task that only triggered when a certain task phase had been completed.
After the night owl bonus, Meng Fan momentarily could not feel its effect. After all, he was usually not asleep yet around this time.
Speaking of night owls, staying up late hadn’t been something that Meng Fan had dared to touch.
First off, with Meng Fan’s build; it was hard for him not to be sleepy, let alone stay up late. Occasionally he would stay up; only until one or two at most, but the next day he was completely paralyzed.
Second, staying up late was too harmful for his body.
Memory loss, mental dysfunction, decreased vision, decreased immunity, skin damage, more susceptible to disease… Not to mention, it could lead to kidney deficiency, infertility, baldness… How scary is it to become bald before you’ve become strong.
Most importantly, it will lead to obesity!
Now that his night owl tendencies had been increased, it could reduce the harm caused by staying up late, not to mention allowing him to stay up later.
If you normally sleep at 11 pm, adding +1 night owl ability would allow you to sleep at 12, maybe even 1.
This… Meng Fan considered it carefully. If staying up late can reduce the harm caused by staying up late, then it might be able to solve the problem of obesity as well.
Once his night owl skills improve, he had more time to cultivate. This also meant that he would be more awake… Which meant he’d have to eat more!
Meng Fan finally understood why the system did not directly trigger a weight loss related task. Oh, it had no intention of helping him to lose weight!
But no matter how you put it, this attribute was pretty useful. At least for now, Meng Fan was already starting to feel like he didn’t have enough time.
In the past, when he only worked hard during some off chance moments; one day’s time was more than enough for him to play some games and follow some manga.
Now, it was really a ‘haha’ moment. He discovered the harder you work, the more you realize there is not enough time.
With this new attribute, it could add an extra one or two hours everyday. Even if he didn’t do anything, he could at least touch a long lost game or catch up with an updated anime.
Going back and thinking about the task, it had been a while since he entered the scenic spot. It was definitely enough time spent to count as ‘night touring’, but how come the task had only triggered now?
Meng Fan thought. This must be related to the time spent at the scenic attraction, but he was unsure how long exactly he needed to be there.
There was another problem here, being, what is the scope of the area referred to as a ‘tourist attraction’.
Did the entire XiZi lake count as one scenic spot, or does the Yue temple within the park count as a spot? After all, scenic areas and scenic spots are all the same; for they can also be called tourist destinations and tourist attractions.
Only people who habitually recognized that scenic locations were larger than scenic spots. XiZi Hu did not count as a scenic ‘point’.
There’s the problem. Did he complete his task near the Yue Temple or at the XiZi lake scenic area?
If it’s the former, then Meng Fan would be able to attain some more experience walking along the XiZi lake. If it was the latter, it would be much more difficult to gain that experience.
…
After watching ‘XiZi lake impressions’, Meng Fan logged off the stream. His viewer count had reached 180,000, including the people he had met on the road who lifted their heads to look at him.
Now, his total stream viewers had reached 950,000. He was so close to completing task phase three.
He left the road and headed south, heading to one of ten scenic spots along XiZi lake—the QuYuan lily pads. He didn’t have the heart to see any more scenery, only strolling around to track the time.
If he stayed there longer than he had stayed at ‘XiZi lake impressions’ and didn’t gain any experience, then he could confirm that XiZi lake counted as one large scenic location that could only be included once.
It went up!
An hour later, Meng Fan saw his progress bar increase by +1.
Then he could basically confirm he only needed to visit an attraction for an hour, and each scenic point had counted for its own experience. Basically, if he walked around the entirety of XiZi lake, he could gain a lot of experience.
This task was not that difficult either.
Strictly speaking, he just had to come out at night and screw around for 100 hours.
After establis.h.i.+ng the details, Meng Fan hailed a taxi and headed back to campus. If he didn’t go now, he wouldn’t be able to access the dormitories.
“I almost forgot!”
After getting in the car, Meng Fan remembered there had been an equipment bar below the task progress for [Night Touring G.o.d]. Night vision gla.s.ses.
Undoubtedly, it was another black magic item.
Normally, night vision goggles were based on thermal imaging, so no matter how high quality the equipment was; it was impossible to achieve good resolution, motion sensitivity, and brightness levels. The projected images all contained a green l.u.s.ter; after all, earth made technology had its limitations.
These night vision gla.s.ses also did not represent daytime visions after being equipped. However, the difference was not big; kind of like the difference between standard definition and high definition.
The night vision gla.s.ses only cost 150 points. Affordable. Meng Fan directly exchanged for them.
Regarding the points required for equipment redemption, Meng Fan had deduced the rule. Basically, the amount of points an equipment cost would not exceed the amount you will obtain from completing the equipment’s achievement task.
After the exchange, he found the style of the gla.s.ses to be very cool. It had two forms; one a basic frame and another in the form of a thin film, or a contact lens. Both forms were able to change color freely.
If he wore them in the form of contact lenses, he could change the color of his pupils in a blink. How cool would that be to show off!
If they were golden, along with their function, he could really say that he has a fiery golden eye!
Unfortunately, it was only night vision. If it also gave X-ray vision, Meng Fan would have happily bought it for 1000 points.
Once he can afford the hat that makes your presence disappear, plus the stream a.s.sistant that had the ability to turn invisible and film from the sky… Three great artifacts for a gentleman, no?!
Thinking of this, Meng Fan began to feel that the system was not a nice person.
Putting on his night vision gla.s.ses, Meng Fan sat in the taxi and admired the scenery along the way. As he looked, he ended up taking the gla.s.ses off.
After all, night scenes were still the most beautiful when the night was in it.
He could wear it occasionally, or when he needed them. It would be too boring to wear it constantly.
After getting off the car, Meng Fan ran past the small grove and put on his night vision gla.s.ses again. He wanted to check if he had violated any school rules or regulations.
It was already past eleven o clock. The dormitory building was already closed. Meng Fan slapped on his best smile and was just about to release a chain of words to the dormitory watch lady. Before he could open his mouth, the watch lady had already opened the doors.
“I’m opening the door for some ventilation. Did a big gust of wind get in?”
The auntie pretended as if she didn’t see him at all. It was a warm-hearted act indeed.