October 10th, the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays ended, 5:30 PM, East River District, Building 6, Unit 3, Apartment 702.
Zhang Yanhang had not only marinated some meat for grilling at noon but had also discussed rental matters with the landlord, and they scheduled a time to view the apartment.
Since Zhang Yanhang’s classes ended at 5:20 PM, he made an appointment for 5:30 PM to avoid wasting time. With his speed, even at a slower pace, it would only take him a few minutes to dash from the school to the East River District, so he wasn’t worried about being late.
The landlord was a middle-aged man, slightly overweight, with a kind smile, but his requirements were not so kind, "One month deposit, three months advance, three thousand two hundred per month, you pay your own utilities."
Zhang Yanhang thought the rent was relatively normal; nearby apartments of seventy to eighty square meters were basically around three thousand, so three thousand two hundred was not excessive, and paying for utilities oneself was reasonable.
His main issue was with the one month deposit and three months advance payment request, which, although common most of the time, seemed unfriendly to him.
Zhang Yanhang had put all his savings in the bank, and it was a fixed deposit at that; now, he only had the basic subsistence allowance for Awakeners, originally eight thousand two hundred, but after a month’s expenses, he was left with roughly six thousand.
If he was to pay one month’s deposit and three months’ rent in advance, he would need to come up with twelve thousand eight hundred in one go, which meant he was short almost six or seven thousand.
"Does it have to be one month’s deposit and three months advance? Isn’t one month’s deposit and one month’s rent acceptable? I’m looking for a long-term rental, at least a year," Zhang Yanhang thought he might try to negotiate with the landlord. Get full chapters from novｅlfire.net
But facing Zhang Yanhang’s haggling, the landlord displayed his trademark smile, yet the reply was straightforward and succinct, just two words, "No way!"
"Then, wait a moment for me; I’ll go to the bank to withdraw money, and when I come back, we can sign the contract immediately." Zhang Yanhang was not good at negotiating, so he gave up haggling directly, but that didn’t mean he was actually going to the bank to withdraw money since fixed deposits were a hassle to withdraw.
Zhang Yanhang ran downstairs, where he had to make a self-directed choice.
Speaking of self-directed choices, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t help thinking about that incomplete Agility attribute. He had spent the afternoon restoring his Energy Value to full before immediately continuing his attempts to trigger a choice to improve his Agility attribute.
However, after several consecutive attempts, although he indeed succeeded in triggering the choice, the options were so undesirable that he didn’t want to choose any. There were three options in total: two were the same as before, one was to give up directly, and the other was to steal a Spirit Fruit from the relevant authorities—neither of which were permissible.
The remaining option was also not viable; it entailed him capturing and killing a sea monster that had gained sentience near Qin Island City’s Yellow Sea Area. Successful slaying would allow him to consume the treasures hoarded by the sea monster to enhance his Agility attribute.
The sea monster’s strength wasn’t too formidable, just Second Tier, and Zhang Yanhang had a hopeful chance of killing it with some effort.
But the crux of the matter was not about strength; it was that Zhang Yanhang couldn’t swim.
Indeed, embarrassingly enough, despite being a grown man raised in a coastal city, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t swim. Furthermore, he particularly disliked seafood and never played on the beach, even though he often passed by the seaside.
So, generally speaking, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t very interested in the sea from a young age.
Going from First Tier to fight a Second Tier sea monster was already a great disadvantage, to which Zhang Yanhang’s inability to swim added doubt that he might meet his demise due to this choice.
Although an Energy Shield could keep the sea water out and prevent him from drowning despite not being able to swim, once the sea monster breached the Energy Shield, Zhang Yanhang feared death would be near.
Therefore, his inability to swim made it impossible for Zhang Yanhang to choose this seemingly reliable option.
Although Zhang Yanhang had not selected any of the three choices, a significant portion of his Energy Value was still deducted as a service charge.
If the Energy Value wasn’t full, the Multiple Choice wouldn’t respond, so Zhang Yanhang couldn’t continue to make choices and had to focus on rapidly circulating the Limitless Universe Skill to restore his Energy Value.
Once his Energy Value was full again, Zhang Yanhang tried triggering a choice to improve the Agility attribute, but again, he failed. The options triggered this time were different, yet still not what he wanted.
Zhang Yanhang continued to operate the Limitless Universe Skill to restore his Energy Value. He repeated this process several times, but still saw no useful options.
By then, it was about time to leave school, and since he had arranged to view a house after class, Zhang Yanhang temporarily gave up on triggering choices to improve his Agility attribute.
However, giving up was only temporary. After dealing with the rental issue and returning home, he would continue to try to trigger the relevant options. As it stood, he didn’t have much else to do, with plenty of time on his hands.
"Although I haven’t tried it, in theory, the almighty Multiple Choice should be able to help me get money," Zhang Yanhang thought. His usual expenses were minimal, so he rarely ran out of money and had never explored this possibility.
If it were about earning money legitimately, Alchemy would certainly be more suitable than Multiple Choice, since the primary purpose of Alchemy is to create Gold, but he hadn’t pursued this due to not needing money.
Even though the price of Gold decreased somewhat after the Spiritual Qi Recovery, it remained a precious metal.
By contrast, the price of Diamonds plummeted mainly because there were too many Awakeners, which led to the emergence of a multitude of Awakeners like Zhang Yanhang who could easily produce Diamonds. The already saturated Diamond market collapsed entirely due to the impact of Spiritual Qi Recovery.
Unlike Gold, which can be used as Refining Material, Diamonds occasionally serve some purpose in niche scientific and manufacturing projects but primarily retain their value as ornaments. Before the Spiritual Qi Recovery, the world’s largest Diamond was less than a kilogram.
After the Spiritual Qi Recovery, it was different. If Zhang Yanhang wanted to, he could even create an entire tractor made of Diamonds using the Carbon Element.
He could make it as big or as heavy as he wanted since these things did not contain Extraordinary Elements. For him, it was no different from dirt, making the Energy required for Alchemy extremely low.