Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 293 What are you afraid of?

"Han Zhou, you are absolutely forbidden from saying anything like 'you've already secured your future' to Wang Runxue in the future, absolutely not! Do you understand?"

Han Zhou, who was studying in the classroom, suddenly received a message from Gu Zheng.

He stared at the message blankly for a while, then typed out a question mark in a daze.

"?"

What is this guy talking about?
He only threatened Wang Runxue not to tell anyone about Mo Yixia. When did he let her grasp the future?

But then again... is there such a thing as "seizing the future" in this world?

He was completely baffled, but no matter how he asked Guzheng, she refused to explain the reason. She only repeatedly emphasized that he should not say similar things to Wang Runxue in the future.

baffling……

Having no other option, Han Zhou gave up asking and simply replied "okay," then put the matter out of his mind and continued reading.

He wasn't reading textbooks, but rather economics books borrowed from the library. During this time, he had been using the concept of "drawing inferences from one instance to another" to improve himself. He believed that the status bar might disappear one day, but once the knowledge was in his mind, he would at least not forget it completely.

He has accumulated enough points to upgrade his status bar, but he hasn't upgraded it yet because he's worried that the upgraded status bar will consume points faster. So he's deliberately accumulating more points in case he needs them.

He currently has nearly 700 points. Even if he immediately upgrades his status bar, he will still have about 200 points left as a backup. Unless there is an emergency, it will be more than enough.

He plans to upgrade his status bar to the next level when he gets home tonight.

Today, Han Zhou is no longer as anxious about upgrading the status bar as before, because the effects of taking the stimulant for a long time have become apparent. Even if he doesn't pin his hopes on the upgraded status bar, his terminal illness will eventually be resolved.

Of course, the upgrade is still necessary, and he is very curious about the future capabilities of the status bar.

It's worth mentioning that the rewards for the tasks on the day of the social event were distributed at midnight the following day.

The theme of this event was "Holding Hands". The rewards for the event will be calculated based on the accumulated task points. On that day, Han Zhou held hands with four girls, Ouyang Lianyu, Zhong Ling, Gu Zheng and Mo Yixia, and completed normal hand-holding and fancy hand-holding, accumulating a total of twelve task points.

Two task points correspond to the most basic reward. On top of that, the reward becomes richer for every two additional points. In other words, Han Zhou's task reward this time has been stacked five times, so it should be quite generous.

This reward was a complete surprise to Han Zhou. After all, he had only planned to get the most basic guaranteed reward by holding hands with the guzheng once. However, after discovering that there was an opportunity to get more, he consciously completed the fancy hand-holding while holding hands with the guzheng.

Filled with anticipation, he deliberately stayed up late on the night the social event ended, waiting for midnight to arrive.

As usual, this event did not offer points as a reward, but instead gave two items. Although they had a time limit, their effects were quite amazing, to the point that Han Zhou still hadn't figured out how to use them.

Thinking of this, Han Zhou checked the details of the two items again—

[Custom Status Generator (Temporary): A one-time item. Using this will grant you the ability to generate a custom status once. To use, use your left palm as paper and your right index finger as a pen. Write any easily understood four-character word on your palm and assign it a semantic definition. If successful, a custom status will be generated that lasts for forty-eight hours. Note that once generated, this status will immediately enter a temporary, fixed state that cannot be canceled or changed during its duration. The specific effects will be adjusted based on the current level of the status bar. Furthermore, if this status significantly impacts reality during its duration, the impact will be adjusted after the status expires.]

[51% Future Simulator (Temporary): A one-time use item. Select a human other than yourself as your binding target. When you and the target both enter a sleep state, you will travel to an unknown future in a dream. This future has a 51% probability of becoming reality in the future and is unaffected by the simulation process. (Note that the target is in a semi-conscious state during the dream simulation. The simulation time is fixed at one week. The simulation will automatically end after the dream ends. Related memories cannot be retained. If you need to retain them, please purchase a Memory Freeze Pill in advance and take it before the simulation begins.)]

Upon seeing these two items, especially the second one, Han Zhou finally gained a concrete understanding of the status bar's capabilities.

If the "interesting lucky draw" is just a vague hint of the future and the effect doesn't seem that exaggerated, then this "future simulator" is simply ridiculously powerful.

What does it mean to let someone experience a part of the future in their dreams?
Although there is only a 51% chance that this future will become reality, and everything in the dream will not affect the future in reality, the effect of this item is still terrifying, and there are simply too many ways to manipulate it.

The appearance of this item is also sufficient to confirm another thing—the status bar has the ability to interfere with time.

It was practically like they were throwing the words "Go ahead and do it, I'm capable of anything" right in my face...

This was Han Zhou's true thought after seeing the item information for the first time.

Not only the "future simulator," but also the "custom state generator" has an exaggerated effect. Simply put, it allows Han Zhou to have a chance to buff himself, that is, to manually create a state for himself.

"Invincible", "Omnipotent", "Wealthy enough to rival a nation"... In theory, Han Zhou could write these statuses as he pleased. Unfortunately, the item information clearly stated that the effects of these statuses would be limited by the current level of the status bar. Just like "On the verge of death", if the status bar level was too low, some powerful statuses would be nerfed, weakening some of their abilities.

For this reason, Han Zhou does not plan to use this item for the time being, and will at least wait until he upgrades the status bar to level four and unlocks more permissions before using it.

The rewards after five stacks were already so generous. If I stacked them ten or twenty times, I might be able to easily give myself a few permanent status effects...

Han Zhou felt a little regretful, but that was all. To stack the rewards so many times meant he would have to hold the hands of multiple girls at the same time, and even if he had a few more lives, he wouldn't dare to do that.

The bell rang, and he stretched and got up to go to the restroom. He was startled when he saw Xiao Xiaoxiao looking dejected.

"Were you beaten up?"

"You're the one who got beaten up!"

Xiao Xiaoxiao raised her eyelids and glared at him with difficulty, her voice sounding quite weak.

"So that means you're sick?"

Han Zhou frowned. Xiao Xiaoxiao's face was very red, and her voice was nasal, making her look like she had a fever.

"Keep your voice down!"

Xiao Xiaoxiao seemed afraid of being overheard, and looked around guiltily before leaning on the table and muttering softly, "I have a slight cold, but it's nothing serious."

"Do you even believe what you're saying?" Han Zhou said irritably. "There are no evening self-study sessions lately, couldn't you just tell Tang Wenshuang that you're going back to the dorm to rest?"

“That won’t do.” Xiao Xiaoxiao said indignantly, “I’ve never asked for leave before, and I’ve already said it’s just a little cold. I don’t want to leave a stain on my school record.”

"Why do you always insist on doing things that are unnecessary..."

Han Zhou sighed and kindly reminded him, "But if I remember correctly, you already asked for leave when you went to Beicheng last time, right? No, no, perhaps 'skipping class' would be a more accurate description..."

Xiao Xiaoxiao was struck dumb, her pride vanishing instantly. She quickly recovered and immediately shifted the blame onto the other person: "It's all your fault!"

This isn't entirely about shifting blame, since it was this guy who suggested taking leave.

Han Zhou didn't mind and casually sighed, "Yes, yes, it's all my fault, so why don't you ask for leave to go back and rest? I can take the blame for you again."

Xiao Xiaoxiao shook her head firmly and said in a tone that said, "No, there's always a second chance. Anyway, I can go back after two more classes."

"You yourself said that there's always a second chance. You've already asked for leave once, so what's wrong with asking for leave again? You've already had the 'first time,' so wouldn't it be a waste not to use the 'second time'?"

Xiao Xiaoxiao looked blank: "Is that what you mean?"

"Otherwise what?" Han Zhou said matter-of-factly.

He could roughly guess Xiao Xiaoxiao's mood as soon as he saw that she wasn't sitting with her roommate today. She was strong-willed and didn't like others to pity or sympathize with her. In her opinion, being sick was a sign of weakness, and it was inconvenient for her roommate to know.

Considering that the other person has been self-reliant and living alone in this world since a young age, it is not hard to understand why they would use this kind of show of strength to avoid being looked down upon by others.

Han Zhou spent a lot of time explaining and then directly asked Tang Wenshuang for leave, which finally made Xiao Xiaoxiao, who was still hesitant, reluctantly prepare to go back to her dormitory to rest.

"What a busybody! I told you I have more than just a minor cold..."

She muttered to herself as she packed her things, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered "thank you."

Han Zhou smiled and said, "How about I go with you to the school hospital? That way I won't have to go to evening self-study."

"Think beautifully!"

Seeing that this guy had revealed his true purpose, Xiao Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes, thinking to herself that this guy really did have ulterior motives. It turned out that he wanted to take the opportunity to skip class. She had just been a little touched.

Han Zhou asked in bewilderment, "We can't just go to bed without taking our medicine, can we?"

"I have medicine in my dorm room. Do you think I'm like you? Don't you have any sense of crisis?"

Xiao Xiaoxiao looked around to make sure no classmates were paying attention to her before she secretly moved towards the door with her books in her arms.

Han Zhou chuckled, then followed him out of the classroom, saying with a wry smile, "You asked for leave, not skipped class. What are you doing acting so suspiciously?"

"What do you know? It's the same thing to ask for leave, but leaving in full view of everyone is different from leaving quietly."

Stepping outside the classroom, the night wind carried a chill, and Xiao Xiaoxiao shivered, but she still solemnly lectured the idiot beside her, saying smugly, "At least if you leave quietly, not so many people will gossip about you."

The autumn night wind ruffled the girl's hair, and the rose earring on her earlobe shone slightly under the hallway light.

"Your focus is really quite bizarre..."

Han Zhou shook his head and chuckled, then took out a white bottle from his pocket after thinking for a moment. "Then you can go back now. You should have almost finished your sleeping pills by now. Take this bottle and keep using them. Like I said before..."

“‘One piece at a time, absolutely no more,’ I know. You say it every time, it’s so annoying.”

Xiao Xiaoxiao took the bottle with feigned impatience and was about to leave when she suddenly seemed to remember something and asked, "I said... this shouldn't be expensive, right?"

"It's not expensive, it's not hard to get, and it's non-toxic and harmless. In short, you don't have to worry about the source at all." Han Zhou shrugged. "I've said these things many times before."

But I heard that the most expensive things are the ones that are free...

Xiao Xiaoxiao thought to herself, but she didn't think Han Zhou would use this opportunity to make her do anything bad.

I don't know what their relationship was before. This guy looks so annoying and is a shameless scumbag, so why do I subconsciously trust him?

Feeling groggy, she returned to her dorm room, quickly washed up, climbed into bed, took some cold medicine, swallowed a sleeping pill, covered herself with a blanket, closed her eyes, and prepared to sleep until the next morning.

……

About ten minutes later, a girl clutched her stomach and hurried into the dormitory building. She looked anxious and didn't even bother to greet the dormitory aunt before rushing upstairs.

This girl is Wang Runxue.

Not long after chatting with Guzheng, she suddenly felt a stomach ache. After calculating that it wasn't her period day, she guessed that she must have eaten something wrong that night. She immediately asked the class committee for leave and planned to go back to the dormitory to use the restroom.

What, you're asking why we don't use the restroom in the teaching building?

Of course, it was because she was embarrassed to borrow too much paper from one person, and even more embarrassed to borrow paper from several people many times. After thinking it over, she realized that it would be more convenient to go back to the dormitory to use the toilet, so she immediately asked for leave.

This dormitory building is inhabited by freshman girls who just entered university this year. At this moment, most of them are studying in the evening, so the corridor is empty and the surroundings are unusually quiet. You can only hear your own hurried footsteps.

Recalling Han Zhou's prediction from a week ago, Wang Runxue, walking alone in the stairwell, felt inexplicably afraid.

"Luckily, the lights in the hallway are bright enough. If they were flickering like in a horror movie, I think my legs would have gone weak with fear..."

She took a deep breath and tried to console herself with a self-deprecating joke, but the next second, something terrible happened—

It was as if it were responding to her wish.

With a piercing crackling sound of electricity, the overhead lights flickered twice, then went out one by one, and darkness spread rapidly from near to far until it filled the entire corridor.

what's the situation?
Wang Runxue's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly took out her phone to flashlight. Fortunately, the light above her head came back on after a few seconds, and the warm light calmed her down a little.

Oh, it's just an intermittent power outage...

Before she could even catch her breath, the lights in the hallway began to flicker wildly at a rapid and erratic frequency, just like her heartbeat.

(End of this chapter)