In the morning.
The netizens were relishing the situation.
"Have you seen the popularity rankings?"
"It went up again."
"I really have to take my hat off to Lord Zhang."
"Yeah, you really have to give it to him!"
"I wonder if anything major will happen today."
"If he keeps up the momentum, he might be able to max out his Asian popularity before his child is born."
"That's quite unlikely since he's still behind by quite a bit."
"If he continues being this unlucky, do you think he'll be able to live to see himself reach the summit of Asia?"
"Pfft, that's true."
The God of Death—this was Zhang Ye's new nickname.
This fellow could always come up with new ways to grow his popularity, and everyone had gotten used to it.
…
At a park.
Inside a tent.
Zhang Ye was lying down on the inside with crossed legs and was on his cell phone. Since yesterday night, he had been living in the park as he dared not go home or check into a hotel. He had bought a tent and come to the empty field in the park to set it up. Although two trees got blown down by strong winds and crashed into the tent during the night, although a vicious dog went into the tent in the middle of the night, and although he woke up to find a grass snake warmly sticking out its tongue at him, he still managed to get through the night without harm.
He checked the news.
He checked the popularity rankings.
His popularity had gone up again?
But Zhang Ye just could not feel happy. It had been such a difficult day to get through yesterday, but it was still not over. There was still a full day ahead!
How was he going to get through this?
Where should he take refuge today?
All of the Lotte Marts in Beijing had already been destroyed by him!
Maybe he should go have a look at the Lotte Marts in Tianjin?
[Increased Difficulty of 5×]
[Remaining time: 26 hours, 5 minutes, and 15 seconds.]
Seeing this countdown timer of the Difficulty Adjustment Die in his game ring, Zhang Ye felt very sad.
So he thought about whether he could turn the situation around. His mind came back to the game ring. Without any hesitation, he activated the Lucky Halo (Upgraded) with the hopes of trying out something and started playing Lottery Draw (Two). Without placing any additional stakes, he tried it out once to see if he could get any items that would defuse this situation he was in. He was hoping that there was an item that could end the Difficulty Adjustment Die's effects in advance. That would be perfect.
The lottery draw began.
The slot machine started moving.
Clink, clank.
"Empty"!
There was nothing at all!
Zhang Ye was not convinced and tried the lottery draw again.
Still "Empty"!
He finally decided not to try it any further. This led Zhang Ye to reach a conclusion. The upgraded Lucky Halo's effects could not match the increased difficulty of 5× as the latter's effects were strong than the former. So with the increased difficulty in effect, Zhang Ye could not get any items from the lottery draw.
Outside, footfalls sounded.
"Oh? Is someone in there?"
"Yes, there's someone in here."
"You're not allowed to set up a tent here!"
"Alright, I'll leave right away."
The tent's zipper was pulled open from the inside, and Zhang Ye emerged.
The person on the outside was a park cleaner, and when she saw Zhang Ye, the woman got such a fright that she stumbled back several steps. The tone of her voice also changed. "Zh-Zhang Ye!"
Zhang Ye took the tent apart and stowed it before leaving.
Throughout this, the park cleaner was standing as far as she could from Zhang Ye like he was a plague god.
The netizens exclaimed when this news was reported. All of the Asian people knew that Zhang Ye was down on his luck. In the past, whenever Zhang Ye went out in public, he would always have to disguise himself as he was afraid that he would attract the attention of fans. But now there wasn't a need to worry about this. If he stood out on the streets today, no one would even dare to get within three meters of him.
On this day, Zhang Ye was out "wandering" the streets again.
Wherever he went, everyone would avoid him in terror!
"Ah!"
"Face-smacking Zhang has appeared!"
"Let's get out of here!"
"Stand as far away from him as possible!"
"Run!"
There was always a feeling like a devil had entered their village.
Zhang Ye had been prepared for this. He was going to take on today with the same attitude and caution like yesterday. But bizarrely, today did not feel quite right. Ever since Zhang Ye left the park, an hour had passed. However, nothing happened so far. There weren't any abandoned wells on the sidewalk, nor did any cars lose control and head towards him.
What is happening?
This isn't normal!
Zhang Ye was a little stunned. The more it was like this, the more wary he became.
Fuck, this felt like the calm before the storm. Could it be that the increased difficulty effect was building up something so that it could deal him a big shot?
Half an hour.
An hour.
Two hours.
No incidents occurred. The day went by so normally that it felt scary.
If it were a normal day, this normality would be expected. But these were different circumstances. The Difficulty Adjustment Die's 5× difficulty was still in effect and had not ended yet. With everything that happened yesterday, how many accidents did he get involved in? Yet there were zero incidents so far today? It just wasn't logical no matter how you thought of it!
Slowly, day turned into night.
Zhang Ye was getting more and more uneasy.
At night, he started making calls.
...
First, he called home.
"Mom, it's me."
"Where are you?"
"I'm outside. Did anything happen at home?"
"No?"
"What about Dad?"
"He's watching television."
"And Old Wu?"
"I just spoke with her on the phone. She's at her parents' place."
"What about Grandma and Grandpa?"
"They're both fine."
"Hey, that's odd."
"Rascal, what are you talking about? Are you hoping that something will happen to us?"
"Ha, no, I didn't mean it that way. I was just asking out of concern."
…
Then he called the studio.
"Old Ha."
"Director Zhang, when are you coming back? Everyone's worried to death."
"I'm fine and doing well. What about you guys?"
"Us? We're all fine."
"What about the concert?"
"Everything is progressing well."
"Did the venue collapse?"
"Huh? Why would the venue collapse?"
"Did any of the equipment explode?"
"Huh? Nothing exploded!"
"Did any of the workers fall into a well?"
"Huh? No!"
"Oh, alright then."
…
After making a series of calls and making sure that his family and friends were fine and doing well, Zhang Ye was very perturbed.
It can't be!
This is absolutely impossible!
Something major is going to happen!
Something major is definitely going to happen!
Zhang Ye was hoping anxiously for something to happen now. If it kept going on like this without anything happening, he would get even more anxious. The increased difficulty of 5× was surely not this simple and would definitely not turn ineffective after just a day. Zhang Ye knew that at this very moment, something unfavorable was definitely taking place somewhere out of sight without his knowledge. Zhang Ye was completely certain of this point, not because he was suspicious, but because these speculations were based on his understanding of the game ring. He understood well the rules that these mysterious items operated by.
An hour.
Two hours.
And into the night, it remained peaceful as ever.
There was no commotion to keep the media and people entertained.
"Aiya, why didn't anything happen?"
"Was there no news of Zhang Ye at all today?"
"I've been waiting all day."
"Pfft, don't you guys have anything better to do!"
"Enough already, people! How can you keep hoping that something will happen to Face-smacking Zhang!"
"Wash up and go to bed."
Zhang Ye started calming down. This bro isn't afraid of anything. Come at me! It was time to sleep. If anything happened, he would know about it tomorrow.